Days seem to be slow but I must certainly add that it isn’t the days it is me trying to hold onto something. The days seem to disappear like sand that runs through the fingers, trying to hold on to them while spring disappears completely and turns into summer. While summer in its inevitability foretells the coming of autumn and then winter that will once again stay seemingly forever. We are cautious celebrating the green trees for concerns that they may break under the social pressure and in their serious mental instability, which we already have presented here, drop all their leaves. Now that we don’t want to happen, do we?
Everyone is back from Rovaniemi and the house does feel different. Constant noise till Lili finally goes to sleep and only then things quiet down a bit. Some said that Tobi and the Gang have not shown themselves much in Rollo but no wonder…. They told me all about the dog!
A dog that has a tongue large as a table cloth, paws greater than any paw one can imagine, possibly, and the whole creature is about a size of 9 to 12 elephants put together.
Or so I was told. Only Moses managed to sneak into the house safely tucked away inside a bag. But anyway, Tobi, Molly, and the others stayed away for the weekend and explored the artic circle for themselves, the bit that goes trough Rovaniemi at least. They were even granted a private audience with Santa which they have concluded with the realisation that the guy was a fake and ‘the guy’ has concluded that he will just stick to lying only to children in the future. Which as I have heard he lived up to later on.
On Sunday they all came home, exhausted. And not much else happened since. Couple of days back Lili has received a phone call just around dinner time. It was Tobi. I didn’t quite get what were they talking about, Lili later kind of told me that he just wanted to have a chat and let her know what was going on. Tobi was on his way to pick up a friend of his because they normally go to school together but they have had some meeting that night. Good on them.
I have got to know some people this week, in fact I am still getting to know them. One of them is Conrad, but he and the others live far away, in a different time as well so it would be hard to say too much here without settling confusion. Just telling that there is stuff going on with me as well. I also have set myself the ultimate, impossible task trough another PC game from 1994! Such waste of time I cannot say.
There has been question about how to get a house dragon? How did Tobi end up at ours. I cannot remember. He just came. He just was once. Maybe he was invited. In fact I think he was but I cannot remember how. He was needed, it was cold outside, there he was. And once here, he moved in and for the stay. I hope he will stay because it is fun to have a dragon around, to see how well Lili engages with the situation, with having a dragon in the house. But there are days when a dragon is not as much fun as it seems. Now it is spring and I don’t see him much. He is always out and about. I guess this is normal but I don‘s see him much at work. We see him for meals sometimes and he comes home to sleep at the least. He has made the top of the fridge a good home. Especially since he has figured how to prevent his head from hanging on the wrong side, in front of the door. I must admit that this last week I have spent much more time mapping new relationship and our friendship with Tobi may have had a temporary glitch. But now I have managed to bring my friends together so all is fine. Conrad is a friendly chap I guess. But maybe I should think of spending more energy making friends with locals, especially local people. Vast majority of whom however has the habit of not making it into a habit to hang out in Onnela during the day when I work there. Conrad and Tobi don’t seem to mind.
Thursday 29 May 2008
Saturday 24 May 2008
Quiet Week
Eventless days have forced me to remain silent for some time now… a whole five days however and I am feeling the drive to grab a pan and publish all that happens to others. Even if my life is in a quiet period, I cannot say that this is true for others. On the contrary, there are some who are truly close to my heart and who are engaged in fantastic adventures. Or at least it seems to me.
Tobi, Lili, Moses, Molly, Sleeping beauty and her Guinea Pigs are all away in Rollo, Rovaniemi for the weekend. The house is quiet and the silence is almost disturbing. In fact it is somewhat but also nice in some way. Besides, I have not been spending that much time home recently. Not to mention that there was a bit of phasing of silence into our lives. So there isn’t really a culture shock to handle.
On Monday, late night Tobi finally gave in to his desires and - no, he hasn’t brought home a cat for dinner, that I would not have tolerated as we don’t eat meat anymore - but he has left for Vietnam. You see, he is from Vietnam and it is quite natural as all dragons are from the Indochina and quite generally from Vietnam, or so he claims. There are legends, among humans saying that part of the world is the home of dragons. So there might be a degree of authenticity to his claim.
Tobi has become homesick so he went for a short visit at the start of the week. A really short one and I have my guesses why so but come to that on its own time, some other days maybe. He become homesick after my fantastic Sunday at work now 6 days ago, when he thought it was almost like watching dragons fight, expect for the fire. I remember how he was so excited about bringing some extra fire next time from Hungary when he visits there. Finally, late Monday night after hours of moaning he left. He originally comes from a small island just off the coast from a very distinguishable family and I found out that he is one of the youngest at the ridiculously young age of 83. Some time ago he was sent on a Walkabout to learn the world and himself in it and when he returned they sent him out again as he recounted to me but he doesn‘t want to talk about it much. I guess I understand that, because Tobi is not the sharpest knife in the drawer to be perfectly honest with ourselves and he seems to have an issue with learning things in an appropriately quick manner. Of course dragons are generally slow learners. As Tobi often places the question to me ‘What’s the rush pal?’ all dragons think in a similar manner.
