Oh, I see.

Divan hammock

I watched her walking through the parking lot. Determined steps. Slowly but inevitably getting closer.

She entered the patio furniture sales corner. She had a black tailored coat, pink skirt, a tone deeper pink Burberry scarf and lipstick same colour. She wore petite lovely shoes. She was one walking adult-sized doll.

She came directly to me. I was laying in a monsterous thing called divan hammock. Husband was around the corner making bargains with a very green salesclerk. (He used arguments like ‘this is my first real job’, ‘please use financing because I get provision of that’,  ’I really need to do some sales today!’  He could be my son! I couldn’t dicker an euro! I let my steel hearted lover to do that. ) 

She was not glancing the polyrattan sofa sets neither patio dining sets. ‘What’ I thought, ‘does this alive barbie want this divin hammock?!’

‘Are you the clerk here?’ she asked. I gasped. Wearing a leather jacket, jeans and laying in that thing, was I the clerk?

‘No, I am not. He is around the corner.’

She went there. Because my horizontal position was disturbed, I jumped up and joined husband.

‘Are you in queue?’ she asked.

‘Yes I am, I just cruelly jumped you’ I thought.

‘No I am not, waiting for my lover’ I said.

‘Your husband’ husband said.

He paid, undersigned, was ready to go.

‘Buy that divan, it is divine! ’ I whispered to her knowing hammocking was not the thing to Burberry princesses. They sit preppy in deck chairs. She stared at me, not answering.

Sometimes the worlds just do not match.

Aegopodium podagradia

The other day I came to work with red deep scratches on my arms. I had to wear long sleeves to hide them.

At the coffee automate I had a little chat with collegue, the one I knew being a gardener. 

I lifted the sleeves and showed the marks.

‘Cleaned rose bushes yesterday’, I said with a low tone, like releasing a top secret. ‘The aegopodium podagradia, you know, it’s such a moron!’

‘It is!’ she said with a similar camouflage voice, ‘you should try cutting the leaves and putting round-up to the stub.’

I thought to continue, now being partners in disguising, ‘and I am going to quit tomorrow’ . Like it would be an implicit sequel to the existence of aegopodium podagradia. 

Instead I said ‘hey, I will try that, thanks!’

And quit the next day. 

Shall we meet 3.5.2012 at 12 o’clock downstairs hall!

Tomorrow my life will be valued, measured and weighted.

I will be sitting and answering questions.

With what programs are you familiar with. Specially cloudy ones.

What languages do you speak. And why.

What extra studies have you taken (as fulltime working mother of four).

How do you see yourself; a coach or a mentor. Why. How do you coach.

Are you more a developer or a researcher.

And the favorite: what are your strongnesses. Weaknesses.

Oh God! Luck! Thumbs up! Prayers and begging!

Bath issues

It has been awhile I bathed alone. 

My daughter runs to the bathroom whenever she hears I’m running the water. ‘Mommy can I come in?’ How dare I say no? I don’t. She comes in. She is now 9 years. 

My son has replaced her.

‘Mommy, as you happen to be there, can I come in?’ he asks.

I still dare not to say no. 

As you happen. See, our dining table sits in the middle of kitchen. If you are sitting on the other side, you can reach the fridge. If you are sitting on the opposite side, you can reach cups, glasses, plates and flatware. It is more than often your eating is postponed because you are asked ‘a glass please’, ‘can I have a knife’.  Yes, I am sitting on that side. After the 9th attempt to place a foody fork to your mouth, I normally loose nerves. ’Oh please!’ At one such point my sweetest youngest tried his very best of asking as soft as possible. 

‘Mommy, as you happen to sit there, could you give me a cup?’.

It was cute; ‘as you happen to sit there’. How dare I say no? I did not. I said ‘but that was a nice way to ask, good of you, you 4-years-old!’ and tapped his shoulder. He was very proud, I could tell from his face. 

Ever after when somebody will ask super softly, they start ‘mommy as you happen to’.

I happen very much.

Keeping this in mind whenever I am feeling being a total failure as a mother.

I cannot be! 

They bath with me!

It’s a metaphor also. They bath with me; I don’t control my privacy. I don’t control my body either, I don’t control my identity. ‘I would like a hot bubble bath with this dofting soap!’ (…Because I am so damn tired and I hate the world and I need to know there is still something nice like this Armani Idole shower gel).  ’No mommy no, the bubbles don’t like me and I don’t like hot water!’

Warmish unbubbled baths.

It is my sacrifice. A lame effort to keep up balance with my time, split to family and work.  

