ZooLights

Christmas Calender 25th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number twenty-five:

"We could not be able to perceive miracles, if they had not have ever happened."

(Translated by me)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas Calender 24th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number twenty-four:

"Gifts: To enemy forgiveness. To opponent tolerance. To friends your heart. To every child a good example. To yourself respect."

(translated by me)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Homefront

Wow! I really thought I had written this already. Well apparently I had not. So I have seen this about 1,5 months ago I think. You know Jason Statham? Yes! So you know what type of movies he usually does. Lots of action and not so much plot. Well be prepared to be surprised! The Homefront actually has a plot, and instead of being action after action, there are real moments in between. With real moments I mean that Mr. Statham has to actually act and not just through punches. Do not worry, he does that too!

Anyway, for those action loving freaks this movie might be a bit disappointing as it does not have that much action. I actually got a bit bored as I had expected that there were a lot more action. Based on the trailer that I had seen, I expected the events that took place in the last 30 mins of the movie to be the start of the movie. So clearly the advertising department decided to go with the strengths of Mr. Statham instead of with the plot of the movie. It is so annoying when they do that... I liked the movie, don't get me wrong! Just the expectations were totally wrong and the movie was not what I went to see, if you know what I mean. I still would have gone to see it, if they would have advertised it from the plot point of view. 

Well basically all I needed to know was that Mr. Statham was in it, and I was sold. Just annoying when the trailer gives you an idea of what to expect and then noting like that happens. It is better not to know anything of the movie, if you ask me. 

Christmas Calender 23rd hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number twenty-three:

"There may be times, when you receive help from no-one but there is no such time that you could not help others."

(translated by me)

Christmas Calender 22nd hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number twenty-two:

"Christmas candle is a wonderful thing: it does not keep noise, but quietly gives itself by getting smaller fully unselfishly."
-Eva K. Logue

(translated by me)

Christmas Calender 21st hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number twenty-one:

"There are ones that stay and others who leave. Everyone can choose themselves, but the decision has to be made in time and never should they give up."
-Tove Jansson

(Translated by me)

Baking cookies!

Some are in the oven

A little bit left

One bowl almost full

Other bowl already full :)

Christmas Calender 20th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number twenty:

"Clean conscience is like continuous Christmas"

(translated by me) 

Christmas Calender 19th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number nineteen:

"Laughter stimulates bloodstream, puffs out chest, laces nerves, blows out the spider webs in the brain and does a housecleaning to the entire body. Try. Now."

(Translated by me)

Christmas Calender 18th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number eighteen:

"Held your head high, but your nose at a friendly level"

(translated by me)

Christmas Calender 17th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number seventeen:

"By admiring we will learn more than by criticizing"

(translated by me) 

Christmas Calender 16th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number sixteen:

"Happy is the human whom can laugh at themselves. They will not run out of fun."

(translated by me)

Christmas Calender 15th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number fifteen:

"Hoping means, that every moment you are ready for that, which hasn't been born yet" -Erich Fromm

(translated by me. So this sounds so silly. I am not sure if it is originally translated correctly, but from the finnish version this is what I understood.)

Christmas Calender 14th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number fourteen:

"Ensure a successful day by relaxing for a moment and purposely drop happy thoughts to your mind"

(translated by me)

Finding the silver lining

I found a silica gel from my bag, so I am able to use it to dry my phone. I also received a packet from my sister in law containing Christmas gifts and some packing paper. I am using the paper also to dry my phone. I do not get any papers delivered here, so I actually would not have had anything to dry the phone with. I could use the tissue etc. but then I would have had to be changing it all the time or let the phone sit in moisture. Of course I used cotton balls to dry it up first, and then I left it on top of my radiator to dry. It is not very strong heath, so I dared to leave it. I have left my phone there many occasions. 

I have not Karelian pastries to eat and comfort me. My friends mother made woolen socks for me (well she made them and then when I came to visit my friend yesterday, they gave them for me as a gift). I am able to be without my phone for a day now. Usually I check it quite often. Now I am just updating my blog... Well yes this gives me the time to write my last paper for this year. One last paper not counting the thesis for the entire semester is due in January. So not all bad. Something good in all of this. 

