all things me

One morning I happened to go to a cashier at the same time with a man. He let me go first because I “don’t work yet.” I told him that actually I was on my way to work. It wasn’t a shocker that he thought I was a school student, but the logic escapes me… Perhaps he thinks students are in more of a hurry? (So, I was in a hurry buying a microwave dinner to school; all Finnish schools serve free meals.)

On Thurday I “dressed up” — meaning I had a white shirt, necklace, and left my hair open. One of my co-workers said I looked like a 15-year-old (basically it just means young, not an exact age) and I should put a flower behind my ear. I told him I had rather hoped for the opposite effect of looking actually my age for once. He said “oh you’re still the age when you hope to look older? When do you think you’ll start wishing you look younger?” I said “probably when I do start looking my age.” He said “ah, you’ll never look your age.” A compliment or quite the opposite?

Yesterday we had a “closing of accounts” gathering at work. Well, we weren’t at the office but at a restaurant. At very first we met in a small conference room at the stadium — we took a private bus there (oh and how we laughed on the way). After the formalities we spent some time at the exhibition there (sport stuff, whee). I looked through the medals and things pretty quickly and then went to stand at the door to wait for everyone. A couple of guys had spotted a table football in a corner and went to play. After a while one of them came back and said “Minna, come, we need a referee.” That was a very sweet gesture because I was standing there all alone. So I went and I was even asked if I wanted to play but the boys were so excited about the game, I let them play. In the foyer there was this stand with a big photo of a pair of ice skaters on it with the faces cut out (I don’t know what those are called even in Finnish) and on the way out our sales manager put his head out the other one and people started taking pictures but first he needed someone to fill the other face. He said “someone? Minna?” I declined (cameras, eep) and the managing director went instead (much better!). It was so odd to be asked to take part in all those things, I’m not used to it which is why I don’t “butt in” but rather keep a distance.

We had a lovely — and very loud — time at the restaurant. It was very fancy, I was told, but it looked pretty normal to me (of course, I didn’t see the prices so I wouldn’t know the truth). The person who sat opposite from me said that you know you’re in a fancy restaurant when you’re not really sure what to do next and how to eat something. Very true; our first appetizer was some sort of vegetable soup served in a small glass mug. It took us a while to realise that you were supposed to drink it. The staff tried to offer me wine a couple of times (“are you sure you don’t want some red wine with the main course?” after I had turned down the initial white wine) but by the time we had coffee (and brandy or amaretto) they believed that I didn’t want any alcohol. The food was delicious; it was the first time I ate asparagus, it wasn’t too bad. Sort of silly to eat just that with a little sauce.

I left shortly after 10:30 and was at home after eleven, went straight to my room and toppled into bed. I’m still tired so thank gawd it’s Friday.

I had been a little sceptic about spending free-time with co-workers. I didn’t attend the christmas party (the possibility of seeing drunken co-workers was a little too much to handle) or a double birthday so now I decided it was time to start participating. I’m glad I did, the people are as fun and easy to be around with as at work.

<sarcasm>A very nice young couple</sarcasm> is building a house right under our noses. There’s a tiny patch of land between our house and our neighbours’ and these “people” are planning to squeeze in there. Well, not just planning; today some Very Official Man came in here checking every room for existing damages because tomorrow they are going to blow dynamites (!) hardly 10 meters from us. Brace yourselves — and all sensitive electronics. I know my room was checked too because I had left a trap. I did ask Mum not to let anyone in my room to take pictures, but when have my requests gone through?

When I say ‘right under our noses’, I mean they’re putting that not-so-humble 2-storey abode in front of our kitchen, Dad’s study and Mum’s study windows. All our apple trees will probably be in the shade from the moment on when the walls rise, and who wants to sit in the garden when the other folks are right there. This is Finland for gawd’s sake (15 ppl/km²) not e.g. Slovakia (111 ppl/km²) let alone Monaco (16 620 ppl/km²)! They’re kind enough not to put any windows facing our house. So, they won’t have to look at our house but we have to look at their house’s rear-end.

I don’t understand why they need to make a 2-storey house in an area where all houses are quite low. Sure, we have 2 storeys too, but one is below ground and I believe the other houses are similarly built. I thought there were some rules for buildings in residental areas so that people don’t go around building skyscrapers everywhere. OK, perhaps if they built one storey below ground that would mean more dynamites even closer to us. Above-ground is the lesser evil. The last time some one blew something up around here, it was a lot farther and still the walls cracked — not from a good joke.

