Thai culture in Oulu

(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)

The sleepy town of Oulu has never seen such rich culture from the Orient as it did yesterday, and I was proud to be a part of it.



The Thai people who live in Oulu who have been busy building a tradition of Thai food, brought much of the heritage in the form of food, music and dance, as well as their reverance to their religion (Buddhism) and their Monarchy to Oulu yesterday.

Special thanks to the two dynamic people who organised this event - Unnop and Pailin. Unnop is the owner of the Pailin Restaurant located in the Kasarmi area in the shadow of Intiö.

The event was held to celebrate the birthday of the Thai Queen. This has been made synonymous to Mother's Day in Thailand.

The present Thai Monarchy is the longest surviving one in the world. They are loved and respected by the people of Thailand as they stand for love and affection of the people of that great country. Thailand is a democracy, but even the most radical of politicians accept the will of the Monarch as they know he uses wisdom and not political greed when he makes a suggestion.



Finnmatkat, who are one of Finland's leading travel agencies were present to inform about the new direct Oulu to Thailand flights that are being introduced this December.



Artist Rakchanok Pöllänen (née Phunsawat) from Kanchanaburi, wife of Petri Pöllanen, showed the art of vegetable and soap carving with many examples of her work on display. The master carver, Unnop, held the audience spellbound as he carved a watermelon.



There was an exqiuisite performance of Thai dancing by a bevy of beautiful Thai ladies.



And Omena, a Thai beauty, showed the audience how lithe she was as she swayed to the great music played by three young Thai musicians, Khim Surasit Munkmeesri (base guitar, right), Soda (Thai guitar) and Chanyut Nongbua (not seen in this picture).



And the audience of Thais, Finns and other nationalities joined in the dancing to the haunting music.





The exhibition of the art and tradition associated with Thai boxing also was truly eye-stopping as the two teenage boys, Khim Surasit Munkmeesri and Chanyut Ningbua (son of June Bunchuen Koskela), went through the paces of a typical fight.



Hostess Pailin performed better than any professional crooner and the audience rose and cheered her rendition of many Thai favourites as Omena showed that you need not be dressed wth finery to perform a Thai dance!



Inside the restaurant the Thai Buddhist Monk gave darshan to the people and talked to the audience of unity and moral strength.

Several Chaff participants turned up as we had made this the CHAFF meeting for this week.



CHAFF founder Bill Zhang from China was present.



As also was co-founder Kamutaza Tembo from Zambia.



And several expressed their interest in coming to future CHAFF meetings like this beautiful and intelligent Chinese doll, Annie.

Gizela from Germany and Aruna from India.


Kaija from Finland and Usman from Africa.


Kannan came all the way from Rauma to attend.


A cross-section of the huge audience.





The audience represented the entire spectrum of the cosmopolitan life of Oulu from Finns of all ages to people from all corners of the globe bring both colour and a feeling of love and unity to the entire event.



Four local youngsters watched proceedings from afar as we went and asked them to join in!

Many people helped to make this event a grand success.



Rin flew in from Helsinki to help his longtime friend, Unnop, with the arrangements and the cooking.



Jarmo, who has lived in Thailand and learnt to be a Monk acted as the Master of Ceremonies and did yoeman service.





Esa who has just moved into the area near the restaurant not only helped in making the arrangements and cleaning the tables as early as 4.30 in the morning, but he also ran a sausage fry stall!







Rakchanok and Petri Pöllänen, seen relaxing here after the event, were the real stalwarts behind this event as they even brought the special T-Shirts from Thailand and also the traditional musical instruments that were used by the musicians.



The signing of the get-well message to the King of Thailand who is recuperating after an operation was a feature of the event. The book containing the signatures will leave for Thailand on the 27th of this month.

It is sad that some people who did nothing to organise or set up this festival tried to hi-jack the credit to themselves. Credit goes to the people named above and a few more who really dedicated themselves to the success of this event without any thought of making a profit of the proceedings. But others tried to use this event to make a bit of money out of it. That is sad, BUT LUCKILY THEY DID NOT SUCCEED IN THEIR EFFORTS.

As more pictures reach me I will post them on the blog. The pictures above are mainly courtesy of Kannan and also Unnop and Pailin who used Kannan's camera to take some of the shots.

Is it more safer than before 9/11?

(Cross-posted on my Jacob's Politics Blog.)

This is the advice which has been put out for travellers travelling out of a UK Airport:

With immediate effect, the following arrangements apply to all passengers starting their journey at a UK airport and to those transferring between flights at a UK airport.

All cabin baggage must be processed as hold baggage and carried in the hold of passenger aircraft departing UK airports.

Passengers may take through the airport security search point, in a single (ideally transparent) plastic carrier bag, only the following items. Nothing may be carried in pockets:

# Pocket-size wallets and pocket-size purses plus contents (for example money, credit cards, identity cards etc (not handbags)

# Travel documents essential for the journey (for example passports and travel tickets)

# Prescription medicines and medical items sufficient and essential for the flight (eg, diabetic kit), except in liquid form unless verified as authentic

# Spectacles and sunglasses, without cases

# Contact lens holders, without bottles of solution

# For those travelling with an infant: baby food, milk (the contents of each bottle must be tasted by the accompanying passenger) and sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight (nappies, wipes, creams and nappy disposal bags)

# Female sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight, if unboxed (eg tampons, pads, towels and wipes)

# Tissues (unboxed) and/or handkerchiefs

# Keys (but no electrical key fobs). All passengers must be hand searched, and their footwear and all the items they are carrying must be X-ray screened.

