Chaff meeting explodes

(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)

It looks as if Chaff has restarted with a bang after the summer recess.

Last Sunday was when we welcomed back many to the regular Sunday Chaff get togethers.

We had 7 cameras clicking and little Samu did a job with all except mine, which was unfortunately tucked away in my coat.

Here are pictures provided by Matti and Unnop.

We had 2 new Japanese, 3 new Findian, 3 new Finn, 2 new German and 4 visiting USA/Indian participants (14).

Our usual crowd was also great with 1 Findian, 5 Finns, 1 German, 1 Hungarian, 3 Indians, 1 Japanese, 1 Indian/USA, 4 Thais, 1 Venezulean and 1 Zambian (19).

3 Chinese, 4 Hungarians, 2 Finns, and 4 Indians who had promised to get to the meeting unfortunately could not get there.

Our young Findian participant, Daniel.


Our hostess Pailin.


Unnop, our host talks with young Kim (Thailand),
whose help to organise this event was truly great - Thanks Kim!


Unnop with our new Japanese participant who surprised us
with her knowledge of the Thai language!


Three of our beautiful visitors from the USA
with Kerstin (Germany), Andi (Venezuela) and our hostess Pailin.


Matti, Isaac and wife, Nalla.


Mervi chats with me.


Ildi (Hungary) and Fumi (Japan) with our new participants
from Japan and Germany listen to my short talk.


Ildi, Ville (Finland) and wife, Fumi,
with our new Japanese and German participants


Beautiful Sheeba from the USA.


Fumi looks good.


Tony and Isaac.


Kamu (Zambia) and Matti.


Beautiful Sareena.


Pennti Paakki.


Andreana (Venezuela) is in a deep and thoughtful mood!


Joanna at her first Chaff meeting.
Isaac in the background.



Ilari with Nalla, Kiran and Tony in the background.


Andi, Kerstin and our two new German participants.

Our next meeting will be on Sunday 6th August at the usual time of 13:00 hours.

The following week we will have our get together on Saturday August 12th as part of the Thai festival which is being held at the Pailin Restaurant starting at 12:00 hours. The Thai Buddhist Monk from Helsinki is especially attending this event which has the blessing of the Thai Royal Embassy, Helsinki, Finland and the Tourism Authority of Thailand located in Stockholm, Sweden.

There will be Thai danceing, Thai demo dance about kick boxing, Thai music and singing, various displays of Thai art, demonstration of Thai cooking, a special discount offer for tickets to Thailand (thanks to Finnmatkat who will have a stand at the festival), and much more.

Everyone is welcome - no entrance fee.

Animals...

Yesterday was a glorious summer's day, warm, and just right for a swim.

When Annikki and I looked out of the kitchen window in the afternoon, there were many tens sparrows flitting around the pond.



A few were taking a bath in the shallow overflow portion of the pond.



To our surprise we found numerous sparrows, in turn, having a bath in the sand. They were really enjoying it, rolling on their backs with their legs in the air and then on their tummies, sort of scratching it, to clean it?

This morning, Iitu, our cat was in a very catish mood. As soon as I opened the newspaper, she would jump on it - an attempt to stop me reading.



I tried a couple of times to move her, but she refused to budge.



She would change her position every time I made a new try to get her off the rag.

I gave up, as her Buddha like composure on top of our local daily drove me nuts!

Harish passes on....

Many Matthans will remember Harish Chittiappa from Coorg, not only because he was an Old Cottonian (circa. 1958) but also because he was a loved member of our Kuriyan Matthan family.

Harish worked as my father's right hand and left hand when dad was the Chief Executive Officer of Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE). He enjoyed the total confidence of fellow Bangaloreans, fellow Cottonians, fellow Coorg, TCE Board Member Mr. K. M. Chinappa, as well as dad.

When dad retired because of ill health and then was asked to start up the Bangalore office of TCE, it was Harish who came back to Bangalore to work at his side to make it one of the biggest offices of TCE in India.

When I was running my Consulting Company out of Madras in the 70's, it was Harish who used to be constantly in touch with me pointing me towards potential clients who were too small for TCE to handle or asking me to do the work for TCE in my area of expertise.

Harish was much more than a brother. He would come home whenever I was in Bombay for a chat.

Many a time, he used to turn up with delicious oranges from their estate in Coorg.

I was informed by Aditya Sondhi that Harish passed away on 27th July 2006 in Bangalore.

I have conveyed deepest condolences to the Chittiappa family through fellow Cottonian, Aditya. I have copied them to brother, Puttu (M. N. Chittiappa), but my email address of Puttu is over 5 years old.

