R&R

When I was coming up from a downdog on my second sun salutation yesterday, I heard a funny crunching sound from my left wrist - that's the good wrist. My joints click and crack all the time, but not like this. There was also pain - but not sharp pain, like something broke, and I couldn't feel anything after I got up. But doing the jump-back didn't feel good, but then again chatarunga was ok, and so was down-dog - but coming up hurt a lot. Rest of the practice I couldn't consentrate properly because I kept feeling it and wondering if I had hurt it badly.

And of course this was the class that was full of advanced students who wanted to do nothing but handstands - damn, I can't do that even with one bad wrist, let alone two. Jason saw the expression on my face, so he suggested we started with headstands - and that I can do. In fact, the headstands have become my current favourites - tripod, and the regular, I just love them. And when it came to handstands, I practiced Pincha Mayurasana and I think at that point I overcame the doubt in me, and found the peace inside myself again.

Sometimes I think for a while that I must be crazy thinking about the teacher training while suffering from such injuries as I am. It only lasts for a moment, and then I'm confident again that I am doing the right thing and that I can do it. In fact I believe that in some ways I might be able to teach more about yoga by example than someone who has never suffered any setbacks and can do three series of ahstanga. In fact, I've done a mental course change in that I'm not looking religiously for teachers to give me modifications for poses I can't do, but I've started thinking for myself what kind of asanas I can do that will give me a similar benefit to the original pose.

But I'm not taking any changes, and today I'm giving my body a rest. Believe me Julie, I know your pain. Sometimes the lesson is not about physical asanas, it's about "mental asanas" - in this case patience.

Dragon quote

Lately many of the blogs I read have been incorporating quotes from films. I thought I'd try to start a new trend picking one of my all-time favourite quotes from literature:

Through me the way into the suffering city,
Through me the way to the eternal pain,
Through me the way that runs among the lost.
Justice urged on my high artificer;
My maker was divine authority,
The highest wisdom, and the primal love.
Before me nothing but eternal things were made,
And I endure eternally.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Now that one does not need embellishments or explanations -the description above the gates of hell has captured imaginations of generations since it was written some 700 hundred years ago.

Priorities, priorities

From today's Metro headings, it would seem that in Vancouver the priorities are straight. Never mind the same-sex marriage law went through today, but VIRGIN MEGASTORE IS CLOSING!

That was my initial reaction anyway - but it's not quite bad as it sounds. Although the same-sex bill has now become the law of the land (voting went 158-133), in most provinces this has been the case already for some time. In British Columbia for example, the courts recognised the gay couples' right to marriage two years ago, and most other provinces and territories that has been the practice - but now the Alberta, Price Edward Island, Nunavut and Northwest Territories have to follow suit.

So what's in the bill? Bill C-38 amends the definition of civil marriage from "lawful union of man and a woman to the exclusion of all others" to "lawful union of two persons". In the same way ameds are made to other laws relating to divorce, spousal benefits and income tax act among others. There are also protections aimed at protecting religious groups that refuse to perform same-sex unions - this means in practice that no religious organisation will lose their charitable status over the question of same-sex unions.

And in case someone is pining after the loss of Canada's only Virgin Megastore from Vancouver, worry not, as HMV has bought the retail space and will be making it into Canada's biggest music and DVD store.

Bloody murder

I'd like to report a crime, please. The suspect is most likely a bird, maybe a crow, and has commitetted an act of vandalism. If the perpetrator would have eaten the bud I might ask for leniency - but as the missing pieces of petals were found near the scene of the crime I know that is not the case. Please could the court give the suspect a restraint order and ask it not to come within two meters of my lilies, and additionally I'd like to be compensated for the pain and suffering this incident has caused me.

New gallery

I noticed recently that Gallery 1.5 was out, and decided to update my gallery installation today. It was very simple and fast - not counting the backing up the old version as our internet connection died in the middle of it - and I'm really liking the new version. Some cool subtile additions have been made like statistics: most viewed, latest additions and latest comments. Interface is slightly prettier with optional icons, and there's also an option to show at root level the entire folder tree which I really appreciate. I'm sure there are loads of other nice features, but those jumped up from playing with it for half an hour.

My sudden interest came from two sources - firstly I was chatting with Henri about cameras this morning, and then I saw Woja's new gallery. Or actually, it's all Jaana-Mari's fault who put an idea of a new camera in my head. Before, I was quite happy with my little Ixus 500 - hey, it takes sharp photos of objects close to the lense, what else can one want. Then she pointed out a way to improve the photos, and after that I'm not happy with them anymore.

As she if of course right, being nowadays a semi-professional photographer after selling some of her photos. Take a look at these photos for example - this is the kind of stuff I'd like to be able to do. So right now I'm trying very hard to tell myself that I can't afford, nor do I really need a new fancy camera.

So meanwhile, here's my photographic journal of the lilies that I'll keep updating once more flowers appear.

Customer service

I've been following with great interest the developing story of bad customer service at Ravintola Lehtovaara and how not to deal with negative feeback. Personally I find Herkko Hietanen's stand very reasonable - if you get bad service you should most definetly complain, and if complaining doesn't work, do it more loudly and ultmately vote with your feet. Especially when it comes to restaurants, where customer service is integral part of the product they sell.

Mistakes happen. Like when I ordered Fullmetal Alchemist DVD boxsets 1, 3 and 4 from NjAnime, and they sent me parts 1, 2 and 3. I complained about it, and they sent me another copy of part 3. I complained about that too, and now they are hopefully sending me the correct part (meanwhile Dragon is suffering the pains of Tantalus). As a goodwill gesture they have offered that I can keep the duplicate DVDs they've sent me by mistake (although as another goodwill gesture I'll be returning them). Although this particular mistake is pretty annoying as we're dying to see more FMA - I think NjAnime has handled the whole thing as well as they could.

Another funny example of excellent customer service as at Granville Market today. I wanted to buy some morels that looked delicious - so I picked the ones I wanted, put them into a paper bag and wanted to pay... but there was no one to take my money. So the lady selling blueberries in the next stall came to my help, she and I figured out how much the morels cost - but then she had customers so she had to go and handle that before she could take my money. So the guy selling Thai sauces on the other stall next to the morel guy came to help me and took my money, put it into the box where the morel guy kept his money and gave me back my change. And it work this way too - the lady selling the blueberries who helped me was the one from numerous others that I bought my blueberries from. I can vote with my feet both ways.

Cakes and games

Laura and Clay couldn't explain to me why Americans insist calling some of their cakes bread. Prime example is banana bread which in my mind has nothing to do with bread: it's very sweet and therefore quite clearly a cake. For yesterday's gaming night I baked a strawberry and cream bread which in reality is a strawberry cake, a classical shortened cake that is done with creaming the butter and sugar and adding flour and eggs to it (and in this case also the cream and strawberries). Result was very nice though, no matter what it was called, and I served it with strawberries and cream.

