Tarring the community...

Do you wonder why everything looks so neat and tidy in Finland?

Last week I was quite enlightened when I watch how a team of men equiped with some simple and high tech erquipment did some tidying up in our small community area.

A lot of the road had been dug up last year and this as they changed the electric supply from overhead lines to underground supply. Most of the real work was done with great efficiency last year, but it left the fronts of most of the houses in quite a state. However, with the snow and ice which covers the ground all through 5 months, this was not very evident.

Come summer and we had this team come in and tidy things up - it took just a couple of hours, but the preliminary work was slow and painstaking so that the actual work could be done quickly.

There was a backup truck and the master truck containing the hot bitumen mix.







This was poured into the high tech spreader.





Aided by a couple of men who did the corners by hand filling, this machine laid a perfect topping. This was followed by 2 mini bulldozers who levelled the already level surface, compacting the surfacing.





A couple of men tidied the entire job by hand.



The frontage at Kampitie 6 B took about 5 minutes, and the whole community area of Kampitie took about an hour.

This was an excellent example of men, machines and technology working in unison!

Midsummer Day

(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)

True to form, the Midsummer Rose has bloomed in the Kampitie Garden.





Yesterday, Annikki and I went on a stone collecting trip invited by Matti (Masa) Moisa to his special place on the beach in Martiniemi. It was a fascinating experience as we had to go through quite unspoilt forest to reach the small rocky beach that Matti has converted into a rock museum.

Annikki was wild with excitement as she saw the wild flowers including the Lily of the Valley and many more that I do not know the names for. But she knew them all, bringing to the fore the immense valuable knowledge in my better half's brain.





Matti has constructed one small stone castle on the beach, which is his morning sunbathing castle. He is busy creating his second castle which will serve as his evening sunbathing castle!



Here are a couple of pictures of the stones in his stone museum.







This copper coloured stone took my fancy.



Matti has developed his own rudimentary, but obviously very effective, technique of moving enormous stones to their resting place on the beach.

The scenery from the beach was truly breathtaking.





One of the beauties of Matti's collection is the stone-age computer keyboard!



Here is the haul of stones that Annikki and Matti made yesterday. It appears to be the start of a beautiful friendship!



On our way home after a most enjoyable evening on the beach I saw my first ant-hill in Finland. I just had to stop and take a photograph of it.



Thank you Matti for such a wonderful evening in the wilds of Finnish nature just half an hour from the centre of Oulu!

Saturday Puzzle Time

Here is a puzzle which was not on my list but one I handled many years ago. Many thanks to Shalu in Chennai for sending it to me.

There is a man who lives on the top floor of a very tall building. Everyday he gets the elevator down to the ground floor to leave the building to go to work. Upon returning from work though, he can only travel half way
up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way unless it's raining!

Why?

(This is probably the best known and most celebrated of all lateral thinking puzzles. It is a true classic. Although there are many possible solutions which fit the initial conditions, only the canonical answer is truly satisfying. )

(Left to right) Ritesh, Santosh, me, Prof. Mohanan,
Vamsi, Joanna


Ritesh takes a picture of (right to left)
Vamsi, Dr. Mohanan, Santosh and me
at Nallikari Beach at midnight, Thursday

Also, thanks to Ritesh for sending me these two pictures of our Thursday Findians get-together in Oulu.

Some family pictures from yesterday

Joanna and children joined me in entertaining some Indian visitors to Oulu.

Some pictures of the family were captured by my extended family.

Grandsons Samu and Daniel:



Grandsons Daniel and Soda:



Grandson Samu eats his special pizza:



Grandson Daniel eats his fried rice:



Pailin with grandson Daniel:



The children were so at home yesterday that, even as I was busy talking to my guests, I felt that they were being looked after so well.

Thank you Unnop, Pailin and Soda for these great photographs!

Yesterday in perspective

I took the chance to visit the University to see how the International Conference, "Microwave Materials and their Applications" was progressing.

I only listened to one lecture, one about Polymer Ceramic composites (rutile titanium dioxide dispersed in epoxy resin). I was quite disturbed to listen to such poor science emanating from "scientists" from Helsinki and Oulu University!

The modelling methods they talked about would have been thrown out of the window way back in the 1960's as the fundamental concepts of mixing theory of an organic with an inorganic phase were not part of the "equation" brought into consideration when preparing their paper - or if it was, it was not stated!

Luckily, I am retired, so I did not stand up and ask any embarrassing questions!

My objective to visit the conference site was to primarily ask the few Indians attending the conference to join me for dinner. As Annikki was pre-occupied with looking after her mother, I asked daughter Joanna to join me in hosting them. Her husband, Tony, was also busy with another prior engagement.

Here is a photograph after the occasion, which all of us really enjoyed, thanks to the wonderful hosts in the Pailin Restaurant.

Vamsi (Andhra now doing his doctorate in Oulu University), Santosh Babu
(IIT Chennai, India), Ritesh Rawal (Punjab University and now Sheffield University, UK),
Prof. Mohanan (Cochin University), myself and our hosts, Unnop and Pailin.

