Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everybody =)

Toilet renovation

Today we started renovating our toilet. We have a separate bathroom and a toilet. Picture this: a mustard yellow wash basin and toilet chair, dark brown plastic floor, pine panel on the lower half of the wall and in the ceiling, an orange radiator and luckily the tiles on the upper half of the wall are new and in an acceptable colour.

We started by removing the wash basin, we have already bought a new one in white and a new tap. We then painted the pine panel (it was worn down) on the wall and the radiator with a white primer. The idea was too keep the toilet chair but it doesn’t look good with white pine panel so that have to go to. Tomorrow we’ll put on a second layer of paint.

1 out of 5

This is my first night shift out of five...

Foolproof

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
-Douglas Adams

We had a white Boxing Day

It was nice to wake up this morning (Boxing Day) to a snowfall. The landscape was covered in snow. It was beautiful. Unfortunately the snow turned into rain and what’s left of the white landscape is slush. Well at least the weather is warm.

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve went according to plans. We spent the evening with my parents-in-law and my mom. The food was good, we had coffee at our place and Christmas gifts where delivered. My mom was in a good mood so I think she likes spending Christmas away from home although she probably won’t admit it.

My father in law gave everyone (who got a car) a pair of Hobi Ultrasonic Animal Alerts. I tried them before with an old car of mine and they work well for what they are intended for. However, people with sensitive ears might hear the ultrasonic noise and they’ve got a range of 400 meters. Well our cars needs to be washed before I put them on.

Today I’m doing another mornings shift, it’ my second out of four. After my shift end we’ll have Christmas dinner at my aunt’s place. I have gained 3 kilograms this month and I think I’ll gain another one before this year is over =).

Mom's Christmas

I admit that my mom can be a difficult person to get along with. But this year we didn’t take no for an answer ;-). First there where some excuses about not being able to leave the cats home alone and that she feel more comfortable at home. The cats can handle 30 hours alone and she would feel lonely and miserable at home and we would hear about it a along time afterwards. She often feels lonely and she needs to get out more often but when she gets the opportunity she usually turns it down.

So in an hour Nina will pick her up and we’ll meet later after my works ends for the day at Nina’s parents: there we will have Christmas dinner. Then we’ll have a coffee at our place and she will sleep over at my aunt’s apartment. I’m working tomorrow also so I think my aunt is taking mom to see my uncle new house and then we will all have another Christmas dinner at my aunt’s apartment. After that I can drive home mom and she doesn’t have to worry about the cats. She’ll be away from home about 30 hours.

Next year I’ll think we’ll run away instead…

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone =)

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Well the weather is nice; the temperature is around 3-5 C. No snow to be seen and the ice sheet on the sea has melted. A warm wind is blowing. The lawns are green. Sounds nice, right?

Well it’s almost Christmas and I live in Finland. Some years the snow comes in mid-October. Not this year. And the weather forecast shows warm weather all December. I don’t know if it’s global warming or what it is but this is not a Finnish winter. This is the kind of winters they have in Middle Europe.

I would like a white Christmas but at least the weather is fine.

Lättfotad

Igår införskaffades en julgran från Euromarkets parkering och den kläddes på efter jag kommit hem från kvällskiftet. Det uppstod dock ett lite tproblem när den var påklädd, den vinkade nämligen. Som tur var stod jag bredvid när de hände så de enda som hände var att lite vatten rann ur foten.

Orsakerna till detta var flera. Julgranen var något ojämn så den sida som var platt placerades mot väggen. De mesta av juldekorationerna hamnade på den sida som var ut mot rummet, inte emot vägen. Man vill ju gärna se dekorationerna nämligen. Granen var också en aning snedväxt så för att huvuddelen av den skulle vara rak kom den del av stammen som gick ner i foten placerades snett ut mot rummet, dvs samma sida där huvuddelen av dekorationerna och kvistarna befann sig.

Men de största problemet var att granen var lättfotad. Julgransfoten var i plast och en flat rätt bred botten där bottnen av granstammen stod. Hela foten var inte bred. Detta gjorde att ifall granen vägde ojämnt så hamnade granstammbottnen rätt lätt på glid och när den väl gjorde det så var hela foten för smal för att hållas på mattan. Så idag har jag hämtat en julgransfot i gjutjärn från Pörtom. Den har koniskt botten där stammen står så dels hålls stammen på plats och så mycket den väger så lär de inte va nån skillnad om granen är i balans eller inte.

För tillfället står granen lutad mot väggen för att hålla den i balans och upprätt. De finns också hundgaller runt den. Inte för att hundarna som är hemma hoppar på granen men halmbocken som står bredvid kan va tuggbar.

Christmas tree

We bought a Christmas tree for 30 €. It’s not stolen and it’s not plastic. It’s a spruce and it’s still in the garage. I’m doing the evening shift and Nina went to work rather late so she’ll be there all evening. So when we get home we’ll take in the Christmas tree and decorate it. One odd detail is that we will put a puppy fence around it. Some of our dogs think you can eat Christmas tree decorations, some think Christmas tree decorations are toys, some of them will want to investigate the whole tree, all the way to the top and some will urinate on it, you do that with trees outside so why not inside. So it will be fenced....

Mjukistjur II

Så nu har dom utfört en rättelse på skylten för mjukistjur. Under Mjukistjur fanns nämligen uppräknat vad dom har för mjukistjur, nämligen: björnar, hundar, hästar. Så nu har dom strukit över björnar och hundar. Idag köpte vi en björn och en hund åt våra riktiga hundar.

Fullt så illa som ovanstående stycke lät var det dock inte. Förra gången vi inspekterade deras mjukistjur så fanns de bara hästar kvar så dom har helt enkelt strukit över de mjukistjur som inte fanns längre, på finska delen av skylten också. Sen fick dom in björnar och hundar i lagret igen. Nån borde göra en ny skylt...

Hundvänlig?

Vi har ju byggt ett hundstaket på vår gård. 500 m2 gräsmatta buskar och träd. Man bara släpper ut hundrana när dom vill ut och släpper in dom när dom vill in, enkelt eller?

Problemet är att dom är mycket revirbenägna. De tar sig uttryck i att dom skäller åt allt som dom ser och hör dvs grannar, folk med eller utan hundar som går förbi, hundar som skäller på långt avstånd, okända ljud osv.

Så man börjar ju undra när grannarna ska klaga. Cavaliererna skäller nog i ett fall men han som skäller mest är inte så högljudd. Däremot är Ella väldigt högljudd så man kan ju undra hur långt hon hörs.

Vi brukar försöka kalla in dom när dom börjar skälla. Ibland fungerar det ibland inte. Återstår att se ifall grannarna faktiskt gillar våra hundar eller inte...

Dog friendly?

I wonder if our neighbours like our dogs. When be bought our house we wanted a big yard. So we found a house on 1500 m2 lot. There was already a fence around it so we built a fence in the same style on the yard. We enclosed about a 500 m2 area for the dogs. So all we have to do now is open the door and let the dogs out whenever they want to go out. They like, we like but I’m not so sure that the neighbours do.

Two of our dogs are very territorial. They bark at neighbours, people and/or dogs going by (it’s a heavy trafficked road), strange sounds and dogs barking in the distance. Generally anything they can see or hear. This is their territory. We usually try to call them in when they start barking, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

I wonder what the neighbours think of this. The male Cavalier King Charles Spaniel doesn’t bark loudly but the Hound/Labrador mix do. She can really bark. Well so far no complaints…

Försäkringsbolaget har stängt för dagen

Jag har haft några bilar och döm om min förvåning då jag hittade en föräkringsräkning i posten på min förrförrförra bil. Den som jag FÖRDE ÖVER FÖRSÄKRINGEN FRÅN TILL min förrförra bil och lämnade in skyltarna i November 2003, den har sen dess sålts som skrot och bränts upp . Efter en genomgång av pappren så konstaterade jag att JAG BETALAT FÖRSÄKRINGEN PÅ EN SKROTAD BIL I 4 ÅR.