I got the strawberries from West End Farmer's Market which is held every Saturday at the corner of Comox and Bute. I didn't realise it - but the strawberry season is over in BC. I thought it would be a piece of cake (ehhehe) to get some nice juicy strawberries, but instead most of the farmers were offering rasberries, blueberries and cherries. I finally managed to find one farmer with some extremely ripe strawberries - almost too ripe for eating, but perfect to put in a cake. I also bought a big box of blueberries for Dragon, who absolutely loves them - and for once didn't have think about the price (they were cheap) and ate them all to his hearts content.

Game of the night was Starfarers of Catan which we haven't played for ages for some reason. I like Starfarers - in many ways it's probably the most innovative of the Catan games, with the playable motherships. It's also probably one of the more random Catan games, with the random encounters in space - but at the same time those encounters with pirates and space rifts is what gives the game it's character. There's almost like role playing quality to it - there is enough variety with the cards so that you can't know what the best course of action is, so how I play it is that I'll just do the encounters "in character", like weather to answer distress calls or hire pirates to steal from your mates.

Very social and nice evening, eating lot of good food (chili, wild rice, guacamole... mmm... I write an awful lot about food these days don't I?), having good conversations and laughing a lot. What the doctor ordered.

Lollypop

And when it rains, it pours. Without much fanfar, one of the Lollypops started flowering too.

Blackjack

Here finally, is first of the lilies in bloom. This is an Asiatic lily called Blackjack, and it's absolutely beautiful.

No beans

While on the subject of cooking, let me share with you something I found out today. Now I'm a big fan of chili - and after discovering the fantastic cornbread recepie yesterday I dediced that I would cheer up Dragon with a chili to celebrate his return from the land of the free. I have my patented chili recipe but I recently found a really cool recipe site called Recipezaar so I had a look what kind of chili recipes they had.

Turns out that the original chili from Texas that the cowboys have eaten for centuries does not have beans in it. So I researched the subject further. It seems that in the Lone Star State it's nearly a hanging offence to put bean in chili - although if you call it chili beans you could get away with it, and even then it's a crime to put white beans in it. If there's one thing I've learned about Texans and food, is that they are extremely passionate about it - and more often than elsewhere cooking is something that men do. And I could even go as far as saying that if there's one good thing about Texas, it would have to be the fabulous food they have there (only a normal human can't eat the amounts they consume).

So as an experiment, I'm doing chili Texan style today - just ground beef (or bison as we prefer our bovine these days), onion, tomato sauce (and another Teaxan revelation: no tomato chunks, just pureed tomato sauce which I was not able to find from Capers) and insane amounts of chili powder and Cayene pepper, and a sprinkle of cumin and oregano. I can feel the heat already, so this definetly needs to be consumed with corn bread.

Live and learn.

Yoga on a hot day

Since we've had such a pathetic start for the summer, every time there's one hot day everyone skips practice. It has happened for several times now that when I turn up for primary series practice (and there's only one a week), there's just me and a fellow yogini Birgitte - and the custom of the studio is that there needs to be at least three people threre or the class won't happen.

So that's what happened today - it's a bad feeling when I come to corner of Pender and Broughton and I can see the studio and there's no one there. When I came in there was only Jason there, so I didn't even bother to roll my mat open - when Birgitte came in we just looked at each other with the "guess what" expression... She was adamant though - she had left work early and wanted to have a class, so Jason promised us one. So we sat on our mats chatting and waiting just in case someone else was coming - Jason was telling us about the teacher training coming in fall and it sounds wicked. They are aiming it to be cheaper than other courses (suits me!) and put in quite a lot of yin philosophy, so I'm thrilled - I think it's ideal that I can do the training with my current teachers.

I didn't even realise that before I wrote it down, just now. Yes, in my mind I have decided that I am going to do the yoga teacher training - whether it's going to be a new career for me, we'll see, but at this place and time it's something I really really want to do.

Anyway, waiting paid off as four other girls turned up to the practice after all - six of us alltogether. And because of the energy in the room, and there was a definite female energy that doesn't seem to happen with guys in the class, for some reason, this was the best practice in a long time. We had fun, we fell and giggled, and practiced sincerely, and got lot of individual attention.

Jason was talking a lot about Pattabhi Jois and Mysore, and I feel more and more that my ashtanga will never be "pure ashtanga". A year ago I really wanted to go to Mysore to study with guruji - now I find the thought... almost repulsive. Jason was saying - and with no malice, he was talking about dogma - that for example guruji doesn't accept modifications to asanas, and that if you can't do the full poses you're not allowed to advance in the series further until you do. Well, I can't accept that - there are some (even simple) poses I'll never be able to do because of my physical structure that no amount of mula bandha and breathing into it will never overcome, and to think that someone will judge me to be a worse yogini because of that makes me angry.

And that sort of perfection is not what yoga is supposed to be about, it's supposed to be for everyone, for all levels and all abilites. It's supposed to be a mental practice as much as a physical one, and it's supposed to be non-judgemental.

I love my ashtanga practice, but it's not, nor will it ever be, Mysore ashtanga.

Cornbread on a hot day

I was watching Jamie's School Dinners this morning - which incidentally is the most interesting and thought provoking food program in ages - and he was serving cornbread with one meal. It just looked so good I had to take out Google and find a cornbread recipe to try it out myself. And what a fantastic piece of cookery, cornbread. This recipe produced the most wonderful succulent and moist bread, and I ate it until my stomach was aching and I couldn't do anything else than lay on the sofa.

1 cup of milk
1/4 cup of butter or margarine, melted
1 egg
1 1/4 cups of corn flour (or cornmeal)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tbs salt

Grease the pan, round pan 9" or square 8". Beat milk, butter and egg in a bowl with a hand whisk, no need to use an electric one. Stir in dry incredients, and mix just until it's all in - the batter will be a bit lumpy but that's ok. Pour the mixture into a pan, and place into a preheated 200 C oven for 20 - 25 minutes. The bread is ready when it's golden brown and slightly cracked on the surface, and the top crust is solid. Cool on a wire rack, eat with chili or salad or whatever you fancy, it's great however you look at it.

Sign of summer

I guess one sign of summer in Vancouver are the cruise ships coming to stop here. Cruises on the Pacific Coast from Seattle to Alaska are fairly popular, and one big stop is Vancouver - as a side effect, it's difficult to get a taxi in the morning when all the rich tourists are driving around in them. We witnessed this as Dragon set off once again this morning to California - every time we keep hoping that it's the last time but then something always turns up and off he goes.

