Annikki's Freedom

As Hilja went into the Old People's Home after a 5 week stint at home, it was time for Annikki to make a trip out of the home.

This time she was accopmanied by granddaughter, Asha.



They made a visit to Annikki's favourite Fleamarket, the Pentecostal one behind the Pentecostal Church on Uusikatu. Then, they went to a oddments and assortments store, Timari, followed by a visit to the department store, Stockman.

During the time they had their spree at the shops in the city, I quickly made a visit to the Heinäpää heated football grounds to see Soda practicing with the Tervarit 91 Musta side. The Tervarit Senior Musta side was also practicing at the same time.

There was still plenty of snow lying around, as can be seen, both in the foreground and on the little hill behind the pitch.



I was especially pleased to note that Soda is becoming more confident in the way he handles his tacklers. But he still has a long way to go in fitness and speed to be able to make a real contribution to the team with his natural footballing skill.

I rushed back in time to help Annikki and Asha complete their shopping.

When we got home, Asha gave me a belated birthday present - a tea mug with a beautifully printed pattern of a lakeside scene, not only around the exterior, but also on the handle and with a small inlay print. The colours, especially the bright reds and the vibrant yellows, are simply beautiful. I am going to enjoy many a cup of early morning and late evening tea in this mug.

Asha's present - beautiful tea mug

Accompanying it was matching gift card. I am indeed a very lucky granddad to have such beautiful and loving grandchildren.

I have already started using the mug.

Asha and BBC Look North on Home Education

On Monday, the BBC Look North TV News prgramme which serves Lincolnshire and parts of East Yorkshire carried a segment on Home Education, which featured Asha, Susanna and Chris. It was watchable on the computer, but I could not determine how to save the clip. Susanna has it on video and if I can find a way, I shall get the clip onto my computer. Asha really came across really beautifully.

Asha and Susanna arrived in Oulu on Tuesday evening. Part of Asha's "Home Education" is for a few days in my care.

Yesterday was an exciting day for us as we went to the place where all the scrap metal in Oulu is collected. When I had taken Samu there a few years ago, on a similar Home Education binge, they had a crusher which crushed cars into small boxes, but they did not have it there presently. There were plenty of old cars and buses lying around.

Finnish Steptoe & Son


Awaiting crushing


Weighing scale for buying and selling scrap

Asha went wild photographing all the scrap including the metal shavings and the weighing scale on which they weigh scrap if anyone wants to sell some to the yard.


Metal shavings.

Our next port of call was the Zoological Museum of the University of Oulu focuses on northern nature and species, where along one wall you can see the entire topography as well animal life and vegetation in Finland from north to south. There are about 50 000 vertebrate and about two million invertebrate specimens in the museum. Besides the Museum's own collecting activity, authorities and private citizens bring to the Museum wild animals, that they have found dead. The material collected in students' thesis research also becomes part of the Museum's collections.

Asha again went wild with the camera, photographing all sorts of things, from this tiny winter snow "mongoose", correctly known as the "Least Weasel", known in Finnish as the Lumikko to an the elks head along with mine! This white Lumikko is a bloodthirsty animal, accouding to Annikki.


Finnish snow "mongoose", the "Least Weasel",
and known in Finnish as the Lumikko


Brainless heads

I retaliated by snapping Asha with a friend!


Beautiful couple - polar bear with Asha

We met a nice family from South Africa. The daughter is studying in the University and the parents were visiting. I was able to tell them the significance of the wall which was the creation of a single individual over a period of 13 years during the time I was working in the University. Probably the best visit to make when in Oulu to learn something about Finland!

Home Education continues today.

As I was putting this page up, I got information on my hotline from Madras (K. George - Georgie) that niece Shilpa, younger daughter of Mammen (Kunjumonchayan) and Omena Eapen, gave birth to a baby boy who was born today at 6 am Indian Standard Time. Best wishes to the family soon from all of us in Finland and hope you are home . Let us have a photograph of the family soon for the archives.



Talking about babies, as I was waiting for Annikki and Asha at a large department store in Oulu, one of Joanna's good friends from China, who lives in Oulu, walked by with husband, mother, daughter and their new born addition.

Four generation girls at Kampitie

Susaana and Asha arrived yesterday afternoon from England to spend Easter with us. Annikki's mother is at home, so I captured this picture of four generations of girls. Annikki thinks it is hilarious!



Mika looks down at the situation.



Siddarth and three Polish friends, all of whom study at Kuopio University, are passing through Oulu on their way to the north. They spent the night in one of the lovely cottages on the beach, which sleeps 4. The Polish students was amazed at the compact cottage style and one of them was scared to sleep in the attic style sleeping place!

Siddarth and one of his friends resting at the cottage.


Siddarth's Polish friends.

Hope they have a great trip to Lapland and into Norway.

