Sugar & Spice

Houkutuksia

2009-07-15T19:12:00.004+03:00

Lieneekö onni vai epä-, että työpaikkani naapurissa sijaitsee pieni kahvilakonditoria. Siellä leipurit pyöräyttävät joka päivä tuoretta pullaa, jonka kanelinen tuoksu leijailee juuri sopivasti silityspöydän ääressä olevaan nenään (ainakin kuumina päivinä, jolloin ovea pidetään auki). Paljon ei ole tuoksuja, jotka voittaisivat vertailussa vastapaistetun nisun! Kertaakaan en ole vielä haksahtanut naapurin houkutuksiin, mutta viimeisenä työpäivänä aion.

Parvekepenkin suojissa varttuneet puluvauvat alkoivat eilen lentokoulun. Emo ei paljoa lapsiaan säästellyt, vaan tökki surutta nokittaen kaiteelta alas siipiään arastelevan aloittelijan. Kaipa tuo hengissä selvisi, kun pesässä tänään nököttää yhä kaksi lintua. Yksi tunti ei siis näemmä riitä, ja ainoa seuraus lentokoulusta onkin se, että nyt parvekkeella on kakkaa joka puolella. Ennen sitä oli vain pesässä. Siivota ei kuitenkaan saa, ennen kuin lapset ovat lentäneet pesästä ihan oikeasti! Siinäpä houkutus vastustettavaksi.

Sandwiches in the church park

2009-05-24T22:39:00.006+03:00

Wow, reading back I can trace a hint of melancholy in my Spring. I have managed to pass the bend in the road and left the moroseness behind me, and even though I will have to put up with a month and a half at the dry cleaner's, I believe I will survive it because I won't have to work weekends.

I had mozzarella-and-pesto sandwiches and coffee in the church park today with miss P. There was an accordeon player belting out summery tunes and children running up and down the grassy slopes. Lovely! And just as we got up and went to buy ice cream for dessert it started raining so we went in. (The weather's been very unpredictable today. Quite like England.)

Around the bend

2009-03-24T17:15:00.004+02:00

Anne Shirley thinks there is something wonderful waiting for her just around a bend in the road. I'm thinking along the same lines, although I'm fairly certain Anne is more positive in her expectations than I am. What if this summer is going to be the most wonderful I've ever had?

I moved to a new flat over the weekend, and that marked a definite up-turn in my mood. Not only was the whole moving-process nerve-wrecking, but there is so much more air and light in the new flat that I can't help feeling lighter myself! Also we've been blessed with so much sun lately that I feel like I've been soaking in it.

Rainy days and Mondays

2009-03-17T20:10:00.003+02:00

They always do get me down. My summer job situation, which I thought was quite good two days ago, suffered inflation and is now as uncertain as ever, and this piece of bad news came with horrible, wet weather. (Well, we did glimpse the sun just before its setting, so we might get more lucky tomorrow as far as the weather's concerned.) I feel melancholy and rather hopeless, and it seems that I will be destitute soon and forced to throw my hands up.

On the positive note-- No, I can't think of anything positive just now. I must be downcast for a while.

Giving up coffee, day 19

2009-03-15T11:02:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I was possibly most sorely tempted by coffee. My sister had her birthday on Friday, and yesterday we had some delicious chocolate cake in her honour. You know, the best coffee is always had with some chocolate cake... But I defeated the temptation!

Soon we're going to go and collect the keys to our new flat. I'm excited! I'm so looking forward to moving. Last night the Neighbours did their best to entertain us with a piece of family-fighting (again).

Skiing

2009-03-11T13:11:00.009+02:00

The long-awaited, fondly thought-of mid-term break began last Saturday. I got up early, swallowed some oatmeal porridge, and bolted into the silent, snowy woods for a ski.

I hadn't been on skis for years, so at first I felt strange and unsteady. I was a bit disappointed in the absence of sunlight, but perhaps it was just as well: if it had been sunny, I probably would have gone snowblind in fifteen minutes.

I used to love skiing downhill, gathering speed and feeling the wind on my face. But, as I said, it had been a long time since I was last on skis...

