Greetings from the other side.
Last week was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The week before we had been away, together with my fiancee and her sister and brother-in-law, to a place called Ukkohalla on a ski trip. The weather was overcast and the snow messed with our skis a bit, but other than that it was a thoroughly enjoyable trip. When it came to the skiing we did the cross-country variant. It had been years since I last did any kind of skiing, and it was a bit of a strange experience being back on a pair of skis again. It was fun though, and I think I ended up doing something like 13 km in total. Compared to my fiancee's sister and her husband that was nothing though. I think they ended up doing something in the region of 86 km in total.
Among the first things that happened after we got there was that I managed to 'wreck' the bed. It's not as bad as it sounds though. Basically, I was trying to move the bed slightly to the side when it suddenly collapsed. It turned out that, unbeknownst to me, by moving it I had disturbed an upright-standing logg underneath it that was holding the length-wise running beam in place, which in turn supported all the lateral-running supports underneath the bed. I'm not sure if that description paints a good enough picture of what I mean, but I hope it does as my tired brain is currently struggling a bit to think of a better explanation.
Anyway, we managed to fix the bed fairly quickly again.
The trip to Ukkohalla was a lot of fun, and it is certainly something I would definitely do again some day. It was nice to get away for a few days and spend some time with my fiancee and her sister and brother-in-law.
In Sweden we have a saying that translates roughly to "Away is good, but home is best" (Sv: Borta bra men hemma bäst). As fun as it had been to be away for a few days, it still felt good to come back home and sleep in your own bed again.
However, starting the next day I wasn't feeling too well. I felt really stressed and tired, and not really myself. It's been a long time since I had felt that high levels of stress, and seemingly for no apparent reason. It took me most of the following week to get back to normal again. Hopefully that was a one-off thing, but I would really like to know what caused it. Maybe it was a lot of little things that just came together to cause it? I honestly have no idea. Whatever it was, it continued to influence my week though.
I am so glad to be passed that now. Hopefully it was just a one-off thing.
Yesterday I was pretty nervous though. I was set to work at a memorial service. Now, I have done that before, but this was the first time I was going to do it completely on my own. All sorts of thoughts were flowing through my head, and I was trying to remember everything I needed to think about and prepare. I'd lie if I said I wasn't nervous though. Looking back at it now however, I would say that I did a good job. So maybe I didn't need to be so nervous about it, but that's the benefit of hindsight and all that.
Yesterday evening, we had a couple of friends over and we all sat down and watched Melodifestivalen. which is the Swedish competition that decides which entry we send to the Eurovision Song Contest. Did the right song win? I have no clue. I guess we'll find that out when the actual ESC competition is held. After that it is really down to personal taste whether you liked it or not. The main thing though was that we had a great time yesterday evening, together with good friends. We laughed a lot and I think I needed that having been so nervous about the memorial service job earlier in the day.
It's been two week since I was able to really do any world-building or writing, but yesterday evening after our friends had left, I started sitting down with it again and it was such a good feeling. I've missed it more than I thought I did, so being back at it felt really good.
Until next time.
See you all on the other side!
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söndag 12 mars 2017
lördag 25 februari 2017
A beautiful winter's day
Greetings from the other side.
Today is an incredibly beautiful day outside. The ground is covered in snow, the sky is blue and it is essentially a very beautiful painting as you look out over the landscape. Each season is beautiful in its own way, but I think that a really clear winter's day with blue sky and lots of white snow is among the most beautiful. We had guests over today and I spent a good chunk of that time looking out the window at the beautiful wintry painting that nature had painted outside.
This winter has been very mild, and so we haven't really had the amount of snow outside that I had wish we'd have. I guess that is why you notice a day like today even more. I've been spending some time outside, shoveling snow, bringing in fire wood, etc. It's a pleasure working outside in beautiful weather like this. :)
In other news my future father-in-law celebrated his 70th birthday last weekend. It was a very fun event, with lots of good people and good food. :) His children, grandchildren and sons-in-law and me sang a song for him as well.
