I am trying to get fit

Now that the weather is really great I have started walking. In so doing I came across the first flowers in the city.

First Spring Flowers in Oulu

I have a Polar Electro Watch cum Heart Rate Monitor. With it I can see where I am going as far as my fitness is concerned without overstressing myself.

Polar Electro is a Finnish company and also it is an Oulu headquartered company. My former colleague in the Electrical Department in Oulu University, Professor Seppo Säynäjäkangas, is the one who started this and has made a small fortune. He is today one of the most promnent industrialists of Finland.

Polar Electro was founded in 1977. It is the leading brand in improving health and well-being through the understanding of human physiology, performance and environment and providing measuring devices for this combination. Polar Electro is the world's leading manufacturer of sports instruments and heart rate monitoring, registering and evaluation equipment.

I laid out a 8 km route, walking to town and back. I laid out the route that after about 15 minutes I have to go over a rather steep overbridge. This was to help to put my heart rate up into the "In Zone" where I am doing some real work.

I walk into town, stop for a cup of tea, and then walk back along a slightly longer route and cross over the overbridge, finally to slow down the last 15 minutes. No measurement is done during my tea stop.

The important aspect is to ensure that I stay within my heart rate exercise limits. My normal heart rate is 80. My exercise heart rate range is 124 to 158. The low level of 124 means I am not very fit and it should increase as I get fitter. The maximum heart rate should not exceed 220 minus my age of 62, which is 158. If it does cross this figure I am overstressing my heart and it is not healthy or acceptable.

Given below is the results of my last five days. One day in between was a rest day, which is also recommended.

The results are excellent in that my walking speed has increased considerably, and my efficiency of walking has improved. My average heart rate is steady at a reasonable figure. The number of minutes I am staying in the acceptable heart rate is also excellent. My average heart rate is now 140, which means I am now reaching my best fitness level with no stress. The calories I am burning every day is also helping to reduce my weight. My cholestrol levels will automatically drop and my blood sugar levels will also come well within the acceptable range.

The first day I was feeling bad after the first 15 minutes. I had to slow down considerably when going over the overbridge. Now there is no problem.

Date	Distance	Total Time	Efficiency	In Zone	Average	Calories	Fat	Walking Rate	Total Calories
	km	min	%	min	Heart Rate	kcal	%	min / km	kcal
16.04.05	8.00	124.00	100	56.00	132	1872	40	15.50	1872
17.04.05	8.00	117.26	105.44	69.10	135	1832	40	14.66	3704
18.04.05	0.00		0	0	0	0	0	0	3704
19.04.05	8.00	104.18	115.98	75.29	140	1739	30	13.02	5443
20.04.05	8.00	100.38	119.05	69.59	140	1748	25	12.55	7191

If any of you need help in setting up your walking schedules, or any advice on gym training, please do contact me. I have managed to keep reasonably fit with the help of a couple of great Personal Trainers in a couple of gyms.

Celebrate the 86th Birthday

Please join Annikki and me in wishing a wonderful lady, known to most of us as Pallammachi, a very happy birthday today. She is a very graceful 86 years.

Pallammachi at Succhi's wedding 1999

How many of you know that I was named Jacob after her late husband, my uncle, K. M. Jacob, who was known as Chackochayan. He passed away tragically in the Chikmagalur Estate way back in 1941. I was born in 1943. My mother decided that I should have the name of her late brother.

Pallammachi has been a picture of great courage, in the face of much tragedy in her life. Besides her husband, she lost all her three sons, Anian, Roy and then Kunjumonchayan, in their prime. Despite this, this gracious lady has lived a life dedicated to God and her families, both in Pallam, as well as her in-laws, who considered her as one of their most important members. She is blessed with a most loving daughter-in-law, one of my dearest friends, Bibikochamma, three grandchildren, Anil, Roy and Rachel, who have wonderful partners, all of whom dote on their grandmother, and a few great grandchildren.

Kochappachen, the late K. M. Mammen Mappillai, who headed MRF, would never make a major decision without discussing it with Pallammachi. He valued her words and that of his sister, my mother, as two outsiders of the mainstream family business, and it was this that made sure that the whole family stood together through many trials and tribulations, for many many years.

Happy birthday dearest Pallammachi.

In Oulu we are celebrating

Yes, we are celebrating something that probably of least interest to most of you.

Our local Ice Hockey Team, Kärpät, has just won the National Ice Hockey Cup for the second time in a row.

I went over and watched the match on TV, which was being played in Helsinki, with Samu. Samu is not allowed to watch TV on his own.

It was a great game for Kärpät in that they did everything right and won 2 - 0.

The opposing team was called Jokerit and it is the top team from Helsinki.