May Harish rest in peace.

Relaxing Thursday

The visit of Annikki's sister, Anneli, gave everyone a chance to relax for a few moments.



This sisters collected sand from the Nallikari Beach and



then enjoyed a few moments basking and



chatting and laughing in the sun glow.

We then saw a glorious sunset at 10:30 pm.

Yes, summer is ending as sunset has moved from 12:30 am to 10:30 pm. Soon it will be sunset at 3:00 pm - Brrrr!



Annikki pointed me to these roses blooming on the seashore.

Creative phase continues

After her last success with the Thai Pavilion, Annikki has not stopped her creative phase. The latest is a very simple flower stand.

She took some birch branch cuttings, which we normally feed to the wood burner, and tied them together with rope, put it standing up, and we had two great looking flower stands.





With the right flowers in simple flower pots - this looks absolutely great in the garden! Of course, you can also use these flower stands indoors!



Annikki's sister, Anneli, from South Finland is visiting us in Oulu and the two sisters have been talking non-stop for a couple of days.

Joanna, Tony and family, who are holidaying about an hour and a half from Oulu, drove in yesterday to meet Anneli.



Daniel mets up with friend Iitu.



I took Samu for his football practice, and he was in great form yesterday, scoring 7 of the nine goals. He still has to practice, but each time I watch him I feel he is improving by leaps and bounds.

And while I slept...

When I woke at my usual time of 4 am this morning, standing in the middle of the Kampitie Garden was a Thai Pagoda! I do not know the equivalent of the name Aladdin in Thai, so, I will say "Unnop"!



During last week, I constructed a rough trellis structure after Annikki dug deep to put in the foundations. In the process she found her father's building rubbish grave of 52 years ago as well as the chicken bones from their building time lunch hours! We have a collection of 50 year old bent nails!





On Saturday evening, when Joanna and family came and she cooked us a scrumptious dinner (creamed garlic flavoured roast potatos, roast chicken - 3 types, and a tomato cucumber salad - Pailin and Unnop contributed by sending us their fabulous Thai Glass Noodle spicy vegetarian salad), the structure was just about standing.



I completed it on Sunday evening. Then Annikki and I had painted it a nice forest green by Sunday night. The structure had taken a character of of its own.

Yesterday Annikki and I scoured the shops for a suitable roofing material. After much thought we settled on a willow fence which we put up yeaterday evening.

Late yesterday evening, I gave Unnop a large sheet of pine wood ply and an electric pendulum-lift keyhole saw yesterday evening.

Annikki was busy getting the garden tidy when I went to bed last night at about midnight.

At about half past one, when I usually go down for a glass of water, I looked out of the kitchen window and noticed some activity in the garden. As I was in my dazed sleepy state, I did not make any move to find out what was going on!



At 4 am, when I got up, Annikki had still not come to bed. So I dressed and went into the garden to see her covered with paint and the most beautiful structure standing in the garden around Annikki's famed bathtub pond, which has become the breeding place for our goldfish. We now have about 30 goldfish fry in the tub hiding under the lotus flowers and leaves!



Not only had Unnop, Pailin and Soda come and put up the finishing touches which converted the trellis into Thai Pagoda, Annikki had painted it and furnished the inside with her African Wind Chime, metal cow bells, as well as flowers and hanging plants in coconut shells.

We now have the centre-piece of the Kampitie Garden in all its glory.





I am surrounded by creative artists - Annikki, Joanna, Pailin, Unnop - all true geniuses in their own right.

I thank my Maker every day for blessing me with so much love, affection and talent (that I lack), and for making my life so complete!

Indian Government starts blocking blogs!

(Cross-posted on all my major blogs.)

Freedom, democracy and freedom of speech have been thrown to the winds by the irrational action of the Government of India when they told Indian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to various blogs. This can only be done by blocking access to the entire blog service provider and my blogs are, therefore, not accessible by my readers in India.

I also learnt that most, if not all, Indian ISPs have followed the directive.

Economic Times, India Tuesday July 19th 2006:

DoT casts a cloud on bloggers' paradise

Cathedralite 56er HS Uberoi, one of my faithful readers of my "Seventh Heaven" blog alerted me to this when he emailed me with this:'

Dear Jacob,

I don't know whether you are aware that effective today the Government of India has blocked access to ALL blogsites.

I cannot believe that even your nostalgic Cathedral School and St.Stephen's College sites cannot be accessed by us in India!!

I am at a total loss for words!!

Yours in shock.

Ubi

If you have friends in India who want to continue to access my blogs, even occasionally, please email them and ask them to contact me by email and I will give then the surefire way to continue access.

