hiidenkonttibeta

Kaupungilla kulkiessa havainnoi silloin tällöin muutaman sanan ajatelmia (taikka runoelmia) seinään liimatuilla paperiarkeilla, allekirjoittajana Loesje. Tämmöisiä:

Loesje.fi kertoo mistä on kyse, ja julistearkistossa on paljon lisää, vuodesta 1991 saakka. Osa niistä on varsin nokkelia ja osuvia.

I had a work-related trip to Helsinki last week, and stayed a long weekend there. Snowy, windy, winterly. A few warmer hours, but it’s still not Spring, even if the Vernal Equinox is today.

On my way to congress center on Thursday morning I passed the Presidential Palace. The rather silly looking shelters don’t help the poor guards against the cold wind blowing from the sea.

The Finnish translation of the latest Harry Potter book was published on Thursday. Only a couple of fans were queueing when I passed the store, too few to photograph a mass of fans. They had a stand in the store, with a wool scarf waiting for knitters:

On Sunday, we again played tourists. First we visited the tower of the Olympic Stadion.

The use of stairs was forbidden, and the elevator only had buttons 1, 2 and 11. What kind of secrets they have on floors 3-10?

The tower is 72m high, providing a good view over the city. The rain gutter -like thing on the top again proved that tourists have a built-in need to get rid of their money. Wherever there’s a pool and tourists, it soon fills with coins. Apparently it doesn’t really need water.

The 3D photo experiment didn’t work too well, even if the separation distance was over a meter or so. Moving cars also play a trick when using a single (and slow) camera.

We also visited the tram museum, where they had an old educational B&W film for tram drivers (and cashiers) running. If the personnel doesn’t take constant care of the passengers, they end up running straight in the poles of street lamps when stepping out of the tram car or they get their hand between the closing doors and are dragged by the tram and when noticed they must be immediately and without questioning be placed in a taxi which just happens to arrive at the exact moment of the incident. And off it goes.

My ginger has been doing well – currently it has three longer stems and three more sprouts are getting bigger:

We had to install a supporting stick to keep it vertical, since the stems aren’t strong enough to hold themselves upright. Occasionally some tips of leaves turn dry, I have no idea of the reason. It also consumes a lot more water now, but the water tank in the pot is still enough for 5 days. We’ll see how long it lasts when the summer comes and the temperature rises.

They’ve having Winter Swimming World Championships in Oulu this week. I happened to be going past the place the competition was being held, and went there to take a few photos since I had a camera with me.

The competitors were instructed to take off their clothes and get in to water so that their shoulders were under the water. Then they were sent off, they swam 25 meters and got up:

Note that it was about -14°C outside today. They also had a sauna and a hot bath available:

The web page of the competition tells that there are participants from 18 countries. On the few rounds I watched, most were Finns (of course), then several Russians, and competitor from Latvia and another from Slovakia.

The navigation system of the car we rented in Stuttgart was playing tricks on us. If it had a map display, they would have been easier to spot. For example, in one point the instructions were “Turn left. Turn left. Turn left. Turn left.” and we ended driving around the block. Then there was a confusing tournee in some suburb, after which we continued more or less on the same road we had been travelling so far.

We had time to quickly visit the city center. It looked nice enough, I wouldn’t mind exploring it a bit more on foot. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to get lost.

Älkää yrittäkö tätä kotona:

Tämä Sodexhon uusin pizzakokeilu ei ollut epäonnistunut valmistusvaiheessa. Se oli oikeastaan teknisesti harvinaisen hyvin onnistunut kyseisen ruokalan tuotokseksi. Epäonnistuminen oli tosin tapahtunut jo suunnitteluvaiheessa..

Huomenna lennän aamulla Stuttgartiin ja illalla takaisin. Jos manpitsuun ei ilmesty päivityksiä tämän päivän jälkeen, tarkista uutisista onko 2.3.2006 pudonnut koneita Suomen ja Saksan välillä.