It was less fun to come home and find about 30 carpenter ants over the following 2 hours crawling around our living room and hall. We've had a guy over to look at the issue and take care of the problem. Unfortunately we don't know yet where they have their nest in the house, so we need to wait until we can find it. There is a problem with that though, and that is that it has been too cold so they haven't been very active since last weekend. So we'll have to wait until warmer weather comes along and they become active again before we can start locating their nest. We're hoping that will come soon.
As we understand it the nest in our house is probably a satellite-nest, with the main nest is located somewhere else in the vicinity. This means that unless we can find the main nest this spring/summer they might return. Wish us luck!
In more positive news, my fiancee and I are going away together with her sister and her husband this week on a bit of a skiing holiday. It's also to give my fiancee a chance to get away for a bit and rest up.
I think that'll be all for today. Feeling a bit tired so going to go rest my head a bit.
See you all on the other side!
Today is an incredibly beautiful day outside. The ground is covered in snow, the sky is blue and it is essentially a very beautiful painting as you look out over the landscape. Each season is beautiful in its own way, but I think that a really clear winter's day with blue sky and lots of white snow is among the most beautiful. We had guests over today and I spent a good chunk of that time looking out the window at the beautiful wintry painting that nature had painted outside.
This winter has been very mild, and so we haven't really had the amount of snow outside that I had wish we'd have. I guess that is why you notice a day like today even more. I've been spending some time outside, shoveling snow, bringing in fire wood, etc. It's a pleasure working outside in beautiful weather like this. :)
In other news my future father-in-law celebrated his 70th birthday last weekend. It was a very fun event, with lots of good people and good food. :) His children, grandchildren and sons-in-law and me sang a song for him as well.
It was less fun to come home and find about 30 carpenter ants over the following 2 hours crawling around our living room and hall. We've had a guy over to look at the issue and take care of the problem. Unfortunately we don't know yet where they have their nest in the house, so we need to wait until we can find it. There is a problem with that though, and that is that it has been too cold so they haven't been very active since last weekend. So we'll have to wait until warmer weather comes along and they become active again before we can start locating their nest. We're hoping that will come soon.
As we understand it the nest in our house is probably a satellite-nest, with the main nest is located somewhere else in the vicinity. This means that unless we can find the main nest this spring/summer they might return. Wish us luck!
In more positive news, my fiancee and I are going away together with her sister and her husband this week on a bit of a skiing holiday. It's also to give my fiancee a chance to get away for a bit and rest up.
I think that'll be all for today. Feeling a bit tired so going to go rest my head a bit.
See you all on the other side!
lördag 18 februari 2017
Finding the rhythm
Greetings from the other side.
Getting back into the regular blogging thing has been a bit more difficult than I envisioned when I decided to slow down my blogging output over the holiday season. There are many times when I have thought I should write something, but then something else comes up and I end up postponing writing a new blog entry for another time. Oh well, such is the way of life I guess, and I will have to see where it takes me. The blog is still there though, so maybe I can get into a better writing rhythm with it again, eventually.
Last weekend we had a visit from two good friends from Sweden. It was the first time they were here since my move, and it was a real pleasure to have them here for a visit over the weekend. Having friends or family over to visit is always a good feeling. Even though I like it here in Finland, and I am very happy here, there is always that part of me that misses my friends and family back in Sweden. So whenever people have a chance to come over here for a visit, or I get a chance to go over there to visit, it is always a good feeling.
Tomorrow we are going to celebrate my fiancee's father's 70th birthday. His actual birthday is on Monday, but for convenience sake the celebrations are being held on Sunday instead. It should be a good time, and my future father-in-law has made the food and cakes himself, so you know it will be really good. Being that he is a chef and all.
In a couple of weeks time my fiancee and I are also going away for a few days together with her sister and her husband. It will be nice to get away for a little bit and see something else. There might be some skiing involved as well, if there is enough snow. Either way, I am really looking forward to it. It will be nice to get away and see a different part of Finland as well. :) Hopefully I can remember to take some pictures while I am there and possibly post some of them on the blog.
That will have to round off a relatively short blog. Before I sat down to write it I thought I had a ton to write about, but when I actually started writing most of those things just disappeared. Oh well, maybe for the next blog post. :)
See you all on the other side!