[via]

As naked people around my closet.

‘Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.’ (Elizabeth Bishop)

My sisters came to visit and we lost few hours. I was in the meeting. Listening this and talking that, conclusion being the bureaucrats do what they want to. 

Because of losing these hours, we got a precious half on hour around my closet.

It was revealing to lose clothes too small as well as too big. 

‘Where did you lose your stomach?’ I asked my sister. ‘Running, twice a week. Keep it or leave it,’ she answered.

‘Wonderful color this dress!’ she said. ‘Only it doesn’t hang on me, I have lost my tits.’ 

‘A turtle neck to me, are you kidding! I don’t want to lose my neck totally!’ said another sister.

‘Why were you laughing so hard?’ asked my son later on. ’ Why did you not let me in? Were you laughing at me?’  ’No honey, we saw the sisters naked!’ I answered. He immediately understood, being naked is an unlimited source of laughter to him. 

Being lost in art of losing is a source of good laughter to anyone. 

Best friend

She wore a maxi dress. Naturally chic, the way we wear jeans.

At the birthday party she arranged to her husband. The table full of delicacies. Us singing the songs we used to know 20 years ago. A perspective discussion of the existence of the good and the evil.

She is a piece of art of mastering the elegance.

‘

‘So I noticed my boys mixed do-did-does and I lectured them all the way up North’, she said. We were breast-feeding our babies, sitting on the pile of Iraqi rugs, in the middle of Ikea tour. The breakfast there was  such a bargain but babies, you know, their hunger arises whenever, where ever. 

She is a piece of art of mastering the right time and place. 

‘

A long planned picnic. ‘When the ground is green and the sun is warming.’

The day came. To the grove behind Sibelius’ Ainola. Pines up high played symphonies. Down on the twigs we opened the boxes. Dulcet, freshly-baked donuts! ‘Impromptu inspiration in the morning’, she said.

She is a piece of art of mastering the moments.

‘

Her look when describing me the horizontally arranged panel curtains.

She asking ‘when did you two meet really’ when I confessed her my crush to Boston.

‘

She is a piece of art of mastering the friendship. 

Photocredit

Mental cobra

‘Is this room 2?’

‘This is Mental room.’

‘Yoga?’

‘Yes, yoga is mental.’

”

‘The difference between Cobra and Upward-facing dog is your legs. Keep your legs active! Every toe active! All take the Four-limbed staff pose. Keep it. Watch here. Everybody watch here! So you sliiiiide your toes like this. Keep the pose. Slii-i-de like this. Now try yourself. Remember the chin.’

”

‘I took a yoga class yesterday.’

‘Really, it has been awhile!’

‘My arms hurt. She kept us in that staff pose like 10 minutes.’

‘You know, they do that in purpose. And enjoy it.’

‘Yea. It’s called mental.’

Vernal Equinox

During the last weeks there has been battles over the Sun. Northern hemisphere knew it was their turn to have Him, but southern hemisphere was not ready to give Him up.  ‘Hey, just few more days’ they said to Northern. And asked Him to shine once more, and just another day more.

People living on the edge noticed this. ‘Where’s this heat from? It should be spring, not summer!’ they said undusting their fans. ‘90 F, what on Earth is the Sun thinking of!’ they wondered.

The Sun was doing His last favors for southern hemisphere. Finally, yesterday evening, He moved His old ashes couple of  points norther.  

‘What a great morning this is!’ said people on northern hemisphere opening their curtains this morning. ‘Can we finally get rid of that white-ish thing on the ground! Please!’ demanded. ‘And please, this time stay put. We are so tired of  rainy Mondays, gloomy Tuesdays, windy Wednesdays, thuggy Thursdays, foggy Fridays before sunny Saturdays and Sundays!’

As on this Sunday.

‘I want to give you one advice for rest of your life, honey!’ I said to my 4-years-old on our walk.

‘Ok?’

‘Always walk on the bright side of life!’

‘Ok!’

‘How did it go?’

‘Always follow the sun!’

On Monday it was snowing.

‘Where is the bright side now?’ asked my boy looking at the grey, foggy sky.

‘Tomorrow, honey, tomorrow!’ I answered him.

And today, finally, for next 6 months, the day will be longer than the night. Well done! Mission completed!

A wedding, the marriage

‘Do we? Maybe we are just angry all the time.’

‘But why?’

‘The kids. Rush years. Interruptions, questions, tasks. Discussion doesn’t stay, words pass by!’

‘Maybe. I don’t always record what you ask me,’ he said.

