Thai Artists - Made in Finland

(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)

The other day Annikki was given a present which really was unique - a carved soap.



I wonder whether she will ever use this work of art!

It was the creation of a Thai artist, Ann, Rakchanok Pöllänen (née Phunsawat) from Kanchanaburi, Thailand, who resides in Oulu, Finland with her Finnish husband, Petri Pöllänen (whom we call Patrick), who amongst other things is a volleyball referee.



Ann is truly unique in that she carves a special soap with the most intricate of floral designs. A special soap has to be used as normal soaps are too waxy and crumble under the delicate touch of the artist's carving knife.





Now Ann is launching sales in Finland of her specially carved soaps under a "Designed and Made in Finland" label.

Each of these designs takes more than a couple of hours of patient work to complete. The beautiful boxes in which they are packed also add much to their value as a presentation item.

They are indeed a valuable gift for Mother's Day, Weddings, Anniversaries, Christmas and other gift giving occasions.

A few weeks ago you may remember that I blogged a picture of intricately carved fruits and vegetables, which is also a fine Thai tradition brought to Finland by yet another Thai artist residing in Oulu, Unnop Khungrai.

Carved Watermelon

These carvings make for great show on a dining table and is yet another wonderful addition of Thai Culture into their new Finnish abode.

I do wish Oulu, which claims to want to be an "International City" will abduct these great Thai art traditions into its own and help these marvellous Thai artists living here to pass it on to Finnish children through the education system. ( :-) I can always dream! "Dialogue Today, Action Tomorrow" - The TOMORROW THAT NEVER COMES?)

Do contact me as to how you can get your hands on these creations directly from the artists or how to contact them personally.

These are valuable additions to Finnish culture.

Photo's from Ulla

Joanna's good family friend, Ulla, was here from London. She joined us at the party to celebrate Kaija's birthday on Saturday evening.

Kaija cuts the birthday cake

Kaija is Michelle's daughter, Michelle being the owner of the best Chinese restaurant in Oulu, called the Royal Garden.


Some of the happy crowd that evening.
Joanna is on the extreme right.


Samu is overpowered by the TV.


I relax with Samu and Daniel.

Ulla took another photo of Daniel when she was at Joanna's place.


Daniel lounging on Ulla's bed.

Thanks Ulla for this great set of photographs.

Saturday Puzzle

No one could explain the puzzle of last Saturday. Not even puzzlwe exptert hashim!

That is probably going to be the case this Saturday as well.



Give it a try.

Apple Blossom

Our neighbour in Kampitie has two apple trees, one of which overhangs the 6B compund. They look absolutely gorgeous as they are now in full blossom.

Apple Tree Blossom

My camera certainly does not do the view justice.

With the grandchildren and daughter back, life is really so exciting.

Yesterday, while I was doing my morning chores around town, I received the text message from Joanna -"Kids awake, asking where is grandpa?"

My reply - "Will be there in 20 minutes!"


Grandkids enjoying their time at the breakfast table

I now have company as I scour the City for news for this blog.

Samu and I visited the Oulu Castle - which is "comparatively" the size of the postcard you print the picture on.



The view from the watch tower is interesting.





The Coffee Shop is run by two friendly people, Merja Sipola and Tuomas Ketola. Merja was more reserved (not talking to strange grandfathers!) but Tuomas was incredibly outgoing.

They should try to get the Computer Game designed by son-in-law Tony's group at Oulu University as part of their Castle programme! It would make the visit to the Castle more topical.

We went to the Thai Pailin Restaurant so that Samu could get something to eat. He ate the chicken curry and rice, which was well spiced, with great relish, even taking a second helping. I stuck to the vegetarian soup which had seaweed and no fish sauce, so I could even take a helping back for Joanna.


Pentti, Sisko and Maria

We met Pentti, Sisko and their youngest daughter Maria, who has just finished her studies and got a job at the Oulu Hospital. They were celebrating Maria's good fortune, and what better place to do it then this friendly Thai Restaurant.



Also visiting was Oulu's Harley Davidson Queen, Virpi of the Pick Cats, the first woman's Motorcycle Club in Finland!

Samu and I did an incredible amount of driving around, doing shopping for many people.

But the day ended on a note of relaxation as Samu and I watched the two Football World Cup games. The German - Costa Rica match was really terrible, with Germany winning quite easily, but not looking as a sound enough team to win the cup. The Poland - Ecuadaor game had some really good football, but the Latin American side was miles ahead of the Poles in their skill and won the game quite easily.