Nothing much more to report - the dizzyness is subsiding as I was expecting, although not completely gone, the lily bud is getting bigger but not opening yet, and it's cloudy. I watched Alien 3, which was pretty much like I remember it and I saw it last time in the movies when it came out - I must be the only person in the world who thinks this movie is ok. I was completely exhausted after advanced yoga class so I kept nodding off in couple of places, but still I think the only boring bit in the movie is in the end where they are trying to lure the alien into the led mould, it goes on for too long.

After I figured out how to set Firefox as my default browser, I have also decided that I am a Mac lover.

Talk about the weather

We woke up really early when Dragon's mother called, and didn't get back to sleep because for once the sun was shining from a cloudless sky. Ah, the weather was going to be fantastic, I thought and decided that after breakfast I'd go out and enjoy sunshine a bit. By the time I had eaten my breakfast, watered the lilies (and photographed them, and blogged them), put my hair up pretty and got out - the sunshine was gone and replaced by a sky full of clouds. It still wasn't too bad as it was still pretty warm.

Nice weather my ass.

By the time I went to yoga it was much more cloudy, and by savasana it was pouring down. When I got home I was dripping wet, my shoes were making sloshing sounds and I had try my hair with a towel.

Promising news is that there is once again something in the job horizon - I won't let my hopes up anymore so I'll say nothing about it. Definete good news is that Chu is coming to visit in about months time. I'll be having two of my favourite people in the world with me for my birthday.

Expecting

My first lily should blossom this week, I think. Dragon asked me several weeks back how did I know when they were going to bloom - it's quite simple actually. The buds start to turn colour the flower is going to be about week before the blossom, and the more intense the colour the closer it is to opening. I think this one is now days away.

Headstands

I was trying to explain to Chu today about the side effects I'm currently experiencing. I've used to word dizzy because it's the closest I can think of - but it's not really dizzy in a sort of fainty way. It's almost like the body is travelling at a different speed to the mind - when moving (fast) they go out of sync. It might not make any sense as a description, but it's the best one I can come up with.

The whole thing can get really depressing like on Saturday, but it can also be ignored like on Sunday and just live a normal life. Today I tried to ignore it and went to an advanced flow class. Maybe it was the dizzyness - but my balance was all over the place. It's still a struggle, especially with the poses with balancing on the arms - I can't do them, but I'm not sure what to do instead. And I haven't quite given up on trying them out.

On the good side, I'm loving headstands - my tripod headstand is rocking (well, for my headstand anyway) and I'm starting to get the hang of the finishing series headstand too, with Jason correcting me today and showing me how to do it better with hands cupped and leaning my hands on them. So good feeling about progressing at least with those.

Good Sunday

I love days like this.

Dragon was home the whole day, we slept late and ate breakfast together. It has always been Dragon's wish that we'd buy a second computer while I've never thought it being that important - but it's quite surprising how nice it actually can be. Dragon was filling up his new iPod, boogieing and chatting with his buddies on IRC, while I was reading the blogs and writing emails - at the same time in the same room, all without "having to make it quick" out of courtesy for the spouse.

For lunch we went to the new Japanese restaurant Shiawase that opened next to us on Davie. Nice place, although empty of customers - I had a chicken teryaki and vegetable tempura while Dragon had a bento box with chicken teryaki and sushi. Nice food - sushi wasn't quite as good as in Akira, or quite as cheap, but on the plus side the place is literally around the corner.

After watching the rest of the episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist we have, we went to yoga together - this time it was Dragon's introduction to ashtanga, in the form of a flow class. I was a bit afraid (for myself, after Kathy's class) that Shannon's style would be too experimental for my liking, but I should really start trusting her. Her class was absolutely lovely - and for the first time ever I was able to go from Prasarita Padottanasana A to a tripod headstand. And, come back from it with at least with some grace. It feels pretty amazing being able to do something like that for the first time.

Dragon left after flow, but I stayed in for the following yin class too. I've discovered that yin is becoming very emotional for me - when I was walking home after the class I was almost in tears again, but in a good way. Feeling good physically, a bit dizzy because of the medication, and emotionally satisfied and content for practicing with my husband and walking in the most beautiful city in the world that was bathing in sunset.

Now, I'm typing this entry on the new little Mac, on the sofa, eating delicious strawberries and watching wrestling with my dearest. It's all good.

Dragon warrior

I was looking for a quote for an engraving and I finally found it here.

I thought to share these with you. Ten points for anyone who can guess which one it was.

Dozy

After feeling really good for a week, I'm now down again on my meds and feeling a bit under the weather again. Little things, dizzyness and slight nausea - nothing that would prevent me from funtioning properly, but it does make me want to curl on the sofa and not go outside. So that's what I've been doing today. Dragon was off working so I watched some Fullmetal Alchemist (for the second time) and slept. I'm having very detailed dreams that I can remember for maybe a minute or so after I wake up, but then disappearing leaving just fragments that make no sense.

When Dragon came back we watched more Fullmetal Alchemist - this series keeps impressing me more and more, but the amateurish subbing keeps annoying me more and more. Our DVDs are the Japanese ones, and I can understand that English subtitles have probably been done as an afterthought by not so experienced people. What I can't accept is that nobody bothered to check the spelling, I mean even with a bog standard spellchecker. In a very emotional scene where I was crying my eyes out, it doesn't really improve the mood that some bloody idiot typed "poop girl" instead of "poor girl" - I mean one character, but what a difference. So ok, that could have slipped even through a spellchecker - but most of them are just stupid, like "isr" instead of "sir". Oh well, perhaps it just means I need to watch it again!

I made this!

It looks like our gaming night has been cancelled tomorrow (due to work - boo! hiss!) so I'm stuck with a whole cheesecake. As you can see from the photo, I tasted a piece - you know I have to check the quality! - and just when I was finishing it, Dragon came home. He couldn't get anything sensible out of me for a while as I was giggling in a huge sugar high.

Just to make sure that you understand the greatness of this cake: the base is made with (normal) graham crackers, but as an added bonus I put in some chopped and toasted pecan nuts and orange zest. The filling is made with dolce de leche (fudge I made with milk and sugar) and cream cheese, baked in the oven and chilled for 24 hours.

It. Is. Absolutely. Gorgeous.

Mist and shiny things

It's a beautiful day today - not in the conventional sunny and bright way, but in a mystical Vancouver way. I woke up with Dragon as Friday is my morning yoga day, and was really undecided if I would be bothered to go. I was tired and it was gray and raining outside - but I held my ground and after having breakfast and chatting to Henri off I went.

