An interesting start to the week

Many of you have complained that the Saturday Puzzle did not appear. Forgive me, but life has been rather full these days.

After the great CHAFF meeting last Sunday, Isaac and family dropped in to see Annikki and her garden. Their programme was so tight that they did not even have time to step inside the house!

Daughter's friend Sheeba and Isaac's elder daughter, Anita.


Tony, Isaac and Nalla.

On Monday, Joanna and family and I joined Isaac and family for dinner at the only Indian restaurant in Oulu, the New Bombay. The owner, Tapon Bangabashi from Bangladesh, was there to look after us. The food has improved considerably except that he continues to use a lot of oil, far more than is required or is healthy.

Tapon won the Oulu Garlic Night Coking Competition for the best dish with a garlic/lentil soup preparation.



I had met him the at Wholesale Market just after his win. I snapped the proud and beaming winner! He and his wife, Hannele, worked hard for this victory. It was nice of Tapon to pay credit to his wife, publicly, for the win.

When I set out at 4:30 am on Tuesday morning to pick up Nalla and two of the girls (younger daughter Sareena and her friend Sheeba) to take them to the airport, as I passed one of the the main buildings on the way, I got the shock of my life when I saw the temperature on the large electronic signboard. I did not have a camera so doubled back at around 5:30 am. Although the temperature had risen slightly, it was a terrible foreboding of what lies around the corner!


Was it really -28 C at 5:30 am on a summer morning in Oulu?

(Interesting episode at Oulu Airport: Nalla and the girls were to fly from Oulu to Helsinki, change to SAS for the leg from Helsinki to Copenhagen and on to London, and then fly Air Canada to Toronto and to their final leg from Torronto to San Francisco. They had four pieces of luggage which they wanted booked through to their final destination. The guy at the Finnair check-in counter tried numerous times to check the luggage through. He asked his friend at the next counter and then his boss. They discovered that the Finnair computer only allows baggage to be booked to upto 3 journey legs. This would have meant collecting their baggage at London Heathrow, which is usually a mess as they have to change terminals. So they had to collect their baggage at Copenhagen and rebook them. Copenhagen is a nicer airport than Heathrow and also they had more time at their disposal between flights at this stop!)

Because I did not have my camera I missed another important photograph of a drunk man sprawled across the street on a pedestrian crossing at 4:30 am!

What has life become when on a Tuesday morning one comes across such a sight in the centre of Oulu in front of the City Hall.

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!