I do not love musicals

Regards from Mary Poppins!

She is in person as cute as she is in the pictures or in the movie. But why does she need to sing so much?

I was not fully informed about the theathe piece we went to watch, but I am still happy I went. I thought it was a "normal" theatre, but it was a musical and so far I have not been that big fan of them. Even the movie version of Mamma Mia annoyed me with the musical approach - and I do love Abba. Strange...

Anyways, like I said the company was good. The most annoying thing in the theatre was not on stage but a girl 4 seats away from me. She was about 5 years old, sitting on her mother's lap and her nose was running all the time - and she was sneezing it in every 3-5 seconds.

When this was going on at the first half, I assumed her mother had no tissues but the half time would be a chance to get them. Dead wrong: The same sneezing continued thourgh out the whole show.

Dear mothers and fathers, KEEP TISSUES IN YOUR POCKETS AND USE THEM!!! Or stay away from public ;o)

PS On our way back home it started to snow again. This time the snow flakes were about 1cm size - giant ones. Still too warm for the snow to stay, only +1C but as said the winter is coming soon.

Told you - The winter is coming!

It is snowing!

I said the summer is over. We have had all week the mornings around 0 C and tops +3. Up north was yesterday -8 C and this morning the ground is white.

The car windows have been on ice many mornings - except yesterday when it was raining. Luckily I have in this car the heater that warms up the car for the moment I choose. It will be ready in 15 minutes so I better hurry...

Perfect morning to wear some Calvin Klein's "Summer" EDT ;o)

Tonight it is theatre time with Mary Poppins. Thrilled about it? No.
Do I wanna go? Of course! The company is good and I am always ready for new experiences :o)


Have a fantastic weekend, where ever you are!

PS One year in BRU we were on a beach sunbathing in mid April, let's see if I have any good photos as comparison...

So many thoughts, so little time...

During the past weeks I have had so many ideas to write about but at the same time so little time to put the thoughts on the keyboard.

The Finnish politicians have been on the local news; one member of the parliament about mixing the business and private traveling, prime minister about his ridiculous "I do not recall it... I can't remember that..." explanations about the party election fundings.

The Finnish hockey league is in the semifinal phase but there are no teams left that I would be interested in. Still, I follow a bit and I can't understand why.

Formula1 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen changed his F1 Ferrari into Citroen Ralley car and has had some ups and downs during the first 4 or so World Championship ralleys. Today he finished 5th in Turkey and that can be considered a great achievement with his very limited experience! It is a bit like Michael Schumacher would have jumped to the MotoGP series and finished 5th in a race...

Yesterday I was watching my son's football (soccer) game and he played midfield instead of the regular defense. They won 4-0, he scored 2 goals and had a good chance for a hat trick - and I was enjoying myself!!! As I have said I love to watch sports but seeing your own kids play is just something else.

And then there is the dust cloud;

Around the world are people who had to change their traveling plans. Every one of us know someone who was impacted.

Now some airlines have made test flights and critic against the flight ban is increasing. Let's see how bad the situation will be but now it seems the central Europe will be heavily impacted. At the moment ~4.000 flights were operated instead of the normal ~24.000 flights. Some lucky ones are stuck in 5* hotels with company expenses but that is only few.

I would not dream about bus ride through Europe from Barcelona to Helsinki, Finland. Some holiday tour operators have started to bring groups back to Finland by flying from Canary Islands to Barcelona and continue with a bus from there. Just imagine the 2-3 day trip with small children...

Today I met a colleague who was planned to be in Hania, Greece, enjoying the beaches and heat but instead he is in Espoo, Finland enjoying the +2C we have at the moment.
OK, we had today about +10C and I enjoyed a moment at the backyard patio. Or let's say I tried to make an unpleasant working moment as enjoyable as possible: I opened the sliding doors and was inside, covered from the worst wind, sat on a lamb skin (which is from my wife's childhood) and opened a laptop.

Not as nice and warm as here but still...

Gotta say the sun was enjoyable and I was longing to Brussels where I know the spring is far far ahead. I guess you guys have the certain trees whatevertheyarecalled already blooming pink. The summer is 2 months longer then up here so the past and next few weeks is the time when one should change Finland into Brussels.

However, then we would have missed all the ugliness of the melting snow. Luckily I have not been around the sidewalks to see the exposure of the dog poo... Thank you for everyone who uses the plastic bags to collect the poo!!!

Last but not least, for everyone working with a laptop in the sun check out this.

Who's the mother...?

I've started to question who is the mother of my children. I must be the father - and I have some evidence to claim it;

One has got a running style as heavy as mine. She also has got the strong perfectionist mindset. The other has got the strange sense of humour, loves the situational comedy and is almost as fit as me.

But the mother then... Yes there are just as many similar things alike, but there must be a reason for both of them having musical skills. The young lady is playing clarinet for the 3rd year now and the young man started with saxophone last fall, having his first stage performance last Sunday.

IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!

The Pink Panther theme got a new status in my musical life but I can tell you the musical skills of the kids are definetely not from me - I am as bad playing music as my wife, the assumed mother of the children says.

Yes, yes, yes, I know I was present when the kids were born but still - there must be a trick somewhere. It can't be that both kids have been switched in the hospital by accident.

