Avainsana: tv-series

Hello again

julkaissut Nokisuu

I just noticed it’s the end side of January and I haven’t written anything for a long time here. I’ve been having some kind of winter escape and haven’t been much on PC when I’m at home.

Nothing much has been going on. Christmas came and went as they do (as Neil Gaiman said in a bit different words) and we had nice time at home together.

Eldest son was here for the Christmas Eve and Day but then he went to live in his Godmother’s house as a cat-sitter because they have a little Spynhx (@rufusthesfinx in Instagram) and they left for two weeks in Thailand. Middlest son came home for dinner on Christmas Day with his girlfriend which was nice. Now he has last of his studies in Jyväskylä and she quit her job here and is looking for studies there too so they’d live together. I think that’s very nice for them.

During Christmas we got glasses for youngest son and now he’s very fond of them, they are his first and he’s got just a bit of astigmatism (like me and his dad). I told him that’s his Christmas gift from me. DH had the days between Christmas and New year off so one day we went to movies to see the new Puss in Boots which was very good. I’ve also been reading a lot and I wonder if I already read the best novel of this year Sea of Tranquility by Emily St.John Mandel in the beginning of January.

At work it’s been nice to see both old and new clients. Two years were pretty glum because of the plague so it’s good to see people again.

Only thing that bothers me is the renovations going on at the underground station closest to my workplace, it’s a lot like the Hell in Good Omens tv-series so I’ve been using the next stop and then walking or taking the tram from there, it’s about two minutes more to my commute but I’m happier.

I’m watching a lot of tv it seems. During Christmas and New year I watched all of Better call Saul, White lotus (I re-watched S1 too) and All creatures great and small and then some. I also knit a pair of mitts for myself and a scarf is halfway because I need to buy more yarn for it. I’m giving it for a friend in March when we have a theater date.

My pilates lessons begun again and I’ve been going to zumba classes since November and it’s been so great. I really like it but now the teacher just told us she’s going for maternity leave in May. The group is great, all of the other women are Russian except one young lady from India and one from Philippines and I’m the only Finnish-speaking there. They are all lovely and we have great fun.

So nothing much going on, just the normal everyday living. Here’s Måneskin’s newest video for you, I quite like them (and the drummer has Finnish step-family by his father).

A close shave

julkaissut Nokisuu

Just a FYI for starters: I’m not going to comment on the Russian and Ukrainian war here since I’m trying to avoid it as much as possible.

I’ve had this week off work as it’s the local Winter holiday and school’s are on holiday. I thought I’d need this week off and boy was I right.

Last Friday DH went to the hospital with the expectation that he’d stay for the night as the tube was taken out and the kidney stones removed. In the end he was there four nights as the kidney had a massive vessel bleeding and he was being monitored every second. On Tuesday he finally came home.

He said that the reason he had had constant pain ever since Boxing Day when the doctors put the tube in was that it had started bleeding then. Two surgeons had told him that there had been some tests lacking and also a screening and he should make a malpractice notice. It was a very close shave that he came home at all (as I had gathered already since I’ve watched my fair share of ER and other hospital series).

So I’m just glad he’s home and everything is getting better. I’ve been mostly sleeping, reading, watching tv and doing a jigsaw puzzle (been years since my last one).

I was going to go to movies but haven’t had the energy and so I’ve been watching the Marvel movies with youngest one on the timeline order instead of the release order. I’ve also got us HBO now and so far I’ve watched Station eleven and White lotus. I was a bit worried they’d ruin Station Eleven as the book is one of my fave dystopian novels but it’s surprisingly good which I’m glad of.

I guess this was the news from my corner for now. I’m going back to the couch now with Sirius.

On Tuesday I woke to this
There was a bit of shoveling to do
Yesterday we got some rain and now the yard looks like this
This morning we got some sleet. I’m so done.
Kitty therapy

Forest therapy

julkaissut Nokisuu

Today I managed to get to the forest again. I find it essential for my mental well-being to see the trees up close and breathe the free unpolluted air. Last weekend we were at my other godson’s confirmation party and it was nice too but since it was a rainy weekend I didn’t mind not getting into the forest.