There will be a great home-coming at the Airport for the team when it returns late tonight. Oulu will probably celebrate through the night, so it is better for us to stay at home. Finns and alcohol are not the best combination to mess about with.

I am sure very few of you may know anything about ice hockey. I, too, know very little except that I do support our local team.

Kärpät won the championship way back in 1981, before I moved to Finland. So it was nice to see them win it last year. They played good ice hockey for most of this season. There were a couple of bad patches, but they topped the League.

Then in the Play-Offs, which is between the top eight teams, they did not have much problem and won most of the games quite easily.

Well done Kärpät.

Sorry for the absence

I was quite well, thank you.

Many of you emailed me because I was not active on the blog last week. The reason was not me, but grandson, Samuel, was not well last week. Nothing serious - a bad cough, but enough to keep him away from school. Joanna was also a bit stressed and tired and grandson, Daniel, was overactive - so I was there to entertain Samuel.

I created my new "Ram and Krishna Indian Magic Forest" series for him. Three new stories - the Bubbles, the Bamboo Pipe and the Well. He was enthralled by these that one day when I had to go for a meeting for just 40 minutes, Samuel was not very happy!!

All are well now.

We had a bit of winter again last week as, last Wednesday, when I came out of Joanna's home, I found the car covered with an inch of snow. I had just changed my tyres back to suummer ones, but luckily the weather was warm the next day that there was no ice on the road.

We are back to bright spring days and I have started my walking. I am using my SIMPUTER as the mp3 player and listening to a collection of songs from my iTunes library as I walk the 10 km. Also I am using my new walking shoes!

Another 60 year birthday

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the birthday 70th birthday of Kunjumonchayan.

On a quieter note today we can wish his better half, Omenakochamma, on her 60th. I have been favoured with a snap of Omena with Shilpa taken just a couple of weeks ago.

Omena & Shilpa, 2005

Happy birthday Omenakochamma and may you have many many more happy ones.

Great news - Another blog to visit

Great news, as daughter Susanna, in Billinghay, Lincolnshire, England, has started her own blog.

Its been a long way from here:

Susanna in Shawbury 1968

So you can see that side of the news from England directly from her.

Her blog address is

http://smatthan.blogspot.com

and you will always find the link to her blog in my sidebar.

Welcome to blogging, Susanna. I enjoyed your first few entries.

Listen to Susanna on Radio Lincolnshire today

Susanna and family, Chris and Asha, have been on an experiment to not use a credit card for meeting daily living costs. This is an effort to break the viscious cycle of living beyond one's means or falling into debt caused by depending on the plastic (usual terminology for using various plastic credit cards.

I missed the first interview which was about 6 weeks ago. (See an earlier blog entry about this.)

(Click on the picture to listen to the interview of her today by Dave Bussey of BBC Radio Lincolnshire. This is the first time I am trying this so the file (large) may be downloaded to you computer and then it may have to be played using iTunes or some similar player. Please tell me if there are any problems!!)

The kids, Susanna, Jaakko, and Joanna and Mika (holding
their cousins), in 1984 in Oulu§, before Susanna left for England.
Sound is Susanna on BBC Radio Lincolnshire in April 2005

Susanna left Finland in 1984, about 6 months after we moved to Finland. Annikki and I had a difficult time making ends meet as we had to support all four kids. Susanna needed a reasonable sum to live by herself in England. However, we managed that without any plastic AND by keeping detailed accounts of all what we spent.

In 1994, Annikki and I authored a book called "Handbook for Survival in Finland" which was meant for foreigners who came to live in the most expensive country in the world.


Book cover with a picture of Annikki's father, Matti,
with an 18 kg salmon he caught from the local Oulu River

Finns used to believe that they had the highest standard of living just because everything was expensive. Most of them did not know the difference between "standard of living" and "cost of living".

The book, which was quite explosive (see Annikki's warning note in RED on the cover), was a best seller with all copies sold out in a just a few days. It was written and self published by Annikki and me, using my Apple PowerBook 170 portable computer, Desk Top Publishing software, a laser printer (colour printing was done at a contract facility and using their colour photopier), the kitchen stove for binding the book, and a small plastic to paper laminator!!

Kimi on the podium, Narain out in 3rd

Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen drove a great race to come in third while his team-mate, stand in for Pablo Montoya, Pedro de la Rosa, had a exciting fight with Mark Webber to bring the second McLaren - Mercedes in in 5th position in the Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix a few hours ago.

Good to see Kimi back on the winner's podium.

However, Fernando Alonso, driving the Renault was on his own finishing a full 13.409 seconds ahead of Jarno Trulli in his Toyota. Champion Michael Schumacher had a hydaraulic problem, spun out of control, and gave up after 13 laps by driving back into the pits.

Indian Narain Karthikeyan had a miserable race as he was out in lap 3.