Dr. Sebastian (Deputy Director, Regional Research Laboratory, Trivandrum) was there for about half an hour as he had to push off to another party.

It was great fun, and hopefully the next time these engineer-scientists come to Oulu, they will call me "before" they plan their visit!

More on Oulu Artist Ann Pöllänen

(Cross-posted in the Oulu Chaff Blog.)

Yesterday I featured the carving skill of an Oulu artist from Thailand, Rakchanok Pöllänen (née Phunsawat) from Kanchanaburi, wife of Petri Pöllanen, who is making history here in Oulu. Ann is not just a soap carver. She is a crochet expert as well as a designer of beautiful dried floral gifts, just as exquisitely beautiful as the artist herself.

Ann with one of her crocheted designs
on display in Oulu at the Thai Pailin Restaurant.

I have pleasure in bring you, here, a couple of her dried floral designs.





I hope to, in the future, feature several top artists from Oulu, Finland who are from the ethnic minorities. If you can give me information about them, please let me know.

I wish that there is one important forum for them to show their work from this Arctic town in the world, something the City of Oulu should do, but fails to.

Thai Artists - Made in Finland

(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)

The other day Annikki was given a present which really was unique - a carved soap.



I wonder whether she will ever use this work of art!

It was the creation of a Thai artist, Ann, Rakchanok Pöllänen (née Phunsawat) from Kanchanaburi, Thailand, who resides in Oulu, Finland with her Finnish husband, Petri Pöllänen (whom we call Patrick), who amongst other things is a volleyball referee.



Ann is truly unique in that she carves a special soap with the most intricate of floral designs. A special soap has to be used as normal soaps are too waxy and crumble under the delicate touch of the artist's carving knife.





Now Ann is launching sales in Finland of her specially carved soaps under a "Designed and Made in Finland" label.

Each of these designs takes more than a couple of hours of patient work to complete. The beautiful boxes in which they are packed also add much to their value as a presentation item.

They are indeed a valuable gift for Mother's Day, Weddings, Anniversaries, Christmas and other gift giving occasions.

A few weeks ago you may remember that I blogged a picture of intricately carved fruits and vegetables, which is also a fine Thai tradition brought to Finland by yet another Thai artist residing in Oulu, Unnop Khungrai.

Carved Watermelon

These carvings make for great show on a dining table and is yet another wonderful addition of Thai Culture into their new Finnish abode.

I do wish Oulu, which claims to want to be an "International City" will abduct these great Thai art traditions into its own and help these marvellous Thai artists living here to pass it on to Finnish children through the education system. ( :-) I can always dream! "Dialogue Today, Action Tomorrow" - The TOMORROW THAT NEVER COMES?)

Do contact me as to how you can get your hands on these creations directly from the artists or how to contact them personally.

These are valuable additions to Finnish culture.

Photo's from Ulla

Joanna's good family friend, Ulla, was here from London. She joined us at the party to celebrate Kaija's birthday on Saturday evening.

Kaija cuts the birthday cake

Kaija is Michelle's daughter, Michelle being the owner of the best Chinese restaurant in Oulu, called the Royal Garden.


Some of the happy crowd that evening.
Joanna is on the extreme right.


Samu is overpowered by the TV.


I relax with Samu and Daniel.

Ulla took another photo of Daniel when she was at Joanna's place.


Daniel lounging on Ulla's bed.

Thanks Ulla for this great set of photographs.

Saturday Puzzle

No one could explain the puzzle of last Saturday. Not even puzzlwe exptert hashim!

That is probably going to be the case this Saturday as well.



Give it a try.

Apple Blossom

Our neighbour in Kampitie has two apple trees, one of which overhangs the 6B compund. They look absolutely gorgeous as they are now in full blossom.

Apple Tree Blossom

My camera certainly does not do the view justice.

With the grandchildren and daughter back, life is really so exciting.

Yesterday, while I was doing my morning chores around town, I received the text message from Joanna -"Kids awake, asking where is grandpa?"

My reply - "Will be there in 20 minutes!"


Grandkids enjoying their time at the breakfast table

I now have company as I scour the City for news for this blog.

Samu and I visited the Oulu Castle - which is "comparatively" the size of the postcard you print the picture on.



The view from the watch tower is interesting.





The Coffee Shop is run by two friendly people, Merja Sipola and Tuomas Ketola. Merja was more reserved (not talking to strange grandfathers!) but Tuomas was incredibly outgoing.

They should try to get the Computer Game designed by son-in-law Tony's group at Oulu University as part of their Castle programme! It would make the visit to the Castle more topical.

We went to the Thai Pailin Restaurant so that Samu could get something to eat. He ate the chicken curry and rice, which was well spiced, with great relish, even taking a second helping. I stuck to the vegetarian soup which had seaweed and no fish sauce, so I could even take a helping back for Joanna.


Pentti, Sisko and Maria

We met Pentti, Sisko and their youngest daughter Maria, who has just finished her studies and got a job at the Oulu Hospital. They were celebrating Maria's good fortune, and what better place to do it then this friendly Thai Restaurant.



Also visiting was Oulu's Harley Davidson Queen, Virpi of the Pick Cats, the first woman's Motorcycle Club in Finland!

