Summer is here. Or at least it should be but the weather
doesn't really prove that. Right now it's raining and the temperature
is just around 10C. I took some pictures of Helsinki magazines today as
the weather kinda suited the depressed feeling of the torn-down
buildings. Here are the images, they are in black and white as I felt
that it is better somehow to express the feelings:
The burning of Porvoo Cathedral has also been solved as three
youngsters, two men and one woman, aged 18-20 years, confessed. One of
them has been arrested and two were let loose. If convicted he's going
to face 2-10 years sentence. They did it in a spur of a moment and were
naturally drunk.
The American army is in trouble again as it is suspected of brutally
murdering quite a few women and children in Iraq. I suppose there's no
way they could pull out without losing their face completely. Honour
has gone long ago.
I had a terrible week at work. Or busy, whatever but I was really
exhausted especially mentally yesterday evening. I suppose I'm getting
old but at least I haven't bitten anybody yet despite the desire to do
so. I just can't understand why everybody must do the same thing
exactly the same time despite the fact that there's no need to. There
are like million people moving right now so naturally some secretaries
deside that they want to have a through cleaning of their departments
at the same time and thus whining that they need roll containers and
paper disposal boxes preferably yesterday. Like I have a 100 just put
aside for them.
I went shopping today. I bought a foldable table with four little
chairs for our holiday trip. My bf already bought a new cold box as our
old one kinda died last year. I suppose there's not much to buy, except
food and something to drink. I suppose we can buy most of the stuff on
Saturday before we go to the boat in Turku. Of course there's still
three weeks to go before our holiday *sigh*.
Yesterday evening I went for a ride after the sauna. I kinda hoped to
take some nice night pictures but didn't really. Here's one though:
Tomorrow I really must do some organizing here again as I have really let it slip. There's stuff all around. I must also visit Teddy Bear Museum as they had a birthday this week but I couldn't make it as I was still at work when they closed it in the evening. I should also wash the balcony and maybe some laundry as well.
This is the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year...
so I suppose that part of the Bible is kinda in order. So far I haven't
heard any misdeeds done by Satan worshippers but the police is kinda
prepared for that today. For me this day has no special meaning at all
*S*. My closest contact with that number is Iron Maiden and their song
"The number of the beast". I think that record is still their best one
and I am in fact listening to it right now.
No, I didn't do much of organizing during the weekend. I got rid of
couple of bags in my foyer but that was about it. Today I finally got
the flowers on my balcony and washed the table set and cleaned the
floor. Tomorrow I must hoover my home again and do some shelf
organizing as my bf is coming to visit me during the weekend and I
don't want to look messy. We are going to visit wilderness fair and
maybe I can convince him to visit Korkeasaari with me as well. There
are two bear cubs now *blush*.
I have been transferring some of my old video tapes on DVD lately and
today I managed to finish converting Pertti Duncker's
Merivuokko-series. Too bad I have missed a part of one episode as tape
had run out. I read his books and stories in Vene-magazine when he
started his sailing journeys almost 30 years ago. Too bad he started
drinking again and almost lost his life during his around the world
tour. I still don't have three of his books and I am probably going to
buy them pretty soon. He has a way with words :).
I bought a spirit level for my camera yesterday. I suppose it helps to
keep the camera leveled while taking panoramas and regular scenery
shots as well. I also bought a new battery for my film camera as I
decided to take my film camera along on our holiday. I still have to
buy film and two sets of Manfrotto quick release plates for both
cameras and for my tripod and monopod. So holidays are expensive :). I
kinda considered quite hard to buy a second hand much better film
camera but in the end decided against it. It would have been too
expensive as I need the money for the trip. I can't deny I was tempted
though.
The weather hasn't been that great lately. It's cold right now as well
but at least we might have a bit better luck during the weekend.
I visited the Teddy Bear museum on Sunday as I planned. I gave Armi the
movie "The Bear" as a birthday present. Luckily she didn't have it.
It's about an orphan bear cub who joins with an older male (Bart) and
they avoid hunters together. I am proud of myself as I didn't buy any
bears even though there were quite a few very cute polar bears just
waiting for a new home.
Summer is truly here. It was almost 30C today and it's still
way over 20C. My home is way too hot for comfort and I'm going to a
shower pretty soon, maybe it's going to help a bit. I'm not complaining
though, it's been a long a cold winter.
My bf was here during the weekend. We did what I planned and naturally
bought something from the fair again, I bought clothing and he bought
two sets of tent poles. He also bought a sleeping mat. After the fair
we drove to Korkeasaari to see the sleeping bear cubs *sigh*. Okay, the
weather was a bit too hot for bears to be really active but
nevertheless I'd liked to see the cubs running around and doing stuff.
