Saturday 30 March 2013

Saturday Sun

Saturday morning started with simple pleasures. First, I put on my warm parka for the last time this winter. I wrapped a souvenir from Iceland around my neck and placed the new sunnies on my nose.

On the way, I stopped on the dam bridge to document the season.



 A newspaper, coffee and croissant in a cafe crowed my morning.

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Being Serious and Amused

I shall be glued to my desk for the next two and half months. I have my latest professional project to work on plus a fun project I am building just because I feel like it. With the latter I have no ambition. It is just a project to amuse myself. It is a road movie script likely end up to my files only. However, its turns and dialogue of the main characters make me laugh out loud and thus it has already been a huge success in one person's small life.

BTW, the desk in the picture is not mine. It belongs to Hostel Kex's decor in Reykjavik, Iceland.



Tuesday 19 March 2013

On Charitable Death

My credit card company sent me a letter offering an insurance. I duly read the advertisement and placed it to the bin. I have no need for an insurance, which will pay a hefty sum, if I happened to meet an accidental death. 

Yesterday I received a phone call selling the very same insurance. I explained the suave male voice in the other end that I have received the letter and know about the said insurance, but as a single person, I fail to see any financial benefit in it. To my surprise the Sales Person did not end the call there. With Sales Manish enthusiasm he offered a solution to my problem - you can mark a charity as a beneficiary. I complimented the good insurance in return and asked, if it would be a more secure income for the charity, if I paid the monthly fee directly to the charity's account, as I could not guarantee them financial support in form of my accidental death. The Sales Person gave up there, but to be honest, I would have liked to continue. I was so deliciously absurd sales operation. Never before I got to discuss my death with someone interested in it. Even indirectly so.

Monday 18 March 2013

First Stop is Coffee

My favorite mode of transportation - a train - took me from Oulu to Helsinki. Once again I took blue pictures through the train's window.

My first stop in Helsinki was at a café.

Through its windows I saw a man sking in the park in the middle of Helsinki.

Saturday 16 March 2013

Indulging

I finally signed the contract. To celebrate it, I indulged with lemon meringue and cappuccino. Now I am happy as a pie.

Friday 15 March 2013

Save the Bird Cherry Flower

The other café in Oulu I like very much goes by a sweet name of Café Tuomenkukka (Café Bird Cherry Flower in English). It is located in the middle of the wonderful Ainola Park right next to its spectacular rose garden.

Café Tuomenkukka has been in the middle of a controversy this winter, as the City of Oulu's Fire Department inspected it and found the kitchen inappropriate for a grease cooking. The café is famous for its doughnuts and their sales form the main bulk of the small business. The owners cannot afford to buy the doughnuts from a bakery nor carry out the required renovations. The premises are inside a conservatory owned by the city of Oulu, and consequently the owners turned to their landlord for help. To the amazement on the small scale entrepreneurs and their customers, the mighty City of Oulu said - NO, the landlord will not allow nor contribute to the cost of required renovations.


After the decision, the local newspaper duly published a piece on the closure of the much loved café and thus woke up the its customers. Complaints of the decision were filed to the city's administration and 2000 people signed the petition against the closure in the net. Touched by the support from the customers, the owner has started to fight for the right to sell doughnuts and coffee. The case is still open and I follow it with great interest and support it by having my tri-weekly coffees exclusively in the Café Bird Cherry Flower until the fight is over. Let's see what the outcome will be.

Thursday 14 March 2013

New Clothes

Martti, my favourite brass boy, has got new clothes.

This time there was also another character with accessories. Had to shot his gloomy appreance too.

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Searching for Sugar Man



I have not praised the movie yet, although I should have. It was so jaw dropping amazing, that I shall see it again on Thursday.

Hope comes from Detroit now.

Go see it.

Monday 11 March 2013

Oulu Changing


Oulu is changing. There is more light now compared to a month ago when I took the pictures of the two buildings in town centre.