Pushchairs and walking aids must be X-ray screened, and only airport-provided wheelchairs may pass through the screening point.

In addition to the above, all passengers boarding flights to the USA and all the items they are carrying, including those acquired after the central screening point, must be subjected to secondary search at the boarding gate.

Is the UK more safe than before 9/11?

Figure!

Nature Day

Today can best be described as Nature Day.





At 06:30 am, I was driving to Joanna's house to drop off Samu's spectacles which he left in my car yesterday. I saw two hare sitting very quietly, looking intently at each other.

I also saw many great red squirrels today. It was so hot that they seemed to be scurrying around looking for water.

Unfortunately I did not have my camera.

Our dear cat, Iitu, brought in and consumed a wild bird during the day, leaving just a few feathers on the carpet. She made a huge event out of it meowing to get Annikki and me to react. We both just scolded her for her indiscretion.



In the evening, when Annikki was enjoying the late sunshine, she called out that there was a large hedgehog in the garden.



We watched it for quite a while and we wondered where it was headed. Then we saw that it was on its way to meet is mate in another part of the garden.





Living in a town, it is not often when we see so many wild animals in the garden or in the immediate surrounds, even though we are surrounded by forests.

But today was unusual and refreshing.

Monday is fun day

As i was getting back from my morning chores there was a call from Joanna asking for some help - so I landed at the doorstep and got custody of both Merran and Samu.



I took them to our special "secret park" where there are thrills for kids and they had a glorious time.





From there we went to the Traffic Park and while the kids were tearing around in the pedal cars, I lay down in the beautiful sunshine on the green grass and had a snooze!

The afternoon was spent helping Ildi and Ilari take home a new sofa and get rid of an old one, and we ended up by having a great feast of chicken wings at the Pailin Restaurant. Merran had a ham and pineapple pizza and tried the chicken wings with yoghurt to follow - "Too sppiced", she said.

In the evening Samu had football practice. Merran came along as the football field is next to a skateboard centre. Merran is keen on skateboards. We also saw some great trick cycling by some local kids.







Samu and Merran did some self-photography and also took some awful shots of Grandpa!

On the way home (at 8:30 pm) I suggested that they may enjoy seeing the sunset from the beach at 10:10 pm. I suggested they be especially nice to their moms and then ask permission to come out with Grandpa. It worked!





Samu and Merran spent a few minutes atop the observation tower at Land's End!



After sunset, we had fun at the Nallikari Children's Park. Merran and Samu climbed on top of the Stone Igloo.







Crazy man Samu went round and round and tound in this dizzy dizzy chair!



When we got home, it was well past 11:30 pm - the latest Samu has been allowed to stay out with me!

Saturday Puzzle and a walk through the graveyard

Here is a puzzle attributed to the great scientist and Mathematician, Albert Einstein.

There are 5 houses in 5 different colours. In each house lives a person of a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. Using the clues below can you determine who owns the fish?

The Brit lives in a red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea.
The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.
The green house owner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man living in the house right in the middle drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Blend lives next door to the one who keeps cats.
The man who keeps horses lives next door to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The owner who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
The German smokes Prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
The man who smokes Blend has a neighbour who drinks water.

You may need a perncil and paper to solve this one - but it is fun.

On Wednesady I took my rabbit (nickname for my aged 1985 Ford Escort) for the MOT. It passed without a problem. The tester told me that the engine had a small oil leak and he also said that one of the axle connections may be a bit worn.

I had had the car checked by my regular mechanic, who had also warned me that the right front tyre connection to axle was weak.

So on Thursday I gave my car in for getting it properly fixed. It cost me an arm and a leg but by Thursday avening I got my car back in a great condition which should trouble free for another year!

When I gave my car in for repair, as it was going to take a few hours, I decided to walk home. I had to walk through the Oulu graveyard.

The graveyard is beautifully maintained with flowers and plants at each grave being tended by the graveyard staff.



I decided to pay a visit to my father-in-law's grave and I paid my silent respect to a man who treated me better than any father treats his own son.

As I walked down a little way from his grave, I was surprised to the gravestone of a person with exactly the same name who had died a few years earlier to my father-in-law.



I paid a small tribute also to this unknown Matti Reinikka who had been 14 years younger to my father-in-law.

More excitement as the week progressed

On Tuesday night a friend of Joanna, Mel, arrived in Oulu from Newcastle with her daughter, Merran. I met up with them on Wednesdady and I took Samu and Meryn out to lunch to the Pailin Restaurant.

When Merran heard that I had many young people who had adopted me as their dad or their grandpa, she asked me, so sweetly, whether I would also be her Grandpa.

3 of my many grandchildren - Samu, Merran and Daniel.


Samu and Merran in Annikki's sand pit.

Merran is just 9 going on to 10 next month and is a sweet and lovely girl - I had no hesitation in adding one more grandchild to my brood.

We now have to break the news to Asha in England that she now has a new cousin!


Mel and Annikki in the garden.


Joanna and Daniel.

On Thursday, Joanna took the kids to the Children's Park. As she, Tony and Mel had to rush off to a dinner which would have been too spiced for Samu and Meryn, she asked me to help out looking after the two of them.


Merran starts her training on a dodgem car type motorcycle.


Merran handles the car with no problems.
She learnt Finnish driving rules.


Samu and Merran are swallowed by the fish.


Samu is raging to go jumping in the castle.


Samu and Merran with friends Josh and Jessica

I rushed to take over at the park. They were having a great time as can be seen fromthe photographs. After that we ended the day with plates of French Fries at the Pailin Restaurant!

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.