Seasons Greetings...

So this is Christmas...

Joulukortti 2011 - jk @ arkkitehdas

Not catching up

From St.Petersburg 2011

We went to a tuparit (house warming) yesterday (unfortunately luckily no tales or photos of people misbehaving as we left by 10pm) and saw numerous people who we haven't seen in six months.  We forgot the tradition present of bread and salt, but did manage to add to the pile of candle holders and lanterns...

When asked what we'd been up to I was surprised by how much we had been doing, like trips (and lots of photos of course) to Barcelona, St. Petersburg and Gotland.  Also with my typical uselessness in social occasions I pretty much failed to find out what anyone else had been up to (well except Bore, I figured she had obviously moved house as it was her party) - I even failed to get the name of the friendly person who gave us a lift back home...

There was meant to be a clever point to this about catching up on news, people and uploading photos or something - but due to a dose of near-fatal man-flu I can't figure out how it goes now. Whatever...

Today I have the answer to the ultimate question

...you know, Life, The Universe, Everything...

or

Kakiskymmentayksi vuotias - toista

Open (House) Helsinki 2011

Apart from the fact that they can't decide if the event has the word 'house' in it or not, and there are also places in Espoo and Vantaa (well I suppose that is 'greater' Helsinki ) as you might guess this week was this year's opportunity to get into public and private buildings that you often can't. And ships.

Now we have a proper internet connection at last, I can finally upload a decent number of photographs with out waiting for Godot. Be afraid...


(Click on Picasa album links below for more pictures)

Open House Helsinki - saunalahden lastentalo

Open House Helsinki - Urho ja Sisu

Open House - Musikkitalo, WG Lofts, Stora Enso

Open House - Pyhän Laurin kappeli

This is not a blog post

We have been exceedingly lazy on the blog front this year. If you are reading this via Facebook (as it posts as a note there automatically) you may not realise there are also so my tweets (via Twitter) on this page ... well occasionally.  Luckily Sähkötonttu doesn't have a Twitter account.

You could always read 'Jees Helsinki Jees' while you are waiting, which I only recently found (when doing a search for Jonathan Glancey's critique of the new Musiikitalo in HS - 'kone ilman sielu') ... how have I missed this cool blog until now?

And now a list of things we haven't blogged about:

• Elections
• Spring
• Metalligrafiikka courses (etching)
• Keramiikka course (wobbly pots and other lumpy objects)
• Finnish indie-pop music (Rubik, Regina, LCDMF)
• Spotify
• Radio Helsinki (finally a radio station I can live with)
• Musiikitalo
• Työ

Mistä olet sinä kotoisin?

Great Eng..Brit..UK-land Isles (jne) by C.G.P. Grey via Holy Kaw and @stephenfry


One of the first things you learn in Finnish language lessons is the simple question 'Where are you from?'
What people don't always understand is that may not be as straightforward a query to answer as you might think... now all I need to do is translate the video* into Finnish. Or maybe make a t-shirt of that Venn diagram.

[suomen kielien kurssissa]

• Opiskellija 1: Hei 
• Opiskellija 2:  Moi
• Missä sinä asut?
• Asun Helsingissa. Olen asunnut suomessa noin kolme vuotta.
• Mista olet sinä kotoisin? Oletko englantilainen?
• Olen englannista, mutta myös iso-brittaniasta ja brittein saarista ja u.k:sta
• Mitä!?
• Olen britti ja englantilainen kyllä. Mutta minun passini kertoo 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'
• Kirja vain sanoo 'maa: englanti, keili: englantia,  kansalaisuus: englantilainen - englannista...
• Tiedän, mutta on monimutkainen maa. 
• Sitten... oletko irlantilainen myös?
• En ole. Ihminen voi olla irlantilainen ja iso-brittanista, mutta ei aina.
• En ymmärrä sinun maa!
• Määt - monikko. OK. Sinun vuoro. Mistä sinä...
• Opettaja: Oletteko valmis seuraava harjoitus?

I wonder if there is a video to explain London, Greater London, Inner London, Central London, London Boroughs and City of London...


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* Arguably there are still a few inaccuracies in this video. Or possibly sarcasm. See the comments on 'Holy Kaw' here.