The rain. It wasn't as much rain, as mist lingering. Touching softly my face, engulfing everything in it - mountains, the sea, other side of the city. This is something I love about Vancouver weather - when rain is what you have, rain is what you learn to love - this kind of mist I've never seen anywhere else. England was foggy, at times very foggy, but it's more sort of drier fog - not this kind of moist gentle haze.

For a while there I imagine Vancouver like it was few hundred years ago when First Nations people lived here. Deep forest, sea, mountains and mist - quiet and eerie. In fact, weather like this takes me back to Vancouver Island and the rain forests there.

And down to earth - when I was just coming from yoga there was a Fedex courier downstairs who was just trying to deliver a package for me. For once, my timing was good... The package contained a gift for Dragon - after seeing my shiny iPod Shuffle he remarked that something like that would be nice to have at the gym, so I decided then that if I got my money from Emo and it was good, I'd buy an iPod for him as a present for all patience and care he's shown me since we moved here. So today it arrived, with an engraving he had chosen - a shiny silver iPod Mini. And oh my, it's absolutely lovely piece of gadgetry and I'm so jealous of it. Honestly my Shuffle is enough for me for what I need it for - but the little (or big) geek in me can't help but to fall in love with sexy piece of kit like that.

A Mac lover?

Not yet.

Once I figured out how to override the silly default name for the new computer, I named my baby "Rose" after Rose Tyler in Dr. Who. I've actually read the manual that came with the Mac, which wasn't too extensive. Mostly I've been doing "what is it that I want to do" and then try to figure out using help how to achieve that.

Everything was going fine until I wanted to connect to my PC - something I was assured would be "trivial", and I actually believed that, how naive of me. Now as far as I could see, I did everything right - and I was able to connect from my PC to Rose so the network connection was fine (new wireless router, by the way). I googled, I tried different configurations - but it might not be my fault. According to Google and Macwindows.com, Tiger seems to have a pretty damn fatal bug in it as SMB mounting is broken. Most people seem to be working in a work environment or such and trying to connect to servers - but I bet me trying to connect to Windows XP Home machine is exactly the same issue. Unless someone can tell me otherwise... any readers with the same configuration that's actually working?

So what now? I understand Tiger is just out, but I assume updates are coming in regular intervals... I have set Rose to download updates automatically so hopefully this will solve itself. But so far I'm not too impressed - one of the most important things I wanted to do is not possible. My other gripe is the mouse - or the lack of it - I just don't like the touchpad, so I might want to buy a proper mouse, only Macs don't have proper mice. I'm really really missing another mouse button, but I'm hoping that's just a matter of getting used to.

On the other hand, OS X looks lovely. It seems fairly intuitive to use, and has lots of charming animations on the functions that I could just stare forever. When I minimize a window it disappears to the dock like a genie to it's lamp. The Dashboard widgets are cool and I already have a lot more of them than I really need - but they are just fab.

All this, and I baked a cheesecake too. Rose has already proved useful - I was making dulche de leche (Latin American version of fudge) which takes over an hour of stirring as you don't want the milk to burn, and I burned an episode of Law & Order I had recorded the previous night on the DVR on DVD and watched it while stirring. Only problem was that I couldn't get the sound very loud - I set it loudest as far as I could see and that was just about enough. But if there's some kind of big volume control setting somewhere I haven't found it yet.

The journey continues.

Ooh, pretty

Well ladies and gentlemen - I'm typing this entry from our brand new Mac, a 12" iBook. My first Mac, and I know bugger all about Macs... I'm exited though, and from all the hype from all the die-hard Mac fans promises that I'm in for a ride.

As a foreigner

Axis of Ævil and Katri (in Finnish) started a very interesting conversation on the topic of Finns and foreigners. Ævil is an American living in Finland who says that according to her experiences, it's a difficult place for a foreigner to live and that Finns are at worst very xenophobic. Like to Katri, this comes to me as a surprise, and she goes on to analyze the issue quite eloquently and received quite a few interesting comments too.

I, too would have described Helsinki to be much more international than it used to be, and find it a bit shocking that it may just all be just on the surface. And if this is indeed the true - and I have no reason to doubt it - I can vouch for one thing: it's not the same everywhere. So far I've lived in two countries as a foreigner - UK and Canada - and I've never come across the kind of hostility Ævil is describing. Quite contrary - most people seem to find my nationality interesting, or at least quaint. Yeah, it's small talk, but it's friendly and it makes me feel accepted.

Everywhere I've been able to meet people who have accepted me as I am, invited me to their homes and made me feel incredibly welcome and liked. I think I've always always been a social person, and fairly talkative when it comes to being with friends - still, smalltalk is the most difficult thing to learn. And contrary to popular belief, not all Brits or Canadians or Americans are good at it either. At the international party on Saturday it became a custom to start the conversation with "So where are you from" when you heard an unusual accent - and pretty much everyone had one. So that's what I said when guy with what sounded like a German accent came to me and introduced himself - turned out he was Canadian to the boot, but had recently suffered brain damage that had changed his speech, or added an accent like he put it. So there's no safe small talk topic!

But it's not just small talk - other cultural things have their effect on it too. Language barrier is one thing, but language culture is another - the fact that Finnish language is by default very "rude" compared to English. There is no word for "please" and there is a tendency to say "give me that" instead of "could you give me that", and it's not just on the surface as it might seem. In the same way people look me funny when in Finland I'm extremely polite - "voisinko saada kaksi lippua" eikä "kaksi lippua" - because it's not the way. We always suffer a culture shock coming to Finland - eating in a restaurant is an experience when waitress is not friendly and shops don't employ people to help you but to (just) charge you.

I think this is an important topic - as Finland can't afford to shut out all foreigners, they are needed both economically and intellectually. If Finland wants to be a big player, for example in the mobile computing field, they need foreign help to do this - there just aren't enough people in Finland to make it work otherwise. Nokia has understood this, and I dare say most foreigners come to live to Finland because of them - still, even they have a lot to improve on when it comes to recruiting (said with first hand experience). In addition, like in most highly industrialised countires, the original population often becomes very picky with jobs and poorly paid foreigners end up doing the shitty jobs. This I've seen in all countries I've lived in - it's kind of a sneaky way to globalise a country, but very effective.

On the intellectual side, Finland would have a lot to learn if they just bothered looking around a bit. Living in UK for seven years and having seen what Margaret Thatcher's goverment did to the country - mainly privatization of state property and services - and seen how it has brought the country to shambles in twenty years. These are important lessons that Finland should keeping in mind when doing exactly the same thing - putting efficiency and money before people might seem like a good idea now, but just wait for ten or twenty years, and the country and your children will pay the price.