Having a bad day? Or two?

I went to bake with a friend of mine yesterday. I had quite flexible time table when I would be arriving, so when I woke up almost at nine o'clock I wasn't worried that I missed my first option. I ate breakfast as I knew I would be starving when I arrive at my friends place as the journey takes about two hours. I took some satsumas as snack. I was able to buy the Go-ticket without any trouble and had few minutes extra so I went to wait for the train. To my surprise a train stopped at the wrong track and you can understand my anger when I realized that it was my train. So I missed the train as the person who sold the ticket did not tell me that the train would use the one and same track that it always uses. Luckily there was another one coming in 30 minutes so I did not have to stay there and wait too long.

The problem was that my connecting bus only left once in an hour, so I had to wait 30 minutes extra at Burlington. Bus was luckily on time and warm, as the "station" in Burlington was not heated. So I stood there as there was no way I wanted to get an infection by sitting on cold steel bench. So warmth was highly welcomed. When we went to the first stop, I wondered why we were moving so slow. We were stuck on traffic, but it was not a normal rush hour traffic. Once we had traveled the distance that normally takes about 5 minutes in 25 minutes, I saw that they had cut a certain section of the road and were working on it (well working is too strong of a word there were about 7 people just standing and watching around... ). So the traffic had to go around the route that the bus took and there were a lot of cars. 

Finally having arrived to my destination, I had to walk to my friends home. It was snowing quite a lot there which it had not done in Toronto. So I was a bit surprised. Not worried, just turned my trouser legs a bit up, so that I would be a bit drier. In the first intersection, I just stood and waited for the light to change. To my surprise the light never changed because the button to send the request was jammed. Other surprise was, that as people are responsible for their own piece of sidewalk, not that many had bothered. So I had to walk through quite high pile of snow (one thing that I miss about Finland). Luckily that was all for the journey to my friend. I was only 1,5 hours late from my very flexible time table. 

Then on my way back, I did not miss my bus or the train. They both were running on time. Well the train was running on time until it got the second to last stop. There we just stood and waited. It was cold outside... Freezing cold. Oh, and while we just stood and waited, the doors were held open. So the passengers had to wait in freezing cold. Two police officers did walk through the entire train, but that is all I saw. No explanation other than we are having an issue, was given. We waited over 20 minutes in that stop. It was in middle of the night! Eventually the doors closed and we moved on, and the train picked up some pissed of passengers and drop few equally pissed off passengers. 

That was bad day. Today I decided to go out and take pictures of snow falling and it being all snowy and white. Well while I went to took pictures of the birds, I accidentally dropped my phone to the lake. Of course I dashed after it, as it was quite close by the shore. I was able to pick it up but I had to put my shoe into slosh. So now I do not have a working whatsapp which is my usually communication way with friends. I am traveling in few days to Pensacola, and I need to be able to talk to my friend to let her know where I am. My sim is not compatible with my other finnish phone. It is compatible with my work phone, but that is very simple text and call only. I think I will have to use it, if I am not able to dry my phone. 

I must have something really special ahead of me, because of this bad luck. I do believe that in the end it all is evened out, just have to be patient and not say no to the possible good thing. 

Christmas Calender 13th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number thirteen:

"Write to your heart, that every day is the best day of the year." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

(translated by me)

How many hours in a week?

Well there are 168 hours in one week, every week.

From those I use 37,5 hours to work. On average I use 56 hours to sleep. In class I spent 3 hours per week. Other school stuff I spent about 25 hours. Making something to eat and eating takes about 14 hours per week. Shower and bathroom usage about 7 hours. About 3 hours for groceries and 3 hours for cleaning and dishes. This leaves me 19,5 hours per week to do what I want: watch movies, TV-series, relax, etc. If I go watch a movie, it will take about 5-6 hours when you include the distance from home to theater, wondering about in downtown and eating something. What is left is not that much per day. Some weeks I do more school stuff, and the free time gets lower.