En annan sak är att jag haft de på direktdebitering, från min mammas konto, jag har därför försökt ta bort de några gånger men dom har lagt de tillbaka då jag bytt bil. Direktdebiteringen har också gjort att jag nu inte kollat desto närmare på vad för registernummer de står i försäkringsbrevena. Samt med min förra bil envisades dom med att jag bodde i Pörtom och att de stod de i bilregistret att jag bodde i Pörtom. A) Min officiella adress var i Vasa medan Pörtom var en parallell-adress. B ) Jag uppgav min adress till Vasa när jag hämtade registerboken på besiktningskontoret. C) De stod Vasa i registerboken(På besiktningskontoret trodde dom tydligen på mig, kan ha nåt att göra med att de var min officiella adress). D) När jag överförde försäkringen på mitt försäkringsbolags kontor skrev jag ner min enda officiella adress i Vasa.

Dom ringde senare från försäkringsbolaget om undrade om jag hade nån i Pörtom som kunde ta emot räkningarna för dit skulle dom skicka räkningarna eftersom dom kunde bara skicka räkningarna till adressen bilen var registrerad på enligt dom. Vilket den inte var och de var heller inte min officiella adress

Så på måndag ska jag diskutera ett och annat med ett visst försäkringsbolag, de blir troligen byte av sådant.

Amanda eller Marie

Ikväll var de då Idols-final. Jag har lite svårt att bestämma mig vem jag tycker ska vinna.

Amanda är en artist. En personlighet och en artist som står ut. Superblonderat hår på en spröd och gänglig varelse. Hon har en personlig röst som sticker ut och hon lever verkligen in i låtarna då hon sjunger dom. Hon är den som troligen har störst chans att ha en karriär efter att nästa Idols-säsong gått eller så blir de platt fall. Vad som stör är att hennes personliga röst varken kan hålla ton eller sjunga rent. De är en resa från lågmälda toner så man knappt hör vad hon sjunger till ett raspande skrik. Jag tror hon vinner men de är inte för hennes vackra sång(hon sjunger falskt!!!) utan för att hon är Amanda.

Marie är en sångerska. Den fd Big Brother deltagaren som satsade på sången och visade sig vara jävligt bra på det. En kurvig blondin med en klockren röst. Hon kan utan problem sjunga vilken Whitney Houston eller Celine Dion-låt som helst och är bra på det. Jag kan inte riktigt se henne gör internationell karriär för tyvärr finns de kvinnor med klockrena röster 13 på dussinet utanför Sverige. Men hon kommer utan tvekan att kunna livnära sig på musiken för sjunga kan hon.

Independence Day

Today is Finland’s 90th Independence Day. It’s not exactly celebrated with fireworks and carnivals. It’s more of silent day in reverence to those who sacrificed their lives so we could be a country of our own. Mother Russia which we used to be a part of has never looked favourably upon loosing territory. So it all came down to who was prepared to pay the higher price in blood, sweat and tears. Yes I know we Finns take ourselves way too serious sometimes and this is the most serious day in Finland of the year.

So it’s a suitable weather for today. It’s dark and rainy. On the bright side the weather is really warm. Around 6-7 C so most of the snow is gone and the same goes for the ice sheet on the sea. Since the fortune tellers that call themselves meteorologists have predicted the same weather all day long I think there will be no snow or ice left tonight. The winter is beautiful but warm weather is nice too.

The reason I’m up this early on a day no one is working is that I’m working =). I’m doing my third morning shift out of four and waiting for the sunrise…

Vinterväder

Tja en sak kan sägas om Finlands 90:nde självständighetsdag, de är inte vinter. De har regnat hela natten, de fortsätter regna och temperaturen är runt +6 C. Inte mycket snö kvar och kan inte tro att de är mycket kvar av isen heller när de blir ljust eftersom de blåser också. Jag är på mitt tredje morgonskift av fyra, så en sådan morgon...

Kupévärmare

Jag har aldrig haft en kupévärmare förr eller jo. Jag köpte en på rea 2001, den var billig och jag tänkte installera eluttag inne i kupén. de blev liksom aldrig av och de två följande bilarna hade heller inte eluttag och jag tänkte installera såna men de blev heller aldrig av.

Nåja bilen jag köpte i våras så hade eluttag för kupévärmare så när vintern kom så installerade jag kupévärmaren. Jag kan bara säga en sak, bättre uppfinning finns inte. Man drar bara ur stöpseln ur bilen på morgonen om man sätter sig i en varm bil utan is på rutorna och startar utan problem med en halvvarm motor med ett bitande kallt vinterlandskap utanför =).

Jul i vår trädgård

Julbelysningen i trädgården tar sig, vi har bara kastat bort två ljusserier och måste köpa en till. Dessutom har vi en fungerande ljusserie utan lämplig transformator. De är den de ska köpas ljusserie med transformator till. Hursomhelst finns de en ljusslang ute och en fungerande ljusserier på verandan. Den senare är inte uppsatt, eller är istöpslad, jag väntar tills de blir dagsljus.

Inser att de inte var speciellt mycket men vi har åtminstone läget under kontroll...

The Ghost That Haunted Itself

When we where in Edinburgh we took a ghost tour called City of the Dead. I was done in the late evening and we truly enjoyed it. The guide was very entertaining and we where both scared and entertained which we paid for. We didn’t see any ghost or experienced any poltergeist phenomena although the guy on the tour that was a psychic didn’t look like he was feeling that well. I would recommend it for people visiting Edinburgh, as long as they are aware of the risks and there is few more risks than the commercial leaflets and paper adds suggests. Reading their homepage might be a good idea before. There is a warning in the ads that claims that “The Mackenzie Poltergeist can cause genuine physical and mental distress. You join the tour at your own risk!”

I read their homepage when I got home and it raised some concern. This is most well documented supernatural case in history. The reason for that is that they have been running these ghost tours 2-3 times every night since 1999 and the Mackenzie Poltergeist as the entity/entities is/are called is/are VERY active. The ideas of the tours are two as I have understood it. The first one is that if you bring in groups of people all the time they will se the haunting happening and that means that they will give witness reports that will document the case even further. The second one is that and I hope this is a gimmick to attract more people to the tour is that by bringing scared people in there to feed the entity who lives on peoples fear and thereby groves stronger so they can see what it does then. This is my main concern because this is not exactly a guardian angle that they are feeding. It’s a parapsychological experiment that could go wrong

The entity is question are actually hurting people and the worst thing that is have done is not written in the ads because it might scare people away from the tours, that’s just on their homepage. It’s not that bad as it sounds, on most tours absolutely nothing happens. The ads are filled with witness reports about the scary thing that have happened, not the really frightening ones.

So what happens on the tour that go bump in the night? Well so far 197 people have fainted, been knocked out, struck to the ground, gone down to their knees, puked, starting crying uncontrollably, possessed, invisible walls, hair pulled, choked and being temporarily paralyzed. The leaflet called it being knocked out without going into details. We also got the classical cold and hot spots. An investigative time recorded a temperature raise in the Black Mausoleum (the centre point of the haunting) of 20-25 Celsius degrees or as they put it, they where standing in a stone mausoleum in a night in April in Scotland and it suddenly became +35 C as a hot summer’s day. Cloaked figures moving around and disappearing, light phenomena, things falling to the ground from trees or buildings on and around the cemetery and not finding anything on the ground. People visiting the ghost tour get scrape marks, burn marks and bruises. Photographs taken on the scene might reveal light orbs, shadow figures, faces, demon heads, mysterious fogs and ectoplasm.

The leaflet also mentioned that exorcism rituals have been performed but failed. The guides also mentioned that none has been killed or badly hurt on the tours so they are perfectly safe. Now this is where the commercial ends at it really become frightening. One the people that tried to perform an exorcism died a weak later in a heart attack. The guy (a historian) that invented the tours had a house the overlooked the cemetery but it burned down and with that all the research material he had on the Mackenzie Poltergeist. He now lives elsewhere, I wonder why ;-).One guy that was knocked out inside the Black Mausoleum had to be dragged out by the tour group because an invisible force was pulling from inside the mausoleum, trying to keep him there. People had the entities follow them to their hotel rooms and wake them up in the middle of the night with a strong sensation of being watched. A few people have fainted on Parliament Square on the beginning of the tour, still being hundreds of meters from the cemetery and not yet visited it. A few visitors have brought these entities home and they do not leave, haunting them and the people around them. One guy who brought an entity home had also bought a book about the haunting “The Ghost That Haunted Itself”, a book that can be found in every tourist shop in Edinburgh for a few pounds. He didn’t want the book at home and when he told his mother about the experience she wanted to read the book. Well she got scratch marks on the same spot on her neck that her son had after receiving the book. The temporary paralyzes I mentioned usually lasts for a few seconds up to a minute. Well a woman found herself being unable to move the next morning and had to stay a week in the hospital. There are also a lot of dead birds and animals found on the prison part of the cemetery.