I was lucky to find a lot of yellowfeet, in short time I had a decent amount of them which was great since I had a minor headache that blew up into a migraine. I had hoped it’d gone away in the forest but it didn’t. I think it’s partly due to the yin-yoga where we did some exercises to stretch the area between shoulder blades and I also had my osteopathy treatment on Friday morning.

I finished watching the Good doctor S3 yesterday evening. I must say that even thou I liked the series it got too syrupy and the characters begun to annoy me a bit. Now I’m continuing with Lucifer and then I probably continue with Bloodline which was also annoying, it started so slow I almost left it.

I went to movies to see the new Dune and it was amazing. I really liked it but I liked the old one too (I still have the soundtrack on LP). The cast and music were good but the photography was beautiful, it reminded me a lot of Tale of Tales. It was weird to be in the movie theater with restrictions minimized to one free chair between groups and they will be lifted in the beginning of October totally.

On Friday the post services finally delivered my RA auctions last item, thank you Jane. Since one of the coasters was already picked by a friend you’ll only get to see two of them here 🙂

Next Friday I’m having a day off and if the weather is nice I’ll be going with my friend Mareetta to pick mushrooms in Nuuksio forest. Now I’m going to watch tv and knit and pet Sirius.

Wintery times

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We’ve got more snow and now the weather getting colder again, next week temperatures should drop down to -12C degrees. I don’t mind, I’ll rather take the rain in snow than in water during winter time, and the cat goes out anyway whatever there rains. Actually she really loves the snow, she plays in it and hunts the snowflakes too.

I’ve been helping at the teleworking students lunchpack sharing on couple of Mondays now and it continues next months too. The students are both from college and vocational school and there’s four schools they can drop by and get their lunches for a week. I’ve had a lovely group of people to work with, two are from my own workplace and one is a former colleague from the City Library, we have great humor too so the days go by quickly even if there’s all kinds of mixups and mess to clear up. For example on the first Monday the students name lists were not in alphabetical order but on the order they had enrolled to the service. It cased some serious queueing which is not very nice atm.

At work we’ve been doing some serious digital jumps again with teaching our teachers how to use Google Meet an such. We’ve also digitized some materials for the teachers so they can keep their lessons from home more easier and then there’s all the online-meetings.. Some days my ears are sore of the earbuds and eyes from too much screen time.

On this week some of my friends had their birthdays. On Wednesday I had dinner my friend M with who we saw Uncle Vanya in London last year. Since we haven’t met since November I gave her now the lovely wooden Christmas decorations made by Rachel and her SO and bought from the RA-fandom Christmas auction. She loved them and was very happy to receive them.

Yesterday I met two of my friends in Ekberg’s, one the eldest cafes in Helsinki, which is very classy and has delicious cakes. I bought some cakes home too since Juhana, middlest son, came home from the AirForce for the week and youngest one, Jimi, Has his birthday on Feb 8th and today we had Jarno, eldest son, on dinner too so it was small birthday party for Jimi like this.

  • The school cafeteria
  • Lemon meringue in Ekberg’s
  • Richard a year ago

I’ve been watching McLeod’s Daughters and now I’m halfway through 3rd season. It’s nice to watch something easy while knitting and I’m eagerly waiting to get on 4th season so I’ll see Deano soon. I’m also watching WandaVision from Disney+, it’s very interesting. Earlier this month I watched Midnight Sky, the new film by George Clooney and wasted two hours of my life for such a crap. It was horrible. I also watched one Finnish Detective series called Ivalo (Arctic Circle) and almost strained my eye muscles while rolling them too hard, it had so many twists that it’d have easily filled three seasons.

  • My Riddari sweater is coming along nicely, I’m already on the yoke.

