Urban jungle

I hate it how people assume that other people wouldn't be capable of deciding how to lead their life by themselves. I'm talking about the hordes of attention seekers fighting over lebensraum around the central railway station. It's a veritable mine field of Greenpeace people, Unicef people, Amnesty people, Jehova's witnesses, Hare Krishnas, the odd lady who has her own dancing dervish routine (you know, the one dressed in purple and gold robe, flourishing a purple flag with a golden cross glued on), and the street musicians, some of which won't let their complete inability of playing any sort of instrument stand in a way of profit.

Yes, I know some of them are trying to make the world a better place and I respect them but for goodness' sake, harassing people on the streets will only make them and their cause look bad. Only telemarketing is worse.

Like today, I had to catch a bus and as per usual had lingered at home a bit too long and therefore had to almost run to stay on schedule. All of the sudden, there are 2 Unicef people flanking me, a Hare Krishna monk going for frontal attack quite probably setting his phasers for stun, or something, and nowhere to hide. Helpless, I saw only one way out of the situation. I cranked up the volume of my mp3 player, set my shoulders and pictured myself in the scene of the Lord of the Rings where the Ringwraiths are chasing Frodo to the river. As they closed in on me I found the courage to utter the magic words "sorry, I don't like direct marketing" and lo! they vanished.

I also cought the bus and made it unscathed to A's place to study for the bachelor's thesis.


Songs to help you through the rough spots:
Janus: Ich will seinem Kopf
Verjnuarmu: Viitakemies

Spring!

I can't see what I was complaining about yesterday. Today I've been soaking up sunshine like the Sahara desert rainwater.

<3 sun.

Strange days

If lately you have spotted a relatively young woman striding the streets of Helsinki and shaking her fist to the sky, it has probably been me. This time last year the sun was where it's supposed to be, that is, clearly visible and shining like there was no tomorrow. I mean, where does the snow come from? There simply can't be any more left up there, can there?

The overall greyness has prolonged my hibernation. Part of me is all ready for the spring, bouncing back and forth and yammering incoherently, the other part is still convinced that sunset happens precisely at 4 p.m and that it's bedtime at 8. The result is that I've been sleepwalking for the past couple of weeks, got nothing done and can't even be arsed to find it annoying. Go away clouds! I want my energy back!

Stupid weather.

Lately I've also come to the conclusion that I spend far too much time online. On Saturday we received a feedback from one of our customers saying among other things, and I quote, "What about the finish pankaka? Why wasn't there anything written about German history between 1939-45?" the rest being similar nonsense in Swedish and English, and my first knee-jerk reaction was to start going through all the Herzeleid.com forum users in my mind to find out who the culprit was. I did some creative googling and the email the prankster/nutjob had provided doesn't exist - a shame, really, because I so wanted to send them a response.

Dear Sir/Madam,

It has come to our attention that concerns have been voiced about the pancake we offer to our esteemed customers every Thursday... And so on.

And that wasn't even the worst waste of paper we've received over the years. There was one sad soul who a couple of years back filled the A4 with frantic stream of consciousness, beginning from the 60's when they studied to be a doctor (wonderful, don't you think?) and ending up in them telling us that there's too much driving around in lorries and throwing of candy, quite probably referring to the ending of high school festivities, but then again, who knows? They also wanted to change the "red and black," so yeah.

In other news, I'm off to my parent's summer house for a couple of days at the end of the week so that I can eat too much mutton and sit in a sauna until we either run out of wood to heat it or it's time to come home again.

And I have a job interview on the 25th. I have absolutely nothing to wear.



Today's top tracks:
Placebo: Taste In Men. The song haunted me for so long that I had to go and get the album.
Kent: Om du var här. I shouldn't enter any store selling anything remotely resembling CDs as I not only bought the Placebo disc but also Kent and Die Toten Hosen. *Ahem* In my defence, they are all second-hand so I was only doing the world a favour, right?

Long time, no blogging

And I have no other excuse than just being too lazy to type anything. Also, the western front has been all quiet lately, unless you count in the afternoon spent dragging the bookshelves, a wardrobe and the bed around the room. I must say I like the result, my humble abode seems to be slightly bigger now.

So. Um. The weather sucks, it's been raining for what seem like an eternity now, and although it does melt the snow and reduce the amount of dust and whatchamacallits, you know, those pesky little particles that float in the air and make living difficult, if I didn't know better I'd say it was November all over again. Then again, I've noticed that the dose of flu I have to suffer every year seems to happen at March/April every year - the snow melts and the gravel spread to the streets during winter is ground by the car tyres, the pollution level goes sky-high and voilá! I'm ill. Oh. well. It's the prize of living in a city.

Speaking of Helsinki, if you happen to find yourself in the vicinity of the Gallery Nunes do drop in there. Päivi, my uncle's spouse, is holding an exhibition there.

On a more positive note, the First of May celebrations are approaching! Only a few weeks left to decide what to take to the picnic. This year, however, I will not be as hung over as I was last year. I don't want to go through all the trouble of preparing for a picnic and not being able to enjoy it. I've done it once and I don't need to repeat the experience, thank you so very much :P

Today's top track is Placebo's Taste in Men which has been haunting me for weeks now. It keeps on playing in my head, and I know I have the album somewhere, I just can't find it. All I have to do to stop the inner jukebox is to play the song and I can't find it anywhere. Typical...