It looks like we are going to spend several great hours in front of the "google box" this summer!

Samu and Tony arrive in Oulu, Google Spreadsheets...

Yesterday, at about 11:30 am, after a 14 hour drive right across Sweden and over the top of the Gulf of Bothnia, Tony, Samu and Tony's dad, Seppo, arrived in Oulu. They had earlier made the crossing by the ferry between Newcastle and Gothenburg.



Samu read several books on the way and went to sleep only at around 3 am.

It was really great to see our grandson again and I am looking forward to a wonderful summer with both Samu and Daniel.

I had a circular email from Sarasu Isaac, a Maliyakal located in the US.

Hi all,

I thought I would share a few memories of Thathen with you all. It will be nice if each one of you can share memories and stories of our Maliyakal appachens and ammachies.

I do not have the email addresses of all our cousins and neices and nephews. If each of you can please take the time to get email addresses that are missing from this list, I can create a group in Yahoo and start a Maliyakal news letter.

I think, Sushil (Achayan) Matthen, Finland will be the ideal person to guide us on that .

Roshini, please get Graceykochamma to share some of the wonderful stories of her younger days with all her cousins, uncles and aunts.

Regards,

Sarasu

Yahoo Groips are good, but as we are a small group, it wouldbe much nicer to have a more intimate newsletter and there are several ways of doing it efficiently and effectively.

The blogger web site has been having problems so I was not able to update my blogs as usual.

Now the other great news.

Google has launched an online spreadsheet. You can create, share and store spreadsheets online.

Create a spreadsheet in your browser:



Share your spreadsheet online giving powers to others to view or even edit:



Store the spreadsheet for access from anywhere through any browser:



Access has been given to a limited number of people and I am fortunate to be one of them. I have already imported several spreadsheets from my computer and am sharing them with others whom they concern.

Although the spreadsheet is not operating system sensitive, as I can use it with my Camino Mac Browser, I can only share it presently with those who have a gmail /googlemail email address.

I have no problem with that as I can invite those who do not have one to join gmail.

In addition, Google has released a new feature called Personal Note, where one can save text from any web page as Personal Notes. Technically it is not supposed to work on a the Mac Operating System, but as I use the Firefox Browser, I tried it out - and it worked.

These two takes Google so far ahead of the competition - and it leaves Microsoft and Yahoo trying desperately to catch up. I really wish Google had acquired Skype, as I had advised them, as that would have been the best possible combination. Hopefully Google will acquire GIZMO, which is also a great online Voice Over Internet Program (VOIP).

The whole computing industry is changing, so think carefully before you invest in your next computer. You could save a whole lot of money by buying wisely - and that probably means not buying a WINDOWS enabled computer!

Daniel loves Kampitie, Joanna loves home

Today morning, I managed to go and see Soda and his Tervarit Blacks side play a friendly football match against the Tervarit B Juniors trained by Englishman, Mark Dziadulewicz (formerly of AFC Wimbledon - 1978 - 1980). The B Juniors won quite handsomely 4-1, mainly because they took every opportunity to score when the ball came their way.

Soda played part of the game. He really needs to fix his fitness.

Natural talent is just not enough when going up in the football world. Players have to be where the ball is before anyone else. That depends on speed and stamina. That, unfortunately, requires very very hard work and dedication. Turning up at team practices does not provide that ingredient. Team practice is where teamwork is built, not personal performance capabilities.

It was reallly refreshing to see the young members of Mark's team sprint hard and get to the ball before their opponents. That made them a much superior team to the Tervarit Blacks. Mark knows dedicated talent when he sees it. That is why he has chosen the players for his side.

And, in football, one must love to hold on to the ball, dribble, and make the best pass at the right time. One has to draw away a defender before making a crucial pass. It is not enough to send the ball on to the next player as soon as it touches the foot!

Joanna and Daniel spent their first day in Oulu at Kampitie.

Both of them loved it. Joanna was able to enjoy the feeling of home - having her mother cook them French fries and lolling of the sofa, with the smell of "home" around her, while her younger son was busy enjoying everything, especially his grandmother carrying him all over the place and sharing all the wonderful things that she has put in place for her grandchildren - butterflies, dragonflies, goldfish and thousand and one other delights.



The ice cream was enjoyed by all. Then it was time to go shopping to make sure Samuel and Tony came home to "their home" with a similar homely feeling.