Well, tomorrow I need to concentrate on my studies at the Open Uni, I’m now doing Organizational communications course and it includes video lessons, a homework and a book exam of one very thick book. Aargh. Not to mention I’m reading some very good detective stories which doesn’t make it easier to start reading for the exams.

Oh! I bought an activity bracelet just to keep an eye on my steps and so far it’s been nice. I have also lost some weight as a consequence. Not bad.

Live music

julkaissut Nokisuu

Hi there! I’ve been mostly off line or done some small surfing on my phone during my free time since I get enough screen time at work and I’ve noticed my eyes grow tired after 8 hours of computering.

Yesterday evening my friend Mareetta took me to dinner to Tammisaari where we did a little summer evening dinner already on July. This time she wanted to see a Finnish-Swedish musician Fredrik Furu to perform. It was a free concert on a restaurant garden and since I had a work day we had some issues with the timing and rush hour but luckily managed to get there in time.

The weather was rainy and cold but the food and music were good so it was actually pretty good Friday evening. Some pics included.

  • My Caesar salad and happy Joe’s non-alcoholic cider and M’s burger
  • Chocolate mousse (both milk and white) with some tasty violets and raspberries
  • Fredrik Furu singing in the garden
  • The Tammisaari harbour

In other news middlest son has been at home this week and last Saturday we did some wholesale grocery shopping which was good. They’ve been eating camp-ratios in the garrison due to the C-situation but it’s going to change soon, he ate like a growing young man. My aunt used to say young men have hollow legs and she knew since she had four.

I’ve been reading, knitting and crafting. I’m finally getting all of the old swaps I had forward, soem of them have been sitting on my desk far too long so I’m relieved. And a bit shamed but sometimes Life happens to the best of us. I wonder if there’s anyone swapping art decos on my readers?

Here is a pic of Sirius sleeping on my knee. I was trying to get to bed but you really can’t go when one is such s dear kitty, can you? On the other pic you can see our desk. We got some nice paintings from the Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) to the House and there’s still some sculptures showing up next week. This painting is called ”Exhaust” by Petri Rummukainen and everybody says the bunnies are us, so you can guess who is the one with the handbag? Yeah 😀

  • Sirius sleeping on my knee and a sock
  • My workplace

I finally finished Lucifer Season 5. I tried to watch it just one ep per evening but it’s so good and then it was also very short season. Now I’m on Umbrella Academy S2 which doesn’t seem quite as good as S1.

A song by Fredrik Furu for you, he sings in Swedish but I think you’ll survive. I did.

Normal people

julkaissut Nokisuu

I’m watching the tv-serie Normal people which is based on a novel by Sally Rooney. I haven’t read the book and I doubt I will even thou the tv-serie is good.

It tells about a young couple, Marianne and Connell, who start dating in the high school and then their on-off relationship through college years. It’s been a bit of a task to watch because

  • it’s kind of too artsy. I mean the high art when you try to pretend to understand all the nuances and it gets a bit boring to reflect everything through the Deep Meanings (you know what I mean here).
  • there is too many sex scenes. I don’t know why but we are back to the 80’s now with all the official sex scenes in movies and tv-series. Sometimes less is more you know, it gets boring pretty quickly.
  • it hits too close to the young girl I once was, just as unsure and doing what I was told by my boyfriend. And I don’t want to remember the time nor the boy nor the girl I was back then. Of course I’ve changed and people do, they grow up but it’s hard to watch. I guess we’ve all been there.

So yeah.. just two eps to go. And a button strip to knit.

On to other things. We’re having middlest son’s graduation party next Saturday and I’ve counted that all together we’ll make about 30 adults including us.I’ve been cleaning the house and baking all weekend. I washed the kitchen windows today and I don’t think I’ll wash any others during this week. I still need to wash the floors before Saturday.

Yesterday I baked a bundt cake which my sister loves, it’s called Sandcake since it’s very dry and today I did some ’gentry cookies’, they are a traditional small cookie in weddings and other kin parties. Here you can see a pic of them, I cut them heart-shaped because I like it more.

