Giedre tyttö Leijonakaupungista

Constructions, chicken and the like

I just realized, that I should make little stories more often, there's too many things happening, so if I wait too long, there's just too much (or nothing really) to tell... This picture was taken in our street and it is somehow related to the Hungry Ghost month. The festival, prayers and burning of offerings still continue. These people were very proud that I asked to take pictures of the pig and all the decorations... Still practising my "touristy" ways of being kind...

The picture above is of our street (Kaitsu's company is in the corner building on the left), but it will not be "our street" for long - we'll be moving to our "very designed home" in Robin Regalia (that's a condominium name) this week. Yesterday we went there again and all of a sudden it felt too designed, cold, hotel-like. There's too many glass surfaces, mirrors and if it is not just some cheap copy, there's Philip Starck chair in our bedroom. Could it be?

The contrasts in Leijonakaupunki may be breathtaking - especially the "old-new"... Just 40 years ago it was pretty much an ordinary city under the British rule and look at all the skyscrapers and development now! (I remember ranting about Leijonakaupunki being a major trade harbor in the old days, but it is not true. It was quite marginal and unsignificant until lately).

Its unbelievable how many places are under construction here. There's cranes and excavations everywhere.. Finding a quiet spot where there wouldn't be major reconstruction under way is really difficult. Now they build a circular MRT road underground that will connect all the existing train lines, so there's construction really everywhere. There has been a major cave-in at one excavation point few months ago where several people died. Now there's a very publicized trial where all the enginers and bosses are putting the blame on each other and nobody really knows who was responsible for the security on the site.

Otherwise, we didn't have much of the weekend, Kaitsu went to work and I was busy with my little work assignment. I managed to go to the Yoga fair, anyway, but it was almost closing down once I got there. I don't know what these people dressed in orange represent. Would assume that some budhist something... It has been raining last couple of days, so the weather was really fresh and mild, some 28C-29C, maybe. Perfect walking weather! There's reports about ilegal deforestation in Indonesia, they just burn trees to get some land for agricultural purposes, so they say that haze in the sky is caused by that. Can not be very healthy...

Yesterday we went for diner with Kaj's colleagues, most of the people at the table either work in his company or have worked there before. Anuar, a bit bigger guy on the right side of the table had his 35th birthday. It is unbelievable, how funny, kind and curious these people are! Kaitsu was telling me that they are nice, but couldn't have imagined that they are that nice!!!

We were laughing a lot, I had a roti prata (that is Indian bread), Anuar wants to meet a "Finland girl", but he will not marry till he's 60... So there's still time. They all work in some post-production houses, one of them does Discovery TV graphics, I'm sure they're all super talented (and all boys - why?) It was good to hang around with these people, because before that I have encountered mostly housing agents or then people that sell things, not so much of real funny, friendly human contact. I hope I'll have more of that soon!

We're shocked by the shoot-out in Russia, it has been covered quite extensively by the local media, I guess, just like everywhere else in the world. Just can not believe that some people can make so much pain for the others, whatever is the cause... Well, some parts of the world don't get much of attention, no matter how many millions are swept away from the surface of Earth... In the Leijonakaupunkilainen media there's also a lot of attention paid to the deadly storms in China, Japan and Taiwan, also Florida.

Seems to be completely safe here, apart from the chicken flue in Malaysia (the one that may transmit to humans). They have banned all poultry products from Malaysia for 3 weeks and it seems to have extreme effects on the economy and every day life of people. Chicken is essential meal here and people really feel the lack of these products - people are stocking up eggs, worrying about egg prices going up 5 cents per egg.. And just today there were news that there was a new chicken flue outbreak in Malaysia, so the ban continues...

Posted by gkligyte at September 7, 2004 09:14 PM