Thursday, April 13, 2006

Asha and BBC Look North on Home Education

On Monday, the BBC Look North TV News prgramme which serves Lincolnshire and parts of East Yorkshire carried a segment on Home Education, which featured Asha, Susanna and Chris. It was watchable on the computer, but I could not determine how to save the clip. Susanna has it on video and if I can find a way, I shall get the clip onto my computer. Asha really came across really beautifully.

Asha and Susanna arrived in Oulu on Tuesday evening. Part of Asha's "Home Education" is for a few days in my care.

Yesterday was an exciting day for us as we went to the place where all the scrap metal in Oulu is collected. When I had taken Samu there a few years ago, on a similar Home Education binge, they had a crusher which crushed cars into small boxes, but they did not have it there presently. There were plenty of old cars and buses lying around.

Finnish Steptoe & Son

Finnish Steptoe & Son


Cars waiting for crushing
Awaiting crushing


Weighing scale
Weighing scale for buying and selling scrap


Asha went wild photographing all the scrap including the metal shavings and the weighing scale on which they weigh scrap if anyone wants to sell some to the yard.

Metal Shavings
Metal shavings.


Our next port of call was the Zoological Museum of the University of Oulu focuses on northern nature and species, where along one wall you can see the entire topography as well animal life and vegetation in Finland from north to south. There are about 50 000 vertebrate and about two million invertebrate specimens in the museum. Besides the Museum's own collecting activity, authorities and private citizens bring to the Museum wild animals, that they have found dead. The material collected in students' thesis research also becomes part of the Museum's collections.

Asha again went wild with the camera, photographing all sorts of things, from this tiny winter snow "mongoose", correctly known as the "Least Weasel", known in Finnish as the Lumikko to an the elks head along with mine! This white Lumikko is a bloodthirsty animal, accouding to Annikki.


Finnish snow "mongoose", the "Least Weasel",
and known in Finnish as the Lumikko


Elk and Jm
Brainless heads


I retaliated by snapping Asha with a friend!


Beautiful couple - polar bear with Asha


We met a nice family from South Africa. The daughter is studying in the University and the parents were visiting. I was able to tell them the significance of the wall which was the creation of a single individual over a period of 13 years during the time I was working in the University. Probably the best visit to make when in Oulu to learn something about Finland!

Home Education continues today.

As I was putting this page up, I got information on my hotline from Madras (K. George - Georgie) that niece Shilpa, younger daughter of Mammen (Kunjumonchayan) and Omena Eapen, gave birth to a baby boy who was born today at 6 am Indian Standard Time. Best wishes to the family soon from all of us in Finland and hope you are home . Let us have a photograph of the family soon for the archives.

Joanna's Chinese friend's new born baby

Talking about babies, as I was waiting for Annikki and Asha at a large department store in Oulu, one of Joanna's good friends from China, who lives in Oulu, walked by with husband, mother, daughter and their new born addition.

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