The buildings are empty and will be demolished soon. There will be a department store replacing them. They are in poor shape and uglyfy the centre further, so I may not miss them. However, I wanted to document them, as the new building will be so central and form the looks of Oulu town.

While picturing these rundown buildings, I found them more interesting than what I remembered. The large bay windows are actually quite cool. I can only imagine how nice the apartments have been with all that light coming through the big windows. I also had failed to notice that the corner is rounded.

Saturday 9 March 2013

Cake Calendar

It is not the calendar, but the café cake displays, which tell me the changes in season and mark the special occasions. The cake calendar starts from Christmas, moves on to the first day of Lent, to the Runeberg's Day (national Poet) via Valentine's to today's seasonal speciality.

Friday 8 March 2013

With Love from Tennessee

Mr Postman is my best friend this week. He left me a parcel wrapped in brown in the mailbox. It came from Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was handmade from wood veneer.

I so like them.

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Knitting in Sin

I am off to see a film. An Oscar winning Searching for Sugar Man. A documentary on a promising American musician in the 60's, who becomes forgotten until suddenly rises to the fame in South Africa.

From the movie theatre I am off to a pub. Not to drink, but to knit. My first time ever. I know nobody there yet, but shall meet people who share passion for knitting and like to socialise around it. Although I have never attended such a meeting myself, I do know how enjoyable it can be. My mother used to knit with her friends, when I was a child.

In the village where I come from, there is no pub, and if there was, women back in olden times would not have gone into one to pass time and to knit as group. Oh no. Impossible. It was a conservative village and any place serving alcohol had a haze of sin around it. Respectable housewives would be rarely seen in such places in any case. In my mother's time women would gather into someone's house to knit. They had an association promoting good household practises and the knitting events were called the association's meetings. First they all would drink coffee and the table was heavy with different kinds of cakes, pastries and cookies. After munching each one of ladies would pull their knit works from they bags and started to knit. While knitting, they agreed who would organise the next meeting and if they were going to organise or join any other activities in the near future.

The association Martat (as the name Martha in plural) is still alive and kicking throughout the country. I do not know if they do gather together the same way as they did when I was a child. I am no longer a member. However, I am happy, that times have changed. Nowadays I can check the knitting gathering times from the net and just pop into a pub whenever I feel like knitting and socialising. Today I shall bring along some yarn for socks, which I am knitting for my sister. I may even order a class of red and become a sinner for the night.

Monday 4 March 2013

Flea Market Finds

I flea market shopped on the other day. Could not leave an ugly pretty vase behind, or it's sister - a small salad bowl, nor two dozen of forks and knives with wooden handles nor the faux silver tray. All this at whopping 25 euros.

Friday 1 March 2013

Day of Happiness

What a nice day I had today. It started at eight when I woke up rested and happy. I had had a good night of sleep. A rare gift for an insomniac.

It was also the much waited (three weeks to be exact) passport renewal application submission date. It took 10 minutes to do so at the Police Station. I then treated myself with a cup of my favourite lightly roasted black coffee in Café Puistola. While sipping the hot brew, I red the news from a paper as opposed to a tablet. A rare gift for an iPader.

I then cycled back home in crisp -10 C to do my laundry. Soon after, it was time to get ready again to  accompany a friend to a computer shop. She can no longer live without a tablet, but could not decide whether to choose an iPad, Galaxy Tab or the new Windows tablet. In the shop she, me and a very kind and knowledgeable Sales Man got engaged in a super interesting hour and half long conversation on qualities of the three. We all agreed that the new Windows tablet is the most interesting thing on the market right now, but we will wait for the first update, as they are always superior to the pilots. She went for the Tab for now and the two other iPaders in the group nodded approvingly. Not that there is anything wrong with our iPads. Oh no, it is a very good piece of equipment, but there certainly is something to keep the eyes on in the horizon.

The day was crowned with Silver Lining Playbook in a movie theatre. Miss Laurence so deserves her Oscar and now deserve I more of that wonderful thing called sleep. It was a happy day.