Getting back into the regular blogging thing has been a bit more difficult than I envisioned when I decided to slow down my blogging output over the holiday season. There are many times when I have thought I should write something, but then something else comes up and I end up postponing writing a new blog entry for another time. Oh well, such is the way of life I guess, and I will have to see where it takes me. The blog is still there though, so maybe I can get into a better writing rhythm with it again, eventually.
Last weekend we had a visit from two good friends from Sweden. It was the first time they were here since my move, and it was a real pleasure to have them here for a visit over the weekend. Having friends or family over to visit is always a good feeling. Even though I like it here in Finland, and I am very happy here, there is always that part of me that misses my friends and family back in Sweden. So whenever people have a chance to come over here for a visit, or I get a chance to go over there to visit, it is always a good feeling.
Tomorrow we are going to celebrate my fiancee's father's 70th birthday. His actual birthday is on Monday, but for convenience sake the celebrations are being held on Sunday instead. It should be a good time, and my future father-in-law has made the food and cakes himself, so you know it will be really good. Being that he is a chef and all.
In a couple of weeks time my fiancee and I are also going away for a few days together with her sister and her husband. It will be nice to get away for a little bit and see something else. There might be some skiing involved as well, if there is enough snow. Either way, I am really looking forward to it. It will be nice to get away and see a different part of Finland as well. :) Hopefully I can remember to take some pictures while I am there and possibly post some of them on the blog.
That will have to round off a relatively short blog. Before I sat down to write it I thought I had a ton to write about, but when I actually started writing most of those things just disappeared. Oh well, maybe for the next blog post. :)
See you all on the other side!
lördag 7 januari 2017
Welcome to the new year!
Greetings from the other side.
And thus I return from the holiday season, bringing wishes of well-being and happiness for you all. I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years together with family, friends, loved ones, etc. I also hope that the new year will be a good one, for everyone on this blue marble in space that we live our lives upon. May this new year at least see the beginnings of an end to wars, abuse, poverty, loneliness, and all the other things that ails the world. At least that is what I hope for, and pray for.
The night before yesterday I sat up until 4 or 5 am playing a tabletop roleplaying game over the internet with my friends. It was so much fun, and I have missed it dearly. I don't get to do that too often these days. Then I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep, before I got up because I had to be at work the next day. Granted, I didn't need to be there until 1 pm, but I had some other stuff to do before-hand as well. It is safe to say that I was pretty knackered by the end of the day. So early night for me last night and then I slept for about 10 hours. I guess my body needed it. It's good that the weekend is here now.
So, my last post was on December 20, which you can find here. Since then I have had my first Christmas here in Finland, and it was a fun and enjoyable time together with my fiancee and her family. Next year we will be celebrating Christmas with my family in Sweden, and then probably do an every-other-year kind of thing. Anyway, focus on this year, and this was the first time I had ever celebrated Christmas away from my family, so it was a bit of a strange feeling. In the end though, it was an enjoyable time surrounded by good people and a warm atmosphere. It is definitely something I am looking forward to do again another year! :)
Even the family dog, Bamse, got excited about Santa's visit and all the presents. Sadly I don't have a picture of him at that moment, but here's another picture of him taken on the same day at least:
He's a big Newfoundland boy, and at 10 years of age he is currently older than the average life-expectancy of dogs of his breed.
There were a few new food-items among the Christmas food that I hadn't tried before. I honestly don't know what to call most of them in English,so I won't attempt to. I will say however that I enjoyed everything that I tried.
Oh, and I also worked during Christmas service on Christmas Eve, as well as during mass on New Years Day.
Christmas Day was spent taking it easy and having lunch with my fiancee's parents. On Boxing Day (Annandag Jul in Swedish) we went to visit my fiancee's sister and her family.
In the days before New Years both my fiancee and her mother got ill. We had intended to celebrate New Years with my fiancee's parents, but in the end we went over for dinner and then went home again. My fiancee went to bed early and I stayed up chatting with friends online for a while. Luckily they are both feeling better now. Though her mother had to go to the hospital and was diagnosed with pneumonia, something which she has since then been going to the health clinic 3 times a day and gotten regular doses of antibiotics intravenously. My father-in-law and myself have luckily managed to stay healthy so far.