Hubby has been cleaning our garden furniture and finished painting them today. One of our neighbours came to inquire where we bought them 🙂

At my work we’re waiting for our work desks to arrive. If we’re lucky we’ll get them this week which would be great since we’re off to our summer holidays on June 18th and come back on early August just as the clients arrive too. On Friday I got rid of all the music class books the teachers had decided they didn’t need anymore and it took me all day to shred the books off the covers. I was quite done afterwards.

Here are some pics. The music class pics show the state of Friday morning before and after lunch. Then there’s some Rhododendrons from my yard and the last pic is of a Finnish actor Jasper Pääkkönen, whom you might know from the Vikings and the BlacKkKlansMan. This pic was in an article and I was just thinking how here in Helsinki our (famous) actors can just casually bike around the city, nobody bothers you (much).

Now I need to get my beauty sleep 🙂

 

Coffee in a park

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Today I met two of my closest friends first time since early March. We bought coffee and some cinnamon buns with us and went to a park to sit for a while. The wind was a bit chilly so after we chatted a while and drank our coffees we went to warm up to a bookshop but it was closing in ten minutes. We had still some time to browse books and stuff so it wasn’t all lost.

I’ve also bought summer flowers to plant in pots in out yard/garden and it’s nice. On Wednesday I did half of my day at the work place and the afternoon from home since I had a meeting to attend to via teams so hubby came to get me home and since I had lunch hour we drove via the City garden and bought pansies there. They have huge greenhouses because they grow all the flowers for the city’s summer flower beds in parks.

I haven’t been able to go for a walk in the evenings since I’ve been pretty tired and also my legs ache. I’ll need to go on weekend I think.

Youngest son is going back to school next Thursday and I think it’ll be okay. Middlest son’s graduation party is probably moved to the end of August but I’m thinking of having a small celebration for him in mid-June since I’m not sure the Army will let all of this spring’s graduates out on the same weekend.

I’ve been watching Young pope from Netflix and I find it quite funny. I’m not a great fan of Jude Law but Diane Keaton is very good. I’m about to finish the cardi soon.

ETA I almost forgot; I’ve been thinking about putting some of my fics out to the Archive but I’m still a bit hesitant. Two would be just one-shots and then a longer one about Avengers.. I’ll think about it again.

 

Long time no see

julkaissut Nokisuu

I can’t even remember when I last wrote here. I’ve been quite exhausted after the working-at-home during days and then in the evenings I’ve mostly tried to do something else than sit in front of the ’puter.

I’m going back to work (literally) tomorrow. I may have told you that there’s a refurnishing coming to the library and there needs to be some kind of clearing done. Our desks are getting removed and we’re getting new ones done and so on and before that can happen it needs to be cleared.

Hubby’s been on part-time layoff since Easter and he’s sent some applications to some companies and has now two interviews coming up next week. It’s pretty good and I hope he’ll succeed. He’s been complaining of his current job about all the time he’s been there.

I’ve almost finished the cardi I’ve been knitting, I’m on the second sleeve and then there’s the button strip left. The pattern was one of Drops Design and I’m lucky I’m not a beginner in knitting since it’s been weird, i.e. the sleeves should have been decreased from top to bottom which would have left the sleeve so narrow it’d not fit.

I’ve also been watching tv a lot and helped youngest son in his HE homeworks. Yesterday I uploaded ’Walk to Mordor’-apps into my phone in order to get my walks and upcoming biking km’s into it.

For piccies just go to my Instagram (on the left sidebar). There’s now also a video I took in the forest yesterday, I wanted to share the birds singing. Hope you like it 🙂

 

Hello again

julkaissut Nokisuu

It’s been a while since I updated but something has happened.

Last Thursday I had an appointment to my work doctor since I had pain in my toes and feet joints and also because I had some blood tests taken. In my bloodworks the sugars were a bit high and also cholesterol was not so good and the doctor (a very nice lady) said that if I’d lose some weight they might drop and I said I’m planning to because of middlest son’s graduation and I must fit into my dress. So I’ll have new blood tests in the fall. About my joint pains she put me forward to see a physiotherapist which comes up in April and she tought I may have plantar fasciitis on top of the osteoarthritis which makes my toe joints painful.

