Solution to the Einstein Puzzle

It is only our Brazilian friend who turned up with the answer to the puzzle of two weeks ago.

You have to be a lover of matrix formats to have solved this one.

Our Malayaisn respondent used a different methodolgy, unusual, but it yielded the right answer. Great work Roshin.

If you like playing Sudko, you would have loved trying to solve this puzzle.

yellow	blue	red	green	white
Norwegian	Dane	Brit	German	Swede
water	tea	milk	coffee	beer
Dunhill	Blend	Pall Mall	Prince	Bluemasters
cats	horse	birds	FISH	dog

So the German had the Fish.

Kertstin, our German wizard, was on holiday - I am sure she would have turned up the right answer. :-)

But we now have another German wizzy in our midst - Nicole, and she is unbelieveably fast at solving these types puzzles - but she too has been on holiday last week.

Must be something in what the German kids drink!!

I will give you another brain teaser next week - digest this one till then.

Saturday is also Day for Sports

Ever since childhood days Saturday was always a day to take part in sports. Now that I have reached an age where active involvement with sports on field is not for me, my involvement continues in many other ways. This last Saturday was no exception.

Tervarit Reds in a Group Huddle before the game.

Soda, who plays regularly for the Tervarit Blacks, was invited to play for the Reds, a slightly senior team to the one he plays for. I decided to take some time to see how he would fare.

A piercing scream and Soda is DOWN.

He played quite well except that three minutes before half time he fell down with a piercing scream - he had pulled a muscle on his calf.


Thai friends Yut and Khim share Soda's pain off the field.

This, from my long history of playing sports, is the common downfall of a player who refuses to take care of his personal fitness training as jogging and normal muscle strengthening exercises, a bad diet combined with bad resting habits. It is trifecta. It is obvious that in this fast western life-style that the young boy from Thailand with enormous talent has got used to, is also the beginning of his downfall as a possibly great sportsperson.

It is possible to cover up these "injuries" a couple of times. But soon it will become evident to the coaches and talent scouts that the boy is not really serious about his sports as he prefers the fast life associated with running around as a youngster in the town of Oulu.

The choice however is his and only his to make!

That is sad as I have watched this enormously talented youngster being overtaken in calibre on the field by many young Finns who make up for their lack of natural talent by a dedication to their personal health and their personal fitness.

It is really decision time for this youngster - as no one is going to sponsor an injured horse, however much the talent points in his direction.


Samu at his training session.


Samu with his Newcastle United shirt bearing No. 9,
Alan Shearer's number, in a passing session with his team-mate.

The ideal opposite is my other grandson young Samu, who makes up his game by an enormous dedication to the sport of football and his involvement with training, come hell or high water. He follows the careers of all the football greats and tries to emulate many of their feats.

That is dedication!

The excitement on-field was increased as Soda's keys to his cycle, the house and his locker, were lost on the playing field. I took his cycle home in my car after trying to find the keys on the miles of green turf - unsuccessfully.

Luckily, someone found the key bunch and turned it in to the groundsman, and Soda's dad and I collected it from him on Sunday morning!

Saturday afternoon was also Rugby Day, as the Oulu team was playing against the lead Finnish side from Helsinki.

Rugby is a great sport. It is far more exciting top watch than football. The player and referee involvement at each stage is intense.

Although the Oulu side played well, for most part they were defending their goal, and the Helsinki side marched through victorious 27 points to 5.


For the uninitiated, a Rugby Ball!


Helsinki player rises gigh to take possession of the throw-in.


This time it is Oulu's turn to jump high.


Half-time pep talk from the Oulu coach.
Captain Jarmo Stoor listens carefully!


Not a Group Huddle - a fierce Scrum Down!

I do hope Oulu finds some new players as some of their players are recovering from injuries or are playing injured!



However, well done Oulu - I will be there at your home games to support you. I see more and more poeple turning out to support this sport and our Oulu team.

Yes, I am a proud grandfather!

I have three grandchildren, and many grandchildren who have adopted Annikki and me as their grandparents - so we are proud of the achievements of all of our grandchildren. We are also very sad when something goes awry with any of them.

Kannan dressed as a "superstar".

Last weekend, our very good friend, Kannan Balaram, who lives in South Finland in a town called Rauma, visited Oulu to meet our daughter Joanna and her family. She too, loved him just as we love this amazing young man. When we visited her home, Kannan was very busy with his camera. I downloaded the pictures to my computer.


One of the shots of Daniel from Kannan's collection.

I have set up a separate web page called Daniel meets Kannan which is a fascinating study of an evening with one of our grandchildren.

Hope you enjoy it.

On to another topic....

The world is very very small.

Joanna is leaving next Wednesday back to Newcastle for continuing her medical studies. Unfortunately, Tony, her husband cannot travel and be there continuously as he did last year. So Joanna was on the hunt for an au pair, a young Finnish girl wanting to study English who could help her look after the two children - Samuel and Daniel.

Through a friend she met a young girl, Anni. Joanna and her family were to meet with her family on Monday to finalise the details.


Kannan's friend, Anna-Maaria Lukka.

On Sunday morning, before Kannan met Joanna, he went to visit a classmate of his, Anna-Maaria Lukka, from the Business course that he had attended in Oulu last year.


Anni with a younger brother and sister.

Guess what? Yes, Kannan's friend was the young girl's cousin and they live together in a small commune in south Oulu

Kannan met this lovely girl who loves children and finds looking after them totally natural.

Both Annikki and I are so happy that Joanna has such a lovely girl to be with her and especially one who loves children and is experienced in looking after them. We hope she will spend her time improving her English, as that is the primary reason for her taking a year off from her high school to go to Newcastle with Joanna.

Thanks to Kannan for the nice photograph of Anni who will go to England next week, one day after Joanna (they could not get tickets for the same flight).

Bon Voyage to all of you.

Both Annikki and I are already awaiting their speedy return in a year's time.

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.