All in all it has been a good time, and I can look back to it with fond memories. Now we have a new year in front of us. Let's do the best we can out of it! :)
I wish you all a happy new year. May the new year bring happiness, peace and love to all.
Until next time.
See you all on the other side!
And thus I return from the holiday season, bringing wishes of well-being and happiness for you all. I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years together with family, friends, loved ones, etc. I also hope that the new year will be a good one, for everyone on this blue marble in space that we live our lives upon. May this new year at least see the beginnings of an end to wars, abuse, poverty, loneliness, and all the other things that ails the world. At least that is what I hope for, and pray for.
The night before yesterday I sat up until 4 or 5 am playing a tabletop roleplaying game over the internet with my friends. It was so much fun, and I have missed it dearly. I don't get to do that too often these days. Then I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep, before I got up because I had to be at work the next day. Granted, I didn't need to be there until 1 pm, but I had some other stuff to do before-hand as well. It is safe to say that I was pretty knackered by the end of the day. So early night for me last night and then I slept for about 10 hours. I guess my body needed it. It's good that the weekend is here now.
So, my last post was on December 20, which you can find here. Since then I have had my first Christmas here in Finland, and it was a fun and enjoyable time together with my fiancee and her family. Next year we will be celebrating Christmas with my family in Sweden, and then probably do an every-other-year kind of thing. Anyway, focus on this year, and this was the first time I had ever celebrated Christmas away from my family, so it was a bit of a strange feeling. In the end though, it was an enjoyable time surrounded by good people and a warm atmosphere. It is definitely something I am looking forward to do again another year! :)
Even the family dog, Bamse, got excited about Santa's visit and all the presents. Sadly I don't have a picture of him at that moment, but here's another picture of him taken on the same day at least:
He's a big Newfoundland boy, and at 10 years of age he is currently older than the average life-expectancy of dogs of his breed.
There were a few new food-items among the Christmas food that I hadn't tried before. I honestly don't know what to call most of them in English,so I won't attempt to. I will say however that I enjoyed everything that I tried.
Oh, and I also worked during Christmas service on Christmas Eve, as well as during mass on New Years Day.
Christmas Day was spent taking it easy and having lunch with my fiancee's parents. On Boxing Day (Annandag Jul in Swedish) we went to visit my fiancee's sister and her family.
In the days before New Years both my fiancee and her mother got ill. We had intended to celebrate New Years with my fiancee's parents, but in the end we went over for dinner and then went home again. My fiancee went to bed early and I stayed up chatting with friends online for a while. Luckily they are both feeling better now. Though her mother had to go to the hospital and was diagnosed with pneumonia, something which she has since then been going to the health clinic 3 times a day and gotten regular doses of antibiotics intravenously. My father-in-law and myself have luckily managed to stay healthy so far.
All in all it has been a good time, and I can look back to it with fond memories. Now we have a new year in front of us. Let's do the best we can out of it! :)
I wish you all a happy new year. May the new year bring happiness, peace and love to all.
Until next time.
See you all on the other side!
onsdag 16 november 2016
A mix of Seasonal things & Life
Greetings from the other side!
We still have snow on the ground over here. Something which I didn't think would last this long. I was fully expecting it to have melted away by now. It even snowed a bit more last night. Though we have warmer weather now, so it might still melt away before the week is over. I am kind of silently hoping that it will still be white outside come Advent Sunday (1:a Advent, in Swedish).
Now, Advent Sunday happens on November 27th this year. The day before that, there is a custom to celebrate what is known here as "Little Christmas" (lilla Jul). It is not a major thing, and I personally don't recall having ever encountered it back home in Sweden (though I know it exists there as well). As far as I have been able to understand it, "little Christmas" is most common among families that have children. One tradition associated with it is the tradition that a secret "Santa" throws presents in through the front door and then disappears before anyone finds out who it was. I can definitely see why that would be exciting for the kids in the family. :)
It has been a fairly calm week for me, but at the same time it feels like it has just flown by and like I haven't had the time to do all the things I wanted to do. Then again, time has flown by ever since I moved here to Finland. I guess it is a good measure for how much I enjoy it here.