I guess that most people wouldn’t leave for ghost tour that stated: “Well we got one or a few malevolent entity/entities at this graveyard that we are trying to feed with your fears to make it/them stronger so we can see what it’s/they’re really capable of. We really don’t know what they are, the likeliest suggestion are elemental spirits although some psychics who have been here claims that there are demons present. They might be ghosts, poltergeists or some or all of the entities mentioned. What we do know is that there are many of them and that they are strong and active. We will look you in a haunted prison inside a locked haunted graveyard. If you are attacked it will likely knock you out or otherwise be uncomfortable and you might get injuries that usually disappear within the next few days, up to a few weeks. However since the entities possibly demons are not constricted to this cemetery although it’s their centre point of activity they have a tendency to follow you home to your hotel rooms and wake you up as they are watching you and you will know that they do. Some may stay for a few days and cause a few sleepless night. In a few causes they never leave, like a puppy that follows you around wherever you go but this entity is not cute or seeking your love, it’s possible that they will haunt you and everyone around you for the rest of your life. It’s even possible to become haunted just having a book about this haunting in your possession. No one has died on the tour yet but an exorcist died a week after his exorcism ritual here. But as it grows stronger thanks to your fear we will never know what it can do because a lot of animals and birds that enters this part of the cemetery are found dead.”

Probably wouldn’t be so popular then. But I guess people go on these tours for the same reason people go sky diving or do martial arts. It’s exiting, you might get injuries or even die but the adrenalin rush is worth it. So far it seams like a relatively safe tour but how strong will the Mackenzie Poltergeist be in 5 years from now or 10?

One thing happened that I’m not entirely sure of if it really did. It might very well be a constructed memory caused by my imagination running wild. I remember thinking something like “What if we see shadows on the graveyard.” So it might be my imagination and not having a photographic memory that caused this “memory”. I remember seeing a shadow figure kneeling in front of a grave. One knee on the ground and having the other foot placed on the ground knelling towards the grave. That’s a natural thing that people do in grave yards, mourn the dead. So I thought nothing of it and turned my attention towards the guide again. Until it occurred to my later, it’s a locked haunted graveyard in the middle of the night.

This is the stuff of nightmares and horror movies and it’s not even made up…

Färgblind

Jag undrar om de är så bra ide att ha den här texten grön eftersom jag tänkte använda röd som markerad färg, hur ser de ut för nån som är färgblind?

Confused?

Well Blogspot is in my mind the best blogging tool around and too many blogs are confusing so if you read something in foreign language it's probably Swedish or Finnish. I'm writing everything here =).

To make thing easier my posts in English will be in this blue color. My posts in Swedish will look like this. And the Finnish readers can expect something like this.

På svenska

För att göra en kort historia lång eller hur de nu var så går mina bloggar på svenska och finska inte så bra. Främst pga av sidorna jag skriver dom på är något primitiva. Visst man kan skriva en blogg men de var då ungefär allt. Samt att hänga på en massa sidor för att skriva dittan och dattan här och där är inte kul, de är stressande. Så jag har länkat hit från dom. Testade ett tag med tre olika bloggar här men var och en måste ha en egen blogg-adress och dom blev invecklade. Så nu kör jag med en blogg och skriver på tre språk, kul va =)

Home sweet home

Well I’m back from Edinburgh and back at work. I’m doing my second evening shift out of four.

Some notifications about some differences between Scotland and Finland. In Scotland the play background music in the pubs. Soft pop that creates a nice feeling and the volume is set to a level where you can actually speak to each other with normal speech level. In Finland you got a bit heavier music that is played so loud that you have to scream/spit in someone’s ear for them in order to hear you. When you are tired of screaming “WHAT???!!!” and spit on you just answer without having any idea what the other person is talking about.

-“Did you hear about the guy that got robbed last weekend?”
-“What?”
-“Did you hear about the guy that got robbed last weekend!!?”
-“I don’t thin they got food here”
-“What?”
-“I don’t think they got food here!!!”
-“You got robbed???”
-“What?”
-“You got robbed???!!!”
-“Well I think it’s too early for MacDonald’s”

The other thing is the hearty breakfasts and the pub food in Scotland. I gained 2 kilograms in 6 days.

Well back to work.

Next stop Edinburgh

I’m doing my last night shift and we leave for Helsinki-Vantaa Airport tomorrow morning. And sometimes tomorrow evening we will arrive in Edinburgh for 6 days of vacation. I’ve never been in the UK before and since Nina had been in London before the choice for a city (extended) weekend in the UK was Edinburgh. Yes Vaasa has an airport but the prices for changing domestic flights to international in Helsinki are ridiculously high. So it’s much much cheaper to drive down to Helsinki and fly via Frankfurt to Edinburgh.

What will we do there? I have really no idea. We’ve been busy unpacking at the house last month so we haven’t had to time to make any big travel plans. Well they got a big castle, whisky, history and we’ll see the rest =).

1 out of 4

This is my first night shift out of four. After that we are going to Edinburgh for six days =).

Waiting for the snow

I’m waiting for the snow. Yes it has fallen some snow but it has all melted or rained away. What I want is snow that stays. That Christmas picture snowfall that truly looks like it’s winter. Grey days with wet snow that melts away it’s to much fall. I want the season to change into winter =).

1 out of 4

I’m back at work doing my first evening shift out of four. During my six days of I/we have been busy moving in and unpacking. We have only one room left and the garage to set in order. So it’s a liveable place. We’ve found the charger to Nina’s camera and we never lost the camera so those hoping for pictures I give hope =).

Pictures

I have now figured out how my broken camera works. When I take a picture it focuses on the closest thing within the picture frame. Lets say I'm taking a picture of a person. Well the person stands on a floor. So the camera focuses on the floor that is in front of the person and in the lowest part of the picture frame. The person in the picture becomes blurry. This means I can take pictures with my camera, but there can't be ANYTHING inside the picture frame between the camera and the object which I'm picturing.

Different shades of grey

This is a piece of writing I've been thinking about writing for a while but I haven't gotten around to it until now. So here it goes.

Many people see the world in black or white, good or evil, winners or losers and so on. I don't, in my view it's all different shades of grey. I believe everything happens for a reason, there's an explanation to everything and if there is none then no explanation has been given or you do not understand the explanation.

Why people choose to see the world in black or white may have different reasons. Some see it as an easier way to view life; it gets too complex to get down to every detail. Some may truly believe that there is nothing in between good and evil; I call this the fanatic approach. In my understanding these people keep a sort of score list. If you do this you are good and their best friend, but if you do that then you are suddenly on the bad guys list and are avoided like the plague. That's what scares me; they don't se life as it is, instead the put people and things in two boxes. And they don't see the flaws of the things and people in "the good box" or the good qualities in "the evil box".

In my view there is nothing evil that doesn't bring a bit of good and vice versa and everything in there between. One of the more interesting things I've read is a comparison of two unknown people and you are being given their qualities and asked which person you would hire for an important job. The first one doesn't drink or smoke. He's a vegetarian, somewhat of a workaholic and loves dogs. The second one drinks large quantities of whiskey every day and it starts at breakfast. Well most of us would hire the first one but it's then revealed that the first one is Adolf Hitler who tried to bring evil into this world and the second person is Winston Churchill who stopped him.

People do what they do for different reasons. But what remains the same even among insane people is the sense of reasoning. It's the sense of perception that has been altered. Either they are born like that or some significant event has made them see reality in an altered way. Difficult people, racists, killers and crazy people have all a different degree of altered perception of the world. There is no excuse for the evil things they do but there is a reason that can be understood, even insanity. If you saw how the world was being taken over by demons that where out to get you what would you do? You would probably try to kill the demons. Now we "normal" people now that this isn't happening but that is how an insane person see the world and reacts to it. The same way we normal people would react if we saw the world in the same way they do. The sense of reasoning is always intact and everything can be explained trough it.