He was back by Thursday morning which was even sooner that anticipated and the 2 full days he was gone has brought some changes to the house. Thursday was the day Lili departed to Rovaniemi. Right in the morning, at breakfast Molly and Tobi have decided that they would go ahead, scout the area and make a day of flying around in Rollo. That was them on the way. In the afternoon, Lili took Sleeping Beauty with her who in turn took her own 2 guinea pigs while Moses found her way into one of Sari’s bag. That was the lot of them away. And since the house is quiet, we don’t want to disturb its resting too much so yesterday, for instance, I have not come home from work in the afternoon, sat in a café enjoying Rousseau then met up with Jen to have dinner then sat on the terrace of a pub in the Harbour. When the sun set behind the robust and ugly theatre building, temperature started plummeting. People nearly froze, we set under blankets.
Today after work I wondered into a café to find a guy with an amasing amount of lego spilled on the table front of him with a sign up saying something like ‘join in’ so I did. I built a Hopper, which is basically a space chopper from…
I have built a universe by the time I was finished with the small thing in my hands.
Tomorrow everyone comes home. Things will be back to normal.
Sunday 18 May 2008
spitting fire
A gloomy day it has been. Still is. A Scottish standard for weather and a doomsday mood here. I could blame others but shall not. Instead, I admit that Tobi has things sorted in his life and we should all learn something from him!
On Friday, remember, he flew to Hungary in search of his fire and returned with another one he picked up from the dragon fire pit. A would be tourist attraction if not for all the wondering and circling dragons in the area who scare the faint hearted into not even hearing of the place, ever. Similar fears like the snoring house dragon under the bed. Anyway, he returned exhausted and spent Saturday sleeping on the top of the fridge, his head carefully wedged between the wall and his left side so he wouldn’t have to wake up with his hanging head accidentally getting caught by the door inside the fridge while one of us is getting milk or the butter out.
The point is the resting! I have met many people over the last couple of days who don’t do such thing - student kinds at the end of term. A terrible sight every single one of them, mild case or somewhat more serious of sleep deprivation inflicted upon themselves voluntarily or by impossible (or very possible but for a long time ignored) deadlines. Of course Tobi has it easy, no school, no job, no kids… he has the time to rest. On the contrary I have job and no school at the time but have the kid and the weekend to work and in the evening act as if it is weekend for me too and hang out with the students for whom it is. Consequently this morning looking in the mirror I realised that the sleep deprivation is showing on me rather well. A reason for gloom.
To continue and develop the fantastic start I have spent my shift with a day long argument about sharing work load, having been accused of being slow and lazy eventually I lost it. When I loose my temper… often takes a long time, I get angry. I raise my voice, etc. Often I acquire an Irish accent as well.
The work shift turned into a testosterone fuelled argument over the question of who is the better cleaner - as Tobi nicely summarised it to me on the way home. He has been mostly entertained all trough it squealing and rolling on the floor with laughter. He says that next time when in Hungary he will pick up couple more fires, such day like this one cold be ever more so interesting and entertaining. For him. He will also make sure to bring the camera to work in the future, especially if he’s got the fires from Hungary. He does have a dragon sense of humour.
On Friday, remember, he flew to Hungary in search of his fire and returned with another one he picked up from the dragon fire pit. A would be tourist attraction if not for all the wondering and circling dragons in the area who scare the faint hearted into not even hearing of the place, ever. Similar fears like the snoring house dragon under the bed. Anyway, he returned exhausted and spent Saturday sleeping on the top of the fridge, his head carefully wedged between the wall and his left side so he wouldn’t have to wake up with his hanging head accidentally getting caught by the door inside the fridge while one of us is getting milk or the butter out.
The point is the resting! I have met many people over the last couple of days who don’t do such thing - student kinds at the end of term. A terrible sight every single one of them, mild case or somewhat more serious of sleep deprivation inflicted upon themselves voluntarily or by impossible (or very possible but for a long time ignored) deadlines. Of course Tobi has it easy, no school, no job, no kids… he has the time to rest. On the contrary I have job and no school at the time but have the kid and the weekend to work and in the evening act as if it is weekend for me too and hang out with the students for whom it is. Consequently this morning looking in the mirror I realised that the sleep deprivation is showing on me rather well. A reason for gloom.
To continue and develop the fantastic start I have spent my shift with a day long argument about sharing work load, having been accused of being slow and lazy eventually I lost it. When I loose my temper… often takes a long time, I get angry. I raise my voice, etc. Often I acquire an Irish accent as well.
The work shift turned into a testosterone fuelled argument over the question of who is the better cleaner - as Tobi nicely summarised it to me on the way home. He has been mostly entertained all trough it squealing and rolling on the floor with laughter. He says that next time when in Hungary he will pick up couple more fires, such day like this one cold be ever more so interesting and entertaining. For him. He will also make sure to bring the camera to work in the future, especially if he’s got the fires from Hungary. He does have a dragon sense of humour.
Friday 16 May 2008
lost fire and shifting interests
The gracious video game that has been released in 1994 it seems still had a hold on me for I Had to keep on with it till at last it was all done. A terrible anticlimax that has made all the hours of play utterly meaningless and wasted away. My attention shifted to a new focus which to some I imagine can be just as much a waste of time: philosophy and social theories.
