Paris in motion

Change is the only constant

The children's grandparents are here to visit, so we have been busy sightseeing, including places we seldom/never visit.

Last week, I brought them for a nature walk around Villa Elfik. The folks enjoyed the fresh air, tranquility and greenery. We spotted many species of birds and even a fox. We also noticed some large piles of poo - according to the information board, a species of hairy cattle live in the area. Unfortunately, other than their trails, we didn't see any specimens that day.

Over the weekend, we went to Market Square to browse the stalls. On Sunday, we visited the Botanical Gardens near Hakaniemi. The last time the kids and I visited the Gardens was 2 years ago when we were staying in an apartment nearby. Some plants looked familiar while others were new and fascinating. It was really refreshing to come again.

Last Wednesday, we took a 3-day cruise to Stockholm. This is our second trip in 2 years. With our parents, we revisited Stockholm's Old Town Gamla Stan. They were impressed by the strong and sturdy walls, the gates and even doors. My mom thought the palace guards (especially the one watching the front gate) were very handsome. These fair-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavians are rather good-looking.

Although we were in Stockholm just 2 years ago, Gamla Stan feels kind of different. This time, I noticed more glitzy brand shops, like The Body Shop. There's also a Ben and Jerry's, but it might be already there the last time since the whiffs of freshly-made waffles smelled familiar.

I mentioned my observations of Gamla Stan to my neighbours and they seemed pretty surprised. At the same time, we weren't too taken aback either. The invasion of large shop fronts is part and parcel of global branding. Starbucks at the Forbidden City in Beijing, McDonald's in Tokyo, and endless examples in modern cities like Singapore and Shanghai.

Here in Helsinki, Wayne's Coffee shop used to be our favourite little coffee joint when we first visited 9 years ago. In those days, we used to love to pop in for their hearty soups or soft muffins and a hot cuppa. It was cool place to hang out.

Today, Wayne's Coffee is all over the place. There are now outlets at shopping complexes in the suburbs. Not so thrilled with Wayne's nowadays. Maybe it's time to throw out that blue mug we bought yonks ago.

We'll be visiting Tallin in neighbouring Estonia tomorrow. I wonder what changes await us after our last visit 8 years ago.

Look out for the next instalment of MZinLalaland.

PS Everyone please give a round of applause to welcome my new follower, ~Sal~. Also join me in congratulating her on successfully re-embarking the journey to parenthood. Need some maternity clothes from H&M?

Strawberry fields

Strawberry fields don't last forever; strawberries are fruits of summer.

I received an sms just after 6 pm today from one of Estelle's classmate, Holly's mom.

"Hi, today seems good to pick strawberry. Would you like to around 6.30-7pm?" she asked.

I replied: "My husband is not in. I don't have GPS..."

Since we live rather close by, we arranged to meet somewhere (actually, it's the Nokia office since my knowledge of Espoo is limited), then their car led ours.

I've picked apples, pears and peaches on the outskirts of Beijing. This is my first time picking strawberries.

At farms like these, visitors are typically allowed to eat all they can on-location. Visitors can bring their own baskets or containers and are charged according to the weight of fruit collected.

The farm is just less than 10 km from our home. We are thankful for friends with local knowledge! We arrived after 7.30 pm and had only half an hour because the farm closes at 8 pm.

Nevertheless, the kids had lots of fun running around the large field. We ate as we picked and had a pretty good harvest. The strawberries were very sweet.

During the 5-minute walk from the field to the weighing station, our yield dropped 20% as the kids munched along. Good thing anyway, since we pay 80% less than what we would have.

In the next 5 minutes between the farm and our car, our stock had nearly halved. We had some more for dessert tonight...

So we now have a good reason to go down to the strawberry field again next week. Summer is short in this part of the world - we have to enjoy while it lasts.

PS Do you realise it's really bright for past 8 pm? These two pics were taken on the way out.

Daylight in the night time

I captured a beautiful sunset from our bathroom window tonight.

Can you guess what time it is?

The weather was great today. The clouds moved away to show off the sun in all its glory.

When we picked the kids up school today, they were playing outdoors and had shed their jackets. Seemed that the teachers brought out benches, colouring materials, mats and books outside and all the kids have been out after lunch. Temperature was hovering above 20ºC and warmer at places where the sun shone.

After dinner, we went out (again) to play with the neighbours. Our neighbour's boy (the one with the thick earthworm) was running around in singlet and shorts. Our kids had some sleeves to protect their shoulders, if this helped.

These days, the kids sleep after 9 pm while we usually go to bed around 1 am, after we've caught a few minutes of Wolf Blitzer. What's the diff - like the hours preceding him, it's all about Iran anyway...

I took an early shower today. 11.30 pm. That's the time I caught today's sunset.

Spring Gardening

It's really hot in southern Finland this week. For the past few days, we've been having 25ºC afternoons but standing in the bright sunshine, it sure feels hotter than 25.

Two weeks ago, we received a notice about an event on 28 May. Since it was in Finnish, my limited vocabulary tells me it's something to do with spring and gardening. Maybe an expert is coming in to share experiences with us at 6 pm.

Ten minutes to six on 28 May, I noticed some neighbours gathering in our backyard. In autumn/winter last year, some residents got to together to tidy up fallen leaves and dead plants. I reckoned they must be getting the yard ready for spring/summer.

I brought the kids out around 6.40 pm, after we've had our dinner. The neighbours were clearing weeds, mowing grass, mulching, pruning trees and bushes. Guessing that I'm a novice, I was assigned a pair of scissors to trim dead branches. 

In between playing with other children at the playground, our kids helped to rake the leaves. Our neighbour's boy, Santari, found a long and thick earthworm.

We finished work at 7.30 and got together for some BBQ sausages and drinks. This is really the typical way Finnish people celebrate the warm weather. 

I created this clip using iMovie '09. My previous movies were made using iMovie HD but this time, I wanted to add subtitles and ran into difficulties. As usual, the internet is a great resource to trouble-shooting. This was when I realised that I should have the new iMovie '09. I haven't used it because the iMovie HD logo was on my Dock. My techie hubby guided me to the latest version which has been hiding in Applications : )

The new iMovie is soooo easy to use. I'd spent more than 3 days working on the project but finished it in 30 minutes on '09.

This means you'll be watching more movies on this channel! I love Mac!