Samu and I did an incredible amount of driving around, doing shopping for many people.

But the day ended on a note of relaxation as Samu and I watched the two Football World Cup games. The German - Costa Rica match was really terrible, with Germany winning quite easily, but not looking as a sound enough team to win the cup. The Poland - Ecuadaor game had some really good football, but the Latin American side was miles ahead of the Poles in their skill and won the game quite easily.

It looks like we are going to spend several great hours in front of the "google box" this summer!

Samu and Tony arrive in Oulu, Google Spreadsheets...

Yesterday, at about 11:30 am, after a 14 hour drive right across Sweden and over the top of the Gulf of Bothnia, Tony, Samu and Tony's dad, Seppo, arrived in Oulu. They had earlier made the crossing by the ferry between Newcastle and Gothenburg.



Samu read several books on the way and went to sleep only at around 3 am.

It was really great to see our grandson again and I am looking forward to a wonderful summer with both Samu and Daniel.

I had a circular email from Sarasu Isaac, a Maliyakal located in the US.

Hi all,

I thought I would share a few memories of Thathen with you all. It will be nice if each one of you can share memories and stories of our Maliyakal appachens and ammachies.

I do not have the email addresses of all our cousins and neices and nephews. If each of you can please take the time to get email addresses that are missing from this list, I can create a group in Yahoo and start a Maliyakal news letter.

I think, Sushil (Achayan) Matthen, Finland will be the ideal person to guide us on that .

Roshini, please get Graceykochamma to share some of the wonderful stories of her younger days with all her cousins, uncles and aunts.

Regards,

Sarasu

Yahoo Groips are good, but as we are a small group, it wouldbe much nicer to have a more intimate newsletter and there are several ways of doing it efficiently and effectively.

The blogger web site has been having problems so I was not able to update my blogs as usual.

Now the other great news.

Google has launched an online spreadsheet. You can create, share and store spreadsheets online.

Create a spreadsheet in your browser:



Share your spreadsheet online giving powers to others to view or even edit:



Store the spreadsheet for access from anywhere through any browser:



Access has been given to a limited number of people and I am fortunate to be one of them. I have already imported several spreadsheets from my computer and am sharing them with others whom they concern.

Although the spreadsheet is not operating system sensitive, as I can use it with my Camino Mac Browser, I can only share it presently with those who have a gmail /googlemail email address.

I have no problem with that as I can invite those who do not have one to join gmail.

In addition, Google has released a new feature called Personal Note, where one can save text from any web page as Personal Notes. Technically it is not supposed to work on a the Mac Operating System, but as I use the Firefox Browser, I tried it out - and it worked.

These two takes Google so far ahead of the competition - and it leaves Microsoft and Yahoo trying desperately to catch up. I really wish Google had acquired Skype, as I had advised them, as that would have been the best possible combination. Hopefully Google will acquire GIZMO, which is also a great online Voice Over Internet Program (VOIP).

The whole computing industry is changing, so think carefully before you invest in your next computer. You could save a whole lot of money by buying wisely - and that probably means not buying a WINDOWS enabled computer!

Daniel loves Kampitie, Joanna loves home

Today morning, I managed to go and see Soda and his Tervarit Blacks side play a friendly football match against the Tervarit B Juniors trained by Englishman, Mark Dziadulewicz (formerly of AFC Wimbledon - 1978 - 1980). The B Juniors won quite handsomely 4-1, mainly because they took every opportunity to score when the ball came their way.

Soda played part of the game. He really needs to fix his fitness.

Natural talent is just not enough when going up in the football world. Players have to be where the ball is before anyone else. That depends on speed and stamina. That, unfortunately, requires very very hard work and dedication. Turning up at team practices does not provide that ingredient. Team practice is where teamwork is built, not personal performance capabilities.

It was reallly refreshing to see the young members of Mark's team sprint hard and get to the ball before their opponents. That made them a much superior team to the Tervarit Blacks. Mark knows dedicated talent when he sees it. That is why he has chosen the players for his side.

And, in football, one must love to hold on to the ball, dribble, and make the best pass at the right time. One has to draw away a defender before making a crucial pass. It is not enough to send the ball on to the next player as soon as it touches the foot!

Joanna and Daniel spent their first day in Oulu at Kampitie.

Both of them loved it. Joanna was able to enjoy the feeling of home - having her mother cook them French fries and lolling of the sofa, with the smell of "home" around her, while her younger son was busy enjoying everything, especially his grandmother carrying him all over the place and sharing all the wonderful things that she has put in place for her grandchildren - butterflies, dragonflies, goldfish and thousand and one other delights.



The ice cream was enjoyed by all. Then it was time to go shopping to make sure Samuel and Tony came home to "their home" with a similar homely feeling.

The day was busy for Joanna as all her friends sent her text messages welcoming her back to Finland. It appears she is going to have a very busy summer enjoying it in the way you only can in Finland!

Later in the evening I spent quality time with Joanna and Daniel at their home, just relaxing and enjoying that wonderful grandfather feeling! Was Annikki jealous?