For a quick warm up I have started to read or re-read the ‘A short introduction to Rousseau’ before moving on to my current interest who would be Jean-Paul Sartre and maybe his most defining book ‘The Imaginary’. Tobi for once is sharing my interest, somehow, and he even decided to provide me with entertainment and learning while I am wiping the floors and vomits. He started reading a book for me and I surely thought that this was really, really nice of him but… In English his reading skills are fairly poor. He could handle a first grade reading book and this it how far it goes. So listening to him for nearly and hour, polity and enduring the pain I eventually had to put this enterprise to a stop. He wasn’t offended fortunately, after the first 2 minutes in fact he was only carrying on to be polite but it was just as painful and exhausting for him to read as for me to listen. We had a good laugh at our politely stupid manners.
Exhausted and slightly cold, probably more to do with psychology of the changing wind outside – north wind cutting into the flesh, west wind freezing one to the bones in a cold and humid manner – we cozied up in my lunch break and I begun to read. Still cold, freezing even Tobi decided to spit a coupe of fire balls that would dance around the room the keep us warm he came to discover a terrible truth.
He has lost his fire!
Panic... panic there was!
Finally, when he calmed down he recalled that he must have lost his fire when in Hungary last time and without another minute wasted he set out flying like, I am lost for words
Flying like a dragon!
He came home rather late and exhausted but successful indeed. Although he has not managed to find His fire, it may be gone forever but luckily in Hungary there is a special place. For dragons there is a pit, a giant whole in the ground that holds nothing but dragon fire. There is a spoon next to it and unfortunate dragons who were careless enough to loose their fire can come to this shrine of carelessness and with the spoon get a new one. This is what he has done and after the long and fast journeys of the day, the excitement and the demanding exercise of reading advanced English he is certainly a passed out dragon.
Even Lili and I got exhausted in this day. After dinner, waiting for Tobi to get home we set down on the sofa to digest comfortable and top up with some Percy pigs but we were asleep within about 2 minutes. I awoke to the sound of a bang on the window which turned out to be a rather very tired dragon whom I had to pick up from beneath the window and carry to his bed. Well, he demanded in a whispering to be paced on the top of the fridge. It was a good idea. In his dream he throws out a bit of fire every so often. Tiny bubbles and cubes (don’t ask).
He didn’t manage to bring ‘proper’ leaves for the trees, instead of this early and tiny ones we still have as he promised before he set out earlier today.
All is well.
Wednesday 14 May 2008
Well rested, passive as me may (while others having the busiest time of the year)
The house is quiet and recovering is taking its toll on me. Passive resting is something that I am more than not used to. So I returned to my video game… also baked some bread, did the washing, some cooking and shrotbread.
Other members of the family are rather busy… they actually are, with real life unlike me. Even Tobi. He has come home on Sunday night eventually and wasn’t in the best off shape. I mentioned that I think he has been sleeping outside over the weekend. He headed straight for making a nest under Lili’s bed. Been there ever since most of the time.
There is irony in a Tobi type creature under a child’s bed now isn’t? A house dragon who loves more than anything to sleep under the bed. Any house dragon I mean and if I can trust Tobi’s accounts than all house dragons’ favourite spot is that. Warm and cosy, nicely compact and relaxing falling asleep to the gentle snoring of a young person. Terrible faith the misunderstandings that come of it. How popular it is to be afraid of the monster under your bed and since we ever so scared to take a closer look we never realise it is only someone like Tobi. But our Tobi at least doesn’t have misunderstandings to deal with. Although once Lili booted him out to go and sleep under our bed. She is not the only one with a habit for sever snoring.
Tonight he, Tobi finally came out and joined us for dinner. Lili had two Tortilla wraps, Jen had two, I had two and Tobi had two… evenly distributed than. Reminds me to some add from my childhood: Drink another one and blame it on the bunny. Or something like that. It was in Hungarian and a million years ago. (soon I will be older than Tobi)
It is pretty good going that Tobi slept for three days. I guess he is better at the passive relaxing than me. Good for him. But at times disappointing. On Monday he was supposed to come to work with me but I couldn’t get him out from underneath without throwing the whole bed over but that would have been mean on my daughter who was still asleep at half 5 in the morning. I don’t blame him for not wanting to get out. It was a bit of a blizzard out there. The snow melted within an hour but it was weird to see the land once again covered with a white sheet even if thin and patchy. I had to take pictures before going so people would believe me.
Summer is supposedly in 2 weeks! HA! I don’t believe it anymore, I don’t believe there will be a summer here there will only be spring, autumn and winter this year. I am now officially challenging the climate 65 degrees north on the Baltic coast to prove me wrong!
Tobi says I shouldn’t mess with the weather. It has a tendency to get annoyed and do something odd, bizarre and discomforting even more so. Now that I think it over…
Can I take it back? I will just wait, and be patient! I promise
Other members of the family are rather busy… they actually are, with real life unlike me. Even Tobi. He has come home on Sunday night eventually and wasn’t in the best off shape. I mentioned that I think he has been sleeping outside over the weekend. He headed straight for making a nest under Lili’s bed. Been there ever since most of the time.
