Genealogy event

It's Friday. Thank heavens. I'm still at work. Waiting for an aswer to my e-mail.

I should go to my work collagues going away party but on the other hand I have a dog at home who waits to get out. Maybe I go there for few minutes and then hurry home. And this is, if this Mr Big Boss will do the replying - let's say in 10 minutes.

Tomorrow I shall have a nice day. I'm going to a genealogy event in Vantaa.

On Sunday I should finally put all the tulip onions etc in the ground.

Playing with the camera

I've been a sort of fed up with the fact that I have taken most of my photos abroad.
I have very little photos of Helsinki, the town I live. Today I decided to change this and took some photos all around where I walked today (which is little because I was mostly working).

And I played a little with my camera, took some photos about the details I saw. This photo on the right represents well the warm autumn weather we've been having here in Finland this week.
Sun is shining, paving is grey and the leaf is alone.

I've felt myself very busy this week, I've been running around some meetings and seminars and almost missed some dead lines. I'm glad that today is Friday and I can start to relax.

If this good weather continues I think we will go again to the forest to pick some mushrooms and this time we are going to take some of ours friends with us.

Santas arrived

I have been writing with my brother today with messenger. I asked him what he would like me to write to my blog and he asked me to tell about my birthday presents.
Well, to disappoint you, I'm not going to do that -
but if any of these female santas that visited me last weekend happens to read this I want to say a big - a huge thank you!!!!

OK, I can reveal something. My husband bought me a watch. Which was a very nice thing to do. My old one - I've seen too much of it...
This new one is nice, silver and gold coloured stainless steel.

About this messenger. It was the first time ever I used it. I was pleasently surprised. It seemed to be a rather handy way to communicate. I don't think people use it so much here in Finland as they do in U.S. My collegue at work told me that it seemed to be very popular especially among teens in USA when she was living in NY a couple of years ago. But then again, the SMS's aren't so extremely popular in the USA as they are here in Finland.

Birthday girl

My astrological chart

"When you are old and grey and full of sleep...." Right, it's my birthday. And I'm thinking about Paul Auster's interview which I saw on tv last weekend. This New York author was aswering to the question: "Are you lonely?"

And he said something which I feel is becoming so very true in my life as well: "People are never really alone, we all have all these memories of other people around us. Nowadays many of these people are dead. So I'm living among the ghosts all the time"

So, that's really what the ageing is about, accepting that you are only partly looking forward in life and most of the time you think about the past and the ghosts around you.

And because it's my birthday I put a picture of my natal chart here. I don't know so much about astrology - only that my sign of zodiac is Libra, ascendant is Sagittarius. Libra means that I have a communicative nature and I seek harmony. Sagittarius makes me extroverted, demonstrative and passionate. True or false, who knows...

Pictures on the wall

A future office, what will it look like? A couple of weeks ago some people that are in real estate business said that in future office you won't have your own room, not even your own desk.
You only have some desks to which you and all the other peole can dock. Perhaps that's possible in some professions.

I think they are forgetting what people are really like. We want to have our own territory. And we are like dogs or cats, we mark what it ours. Not by peeing all around, but by personifying our space.

Like me, I have my pictures and photos on the wall. My own tea cup on the desk. All these little things say: "This is me, this is mine!"

Examples of my pictures and photos:
- My family gathered down by the table in the garden
- My husband and my dog
- A comic strip that tells how much power the press has
- 4 photos taken during our trip in Sweden
- A photo of me, taken by my husband
- My dog sulking under the table (you know, just to make me quilty)
- An old photo of my grandmother's farm house from the beginning of the century (probably 1900-1905).
- Some invitations
- A photo of last Vappu (1st of May)

Curls or no curls?

I'm going to the hairdresser today. I should actually leave in 15 minutes or so. It's some new guy and I'm wondering what I should tell him to do.
Curls or no curls?

I used to have curls when I was 19 and 20. Perhaps my willingness to take curls has something to do with the wish of going back in time. Just once again, be young and have a future so totally open for you.

Well, I can't go back, I have to be what I'm now with straight hair and all.

Last Sunday we went with our dog to pick some mushrooms in Sipoo near Helsinki. We ended up to the shore of this beautiful forest lake Hältingträsk, which is situated near Östersundom. We found some trumbet-shaped chanterelles (suppilovahverot) and some rufou milk caps (kangasrouskut). I prefer chanterelles, because they are much easier to use than milk caps. Those milk caps you have to cook.

Our dog was truly enjoying himself. Weather was nice, warm and sunny, so it was quite perfect way of spending the Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday evening I went to see a movie called "The Crash" with my friends. I was a bit reluctant at first, because it's not the sort of film I usually like to see. But it was much better than I expected.

Lady in distress

Guess where this lady is!

More information about sculptures in Helsinki you can find here!

Visiting a manor house

I visited this Kotkaniemi manor house on Tuesday. House was built in 1836. It reminds me of the works of Carl Ludvig Engel, who designed the Cathedral of Helsinki and lot of other stuff. Apparently this house was designed by his apprentice.



All in all, this has been a busy week. Now I'm waiting for a relaxing weekend. I just hope I will get one.

Yle strikes

No half past eight o'clock news today. Finnish broadcasting company YLE's personnel is going to march out and they will be no sendings between 2 PM and midnight today. YLE plans to reduce its current work force of 3600 employees by more than 400 in the coming years.
I wonder what they are going to show in the TV today? Test card??? and radio? Well, we will find out pretty soon - after a minute or so.