Here was the final result of the Bahrain Formula 1 Grand prix:

1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 57 laps one hour 29 minutes 18.531 seconds
2 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota +13.409secs
3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren - Mercedes +32.063secs
4 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 53.272
5 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) McLaren-Mercedes 1:04.988
6 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams-BMW 01:14.701
7 Felipe Massa (Brz) Sauber-Petronas 1 lap
8 David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Cosworth 1 lap
9 Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Ferrari 1 lap
10 Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan-Toyota 2 laps
11 (ret) Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber-Petronas 3 laps
12 Patrick Friesacher (Aut) Minardi-Cosworth 3 laps
13 Christijan Albers (Ned) Minardi-Cosworth 4 laps
R Jenson Button (GB) BAR-Honda 11 laps
R Takuma Sato (Jpn) BAR-Honda 30 laps
R Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Williams-BMW 32 laps
R Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 45 laps
R Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 53 laps
R Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan-Toyota 55 laps
R Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull-Cosworth 57 laps

Kimi 9th and Narain 18th on grid

The pole position for today's Formula 1 in Bahrain was grabbed by Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault with a time of 3:01.902 while Michael Schumacher (Ger) in his new model Ferrari has taken second place on the grid with a time of 3:02.357.

Finnish driver Kimi Raikkoenen (Fin) in the McLaren-Mercedes has taken 9th position on the grid with a time of 3:03.524.

Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) in the Jordan-Toyota clocked a time of 3:10.143 and will start at the 18th position on the grid.

Here are the exact starting grid positions:


Final qualifying result at Bahrain Grand Prix:

1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 3:01.902
2 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 3:02.357
3 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 3:02.660
4 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Williams-BMW 3:03.217
5 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams-BMW 3:03.262
6 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 3:03.271
7 Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull-Cosworth 3:03.369
8 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) McLaren-Mercedes 3:03.373
9 Kimi Raikkoenen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes 3:03.524
10 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 3:03.765
11 Jenson Button (GB) BAR-Honda 3:04.348
12 Felipe Massa (Brz) Sauber-Petronas 3:05.202
13 Takuma Sato (Jpn) BAR-Honda 3:05.563
14 David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Cosworth 3:05.844
15 Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Ferrari 3:07.693
16 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber-Petronas 3:07.983
17 Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan-Toyota 3:09.428
18 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan-Toyota 3:10.143
19 Christijan Albers (Ned) Minardi-Cosworth 3:10.422
20 Patrick Friesacher (Aut) Minardi-Cosworth 3:11.261

A pleasant email from Saroopya

I was very pleasantly surprised to get an email from a young engineering graduate from Madras, Saaroopya Gollapudi.

Vishnu, Veena, Saroopya and Sahitya
Photo: Copyright Jacob Matthan

Hello uncle,

How are you all? We are all fine here.

Last time when Sussana and Joanna came home, mom was very happy to see them.

Mom was curious to know whether it was a baby girl or boy to Joanna. (Uncle Jacob: It is a lovely baby boy, called Daniel. Here is a picture of Samuel, Daniel and Uncle Jacob.)

Samuel, Daniel and Jacob, February 2005
Photo: Copyright Dr. Balakrishna Janardhana

I emailed you some months back but the mails bounced back to me. (Uncle Jacob: That was when findians@findians.com collapsed due to spam overload. Now my only email is jmatthan@gmail.com )

They enjoyed mom's Dosas...(Uncle Jacob: Don't we all. And her great Rasam!!)

When are you people coming to India. (Uncle Jacob: Not so long as we have the responsibility of taking care of Annikki Aunty's mother)

We have shifted our house again now. The address is :

S-106, 4th Main Road,
Anna Nagar, Chennai - 600040.
Ph: 91-44-26266115 / 26269065

Dad is fine still touring now and then. Mom has a back pain and she has been advised rest for 2 months. (Uncle Jacob: Veena should go and see a retired Wing Commandewr in Mysore and she will be cured overnight.)

Sahitya is fine doing his third year in engineering.

I have completed my engineering and now I am on the look out for the job. (Uncle Jacob: It is important you are active so that you increase your CV on a daily basis. Otherwise Job Interviwers will think you are not motivated enough.)

Hope I get one soon.

Is there anything you can advise on how I can go about this. (Uncle Jacob: Lots of advice - but I am so out of touch with India, I cannot really be useful other than tell you what I would do.)

Uncle, grandfather and grandmother are all fine.

Nothing more uncle..

Regards to everyone there.

With love,

Saroop

Wasn't that a nice letter from a well brought up young engineer. The boys get their good behavioural talents from a lovely couple, who are our good friends and also from their grandparents, fine people. Vishnu used to be my close and sincere working partner for many years. I learnt much from him.