Yet another good reason to move out ASAP.

I just realised that wrong people (or a wrong person) could be reading this blog, so I decided to de-publish the previous post. Sorry, Vera, you had commented already I could of course password protect it, but what’s the point? I wrote. I vented. I cleaned the evidence.

Funny thing happened the other day. Ha ha. The magazine that I’ve been trying to finish the article for is publishing its last issue in May. So, I’m too late. I’ve been trying to think of what to do with the nearly-done article but most likely I’ll just leave it to gather binary dust.

I hate all students in University of Helsinki! Well, no, I actually hate the people who plan language studies. I’ll never graduate because I’ll never get to pass Swedish course because I never get in! Enrolment started 38 minutes ago, and I’ve been phoning the expensive phone service for 38 minutes. Toot-toot-toot. No luck. At least it doesn’t charge for the toot-toot-toot.

And now, after 40 minutes the phone number is not working at all.

1 hour later: The course is full. I’ll try enrolling via Internet on May 2nd if I’d get in a queue. Guess I won’t be getting my bachelor’s degree this year. *whimper*

Luckily I’ve got good music. Thank you, S! You saved my day!

True to my nature I get overly excited about something even though it’s not going to happen in the near future. Recently I’ve started seriously thinking about moving out. This coming December I’ve saved for 2 years which is the minimum, but I definitely don’t have the planned 12 000€ saved yet. On Monday I’m going to the bank to change my monthly deposit but I’m afraid I’m stuck here for quite a while. On Wednesday I told my boss that I want a raise, but we’ll see…

I already know that I won’t live in a studio; I want separate bedroom and living-room. The other night I couldn’t sleep, instead I started thinking what I need for my own place.

• bed
  (Even though I have a bed I’m going to buy a proper one and leave my current bed here for visitors.)
• bookshelf
• couch (sofa bed?)
• armchair
• TV (and sidekicks)
• subscription to some sort of TV guide (I’m a program circler)
• stereos
• desk (I hope I don’t need a separate desk because I already have a computer desk)
• computer
• Internet connection
• phone (i.e. cell phone)
• kitchen table + chairs
• fridge-freezer
  (Ticked off on Sep 23. I don’t have to buy a fridge-freezer. It’s already there!)
• coffee maker
  (Ticked off on Sep 23. We have 3 coffee makers. Mum says I can take one of them )
• microwave oven
• wall clock
• washing machine
• vacuum cleaner
• iron + ironing board
• 1 mug, 1 plate, 1 fork, 1 spoon, 1 knife, 1 cereal bowl OK, maybe something to make food in, too
  (Comment on Sep 23) Mum bought me a set of utensils for my nameday (in July). It has 6 forks, 6 knives, 6 big spoons, and 6 coffee spoons. Plus a cake cutter (?) and salad servers.
  My mug collection is huge and I have 4 or 6 cereal bowls (which double as soup plates). And mum has apparently bought me 4 soup plates.
  (Comment on Dec Grandpa bought me 6 dinner plates and oven pan (for lasagne etc.) for early Xmas present.
• a nice big plant (something looking like this)
• sheets, towels, carpets of course

Hmm… What else?

I’ve decided I want to find a nice couch first. After that it’s easy to find curtains and such things. Wow, I can’t imagine a toilet without an orange sink. Don’t believe I have one?

I don’t undestand what the previous occupants where thinking! A very good reason for wanting to get out of here, don’t you think?

[Ctrl-Alt-Del]

Remember to convert database export into UTF-8 before importing

Luckily I’ve been playing around with local installations of WordPress and I just noticed the special characters (ä, ö, etc.) which really aren’t that special (you darn ASCII Americans ) turn into questionmarks when I import. I remember noticing it before and I guess I’ve corrected all the questionmarks in the past (have to check, actually) but after the amount of posts increases, I don’t really feel like flipping through every single one of them.

I had to pay residual tax, but this year I’m getting it back — fivefold!! (Not until December, alas.) Next year I’ll probably have to pay again because for some reason they lowered my percentage considerably, and this year — unlike in the past — I’m making dough (well, ‘dough’ in the student-budget sense).

HTML comments show up in the source, so what if you want to remove text from the page without actually deleting it from the files?

<?php if (false) {?>
  (content to be removed…)
<?php } ?>