Last Day of 2010

Such a wonderful, beautiful sunny, not too cold day for a visit at our god-daughter’s.  We all went for a walk. Five adults, three children and three dogs. Their two dogs and our Canelo. Canelo was overjoyed to  be able to run, without being on a leash, with the other dogs.

Ååh va härligt det var att besöka er kära guddotter. Alltid lika njutbart. Jag tog ju lite bilder och skulle naturligtvis tagit fler om inte filmen tagit slut som Leif brukar säga. Retade mig att jag varken laddat och tömt kameran. Tyvärr blev det inga bilder på dom “skenande” hundarna.  Inte heller denna gång lyckades jag med bilderna på Gullan. Hon är definitivt ingen linslus utan kan konsten att titta bort i det avgörande ögonblicket. Så bilderna på hundarna eller Gullan fick gå direkt i “papperskorgen”  

Minea kommer åkande på sin sparkkälke.

Rasmus gjorde volter och kullerbyttor i drivorna.

Stora syster Sandra är redan en ung dam.

Small Tins of Cat Tuna/Chicken

Our cat Qusimo is still on Lysin.hydroclorid because of the Feline Ocular Herpes and he must have his two tablets/twice a day. The best way to give him the medicine is to crush the tablets in a mortal and mix into tuna or chicken. That is why I buy those small 80 gram tins of cat tuna and cat chicken in sauce. After all this time, allready six months, I today come to check out the ingredients and the nutrition of a tin.

Protein                   12.0%           Protein

Ash                         2.0%             Glödgningsrest

Fiber                       1.0%             Fiber

Fat                           0.3%            Fett

Moisture               86.0%           Fukt

 The suggestion is 3-6 Tins/day for an average size cat.

Both of our cats love this diet. I want to believe the quality is the best and that it is a healthy diet.But, a big BUT! Am I the only one to think it is expensive! One tiny tin of 80 gram is 0.99 euro. Have to mentioned this is in Finland.  How much tuna/chicken is there? Sorry but my honest opinion is that they are overpriced! There are of course other brands too that we have tried. It’s just a waste of money as our cats don’t eat any other than the one mentioned above.

OK, enough of me complaining for today 🙂

Kan inte låta bli att protestera lite grand. Det gäller kattmat i små plåtburkar på 80 gram. Tonfisk och kyckling. En burk kostar 0,99 euro. Visst finns det andra märken att välja mellan men burkarna som är dubbelt så stora och hälften billigare är åtminstone hos oss bortkastade pengar. Våra kattor äter inte av dom ! Så länge Quismo måste ha sin medicin som jag blandar med tonfisken och kycklingen så är jag nog tvungen att hålla mig till dessa dyra delikatesser. Hmmm . . .  är jag kanske den enda som tycker det är dyrt ? !

Our Christmas Eve 2010

Waking up on the 24th, Christmas Eve, at 7:40 AM first thing I did was checking the out-door temperature. Brrrrr, minus 25 degrees Celsius.

At 9:00 AM we went to the cemetery. It is tradition to on Christmas Eve visit he cemetery and light candles on the graves of loved ones.  As there’s so much snow here now the TV news to people to bring their own spades and brushes. 

Yes, we found the right one.

At 2:00 PM we went to visit our wonderful neighbors for gloegg and coffee. It was so nice of them and we really enjoyed the visit. I took some pictures and am so disappointed they all turned out blurry ! For some stupid reason, very often,  now a days when I am photographing I do push the button too hard. The camera is making a move and unfortunately the pictures all are blurry. Aaaargh ! 

At 6:00 PM our son went to visit his friends to act Santa to their little daughter. This was his first time as Santa and he suddenly realised he IS OLD. Hmmm, he’s 34 🙂

After he came back from his friends we enjoyed sauna bath, had Christmas dinner and then at about 9:30 PM Santa had been visiting us. We all were happy to receive some very nice Christmas gifts.

Our cats Quam and Quismo

Our cats love cardboxes, baskets, anything you can sqeeze yourself into. Well, all cats do. Yesterday when I picked two baskets from the wardrobe. I put the first one the sofa table. Quam jumpped into it immediately. Of course Quismo wanted the basket and did everything to get Quam out of it.

I took an other basket out of the wardrobe. One we use for received Christmas cards. Now Quam was super fast to jump out of the first basket and into the new one.  Quismo was very, very disappointed. I practically could hear him say “what a rotten thing to do, that was my basket”.  Neither one wanting the first basket anymore. Quam stayed in the basket for many hours just to not let Quismo have it.

They sure behave like kids my adorable, wonderful, lovely cats.