The day was busy for Joanna as all her friends sent her text messages welcoming her back to Finland. It appears she is going to have a very busy summer enjoying it in the way you only can in Finland!

Later in the evening I spent quality time with Joanna and Daniel at their home, just relaxing and enjoying that wonderful grandfather feeling! Was Annikki jealous?

Great sky last night

Yesterday, I had to go to pick up Joanna and Daniel from the airport at past midnight. On my way there, I went to pick up a Flap for her and another for Daniel, in case they were hungry.



As I drove into town, on a slightly northwesterley direction, there was a fabulous sky ahead of me, which made me take out my camera and try to capture it. Sadly, my camera is not so good, so this shot is the best that could be got.

In addition, as I parked my car to go and get the Flaps, I noted a one in a "?" chance. There were two cars parked outside the restaurant, one behind the other, and both had the same 3 digits 757 in the number plate!



I tried to capture this, but I do not think I caught is sharply enough for you to recognise the digits as they are.

Joanna and Daniel had a huge Reception Committee when they landed, as Pailin, Unnop, Soda and Kim, were also there to receive them.

Soda captured some great photographs of the arrival.

Daniel walks hand in hand with Joanna and me,
while Pailin and Unnop are in the background.


Immediately, Daniel was at home in our car - and he was ready to drive Joanna and me home!

Thanks Soda for these photographs.

Welcome home, Joanna and Daniel.

Saturday Puzzle

Many of you have been complaining that I have not been putting up my Saturday puzzle entry.

The last few weeks have been really hectic.



Here is one which I wonder how many of you can explain?

Just as we started......

I have not been blogging for a couple of days as Prof. Ajeet Mathur and Sari Joutsimäki have been here. After taking part in a discussion group arranged by the City of Oulu Business Development Office mainly composed of Chaff participants (Pentti Paakki, Matti Mosia, Masili Festo, David Okele and myself) who were keen to meet this outstanding professor and his colleague.

Sari and Ajeet

Festo (Sudan) and Sari

David (Kenya), Matti and Pentti (Finland),

Ata Bos (The Netherlands, Oulu City)

Sani (China) and Festo

Ata Bos, the Organiser

Ajeet

The next day we went to Smart House in the Technology Village. I was surprised that the person who was our informant of the situation of the Village, Pauliina Pikkujämsä, Program Director, is the mother of Samuel's, our grandson, dear friends, the twins, Elias and Konsta.

Pauliina and Ajeet

We visited Oulu University, met Ata Bos's husband, Dr. André Juffer and then met Vamsi Krishna and Dr. Sebastian in the Microelectronics Laboratory and Päivi Kytömaki, the Head of the Oulu Library.

Sari and Vamsi

Sebastian and Ajeet

In the evening, Ajeet and Sari had a one to one intensive discussion with Isaac Sunderajan, CEO of Codenimicon Oy, at his residence, as he had just returned from Italy.

Yesterday we lunched at Michele's Chinese restaurant, (Michele being from Calcutta) The Royal Garden. We ended the visit with a great discussion session with Ildikó and Ilari, who visited us late in the evening at Kampitie and, just as we started this visit, a superb Thai meal at the Pailin Restaurant with our wonderful hosts, Unnop and Pailin.

Sari, Ajeet, myself and Unnop

Ajeet and Sari arrive in Oulu

Our dear friend from Tampere, Prof. Ajeet Mathur, and his colleague, Sari Joutsimäki, arrived yesterday around noon to take part in a discussion with foreigners who have some business interests.

I met them at the station.

The Pendelino from Helsinki, the superfast train, arrived half an hour late. If we had more time before our next engagement, Ajeet would probably have taken issue as you have to pay much higher rates for tickets on the Pendelino!

Ajeet, Sari and myself at
the Thai Pailin Restaurant

We went to lunch at The Thai Pailin Restaurant to what was a great buffet.

I will cover the business discussion in a separate posting.

Kannan fëtes Hannu (and me!)

Sunday was an incredibly busy day. We had our regular CHAFF meeting which was attended by so many that we were packed like sardines in the Thai Pailin Restaurant.

Kannan Balaram, our "villager" from Pondicherry,
an example of a true Indian, simple and honest.

However, in the evening, I returned to the Restaurant as I was invited to a party hosted by Kannan for his fellow students and some of his staff members. Present, beside Kannan and myself, were his Head of the Business Engineering Course, Hannu Päätalo, and colleagues Erpo Kiviniemi, Mikko Koljonen, Ville Kummu, Virpi Mehtala and Elizabeth Wang.

