Spoilsport...

(Cross-posted on the Oulu CHAFF Blog.)

It is evident that why, whenever there is a contest or competition, relatives of the organisers are not allowed to take part!

Even before I had put up the competition in my last blog entry "Using metaphors", my dear daughter, Susanna, whose genetic code must be similar to mine, had this added as a Comment to that blog entry:

Tears are NORMALLY warm, not cold like Finnish rivers - no matter how fast or pure they are! The Ganga is normally associated with warmth.

Daughter Susanna is third from the left,
while daughter Joanna is second from right.
Photo taken at the reunion of cousins,
with families, in Florida, last Christmas.

Even I could not have written the correct interpretation as Susanna did.

So I shout "SPOILSPORT".:-)

Using metaphors

(Cross-posted on the Oulu CHAFF Blog.)



When we posted our last entry on the CHAFF Blog, we used a mataphor that the tears flowed like the River Ganges.

Several Finns and Indians resident in Finland were puzzled why we should use this metaphor, when there are lots of fast flowing rivers in Finland, with clear and pure water!

Valid question, but this metaphor was quite deliberate.



There will be an interesting prize for the first person who can guess why we used the River Ganges rather than our local river, Oulujoki! (Hint: No, it is nothing to do with pollution.)

Wake up and send us your thoughts on this.

Teaching driving

Ashesh and Indu bought Tony and Joanna's virtually unused car. Before I handed it over to them, I thought I would let Ashesh drive the SAAB for a few tens of kilometers, especially on a highway and a small town, so that he got a feel of the road and the flow of traffic.

So we took off to Raahe, about 80 km west of Oulu, as I had to return the projector I had borrowed for the Indian Evening from Lauri, and also a power adaptor which had been left behind by Mani Bhowmik. Tero Raiskio was with us, as he is Lauri's childhood friend, and he wanted to enjoy a drive while he played with his Geiger counter measuring some radiation on my Leather coat I had bought from the Flea market! :-)

We had a lively evening with Pooja, Mani and little Anusha. Karthik enjoyed himself playing with Anusha's toys while we warmed ourselves with some great tea brewed by Mani, while Pooja regaled us with her scintillating company.

Ashesh handled the SAAB delightfully, so I was quite confient that he could start driving his new car. On Saturday I went to deliver the car, but there is an Indian saying not to get anything new which is metallic on Saturdays. So, Saturday was driving familiarisation day for Ashesh on the streets of Oulu and he found the car to be just what he wanted. At times he had a problem to hear the virtually soundless engine.

The children's seat was too small for Karthik, so we will have to pick one up today.

I was driven all around Oulu by Ashes. Although Indu started off as a back seat driver, dreading how Ashesh would handle the car in the icey conditions, by the end of the day she was really comfortable to sit there with Ashesh driving.

In the bargain, I got a great vegetarian Indian meal cooked (rice, chapti or roti, dhal and a dry spicy vegetable served wiith sliced tomato, onion and apple, by Indu, and I got to play for a few hours with little Karthik. Karthik is truly a clever child and match you word for word with his logic.

Today, we will visit a Flea market and then I will be off to the CHAFF meeting where we will, very sadly, say farewell to our really wonderful CHAFF participant from Poland, Kasia Mazur.

The opposite of BEST BUY

(Cross posted on our Oulu Best Buy Blog and the CHAFF Blog.)

It is not often that we get angry or are deeply disturbed by an experience which will radically cause us to publish a very negative entry in the Best Buy Blog. However, during the last few weeks two things have deeply disturbed us. We felt we should let you know and add these shops and companies to a Oulu Best Not Buy list.

If you have a similar experience, please let us know.



The incident reported here is our experience with a large and well known organisation known as Instrumentarium. It sells medical equipment and also many consumer products including spectacles. Annikki and I have been so-called preferred customers in the shop and also our son Mika and Annikki's mother, Hilja, has been given this status. It was not our choosing but when we bought our glasses from them many years ago the shop added us to this list.

Last week the frames of the spectacles of both Mika and Hilja broke, resulting in us having to order new spectacles for them. As both are invalids in my care, Jacob, who handles all the outside work for them, took the spectacles to Instrumentarium to get them repaired, or failing which, to get new glasses for them. The latter turned out to be true.

The pleasant lady who took the order took all the details, and Jacob found that out would take a few days before the glasses would be ready. So she gave him a note saying that the company would intimate him when they were ready.