We got some bird pictures though and here's one:
After this we were a bit tired and returned home where I
managed to screw up our dinner. The rest of the evening was spent more
or less just relaxing and watching "Reinikainen". On Sunday we didn't
go anywhere. We did some measuring and adjusting in Vaavi though as we
tried to figure out how to pack it on our holiday trip. We found a good
way to get the stuff in and let us enough room for sleeping so we are
using nine big boxes on the bottom and two large wooden plates on top
of those. That way our stuff is at least partially covered while we are
away from the van and we just have to take small bags with us if we are
spending the night in a hotel. I suppose I'll have to collect the stuff
pretty soon as we are going to hit the road next week. I really really
need the holiday too.
I've been way busy lately at work. It's stressful trying to get
everything done in way too short time. Yesterday morning I had to come
up with approximately 25 roll containers for two removal men who were
emptying two storage rooms. The rest of the evening I spent driving the
stuff out of the building. Then today I spent almost the whole day
transporting network printers. After that I continued the job I started
yesterday and had a 10 hour day. Yea I know it isn't that long really
but as my work is quite physical it's tough anyway. At least I have
some kind of work, that's not something everyone can say nowadays.
At least 9 people died in Israeli air strike in Gaza, 7 of them were
civilians.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in Iraq by American air strike. He was
the most hunted terrorist in Iraq and leader of Iraqi al Qaeda.
Yesterday evening I though I finally faced my first Maxtor HD crash
when one of my HD's disappeared and started to make strange noise.
After all, I had four HD's installed permanently in this computer and
two more with removable cradle. Five of those six disks are Maxtors and
only one is Seagate. Or should I say was... yea, it wasn't Maxtor after
all but that only Seagate that died. I replaced it today with another
Seagate so I suppose that's the one to go next *S*. No harm done as
there was nothing important on that disk anyway. Anyway it's kinda
interesting that so many claim that Maxtor is a lousy brand and yet I
have had almost 40 Maxtor HD's and no failures so far, four Seagates
out of six total have died instead. Go figure.
I was lazy today. I left work at 16:00 and didn't do any
overtime. I was very busy again but as I checked the situation at 15:30
there was only six unfinished jobs for me so I decided to take a risk
and end the day. Some of those are quite time-consuming but who cares.
My job is never completely done anyway. I was lazy at home as well and
decided to wash the dishes with a dishwasher. Yesterday I took care of
two machineloads of laundry and did some other stuff as well so I
decided it was time to relax a bit. I have a dishwasher so why not use
it as well.
Summer is really here. We've had two very warm days, almost 30C. Here's
a picture from yesterday, I kinda like the colours.
For some reason I like strong colours and b&w
pictures. I haven't increased saturation in this one, just used
polariser filter. Today the weather was somewhat cooler, just around
20C but it was sunny nevertheless. I've been eating on my balcony for a
few days now. Today I noticed that there was someone else eating too
:). Not on my balcony but underneath. It really shows that I'm living
in the countryside.
Yea I know it's kinda small but I don't really have a longer
lens and besides it kinda shows the environment where this little
fellow lives. On our backyard...
I really must start collecting stuff for our holiday trip as well. So
far I have nothing ready, except the table and car fridge. I'm going to
visit my parents' summer place on the forthcoming weekend so no time to
do anything during that time. Then again we are leaving on Saturday
afternoon so there's whole Friday and Saturday morning available as
well.
A new, or rather very old rat species have been discovered in Laos. It
was thought to be extinct over 11 million years ago. Here's BBC news article about it.
US soldiers death toll in Iraq has passed 2500. Bush did a surprise
visit to Iraq this week in order to get more support back home. There's
election coming up and Republicans are having problems because of the
war in Iraq so they need all the help they can get.
Football world championships tournament is going on as well. I think
this is the last time the interval was four years. There's going to be
only two-year cap in the future as money is really speaking. Anyway,
Germany is my favourite, even though I don't really follow football, I
didn't even know a single German player any more *blush*. I used to
know the players like Beckenbauer, Völler, Rummenigge,
Klinsmann, Maier, Breitner, Vogts, Schumacher and Müller.
I am still not healed *sigh*. I have a weird body. I've been taking the
pills I was given but despite that just on Monday and Tuesday I had
terrible heartburns and then yesterday and today my throat was weird,
kinda like a lump inside or a lot of "slime" or stuff in it. Annoying.