‘And I don’t always record what you answer me,’ she said.

‘Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.’

‘What do you remember the reverend talked to us when we were standing there?’

‘Not a word. I was freezing. And the tulle was itchy under the dress. What do you remember?’

‘Nothing… I was nervous. Scared maybe.’

‘Did you ever feel like being trapped?’

‘Hmmm….’

‘Tell! Loooove rejoices with the truth!’

‘No. Only temptated,’ he said smiling.

‘It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.’

‘Do you think we are going to make it?’ she asked him.

‘Make out? You want a kiss?’

‘No, make the marriage.’

‘Ladies and gentlemen. May I introduce you my wife. After 20 years of marriage she’s still thinking will she make it or not!’

‘You wouldn’t change anything?

‘More words. Definitely more words!’

‘… endless discussions all around the world…’

‘… and happily ever after, ’ he said grinning.

What is it like to live in Finland

This is asked every now and then.

Do we have polar bears walking among us on sidewalks? No. Are we nomads living in tee-pees? No. We have the best schools in the world. We are also very low with corruption. Well-educated uncorrupted no-nomads were obviously too much for polar bears, they all moved to Iceland.

Let me tell you some facts.

1. Our cakes are moist.

I have eaten lot of cakes that are told to be soooo delicious and moist. That have not been. They may look good but the taste is dry and boring.

Everyone who has baked cakes knows that in order to make a moist cake, you have to go lower with some attributes the cakes are tagged with. Like the look.

In Finland we prefer the taste, not the look.

In a symbolic way Finland is the land of moist cakes. ‘You can’t judge a book of its cover’ is in Finnish ‘many cakes look good but taste bad’.

Typical to Finland is that things are what they look like. We don’t do things on purpose to make them to look good but to taste/ function/work good.

We make the best mobile phones in the world, but we are not that famous in film industry.

2. We have a lot of sea borders

Some hundred of years ago the Germany based Hanseatic League was looking for new market areas. Up north they saw the sea and estimated there would be a rich country beyond that. There were, Finland. The Hanseatic came over, we bought their products, they implemented their business style; agreement society. Ever since German has been our dear partner in business.

Thanks to Hanseatic business models, we became very good sellers of wood products. Tar to Great Britain, cellulose and paper machines all over the world.

The Swedes from other corner of the Baltic Sea got also interested of our existence. They sailed over. With them the trade was not that good; they took our manpower and horsepower and established some minor cities like Turku. There were discussions of own University (just one!) and finally we got that. Only to notice that the University was a good reason to start to collect taxes. So men, horses and money sailed to Stockholm. Kings in Sweden didn’t use this property wisely; they attached to Europe. At that time Sweden was very famous of its long and expensive military expeditions.

But the question of taxation is interesting. Queen Kristina did good on that. To maximise government revenue she needed a peaceful society. To keep the society peaceful and patient, there had to be schools, public health care and prisons. In Finland all these were established some 400 years ago. And still schools are free, medical care is free, and there are a lot of other free public services. On the other hand taxation is high. It is higher now than at the time of Queen Kristina. She failed badly as a queen, her empire run out of money. Back then there were no IMF so she moved to Italy and a new king came in.

3. We love ice hockey

We love it and every second year we have national mourning because we don’t normally win the world championship goblet. The reason is described above. The Swedes. They took our best men. And when they stopped doing so, our other neighbor Russia came over and killed what was left. No wonder the winner of those games is often Russia or Sweden. I do wonder why Canada is so good in ice hockey….

4. Maybe it is the forests

We both have a lot of forests. Our green-gold. We love the forests. For long industry meant the forest cluster. And industry meant welfare. Stinking factories were tolerated because they paid the huge bill of public health care and schools.

Now factories get seldom and the chimneystacks stay clean. Demand of rare paper is decreasing. Content of the papers is increasing   (So far cellulose business has not demanded added content to cellulose…). 

The content business is a bright rising star. Thinking Rovio (Angry birds), Fiskars (iittala) or Marimekko. And we are very good in design!

Conclusion

Finland is a great place to visit! As New York Times put it: second best in the world right after Panama.

So when booking your holiday trip, you may come to Finland after leaving Panama. Or before.

When here, I recommend to visit design museums (all over), forests (just outside the cities), Suomenlinna (just outside Helsinki, a lovely island) and enjoy!

And hey, live you in USA and wish to change houses for couple of weeks, feel free to contact me! We have a great accommodation in the city near the forests, not far from a small lake, to offer.

(The picture is not of our accommodation, it is taken from Suomenlinna).