Last Sunday was Father's Day, and we celebrated it by having my fiance's parents over for lunch, and then we went over to them, together with my fiance's brother and his family, and had dinner there. Both occasions were really nice. I had, of course, already called my own dad earlier in the day and congratulated him on Father's Day as well. Am looking forward to visiting my parents in a few weeks time. :)
On a sadder note, something is wrong with my new phone. For some reason, when people call me they some times cannot hear me while I hear them perfectly on the other end. Sometimes hanging up and calling me back can help, but not always. On those occasions I have to call them up for them to be able to hear me. Other times they hear me, but then the sound keeps coming and going for them, i.e. they hear me and then they don't, then they hear me again and then they don't. It's annoying, so I will have to take the phone in to where I got it from and ask them about it. The phone itself is only a few weeks old, so it shouldn't have these issues.
That will be all for today. It has turned out to be a shorter post than I thought at the start of it, but that is just the way it is. Hopefully I will be able to write something longer next time.
See you all on the other side!
We still have snow on the ground over here. Something which I didn't think would last this long. I was fully expecting it to have melted away by now. It even snowed a bit more last night. Though we have warmer weather now, so it might still melt away before the week is over. I am kind of silently hoping that it will still be white outside come Advent Sunday (1:a Advent, in Swedish).
Now, Advent Sunday happens on November 27th this year. The day before that, there is a custom to celebrate what is known here as "Little Christmas" (lilla Jul). It is not a major thing, and I personally don't recall having ever encountered it back home in Sweden (though I know it exists there as well). As far as I have been able to understand it, "little Christmas" is most common among families that have children. One tradition associated with it is the tradition that a secret "Santa" throws presents in through the front door and then disappears before anyone finds out who it was. I can definitely see why that would be exciting for the kids in the family. :)
It has been a fairly calm week for me, but at the same time it feels like it has just flown by and like I haven't had the time to do all the things I wanted to do. Then again, time has flown by ever since I moved here to Finland. I guess it is a good measure for how much I enjoy it here.
Last Sunday was Father's Day, and we celebrated it by having my fiance's parents over for lunch, and then we went over to them, together with my fiance's brother and his family, and had dinner there. Both occasions were really nice. I had, of course, already called my own dad earlier in the day and congratulated him on Father's Day as well. Am looking forward to visiting my parents in a few weeks time. :)
On a sadder note, something is wrong with my new phone. For some reason, when people call me they some times cannot hear me while I hear them perfectly on the other end. Sometimes hanging up and calling me back can help, but not always. On those occasions I have to call them up for them to be able to hear me. Other times they hear me, but then the sound keeps coming and going for them, i.e. they hear me and then they don't, then they hear me again and then they don't. It's annoying, so I will have to take the phone in to where I got it from and ask them about it. The phone itself is only a few weeks old, so it shouldn't have these issues.
That will be all for today. It has turned out to be a shorter post than I thought at the start of it, but that is just the way it is. Hopefully I will be able to write something longer next time.
See you all on the other side!
söndag 30 oktober 2016
Halloween and life
Greetings from the other side.
Halloween is now upon us. Everywhere you look online there have been Halloween sales going on for he past week or two, and 'spooky' images and images of pumpkins carved in various ways have been popping up everywhere. I have to confess though I have never been that much into Halloween. I guess it is because it wasn't really a part of my childhood as such, I didn't really grow up trick-or-treating, and I don't really remember it being a 'thing' in general where I grew up until I was too old to really go trick-or-treating, etc. I get the idea behind it and the draw of it, but I just don't really feel very much about it when it comes down to it. I do think that I am probably a minority in that these days, which is fine. I don't mind Halloween as I think it is probably a fun holiday for kids, and grown-ups get a chance to be creative with their decorations. :)
I realize that I might sound like a really boring person, but hopefully I made it clear that I don't mind Halloween. All I am saying is that it isn't something that I grew up with so it doesn't really hold any special place in my heart. I can understand why others enjoy it though, but it has never been a big part of my life.
