Northern Exposure

I had a near-nature experience yesterday. I was on my weekly walk with S, a friend of mine, when we heard an eagle owl. An actual, genuine eagle owl right in the middle of Helsinki. Amazing! And slightly creepy, too, since it was about the only sound we heard and there was a full moon, too. Über-cool with creepy as a side order.

Apparently the creature lives in the neighborhood, according to the Helsingin Sanomat it has been sighted quite a many times in the Kamppi-Töölö area. It seems that Helsinki is every Finns dream town, after all. A big city in the wilderness :)

Speaking of nature, the two representatives of wildlife currently residing in my fish tank are positively starving to death within five seconds if I don't feed them immediately. I'll be right back...

I've had had a weird attack of maternal instincts this week. I've been assigned to the Helsinki University's physics dep. cafeteria for a few days, and some of our customers are so above and beyond in their nerdhood that one couldn't think it possible. They are shaped like a question mark, wear clothes that are neat and tidy, but not necessarily parts of the same outfit and get easily confused when talked to. I've been like, "Awww, is that one ham roll enough, you're awfully thin? That's your fourth cup of coffee, are you sure you will sleep tonight? Make sure you have warm clothes, it's cold outside." I'm afraid I might actually say something like that to one of them. Bless 'em, cute little things.

(There are also a couple of *ahem* good-looking young gentlemen there. I've had trouble controlling my grin every time they walk by. Jay-sus, I think, is the word I'm looking for. Go physics, chemistry and geology!).

On the whole it's been a slow week at work. Everybody's on holiday. There's little else to do except listen to the world ski championships on the radio. Now there's a childhood flashback like nothing else. Every ski holiday my parents shipped me and my little sister to our grandparents where we spent a carefree week skiing, eating well, building snow fortresses and watching the ski world championships on telly. I still associate that one particular sporting event with peaceful, stressfree and mellow living.


German wildlife live on line, a.k.a deer and/or wild boars:
http://www.wildtiere-live.de/
Birdies! Squirrels!
http://www.ponttokamera.net/