And then we have the "Mother Theresa"-type of people. They dedicate their lives to do good. I would bet a lot on that some of them do all that good for the fame and glory instead of the kindness of their good hearts. I believe that there are people out there with truly good hearts but not all that look and sound like ducks are actually ducks. There is always going to be a few flaws in the personalities of good people, even among saints.

So my conclusion is, there are no black and white, only different shades of grey. So try to see the world as it is, not what you think it is…

2 out of 4

I’m doing my 2^nd evening shift out of 4. It’s a cold misty fall day. All grey and wet. But I like it somehow. It’s a sign of changing seasons, moving from fall to winter. The world feel silent ant that holds a beauty of its own.

We where to a dog show in Seinäjoki before I went to work. We brought three dogs and although we didn’t bring home ant prize bowls all three dogs did well. One ended second in her class so it was a good show day. At first when we started going to dog shows I didn’t think that they where that exciting. But I have begun to like them more and more. Well that might have something to do with the fact that our dogs have started getting better results. It’s more exiting when there is actually a bit of competition.

But it’s also a social event. You get up early in the morning and you drive halfway across the country (well Seinäjoki is only 80 kilometres away) and meet all these people (and dogs) with the same interest. And our dogs get to meet a lot of other dogs so it’s exciting for them too…

Last night shift

I got my last night shift before 10 days off...

2 out of 4

I'm doing my 2^nd night shift out of 4. It's a rainy night; I suppose it will be a calm night. Tomorrow if it's not raining we will build the last part of the dog fence, well the wooden part. All I got to do after is install the wire fence underneath the wooden part towards the road. After that we can let the dogs run on the yard.

I should also visit my mom this week; I didn't have time last week. I worked the morning shift Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday to Friday we where on a course from work. Yesterday we where to a dog show in Oulunsalo and one of our dogs won her class =). Today was busy day to with picking up one of our dogs from my girlfriend's parents. One of the dogs that we brought to the dog show is placed on breeding terms and "her family" picked her up. We also did some unpacking at the house.

I'm also going to help my aunt's husband with some electrical work, he finally got electrical power to his summer cottage and we are going to hang up the cable on poles.

After my night shifts ends I got 10 days off =).

Building a dog fence

I got my first evening shift now but before we got around to building a dog fence. It’s in the same style as the one that goes around the lot. We’ll continue tomorrow…

10 days

My 10 days off are over. I'm back at work...

Sunday morning

Sorry for the late update but we got the keys to the house on Monday and we are moving stuff and doing some renovating =)

2 out of 4

It's my second night shift out of four...

English as a third language

Tuesday evening I began attending a course in Finnish. It’s simply named “Intermediate Finnish”, It’s for people that now some Finnish but want/need to improve it. About 25 people had shown up. About half are Finland-Swedes, ¼ are Russians, a woman from Ukraine, a guy from Africa and a couple of Finns that have lived abroad the last decade or longer and an Englishman. Since we only speak Finnish at the course he also could be American since I can’t hear his English accent.

We where asked to present ourselves in Finnish and tell a little bit about what and why where/we need to improve our Finnish skills. Almost everyone needed it for either work or their social life. Me, it’s a bit of both. Except for the Englisman. He stated (in Finnish) “I really don’t need Finnish to live here but I think it would be nice to know.” As a Finland-Swede I would never make that statement, I know some who would but you get the sense that they been living under a rock all their life and are quite happy to die there too. It can be difficult to live one’s life in Swedish in Finland but it has worked well for me the last 32 years. But I do see the need of Finnish.

However this guy’s native language is English and his statement the he doesn’t need Finnish made me think about it. He’s probably right; most Finns know some level of English, some perfect, some just a few words, but it’s a world language the Finns have adapted. English is The World Language. So I think he’s doing better than many Finland-Swedes in using his native tongue.

So with that in mind I think that it might be a good to introduce English as a third official language in Finland. It’s a language that most people know, it’s used as the only official language in many work-places, the University world are practically using it as it’s official language, people have a positive attitude towards English, it’s easy to learn, it’s probably the largest common language that different language groups in Finland have.

I don’t want to abandon Swedish or Finnish culture, I’m just saying that a common language would be nice =).

Another Monday morning

It’s another Monday morning and I started working 7.00. It’s actually my last morning shift out of four. Tomorrow I got the day of and I think I will visit my mom. If it’s not raining I will mow her lawn. Hopefully it’s the last time this year. As we get further into the fall it becomes colder and it’s soon cold enough for the grass to stop growing.

My four night shifts start on Wednesday. That basically means that I got Wednesday off to since my night shift starts at 22.00. But we got out weekly X3M lunch around noon so I really can’t go anywhere that day.

After that I got 10 days of and since we are moving around 1^st October I’ll spend those days packing. We got two apartments to clear out and that takes some time to do.

The Last King of Scotland

Last night was movie night. We went to the video rental store and hired two movies and bought some ice cream. The first movie which we saw last night was “The Last King of Scotland”. Well the only Scottish about the movie was the fictional character of Dr Garrigan. Well he is loosely based on real person taking elements from a few others in Uganda at that time.

The movie is about Uganda’s late dictator Idi Amin. I’ve seen a few movies lately about dictators, kings and emperors and they seem to have one thing in common. They start out full of ideals and ideas on how to improve things. But absolute power is absolutely corrupt. They can’t handle being in full control and soon real enemies and mostly imaginary enemies start dying but the thousands, in some cases millions. Amin was no exception to this rule. How many 100 000s of people he killed is unclear but it shows that no one should have absolute power.

The other movie, well Nina is going to see that today while I’m at work. I really didn’t remember the name of it but I think Brad Pitt was in it…

Possibilities and limitations

I think there are differences between being young and old, especially in the mind. When you are young you know it all but as time passes on you begin to understand things and you start to realize that the more you understand the less you know. You move from being an arrogant know-it-all to someone who has a more humble to approach to life. This is a good change.

However not all changes are good. When you are young the world is yours. You can do anything, become anything. Your world has endless possibilities and no limitations. But life, destiny, the will of God or whatever you call it might have other plans for you. It can be cruel beyond words or compassionate beyond understanding.

But since we live in a world of good and evil you will meet both of them. One of them can bring you infinite bliss while the other will trip you over and then start kicking on you as you lie there. As you rise again it can do the same thing to you again and again. Few people have such bad luck so there is usually a time of happiness between the times they fall down.

But each time you fall it hurts and each time it becomes harder and takes longer to rise up again. So at some points you start seeing the limitations rather than the possibilities. You stop reaching for the stars because you know it hurts when you fall. You start seeing what can’t be done rather than what could be done so that you will never fall again. But by doing that you also stop living, you start existing. If you do not reach for the stars you will never reach them.

It’s far easier going trough life on autopilot. You don’t need to think, feel or do anything special. Just avoid falling and it’ll be fine, it will be boring but it’s an easy existence. A wise man once said “It doesn't matter how hard you fall, it's how you rise up again that matters!”. The ability to rise up again is the quality that separates living people from existing people.

If you live you might have a few bad experiences that really shows how cruel life can be but it will also show you how truly wonderful it can be and what true happiness is about. So would you rather be without those moments of joy for a few moments of sadness. Everything in this world has a price, even happiness and the big question is are you prepared to pay it by living your life?

I think the key to all of this is seeing your possibilities rather than your limitations. Realism is always important but that shouldn’t stop you from living?

Stomach problems (disgust warning)

One of our dogs had a bad stomach last night and I’m not sure which. And the puddle I wiped off the floor around 1 am, I’m really not sure if it was crap or puke. It was almost all fluid so it looked like and had the consistency of puke but by the colour and smell of it I would say it was crap. Yes this was disgusting but it’s a reminder that dogs are not just cute. Getting yourself a dog means a lot more than walks in the park and cuddling with furry love on four paws =). It’s also a “feel a little bit sorry for me”-post ;-).