... and as a result, I fell over twice. First time intentionally, because the speed was more than I had bargained for, second time un-, because...well, I think I simply lost faith and gave up. It was marvellous, though, and there was enough snow to guarantee a soft landing.

I had read on the news that a lone bear had woken up early and gone roaming about the woods. I didn't run into it, but what I did run into was a solitary hut, in the middle of nowhere... The abode of a mad recluse?

However, no recluse, mad or otherwise, intercepted me en route, and I made it back to my parents' house - the minute the sun showed its brilliant face. Our dog, Pella, was basking in the light and warmth, clearly not making much of darting around the forest on two wooden boards.

I left my skies out in the garden and went inside, rosy-cheeked and happy, to enjoy a large cup of hot chocolate. A morning well spent!

Winter sunlight

2009-03-03T17:30:00.005+02:00

I still catch myself wondering at times: is this really true? Can we be blessed with such a glorious winter after the most wet and dismal autumn I can remember? And I look outside, pinch myself, and revel in the soft, white sight. It really is true!

Last Sunday we (my sister and I) went to enjoy the bounteuous sunlight sent to us from the high heavens - and beautiful it was!

Spring is in the air

2009-03-01T12:27:00.005+02:00

We've been treated to a dazzling amount of light today. The sky seems so high above, the air is cool and clear, and the (apparently) ever-lasting snow cover sparkles under the rays of the sun. On a day like this, one should go out to nature and laugh out loud in reckless joy of living!

To celebrate Spring I organized the window sill anew...

...bought a yellow primrose...

...and put the loveliest cook-book in the world on display (Christmas gift from miss P).

(I did this quite some time ago, but it was to honour Spring. I'd just forgot about the pictures.)

Giving up coffee, day 3

2009-02-26T20:08:00.001+02:00

Still going strong. I thought I'd take up Rooibos.

Giving up coffee, day 1

2009-02-24T18:00:00.002+02:00

Tomorrow is the official beginning of Lent. My big sacrifice is to give up coffee, my solace in a life crowded with deadlines and continuos assessment, and today I began. So far, things are spiffy (as P.G. Wodehouse might say), and no withdrawal headache is mine. Hooray!

The reasons I'm giving up coffee are numerous, but among the most important are

1) that I can prove myself I'm able to do it

2) that coffee is something it's really hard for me to give up, so doing it would count as a sacrifice - otherwise it wouldn't really be Lent

3) that I know, deep down, that coffee is bad for you, so de-toxicating my system every once in a while is not such a bad thing.

Demonstrating

2009-02-19T19:02:00.008+02:00

Today I took part in the first real demonstration of my life. University students in Tampere and Helsinki displayed their opinion on a certain legislative proposal of the Ministry of Education in Finland: this proposal, if realised, would severely damage the autonomy of universities and introduce an 'experimental tuition fee' for students coming in outside EU - among other things.

I hope our voice will be heard, all the way in Helsinki.

Scatterbrain

2009-02-16T19:13:00.003+02:00

At times I feel like there's too much going on in my head and that I need a break from it all (anybody interested in swapping heads?). It's difficult to keep track of my to-do list (not that it exists in any concrete way), and maybe that's why there seems always to be so much I should be working on. Time is very stealthy. It pretends to be ample, and then suddenly it vanishes into thin air and leaves you unprepared and hopelessly late.

Tomorrow I'm going to write down everything I have to do in way of studying. See if I won't.

Self-marketing

2009-02-06T17:01:00.005+02:00

The most dreaded time of the year is here. The leisurable days of autumn are gone and one must turn one's look towards the future: where to find employment for the coming summer? Applying for a summer job is probably the worst thing I know, and that's why I put it off - hopefully not until it's too late, though...

This year I have decided to treat myself to a proper holiday, instead of working myself to near exhaustion like last summer. There's less money involved, of course, but I'd rather scrimp and save than be destroyed (even if that means I have to skip the cottage in the Isle of Wight).

Me, driven to madness by job applications. (This is the picture I plan to enclose to emphasize the fact that I really do need work.)