Stupendous news

(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)

The CHAFF Meeting this Sunday was quite a small affair as most people were recovering from the all night party of last week. I heard that people were wandering home even as early as 5:30 am last Sunday!

However, we were given the most stupendous news at the tail end of the meeting.

Ildikó and Ilari arrived late and broke us the news which was like music to all assembled.

Ilari had proposed to Ildikó on Saturday! And Ildikó has accepted.

It took the form of the treasure hunt, treasure unknown to Ildikó, which led up to the final proposal being found posted on the side of a water filling station in a remote corner of Oulu!

Our favourite young CHAFF couple

Typically Ilari character. He loves to play games.

It is the first CHAFF announcement of marriage news in Finland. Everyone was thrilled.

All of us at CHAFF wish this popular couple all the very best.

Ilari has been a family friend for over 15 years and is one of our family. And we heartily welcome Ildikó into our family.

If they have even half the success of my marriage to Annikki, they will have a great one!

Kaleva publishes picture of my birthday present

Our local newspaper, Kaleva, today published a picture of my hilarious Birthday Present created for me by Annikki.

In a few days it will be in the archives of the Reader's Pictures, but I have scanned in this from the newspaper.



See the picture in my blog entry for 3rd April for a better quality picture.

I still have not stopped laughing at this!

Celebrations in Bangalore

I just had this from Anand Matthan, younger son of my late Godfather George Matthan.

Anand, with Susheela and Pushpa, daughters of Anniekochamma
and Kochupapen and me in a light-hearted mood -
Picture, thanks to Shalu, Anand's wife

Put this date 6th May 2006 on your calendar.

Dear Sushil,

Just thought that I should let you know about the impending 60th Wedding Anniversary of Kochupappen and Anniekochamma. It takes place on 6th May 2006.


(Ed: Anniekochamma and Kochupappen
Picture of Anniekochamma, thanks to Shalu, Anand's wife)

I thought it appropriate all of us who have touched 65 to celebrate this happy event.

We plan to do so at Bangalore Club on that day and even I, in my present state, am planning to go to Bangalore.

I used to make that visit every month but now have done it only once since I was laid low.

This day we will also remember Lalith (Ed: Son of Geeta and Moni, 35 in January, no picture), Joanna (Ed: Daughter of Annikki and myself, presently studying medicine in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 35 in January), Rahul (Ed: Son of Anand and Shalu and a leading lawyer in Bangalore, 35 in January) and Yasmin (Ed: Daughter of Ajit and Omena presently living in Malaysia, 35 in May), who were all born in 1971 and are / will this year be 35.


(Ed: Tony, Joanna), Daniel and
Samuel, June 2005 ©Nirupa)


(Ed: Ajeet, who will be 65, and his family
which includes daughter, Yasmin)


(Ed: No picture OF Rahul
Outstanding picture BY Rahul (Anand's son)
Nandi Hills)

And, of course, the 90th birthday of Chinchai.


(Ed: Chinchaya, my ever young-at-heart Godmother in 1936)

Wish that all of you could be here.

That would have been the icing on the cake, but such is life.

In fact, only Lalith will be there to represent the other three - Joanna being in England, Rahul on a business trip to USA and Yasmin in Malaysia.

Affectionately

Anand

Certainly wish we could be there.

Visit Balu's Blog

Last year, I made a couple of new friends here in Oulu. They had come here from different parts of India to do some language "localisation" for Nokia.

One of them lives in Bangalore with his family and is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Kannada Studies, at the University of Agricultural Studies in Hebbal. Balakrishna Jnardhana, known more commonly as Balu, is a specialist in languages. I have found of late that he is a great cartoonist and also a brilliant writer.

Balu, Renuka, Anaya, Shashank, Bangalore 2005

Do visit his blog which he is called Balu's Fumbles and you will find not only examples of his cartoons but his distinctive style of writing.

I am including a link to his blog in my list if links to blogs by my friends. A very worthwhile addition as you will note from his latest entry "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...."

Welcome to our world of blogging Balu.

Puzzle Time of this week

This weeks Puzzlew is not grotesque!



Last week's puzzle was much too easy.

Laughing one's life away

I started yesterday in splits of laughter (see the earlier post), and all through the day I kept giggling to myself, thinking at the shock I got when I looked out of the kitchen window to see that snowman with the "Happy Birthday" sign!

Annikki made a delicious pineapple / peach cake, but we only got to eat it around 10 pm.

Pentti, Pailin and Unnop dropped in just at that time and got a piece of the cake.





They came to see Annikki's garden lights. The lights were truly magnificent.



Pailin got to sit in the snow wigwam!



Annikki showed them the main tools she used to create her snow garden. The shovel and a lot of shoulder power!



And it was way past my bedtime when our really wonderful guests left after having a heart-to-heart chat with Annikki.