Mikko and I have met before when I covered the playing of snow rugby in Oulu, the northern-most Rugby Club in the world.


Kannan hosts a party at the Thai Pailin Restaurant


Kannan thanks Hannu Päätalo for his good leadership during the course.
Erpo and Mikko listen.

Kannan thanked those present for being so helpful and co-operative during the time he was in Oulu. He fêted his Professor, Hannu Päätalo, and complimented him on the excellent design of the course. He said that when he was searching for possible locations to go to study, the Oulu course stood out as it was especially meant for engineers needing a deeper introduction to Business practices from the viewpoint of engineers.


Virpi and Beth (from Phillipines)


Ville with some other guests

In the process Kannan left his script and also honoured me for "helping" him settle down in Oulu. He gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers as a tribute.

In my response I told those assembled I was greatly honoured by Kannan's tribute, but, in my opinion, I had done nothing but recognise that this young man from a humble village in Pondicherry was someone of outstanding and incredible talent. In the six months that he was here he not only worked to successfully complete his course, he obtained a doctoral position at the University of Oulu AND he obtained a doctoral position in the Helsinki University of Technology. Besides this, obtained a full time position in the cream construction project in Finland - the largest Civil Engineering project in progress in this country, as a Site Engineer. The fifth nuclear power plant will see such immense new technologies introduced into the project to safegaurad it from all forms of external attacks, natural and man-made, that Kannan will become one of the top in the field of safety in construction engineering in a short time.


Kannan and me at a CHAFF meeting in January 2006

I also introduced the audience to how Kannan got to meet up with me - the Chaff meetings geared to help Finns and Foreigners when they really need help.

Kannan has done Indians proud by his behaviour and vcharacter, and especially his simple village life honesty. This has endeared him to everyone whom he has come into contact with, and Annikki and I are no exception. We feel honoured that he is our friend.

Thank you, dear friend.

Physics takes a turn in Oulu

We may live in a high tech city, but I never thought that Physics would go upside down here in Oulu.

Saturday was a rainy day. We had a few thunder showers and quite a bit of lightning. As Kannan was driving me near the Oulu river, I noticed a streak of lightning very close to us, and the reaction was not the usual fast dissipation of the lightning fork.

I wondered why that was.

I forgot the matter, although I did say in passing to Kannan that the lightning must have struck quite close to us.

In the evening, Unnop of the Pailin Restaurant rang me and said that the lightning had caused the his card swiping machine to burn out. Luckily, the service engineer came and fixed it. It was only then they knew that it was the transformer and not the machine that had been damaged.

When they looked around they did not seem to find any place the lightning had struck but they saw something most strange.

The birch tree next to the door of the adjacent department store was burnt from the bottom up causing the tree to split along the centre.

It was not as if the lightning had hit the tree at the top, but it had hit the ground, causing mud to be thrown out of the ground and the tree to be split the reverse way - upwards.

The tree had split right through. A close examination of the second picture will show the crack down the centre on the reverrse side to the burn.

When I reached home, Annikki had some interesting comments to read me from our local newspaper. It was reported that lightning had struck the ground in parking lot, travelled along a tarmac, crept into a car and thrown the plastic bumper away from the car and damaged the electricals in two adjacent cars. Also, the lightning had travelled along the tarmac and thrown up grass from the nearby lawn.

The weather expert had commented that although there has never been a case of anyone travelling in a car being hurt by lightning, he came to a conclusion that it was not due to the rubber tyres. He compared the case of the protection being provided by rubber boots when lightning strikes near a person wearing these boots.

Sadly, the weather man should have stuck to commenting on the weather and not about rubber technology. The two cases are vastly different.

Rubber shoes are insulators protecting a light charge from affecting the wearer. The tyres of a car have a high amount of carbon black, making it a conductive mass which ensures that any charge is dissipated to the ground. That is why people travelling in a car are not affected by lightning as the lightning tries to find the shortest way to dissipate the energy.

In this particular case, the conductive tyres permitted the charge to enter the car through the tyres and then blew off the insulating plastic which developed the opposite charge to the metal body which was charged by the lightning.

Physics certainly took a beating today in Oulu!

Annikki has night prowlers

Friday night.