Then I went to work and a bit after noon my phone rang and it was the nurse from the thryoid operation. She asked if I might be able to come on Monday since I had let them know I’d be available for cancelled times and I said Yes! even as my workmate was having lunch and I couldn’t ask her. So I got all the details, had to go to another blood tests on Friday and the operation would be on Monday afternoon.

When my colleague came back from lunch I was a bit worried but luckily we have a guy called Jyrki who does 20h/week for library and he had hours left from the winter holiday week when there is no classes and my colleague, Jyrki and my boss Sirkku all agreed that I’d go to the operation now. That sorted I was a bit relieved and much more worried, operations are always tricky imo.

On Monday afternoon hubby drove me to the other side of the Helsinki metropolitan area and I got in to the hospital and so on. The operation went nicely, everybody was very nice, the surgeon was skilled and I woke up without my thyroid glands. Later the nurse told me the surgeon had described them ’quite something’ so I guess I was right in getting them operated. I spent one night at the ward for monitoring and because I’m always quite sick after operations due to my feature of motion and travel sickness. On Tuesday when the lunch stayed inside I was given permit to leave and now I’m two weeks at home on sick leave.

When I left work a week ago Thursday I joked that I’m going on a two week corona isolation by my own choice. Yeah.. Hubby is staying home to work all of next week I think, he was just putting his works together for next week and getting a laptop to take with him.

Middlest son has his matriculation exams right now, still three exams next week to do. I hope they manage to do those without trouble. The good part is that they are seated separately and everyone has their own table so I hope we’ll stay safe. Youngest one has had sore throat all week and has been at home, I’m expecting more info from his school concerning the corona situation.

I’m going to watch tv, read, write and knit and slouch on the sofa with Sirius and family. Youngest one and me already finished 11th season of Doctor Who but I’ve got all Star Trek TOS and then there’s all of Richard’s, Jason’s and Karl’s works to go through. We are well prepared.

 

 

 

 

Winter break

julkaissut Nokisuu

I took this week off since the kids are having their winter break and I’m sick with flu, my throat feels like someone used a cheese grater on it and I have temperature rising. So I haven’t done anything I was going to do and instead I’ve been reading fanfics, doing art decos and watching tv and knitting.  (I’m knitting the cardi’s first sleeve third time since the pattern instruction was weird to say the least and I had to finally just do it after my own head.)

Last week middlest son had the traditional high school ending celebrations known as penkkarit (”benching”). The name comes from earlier days, my dad told us that when he had his penkkarit, the younger students carried them out from school on the study tables.  Nowadays the students have a carnival-type lorry ride in the city centre (it was awesome! One of the best school days ever!) and they throw candy to onlookers. It’s so much fun for everyone!

I and hubby took a few hours off from work, had a lunch together and then walked to the Old church park where it’s easy to see the lorries and kids. These days kids dress up as different characters, there was i.e. Money heist, Moomins and others. On my days we had just warm overalls meant for ice-fishing in the wintertime 😛 The lorries are also covered with sheets indicating which school it’s from, the students have done the artwork themselves.

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Middlest son is on the left side partly turned away, he has the pink Minecraft mask above his head. His best friend since kindergarten is taking pics and Julia was dressed as Little My with orange-red hair in the right side of the pic.

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Leftover candy, middlest son forgot half of his candy to school.. guess who’s been eating them.

Kortti - Copy
Birthday card for my friend Mareetta

 

On another thing, my two cents about The Stranger. I had some issues with it and I had to watch it twice to be sure they weren’t addressed. This is just my opinion; I really liked the actors but the plot was a bit meh. I must have read too many detective stories as it is.  A list of the things that really bothered me under the cut. Jatka lukemista ”Winter break” →