Yesterday in perspective

I took the chance to visit the University to see how the International Conference, "Microwave Materials and their Applications" was progressing.

I only listened to one lecture, one about Polymer Ceramic composites (rutile titanium dioxide dispersed in epoxy resin). I was quite disturbed to listen to such poor science emanating from "scientists" from Helsinki and Oulu University!

The modelling methods they talked about would have been thrown out of the window way back in the 1960's as the fundamental concepts of mixing theory of an organic with an inorganic phase were not part of the "equation" brought into consideration when preparing their paper - or if it was, it was not stated!

Luckily, I am retired, so I did not stand up and ask any embarrassing questions!

My objective to visit the conference site was to primarily ask the few Indians attending the conference to join me for dinner. As Annikki was pre-occupied with looking after her mother, I asked daughter Joanna to join me in hosting them. Her husband, Tony, was also busy with another prior engagement.

Here is a photograph after the occasion, which all of us really enjoyed, thanks to the wonderful hosts in the Pailin Restaurant.

Vamsi (Andhra now doing his doctorate in Oulu University), Santosh Babu
(IIT Chennai, India), Ritesh Rawal (Punjab University and now Sheffield University, UK),
Prof. Mohanan (Cochin University), myself and our hosts, Unnop and Pailin.

Dr. Sebastian (Deputy Director, Regional Research Laboratory, Trivandrum) was there for about half an hour as he had to push off to another party.

It was great fun, and hopefully the next time these engineer-scientists come to Oulu, they will call me "before" they plan their visit!

More on Oulu Artist Ann Pöllänen

(Cross-posted in the Oulu Chaff Blog.)

Yesterday I featured the carving skill of an Oulu artist from Thailand, Rakchanok Pöllänen (née Phunsawat) from Kanchanaburi, wife of Petri Pöllanen, who is making history here in Oulu. Ann is not just a soap carver. She is a crochet expert as well as a designer of beautiful dried floral gifts, just as exquisitely beautiful as the artist herself.

Ann with one of her crocheted designs
on display in Oulu at the Thai Pailin Restaurant.

I have pleasure in bring you, here, a couple of her dried floral designs.





I hope to, in the future, feature several top artists from Oulu, Finland who are from the ethnic minorities. If you can give me information about them, please let me know.

I wish that there is one important forum for them to show their work from this Arctic town in the world, something the City of Oulu should do, but fails to.

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!