Shoes

2009-02-04T18:49:00.004+02:00

I like shoes. A friend of mine once said that to her, Spring arrives with the clickety-clack of high heels on pavement - and much as I like winter, I'm also eagerly waiting for the opportunity to put on my spring shoes!

Chivalry

2009-01-28T17:56:00.003+02:00

Today I was walking down a street which in places was covered in ice and very slippery. So, at one point I slipped and fell over, and a passer-by kindly stopped to offer his help. My first instinct was to refuse the offered hand. Of course I didn't need help! I hadn't hurt myself, and there was a railing I could hold on to while getting up. So, kindly but firmly I said no thanks, I'll manage. I regretted it as soon as I had let the words out of my mouth. To be sure, I was capable of getting up on my own, but would it have degraded me if I had leaned on some stranger's hand instead of the railing? I would have got up just as quickly, and he would have had reason to feel good about himself after helping out a damsel in distress, as it were. Maybe this was my chance for a life-long romance, too, and I had bolloxed it up!

I think we Finnish women are too used to the idea that we can get along on our own, without any special treatment. Old-fashioned chivalry is quite obsolete here. When I lived in Bulgaria for a while, it was really hard for me to get used to having doors opened for me and my coat helped on me. The point is, it doesn't make you feel as if you weren't able to do something yourself; rather it makes you feel very feminine, which is really nice! Maybe I have to teach myself to be a little less independent.

Pussycats

2009-01-26T16:53:00.006+02:00

Our cat Nekku is 95 % hair and 5 % other substances. She is the cuddliest cat I know, and she loves sitting in people's laps and purring. What I love most about her, is the total and unconditional trust she feels for whoever it is that's holding her: she doesn't hesitate to uncover her underbelly (which grows curly hair, by the way) and is calmly certain that whichever way she turns, she will be held on to. And she always is.

Nekku is our cat by her own choice: when we went to get a kitten at our neighbour's farm, she walked right into my sister's lap and made herself comfortable. How could such confidence be resisted?

This little pussy I got from my sister as a Christmas present. He's stuffed with oat grains and can be put in the oven or the freezer to warm or cool and then applied to a sore or something. Well, that's what he's meant for. But I haven't had the heart to do it! I prefer keeping him for company on my bedside table.

Winter woods

2009-01-26T16:28:00.015+02:00

Now we have it - snow, I mean. Lots and lots of snow! I wanted to embrace the snow and tell it how much I had missed it, but instead I rolled around in it, made a snow angel out of it, and slid down the slope of a hill on it. It's such a beautiful thing, snow.

And I love this blue moment in the late afternoon - sininen hetki, as we call it (although, thanks to Fazer, nowadays it mostly makes people think about chocolate).

I'm romantically thinking this is a fox's trail, but it might be our dog, Pella. Although she would fit in the picture, being a winter-friend like myself.

Diamonds and hearts

2009-01-17T17:59:00.004+02:00

I was at work today, after a looong break, so I was a bit apprehensive about how everything would work out: would I still know how to use the dry cleaning machine, would I remember to turn on the water tabs, would I possess the patience to be friendly to stupid customers? Well, as it turned out, these were rather useless worries, as I didn't have to operate the dry cleaning machine at all, and no stupid customers appeared (in fact, hardly any customers appeared). And the water tabs I turned on first thing in the morning.

As for how the header comes into this entry, there wasn't much to do at work so I spent a lot of time playing FreeCell. I have this - oddity - that whenever I play FreeCell or Patience or some such game, I have to arrange the cards by suits so that spades and hearts go together, clubs and diamonds together. And when you have to reorder the deck by suit and rank, starting from the aces, I have a special order for those, too: hearts first, then spades, diamonds, and clubs. It's really annoying when I can't do this, and sometimes I lose because of this principle. But what can I do?

Clickety

2009-01-10T21:34:00.005+02:00

What I don't understand is, why do female agents wear high heels when they know that most probably they will have to chase some perpetrator into a dark, deserted car park. First of all, it's very risky to run in high heels: you might very easily twist your ankle. Second of all, it makes a lot of noise, and you want to be quiet and not catch the perpetrator's attention before your own agent Mulder gets there. Third of all, you might inadvertently step onto some alien body fluid that will corrode your newly-bought suede court shoes into a state of complete hole-ness. Maybe this is something they should bring up in the Federal Agent High School.