I went to bed at my usual time - around midnight. Annikki was still working in the garden. She must have finished well past midnight, had her night snack (a Thai Sweet Chilli Wrap from the Pailin Restaurant) and was just washing up the dishes when she saw smiling faces in the garden waving at her through the kitchen window!

Pailin at Kampitie

It was Pailin and Unnop. After closing their restaurant they decided to tiptoe into the Kampitie garden to see how it was developing.


Bath tub gets a new lease of life

Annikki went out and showed them some of the new beauty spots she has created.

After they left, Annikki had her bath and was just planning to get to bed around 2 am, when Kannan arrived from Rauma. He was surprised to see Annikki still awake! I had left the cellar door open for him, so he could get to bed in the room in the cellar.

So the second prowler got a bed for the night!

This article from 1930's is worth reading

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

On the Mike Malloy Liberal Talk Show this morning I heard him mention a web site which had an article which is worh reading. (Mike Malloy is the No. 1 Talk Show Host in the US - he offers no solutions, but he tells THE UNVARNISHED TRUTH. I listen to him daily between 5 am and 8 am Tuesday to Saturday here in Finland.))

Major General Smedley Butler (1881 - 1940)

Written by Major General (United States Marine Corps [Retired]) Smedley Darlington Butler (1881 - 1940), who served his country and was awarded two congressional medals of honor, for capture of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1914, for capture of Ft. Riviere, Haiti, 1917 and the Distinguished service medal, 1919, he wrote this book WAR IS A RACKET in 1935.


WAR IS A RACKET - published 1935

For more information about the late Major General, please also read the Wikipedia entry about him. The following is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:

Butler was known for his outspoken lectures against war profiteering and what he viewed as nascent fascism in the United States. His book War is a Racket(1935) presents a highly critical view of the profit motive behind warfare. Between 1935 and 1937, Butler served as a spokesman for the American League Against War and Fascism, which was considered by many to be communist dominated[5], and gave numerous speeches to the Communist Party USA in the 1930s, as well as to pacifist groups.[6] The following, from "the non-Marxist, socialist Common Sense magazine"[7] in 1935, is one of his most widely quoted statements:

I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.

As I listened to the 50 minute interview of Arundhati Roy (you can either read the transcript or listen to the interview online - I did the latter) by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, I realised how much this young lady has matured from a one novel writer to become one of the leading and sincere activists against corporate power, not only in the developed world but also India, where the political, bureaucratic and judicial system, as well as the mainstream media has fallen victim to fascism. Nothing could be more relevant today as witnessed by the behaviour of the Bush and Blair Administrations as well as the Manmohan Singh Administration than what this Major General wrote over 71 years ago.

Malayala Manorama journalist irks Roman Catholic Church

Malayala Manorama is the largest circulating newspaper in India and it is where, as a child, I got my grounding as a journalist and an editor under the tutelage of my grandfather, the late K. C. Mammen Mappilai.

The Malayalam version of the 'Da Vinci Code' novel, which is a work of fiction, translated by a Malayala Manorama journalist from Delhi, Jomy Thomas, and R. Gopikishnan of Mangalam, has proven a great hit, raising the ire of the Roman Catholic Church in Kerala.

The book has been published by a company called DC Books and the limited first edition was sold out on release.

The owners of the Malayala Manorama are Orthodox Syrian Christians. Although they are not in any way associated with the publication of the book, the fact that one of their journalists is in the limelight for translating it, may raise some eyebrows.

The Roman Catholic church says the film will hurt the religious sentiments of the Christian community.

The timing of the release of the Malayalam version with the release of the film and the controversy associated with it, has undoubtedly helped the book become a hit.

The Malayalam version of the book is priced at Euro 4 (Rs. 200).

How to survive a Heart Attack when ALONE

(Cross-posted on the Chaff Blog, the Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog and the Stephanian Kooler Talk Blog.)

I must thank Naval patel, a 49er from my old school, me being a 59er, having passed out in 1959, for this important post.

USEFUL TO EVERY ONE AND MAY BE FOR OTHERS AS HELP EVERYONE MUST KNOW THIS

Let's say it's 6.15 pm and you're going home (alone of course), after an unusually hard day on the job. You are really tired, upset and frustrated.

Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw.

You are about five miles from the hospital nearest your home. Unfortunately, you don't know if you will be able to make it that far.

You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.

However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm.

In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.

Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!!

A cardiologist says If everyone who gets this information and then sends it to 10 people, you can bet that we will save at least one life.

Please pass on this information to all your contacts.