Sporadic sausages

via mtv3

Posting here seems to be getting more sporadic and sparse as time goes on, partly because we are well into the repetition zone as we get closer to kaksi vuotta (what is there to say about Vappu that wasn't said last May day for instance); and also because staying at home sitting in front of the computer trying to design kitchens/extensions/invitations doesn't throw up a lot of insightful or exciting moments. Also I have realised that a lot of my posts are picture led - i.e. an excuse to show off whatever randomly appeared in front of my camera, just be glad you don't have to see the full slideshow. So if I haven't been out somewhere with my camera I don't seem to come up with much to post about.

Not to say nothing is happening. Since the last blog post we have bought a flat, had our 4th client/project, bought a bonsai tree, had a name day and killed my Xbox360 (the dreaded red ring of death). The latter is probably a good thing as will stop me being tempted to play Fallout 3 instead of looking at Finnish building regulations. Now I will have to talk to the bonsai tree instead. (It's called Bernard).

About the most interesting thing going on here just now is people panicking that they won't be able to buy nakkia and perunasalattia for their vappupäivä picnic due to striking/locked-out food sector workers - I imagine if the 'Suomi sausage shortage' goes on much longer the Finnish government will have to declare martial law to prevent rioting when Finns realise their summer barbecue will have to be vegetarian.

Sausage houses, Thunderbirds and Ego

Toronto City Hall via Erindesignr/Flkr

I thought it was worth putting a few more words about Viljo Revell (with two L's please note Ms. Kilpikonna) as his work still has a big impact on Helsinki at least, and you can't help thinking he would have gone on to do a lot more if he hadn't have died at only 54, before his best know work, the Thunderbirds style (optimist-futurist-expressionist-modernist) Toronto City Hall, was completed in 1966. Whether it would have been popular is a different question. The 'City-Center' Makkaratalo ('sausage house') is pretty much universally reviled (I also struggle to find much positive to say, except the concrete brute with car ramps trumping pedestrian access is 'of it's time'. On the other hand 'Lasipalatsi' the 1935 'Crystal palace' is certainly still a gem of white functionalism.

Anyway how many internationally successful architects can you think of who said anything like 'It was was teamwork you see' when asked how they designed a competition winning scheme? No - I thought not.

Teamwork

Architect Viljo Revel's exhibition 'It was team work, you see' at Didrichsen Art Museum in Helsinki exhibits architect's life work in a proper setting, in a building designed by him. Worth a visit if you are nearby before mid May 2010...

Our visit was a quick one on Easter Monday morning, before cooking a lamb feast with a few Yorkshire puddings... I know I know - not a usual combination - but because of a great demand the chef had to live up to his audience. I guess the word 'his' gave up the BIG secret (?) who cooks the fantastic feasts in this house :)

Is it winter, spring or summer?

White on white: From In search of Spring...

I'm clearly a bit late with this post as the warm temperatures and rain of the last few days have (ehkä) decisively cleared a lot of the snow now and we have changed over to 'Summer' time (daylight saving time) already. We are starting to get summer speed limits back on the roads, optimists are changing to their summer tyres and bigger optimists are planning their Vappu picnic for a months time.

But last week, on the spring equinox, following another 5cm fall of snow, a kaunis sininen taivas tempted me out for a walk with my camera around what still seemed to me a wintery Mustavuori, busy with skiers and sledders. While its undeniably lighter (hurray!), and the twittering of a few birds can be heard (and the bright yellow ones spotted), only a few buds on trees suggest much life coming back to the forest. Growing grass (rairuoho) in a tray for the easter table starts not to seem quite so strange...

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Talking of strange things at easter I'm pretty much forced to mention mämmi at this point. I've been saying for the past few years that the visually unappealing brown sludge of orange peel flavoured malted-rye was up there with salmiakki and villi in my mental least-favourite flavours of Finland list. So I was surprised to find that on being served it at a friends house yesterday I not only ate it, I quite liked it. Maybe I've been here too long...

Mysteeri

Interesting tracks in Mellunmäki

Winter is fantastic time for detectives...

You can see has anyone left the house before you in the morning & figure out has it been a woman or a man, or perhaps a child with a toboggan or someone with a long tail. You can easily see how intoxicated your spouse was when arriving home judged based on the trail left behind...

You can also trick people believing in things; granny used to wear granpa's large rubber boots to make tracks in the deep snow on a narrow country road (in the middle of nowhere) - You might wonder, why was she in the middle of nowhere in my grandpa's boots... and the answer is: she lived in a small cottage alone... in the dark winter time she thought that the big steps would keep potential unwanted guests out of the estate. Soon after she was persuaded to move to the nearby town to live in her own flat (with running water, electricity & central heating).

Can you detect a rabbit hopping in the snow - How about the smaller tracks?

On top of the standard beautiful marks on the snow, one can not pass without noticing the yellow & brown tracks on white background. Unfortunately it kind of gets worse when the snow starts melting... but hopefully it's not time for that yet, although the first migrating birds have started to return to Finland... The winter has been fantastic; beautiful and snowy - perhaps Mr. Snow greets us at the end of the drive way for a bit longer?

Spies

Spies?

As the resident nerd technologically competent person I get to do exciting things for Hiiri (and actually although Konna may say otherwise I have to do the same for her too):

• Change lightbulbs & fuses
• Buy and change printer cartridges
• Reset the cable digibox when it falls over
• Get the TV off menu when the wrong button is pressed
• Upload/download photos from cameras & phones
• Install/update antivirus (and any other software) on her computer
• Put batteries in, and demonstrate the use of, any new piece of technology around the home

It also means that when Hiiri says to Konna 'Your cousin asks you can see their house on Google?', I realise that:

A) They are talking about Google Maps Street View (which is still fairly recent and hot topic of conversation around these parts);

B) Somehow Konna has never heard of it even though it was around causing controversy (yawn) in UK before we left;

C) I am going to have to show them how to use it in about 30 seconds time.

So after owning up to having already scouted my cycling route from here to town (as the Helsinki pictures seem to have been a summer afternoon) we set to 'visiting' said cousins house, Hiiri's childhood home (which is apparently a forest based on the view we could get), our current abode & Konna's childhood house (so Hiiri and Konna could complain about the owners leaving rubbish bags outside and not watering the plants). Then Konna hit on the bright idea of 'visiting' my Mum's home for Hiiri to see (as she has never visited... for real that is).

So I show the house ('Wow isn't it big and nice looking' says Hiiri to my momentary disbelief, forgetting she would not be used to the boring 60's English developer semi/detached suburban typology). Then I show my Junior school at the top of the road. Then the stereotypical english (red brick Oxford movement) spired church where my Mum is the verger. Where my Mum spends a lot of time... Where my Mum is standing outside the front door of the church apparently oblivious to the camera car... hello Mum!!

Night shift

"The Hour of the Wolf" is the hour between night and dawn. It is the hour when most people die. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fear, when ghosts and demons are most powerful."

... It is also the hour when the flipping snow ploughs have a gathering underneath the bedroom window in order to take away the snow pushed aside the streets during the day.

Please let us know who has designed the piiping device activated by reversing - can it not be turned off during the hour of the wolf?