Nokisuu

Beach life

15.6.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

We’ve sand everywhere. I’d wonder more if we didn’t but really.

Yesterday we did the easy hiking trail on Manoa Falls trail and enjoyed it even thou it was pretty humid. It was a lot less muddy than our first visit there years ago so it has been filled with gravel and also there was more steps added to the muddy ground. At the water fall some people went swimming even if it was prohibited and there was danger of falling rocks and some bacteria which can make you really sick.

Afterwards we drove to Sandy beach which is the most dangerous on Oahu and also Mr. Obama’s favourite. My companions just went for a roll in the sea and I had my book with me while I waited.

Then we drove back to Makaha via grocery store and some take-away and it was nice too.

Today we spent about four hours at Makaha beach and back home middlest son and his girlfriend cooked us dinner; cashew chicken. It was so good!

On the beach I had a chat with Julia, middlest son’s girlfriend, about periods. I’ve noticed she’s having hers and asked if she’s okay and we had a nice long talk about them. I have had a hysterectomy done when I was 39 bc after youngest son was born I almost never stopped running and had to live 24/7 with a mooncup and the operation was such a huge relief. I bet anyone with huge flow can relate.

In the evening I finished a chick-lit novel ”Lots of love”. It was funny but not much of a plot. The romantic male lead was supposed to be blonde with silvery eyes so of course my brain turned him into Richard. Yeah… so now I can begin to read my B&N haul. (I wonder if there’s any RA-lookalikes in them.)

Washing day

13.6.201913.6.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

We are having a day off of beach life. We’ve been to beach every day now, on Makaha and yesterday on Waikiki and while it’s really my fave kind of time wasted we all need a bit of recovery too.

For some reason here in Makaha it’s been the custom in our family that hubby does the washing and I get a free pass of reading and such while he suffers in the hot shed next to the washing machine and dryer.

I’m currently trying to read ”Sugar money” by Jane Harris and I must say I find it a bit boring so I keep jumping over paragraphs. I usually am pretty devoted reader and tend to read every word but for some reason I find this novel hard to do.

Well, luckily I bought five new novels from B&N at Ala Moana on Sunday. I had four recycled books with me from home and I’m leaving them here. This is my good and well tried method for buying new books approved by hubs 😉

I’m also thinking about beginning to write again. I have a story which I’m writing in Finnish and it’s been going a bit slow. Since my mom’s passing I’ve only managed to write one and and a half chapters in three years but I think I’m getting back on track finally. Only I’m wondering about rewriting it all but we’ll see what I do.

Back to yesterday; we spent the day at Waikiki beach and then watched the traditional hula show there. Youngest one was bored since it was probably the fourth time he saw it but since middlest son’s girlfriend hadn’t seen it we thought it’d be nice. The pics are in my instagram again.. Last night as I updated them I almost chucked the phone to bin as it was third time which went through. If there’s something that annoys the heck out of me it’s digital but unworking things.

Aloha

8.6.20198.6.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

Hello! Last Saturday was the kids last schoolday and later in the evening I went with a friend to see Lenny Kravitz sing and play for us in Helsinki. The show was very good and Lenny and his mates played over two hours. My legs were jelly.

On Sunday afternoon eldest son dropped us (me, hubs and two younger sons) to the airport, where middlest son’s girlfriend was already waiting for us. Hubby had insisted to take ourbags to the airport on the previous day which was good bc one of the luggage tracks had broken down and there was huge queues so we passed them all.

The first leg of our flights was from Helsinki to Tokyo, a 9-hour-flight and it was quite allright. I even managed to sleep about five hours. In Tokyo we had a 10-hour overlay so we took a train and traveled to Harajuku Park. I had looked for tips from TripAdvisors pages and found that. I thought some walking would do us good and it did. It was quite a warm day but we walked in the park, there was a nice shinto temple, and did a turn on the Takeshita Street which is popular among teens and cosplayers. We were quite tired and so were back to Narita airport on good time and walked a bit there too. We found a very nice paper shop among other things there, I need to do some serious shopping on our way back home there.