There is irony in a Tobi type creature under a child’s bed now isn’t? A house dragon who loves more than anything to sleep under the bed. Any house dragon I mean and if I can trust Tobi’s accounts than all house dragons’ favourite spot is that. Warm and cosy, nicely compact and relaxing falling asleep to the gentle snoring of a young person. Terrible faith the misunderstandings that come of it. How popular it is to be afraid of the monster under your bed and since we ever so scared to take a closer look we never realise it is only someone like Tobi. But our Tobi at least doesn’t have misunderstandings to deal with. Although once Lili booted him out to go and sleep under our bed. She is not the only one with a habit for sever snoring.
Tonight he, Tobi finally came out and joined us for dinner. Lili had two Tortilla wraps, Jen had two, I had two and Tobi had two… evenly distributed than. Reminds me to some add from my childhood: Drink another one and blame it on the bunny. Or something like that. It was in Hungarian and a million years ago. (soon I will be older than Tobi)
It is pretty good going that Tobi slept for three days. I guess he is better at the passive relaxing than me. Good for him. But at times disappointing. On Monday he was supposed to come to work with me but I couldn’t get him out from underneath without throwing the whole bed over but that would have been mean on my daughter who was still asleep at half 5 in the morning. I don’t blame him for not wanting to get out. It was a bit of a blizzard out there. The snow melted within an hour but it was weird to see the land once again covered with a white sheet even if thin and patchy. I had to take pictures before going so people would believe me.
Summer is supposedly in 2 weeks! HA! I don’t believe it anymore, I don’t believe there will be a summer here there will only be spring, autumn and winter this year. I am now officially challenging the climate 65 degrees north on the Baltic coast to prove me wrong!
Tobi says I shouldn’t mess with the weather. It has a tendency to get annoyed and do something odd, bizarre and discomforting even more so. Now that I think it over…
Can I take it back? I will just wait, and be patient! I promise
Saturday 10 May 2008
leaves buds leaves buds leaves buds leaves buds...
Our House have been overrun by Finns and Foreigners yesterday. Former classmates of Jen dropped in for dinner. Fortunately they have brought food in plenty, we had dinner tonight from the leftovers and there is still more. Tobi has made himself scarce as he was concerned of the too many people and them eating too much food. He needed not to and I explained it to him when he came to meet me after work today to ride home together. When he found out however that there were still people hanging out in our house he decided to stay away for another night. He mumbled something about staying with a friend but I’m not sure. He looked kind of rough. I dared not to ask if he spent the night in Onnela.
Riding home was fantastic. I like coming home in the spring more than in the winter. The day is bright and sunny, cycling is a pleasure even with a wriggling dragon sitting behind me. We sang some songs, plenty of songs actually, some even about class struggle and I do think that people who seen us may have thought that we were slightly mad, or at least drunk… well, drunk with spring. That is enough for me. I have been thinking about grabbing some coffee on the way home but without getting off the bike it would have been difficult. I think that I would probably have spilled most of the cup trying to grab it from someone’s table on the terrace of one of many respectable café’s in town. Tobi gave it a try but fortunately the cup was empty and nobody was looking and he missed the cup with a good inch. He smacked his head in a giant sign promoting cycling routes or something like that.
Till now I haven’t have the chance to tell about Tobi’s yesterday last night as we had been busy having a good time, sharing our stories from the past couple of years or so and remembering other good times talking about good times. Hey! This sounds a bit dull here but you know, sometimes you can only get the story and the ‘feeling’ if you were there, there is no retelling. It doesn’t work like that. Besides, I think we weren’t really talking about good times when we were talking about good times.
Anyway, Tobi has followed up on the ‘leaves wanna be buds only’ story we came across earlier this week. He couldn’t shelf his curiosity any longer and instead of coming to work with me on Friday he left to gather intelligence about the emerging movement. He recounted to me that there has been created an entity called collective of collectives of collectives of collectives of… … collectives of collectives since Monday. (plant life has a painful desire for accuracy in names). Since it also has grown into a Leninist dictatorship with some nasty tendencies that I think will not carry in print nicely so I will not tell about them. Shocking stuff. But as of Friday morning there has been a popular movement set into action called the popular collective of popular collectives of popular collectives of popular collectives of… … popular collectives of popular collectives for the revolution of the collective of collectives of collectives of collectives of… … collectives of collectives. The action was simple: it is to break up the dictatorial regime back into small Rousseau’n collectives and carry on as usual. Back to nature so to speak. The leaves are leaves now and the trees are truly beautiful. All is well.
But I think that Tobi has been making this ‘intel’ up. I think he is reluctant to admit that we may have been tricked by a bunch of bored fairies and as the buds on Friday sprang into leaves he constructed a story around this event. I let him have it on this one.
Riding home was fantastic. I like coming home in the spring more than in the winter. The day is bright and sunny, cycling is a pleasure even with a wriggling dragon sitting behind me. We sang some songs, plenty of songs actually, some even about class struggle and I do think that people who seen us may have thought that we were slightly mad, or at least drunk… well, drunk with spring. That is enough for me. I have been thinking about grabbing some coffee on the way home but without getting off the bike it would have been difficult. I think that I would probably have spilled most of the cup trying to grab it from someone’s table on the terrace of one of many respectable café’s in town. Tobi gave it a try but fortunately the cup was empty and nobody was looking and he missed the cup with a good inch. He smacked his head in a giant sign promoting cycling routes or something like that.
