Sunday Anecdote

Since it's Sunday today, I decided to make something very simple for my 3pm-lunch-- noodles. I walked into the kitchen, thinking about the paper I need to write, opened the refrigerator door... "Hmm, what should go with the noodles?"

Tomatoes? Yes. Cucumber? Yes. Prawns? Well, had enough in the past few weeks. Nah, not this time. Crab meat sticks? Don't feel for them right now. How about some eggs? Err, just had two fried ones earlier. OK, one egg then.

I reached the egg case on the upper layer of the fridge, and grabbed two lovely ones like I usually do. Before closing the fridge door, my mind suddenly switched back from the papers. "How stupid!" I commented on my short memory. When my left hand was on the way to the egg case in order to put the extra one back, something happened so quickly that I didn't even have the time to make any noise or to blink.

Thanks to the almighty gravity, which always lets us take the blame for dropping things, was strong enough to suck the egg out of my moist palm, and without any exception, it dropped, falling all the way down straight. During that split second, I was thinking to myself, "Please, don't get on my slip..."

Crack! T-U-I!

I knew it was all in vain before finishing the sentence, but the voice still continued, "...per, please?"

I waited it patiently till the falling completed, then I actually could take the opportunity and time to look downward at the "incident" spot, and see what a mess it would turn out to be: a bright yellow heart in an abstract form twisted with clean and crystal egg white and a few sharp shells scattered perfectly enough to make you call it "art" on the kitchen floor. Since everything happened so fast that it was still in the motion of shaking after the landing. Not a very soft landing, I have to admit.

I looked at the hopeless broken egg, picked up one lily-petal-like shell from my innocent left slipper, and laughed like I never did.

Dophins = "Pests"??

There is a documentary movie released in 2009, called The Cove. It reveals how dolphins in a small town-- Taiji, Wakayama (Japan) were slaughtered massively on a daily basis under the glorious name of "national pride", namely, "Japanese people will no longer listen to what they were told to do and when to do it", even including killing.

The official reason of killing is that the fishermen were told dolphins are "pests" by the government. How can one connect dolphins with such a title even with mere elementary school knowledge?! They certainly had their way: "Dolphins, along with whales, consume too much fish by nature, so that if their number decreases, we, human beings, will be left with more fish on our table." As the representative from Brazil commented during the IWC 2007 Meeting (International Whaling Commission), "... it is purely nonsense!"

Personally, I don't see the point of Japanese people trying to "defend" themselves by claiming this is just a different "ethic" in the far east, or criticizing other nations for slaughtering cows and such in order to find an excuse for themselves. Picking other people's wrongs doesn't help to correct our own!



Dolphins are commonly known and accepted as intelligent animals with feelings and emotions that are close to humans, but an innate smiling-face does not mean an invitation to their death or being eaten!

As to say "dolphin meat", we already learned that dolphins and many other sea life absorb mercury from the increasingly polluted oceans, and it is quite difficult or almost impossible for them to get rid of it even till the day they die, and a dolphin's body contains very high mercury in general. Not all fish producers will label their products honestly in the market, so you might be eating dolphin meat while believing it was some other type of fish as the movie shows.

The only way to improve ourselves as human beings is to correct our wrong behaviors as soon as we realize it. Or are we so full of ourselves that we need no further improvement any more?!

Beyond the Arctic Circle

Minä olin Rovaniemellä lokakuussa, koska joulupukki lähtee kaupungin kahden kuukauden kuluttua. Joulupukin Pajakylä on vaan 8 kilometriä Rovaniemeltä pohjoiseen.

Oli jo lunta kun saavuin. Ei ollut niin kylmä-- noin -4 astetta, mutta oli pilvistä koko aamun.

Minä kävin joulupukin pääpostissa:

Ja kerroin hänelle toiveeni tälle vuodelle on revontulet...

Strawberry Revenge

It was a cool sunny Saturday afternoon, so I went to the nearby strawberry farm to pick organic strawberries. They are much fresher and sweeter than those from supermarkets, although more expensive as they are well taken of since as seeds.

This was my second time in life DIY on a farm. For a city girl like me, it is fun and exciting to be so close to the nature-- Huge strawberry farms with those little white strawberry flowers nodding their heads, I can't resist the wonderful scenery and not to be part of it!

Usually there are four to five volunteer "instructors" at the end of farm, who will tell newbies 1. How to pick-- Walk to another end of the farm and start from there, and don't jump to other "lanes" until you finish this one; 2. What kind of strawberries to pick-- Always choose the 100% ripe ones, and leave those with even slight white alone as they are not as sweet. You can eat some as well, but for me, I'd rather take the strawberries home and wash them first, even though there is no chemical on them.

We started from the far end "lanes", where fewer people would bother walking so far away to get there, which means more big juicy strawberries are waiting for us!