Searching

2009-01-09T19:57:00.002+02:00

I need to rediscover my self-esteem. Right now it has gone missing, leaving me in a state of discombobulation (there, Mama K, I did use your word!). A person who cannot compile a timetable is not clever enough to be a university student!

I have done nothing useful today, but now I'm going to take on that pile of important papers and file it properly. Before I watch another episode of The X-files.

Settling down

2009-01-07T18:19:00.002+02:00

Today I returned home from a nearly three-week holiday in the country. Three of my pot plants had taken heavy damage from lack of water; I will see if I can save them! Otherwise everything was fine in the flat, it was tidier than usual and I blessed myself for having been conscientious enough to do the dishes before leaving.

Some lovely things about my holiday:

- sitting in front of the fireplace with chocolate

- watching the stars in the frosty night sky

- playing boardgames with friends

- listening to our cat purring

- reading a good book

- receiving so many wonderful presents

- watching dvds together

- doing nothing at all

I especially liked the last entry. Alas, now I have to start doing something - but not before tomorrow. Today is still holiday.

Stars

2009-01-02T11:01:00.000+02:00

After the rains in the first half of December, we were treated to an unexpectedly cold and frosty second half. Christmas Eve was a wonderful day, with clear skies and a fantastic trick of light my father called 'double suns': three balls of radiant light side by side in the sky. I have missed the light so much that it's been like an early Spring to go for a walk in relatively bright sunlight - albeit the day lasts only for a few hours.

The other day I went for a night time stroll - it was maybe 10pm - to catch a glimpse of the New Year Eve's fireworks. I saw some of those, but what really took my breath away were the stars: the gloriously vast, delicate, and brilliant lacework of the high heavens... (I don't know anything about stars or constellations - the only one I recognise is the Great Bear that we call Otava - but they carry an intrinsic sense of mystery which never fails to fascinate me. I hope that some day I will have the chance to see the starlit sky spanning above the wide open spaces in the Great Plains - just like in films!)

I'll be home for Christmas

2008-12-19T00:48:00.000+02:00

- and not only in my dreams! Tomorrow will be my last day at work, and on Saturday morning, early, I will finally take the bus to my mum and dad's. I can't wait.

It's been a hectic month, this December. My to-do list for the past few weeks was miles long, but now I think I've reached the end of it (until I remember something I've forgot so far). I'm still not quite there in the jovial holiday spirit: it feels as if I can't relax until after I'm packed and on my way to the countryside, and even then there are things I can worry about if I wish to (and make no mistake, I shall). But at times my heart soares and I hear The First Nowell in my head...

Happy Christmas!

Familiar

2008-12-04T20:25:00.000+02:00

The other day I saw this girl in the bus I take to the university every day. She looked so familiar that I thought I must have seen her before: maybe she's on some course with me, or the friend of a friend, or maybe she goes to the same aerobics classes?

After some hard thinking, it suddenly dawned on me: she's the cashier at the local grocery store and I see her almost every day! It's sad, somehow, to realise how little attention you pay to people in customer service and how the transactions you have with them are so automatic you don't even think. (But maybe now I don't have to worry about whether people who came to the dry cleaner's I worked at last summer recognise me when they pass me on the street.)

Scheduling conflicts

2008-12-01T15:59:00.000+02:00

I hate making time-tables. Normally I'm very good at organizing and keeping track of things, but when it comes to arranging courses my systematic skills come tumbling down. I might have ideas as to what would be interesting, suitable, or compulsory, but when I should jot down the course codes and write my name on the right lists, I forget everything. And if, by any chance, I should remember, then all the courses I thought I would take are concurrent (next term Monday from 10 to 12 seems to be the only appropriate time for any course, regardless of section, or indeed, faculty).

I withhold the right to not graduate within the designated time.