It was a really great birthday with the snowman, the 200 or more emails, greeting cards, online greeting cards, telephone greetings with even Ildikó and Ilari singing in Tune greetings over the phone, and our very dear friend Eino Kaitera taking time to give me a call, Skype greetings from many many countries, and even personal visitors at this remote location.

And, the last two people that I got to talk to were grandchildren Asha and Samu - and that was what really made it such a wonderful day for me.

Thank you all for making it such unique occasion. I feel absolutely honoured to have such a wide range of loving family and friends in every corner of the world.

Pailin launches yet another great product

Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog

Here is stomach-breaking news.

Annikki and i were privileged to taste the latest of the products to find their way into the Pailin menu.

You may be familiar with the Thai Sweet Chilli Kebab Wrap. It is a really convenient and delicious food.

However, the Sweet Chilli Sauce goes best with roast chicken.

This product really gets your juices going.

There are some secrets in this product which make it a new real and major addition to Thai cusine. I am not at liberty to divulge those details, but I understand why this product will really hit the headlines.









I raved over it. When I took one home for Annikki, she thought it was just great.

Annikki! What a woman!

When I woke up this morning and came down for my first cup of tea, I glanced out of the kitchen window, and this is what I saw:



She toiled 6 hours yesterday to create the winter garden that I showed in my previous post. And all for me!

What a wonderful birthday greeting and present - much more than money can buy!

Snowman's snow

Annikki has been waiting for a long time this winter for a day like today. Plenty of fresh snow - it snowed yesterday, a warmish day, and a resulting sticky snow.

I went to see Nageshwari and Kiran, to pick up a computer donated by an Indian engineer, who has returned to India, for a needy student.

Nageshwari and Kiran are Mysoreans. Nageshwari had made some delicious masala dosais and coconut chutney for me! I scoffed four of them.

I took the computer to give to the student, did some important chores en route and when I returned home by 8 pm, I looked out of the kitchen window and found this staring object back at me!



I rushed out to see what had been happening outside. It was evident that I was not the only surprised individual.



Our cat, Iitu, was also surveying the new constructions that had sprung up in our absence!

I tried various combinations on our terrible digital camera to get the true spirit of Annikki's handiwork. Unfortunately it was not possible to do justice to her superb creativity!

Annikki and our neighbour, who also enjoys garden lights and creations, were exchanging notes!

I managed to get this rather strange shot.



And this shot captured the true beauty of the corner of the Kampitie pond corner with the underwater lighting of the pond, the Finnish "kota" (a Laplander's wigwam but made out of snow without any frame or mould) and the snowman who is waving to Annikki's mother, who sits above it looking out of the kitchen window!



With the gruelling schedule that Annikki keeps, looking after the house, looking after her mother, writing articles on social and political issues, changing the insides of the house every other day, I do not know how she has this boundless energy to create stuff out of her "snowman's snow".

Time for a sauna to warm the insides.

Microsoft bugs Google

I do not want to start a typical Microsoft vs Apple battle here, but the focus of Microsoft disruption strategy seems to have shifted from Apple to its largest rival of today, Google.

Sadly, Google is fighting back with its hands tied behind its back, and the do-good goody shoes attitude could result in the downfall of this giant.

The latest was yesterday when the Google Mail programme "gmail" in most parts of the world and "googlemail" in the UK, suffered a major world outage which lasted several minutes.

Reason - the "inability" of the Microsoft "Windows" operating system to handle a simple delay in Australia of the change of the time change from Summer time to Winter time!

This article "Microsoft bug cripples Google quantum-based spam filtering" by Adam Turner appeared in the Australia "The Sydney Herald" on April 1, 2006.

Google's quantum-based spam filtering launch was thrown into chaos today due to Microsoft Windows's inability to cope with Australia's daylight savings changes.

Google's long-awaited quantum-based spam filtering project went online today, continuing the internet giant's tradition of launching new features, such as Gmail, on April 1.

More...

Daylight savings was extended in Australia this year, ending this weekend, to allow for Melbourne's Commonwealth Games - but Windows lacks the flexibility to handle such changes. As such, the analysis of Australian inboxes from Windows users saw the system attempt to process 25 hours worth of data.

The resulting quantum fluctuations created a feedback loop which engulfed London's Supercomputing Methods Experimental Group (SMEG) research centre where the project is based.

More.....

Was this article an April Fool's plant?

If I had not suffered the gmail outage at exactly the Australian midnight hour, I would have thought so.

The gmail programme was unable to do anything, even though I am not running the Windows platform, so the bug was a cross-system one.

Kudos to Google for solving the problem in about 14 minutes (from my personal experience). The dialog kept asking me to try again "in a few seconds", but it was a full 14 minutes before the sytem was restored. If life critical operations based on gmail had to be undertaken at that exact moment of time, there would have been chaos, as 14 minutes is far more than can be borne in such situations!