After half an hour, I was already sore and tired, but my friends seemed still very active. I decided to sit down and rest a bit. Wind blowing by took my sweat away, and I was enjoying myself in the green under the sun.

"Check out this big baby!" My friend screamed while running towards me.

"What?" I opened my eyes and pulled my mind back to the reality, "Wow, that IS a fat babe!" I stood on my feet immediately, as if the dark red crystal juicy strawberry was calling my soul-- My mouth was watery. "Can I have it?"

"You dream!"

*pout*

My friend hesitated, "Okay, just this one."

*smile*

I took the strawberry, washed it quickly but gently with the water I brought to drink, and swallowed it immediately as I was afraid that my friend would change their mind at any second. The sweet juice flowed around in my mouth, satisfying every single taste bud; the fresh fragrant fulfilled my sensations that I could fly like a butterfly...

Now the strawberry should be safe in my stomach. Very content, I sat down and let my mind keep flying. After a few seconds, there was some cold feeling on the bottom, I looked down, "Ah, what the hell?!"

"Are you alright?" My friends ran towards my direction. I bet everybody on the farm heard me, since they all stopped and looked at me.

"I'm NOT alright. Look what the strawberry did!" I pointed at my pants madly.

They saw where I was sitting and then burst into laughter simultaneously.

"That's NOT funny, people!"

They laughed even harder. I noticed their moister eyes from laughing.

"How did you not see the strawberry before sitting on it?!" One managed to ask that with broken laughter.

"Because of your stupid fat strawberry! I didn't pay attention at all."

"Serves you right, greedy pink pants! Hahaha"

I had no interest to care about their teasing or laughing any more, because I was more worried how to cover this pink spot on my shorts back home-- Apparently, the shirt was not long enough to reach that low.

After 5 minutes "insanity", one went back to "consciousness" and suggested me carry their pack bag, which was the only thing we can find "appropriate" and "natural" to cover the spot. At least it was better than none. I dragged their heavy bag all the way back, and couldn't complain about it.

However, this is a picture of the "criminal's" relatives...

And I ate them all!

Arrival in Frankfurt

October 21st, 2008, with the Roman's trumpet through the airplane radio announcing it was some thousandth time for this airline being on time (even though it was 10 minutes late), I was freed from my tiny seat where I can not bend my knees further than 45 degree without pressing them against the back of the front seat or sitting up straight like a soldier on mission after almost 3 hours flying along kids' crying and teenagers shouting. I fleeted quickly from the heavy crowd in the aisle to the open rainy evening air in the Frankfurt airport.

By always hearing German public system being perfect on time, I decided to run to the shuttle bus because otherwise it would be one whole hour waiting at the airport. Luckily, I got the ticket fast enough to get on board, but the bus was full, and there were at least 20 people waiting to get on the same one. So I was hoping they'd arrange another bus right afterward. I was too naive thinking businessmen really treat customers as their gods...not even in Germany.

Anyway, I went back to inside after waiting in the rain for 10 minutes along with other "unlucky" passengers, then I realized my "wonderful" Finnish mobile service network doesn't work in Germany. Another challenge to my expectations. Oh well, at least I had one hour to figure that out-- I was trying to calm myself down.

After talking to the busy lady at the Information desk, I was told to check the biggest shop where they sell cellphone cards. I asked the girl at the cashier, and she told me that they don't sell International prepaid cards or SIM-cards, only German ones. "OK, please get me a German SIM-card then." Before I even asked how much it costs, she said, "No, we don't have SIM-cards here."

"But you just said so..." (Meets with a blank look) "Never mind. Where do they sell the card in the airport?"

"I don't know."

(Inhaling) "Very good, thanks anyway."

I wandered about to another shop, and unsurprisingly got the same reply. Then I asked people at some other airline service counter, the woman there told me they do sell prepaid cards, but I can only use it on "Handy", which means "telephone", other than on my cellphone. Fair enough, if that's how it meant to work!

I bought one and tried to use it on the Handy, but it kept saying the numbers I dialed were not valid, which pushed me to another peak of anger while being hungry!

I gave up. On my way to the cafe, an airport-worker-like guy stopped me, asking what I was looking for. That was totally unexpected. I guess he saw me running back and forth in the airport and still managing not to kick their airport Handy, so he decided to lend a hand. "I was looking for HELP!" He laughed, even though I didn't understand what was so funny. And he took his mobile out and tried to test the numbers. It worked, and he let me answer the phone. I was so thankful!

After making a call, I asked him how I can pay, he just waved his hand saying "It's nothing" and wished me a pleasant stay in Germany before he was gone. Just as in Finland, some bus drivers said "No English" in English to me, refusing to tell information even though they do speak English perfectly, some drivers would even get off their vehicles to walk me to the destination because they were afraid I might miss it somehow. I just feel amazed how people can be so different.