2-15

Swedish TV4's first House episode this season was 2-15. So I remember right, they only showed half second season last winter...

This year's TV season

In about 10 minutes this year’s (fall-winter-spring) TV season starts. First Swedish Idol 2007 comes out and an hour later it's time for House. I’m really not sure if it starts from late season two are freshly from the beginning in season three. They might have just taken a break in season two when they stopped sending it before the summer. When I look at the episode guide I remember seeing episodes up to about seasons 2’s episode 15. Well I know what I’ll do the next two hours and the same thing every Tuesday night for a long time =).

3 out of 4

This is my third evening shift out of four. Very exciting news indeed. Well seriously my life goes on as usual. Consider this as a post about what’s happening in my life right now. I’m working the evening shift; tomorrow I’ll be working another one.

We did take my father in laws boat out of the water. It’s the fall and it’s too cold and windy from here on to do much boating…

Gasoline thieves

Since Nina is selling her apartment we have moved back to mine. However there is one problem. We have lived here a week and twice has my fuel tank gone from ¼ to almost empty over night. Fortunately there is a free parking space closer to my apartment and in a more public place than where my official parking space is.

In the night

I’m back at work after my vacation. Well, actually I have done 4 morning shifts already. But I’m doing my first out of 4 night shifts now. It’s my favorite shift. I have written about this before but it’s worth mentioning again.

It’s a whole different world we night shifters see. It’s an empty world since most people are sleeping this time. But those of us who are awake become alive. I don’t know how else to describe it. Maybe it’s the darkness that requires us to heighten our senses. In mankind’s distant past or even earlier that was probably an ability necessary for survival. It was so vital that it became part of our genes.

Whatever the cause for this, it’s why I like the night shift. I feel alive…

Last morning shift

Well this is my last morning shift this time. I'll return to work Thursday night...

Pictures from our camping trip

We took lots of pictures on our camping trip. First we used Nina’s camera. Unfortunately she forgot her charger at home so we have only pictures from Finland in that camera. But I had a camera too and it uses normal batteries. So after Nina’s camera’s battery run out we used mine.

There was a small incident on our first day in Norway, I dropped the camera. A small crack in the display but otherwise it seemed to work fine. Until we got home and transferred the pictures to the computer. The pre drop pictures look great. The past drop picture are blurry, well not all, only about 95 % of them. A landscape picture of a mountain a few miles away looks fine. Anything within 50 meters in the picture are blurry, like pictures of people, streets, normal pictures…

Next time I’m buying post cards on the spot =).

Camping

We are in Bergen, Norway right now. Yes I brought my laptop on our camping trip, I'm a nerd. ;-P

Sleepy Sunday

Sort of a dull Sunday evening, I like it =)

My vacation

My vacation has started. Although it actually began yesterday I had done the night shift the night before so I slept away a large part of yesterday. So this is my first day without any work related side effects whatsoever.

There is however on problem, I’m bored. I got nothing to do. It’s raining outside and we don’t have to clean up the apartment before Saturday. N:s apartment are going for sale so it will be shown on Monday.

But we will walk the dogs as soon as it stops raining, at least a little bit…

Vacation

I've just realized, my vacation starts Wednesday morning 7 o'clock. I'm on my third nightshift out of four and after the forth nightshift ends I got four weeks of vacation. =D

MLM

When it comes to multi-level marketing it all comes down to one simple question: Where does the money come from and where does it go?

The answer is: The money comes from all the people that have joined and will never make it, which is basically almost everyone. The money goes to the guys that have made it, which are a select few. The guy that’s bragging about the new Mercedes and the new house he bought because he made it in MLM and now you can make it to. You will probably not make if you join but you will be paying his new Porsche when he has grown tired of his Mercedes and he’ll be bragging even more how great MLM is.

Yes it’s great for him; he got thousands of people paying for his wealthy lifestyle. And all he has to do is convince them that they will one day live the life he is living. A few will but the majority of the people that have joined can’t make it, because who else is going to pay for other people's luxury cars?

My Journey

Most of us make a journey in our lives. Those who don’t are born, live and die in the same place. They may make short trips to se how it’s like elsewhere but they always returns home, never gone for long. They feel safe in their surroundings they where born and really don’t want to change anything.

Those of us who do make that journey do it for many different reasons. Sometimes it’s a combination of those reasons. In search of a better life, a different life, a feeling of “I can fly so why am I still in the hatch”, a feeling of having outgrown the place called home…

For whatever reason people have made that journey I have made it too. It’s not a big journey but I moved from the village (less then 1000 inhabitants) I was born in and moved to the big city (well almost 60 000 inhabitants) 50 kilometres away. I first studied, got a job, a social life, bought an apartment, got a girlfriend who I’m now engaged with and we are about to buy a house. So yes I made my journey and I have made it in life here, I’m happy.

Many people who make that journey move back to the place where they born after they have lived they life they wanted to. For some people home is always home. I don’t think I will but the future is unknown so I don’t know what it holds in store for me.

Anyway it’s a half hour drive so visiting the place where I grew up doesn’t take that long but I am a visitor because I have made my journey…

Engaged

Well this is it folks. I am, we are officially engaged and we have found our red house with white corners. Well it's not in writing until Friday but so far so good. =)

1 hour left

1 hour left before this evening shift ends and I go home...

A true writer/blogger

You have not truly written until one of your readers has fallen in love with you and another one has threatened to kill you…

3 out of 4

Now I got half of my nigh shifts left. Since I’ve just begin my 3^rd night shift out of 4 I got half of them left for this night shift round. Today was somewhat rainy, we spent the evening at Nina’s uncle birthday party (60)/ his wife’s birthday party (50) /garden party. Well it was just a few rain showers and they had tents. The sun was present now and then. The food and entertainment was good, too bad we had to leave early because of my work…

A rainy day

Today we got a rainy day and according to the weather report it will be a rainy week. Well it can’t be all sunshine and warm weather, like it has been the last few weeks.

A few days with cold and rainy weather makes us appreciate the sun more when it it shines from a clear blue sky, next week…

Food poisoning

After certain chain of events I have come to the following: conclusions:

-I did not have food poisoning last weekend.
-I did have a mild stomach flu this week.
-If you eat enough barbequed marshmallows you will get sick, which I did.

Morning shift

This is my first morning shift out four…

Midsummer

In this part of the world we celebrate a holiday called Midsummer. It’s second only to Christmas and the country virtually shuts down for two days, from late afternoon tomorrow (Midsummer Eve) to Sunday morning (Saturday is called Midsummer day).

Anyone who owns a summer cottage or knows someone who owns a summer cottage heads out to them and spends the weekend there. Well everyone doesn’t own a summer cottage but there are a number of midsummer festivals usually held at some beach or lake somewhere. So celebration of Midsummer is almost mandatory.

Well this year I’m working the morning shift at Midsummer Day and Sunday, well somebody got to keep the country running while all the people are out partying in the middle of nowhere. So we’ll probably take a few short tours with the boat, maybe drive around a bit to check out the parties. It’s one way to spend Midsummer =).

Lesson of the weekend

I learned an important lesson during the weekend. When you are barbequing chicken and are hungry, do not taste the chicken before it’s well done.

Yes I’m feeling better now and Nina waited until the chicken was well done…

Blogging

Some of these days I really have nothing to write about. Life goes on as it always has and there is nothing else to write about than the weather. By the way it's sunny and windy today...

The grass is cut

Well today I visited my mom so now her grass is cut. In time because when I drove home it started raining…

A Rainy Day

So far this summer (June) it been sunny and warm. Today is however an exception. It’s cold and it’s raining. I was supposed to go to my moms place and do some work around her house, like starting up the lawn mower. Well it’s difficult to do that when it’s raining. So I’m doing that tomorrow instead. It’s supposed to be sunshine then.

So today I went to our weekly CLS(Communistic Lunch Society)-lunch instead. I’m not a communist but communistic in this content stands for web community, the web community we all met in. I don’t think I have been in a room having lunch with so many armed people before ;-). The place we ate at was actually in the Police house so the other lunch guests where mainly cops ;-).

