5500 kilometres to Oulu

(Cross-posted on the Seventh Heaven Blog.)



We have a new colourful poppy in the Kampitie garden.



Aiti is back home at Kampitie and yesterday was enjoying wearing her floral summer sun hat.

As the crow flies, Tuusula is probably less than 600 km from Oulu. However, our dear friends, Gopa [our foster daghter and daughter of my dear friend, Cathedralite 54er Sadhana Madhusadan (née Shah from Pune)] and hubby, Timo, took the long way round. They had travelled to Switzerland, where Timo attended a course on modern print technologies for newspapers.

They took their new acquisition, a Renault, for a spin, camping along the way. They returned via Germany, Denmark, crossing from Copenhagen to Malmo in Sweden and then drove over the top of the Gulf of Bothnia to reach Oulu at around 20:30 last night.

A total journey of close to 5500 kilometres from Tuusula to Oulu!

Pailin and Unnop had made a special Thai meal of spicy rice noodle salad, chicken red curry and vegetarian green curry (all without fish sauce as Joanna is allergic to fish) for them.



Joanna and Tony, accompanied by Daniel, joined us for dinner. Samuel is away at a summer camp - and Joanna is missing our little rascal, but probably not more than me as I miss our turbulent discussions as the World Cup football has reached the final stage.



The salad was a little too spiced for Timo, but he and Gopa, tired after their long journey, had a good meal and then enjoyed a relaxing sauna in the cellar while Joanna and I watched the French beat the Portuguese in the semi-final.

(We watched the first half together. Joanna and Daniel returned home to weatch the second half. Tony left earlier as he wanted to go for a jog.)







Gopa and Timo were up early and left for Timo's home town, about an hour and a half from Oulu, as they go there to settle things in the house as Timo's mother has now been moved to a Care Centre for the elderly where she can be looked after because of her failing sight and hearing.

It was great seeing Gopa and Timo after such a long time and having them stay a night, as usually they push off after a cup of coffee!

Kampitie - Lotus theme

Over the years Annikki has been developing the "Lotus Theme" for the Kampitie Garden. Now it is almost reaching its fullest realisation.

She started by creating the lotus motif stone paving in the garden. (Do notice her latest creation - a sand pit with a stone border inside a sand pit!)



This year she has fresh lotuses blooming in her drum tank.



The main pond is filled with lotus flowers and leaves.



And the bath tub is blooming with artificial lotuses!



Yes, I think Annikki has reached her zenith in making Kampitie the "Lotus Garden" of Oulu!

Why I root for France

The family and friends have been sharply divided.

Annikki detests all team sports per se. Susanna and family live in a Footie-Free Zone. Tony lives in an active sport free zone. Computer games is his speciality. Joanna supported Brazil and has now switched lotalty to Portugal. She was a Ronaldino supporter and is now a Ronaldo (Portugal) supporter!

Samuel does not quite know whom he supports as he has great interest in almost all the good footballers.

Kerstin, the young German lady who lives on the top floor of Joanna's house, is naturally standing behind the German team!

But me?

From Day 1 I have been rooting for France.

Is it because of the mastery of Zidanne or the strategic play of Henry?

Actually not, although most French players have great standing in my book.

I root for France as there is only one player of Indian origin playing in this World Cup and he plays for France.



Vikash Dhorasoo originates from a Telungu family but is of Indo-Maritius origin. He was born in France and has been a top player in French football for several years. he is not young as he is already 33 years.

France beat Brazil in the quarter finals, but Dhorasoo did not get a chance to play. He will have to wait till Zidanne goes off the field to get his chance. He did play in a couple of matches, coming in as a replcement, and he played extremely well.

Way to go - let us hope one person of Indian origin gets a World Cup medal - preferably GOLD!

Jack-Ass? Who is he?

Following my last blog entry about Jack-ie Chan, I was told that many youngsters are watching a TV programme of stunts called "Jackass".

How many of these youngsters know the meanings of the word "Jackass"?

There are two meanings

1. A male donkey
2. A fool

I wonder who is "the fool" they mean when they make the programme?

For sure it is the audience, who try to laugh at the stupid antics. The biggest of these fools are the ones that try to copy or do more stupid antics that the ones shown.

Way back in 2004, as can be seen from this report from BBC, Boy burnt in TV-inspired prank, a young 15 year old boy tried to duplicate one of the stunts he saw on the programme. Joe, from Darwen, was treated at Booth Hall Children's Hospital and is scarred for life.

The programme makers try to hide behind the excuse that the programme is shown well after the TV watching hours of children and that they display a warning before the start of each programme.

When you have "JACKASSES" watching these programmes, immaterial of their age group, then neither of these excuses hold good.

It is my opinion that the stunt attempted by my young friend in Oulu, just 15 a couple of days ago, was not only a Jackie Chan copy but also inspired by some stupidity that he saw in the "Jackass" programme.

He was a stupid Jackass. I sincerely hope he has learnt his lesson!

Jackie Chan? Who is he?

I was really disturbed the other day when I heard that a young friend had had an accident when attempting to do some trick riding on a bicycle in a dangerous location.

I was at his side at the emergency wing of our local hospital.

This incident wasted over a dozen hours of my valuable time as well as many hours of doctors, nurses who could have been saving lives of seriously ill people and even children. It also caused anxiety and worry to his family members.

This was an act of stupidity which cannot be pardoned.

During the conversation about this incident, the talk turned to super heroes "Jackie Chan" and "Bruce Lee".

Sadly, or may I say, fortunately, I had never heard of the "so-called exploits" of these super-heroes.

I was given to understand that young people are tempted to attempt what these "super-heroes" do in their movies.