Finally I got on the shuttle bus before 9pm with an empty stomach as I dared not to risk the opportunity of getting on board this time. Because of the time difference, to me it was already 10pm. The bus was 5 minutes late though-- I couldn't care much about that any more. After moving several meters, the bus stopped: A car in front of us seemed not to be able to decide which way it wanted to go, so another 5 minutes passed until the driver got off and talked to them. But when the bus was eventually on the road, it was fast!

There was a German family with two young kids sitting beside me. The 6-year-old-like daughter was extremely energetic, playing with everyone and everything she saw around all the time, when she got bored, she would tease her little sister who doesn't speak, yet could make super-high pitched noises whenever she felt like to. So the whole trip was full of kids crying, laughter and crying again. I was surprised that the parents didn't bother to do anything to stop them, even when they did, their children just took it as an encouragement...

My patience was very well tested that day, I must admit.


More to come for the next day in Frankfurt.

Flying to A New World

On the right corner as you can see, is a picture of two pigeons enjoying the warm sunshine on a lazy summer afternoon. That's what I thought too when I took this photo, but after a few seconds, I realized I was wrong...

Being a curious person, I stepped gently towards them as common sense told me they would fly away once people get close enough. However, they stared at me cautiously; their red-colored eyes never left me as I was approaching them. I saw their big pupils sending me a message of fear. "Why don't you fly away?!" I asked silently.

Suddenly, one of them stood up, rearing up its tail as to shoot himself into the sky at any second. I was not surprised if he did. Interesting enough, he did not go anywhere, but started to walk around the other pigeon who still sat there, in a perfect circle, like guarding for the royal family. I kept moving towards them...

Now the other one stood up...for a second, and fell down onto her stomach. What a scene! Her right foot was totally wrecked, and blood was dripping from the right wing tip. I can tell it's been awhile since it was already dark red where she sat. Her pupil shrank quickly and then went back big as earlier.

"Oouch!" I can't hold it any more. I don't know whether they understood my word or could read my facial expressions, the "guard" looked at me as if saying, "Please stay away from us. She will be alright as long as I am here" while walking towards me, as if he was ready for a life battle.

"I just want to help!" I told him, and noticed the injured one seemed very weak at the moment. The "warrior" kept marching...

"OK, stubborn head, I'll go find someone who can help you...immediately! Don't go away!!" I ran to an office and explained the situation. Those people didn't want to help as pigeons in their eyes are, pests. One of them finally agreed to have a look with me after 15 minutes arguing. "Thank goodness, she will be saved!" I felt relieved a lot.

"It's right in front of us! Err, they should be...here?!" I can't find them any more, instead, a grey feather left lying on the red grass. I felt like crying my heart out, "Where did you two go?!!"

The person who came to help commented coolly, "It must have died, and the other flew away." "But where is her body if she were dead??" My eyes were moist; I believe he won't leave her behind at all because I have seen their eyes!

Somehow I "knew" he took her away to a much better place, where everyone helps and everyday is a joy...

Living In The City

Treading back from the ocean in a sunny lazy afternoon, I really don't want to see what's in front me-- the whole city is imbued in gray color: A huge ball of hazy air hanging above the city center, dust on concrete buildings and asphalt paths, people's faces are like stone-statues'.

You can feel the heat wave storming into the body as getting closer to the city center, mixed with gas waste from vehicles passing by and those that are parked along the two sides of the narrow road, dark clouds formed around factory chimneys, blue smoke from young people's cigarettes and the elder's pipes, hot and spiced air pumped from those small, shabby restaurants out to the street-- Little kids can't help coughing when they are caught in the restaurants' territory. Those tiny dogs get over-excited easily; their owners usually catch them either fighting or quarreling with another over nothing but mere the sense of the other's existence, and this would give the rest of idle men and women on the street a good laugh.

As approaching to the center, I notice people in general walking much faster. Only those who wander about and stop occasionally to look up or around, appreciating the surrounding, the nature, are always tourists. But they would be the same as the others when they are back at their own cities.

Why do we have to hasten ourselves in life? What for?

Even if we are not in a hurry, we have to pretend that we are, or occupied by serious business. If somebody stands in a busy street and looks around, everybody else passes as swift wind, mocking secretly, "Another stupid tourist got lost!", then buries the dark thought with their own schedules, lost in the crowd. How come people have such an attitude nowadays? When you walk slowly, looking here and there aimlessly, no company, not busy talking on the phone or tapping to exchange some SMS, or at least playing games on the mobile, you must have lost the job, or love, or both, or just simply in some other's way. Either way, a loser.

Someone once said, "In the long run, we are all dead." So, go ahead and ask yourself, "What am I hurrying for?"