The smell of death

Recently I have felt a new smell in my car. At first I thought that one of the dogs had made a mess on the blanket in their cage in the back. It really smelled like dog shit at first. But I found nothing. Then I thought that maybe the earlier owner had had a dog that made a mess on one of the seats and they had failed to remove the smell.

But as the weather got warmer the smell got stronger and finally I realized: it was the smell of death. It smelled like something had died in my car. My first car was a Volvo 240 and I once had the same problem there. I had hit a bird and it was caught in the grill in front of the air intake.

So I opened the hood in order to find something that had died in the engine compartment, a bird, a rodent or whatever. I found nothing.

Today Nina and I went for a drive. She had also felt the smell but believed it to be from the dogs. Well I explained my new conclusions and she asked: “Have you changed the trash bag?”

The thing is that I keep a plastic on the floor in front of the back seat where I put candy paper, parking receipts, banana peels or any other kind of trash you would produce in a car.

I answered “Eeh, no”

Problem solved…

Last morning shift

This is my last morning shift, for this time. I got tomorrow off, well sort of. I’m going to visit my mom and usually mean that there is something to do around her house. Well I think tomorrow we’ll go to the graveyard. It has become warm enough during the nights now so the flowers you plant on the graves won’t freeze. I think I don’t have to cut the grass before next week…

Bicycle Race

Yesterday we took our first bicycle ride this year; well it wasn’t Nina’s first. She rode her bike to work a week ago.

Well anyway it was about 10 kilometres. I thought I would be exhausted but I wasn’t. Now I know why professional bike riders are so skinny. I haven’t trained or exercised this winter at all. But I have dropped 8 kilograms and suddenly it was easy to ride a bicycle.

However my but hurts and my shoulders ache. But we got some exercise and it will feel better tomorrow…

Today

Today I have driven 600 kilometres, been to a dog show and now I’m at work doing my evening shift. Not too bad for one day. =)

1.5

1.5 hours left of my evening shift...

It's raining

It really started raining a few minutes again. It's like a waterfall out there. Well it's good for the plant life. It will be a really green summer =).

Back at work

I'm back at work, doing my second evening shift out of 4...

Last night shift

This is my last night shift for this time. After that I got 6 days off =)

This is a test

Testing...

The cage is back

We took a little drive today with our four dogs and we noticed that the dog guard didn’t work that well. The problem was that our largest dog is 22 kg and the smallest on is puppy that weighs around 4 kg. Add two more dogs behind the dog guard and it doesn’t work.

So I put back the cage. We can have our three smaller dogs there and the large one in the back seat. It needs a bit more vacuum cleaning but it works…

A dog guard

I bought a dog guard to my car yesterday. I also installed it. I think it looks great and I hope it works great too. However I don't think the dogs will like it. They like to be near people, very near, so near that it can be difficult to drive.

I love dogs but in the name of traffic safety it's necessary that dogs are kept away from the driver.

De gungar

Antingen har jag varit för mycke på sjön när jag kan känna hur de gungar när jag hör den hårda vinden utanför eller så gungar faktiskt den här byggnaden =0

A new car

I have exchanged my 1998 Toyota Corolla to a 2003 Opel Meriva. My Corolla was a sedan while this is a mini-MPV. Sure a sedan is made for driving but with 4 dogs it's nice to be able to put them behind the back seat. If I didn't vacuum my Corolla often enough you couldn't fasten the seat belts in the back seat because the fasteners where stuffed with dog hair. I think you get the picture.

2 hours

2 hours left of my evening shift tonight…

Social minefield

I like playing World of Wacraft, most of the time. There are however drawbacks. Look at any strategy guide you’ll find advices like “Don’t do this or you’ll look like a noob”, “If you do this you’ll look like a noob and be kicked of the party”, “Ask but don’t do it up front or you’ll look like a noob and be denied your request”, “Don’t say that or you’ll look like a noob”… I will name my next character “Iamanoob” so they don’t have to wonder.

A Christmas party at a German company is anarchy in comparison.

Good Night

I think it's time for me to go to bed. I'm just waiting for the ESC semifinal results...

Jag hade tänkt cykla till jobbet idag

Jag hade tänkt cykla till jobbet idag men det blev inte så. ca en timme före jag skulle åka på jobb(kvällskift) ringde disponeneten från mitt bostadsbolag(vi bor alltså i min bättre hälfts radhustvåa nu) och meddelade att postiljonen lagt grannens post i i min brevlucka.

Så eftersom jag jobbar kväll och min bättre hälft var på friluftsdag(fotvanding nånstans ute i skärgården) från sitt jobb var de bara att sätta sig i bilen och köra till min lägenhet så att nu min granne fick sin post idag.

Men imorgon ska jag cykla till jobbet så de så...

Suomeksi

Olin joskus yrittänyt kirjoittaa suomenkielinen blogi täällä blogspotissa. Suurin ongelma oli että mulla ei oli mitän lukija siihen blogille. No suurin osia suomenkielisiä lukija mulla on MySpaceissa. Sen takia mä olen päättänyt että mun kirjoitukset suomeksi kirjoitan siellä.

Mä meinaa jatka kirjoitta englanniksi tässä kuin ennen, mutta lisäksi ruotsiksi ja harvoin myös suomeksi. Mä luulen että mun kirjoitukset englanniksi on helpompi ymmärrä kuin tä ;-P.

3 languages

I might write some posts in Swedish (often) and Finnish (rarely) in this blog too. It's easier to keep track of my own blogging and my Google account instead of several blogs and and/or accounts if I keep everything in one place...

Back at work

I’m back at work. I’m doing my first evening shift out of four. I’ve had six days off. During those days I have visited my mom twice. We also moved to my girlfriends terrace apartment over the summer. It’s smaller but its summer; it has a lawn (about 6*8 m) and large park area behind it. I have a high rise building apartment, it’s bigger but it's not for the summer, it’s for the winter. She also bought a new computer so I have played around with that since then. But it’s for a good cause, I’m installing programs she needs…and World of Warcraft, it has a 22 inch widescreen =).

Food

Today’s events are mainly about food. Since I’m doing the night shift these days I pretty much sleep all day and that is not any groundbreaking event to write about ;-).

Anyway since it’s Wednesday we did go to our usual X3M lunch. We went to this Asian restaurant that has an all you can eat Mongolian buffet around lunch time. Let’s put it like this, we where full when we left.

Later at home we made tacos and the cakes from yesterday had to be eaten too before they become uneatable ;-P.

Growing old

Growing old is about getting to know yourself. It’s not only about knowing your limitations but also about being confident in your own abilities…

Labour Day

Labour Day is always a fun thing. The city square is filled with market sellers. Although it was either raining or snowing today the square was still full of people. We walk around for a few minutes and bought a couple of spring rolls and headed home. There are no bad weather only bad clothes and I didn’t bring along winter clothes.

As for the rest of the day we had Nina’s parents and her brother with family over for coffee. That was fun especially since we were inside, not outside in the snow. Usually the last snow fall in late March or early April so this was an exception. They have predicted a record warm summer so let’s hope so =).

The World of the Night

I got my first night shift out of four tonight. I once again enter the world of the night. I like the night shift. I see a world that few people see. While most people in the city (and the rest in this time zone) sleep I am awake. It feels like I have no boundaries. While normal people need to sleep I can stay awake and when they go to their works tomorrow I can sleep all morning and all day.

Welcome to the night shift…

Short Update

It’s my day off today and we got lot of things to do, mostly fun things =)

Cleaning the sofa

I bought a sofa in the fall of 2005. This weekend we cleaned it. Everything that could be fit in the washing machine has been washed. Everything that could be removed but did not fit into to the washing machine has spent the night on the balcony. The rest was sprayed with some furniture cleaner spray and later vacuum cleaned. The only problem now is that the dogs (who mess up the most) seem to think that we did it for them and are reluctant to leave the sofa.

Last Snow

Hopefully the last snow this winter fell to the ground this morning. It was quite windy but I wouldn’t call it a blizzard. It’s still windy but the sun is shining now.

Furthermore I’m doing my third evening shift out of four…

Update

I could write about the bad weather but it isn’t that bad. It’s cold and it’s raining, so what. It will only last a couple of days and then the spring will return to normal. It’s been a dry spring so the rain means that nature will get a boost of water that will turn the lawns green before the end of next week. A rainy day is good for the spring =).