“Snygeimmät Joulubiisit Paavalintsyrkassa”

 Yesterday we were in Helsinki at the St. Paul Church. There was a Christmas concert organized by “The Stadin Slangi ry” and the St. Paul’s parish. The songs sung in Helsinki slang/dialect = Finnish full of words influenced by both Swedish and Russian languages and some English language as well. The concert is very popular. The church is for 800 persons. It was over crowded and still they told people to, please, squeeze, squeeze as there are still so many people outdoors. Unfortunately some had to go home. I felt sad for them as some may have come even from more far away than we did.
It snowed all day yesterday and the road condition was really bad. After the concert most had to literally dig their cars out of the snowdrifts. Back home, we had to shovel the path to the garage to be able to drive the car in.

Igår var vi i Helsingfors i Pauluskyrkan på en julkonsert. Sångerna sjöngs på Helsingfors slang. Ett gammalt tal språk, finska,  med massor av ord influerade både av svenska och ryska  samt en del engelska. Konserten ordnas av “The Stadin Slangi ry” tillsammans med St Pauli församling. Konserten är mycket omtyckt och det var så mycket människor så alla, tyvärr, inte rymdes in trots att arrangörena om och om igen bad folk att klämma ihop sig.  Verkligen tråkigt eftersom många kanske hade kommit ännu längre ifrån än vi.

Det snöade hela dagen i går och väglaget var verkligen dåligt. Efter konserten måste de flesta, bokstavligen, gräva fram sina bilar ur snödrivorna. Väl hemma var vi tvungna att skotta väg till garaget för att kunna köra in bilen

Lucia and St Thomas Christmas Market

Today we went to down town Helsinki both to stroll in the Esplanade Park where St Thomas Christmas Market is taking place and to watch Lucia. 

Awaiting for Finland’s 61st Lucia to walk down the cathedral stairs after her being crowned by the bishop. At six sharp the doors will open and she will step down the stairs to take place in a horse carriage to drive in a  procession from the Senate square to the Market square.

Warming at the fireplace

Hubby putting fire in the fireplace.

Am I happy we got a fireplace. It’s not very cold outside today. Only about minus 10 degrees Celcius but there’s blowing quite a bit. Feels like it’s blowing right through our house. The fireplace really is warming it up here and at the same time saving us some money. Our house is electrically heated. Twenty years ago they let people believe it was the best, cleanest and cheapest way of heating system. Now it probably is the most expensive way of heating system ! ! !

The Kalevala

Yesterday we were at the theatre watching Sari (our neighbor)  in a dramatized, partly improvised play about Kalevala. Kalevala, by Elias Lönnrot, is regarded the Finnish national poetry epic from the 19th century.

To be honest. I don’t know very much about Kalevala. So to me it was very interesting. 

 

Sari is playing the role of Ilmatar in the play set up by a group from the Adult Education Hobby Theatre Institute here in Espoo.  Sari is the third from the right in the back rove. Well done Sari and all in the group.

December 6

Yesterday we celebrated Finland’s Independence Day. It had been snowing all night and continued to snow all day.  We probably got about 30-50 cm of snow here in the southern parts of the country.

After shoveling our way out to the street in the morning we went to visit our wonderful friends in Hämeenlinna. I got a bit worried as after driving only about 3 km we saw an accident that had taken place a few minutes earlier. The ambulance and the police were still there. The car was pretty badly crashed. I told my husband over and over again to pay attention, don’t drive too fast, keep your distance etc.  We saw two more cars that had ended up in the snow off the road. Luckily they were OK waiting for the wrecker.

The afternoon was great. We were treated to wonderfully good food. Everything made by the man in the house. He really could serve his culinary wonders for both royals and presidents.

We were back home in time, almost in time, to watch the direct broadcast sent from the  presidential palace where the presidential reception/ball is held for about 2000 persons. Many, many, many, like me love to check out the fashion, the glitter, gowns. Next day there are pictures all over in the press or nowadays already in the evening on the net. People at work are talking about who wore the best gown and of course who wore the worst.

After All ~ Not So Expensive

I wrote yesterday about how the stamps for the letter to our sponsor child would cost more than the actual letter content. Went to the post office today with the letter. Good the stamps I used for the “photosession” yesterday were self-adhesive and I had not yet removed the paper from the back.  Sending the letter “Economy class” instead of “Priority class” was only half the price I had expected.  Roughly the same amount as the sketchbook and the pen. About five euro which is the limit for presents to send. The lady in the post office mentionedthat unfortunately there is the possibility that the letter will not be in time for Christmas. I’ll hold my thumbs up it will 🙂