This work-related stress isn't helping either, I'm so wound-up it's
unbelieveable. I've been assured that this mayhem is going to ease
pretty soon but I am so sure it won't. There's just too much work for
me right now.
It's still way hot. It's very difficult to get any sleep in
the night and even though you might catch an eyefull every now and then
you're not rested anyway. I "slept" 6,5 hours last night even though I
woke up quite a few time during the night. Despite this I was tired and
had a terrible head-ache when I had to get up. It's also a bit
difficult to be at work too as you are just sweating all the time even
when you're not actually doing much. Today when I got home I had a cool
shower but after a while the benefit has gone. I am already as sweaty
as I was before even though I am not wearing much. It's 32C inside
right now *Sigh*.
I visited my parents' summer place during the weekend. It was a bit
windy on Friday evening but the weather was wonderful on Sunday.
Saturday was okay, it was a bit windy as well though. We did some
serious work on Saturday as well as we took down a big tree that was
growing right next to the sauna threatening to fall on top of it. The
tree was badly bent towards the sauna so we decided it was time to try
to get it down. We had a long rope attached to a winch which I used to
pull the tree away from the sauna as it started to fall. I kept the the
rope tight all the time as my father was using the chainsaw. We managed
perfectly (it's quite rare) and the tree went down without any damage
to anything else. Here's the tree after we got it down:
In the afternoon we took the fishing nets out and despite the
strong wind we got 'em down okay, even though my father lost the other
end before he could fasten the marker in it. As the other end was
marked there was no problem though. It was nice to have a sauna in the
evening after a tough day physically.
The next morning we picked up the nets and got some fishes too. My
father gave the cuts to the seagulls and there was a short burst of
action as the birds fought for the fish parts :) :
The rest of the day was spent more or less resting and
relaxing. In the evening we got back to the mainland and I drove back
home where I arrived at 23:00 or so.
This week has been typical at work, busy. On Tuesday I left at 16
though as I had to pick up my car and drove it to Vallila. I washed and
hoovered it as I thought we are going on our holiday with my car as
there was a problem with Vaavi. I finally got home at 20:00 and had a
long cool shower. Then today I found out that Vaavi is going to be
alright after all as my bf got him in service today. How am I going to
explain this to Astra as she was expecting to get on the road this
summer. Oh well, Vaavi is better suited for two persons as a camper.
There's just one more work day before our holiday starts. I haven't
really started to pack yet but I suppose there's still time. I am going
to get something packed tomorrow and then the main day is going to be
Friday and maybe Saturday morning. We are leaving on Saturday afternoon
and our boat sails on in the evening. If the weather is fine in
Stockholm on Sunday we are probably spending some time in there as well
before heading towards Norway. I am really waiting for this holiday
after such a busy winter.
Here we are on the boat in our cabin. I got a big scare
yesterday
when my bf called and said that he had hurt his back and probably
cannot go on our holiday after all. I urged him to go to the doctor and
headed towards Jyväskylä myself in case he needed
help. He
had already seen a doc when I got there and he had had two pain relief
shots and a lot of pain killers to go and he was somewhat better. We
decided to wait until morning and when he was a bit better we decided
to go on after all.
So we left Jyväskylä in the morning and drove to
Nurmijärvi where we carried my stuff to the van and then left
at 3
pm or so. Our drive went uneventfully and we arrived to Turku at half
past six. We had a short walk and then got in and had a dinner at the
restaurant and did some shopping as well. Tomorrow we are probably
going spend some time in Stockholm before continuing towards Oslo. I
have been waiting for this holiday for a long time and the possibility
of not being able to go on a trip was a bit shocking.
Here we are in Oslo now. In the morning we headed to Gamla
Stan
(=Old Town) in Stockholm and walked around couple of hours and took
some pictures too. I have always liked the Old Town part as it's
interesting to me. I have always been interested in history and that's
plentiful in Stockholm's Old Town. We saw Kungliga Slottet, narrow old
streets, old churches, Riksdagshuset and Opera to name a few.
After our walk we headed towards Oslo. The drive was long and
uneventful. As my bf's back is still in bad condition and he had to
take some strong pills I drove again and almost fell asleep couple of
times *blush*. We got safely to Holmenkollen though and spent some time
there taking pictures and stuff like that. We went to the top of the
tower as well.After that we decided to go to a hotel after all and
picked one up. I typed the name in the navigator and it gave us
directions (quite useless sometimes so a map is essential despite all
this new technology). We took the room despite the price and here we
are now. We walked towards the city centre a bit and had a bite at
McDonalds. We transferred our pictures to our computers and I burned
them on CD's already.