What I love about snow

2008-11-24T12:04:00.000+02:00

- the way it sings under my feet when I walk on it on a cold day

- how it transforms even familiar objects into something fairy-like and mysterious

- its wintery fragrance

- its beautiful colours

- the way it softens the world

- the way it receives all the meager light our winter sun sends forth and then gives it back manifold

- how it falls in soft swirls and stays on my eyelashes

- the enchanting fact that each snowflake is unique

First snowfall

2008-11-20T20:04:00.000+02:00

It happened yesterday. I woke up in the morning (having gone to bed in dreary November rain) to find the world beautifully transformed into shades of blue and white... How much more light there is in a world of snow!

After nearly five months of not writing in this blog I can cast a short, retrospective glance over my shoulder and state that my fluctuating level of stress has come down markedly; I have made a new friend; I have unexpectedly developed a slight interest in interpretation; I have learned a lot of Tauno Palo and Ansa Ikonen; I have re-discovered my love for knitting.

(Oh, I almost forgot: I have taken the first step on my way to stardom. Two weeks ago an article I wrote was published in Tammerfors Aktuell, a fortnightly publication in Swedish here in Tampere. I wrote it, ME, and in SWEDISH! Truth be told, it was corrected first by my teacher and after that even by the editor, but it was my name that stood in the paper!)

They're all going on a summer holiday...

2008-06-26T21:05:00.000+03:00

...whereas I'm destined to stay put for all weeks to come. Isn't summer supposed to be the high time of freedom, beauty, truth and love (above all things, love)? But no! Here it rains every second day, thunder storms and hale showers keep one up at nights, there is no one to talk to, and to cap it all, Italy didn't make it past the quarter-finals. Plus the longest 'holiday' I get to have this summer is three whole days.

Now that I got that out of my system, I can mention some agreeable things that have happened to me:

The Good Luck Shamrock my friend P left in my care for the summer is blossoming. Beautiful, pale violet flowers!

My balcony is full of flowers and bright with rich colours, the sort only nature can create.

In a week I shall witness the wedding of two friends: a match made in heaven if there ever was one.

Behind the window I can see a beautiful, peaceful summer evening sky...

I had a lovely midsummer with my family (including an uncommonly prolific photoshoot with my sister):

Our lovely miss Nekku hovered around the grill in the hope of catching a stray sausage.

What is marshmallow but fluffy sugar? Not the most salubrious of comestibles, perhaps, but o so good! (And please note my use of Grammar Hell vocabulary there.)

The child that is born on the Sabbath day

2008-06-08T18:44:00.000+03:00

It's my birthday today. My Dad told me that the day I was born was very hot and that he and my elder sister visited my mother and newly-born me at the hospital by bike. I was born on a Sunday, and according to that English nursery rhyme I ought to be 'bonny and bright and good'. Which of course is true.

When my sister left Tampere for the summer, she was concerned that I might sink to the level of watching Smack Down on tv and drinking beer (well, I'm not certain that she mentioned beer). I haven't done that, but I've entered a jolly bachelor's life so far as to watch football on the net: Portugal played Turkey last night and I was disappointed in the outcome. Italy will play tomorrow and I will be glued on to the sofa. Maybe I'll even get some beer.

A week ago I went swimming in a lake for the first time this year. In Finland, we call that first out-door swim 'throwing off your wintercoat'. I threw mine in the lake Näsijärvi in Tampere, and the waters received it with cold arms. By the lake is a public sauna, which you can enter for the fee of 4.5 euros. If you walk quickly enough, you can retain some of the sauna's hotness in you before plunging into the waters - a wise precaution in the early summer!

Monday, monday

2008-05-26T19:16:00.000+03:00

I overslept today by two and a half hours. It meant I didn't have time to take a shower, have breakfast, or prepare packed lunch, but had to rush to the bus-stop ten minutes after waking up. I've been disoriented the whole day, but luckily things weren't too hectic at work... I looked terrible, though, because my hair badly needed washing and I grabbed the first clothes that met my eyes in the closet. But now I'm home. And I'm going have a cup of coffee. And eat some more of those perfect rolls.