The puppy is doing well, eating, sleeping and playing. House training is somewhat difficult but it will be better in time…

Kristin, I need an invite to read your blog, please =)

Back at work

I’m back at work after my 13 days off. I’ve got 4 evening shifts ahead and I’ve got 2 hours left of the first…

Back to Norway

We where in Norway over Easter and I have never seen so much snow in my life before. The trip trough Sweden went well, it was spring and the roads where dry. When we approached the Norwegian border it started snowing. When we passed the Norwegian border you could see about 3 meters in front of you.

There was a snow plough going back and fort the two-three miles between the border and the first village(named Umbukta) in Norway and it must have taken us a half hour to cover that distance. It could barely keep up the road. We reached Umbukta and the snow plough that had gone between Umbukta and Mo I Rana had broken down. It took 24 hours to get it fixed. So there we where stuck in a fell cabin in Umbukta going nowhere and no GSM coverage. A funny thing is that there where plenty of Norwegians celebrating Easter there. They where playing in the snow like this was normal. You could count the snow dept above 1 meter (apparently there was no snow there a few days earlier). The snow drifts where covering some of the windows completely. When the snow plough got the road cleared late next day all you could of the Norwegian landscape where snow walls on both sides of the road.

Well as the weather cleared and we headed north the weather got better and there where almost no snow in some places. One of the things we tried was Hurtigrutten between Bodo and Lofoten (Stammsund). It’s a cruise ship that goes between 35 harbors in Norway in 11 days, every day (they got 11 ships). There we where coming out of the snow with American and German tourists (and a few locals). Twice as expensive (still only half the price of the ferry between Umeå and Vaasa) as the normal ferries but we had a time schedule.

We where buying a puppy in Lofoten and it’s really cute =).

The last day in Norway it was sunny and no wind and yes it’ really beautiful in the winter too.

I got some really cheap winter shoes (made for winters up there) in Gore-Tex, its spring and they need to clear out the “winter-stuff”.

Bought some “junk” at Ikea. Well the car was full already and we didn’t have much money left.

I don’t we will drive trough Norway anytime soon again but Hurtigrutten could be fun =)

Our Jorney

I will write more about our trip to Norway some other day (next week). Let's just say I have never seen so much snow in my life before =)

See you on Tuesday

We are going to northern Norway trough northern Sweden over Easter. Among other things we will visit Ikea. It’s bad weather there right now, really bad, the kind of weather they make Discovery documentaries about. But no worries, it’s supposed to clear up before we get there.

I’ll be back on Tuesday, or Wednesday, so Happy Easter everybody =).

IQ test

About a month ago I ordered a Swedish magazine called ”Illustrerad Vetenskap” (Tieteen Kuvalehti Suomessa) which is a popular science magazine. Well as an order offer you got an IQ test, personality type test and a general knowledge test on a CD ROM. I also get an MP3 player (if I remember correctly) when I pay the first bill.

So tomorrow I’m going to take the test and if it goes well you might get to read about it ;-)

Easter Lunch

Todays weekly X3M lunch will be a Easter thing...

Cold sandstorm

Well the clouds went away and the sun started shining. But it's still windy and dry so all the dust is blowing around, a cold sandstorm...

Blizzard

Since snow it’s falling every now and then and it’s quite windy. I wouldn’t call it a blizzard yet but spring seems to be on a break…

I'm here

After 2 cups of coffee (my cup at work is this 0,3 l stainless steel cup) and 2 hours of work I finally feel that I have awoken.

Back to normal

I’ve been dwelling on the question about what to write this morning. I realized that I was not in my English mood. Since I’m writing my blog mainly in English nowadays I need to think in English. Earlier I wrote my blog in Swedish first and then I wrote it in English, Sounds great, hey?

The problem is that it becomes a translation work. I’ve also tried the other way around, first English then Swedish. Since Swedish is my mother tongue I can really notice that my Swedish post is in Swenglish (Swedish vocabulary, English grammar) at those occasions. I can only imagine what my English looks like after a translation from Swedish.

But let’s go back to my English mood. What I mean is that every language has its own tune, its own beat. And if you want it to sound right you have to follow that beat, otherwise you are lost between the English vocabulary and the Swedish rules of grammar. I probably am a bit but I don’t think it’s that bad.

Anyway I’m doing my morning shift today as I’m supposed too. Back to normal.

Memory day

I have a bad memory. I swicthed the working shifts today a few weeks ago. I switched my morning shift to the evening shift: Yesterday the guy that was going to do my morning shift called and reminded me. I had forgotten all about it. It was good because I would otherwise had turned up 7.00 but instead I got to sleep the whole morning.

But first

But first I will play some World of Warcraft =)

Good morning

It’s another beautiful sunny spring morning. Today will be spent with a visit to my mom. After that it’s shopping, groceries that is. Eating out sounds like a great plan for tonight since no one of us feels like cooking tonight…

MySpace vs Blogger

Again the pressure of having one too many blogs has struck me. I will (try to) keep my blogposting here in the future =)

Good morning

Another beautiful sunny springtime morning

My blogs

I may not always write the most entertaining or interesting blogs. Sometimes they are just written in order for me to pass time. Just a short statement or two about some trivial event in my life…

1,5

1,5 hours left...

Writing

I have noticed that I haven’t written that much here lately. I should write more often…

3 out of 4

I’m doing my third evening shift out of four now. I have come to the conclusion that blogging is a great way to spend those moments when nothing is happening. This is a surveillance job; if something happens I leave this computer and start working.

I may not blog so much myself but I enjoy reading other people’s blogs. It’s a sort of entertainment that allows me to take part of it when I have the time to.

Spring is in the air

The sun is shining from a clear sky and it's warm =)

First evening shift

I just had my six days off and I’m at my first evening shift. Those days where partly spent at a dog show in Tampere on Saturday. One of our dogs came second so it went pretty well =).

It’s now Monday and I’m back at work. I’m doing my first evening shift out of four…

Day two

This is my day two out of my six days off. I’m keeping an eye on my dog Ella, she got sterilized yesterday. She has a net suit to keep the bandage in place and keep her from scratching it away. She might try to crawl out of it. Well tomorrow it’s coming off and she gets to wear a cone around her neck for two weeks. If I now my dog right she’ll be an even bigger drama queen then =). Well she is barking at the paper boy, mail man and all unknown people in the staircase =).

My last night shift

This is my last night shift for this time. After that I got 6 days off. Most of that time will be spent with dogs in one way or another. I also plan to visit my mom and have a day when I do as little as possible =).

Change of plans

I was supposed to have this night off but the guy who was supposed to replace me would rather do tomorrow night instead so we changed shifts since I really didn’t have any difference. So I have tomorrow night off instead and after that it’s just one night shift until my 6 days off.

Earlier this evening we went out eat eating to Amarillo (it’s a restaurant chain in Finland). The food was great and Apulanta was going to play later so we saw them rehearse a little bit.

Other than that the weekend has been calm so far…

20 minutes

20 minutes of work left, after that I’m going home, but I will return tomorrow night.

A few days in Pietarsaari

I have spent the last few day in Pietarsaari(Jakobstad). We have been on a course from work that basically give us an education for what we already do, it’s called “power plant operator”.

We where given a tour of the power plant and the pulp factory. Friday afternoon’s test I aced with flying colors. When the course first started I felt that this is too much, too difficult and I will never get this done. But know I feel like I know something, that I learned something but still there is so much to learn,

I’m now doing the night shift, tomorrow’s off and then two more night shifts after that…

Spring is in the air

Spring is in the air, sort of. Well the ground is still covered with snow but it’s raining and has done so for almost a week. The temperature is also above 0 C and the weather forecast predicts that that weather continue. It’s not exactly spring weather right now but the snow and ice is melting away rapidly so it will really feel like spring a few weeks away…

The next Idol

This year I’ve been following both Finnish and Swedish Idols contests. The last season of Finnish Idols wasn’t a good one. I haven’t heard of the guy who won since then, the girl that came second seem to have an active singing career. The last season of Swedish Idols produced some very fine artist, not else can be said.

