Graah

Should be out having fun with Ilari but here I am sitting on the couch. Wakeup for tomorrow is at 6.45 the latest. 7.15 is when I should be taking my pain medication and at 8.15 it is again the time to clean the wound. I am seriously getting worried about the trip to Germany. I wouldn't want to disappoint Ilari as we both have really been looking forward to this trip. If nothing else I guess we have to learn how to clean the wound by ourselves and I hope to god that the whole circus is over by then. The other thing is the trip to China which is something that I would love to do but it is equally doubtfull if it will take place. If there is an open wound still by the time I should be going there then the trip is off. I don't want some exotic disease from there.

Bought Ilari his christmas present. No, I wont tell what it is as he is reading the blog :) Haa-haa. Got some other presents also. Should do the rest of the shopping on Monday.

<3

I like someone =)

Vacation - first week

Spending the second week of vacation, slightly bored maybe. The first week I spend traveling around Finland. Started on Friday with a trip to Tampere to see my friend there. Went to Särkänniemi to see the dolphins (which were so lovely I wanted to cry). Also took a look at the black hole movie at the planetarium. Was a bit disappointing.


On Sunday we went to see the Simpsons movie. Sure it was fun but still a but disappointing. On Monday morning it was time to say farewell to Tampere and head out to Tervola. After an agonising 7 hours in the train I finally arrived to my destination. A long strech of tracks in the middle of nowhere. After a while my friend arrived and we walked the 2km to his place. In the evening we took the car and made a trip to Sweden. Actually quite a few as we were looking for an open place were we could have something to eat so we drove over the border a few times. We finally settled for Finnish pizza and a movie.

The next morning it was time to jump aboard again and head out to Oulu. The trip took only an hour and a half. In Oulu I headed out to the hotell which turned out to be nice. Decided to meet one of my friends and we went out to eat at a chinese place. After that we headed out to a café where we had some delicious cake pieces. We went walking in the city center and sat down at a place recommended by Veltsu. They even could make a Holy Diver drink there.


The next day it was time to head out towards Turku. Another painful 7 hours in the train with a change at Tampere. Arrived in Turku in the evening. Walked the 300 meters to the hotell which turned out to be nice (it was an Omena hotell). The room was a bit cold but spacious and nice. Toilet and shower could have been a bit nicer though. Went out to eat chinese before hitting bed with a book.

The next morning it was time to go to the archipelago and visit my grandmother. The trip took two hours with the bus as it went around all the small places delivering newspapers and mail along the route.

The time spent at grandmothers was boring until Sunday morning when a thunder storm struck. It hit the neighbors garage and pretty much spread from there. What we saw and heard was a sizzling sound from the kitchen followed by a red flash and one hell of a bang.


By some freak accident the phone survived. Go figure.

Two more weeks

Got a trip to Hamburg. Suprisingly cheap for a weekend, 370e. Hotel costs almost twice as much as the flight there and back. Received word from Y, too busy but that was to be expected. Other than that everything seems to be clear regarding tour de Finland except that I need to buy the 3 day vacation pass.

Some clouds appeared over my time in German next year. The office in Germany feels that my organisation should pay for everything (yes I can see why as I am forcing myself there :) but my boss wants the German organisation to take some part in the living cost. Hell, I could pay for the rent myself if need be.

Apparently my psychological "warfare" has gone through. As I left the office on Friday our admin told me to swear that I would not remove any of the servers whilst he is on vacation :] Maybe I'll just hide them somewhere as I'll be on vacation when he comes back :P

Three more weeks

Then the vacation starts. As usual huge plans that are most likely not going to happen. Atleast I'm going to Tampere but after that, who knows. Tervola - maybe. Oulu? Don't know. Turku, yes. Archipelago? Definitly. Need to talk to Y about Hamburg and when it would be suitable to go there.

Whilst in Lativa my boss asked if I still was serious about going to Germany. I said yes. He talked to our German contact who talked to me and adviced me on issues that should be considered. I also started to write on the application that he needs to send to the local HR .. and the local Union. I thought there was free movement in the EU... So did P. I'm sure that Nokia laying of a few thousand there wont be helpful :)

Moving forward

Last week my boss asked me if I wanted join a meeting on Friday. Said ok as calendar was empty. Apparently I'm now part of a Steering Group for our team coordinating our development work to this one particular supplier. That came as a supprise. Later that day I happened to sit next to my boss as he was talking to our German partner and even though I don't understand much of german (just a little bit) I did understand that during his next visit he'll bring up my wish of going to work there so that is moving forward. Yay!