Oh well. I didn't mean to get all political, but that's what it comes down to in the end. Change is inevitable, and people should just accept it and embrace globalisation. This means to let go some of the culture, as culture is organic and lives with the times and the people. It's not ok to just say anymore that "we Finns are like this, quiet and grumpy" and that's that and we're not going to change - because it's not good enough. You can't just sit in your little corner anymore and play with your own toys - in fact you might find that your toys were actually manufactured in China and that the chair you're sitting on was sold to a German company last week.

For me, living abroad has been a huge blessing - my world is some much bigger as a result. There are lot of Finnish expats around the world, and I just hope most of them return back to Finland some day to share their experiences and knowledge. They are much needed.

Window shopping

Couple of weeks ago we bought a DVR player, to replace our old VCR that doesn't work in this country. It's a Sony RDR-HX900, and it's got a 160 GB hard drive and burns variety of different DVD medias. I've been waiting to write about it after I had some proper experience, and after two weeks or so I have to say I'm very satisfied. The user interface is beautiful and very intuitive - there is a lot of functionality, but the basic functionality of recording programs and watching them is very simple. The only gripe I have is about the TV Guide - which is the basis of the simplicity - you just scroll the guide and when you see a program you want to record, you press one button and everything is taken care of. The guide took a long while to upload initially, and for the first week or so it seemed to only upload the new details maybe twice making the whole feature pretty much useless when every single channel showed "no listings". It seems to be pretty good now though, and hopefully it will stay that way - only I'm still missing couple of channels from the line-up that just haven't showed up. I guess it couldn't be perfect.

One of the nice things about having a recorder like this is that I actually spend less time in front of the TV, believe it or not. I don't have to watch out for the program I want to see and wait for it to start, I can program it, go and do something else and watch it when it's convenient for me - and skip the ads that take about quarter of the time anyway. So program Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Star Trek: Voyager, and just go and do your thing.

So today I took a long walk - walked to Robson to Chocolate Mousse, the fantastic kitchenware shop on Cardero and Robson, to buy a cheesecake cake pan. The baking fly has really bitten me, and I'm just wanting to try out some new recepies - Laura and Clay should be coming on Saturday to play, so what a perfect opportunity to bake a (cheese)cake.

My real aim was to go to Mac Station on Homer - as we're considering buying a Mac, imagine that - but on the way I popped into quite a few shops on the way. I tried on about five pairs of shoes, but didn't find a perfect ten so left it, and I was trying to look for a new denim jacket to go with my new fashionable jeans I got last week, but no luck on that front either. I took lunch to go from a hot dog stand in front to Sears and had a conversation with the guy selling them - "Oh, you're from Finland - I really like Finnish hockey players, Temu Selan is great" [my phonetic spelling] and "Hot dogs are a North America thing, aren't they!". I like hot dogs - fried onions, pickels, hot sauce and peppers... mmm.

At Mac Station there was a young guy that despite of his age was quite helpful - he wanted to sell me the smallest (and cheapest) iBook which is what we need, no matter how much more I lust after a Powerbook. Now we just have to figure out if we really really need it or if it would be just a nice-to-have - I've been wanting one for years now.

Fullmetal Dragon

Man cannot gain anything without first sacrificing something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of equivalent exchange. When we were young, we believed this to be the truth of the world.

Such are the first words in the series Hagane no Rekijutsushi, translated as the Fullmetal Alchemist.

I am not really fan-boy material. It is a funny thing to say as my life is based on generating entertainment for fans, but perhaps it is just for this reason the passion for product that I see all around me is never really duplicated. It might be a price you pay for seeing how these things are done -it takes some of the magic away.

There are of course things that I really like and things that interest me greatly, but honestly I cannot think of a series of comics, movies, TV shows, concerts, books, sports events or anything else at all that I would not miss for the world.

Until now, that is.

I declare to be a fan of the Anime series called Hagane no Rekijutsushi, the Fullmetal Alchemist.

On paper, the characters and the plot of the series might seem thin and weak, though this could not be further from the truth. Explaining the series to someone who has not seen it is like teaching archery to a rock -I simply don't have the words to describe the series as I want to and it frustrates me. In a nutshell, the series is a story of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric who one day decide to attempt to resurrect their dead mother by using Alchemy, a magical lore that requires an equal sacrifice from the Alchemist for each miracle he performs. Though both are both prodigies of of this arcane science, their experiment ends in tragedy: younger brother Alphonse loses his entire body and his older brother Edward loses his leg. Only by sacrificing his right arm as well Edward is able to bind the soul of his brother into a near-by suit or armour, saving Alphonse's life.

As the brothers age, Edward joins the military order of State Alchemists, elite group in service of the ruthless military junta that governs the world of where the series is set. He is code-named “the Full Metal Alchemist” as his missing arm and leg had been replaced by cybernetic auto-mail limbs. However, the brothers never gave up their dream of regaining their bodies, and they set out on a quest to find legendary Philosopher’s Stone that is said to hold enough power to restore their bodies and bring their dead mother to life.

Never before have I seen series where you truly feel that the creators actually could bring their vision through, where they were not forced to compromise due the incompetence and lack of understanding by the business managers and know-it-all non-creatives. Whatever happened when Fullmetal Alchemist was made should be bottled and sold to every company that makes anything remotely creative.

Each time you watch a new episode you learn something new, you understand the characters and their world better, and you discover a new piece of the majestic tapestry that is the deep, multi-layered story. Nothing is done simply for the sake of showing a chase scene or a big fight (as is the annoying habit of Hollywood) but instead each scene has a purpose in the greater story arch. Nor does the series fall to prey to the arch-sin of Japanese series, namely being strange for the sake of being strange. Being mysterious and incomprihensible does not equal depth in my books.

The characters and their emotions and motives remain fresh from episode to episode. When you just thought you figured out who is the bad guy, the series has a knack of turning things on their head. It is also a blessing that the creators of the series have wisely not made the Elric brothers all-powerful. Talented though Edward is, he cannot beat his enemies with raw power –quite on the contrary, he is often faced with odds that he simply cannot defeat with brute force.

The world of the Fullmetal Alchemist is a bleak place torn by war and civil strife, with a Nazi-style military dictatorship holding sway over religiously divided population. State Alchemists form a thin layer of elite, with powers to investigate any incident in their vast empire. Since they are bitterly hated, the State Alchemist’s badge is as much curse as a blessing to Edward. This all creates a grand canvas upon which the story is Fullmetal Alchemist is drawn with bold strokes.

Anime insider declared it the finest Anime ever created. I disagree. I think it is the best TV series I’ve ever seen.