It should indeed be a crime attributed to the movie makers as they do not give enough publicity to the fact that almost all the "stunts" that are supposedly done by these super-heroes are actually done by stunt men.

The super-heroes just get the credit for something they never could do themselves.

In my time as a youngster, one of the super heroes was "Tarzan". It was well known that only the swimming tricks were done by the actor himself as he had been the Olympic Swimming Champion. The rest of the Tarzan tricks were done by professional stunt men.

The fact that stunt men do these tricks is hidden away in the small print at the end of a movie, and in unreadable type, leading impressionable youngsters, like my friend, to believe in the myth built up sbout their super-heroes.

Stunt men are highly qualified professional men in absolutely tip top physical and mental condition who practice every stunt many hundreds of times in special safe conditions before they ever attempt a stunt for film. In almost every case there is a fail-safe safety proceduere followed so that no one gets hurt.

In addition, many stunts are done in slow motion. Then the speed of the film is increased to give the "impression" of a stunt.

For instance, the stunt attempted by this young boy of riding down a narrow staircase on a bicycle is usually done in a movie, step by step, and the stunt is achieved by speeding up the film after much editing.

There used to be a TV series where, after the show, some of the stunts and how they were filmed were actually shown to the audience, just so that no one would be tempted to try any of the stunts.

Even a circus clown practices and practices many many hours a day before he attempts to do a trick in public. Circus clowns may be laughed at, but they are true professionals dedicated to the work as that is the way they earn their living.

They are not like the stupid teenagers who try to do things they see some "super heroes" doing in a movie.

I hope this young boy has learned his lesson with this incident as no one was impressed by his foolish act and no one would have been impressed even if he had "succeeded", as a fluke achievement is not one which gets an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records!

All it has done is made people think that this young boy is rather stupid.

To get into this publication, any attempt has to be performed in controlled conditions and in the presence of observers appointed by the Guinness organisation.

Just doing a trick has never got ANYONE into the records book.

Stumped!

The previous Saturday Puzzle stumped everyone except one reader of the blog from Brazil, Dr. Robert Gonzales, and our 9 year old grandson, Samuel.

Here is Samuel busy on the beach collecting sand for the Kampitie garden last week.

Samu and Annikki collecting sand from the beach.

The answer - A short man (a dwarf)!.

The man can press the bottom button of the lift in the morning with no problem.

However, when he comes back in the evening, he can only reach the button for the 10th floor, so he has to walk up the remaining flights of stairs.

Why can he push the button for the top floor if it is raining when he leaves for work in the morning?

Simply because he carries an umbrella with him, with which he can reach the button of his floor on his return journey!

Today's puzzle is a real brain teaser for the mathematically minded.

Although it is going to take you back to winter on such a beautiful summer's day when the temperature is hovering here in Oulu around +30 C, let's give it a twirl!

If the temperature in the morning in some place is 0 degrees Celsius (Centigrade) and the Weatherman on the TV Channel says, "It will be twice as cold tomorrow," - what temperature will it be tomorrow?

0 x 2 = ?

Have a great week!

Annikki gets a lesson

After our trip to collect fir trees and lotuses, we dumped the lotus flowers and leaves which only had long stems in the pond. There were a few flowers which had roots.



Only one lotus flower with leaves which had a whole root system. Annikki had put this in a metal drum filled with water.

Our midnight visitors called again.

Pailin is an expert on plant care, especially lotuses and orchids.

Pailin, Annikki and Ning survey the pond


Pailin and Annikki look at the lotus flower
and leaves in the drum

Pailin took of her jacket, rolled up her sleeves and reset the lotus with roots and laeves by surrounding the roots with clay and burying it the drum with more clay, adding sand on top. Now we have a lotus which is properly planted.


Off with her jacket, rolled up her sleeves
Pailin starts to put the lotus in its best surroundings


Annikki and Pailin survey a job well done

Thank you Pailin, as that has made the effort to collect the lotus from the wild a really worthwhile exercise!







Meanwhile, Unnop was busy recording many new bloomings in the garden, which is now a riot of colour. Thanks for these photographs, Unnop.

Annikki continues her hectic schedule

With Annikki's mother in the Old People's Home for her "interval care", Annikki got time to get the garden organised. After the last visit to the stone beach at martiniemi, on Friday evening it was a visit to our local beach to collect fine sand. As it had rained the previous day, only the top layer of sand was dry and fine. So she sat in the sand and collected several bags full with the palms of her hands!



Saturday was her day of rest, but Sunday meant a visit to her brother, Eica, who lives in the forest. From his forest home Annikki collected four fir trees to plant in the Kampitie garden. I sat put inside the car, away from those deadly 3 cm sized mosquitoes.





Can you spot my dear wife in the car she had loaded with the fir trees?



After the fir trees were safely loaded into the car, we were guided by Eica to a small lake where he said there were lotus plants almost in bloom.



Annikki was in ecstasy, as the whole Kampitie garden is designed around the lotus motif.

Off we went and after trying several techniques to fish out some lotus flowers.



Not only did she find lotuses but some other water plants.



Getting the other plants, which were near the shore, were not a problem. But getting the lotuses were a hazard - as although they appeared to be close to the shore, the flowerts had very long stems and were enmeshed under the water into a dangerous weeds support.



All efforts for fishing out the lotuseses were futile.

Annikki finally had to get her feet and hair wet to get one, roots and all with the help of a spade!



We dropped Eica back on his forest property and returned home. Annikki was quite satisfied with her expedition.



Annikki put the lotuses in the pond. Lo and behold, the next afternoon, the lotuses flowers opened and bloomed in the sunshine!



Forget those four large ones you see - they are the plastic ones Annikki has been using.

Now she has the real thing, lotus leaves, flowers, stem, roots, and all.

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!