How to be sure...? Should I try to play an instrument myself?

Actually in today's world my musical skills are quite advanced since I still have my LP record player from the mid 80's. Still works! Hmmm, I've also played the simple rhime of Ukko Nooa in several island churches with harmonium, the piano type of instrument, but that requires only less then 10 keys so it doesn't count.

Or does this mean the the musical skills are from me and my wife is at the end the mother?

1000 - You made it!

Ladies and Playboys - Hyvät Naiset ja Herrat,

1000 pageviews since 8 January 2010 from people in 41 countries. Thank you for the confidence - I will continue with the same crap ;o) 

...eli 1000 sivulatausta tammikuun 8 päivän jälkeen 41 maasta. Kiitos luottamuksesta - soopan suoltaminen jatkuu ;o)

Tuhannet kiitokset - Grazie 1000(!!!) - Tack - Dank u wel - Thank you - Merci - Danke schön - Gracias etc...!!!

Back to the winter

I know the summer is short up here but was that it?

Last Monday afternoon in the sun the temperature was above +10C. On Tue we were down to +3C and raining like hell so I guess the summer is over. Well, at least the iglu - or better say the snow cave - made by the young member of the family had collapsed. There is still 20-30 cm of snow at our backyard. And of course more in the place where  the snow montain was.

All mornings this week have been between +1C and +3C. The rain has been here often but as well as the sun for a few hours. That makes the snow is melting slooowly. Up north we still have ~1 meter of snow and ski resorts are busy.

The good thing with this cold summer that has now ended is that we should expect a warm rest of the year since the average annual temperature and amount of rain/snow will not change that much from one year to another...

Pro shaving

For some years I have tried to find a barber shop that would do the traditional shaving. I have asked around in Finland, Spain and Belgium but have not been successful. Until now.

Downstairs from the place we were staying in Brussels is a men´s barber shop and as I saw shaving brushes and other material, I went in and tried my luck – and was successful!

Just like in American movies, you sit down and enjoy. You get a warm towel on your face, thorough brushing, shaving with a knife, facial massage, again warm towel, cooling with another towel, and a nice after shave treatment. It was an enjoyable experience, but if you have a sensitive skin, they are likely to use a traditional shaver instead of the knife, but it will be done thoroughly all over. Result is as smooth as one can get form this face.

Not all the people speak English but the state-of-art bald man does and he did my treatment. Price was 19 Euros and I can truly recommend it!

Rudolphe, the men´s hairstylist
Avenue Louise 135, 1050 Brussels
Tel. +32 (0)2 534 00 14

With or without appointment

Spring feelings

As said, the spring is slowly approaching. One firm sign of it is BBQ - even if we Finns are fine to do it all year long the spring time increases the smell of burning charcoal - or better the lighter fluid...

As you can see, I don't mind if there is still snow. However, I didn't go for the bigger grill yet.

The melting snow brings also some unpleasant sights with it, or what do you think about these?

Well, I gotta say I was polight as I have no pics of the yellow snow or the dog poo markers that are part of spring - due to the dog owners who don't bother to carry a plastic bag to pick up the poo ;o)

Happy easter, it is chocolate time...

The spring love is coming out from the snow - yes, this heart that is on a stick about 50 cm from the ground so we are on the winning side...!

 

PS Pahoittelut erityisesti  Kaakonkulmaan etten ole kirjoittanut suomeksi - mutta kuvat ovat monikielisiä ;o)

Is the spring here or what?

First things firsts;
You guys are boring and now it has been proven: Out of the about 100 visitors only 5 were brave enough to give their opinion about men wearing a hat indoors. All 5 share my opinion that gentlemen - which each male at some level should be - do not wear hats indoors.

Then into today's lecture...
It seems the winter is slowly giving up and spring will arrive any month (not day nore week) soon. At the moment there is +3C outside but we had double digits today - at least in the vague sun that came out. I took advantage of the holiday and cleaned the outside patio as well as both BBQ's. Yes, I have two of them;

One is a fantastic round Weber charcoal grill that is made for the briquettes. We bought that one to replace a great OPA-grill (made in Finland) which was great but getting too small and falling into pieces after 10 years of hard usage...

The other one I ended up buying from our BRU upstairs neighbour who realized it was too big for his balcony. I gotta say he was right. It is great - the size of a big gas grill but also that one runs with charcoal - or I should say since also that one is made in US it is designed for briquettes.

I know that gas grill would be faster, easier and I would avoid hassle with cleaning and so on, but the fact is gas is not the same as charcoal...

Anyway, we have a BIG family coming for a visit on Sunday and BBQ is planned so I will need a good tool. On Monday another family will come over but they are pygmies compared to the previous day.

Also if I think of the visitors that are coming in June, the weekend before the Midsummer, I will need a good size BBQ to show what Finnish BBQ - at least at our house - has to offer. And that is just as good as any other! These visitors will be coming from Belgium, France, Italy, Holland, and hopefully also from Austria, UK - and perhaps I am forgetting a country since it is getting late but still...

Stay tuned, I have some good pics coming up about the winter turning into spring. But now I'm getting too tired...