Till now I haven’t have the chance to tell about Tobi’s yesterday last night as we had been busy having a good time, sharing our stories from the past couple of years or so and remembering other good times talking about good times. Hey! This sounds a bit dull here but you know, sometimes you can only get the story and the ‘feeling’ if you were there, there is no retelling. It doesn’t work like that. Besides, I think we weren’t really talking about good times when we were talking about good times.
Anyway, Tobi has followed up on the ‘leaves wanna be buds only’ story we came across earlier this week. He couldn’t shelf his curiosity any longer and instead of coming to work with me on Friday he left to gather intelligence about the emerging movement. He recounted to me that there has been created an entity called collective of collectives of collectives of collectives of… … collectives of collectives since Monday. (plant life has a painful desire for accuracy in names). Since it also has grown into a Leninist dictatorship with some nasty tendencies that I think will not carry in print nicely so I will not tell about them. Shocking stuff. But as of Friday morning there has been a popular movement set into action called the popular collective of popular collectives of popular collectives of popular collectives of… … popular collectives of popular collectives for the revolution of the collective of collectives of collectives of collectives of… … collectives of collectives. The action was simple: it is to break up the dictatorial regime back into small Rousseau’n collectives and carry on as usual. Back to nature so to speak. The leaves are leaves now and the trees are truly beautiful. All is well.
But I think that Tobi has been making this ‘intel’ up. I think he is reluctant to admit that we may have been tricked by a bunch of bored fairies and as the buds on Friday sprang into leaves he constructed a story around this event. I let him have it on this one.
Thursday 8 May 2008
After a Creative Break
Tobi and I have taken a creative brake…
Sort of.
I have been thinking about long lost friends, they not dead just lost, for a long time and some from way back. I remembered the time from nearly 15 years ago when computer games as such started to take off. At the time I was into programming and learning everything I could about this things but my machine was about good as a type writer. I only got to watch other people playing the gaming wonders on their brand new and shiny AT486 or something like that, it was a long time ago.
We found a game on the net that has been released 14 years ago… it sounds like history now. It has taken all our waking hours in the last couple of… actually 5... Days (now that I check the calendar).
Fun it was. Childhood trauma forgotten, taken care of.
So we are back but it is not easy to be back completely. 5 days is a long time. Spring has came and gone here in Oulu while I have been looking only at the screen and we are not sure yet if summer or winter will follow. In this day and age the weather forecast is the last thing I will pay attention to. Tobi claims anyway that he as a bone to sense the weather to be for the coming days, occasionally I even listen to him although I think I might be better off tuning into weather forecast from Doha. Would be just us much use. Don’t tell him this, I wish not to hurt anyone’s feelings.
I recall something now that has not been a computer game and was mildly interesting to capture our attention. Actually it was Tobi’s attention captured and he dragged me into it.
Last week when spring has begun and the sun was shining and I ran around wearing sandals, and other clothing as well but on my feet it was sandals only, so start again: Last week when it was warm on the sun and people swarmed to the parks and café terraces, the trees have finally wakened. As if rising from deep, unconscious coma they looked around and realised it is time the add some colour to our lives. Which probably was not their primary realisation but most relevant to our sense of aesthetics.
Wannabe leaves, buds have begun to swell on the branches and some, some wild and reckless have started opening to the world exciting our anticipation ever more for the sight of bright green tender leaves. We hoped especially for the birch for that is, fresh leaves from the birch is something of a gastronomical heaven in dragon land and I have grown to like them as well (not kidding).
Then came Monday! Temperature dropped to just above 0 Celsius, a 20 degrees drop. Clouds, some snow, sleet and misery for all!!!
Misery for the buds that only a day before were so excited about the coming of a wonderful, everlasting summer.
I was oblivious to all these as my thought on getting home were involved only with tuning into the ancient game but Tobi is not so focused, thanks the … is there a creator? … for that. He, Tobi sitting on the back of my bike overheard something, a small segment of a conversation from among the trees we passed that he thought was worthy to investigate further. He could have just hopped of and we would have met at home but he really thought I should know about it as well so he leaned forward, head down to the right and in the right moment gently grabbed my foot and kept a tight hold of it till we came to a bumpy stop avoiding a lamp post with a breath and serious injuries by some wicked luck.
I limped back to the trees with him, he was limping also from solidarity and we started listening. There was it, faint voices coming from somewhere among the trees. I could not make out what they were talking about so I took a cautious step toward the noise, among the branches. Now I heard so close as if it was next to my ears yet still very quiet. Strange it seemed and I looked at Tobi to see if he could give me some advice. He was looking at me with the ‘what is your problem?’ look and pointed at the branch next to my head.
It took me several seconds, or perhaps minutes to realise that the voices seemed to be coming so faintly and from next to my head in the same time because they were. The buds, leaves to be were talking: To each other! Should I be a cartoon character my dropping jaw would have broken some of my toes but fortunately I am real. And so were the buds. We listened for several minutes but I could not realise the language they spoke, I didn’t understand any of it and I didn’t find it even the least bit familiar which of course didn’t surprise me. I am human and they were … I guess baby leaves so for all I know I could have been listening to baby giggles and googles. I glimpsed at Tobi several times, checking if he was just as puzzled by all this as I was but he appeared to take the situation as perfectly normal and he seemed to have understood the language as well, or at least his face gave the sign of someone who is concentrating on listening and taking in all the information that goes about ( a rare one for him by the way). Eventually I started to bore of the scene and asked Tobi if he could tell me what the leaves were talking about. Bit by bit he released it to me and it actually sounds quite interesting.