Tomorrow we're going to have a walk in Oslo, at least in the city
centre and also Vigeland park. The forthcoming night must be spent in
the nature as sleeping in the hotels would be way too expensive.
An update of our holiday tour so far. I haven't been able to
do
anyupdates because we have slept in the car and burning our pictures on
CD's have been our highest priority. We are in the woods still but I
decided to do a brief update anyway.
On Monday we spent some time in Oslo. First we went to Vigeland park
where we spent an hour and a half taking pictures of the strange
statues and enjoying the weather. After that we drove to the city
centre and had a three-hour walking tour seeing the Royal Palace,
National Theatre, The City Hall, The Cathedral, Stortinget (=The
Parliament) and Oslo University. After our walk we headed South to
Slemmestad, Åros and Drammen, where we turned West and drove
to
Heddal to see the biggest Stavkirke of Norway. After that we continued
along E134 and finally found a place to sleep after Åse.
The next we hit the road at 8:30 or so without breakfast as the sky
looked very threatening. It soon started to rain and it continued
almost the entire day with just short breaks. We used one to have some
kind of breakfast around 11. We took road 41 from Brunkeberg and had a
short detour on 38 in Stean but returned to 41. We drove to
Kristiansand where we kinda planned to go to the zoo but when there was
a 30-krone charge for just parking we decided to skip it and continued
on E39 Westwards instead. From Lyngdal we took 43 and followed the
coastline to Liknes where we returned on E39 for a while. In
Flekkefjord we took 44 along the coastline again and continued on that
until we stopped for the night near Stapnes.
This was our best camping location so far, covered from the road and
peaceful and the ground was firm. We slept much better than last night.
Anyway, we continued along 44 to Hå area where we took 507
along
the coastline again. It turned into 510 but we rolled on towards
Stavanger where we arrived around 10. In Stavanger we had a semi-long
walk in the Old Town before trying to find a hotel. We weren't
successful though and finally decided to have another walk in the newer
part of the town before continuing towards Preikestolen. We found an
acceptable site for our camp near Fossmork along a small local road. We
are continuing to Preikestole tomorrow morning and we are going to
climb there. After that we are going to head towards Bergen where we
hope to arrive tomorrow evening and find a hotel as well. After three
nights in a van one really is looking for a shower.
So far we haven't had any big problems. Our new box system is sometimes
backfiring on us and we left some stuff home accidentally but nothing
we cannot replace. In fact we bought two pillows today *S*. I hope the
weather is getting warmer soon and no rain during the rest of our
holiday please.
We are in Bergen now. We had to book ourselves in Scandic City
hotel as all the cheaper ones were either already booked out or looked
too suspicious. On Thursday morning we drove to Preikestolen after a
miserable night. I didn't sleep much and thus didn't my bf either.
Despite the lack of sleep we continued according to our plan and
started our climb to a beautiful land formation, Preikestolen. We were
soon sweating a lot but we reached the top without problems. The views
were truly breathtaking and here's one picture showing the actual clip
hovering over nothing offering more than 600 meters of free fall.
After we got down from the mountain we started our journey
towards Bergen taking the scenic route thus spending much more time on
the road that locals would do. As my bf hurt his back right before our
trip I have been driving almost all the time. I have nothing against
this but I am sure he must be terrified :). Anyway, we tried to find a
hotel on our way but all were closed so we already settled our mind to
find a suitable location to park our van and sleep in it one more night
in the row as we came to Odda and saw a hotel which was open. We took
the room even though there were no internet connection nor even tv.
There was a comfy bed and a shower and that was the most important
thing right then. We copied our pictures on our computers and burned
those as well before falling asleep. I dropped instantly and slept over
8 hours.
This morning we continued our drive towards Bergen and stopped for a
breakfast after a while when we finally found a rest area beside the
road. After that we followed a bit smaller roads taking our time to
take pictures too. We saw some spectacular fjord scenes and some nice
falls as well, here's a picture of one, Steinsdalsfossen:
We arrived to Bergen sometime after 16:00. I must say that this is absolutely the worst city I've ever been when watching it from a driver's point of view. It looks like the main principal in the city planning is to make private car using as difficult and expensive as possible. Lots of one-way streets blocking entire areas and even though there is parking space available, there are no meters to pay the time. Idiotic! Otherwise the city looks pretty nice and colourful and we are going to spend tomorrow morning just walking around and enjoying the scenes. I hope the weather is going to stay nice tomorrow too.