The sky is blue outside the windows for the second day running. It is beautiful. The air is cold and crisp as well. :) I really wish my knee was well so I could go out for a walk, but in the long run it is probably best that I stay inside and rest it until it is well again. I hope that will be soon because after something like four weeks I am getting a bit tired of it being like this. Granted, it has been better at times and worse at times, so it hasn't been all bad all the time. Which I am happy for. I just wish that it would go to being good ALL the time soon so I could start doing the things I want to do again, and help out more around the house and everything that goes into that.
Winter tires are finally on the car now, thanks to my father-in-law. I would have done it myself but because of my knee I really couldn't. He was also with me yesterday when I was working at a memorial service to help me out so I wouldn't strain my knee more than necessary. I am really thankful to him for that, and so is my knee. The knee was sore afterwards, but not as sore as it could have been. When we were driving there it was actually a bit slippery out on the roadway, and at one point the tires spun a bit. It wasn't too bad though, and we got there in one piece without any scares. I guess winter is on its way now. I have been told by a couple of people that they are expecting this winter to be really cold and bad. What I guess in Sweden we would call a 'varga vinter' (wolf's winter). We will see though. I remember last time I saw someone promise a "varga vinter" (the newspapers that time), while I was still living back home in Sweden, it turned out to be a really mild winter instead.
I think that's all for now. Time for me to go stretch my legs a bit. Need to still keep moving my legs from time to time so the knee doesn't get too stiff. I just need to be careful when I do it.
See you all on the other side!
Halloween is now upon us. Everywhere you look online there have been Halloween sales going on for he past week or two, and 'spooky' images and images of pumpkins carved in various ways have been popping up everywhere. I have to confess though I have never been that much into Halloween. I guess it is because it wasn't really a part of my childhood as such, I didn't really grow up trick-or-treating, and I don't really remember it being a 'thing' in general where I grew up until I was too old to really go trick-or-treating, etc. I get the idea behind it and the draw of it, but I just don't really feel very much about it when it comes down to it. I do think that I am probably a minority in that these days, which is fine. I don't mind Halloween as I think it is probably a fun holiday for kids, and grown-ups get a chance to be creative with their decorations. :)
I realize that I might sound like a really boring person, but hopefully I made it clear that I don't mind Halloween. All I am saying is that it isn't something that I grew up with so it doesn't really hold any special place in my heart. I can understand why others enjoy it though, but it has never been a big part of my life.
The sky is blue outside the windows for the second day running. It is beautiful. The air is cold and crisp as well. :) I really wish my knee was well so I could go out for a walk, but in the long run it is probably best that I stay inside and rest it until it is well again. I hope that will be soon because after something like four weeks I am getting a bit tired of it being like this. Granted, it has been better at times and worse at times, so it hasn't been all bad all the time. Which I am happy for. I just wish that it would go to being good ALL the time soon so I could start doing the things I want to do again, and help out more around the house and everything that goes into that.
Winter tires are finally on the car now, thanks to my father-in-law. I would have done it myself but because of my knee I really couldn't. He was also with me yesterday when I was working at a memorial service to help me out so I wouldn't strain my knee more than necessary. I am really thankful to him for that, and so is my knee. The knee was sore afterwards, but not as sore as it could have been. When we were driving there it was actually a bit slippery out on the roadway, and at one point the tires spun a bit. It wasn't too bad though, and we got there in one piece without any scares. I guess winter is on its way now. I have been told by a couple of people that they are expecting this winter to be really cold and bad. What I guess in Sweden we would call a 'varga vinter' (wolf's winter). We will see though. I remember last time I saw someone promise a "varga vinter" (the newspapers that time), while I was still living back home in Sweden, it turned out to be a really mild winter instead.
I think that's all for now. Time for me to go stretch my legs a bit. Need to still keep moving my legs from time to time so the knee doesn't get too stiff. I just need to be careful when I do it.
See you all on the other side!
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