They think that they started too soon and now must stop and ‘grow back’ or ‘ungrow’. They blamed the trees for this rush generally and of course they understood where the trees are coming from in this. They need to breathe as well but until the weather is better they must find another way. The super young leaves smart enough to know that individually they will not achieve a scientific breaktrough but if they stand together they will be invincible. They have formed collectives and begun working on the problem of becoming basic buds that have no life in them till later time. We earnessed the dialogue from one or two of these collectives and their scientific discourses.
Apparently they have contacted the leaves of the pines applying for know-how. Those, have quite some experience on survival and may be able to provide assistance, unfortunately throughout the many generations they have forgotten much and nowadays they only do, not really know anymore. Some collectives have been set to estimate a timescale for positive scientific breakthrough and they possible applications for life of … buds and leaves regarding regrowing, degrowing and surviving winter. While we were there news came that it is said that as early as 2012 there will be applicable results. On this Tobi was laughing so badly all the way home that eventually I had to tie him with a bungee to the rack on the back. I didn’t want his loose legs to get caught in the wheel.
I still don’t know if it is true, we will never because the leaves wont be around till 2012. Generations will have passed by then. I am also suspecting that some really bored fairies tricked us and it hasn’t downed on Tobi yet. Never mind, at least he has got a good laugh out this.
Sort of.
I have been thinking about long lost friends, they not dead just lost, for a long time and some from way back. I remembered the time from nearly 15 years ago when computer games as such started to take off. At the time I was into programming and learning everything I could about this things but my machine was about good as a type writer. I only got to watch other people playing the gaming wonders on their brand new and shiny AT486 or something like that, it was a long time ago.
We found a game on the net that has been released 14 years ago… it sounds like history now. It has taken all our waking hours in the last couple of… actually 5... Days (now that I check the calendar).
Fun it was. Childhood trauma forgotten, taken care of.
So we are back but it is not easy to be back completely. 5 days is a long time. Spring has came and gone here in Oulu while I have been looking only at the screen and we are not sure yet if summer or winter will follow. In this day and age the weather forecast is the last thing I will pay attention to. Tobi claims anyway that he as a bone to sense the weather to be for the coming days, occasionally I even listen to him although I think I might be better off tuning into weather forecast from Doha. Would be just us much use. Don’t tell him this, I wish not to hurt anyone’s feelings.
I recall something now that has not been a computer game and was mildly interesting to capture our attention. Actually it was Tobi’s attention captured and he dragged me into it.
Last week when spring has begun and the sun was shining and I ran around wearing sandals, and other clothing as well but on my feet it was sandals only, so start again: Last week when it was warm on the sun and people swarmed to the parks and café terraces, the trees have finally wakened. As if rising from deep, unconscious coma they looked around and realised it is time the add some colour to our lives. Which probably was not their primary realisation but most relevant to our sense of aesthetics.
Wannabe leaves, buds have begun to swell on the branches and some, some wild and reckless have started opening to the world exciting our anticipation ever more for the sight of bright green tender leaves. We hoped especially for the birch for that is, fresh leaves from the birch is something of a gastronomical heaven in dragon land and I have grown to like them as well (not kidding).
Then came Monday! Temperature dropped to just above 0 Celsius, a 20 degrees drop. Clouds, some snow, sleet and misery for all!!!
Misery for the buds that only a day before were so excited about the coming of a wonderful, everlasting summer.
I was oblivious to all these as my thought on getting home were involved only with tuning into the ancient game but Tobi is not so focused, thanks the … is there a creator? … for that. He, Tobi sitting on the back of my bike overheard something, a small segment of a conversation from among the trees we passed that he thought was worthy to investigate further. He could have just hopped of and we would have met at home but he really thought I should know about it as well so he leaned forward, head down to the right and in the right moment gently grabbed my foot and kept a tight hold of it till we came to a bumpy stop avoiding a lamp post with a breath and serious injuries by some wicked luck.
I limped back to the trees with him, he was limping also from solidarity and we started listening. There was it, faint voices coming from somewhere among the trees. I could not make out what they were talking about so I took a cautious step toward the noise, among the branches. Now I heard so close as if it was next to my ears yet still very quiet. Strange it seemed and I looked at Tobi to see if he could give me some advice. He was looking at me with the ‘what is your problem?’ look and pointed at the branch next to my head.
It took me several seconds, or perhaps minutes to realise that the voices seemed to be coming so faintly and from next to my head in the same time because they were. The buds, leaves to be were talking: To each other! Should I be a cartoon character my dropping jaw would have broken some of my toes but fortunately I am real. And so were the buds. We listened for several minutes but I could not realise the language they spoke, I didn’t understand any of it and I didn’t find it even the least bit familiar which of course didn’t surprise me. I am human and they were … I guess baby leaves so for all I know I could have been listening to baby giggles and googles. I glimpsed at Tobi several times, checking if he was just as puzzled by all this as I was but he appeared to take the situation as perfectly normal and he seemed to have understood the language as well, or at least his face gave the sign of someone who is concentrating on listening and taking in all the information that goes about ( a rare one for him by the way). Eventually I started to bore of the scene and asked Tobi if he could tell me what the leaves were talking about. Bit by bit he released it to me and it actually sounds quite interesting.