Summer plans

I've been thinking about what to do during the summer vacation. Atleast one week in the archipelago is must. Then I had planned on going to Tervola, Oulu and Tampere. Maybe also Hamburg as Y is there for his work practice. Would be nice to go abroad and see what is happening there. Never been to Hamburg and there is a direct fligt with Blue1 so the flight is atleast cheep.

When I went to Riga in February or March I was asked by a friend to buy some ciggarets as they are cheeper there. Did so. Told him to come and get it. No time, has to work on his appartment. Ok. Went bowling. Wanna pick up the ciggarets? No, room mate would just smoke them. Ok. If the ciggarets are not gone by Friday I'll throw them out of the window.

New Horizons

2008 may turn out to be interesting. Yesterday I had a talk with my boss and I happened to mention that it would be cool to work abroad for half a year or a year, say Germany or so (I liked it when I was there). He asked what I would do there and I told him that I would get Germany up to speed on my project. He bought the idea that I sold him and we'll look closer at what the situation looks like in the summer time. So if all goes well, I might move to Germany. And pretty close to Mr. Y. :)

Time

Celebrated my cousins oldest offsprings 18th birthday on Friday. Time really does fly sometime. I can still remember her there on the couch at her grandparents place just a few weeks old after the christening. I can remember babysitting her while my cousin was out. I can remember her at the child daycare center and her first watch. I can remember a lot of things about her. Where did all the time go? And maybe more importantly when? Why is she suddenly 18.. Was I really only 16 when she was born... I guess the next 18th birthday party is in 7 years for my sisters oldest one. Should be here soon.

This and that

Mr. Y was here yesterday. We watched some movies (Snatch, Dogma and Butterfly effect). Between the movies I torched two steaks and we had some redwine to go with it. Too bad Y is leaving the country to go back home next week ... just when I come back from my trip. Atleast I have his card. I was planning on going to Edinbourgh during my summer vacation .. maybe I'll change that to Mannheim...

Been watching Full Metal Alchemist since I partly missed an episode last weekend. It is really a sad story that they tell... Makes you think now and then..

Thank god

You Failed the US Citizenship Test

Oops, you only got 6 out of 10 right!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

Honesty

Some people are always honest, some lie now and then, some all the time. Some are always honest even if it means personal loss, damage to character or some other just basic bad things. Some people get offended by honesty, either for what they are told, what they didn't want to hear or how they have to relate to the new information.

Are you honest? Do you dare to?

Panic

What is more fun than to sit and write a manual for a piece of software that is about to released on Monday? What is more fun than to create and fake cases for the manual? What is more fun when creating cases to notice that you have one hell of a bug in the software that is about to be released on Monday? What is more fun than to realise that it is Friday afternoon and the coders may already have left to spend the weekend.

It's fixed now.

More fun is to have the person you love with all your heart next to you two days in a row.

Sleep

For the last three nights I've been sleeping all in all for about 11 hours. Which is about 3. something per night. Not really much is it. No. Didn't think so either. You go to bed. You try to get some sleep on your left side. Nothing. You turn over to the right. Nothing. You lie on you back. Nothing. You listen to the clocks ticking. Still nothing. You can hear the clock strike one .. two .. three ... Why won't you come.


What I would like to do the most is to just sit next to you, hold your hand and just be. I already told you I want to take care of you, make sure that you have everything you need to be happy. I do care about you, so much it sometimes hurts.

The race

From when you get up in the morning to when you go to sleep you race, competing against something or someone. Sometimes you win, sometimes you come in second. Winning gives you a rush of accomplishment, a good feeling which pushes you further and further. But what if in certain key areas which are important to persons, the only think you can do is to come in second. Never the winner, always the looser, no matter what you do. When you come to the finishing line you can see that someone else is already there or you are informed that the race was already over when you got to the goal as they didn't want to wait for you anymore. At the goal the prize is handed over to the winner and all you can do is stand next to the winner and look at him thinking "What if it would have been me?".

Why race when you can never win?

Happy New Year! Yet another year for racing. The first race already ended. Rememberd why I don't do to DTM. Went there with an IRC acquaintance. It's been something over 3 years since my last visit. This one lasted 45 minutes I think. Then I walked home. Quite refreshing actually. Came home and noticed two girls sitting at the stairs so I threw them out and wished them a happy new year. They didn't appreciate.

Now it's time for the hangover. I feel sick (don't know if I'm hungry or just from too much booze) and the hangover is starting to creep up next to me. Time to leave the computer and go lie down.