Then I have school friends who have children and have to travel to work. They basically have no free time, as the travel and taking care of the children will eat it all up. I really admire how they can dedicate to the studies. At least I get to have some free time, when we do not need to write papers i.e. just after finishing one. I get along quite well with few of my classmates and we are supporting each other to finish this school. It is so nice to have the support and understanding for the school. I don't think all my friends actually realize how hard work the school has been with the work, so it is good to get the support somewhere. 

Christmas Calender 12th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number twelve:

"Value yourself and you will be a gift for anyone who you will meet."

(translated by me)

Christmas Calender 11th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number eleven:

"When you do, what you have to do at the time you have to do it, You will be once more able to what you want at the time you want to do it."

(translated by me. This one was a difficult one, as I almost used 'when' all the time.)

Picture update

Trying to stay healthy, eating some vitamins, omega and calcium&Magnesium. 

Making some tea. I have some options. I have now the mix that is in the lady grey box. The two bags are black tea and green mint tea. 

This is how I usually store my tea :))

I use sweeteners in my tea. Either sugar or honey. This time I have honey.  

Christmas Calender 10th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number ten:

"Something good can be said of everyone. We just need to say it out loud."

(translated by me)

Christmas Calender 9th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number nine:

"Courage is that one is brave enough to go beyond familiar"

(translated by me)

Christmas Calender 8th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number eight:

"But no-one has more fun than what they themselves make." -Tove Jansson

(translated by me, I replaced the he/she with they, as in finland one word covers it all. I think the meaning still stayed the same. Also I so agree with this! You make your own fun and happiness! Time to look at the mirror if you are not happy.) 

Christmas decoration

This is my Christmas calender and also the only Christmas decoration I have. Like I said it contains positive sayings in it in Finnish. So that's why it says "translated by me" underneath every text. If it is a quote, I have written the owner of the quote as well.

Christmas Calender 7th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number seven:

"Be happy of the gifts given by life, with a brave mind, with a smile, look at the dawning day"

(translated by me)

Crocheting

Can you guess what I am doing. Let me tell you although making the square at first was easy and fun, it started to feel tiring after a while.

Tadah! Almost finished. It took me forever to connect the squares till this point. After this till it is finished took me a whole day. 

Almost finished. Just need to do the rim. Quite blue still. The red is not popping out as much as I had hoped for.

Finished! See what I did there! The white-green balls really light it up. I think the girl I am going to give this to is not going to mind the blueness now. Well she is such a small baby still that I think she won't mind at all :)

Happy Independence Day Finland!

Today is the 96th birthday of independent Finland. Some say that it is the remembrance day of independence as part of of the independence has been lost to the EU. I totally agree with this, that we are not our own country anymore in the sense of the full independence. We do not have our own money. We still use our own flag and hymn. The EU does have its own flag and hymn though, so it is only matter of time when we loose them too. I like to calm down and remember what my grandparents had to endure during the WW II. The ware was in Finland in two parts, which means that we had a period of peace in middle of the world war. One of my grandmothers was sent to Sweden as a war child, one of my grandfathers lied about his age and went to fight the ware (the second part as during the first part he and his family had to leave home). All Finnish people were relocated to Finnish soil during the WW II from the areas we lost in the first part. Some went back after we gain some ground in the second part but due to the ruling we had to give the lost areas back to Russia and they had to relocate again. 

As mentioned before I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number six:

"When you have a friendly thought, express it. Give it a breath of life. Do it in practice."

(translated by me)

Christmas Calender 5th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number five:

"No place is too small for great deeds" -V.A. Koskenniemi

(translated by me)

Christmas Calender 4th hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number four:

"There is not enough darkness in the world to even erase the light of one small candle" -Marian Wright Edelman

(translated by me, so it might differ a bit from the original)

Christmas Calender 3rd hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number three:

"To the world you are just somebody, but to somebody you are the world. Don't dream of living, live your dream"

(translated by me)

Christmas Calender 2nd hatch

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number two:

"May every morning be waited by joy, every rising sun faced with courage"

(translated by me)

Christmas Calender 1st hatch

Hatch? Really?? Well did not find a better word so it will do. 

I received a calender from my friend with positive things in it. It is a Positiivarit christmas calender. So here is what I found under the hatch number one:

"Everything that is worth something in this country, starts from heart not from head"

(Translated by me)