Of course I think that is quite likely that our esteemed readers might not experience the series in the same way as I did. Perhaps the series is simply a perfect match to my tastes: I find the humor funny, the action thrilling, the voice acting to be excellent, and the deep story to have a perfect blend of intrigue and humanity. The world is utterly captivating and filled to brim with detail, mixture of the first world war Europe and mystical fantasy. It is an endless source of joy to me. Animation is of highest quality, and attention to detail breathtaking. But best of all, it is so easy for me to care for the characters of the series without them being rubbed into your face –a long-running building of Edward's and Alphonse's characters is a hallmark of truly lasting appeal. The series is also shockingly dark –it is certainly not made for kids.

Waiting for the rest of our boxed sets to arrive seems like torture, and I don’t know how I can wait until the end of 2005 when the movie comes out.

EDIT: Damn typos!

More advanced

After last week I made the decision to start going to the advanced classes more. It's true what Jason said - the basic classes often tend to be very easy - but on the other hand I've been a bit apprihensive about the advanced classes. It's hard to admit, but I guess partly it's an ego thing - so even the more reason to do it anyway. I've used to being the one the teacher asks to stand in the front of the class so newbies can take notice, and in the advanced classes I'm the newbie. But. I want to get ahead, I want to learn more, so I need to make the move towards the advanced classes.

So today I picked the later advanced class, and was prepared to suffer, at least bruises on my ego. Unfortunately Jason and Kelly are away, so in addition to a new class I got a new teacher too. I've never been to Kathy's classes before so I had no idea what they were going to be like. She has a very different teaching style and likes to mix things up - this is a bit unsettling for me as I like my routine (yeah, slap my wrist). For example, sun salutations are me-time for me: getting ready for practice, streching out, quieting down and directing the gaze inwards. But with Kathy, she liked to do lot of modifications - you know, moving legs from down-dog and holding them in different positions, going on elbows practicing for elbow stand and so on. All good excercises, but messed up my concentration routine a bit.

Turned out to be an ok class in the end - she just has a different style and I guess the lesson from this practice is to think about the fact that too much routine is not good either, you tend to get stuck in a rut. I actually made a proper advancement in the headstand, and although I was still practicing it next to the wall, I was able so stay up without support for about 20 seconds. Headstand is a cool asana, and I think I'll nail it in next month or so.

The day after

An honest hangover day, minus the hangover. For me anyway as I was once again sobeer, but Dragon has been feeling a bit fragile.

Party was excellent, it was Dragon's friend's Abir's birthday. I've seldom seen such an international crowd - the birthday girl herself is Palestinian and we are obviously Finns, but in addition I think I spoke to at least people from Iran, Iraq, Korea, Taiwan, France, US and Mongolia. And fun was to be had. When I was climbing to bed just before four the only thing I could think of was how happy I was that I hadn't drank anything, as I knew I wouldn't be having a hangover today. For those who haven't seen my hangovers first hand - they are the single reason I've given up drinking.

But for empathy I've took it easy today, and we've spent most of the day on the sofa watching Lost. Henri has been blowing the trumpet for this one for so loud and for so long I finally decided to give in and have a look - and they just started repeating it on TV. I think we watched the first nine episodes or so, and so far we're liking it quite a lot.

Drunk B>logging

By Kolibri's request, this isn a genuine, uneditend drunk blog entry. Since I am so drun, here is the only thing I can think of: the amount of alcohol cinsumed tonight;

Shots of Vofdka; 16

Shotd og rum: 2

Glasses of Wine: 3

Shots of Jegermeister; 2

Enough to make two adult men sick, I think.

Par-tee!

Ooh, challenge

Moira challenges me to the top-6 songs of the moment meme, so how can I refuse. These are the songs that are my current favourites:

1. Rammstein: Ohne dich - especially Mina Harker´s Remix by Laibach from the EP. This song is one of my absolute favourites from the new album, and this remix with the female vocalist together with Till's masculine voice just hits the sweet spot for me.
2. Guns n' Roses: One in a Million - thanks to Schizo for reminding me of this old favourite. Lyrics are probably even more poignant now than in the 90s, and Axl Rose has one of the greatest voices in heavy rock which comes perfectly through with the acoustic background.
3. Sarah McLachlan: Adia - in addition to being very beautiful, this plugs into my storytelling vein and I feel like writing the story behind the lyrics. Who is Adia, and what happened, and so on.
4. Garbage: Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go) - something happier, at least in melody if not the words. Something you feel like singing along to, or start dancing in the middle of the street.
5. Barenaked Ladies: Enid - have to choose something from the Ladies, and currently it's Enid. Love them, love this song - for me this song is just a perfect ten.
6. And something from the fatherland, my current favourite is Ultra Bra: Poika Vuoden Takaa. I don't know why this one, really, but for some reason I keep coming back to it.

As for the challenge, I think pretty much everyone that would like to take part has done it so I'm stopping the buck here.

Very quiet

It's been a very quiet day. Not wasted, I got some non-essential things done I've been putting off for a while.

I'm alone but I don't feel alone. I think the longest sentance I've uttered today was "I need to send this to Finland" while posting some tea I couldn't drink to Chu. That sounds weird - tea I couldn't drink so I need to explain. One of the rooibos teas I got from Teaz was called Nutcracker, and it had nuts in it, I loved it - the taste was wonderfully aromatic and - eh - nutty. But I have a very mild nut allergy that only comes out if I eat handful (or two) of plain nuts - my mouth and throat start tickling, which is at worst a discomfort. I didn't even think about that when I got this tea, but the reaction was the same - shame, the tea was a real find.

I made a big vegetable chili today, I love chilis (as you've probably figured out) and making a vegetable chili is something I've wanted to try out for some time. I'd actually like to make more vegetarian food, but my problem most of the time is that I don't know how to make it tasty without meat - I mean what are the good incredients that make vegetarian food wholesome? I was quite happy with today's result - it had lot of different beans, onion, celery (leap of faith here, but worth it), mushroom and bell pepper. Chili is such a great comfort food, and this is no exception.

While at the green grociers' (which is a lot cheaper than Safeway) I also picked up a jar of garlic chili sauce. This is an ongoing research subject at our house - chili sauce is one of those basic incredients that goes pretty much into any food we eat, and we're always on a lookout for the perfect sauce. We've tried some fancier ones lately but the more you put in it, the less it takes away from chili - it's not just about being hot, chili sauce needs to be tasty too. This one looked like a basic garlic chili sauce, this time a Thai variety and is absolutely gorgeous - if it wasn't that damn spicy I'd eat it with a spoon. It reminds me of Hanuman langurs in India - the holy monkeys that live in cities and temples - who are also addicted to chili. They come to the roofs of houses where people are drying off chili peppers in the sun and gorge on them - some mothers can be seen to neglect their babies while high on chili, and I can totally relate.