This year’s season of Swedish Idols was well, Markus was great, and other than that it wasn’t a good season. Are you beginning to se a pattern yet? After a good year comes a bad year and the again after that a good year. And since last Finnish Idols season was bad this season should be good, right?

And it is =). With five contestants left I have three favourites and among those one. But lets take them in order from worst (they are all great singers so none of them is bad) to best.

Panu has a great singing voice but somehow he has fallen into the ballad section. Good but boring.

Kristiina has a unique singing voice but she seems a bit shy. Being an Idol isn’t all about singing so she needs to get out of her shell if she wants to win.

Kristian was my first favourite, but at the present he is still among my three favourites. His interpretation of Billy Joel’s: The Entertainer was brilliant. He’s kind of a storyteller, a long haired hard rocker. Great singing voice but he sometimes stumbles on the words, might very well be in the final.

Anna has the best voice in the whole contest. She can sing anything. And not only that, she has a presence on stage that is incredible. When she sings that song she doesn’t sing it, she is that song. That level of dedication to the song will definitely place her or Kristian in the final against…

Ari is a hard rocker with long hair in a hard rock country. Hi auditioned in with a song by Kirka, and sang Billy Joel’s Piano Man in the first semifinal, continued with Deep Purples Perfect Strangers and my personal favourite, this is where Ari excels; Iron Maidens The Evil that Men Do. Although his voice was best suited for Iron Maiden the other songs where brilliantly performed, a true artist going to the final…

This is how I write

Give me a pencil and tell me to write something and you will have trouble reading it. Give me a keyboard and this is what you get. I have never mastered the art of calligraphy and I have no intention of improving my handwriting.

I know how to write and I believe I do it very well too. But this is how I write, on a keyboard. It’s my tool of the trade and I can’t do it any other way =).

Walkning on Ice

I can walk on water ;-). Well at least with a couple of feet of ice between me and the water =). Today was a really beautiful day; around -5 C, a warm sun (yes you can really feel that it’s “the spring sun” now), hot coco, a couple of sandwiches, three dogs and my girlfriend made two perfect hours on the ice =)

Vaasa is really a beautiful city from the ice. And when everything is in white it looks like a Christmas card. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in the world.

Next weekend if the weather is good we might go skiing on the ice, but I think the dogs have to stay at home then.

Chopsticks

Last night I ate dinner with chopsticks. It worked amazingly well. The meat, the salad and large part of the rice went down easily with chopsticks. However my hand became tired so I used a fork for the last part of the rice.

I'm going home soon

1,5 hours left of work, then I'm going home...

Bilingualism

I had this post greatly outlined until I started feeling frustrated, for this is a frustrating subject to me. But don't worry, I'll try to find the middle ground between my frustration and my first outline.

Finland is by definition bilingual, Finnish and Swedish. For most people it's only judicial. People (Finnish speakers) that live in Eastern Finland rarely hear Swedish spoken or at all and people (Swedish speakers) living in the southwest archipelago rarely hear Finnish spoken or at all.

Also by definition 92 % of the population have Finnish as their mother tongue, 6 % Swedish and the remaining part other languages, mainly Russian.

If you don't know it already my mother tongue is Swedish and when it comes to my living place you can say I live in the middle ground. I live in the only region on mainland Finland that has Swedish as its majority language, well 52 % and 48 % speak Finnish. You can call it a truly bilingual region.

This doesn't mean that all people in this region speak both languages or that all Swedish speakers speak Finnish because it's the country's majority language or that all Finnish speakers speak Swedish because it's the regions majority language. It's a varying degree of knowledge of the other language in both language groups. For some people the other language is simply a foreign language, it was studied in school but after that I has all been forgotten. Some are simply bilingual, mastering both languages. Most people are somewhere between those two.

Some of my Swedish speaking friends, well I only have Swedish speaking friends but the ones who know very little Finnish or anything at all think I can speak Finnish. They should only know the truth.

Since this is a bilingual region most customer related jobs demands a varying degree of bilingualism of their employees. My job requires me to take a few customer phone calls and communicate with other employs that doesn't know much Swedish. That works very well because I know my workplace language. But outside of that I'm lost without a clue, unless the topic of the conversation at the local night club concerns electricity and/or distant heating… I didn't think so either.

One of the great things about the Finnish language is that once you master the basics you understand it and can make yourself understood on basic subjects. However the road between basic knowledge and being able to call yourself bilingual (if you are a Swedish speaking Finn like myself) is long and narrow. I have even heard of Swedish speaking Finns being able to speak the Finnish language so well that they have been taken for native Finnish speakers. I don't think however I have met one.

The last remark was not meant to be ironic but some people that have Finnish as their mother tongue fail to realise how difficult Finnish is to master all the way when it's not your mother tongue. And yes we have all heard about exchange students who have learned Finnish perfectly before Christmas during their exchange year. I have also read some posts by a blogger from USA that learned Swedish perfectly here during her exchange year. We call these people language geniuses, they are rare. However most exchange students coming to Finland only learn the language here rudimentary, whether it's Swedish or Finnish. We call these normal people, they are common.

So I get away with only knowing a little Finnish. I know enough to handle my work. My social network consists of only Swedish speakers. They don't employ people in stores, shops, banks… here (in and around Vaasa) that are not bilingual. So I know the Finnish I have to know and I won't learn anymore unless I actively try to learn more.

But I would like to know some more. I do that by spending time on the net on Finnish sites. Chatting on Suomi24, reading news on Yle and keeping a Finnish blog besides my English and Swedish ones on Blogspot. However I find it very frustrating. The chatting goes well for a while if the Finnish is kept on basic level. But I think my fellow chatters easily get bored with me because I leave many things unsaid because I don't know how to say them and when I do say something I don't think I have many or any words correctly spelled or in the right form.

Blogging in Finnish is even more frustrating. I don't write too often and that is a good thing. But when I do write a series of posts I usually take a look at them a week later and the worst I have serious trouble understanding. At that point I get frustrated and write a frustrating post (probably in English because I can't write what I want to write in Finnish) which probably offend (at that point I have some not so nice things about Finnish as a language to say and I do write them down) all my Finnish readers if I had any to begun with because if I can't read my own posts written in Finnish, how are they suppose to do that.

After I blown of some steam in my "Finnish SUCKS"-post I realize a few days later that it is offensive (sorry) towards my Finnish readers and that my other posts in Finnish are unreadable so I delete all my posts and starts all over with my first post having the headline "Moi" containing the text "Moi" (=hi), I mean even I can't get that wrong. Then I leave it like that for a few weeks until I start writing a series of unreadable posts in Finnish again. The only thing we can learn from history is that it repeats itself.

I might master the Finnish language someday but my language studying technique is typically Finnish. I bang my head against the wall until I crack the wall. It doesn't matter that it takes a while and the skull fractures caught in the process because I will get my head trough the wall.

Reading Yle News is however pleasant. I just have to read it; I understand everything or mostly everything. I don't have to interact it in anyway and I like news. But I really don't learn anything; it's just a way of not forgetting what I have already learned.

Then again, why do I feel this need to learn Finnish and why do I feel like it's my duty to learn it? There are many Swedish speakers I know that doesn't care about Finnish. They are quite happy about living their lives in Swedish. But what happens if they want to leave Vaasa for a while? It works fine, going eastwards is like going to foreign country, and everybody speaks a foreign language. Luckily you don't have to say or understand much touristing in your own country, knowing the numbers so you know what you have to pay at the counter. And if all else fails most Finns (both Finnish and Swedish speaking) knows some degree of English. Going westwards is great; there are 9 million people speaking the same language as us all within 2 days travel. Well I have a shorter trip to Stockholm than people living in northern Sweden.

I acknowledge the fact that I live in country of five million people and 4 700 000 of them speak a language I do not master: For some people being part of a 300 000 people language minority is enough and that they can visit their neighbouring country where everyone speak their language. For me that is not enough. I am a Finn (although Swedish speaking) and I think I live in the greatest country in the world. Not being able to communicate with large parts of the people of my country and the difficulties in trying to learn that language are very frustrating.

Welcome to the dark side of being a Swedish speaking Finn in Finland…