If, in fact, this chaos was created by the incompetence of people in Microsoft, I think we, along with Google, should have a Class Action suit against Microsoft for disruption of the international computing network because of bad system design.

Anyone interested in joining me on this?

Midi and Mini - What a Flap!

(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)

I am not talking about skirt lengths!

The Thai Pailin Restaurant (Kenttätie 9, Kasarmi Area) have tested two new products on Annikki and me yesterday - the Midi Flap and the Mini Flap.

It is rather nice to be food tasting test pigs for a good restaurant!

The Midi Pizza Flap







The Mini Pizza Flap
















After the success of their full size Pizza Flap, they have come up with these two products for the not so hungry and the fast-food Pizza addicts with not so much money in their pockets.

And, it is not an unhealthy fast food!

Fast food giant, Macdonald's could take some lessons from this enterprising small restaurant.

It is possible to choose the fillings in these Flaps to your personal taste.

The Mini Flap is ideal for parties. Keep them warm in a hot case and serve them up with an accompanying salad bowl.

Great work - Unnop and Pailin.

Puzzle Time

Last week's puzzle was very very easy - the Duck and the Rabbit were spotted by almost everyone. Susanna was the first to get back to me by email, and then we had over 200 who saw the two animals.

Many had complained that the cow of the previous week was not very clear. Once they saw the marked picture, it became obvious that the eye can be very deceiving. Most retracted their complaint!

This week's is very very simple. Asha already got it - 10 seconds.

What two animals can be seen in this drawing.



Have fun.

(Just realised that Puzzle Time is 24 hours ahead of schedule!)

Hilja with her hat

The other day, when I checked Hilja in the morning, I found her half off the bed as she had made every effort to get hold of a decorative hat hanging on the wall - which she was then clutching in her hands.

I put her back to bed.

When I told Annikki, she removed the hat from the room. Too dangerous as Hilja cannot stay on her feet, without support, for very long.

Today, Annikki was having some fun with her mother, Hilja.

Hilja loves hats so when Annikki put one on the table, Hilja had to have it on her head!

Hilja with her floral hat and apron

Annikki decided to take off her apron.

We have this picture of Hilja and her floral hat.


Hilja with her floral hat.

Mother and daughter certainly enjoy these games!

Anneli visits Oulu

Hilja, Annikki's mother's 86th birthday was on the 14th of March. Daughter, Anneli, Annikki's younger sister, who lives just outside Helsinki could not come up on the day.

She had to attend a conference in Oulu University on Friday, so she arrived in Oulu on Thursday evening to spend the weekend at home with her mother.

On Saturday, she visited their sister, Aino, in their new home, which she with her persistence, was instrumental in organising.



Later in the evening Anneli and Annikki celebrated their mother's birthday by making a cake for her.



Anneli has taken up a very creative hobby of knitting colourful woollen socks. Here is a selection of some her designs.



The black and white striped one is mine to use when I work in the cellar. Thanks, Anneli.

Vamsi puts the Best Buy camera to test

(Cross-posted in the Best Buy and CHAFF Blogs.)

Many of you will remember how Vamsi got a real bargain of a 7.2 megapixel camera for jut Euro 199.

This one beat the one we got for Paneer, but as Paneer was time-bound, he got the Best Buy of that day!

Vamsi has been kind enough to share some of the absolutely great photographs he got when he went to Iso-Syöte, the downhill ski centre an hour and a half from Oulu, with his colleagues from the Technical Faculty at Oulu University.

I share below some of the great photography of a master photographer in the making.

I was looking fortward to the action photo taken while Vamsi was skiing down the slope with the camera strapped to his chest! :-)

Majestic view from the top of the hill
with the top of a pair of ski's in the foreground.
Great composition.


This snow formation is truly a masterpiece.


This just that you techies know the problems faced
in Finland for transmission of signals!

Anyone like to hazard a guess how they clean up the masts and the dishes?

Keep those photos coming, Vamsi, AND Paneer.

Oldest resident of Oulu passes away

Valde Tenhula was born in 1900 in a small village just south of Oulu, Kärsämänkylä in Temmes.

At the age of 22 he left for the US but returned in 1929 after 7 years in that country.

He has lived and worked in and around Oulu ever since. He had distinguished service in the Finnish Army, being a decorated war veteran.

We used to see him at the Hirosen Old People's Home almost every time we went to drop off or collect Annikki's mother.

But he was shifted to the Tuira Old People's Home some time ago.

His last moments of his 105 years in this world were spent at the Tuira Old People's Home, where Mika worked, when he was a teenager, looking after old people.

Valde Tenhula was the oldest registered resident of Oulu.

May his sould rest in peace.