More positive

At first it looked like another difficult day, but after talking to my mom on Skype in the morning I got into gear. I finally started the work on my resume - something I've been putting off because it - or what it implies - is too frustrating. But I got into it and found an all new angle to it based on Joan's comments about it earlier. For a change I feel a bit more positive about it all.

At yoga Jason made a remark that I should start going to the intermediate-advanced class as that would benefit me more than the beginners-intermediate class I've used to taking. I think the comment was quite appropriate, as my practice was rocking today. It's funny, sometimes I feel that my best practices come after couple of days or even weeks break - I definetly know that if I practice every day I never feel this powerful. For the first time ever, I did all of my chatarungas as full push-ups, not from my knees like I've done for years.

I've always been cautious about chatarungas because of my wrist - I think I hurt it at some point in the beginning and since that I've just been avoiding proper chatarungas. But jump-back chatarunga into up-dog is just one of those amazingly beautiful flowing moves that I love, so for the past couple of weeks I've been secretly practicing on doing them properly. So until now it has been mainly during Surya Namaskar A's and then in B's there are three times as many and I've just not managed that. Today, I was feeling strong like a warrior (II - my favourite) and I just did it, and I felt fantastic although I have a feeling my shoulders and abs will hurt tomorrow.

Now that I've got enough strength to do proper chatarungas I don't think they are going to be a problem for my wrist after all. I start them from a position where my arms are already bent so the pressure on the wrist is never as bad as for example up-dogs. (Which I'll never be able to do, but that doesn't bother me too much.) Feels really good being able to do a beautiful move like this.

Million and one

Weird day.

Started up with a nightmare where I was paralyzed - took me almost half an hour to wake up properly and shake the feeling, most unpleasant. Then spent a peaceful morning with Dragon who was up early as he complains that lately I've been very restless in my sleep and wakes up when I'm kicking him. He was also home longer today because he was catching a later plane to San Fransico where he's spending the rest of the week. When he was leaving I went back to bed to catch up sleep I missed - but woke up later with the same nightmare. Different scenario, but again I was paralyzed and half blind. Dragon suggested I should start writing my dreams down again which I then did.

Weather wasn't the best but I needed to get out so I took a walk over the Granville Bridge to go to Teaz - picked up some rooibos teas. While out I also noticed that after all I seem to be suffering from some side effects of decreasing the Paxil dosage - I'm lightheaded and slightly dizzy at times. I'm still emotional, maybe it's withdrawal, maybe the nightmare, maybe being alone... and I miss Dragon terribly. I can now understand why so many Americans use antidepressants like vitamins - the temptation to just make your life uncomplicated with a little red pill is definetly there.

And I have million thoughts going through my head at the speed of light. While I was meditating (or trying to) a theory came to be about what's going on in my life, but I need some time to figure out what it all means. Seems that once again some good advice I've given to Chu I should also apply to myself. Why is it easier to give advice than implement it?

Angry

Not many things make me as angry as this.

However, both of Mr Bush's African initiatives have made slower progress than expected - partly because of the reluctance of Congress - stuck in the middle of the budget crisis - to fund them and because of problems of implementation.

The Millennium Challenge Account has only certified eight countries in Africa as qualified for aid, and only one (Madagascar) has received any funds.

The US Aids fund has been partly stymied by a debate over whether in order to qualify countries have to teach abstinence, rather than condom use, as the key means to prevent the spread of Aids.

Its donations can only be used to buy drugs approved by the US drugs authority, the FDA, which excludes many cheaper generic drugs and favours American manufacturers.

Call me Miss Brain Fart

Firstly, I went to Chinatown to pick up two spoons we meant to buy on Saturday. And came back with a wonderfully pretty tea set for four - and no spoons. I just couldn't resist that set - tea pot with four cups, and a tray where you can put tea lights in to keep everything warm. All decorated with blue and red dragons and phoenixes (which is, by the way the counterpart for dragon in the Chinese mythology - what can I say, my husband thinks I'm a small bird).

While the first incident was much more meditated, the second was a true brain fart. I went to Safeway to buy fish for the evening, and came back with fruit, vegetables, bread and yoghurt - but no fish.

Damn you brain, where were you when I needed you?

Making Pu Erh

One of my targets for Saturday's shopping was to visit a tea shop in Chinatown that I hadn't been to before. It's called Treasure-Green Tea co and it's a small shop on East Georgia and Main. I wanted to buy some Pu Erh tea cakes, those small ones, and I knew from their web site that they had some. I originally wanted just some - but when I asked for five, I got five dollars worth which is about 25 cakes... not that I'm complaining. Moira asked earlier how the tea cakes are used, so I wanted to do a little pictorial about it.

Cakes are individually wrapped into soft paper, and are just condensed tea leaves.

You want to put the cake into a tea pot, or some kind of other container, not in your tea cup as you need to strain the leaves.

Pour boiling water on the cake. As Chinese do with most of their teas, the first brew is not used, it's thrown away - it's like washing the leaves before use. So steep for a minute or so, and discard water.

After the first steeping, the cake is not fully dissolved yet.

Pour in more boiling water, and steep for about five minutes. It's a long time, but this is a very special tea.

Strain the tea into a cup.

The resulting tea is really black. It's got an earthy, slightly smoky taste - some sources say that this is the perfect tea for people who want to switch from coffee. Don't let this disturb though, it's a great tea.

Now the cake has fully dissolved. The leaves can - and should - be used multiple times, for this particular tea the lady said should do at least five brews. For each following brew, increase the steeping time for couple of minutes.

So I've got loads of these cakes - in case any of my tea loving readers want to taste some, drop me an email and I'll mail you couple of cakes.

Emotional

We went to yin yoga together tonight, and it turned out to be maybe the most emotional practice I've ever had. First of all, I had an anxiety attack right in the beginning, and was fighting against it half-way through the practice. Shannon talked a lot this time, can't really say exactly about what but it was very emotional, about feeling certain asanas envoke. So I was lying in saddle, my absolute favourite yin pose, and Shannon was saying that this pose exposes the solar plexus and heart chakras, and I truly felt it - my heart chakra, the emotional one, was wide open but solar plexus chakra, the power center, was blocked and I tried breathing into it without succeeding. I can't even say I was thinking about something particular that made me feel emotional, I just was full of different emotions, both sad and happy.

When I opened my eyes after the practice I was surprised to find myself back at th studio, I had literally been somewhere totally different.

Well, let's face it, I've now been on lower dose of my medication for four days, and I can feel it. With the big dosage my life was very... even. I wouldn't want to say that it dampened my emotions, because I don't think it did - but it made my life smoother. I know I was kind of hoping that my body would get used to that kind of existance, and after dropping the drug altogether life would just continue easy.

