Are we here yet?

Kurpitsat! From Winter 2009 - Helsinki & around.

In case you were wondering we didn't turn into pumpkins, but did actually come back to Helsinki. So what's been happening to Emmdee and Konna?

• A fancy dress party where we went as teenagers c. 1987 (for me think black jeans, sister's of mercy T-shirt, studded belt...; for Konna think language student - complete with EF rucksack)
• A week dog/house sitting (good weather for walkies in the central park - where Konna had never been!)
• Mennimme Linnänmäkiin - katso valot karne kuvista (see Linnänmaki Carnival of lights pictures on Picasa) - the lazer show was crap though...
• Five (more) boxes of stuff arrived from UK: we now have more clothes, a TV, DVD/home cinema, and A3 printer again after a year! Hurrah! (But where the heck do we put it all?)
• DVD player and printer aren't working! Boo! Where's that insurance claim form...?
• Konna is working for a small but successful and critically acclaimed practice doing very interesting buildings (down to the doorknobs) ... can't say any more than that
• We (or I as Konna is working full time now) may have some small projects coming... the big problem is of course what to call the company if we do
• Menin hämmäsläkkärille / suunhygenistille, ja nyt minun hampaat ovat (melkein) valkoinen... ja hän sanoi minulle - sinä puhu hyvin suomea jos olet assunut suomessa vain yhden vuoden (!) Well who says Finns aren't polite?
• 'Somebody' lost that dentist bill - cue comedy misunderstanding of spelling of my name on telephone: dee ... day - pay?, DEE - bee?; DAY - ...? Voisinko lähetää sinulle sähköposti..?
• First sauna for six weeks (I even started to miss it)
• First cycle ride for six weeks (since the biggie); 75km Porvooseen ja takaisin - was so damp and cold that on the way back had to stop at a bus stop to take of my shoes and socks to warm my frozen numb feet; notes to self: a) dress warmly when it's 5°C; b) after six weeks 75km is too far...
• A video of my TdH triumph is on Strands here; and my Strands page is here (a sort of Facebook/training log for running/cycling)
• We may have blinked and missed autumn... it snowed today...

Returned to sender...

Palautetaan lähettäjälle...

And our good luck just continues re: weird things happening.
Because of a tiny nail varnish bottle the parcel sent to Emmdee's sister has been returned to us (evidence above). What do we learn from this? Never send nail varnish by post to anywhere :)

Kova - Tough (kuka? - who?)

Trans. Viivi: 'The world is a tough place'. Wagner: 'So is Mellunmäki'.

... tämä tapahtui tänään aiemmin Mellunmäessä:
... and this is what happened earlier today in Mellunmäki:

Ilman lukkoa ovi lukossa?! the door is locked without a lock!?

(inner of the two doors leading to the main corridor...

a standard solution in a Finnish apartment buildings for acoustics/fire etc)

Emmdee on our balcony in cycling gear

leaving the balcony... and you know how much he likes the heights

You may again wonder if this is one of the weird Finnish past times, to climb down from balconies dressed spandex - a new fashionable sport Emmdee has taken up as a hobby...

Just at 15:05 today it was discovered by Emmdee that there's no way out from our flat... The door had locked itself, even it does not have a lock - nice surprise for our cyclist on his way to the Finnish lessons in town (starting at 16:00). The estate maintenance chap hurried to help, but was not able to open the door from outside either... ladder was luckily found in the basement house store and the cyclist was on his way - fashionably late. I'm on the other hand stranded at home... and Hiri outside - no way in or out at the moment (which is always good especially if fire was to spread in the apartment...) The locksmith on call is lowering his boat to the sea in the harbour and could potentially make it here in 'a few' hours :)

Perhaps I'm out of here soon too?

things you should and shouldn't know

I've just discovered (while idly skimming through my Sitemeter stats) that our little unfocused blog has been picked up by 'this is FINLAND' published by the Finland Promotion Board as one of just five blogs (so far anyway) of 'recommended' reading on Finland, along with our fellow ex-pat architect Lewism. So heipa if you have just arrived in confusion from there. One of the others is the Finnish foreign minister's blog... which isn't so surprising once you see who produces the site. Nice Aalto vase inspired logo too.

I wonder if we come under the 'things you shouldn't know' category the site's strap line mentions?

Being unemployed can be dull

Some things we have done this week:

• Walked on water (the sea in fact)
• Collected dog poo and vomit
  
• Watch dancers 'interpret' a range of light fittings
  
• Slept in someone else's bed
  
• Read it is okay to eat 5 or 6 loaves of wholemeal bread a day
  
• Watched 12 films
• Been asked if we want to sell our flat

One of these was a mistake...

Word clouds

Since I'm in the business of nicking ideas from other people's blogs at the moment (see the 'Yearbook' photos below) I thought I'd do this one now.  You may have seen these around in various forms: 'word clouds' in which the bigger the word the higher frequency it's use in the text. So just a kind of graph really. Wow, I managed to make them sound really boring, and they are actually kind of fascinating.

Anyway, these are made using Wordle and represent the blog to date... 

 

above, left to right: July & August.

top: the whole darn thing (well July to September anyway)

Time circuits on. Flux Capacitor... fluxxing. Engine running. All right!

 

"Your older brother's disappearing from that photograph. Your sister will follow, and unless you repair the damage, you'll be next." 

Just got back from the 1950's, bit complicated to explain... but anyway managed to bring some yearbook photos prove it. Such a nightmare getting spares for the deLorean these days, so lucky Rune was around to help.

CSI Helsinki - Remontti Reiskat - Handy Andys

click the image to enlarge - klikkaa suuremmaksi

Freedom!

JE! mummo stepped in from the main door; door slammed close behind her leaving the winter storm outside; she was in the summer; beach and sunny weather - swimming is a possibility; have to go whatever it costs; see you in the waves. JE!