Sunday rolls

2008-05-25T19:58:00.001+03:00

Today I baked the best warm rolls I've ever made. They were smooth, round, and even-sized, and they tasted heavenly. I was torn between wanting to eat them and wanting to just admire their perfection.

I saw Mikael H and some Siberians at Telakka bar last Wednesday. It was nice to hear live music again, especially when it included a banjo, a mandolin, and an electric violin, which I had never seen before. I was there with my friend P, who knows the boys of the band personally. Wow! That makes her practically famous, doesn't it?

On the way home I saw mystery lights in the woods: street lamps hidden among trees so that only the light bulb was visible, lighting up the leaves encircling it. It looked like Caras Galadhon.

The wakening soil of spring

2008-05-08T21:06:00.000+03:00

As I was walking home tonight from the swimming hall, I suddenly became aware of the pale green sweetness of spring in the trees around me, and the blackbird sitting on a bough above me, singing its heart out (like in that story of Oscar Wilde's), and it made me so calmly happy to be walking there and breathing in the soft air. I have been so preoccupied these past weeks, that spring has really stolen on me. So, I went and bought nine budding violets for my balcony; three yellow and three orange ones for the long wicker basket, and three plum-coloured ones for the small, round wicker basket. (Last summer I had such a lovely balcony in my home in Helsinki! It's one of the things I miss most about my former hometown.) I still need to get some ivy and some geraniums and busy lizzies (oh, I love that name!) - it will be wonderful to be able to go out to your garden and still be at home!

I wanted to show you a picture of my balcony, but the only one I had was mainly of myself having breakfast there with one red geranium. So, above there's part of my mum's garden from last summer! This picture was taken by my friend Anja.

Done - and hopefully well done

2008-04-29T21:09:00.000+03:00

Yes. It was difficult. But now it's over. And I have to wait for two months to get the results! I think I will pass, but whether I get a good grade or not depends on whether I mixed direct and indirect objects or not... Uhh, I hate waiting!

Cram day

2008-04-28T20:01:00.001+03:00

Multiple-choice tasks give me a false sense of security: the correct answer is there, you just have to pick it out! But with our grammar teacher and her oh, so nasty and treacherous ways you can never be sure... That's why I've been cramming today.

But English punctuation - let alone the use of modal auxiliaries and other niceties - isn't something you just cram. You have to learn it little by little, through active usage and by applying functional analysis to everything you read in English, so that your grammatical knowledge becomes, not a list of comma rules, but an integral part of language use. (That, at least, has been my excuse for not bothering to read through my notes for a second time; if I don't know it now, there's no way I'll learn it by tomorrow!)

The highlight of my day was eating the last piece of chocolate cake with ice-cream (although now I wish I had saved it for tomorrow; I might need it after the grammar exam). I love chocolate cake, and this was probably the tastiest cake I've had. We made it with my sister yesterday, and today it was already gone!

Sunny

2008-04-26T18:30:00.000+03:00

In the morning, when I was walking along Kuninkaankatu on my way to work, it was so cold I had to wear gloves and still I was shivering under my coat. But after work I would have been glad of a tank top, a skirt and flip-flops. How can sunshine grow so much hotter in four hours?

My parents came today to take my sister's things to their place for the summer; my sister will be living with them until August. And I will be a summer-widow (of a sort)! I hope I won't end up not tidying up and watching Smack-down. Last time I was living on my own it happened.

Getting started

2008-04-25T20:40:00.000+03:00

I argued with myself, trying to decide on which language to choose: my native Finnish, or English, the subject of my studies. They say we can only express ourselves fully in our mother tongue (I sign that), but for someone who is desperately trying to reach a near-native level in English, practice does no harm.

So, for the moment it's going to be English. (Who says I have to be consistent, anyway?)

I'm eagerly waiting for pennies from heaven to buy my own digital camera, because I do think pictures enliven the text delightfully. Until that windfall, however, I will have to settle for writing in as descriptive language as I can - we all need goals, don't we?

I was never a diary-person, really, but I like writing down little things for my own amusement. It makes me good-humoured, even when I have to write something irritating and contrary: if I try to make unpleasant things sound amusing, they stop bothering me (at least most of the time). Very useful :)