They think that they started too soon and now must stop and ‘grow back’ or ‘ungrow’. They blamed the trees for this rush generally and of course they understood where the trees are coming from in this. They need to breathe as well but until the weather is better they must find another way. The super young leaves smart enough to know that individually they will not achieve a scientific breaktrough but if they stand together they will be invincible. They have formed collectives and begun working on the problem of becoming basic buds that have no life in them till later time. We earnessed the dialogue from one or two of these collectives and their scientific discourses.
Apparently they have contacted the leaves of the pines applying for know-how. Those, have quite some experience on survival and may be able to provide assistance, unfortunately throughout the many generations they have forgotten much and nowadays they only do, not really know anymore. Some collectives have been set to estimate a timescale for positive scientific breakthrough and they possible applications for life of … buds and leaves regarding regrowing, degrowing and surviving winter. While we were there news came that it is said that as early as 2012 there will be applicable results. On this Tobi was laughing so badly all the way home that eventually I had to tie him with a bungee to the rack on the back. I didn’t want his loose legs to get caught in the wheel.
I still don’t know if it is true, we will never because the leaves wont be around till 2012. Generations will have passed by then. I am also suspecting that some really bored fairies tricked us and it hasn’t downed on Tobi yet. Never mind, at least he has got a good laugh out this.
Saturday 3 May 2008
Continue from Yesterday and Tobi's confession
Mentioned yesterday that the Wreith Queen was too terrifying to watch Atlantis any longer. We stopped and started to talk about what was going on… Lili didn’t like what was happening on the screen. Wreith eat people, well not literally but they eat the life force out of anyone they touch. And this particular one was creeping around on the dark corridors…
I explained to my unsettled four year old daughter that what we watch on TV is pretend only. Just the same when on her birthday party one of her friends was running around screaming like a deadly monster and the rest of them running away, hiding in the wardrobe screaming themselves to complete panic! Very much similar to the Wreith queen and the SG team. Just a pretend, the villain in fact is a woman who had to sit in a chair for hours to get her makeup on. And she gets paid for pretending! After work she washes it off then goes home to her family.
Lili helped me imagine her family; she picks up her kids on the way home, one of them from the day care and the other one from school. I insisted she would cook a meal but Lili thought she would be too tired so she would just take out a couple of pizzas from the freezer and maybe make a salad while waiting on them.
It was fantastic… we deconstructed an image completely in a matter of minutes and recreated a scene that resembles reality. TV become a game of pretend, we exposed it to what it truly is and Lili gave me a hand, she in fact seemed to integrate the idea with ease.
I am jealous of actors now. They get paid for doing stuff we do at home for fun, what children do almost all the time. And they even get to put makeup on and fancy costumes and expensive settings…
Tobi on this one seems to agree with me. It is good to be frank about the world he says… He thinks I am cool to explain to my daughter that stories are just stories and we should always take them with a pinch of salt (not literally talking)
…
I am sitting in my study, window open, blinds shut, I am barefeet and roasting! We skipped lengthy and lovely spring. We seem to have summer now. The trees desperately trying to catch up with the sudden change of weather competing who can burst some leaves first! There will be a parade organised for the winner although I really wonder how will they manage that.
There was also an American car show at Oulunhalli today. I think after recent events, such us May day and Tobi’s song about the Middle Class which mentions something about motorization (possible with a negative overtone), it is nicely fitting to have had this show in town.
On my way home from work I have seen some of the cars. There was a 2 seater monstroum possibly larger than an airliner, trying to turn a sharp corner, taking its time. It was a pretty car, I wonder if Finland soon will invade Russia in order to capture Siberian oil fields, wanting to keep open the flow of petrol for such cars.
Tobi would like to let everyone know that finally he came to his senses and understands why I have been mad at him for flying on an airplane while he’s got wings. We had some good talking time the last couple of days at work. It seems the warm weather and the sunshine knocks some sense into his head. Lets hope it will keep up!
I explained to my unsettled four year old daughter that what we watch on TV is pretend only. Just the same when on her birthday party one of her friends was running around screaming like a deadly monster and the rest of them running away, hiding in the wardrobe screaming themselves to complete panic! Very much similar to the Wreith queen and the SG team. Just a pretend, the villain in fact is a woman who had to sit in a chair for hours to get her makeup on. And she gets paid for pretending! After work she washes it off then goes home to her family.
Lili helped me imagine her family; she picks up her kids on the way home, one of them from the day care and the other one from school. I insisted she would cook a meal but Lili thought she would be too tired so she would just take out a couple of pizzas from the freezer and maybe make a salad while waiting on them.
It was fantastic… we deconstructed an image completely in a matter of minutes and recreated a scene that resembles reality. TV become a game of pretend, we exposed it to what it truly is and Lili gave me a hand, she in fact seemed to integrate the idea with ease.