It doesn't work like that. I can already see my body returning to it's normal functional level - feeling everything again very strongly. It's like the road is the same, but I'm now driving in a car with a bad suspension, so I can feel all the cracks on the road. My body reacts easily to even minute stimuli, and some of them are interpeted as (wrongly) threats... This is what was missing from my life with 25mg of Paxil a day. Can't say I missed it, but it just brought everything back - this is my life. And I just have to deal with it.

All this sounds a bit pessimistic, I guess, but it's not meant as such. I'm not feeling bad about it - slightly disappointed, yes - but not bad, my life has always been like that. And I'm glad too that I'll be able to get rid of the drug - it was good as it lasted, but I don't need to use it anymore. Anyway. I didn't mean to write about all that - it's something I actually realised yesterday when I had a slight panic attack out of the blue that I was able to control. And thinking aloud today when talking to Chu the thought process continued and I just felt like writing about it.

What I meant to write about was yoga, and how it has changed my life.

When I started doing yoga about two and a half years ago, it was just an excercise - I was still trying to find a style that I would really love. And for a long time, probably the whole time I was doing yoga in England, it was mostly about sports. I had some interest in doing meditation even back then, but the class in Newbury never worked out in the end. Starting yoga here start of this year and studying with my current teachers has been a turning point, no doubt. Kelly, Jason, Kristin, and now Shannon have all helped me to get to the "next level" on yoga, to make it into a spiritual practice too.

And today, the practice today has probably been the pinnacle of it all, helped along with the meditation practices I've been doing with Brian.

Damnit, I can't write about this properly.

I feel stupid writing these things as I can't express myself like I want to. I can't put it into words how I feel, how I see life differently now. I don't want to sound like a total nutcase - I'm still who I was six months ago, or maybe even better...

I feel better. Honestly.

Fullmetal shopping

Good day today.

We did the marathon shopping spree today, starting with Chinatown hunting down some tea and a decent Mah Jong set. We didn't get the one we liked most - that was antique and costs $700 - but we got the next best thing which is pretty damn good. It's still made of bone and bamboo, and it too comes with a pretty case - it's like a little piece of furniture. Pieces are very pretty, but I think I want to put some more colour into them and higlight some of the colours a bit - red is for example so dark you can hardly tell it apart from red. Another challenge is that it doesn't come with easy numbers for stupid foreigners, so we'll have to learn what different character tiles stand for - rest of the tiles are pretty easy. Can't wait to play again - need to teach Laura and Clay to play this ASAP.

Other favourite items on the shopping list today included a new pair of sunglasses for myself, a Totoro, and two pairs of shorts from Lululemon for Dragon - I'm really glad he liked them as I love Lulu's clothes and I think they suit him very well. Not that it matters really - my husband is very particular on what he likes, and refuses to wear anything else.

Evening has been spent gathering strenght on the sofa after the run, watching UFC 52 and Fullmetal Alchemist, an anime series what we also purchased from Chinatown today. Dragon played a game based on this series earlier this year which we loved - and the series itself seems to be even better. In fact, before bedtime I think I'll need to see one more episode.

Choices, shmoices

I've finally come to some money, so tomorrow is going be The Shopping Day, i.e. we get to go shopping and buy all those things we've put off buying since we moved. I've been thinking about buying some new games - Mah Jong is for granted, since we have to have have a set when my sister and her boyfriend come in August - but I've been thinking about some others too and I was wondering if any of the readers could give me their opinions.

Firstly, Puerto Rico seems to be a firm favourite amongst BoardGameGeeks and it seems like a fairly typical trading game. Lot of depth: complex but easy to learn. Those who have played it, is it really as good as they say?

Secondly, I've picked up on Ticket to Ride Europe, a new game that has just come out. It's based on original award winning Ticket to Ride game which took place in America - so naturally for me Europe would be the better addition, plus they have added new rules that make the sequel even better than the first one. Anyway, this sounds like a very fun game to play so if anyone has played this I'd love to hear recommendations.

And of course if anyone has any other suggestions for must have board games, they are welcome too. Our collection is pathetically small, so I bet almost whatever you'll suggest we won't have.

EU or not EU

I've been quite surprised on how much the EU constitution voting has been talked about here. Especially France voting 'non' was healine news, and Dutch vote got similar reception. This is surprising because normally news consist of local and national news, often bits and pieces from US, and if something really big has happened elsewhere it gets a mention.

Personally, I wasn't too shocked about Europeans voting no for the constitution. If the discussion has been anything like it was in UK elsewhere in Europe, people are not voting based on information, they are voting on how they feel. And often they also want to send a message to the governmet - like in France - and the real issue gets hidden away.

Since I've lived for the past seven ears in UK, I don't know if what I saw was a common occurance - but I can say this: if Brits are anti-EU, it's all Tony Blair's fault. There has been no proper discussion about the subject - Blair has promised again and again to start talking about the euro, but never delivers. So instead of a discussion, there are the mostly anti-EU tabloids who bring forward scandals and bad news, and Tories spread misinformation and sometimes outright lies. All that government gets to say is re-action to these negative news, and no matter what they say it's going to sound like a weak explanation. In all, there are never any positive news, or positive information - add to that Brits' xenophobia and belief that they are still in the heart of an empire... and of course the misguided trust in Americans.

It's a shame that constitution is not going to work out for now, but it will, just give it time. EU is trying to pull together a very large number of very different cultures, and it's not easy. I think what we need is a generation change or two - to get in people who have grown in EU and don't see other EU citizens are threats, but as fellow Europeans.

I recon it will take time, decades, maybe even centuries.

Passport, check

The weather was nice for a change today, so I decided to go and apply for a new passport. The embassy in Ottawa and the consulate in Toronto don't serve citizens of Finland residing in British Columbia, so it was for a long time a mystery to me who would - it turned out that there's a Honorary Consulate General of Finland in Vancouver where I can apply for a passport. That's a very fancy title, but the office was a very small one - albeit on a very good place on West Georgia and Bute - it had two rooms, that they shared with, believe it or not, the Honorary Consulate General of Sweden.

I got my passport photos taken, and I'm fairly happy with them which is good as I need to look at it for the next ten years - and I'm glad to get rid of the old one. The service was very friendly (which it never was in London) and I spoke with another Finnish lady who had lived in Vancouver for 30 years who was also applying for a new passport.

While waiting I was flipping through a free newspaper 24 Hours and I found that small snippet of news on the left. This must have been the incident that took place outside our window the other day - and I'm relieved to hear that shots weren't actually "real" gunshots.