No Government can stop the internet - as there are many many ways round any censorship, many not known to the stupid politicians who think they are being clever by imposing such foolish bans!!

I will not publish all the methods here for reasons which are obvious.

Strange leaf colour? Saturday puzzle?

As Annikki and I walked around the Kampitie garden yesterday evening, truly enjoying it in all its glory, Annikki pointed to some leaves which had a strange colouration.



She said that she had not seen this earlier. It was now visible on different plants leaves.

Any of you have a clue for this strange purplish coluring?

Annikki thought it was possibly due to the high UV in the sunshine at these latitudes which is also the reason for a high incidence of skin cancer here!











The flowers are still continuing to bloom and the garden is most colourful although we are fast approaching the end of summer and moving into the autumn in about a month's time. The temperatures have been sizzling but rain is expected tonight and possibly ground frost tomorrow morning!

Suomen Cup 2006?

Cup for what?

Ice Hockey, Salibandy, or one of the many traditional sports of Finland, as the mad mad Swamp football, or who lasts longest in the hottest of hot saunas?

Today, I travelled about 10 km north of Oulu to see the Suomen (Finnish) Cup 2006 for Rugby.



It was a truly glorious day for an outdoor sport. A virtually cloudless sky and a gentle breeze which made the summer temperature of 30 C seem quite comfortable.





The Oulu team were practicing till the very last moment!



The event was organised by an Oulu Team member, Mikko Koljonen, who was unable to play because of an injured shoulder.

There were not many teams - Oulu, Helsinki and the Barbarians, composed of some Finnish Intertnationals from Helsinki Warriors, and a few others.

The event started at exactly 12 noon with the Oulu side playing against Helsinki.

The Oulu side literally walked all over the Helsinki side winning with a comfortable score of 24 points to 5.



After a break. Oulu played against the Barbarians.

Despite the Internationals in the Barbarian side, Oulu were comfortable winners with a score of 26 points to 12.



The coach of the Oulu side, Roger Holden, was happy with the performance oif the Oulu team.

One Oulu player, who has suffered a dislocated shoulder in an earlier event, still wanted to play in ther Suomen Cup. It did not do him much good. The shoulder was badly affected yet again.

The play-off between Helsinki and the Barbarian side was only a formality.

The games were 10-a-side.

It was decided to have a 15-a-side game to end the day, with a mix of the teams.

The organisers made a very informative leaflet about the whole sport of Rugby and its entry into Finland. They hope to bring it out earlier in coming years and distribute it at more places so as to generate an interest in a sport, which the Finns consider to be less dangerous than even football.

Certainly, Rugby is a great sport, and unlike football, has many aspects to it which are truly interesting. To a newcomer, the decisions of the referee and the signals he makes may look quite strange.

For instance, a team is only allowed to pass the Rugby oval ball "backwards"!



Referee for this game was a former Rugby player from Oulu, Erasmus van Niekerk (I hope I got his name correct), who hails from South Africa. He was fair and correct. Not a single decision was queried by any players on the ground!



Oulu Coach Rogen and Referee Erasmus shared a word after the second victory of the afternoon of the Oulu team.

A great afternoon. I must thank my friends of the Oulu Rugby side for inviting me to attend. I certainly hope many more in Oulu take up this exciting sport. They will certainly enjoy the excellent spirit of the Oulu team members.

Well done Oulu!

Saturday Puzzle - Logic needed

Last week's puzzle would normally be described as a Paradox.

But it really is NOT one.

No one came up with the right answer!

I am sure that Hashim will insist that as he was not here but in Turkey, that was why he could not answer the puzzle! Shalu in Chennai must have been on holiday! Susanna in Billinghay was probably enjoying her Sabbath week from puzzles! Dr. Gonzales was probaly mourning the loss of Brazil in the World Cup to worry about temperatures. Our 9 year old grandson, Samuel, has been away at a summer camp, far away from any computer - so I am sure he has a valid excuse!

Knowing him, I am reasonably sure he would probably have solved it. :-)

The way of answering this question is to convert 0 Celsius (C) to Fahrenheit (F).

This means the 0 C temperature is 32 F.

If it is twice as cold the next day, then it would be 16 F which converted would be -8.9 C!

So we can see that

0 x 2 = -8.9

No paradox here.

This week's puzzle will really test your logic skills.

You enter a room in which there are three light switches. These are connected individually to 3 light bulbs in the next room. You are unable to see into the second room from the first.

You can turn on and off the switches in the first room as many times you want.

How can you find out which switch belongs to which bulb, if you may enter the room with the bulbs ONLY ONCE?

Have a great week.