As glasses are quite expensive and since the financial matters of Hilja are not controlled by us but a Public Guardian, Jacob thought it would be best to get the bill for the glasses and give them to the Guardian well before the glasses arrive, so that it could be paid directly by the Guardian. Jacob's life is so hectic, he likes to get things done well in advance so as not to be rushing around at the last minutes sorting out issues.

He visited the shop and gave a notification to the store clerk of the details of the Public Guardian asking them to send the bill for Hilja's glasses to the Guardian. The store clerk tried to ring through to the 3 phone numbers provided but she could not get through. So, Jacob asked the clerk to make out the Proforma Invoice for the glasses so that he could take it to the Guardian so that they could pay the amount before the glasses arrived.

Strangely, he was told that this was not possible. The computer could not produce a bill unless he was willing to pay 30% of the amount.

This was a stupid demand, as an invoice is not a binding document. All Jacob was asking was for a document so as to pay the dues before the glasses were even available or taken from the shop. They were due several days later.

Jacob was met with an absolute blanket statement that this was store policy. The refusal was so ridiculous and illogical and there was no way that it could be explained why it had to be.

We handle the purchasing of many items for Hilja and we deal with many shops. In most cases we just have to give the Public Guardian's name and address and show Hilja's Social Security card. The shops take all the steps to ensure that the bill is sent to the Public Guardian. In one case, for her sanitary supplies, we just order it by email and request the bill to be sent directly to the Public Guardian. It has never been a problem.

But this totally illogical, customer-repellent attitude of Instrumentarium suddenly set our memory cells working.

We recalled that almost 6 years ago when we went and ordered glasses for Hilja, we were told that we could not pay the bill through the bank, but had to pay by cash. We had to drag my half-invalid then 81 year old mother to the bank to draw cash from her account and then return to the shop with the cash to collect the glasses. (At that time Hilja did not have a Public Guardian.)

The store clerk refused to listen to reason as the policy seems to be universally applied in Finland by Instrumentarium.

I have told the store clerk that she tell her management that this story would be publicised broadly on the internet through our blogs, that we would put them on our NEW BEST NOT BUY list and also inform the top management of the company of this incident.

If Instrumentaroum does not tender a public apology, inform us that this policy has been rescinded and we are not compensated for the waste of our time and money in this matter, Instrumentarium stay firmly posted on this list!

Further, this will be the last purchase we will make from this company.

Did you switch OFF?

(Cross-posted on the Oulu Chaff Blog.)

How many of you switched off all your lights and power units between 19:55 and 20:00 hours on 1st February 2007. (As was pointed out to us by 59er Peter Miovic.)

We did and sat in darkness with our living room flooded by the light of a full moon just behind us.

We did it not only to focus on the Climate Change issue but also as a protest to the "Oil Wars" being carried out by the US in Iraq and being planned in Iran!

As we looked around our small colony of 27 houses, we noted that one young couple with two small children had also followed the instructions, but 25 other families had been either oblivious or insensitive to the situation.


Eiffel Tower at sunrise.

The local newspapers did not cover the issue. It was only the television channels, as BBC World, which covered it by showing the switching off of the lights on the Eiffel Tower.

Today, there was much greater TV coverage of the report released today on climate change which stresses that there is 90% certainty that human beings were "very likely" to have been responsible for this.

We wonder why they stopped at saying "very likely" when it is absolutely certain and every scientist in the world studying this has no doubt whatsoever?

Hilmi Oral wins prize

(Cross-posted on the Oulu CHAFF blog.)

This morning when I opened the newspaper, I read with great joy that Hilmi Oral had won the prize for his work in helping Men.


Hilmi teaching a class of kids.

Hilmi Oral is a Turk who has lived in Oulu for the last 15 odd years. He has contributed to the well-being of the lives of many the foreigners who have come to live in this town. His work has not been restricted to men alone. He is regarded as the "BEST" teacher of the Finnish language! Hilmi does not waste time teaching the language based on the complexity of the grammar. He concentrates on helping people to communicate from day 1, just as a small child learns language.

Hilmi is an accomplished singer. He presently works as a Cultural Mediator for the organisation which runs the Oulu Settlement’s Friendship House. He has been working to integrate foreigners into Oulu life. He is soft-spoken and is loved by all of us in Oulu.

There is no one more deserving to have received the prize for this work. Hilmi deserves more than just this prize as he toils some 15 to 16 hours a day for the cause of furthering the life of foreigners in Oulu.

Just last Friday I took four new foreigners to Oulu to his office where he had organised an evening for men. He was so welcoming and humble of his accomplishments.

I feel proud to know a person such as Hilmi who lives in the same city as me!