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!
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Monday is fun day
Saturday, August 05, 2006
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.
Friday, August 04, 2006
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.
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!
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.
She learnt Finnish driving rules.
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!
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!
(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.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
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.
whose help to organise this event was truly great - Thanks Kim!
with her knowledge of the Thai language!
with Kerstin (Germany), Andi (Venezuela) and our hostess Pailin.
from Japan and Germany listen to my short talk.
with our new Japanese and German participants
Isaac in the background.
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.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
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!
Saturday, July 29, 2006
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.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
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.