I am jealous of actors now. They get paid for doing stuff we do at home for fun, what children do almost all the time. And they even get to put makeup on and fancy costumes and expensive settings…
Tobi on this one seems to agree with me. It is good to be frank about the world he says… He thinks I am cool to explain to my daughter that stories are just stories and we should always take them with a pinch of salt (not literally talking)
…
I am sitting in my study, window open, blinds shut, I am barefeet and roasting! We skipped lengthy and lovely spring. We seem to have summer now. The trees desperately trying to catch up with the sudden change of weather competing who can burst some leaves first! There will be a parade organised for the winner although I really wonder how will they manage that.
There was also an American car show at Oulunhalli today. I think after recent events, such us May day and Tobi’s song about the Middle Class which mentions something about motorization (possible with a negative overtone), it is nicely fitting to have had this show in town.
On my way home from work I have seen some of the cars. There was a 2 seater monstroum possibly larger than an airliner, trying to turn a sharp corner, taking its time. It was a pretty car, I wonder if Finland soon will invade Russia in order to capture Siberian oil fields, wanting to keep open the flow of petrol for such cars.
Tobi would like to let everyone know that finally he came to his senses and understands why I have been mad at him for flying on an airplane while he’s got wings. We had some good talking time the last couple of days at work. It seems the warm weather and the sunshine knocks some sense into his head. Lets hope it will keep up!
Friday 2 May 2008
song and other stuff (just typed up, no revising)
The great and fantastic events of May Day have passed, plenty of drinks spilled in the city of Oulu and I think there was a moment yesterday when every single inhabitant of the town were in the centre. It was fantastic! Great fan that I have celebrated with work and lots of over time. Had some interesting conversations with Tobi. Although he has not participated in the events in the park. Which was sitting around and chatting away slightly bored and sunned out. Others were, I came late. But Tobi wasn’t in the park anyway. He had boycotted the events in solidarity for the workers who have not the chance to celebrate the wonderful day of the 1st of May! This is the spirit. I know of people who have betrayed their wows easily. Tobi spent the afternoon home watching Stargate Atlantis. I will not comment on that further.
He has not provided me with an alternate song that could be published on the internet but has compromised to share the opening of the song that goes:
‘Oh Middle Class, Oh Middle Class
Content and Idle you are!
800 Million Cars you love,
Motorization you surely are…’
And it gets into it after but we agreed to try avoiding serious offenses.
Of course there are plenty modern or post of that thinkers who argue that the class society is a thing of the past, but maybe even they are old fashioned by now. Don’t know. I am not even sure about the 800 million cars.
I think he got it from Doctor Who. We were watching it on Sunday, it is a family event for us. It gets aired on Sat nigth so we can download it on Sun. You can imagine the whole family squashing in front of the laptop screen: Molly - imagined to be sitting on someone’s head in her adult shape, Moses - literally squashed between people and Tobi acting like a dragon with no manners (that might be so ‘cause he…), Jen, Lili and I and occasionally some fairies. None of us can see what’s going on only Lili is fortunate enough to be in the middle, oblivious to our life to death struggles for a glimpse on the screen holding our head in the correct angle.
Luckily we don’t have to put up with product based branding advertisement watching TV on the net. Only the general image branding of the shows which can be handled relatively well, one only needs to keep assessing knowing that our primary objective is to be entertained and not acquiring direct cultural characteristics. It is more difficult for Tobi, he is not always so sharp eyed.
Lili I am not so worried about. The other day Tobi and I were watching Stargate Atlantis and made the terrible mistake of not checking what the episode contains before letting Lili in. Some of the episodes are rather entertaining while most of the drama passes way over her. In this one a scary Wraith (main villain) queen appeared and provided plenty of concerns for her. I decided on aborting the viewing and… I will continue tomorrow!
He has not provided me with an alternate song that could be published on the internet but has compromised to share the opening of the song that goes:
‘Oh Middle Class, Oh Middle Class
Content and Idle you are!
800 Million Cars you love,
Motorization you surely are…’
And it gets into it after but we agreed to try avoiding serious offenses.
Of course there are plenty modern or post of that thinkers who argue that the class society is a thing of the past, but maybe even they are old fashioned by now. Don’t know. I am not even sure about the 800 million cars.
I think he got it from Doctor Who. We were watching it on Sunday, it is a family event for us. It gets aired on Sat nigth so we can download it on Sun. You can imagine the whole family squashing in front of the laptop screen: Molly - imagined to be sitting on someone’s head in her adult shape, Moses - literally squashed between people and Tobi acting like a dragon with no manners (that might be so ‘cause he…), Jen, Lili and I and occasionally some fairies. None of us can see what’s going on only Lili is fortunate enough to be in the middle, oblivious to our life to death struggles for a glimpse on the screen holding our head in the correct angle.
Luckily we don’t have to put up with product based branding advertisement watching TV on the net. Only the general image branding of the shows which can be handled relatively well, one only needs to keep assessing knowing that our primary objective is to be entertained and not acquiring direct cultural characteristics. It is more difficult for Tobi, he is not always so sharp eyed.
Lili I am not so worried about. The other day Tobi and I were watching Stargate Atlantis and made the terrible mistake of not checking what the episode contains before letting Lili in. Some of the episodes are rather entertaining while most of the drama passes way over her. In this one a scary Wraith (main villain) queen appeared and provided plenty of concerns for her. I decided on aborting the viewing and… I will continue tomorrow!
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