We left Tokyo on Monday evening and arrived to Honolulu on Monday morning, a bit funny. Got our car and drove to Makaha. We are staying third time at the same house complex there but in a different flat. It’s a nice place with peacocks everywhere and a short drive to Makaha beach.

Yesterday we hiked to Ka’ena Point and I managed to burn my shoulders even thou I had put sunscreen already on at home and again before beginning the hike and again at the point. Today as we went to the Waimea beach I put so much sunscreen on I had white shoulders and they are not as bad as they were ealier.

Yesterday we had dinner at the Kahumana organic farm with our last time neighbour who is a very nice lady. She’s leaving to Italy next week but we wanted to meet her and it was nice.

You can see my travel pics from my instagram feed which should be visible on the right sidebar. I only have my phone and tablet here so I can’t fix any pics.

Anyways I love Oahu, I could easily move here if I had the chance.

This and that

27.5.201927.5.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

Last week was a bit hectic and this one is too. Looks like the closer the vacations are the more hectic the days before it become.

Last Wednesday I got roped to a dinner with our AV teachers as one of them was unable to attend. We went to one of the best restaurants in Helsinki, it has three Michelin stars and I’ve never been there with my own money. We were served a tasting menu of different Asian dishes and they were all so good (except the dessert which had lyches..) so I was quite stuffed and tired since it took three hours to complete the dinner. I didn’t mind the time spent as the people were nice but I had a bit of anxiety over Thursday since I had promised to our workplace head steward I’d go to a meeting since everyone else of our union were taking part to another meeting.

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So on Thursday I found myself in a meeting with another union representative from our partnering trade union I knew a bit and some employers representatives and of course the employees whom we were there to help. I’ve never taken part to other negotiations than our own so it was quite new situation for me but luckily I had the other person there too.

In the end I think it went well. Of course the employees were not all together happy of the final result but it was the best we’d do for them and the employer side seemed well enough mood too. The situation is continuum of the vocational studies reform the Helsinki Vocational school did last year and it is reasonable but people feel they’ve been forgotten in the great shake.

2019-05-23 14.08.49 - Copy — The area has streetnames that describe some jobs and since this is the mechanic’s street it has a mechanic on top of the street sign. These small signs were made some years ago by a group of local artists and I think they are quite funny.

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On Friday we had my work teams Spring recreation day but I’ll write more about it tomorrow since I’m about to fall asleep with my head on the keyboard. It’d not look nice to have qwerty on your forehead.

Exhibitions

21.5.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

I’m writing an another entry just about two exhibitions I’ve been to lately.

Last week I went to see Frantisek Kupka’s works in the Finnish National Gallery. As a matter of fact I had almost never heard of him but I had seen some pics of his works and liked them. So on Wednesday after I had given my donation at the local blood bank I went to the art museum to see them myself.

While there I also walked through the basic collection which has some of my fave articles. I’d also tell you that my brother’s ex-wife’s granddad was one the Finnish impressionists but it’s like the game ’almost related to a celeb’ so I’ll just keep quite about that 😉

2019-05-15 17.38.29 - Copy — Albert Edelfelt: Luxembourg park in Paris. One of my all-time faves.

2019-05-15 17.42.16 - Copy — Bibliophile by Kupka

2019-05-15 17.43.31 - Copy — Frantisek Kupka: Way of silence

2019-05-15 17.46.31 - Copy — Frantisek Kupka : Surfaces of color series

2019-05-15 17.47.03 - Copy — Surfaces with color

2019-05-15 17.48.35 - Copy — The deep reds were awesome, this pic doesn’t show them well enough.

2019-05-15 17.49.56 - Copy — One of my faves in the Kupka exhibiton. I’d just stare at this painting for hours.

2019-05-15 17.52.13 - Copy — And this one. So sunny.

Yeah. I really loved most of the paintings there. I used to paint porcelaine when kids were small and as I know how hard it is to make deep reds like the one above makes it even more beautiful.

Today I visited a game exhibition with my friend at the Finnish National library. Our ex-workmate was one of the people who put the exhibition up and he showed us around.

There was all kinds of boardgames starting from the 19th century and it ended to the Nintendo and SuperMario played with a C-cassette thingy. It was fun too.

2019-05-21 15.44.19 - Copy — A historical boardgame based on Finland’s history, a fictional character Ensign Ståhl by our national poet J.L. Runeberg.

2019-05-21 15.55.46 - Copy — Kids playing a boardgame in 1950’s. The colorful back is from the most famous Finnish boardgame of all times called the Star of Africa.

Uncontrollable joy

19.5.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

As I promised on Zee’s comments I finally found the Mug of Uncontrollable Joy.

I had hid it to a safe place which only I know of because if I keep it on my desk I can’t get anything done and besides hubby makes funny faces upon seeing it. So it resides in a certain place in my bookshelf.

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Yeah.. That smoulder made my phone wriggle when I tried to take a decent pic and the rest are just as bad. The pic is printed three times on the mug so you’ll face it from all sides.

You’re welcome.

I’m going back to sew and listen to RA read a Joy Ellis book in my ears 🙂

Happy Mother’s Day

12.5.201912.5.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

We’ve got eldest son back home today as their flat’s pipe renovations are nearing. It feels weird to have him back and I think he feels the same. It’s just about three months so it’s quite all right. And even if it was permanent it’d be okay, don’t get me wrong. I just think that a young man wants to live with his friends more than with his parents and little brothers 🙂

Just to celebrate this day I’m giving you and old pic of my mom in her twenties at the French Riviera and another one of my boys at the grand Canyon some seven years ago.

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I should

11.5.201911.5.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

There’s quite a list I should be doing but instead I’m just sitting here and staring at the net. I’m so tired. It was my first full week back to work since during wintertime I work only four days per week due to the indoors air problems I have. Since it’s been colder outdoors we must keep the rooms warmer and so I get more symptoms again, just like in the fall when the heating period begins.

Yesterday I met my good friend after work and we had coffee at one of the oldest bookstores in Helsinki. It’s one of our fave cafes and I love their tuna salad. There’s also the great thing of browsing books before and after coffee.

Before I met my friend I visited a fabric shop nearby and bought some cloth for swimming suit. I have a good tankini pattern with which I made one tankini for myself last spring but I need to check if it still fits me and besides it’s not an awful thought to have two tankini’s for Hawaii right?

I checked some other fabrics too and took a pic of one which had horrible pattern on it. My friend said it’d look like an ad for STD if one were to sew trousers of it (I had the same thought).

At work one of our head teachers is leaving for another job, he got headmaster’s place from a private adult education school nearby ours. I’m glad he leaves, he is a bit narcisstic so everything that doesn’t go like he wanted is wrong. It’s quite annoying and it sucks all positive energy out. When one talks with him it’s always about him, never about you or what you’d like. So tiring.

Middlest son’s gf is coming with us to Hawaii and we asked if her parents would like to come for a coffee or something to our house to see that we are not a pair of serial killers and she laughed and said they won’t since they are so introverted. I looked at hubby who looked back at me and we both heaved a huge sigh because we are both terrible introverts.

I had my dentist appointment earlier this week. It was nice since I like him a lot (still). I used to have a huge crush on him and he looked like Karl Urban’s brother which wasn’t bad thing. Of course now we are both older but he’s very nice man still. Before I found him I was terrified of dentists but he helped me to conquer that fear just by being kind and telling and showing what he was doing and why and took my fear for real.

I’m rewatching Broadchurch and now I’m on season 2. It’s good the weather has stayed cold since I’m knitting my cardi and it gets really hot with all that wool on my lap and the cat on my side.

2019-05-11 16.12.44 - Copy — One third of the colourwork ready.

On my to-do-list I have also letters to write, art journaling to do, beginning a new quilt for which I’ve had all stuff ready the whole winter..

Well.. there’s time. I’m off to Broadchurch now.