Category: Blog

Bathroom Renovations + Health Update
Posted on
Jul 11, 2024

Bathroom Renovations + Health Update

Been meaning to write this up for a month and here it is finally…

My housing co-op is having a bathroom renovation done in all the apartments, and actual work on the bathroom of the first apartment began a month ago on Monday. They start on 3 new apartments every week (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday). My bathroom started on July 1t, and my bathroom/sauna/toilet has been out of commission since then and will be for another 2 weeks! Washing machine too because it’s in the bathroom. Each bathroom is out of commission for 4 weeks if things go as planned, but if there are any surprise findings such as the humidity measurement shows humidity in the (concrete? whatever is underneath all the tiles etc.) then that might and will prolong the renovation. So far I haven’t heard that there’s been any surprises like that. I did hear that apparently the company doing the repairs has to fix some walls on the apartment side even though they haven’t caused anything to them, because they are made of surface material (the one on top of the concrete) that cracks easily. We have heavy busses going by a few meters away every 7-10 minutes, so a lot of walls have cracked more or less. I heard this “the company has to fix the walls” on Tuesday, but nothing since. The plan as I heard then was to fix it all so that the wall and the bathroom are finished at the same time.

My housing co-op is doing this as an co-op project rather than individual home owner projects that may or may not get done. There’s 5 buildings and all were built in 1997-1998. Just over half of the apartments have the original bathrooms still, with the others’ owners have renovated since 1998 but even of those, the renovations are getting to be 10 years old and a few apartments the co-op had renovated because of water damage from the leaking ceiling (error made during the building so the apartment owners didn’t have to pay the renovation). The original bathrooms are about at the end of life, so the we co-op owners decided to renovate all to get some discounts and ensure no bathroom water mishaps because things start to leak etc. simply because of age.

Continue reading Bathroom Renovations + Health Update

Posted on
Jul 10, 2024

Music Loves: Doctor Who – The Greatest Story Never Told

Today has been one of those days when nothing but River Song’s Music will do. I have listened to nothing but The Greatest Story Never Told today! I remember watching Forest of the Dead live and having to sit on my hands once this River scene with this music came on in order not to replay it immediately right after just to make it to the end of the episode. Fabulous scene and fabulous music. Murray Gold outdid himself composing this one. I have accomplished much today and I did all listening to this one!

Posted on
Jul 5, 2024

Friday 5 for July 4: No intersection

Today’s questions over at f.riday5.com

 

1. When did you last read a physical issue of a magazine?

It’s a toss up between a newspaper in the library two weeks ago or the customer magazine my local grocery chain releases every month. One or the other.

2. If someone were going through your wardrobe, which item or items would give the person a good idea of your age?

No idea. My clothes are all pretty much timeless and general because I don’t follow trends or styles or anything. And I don’t care about clothing or fashion to guess what might tell what other people about my age – my likes and dislikes, yes, but not my age. I also think it depends on that other person’s interest in clothing and fashion as well!

3. What is your favorite song released in 2024?

I… don’t know if I’ve even heard a single song released this year! I certainly don’t know the release years of the songs I listen to… mostly I just remember “this is from my childhood, this is from around 2010 and I it heard in The Vampire Diaries first, The Piano movies was made in early/mid-90s. this singer was active in the 1970s…

What I can do is give you my favorite song from all the ones I’ve discovered this year: Night Of The Dancing Flame by Róisin Murphy. I discovered that one last week from Evil episode 4×06 How to Dance in Three Easy Steps and I LOVE it.

Also saw this on YouTube and loved it:

4. What non-food item did you last put in a zippered plastic bag?

Non-food… I can’t think of one. I don’t use zippered plastic bags (I don’t think they’re a thing here) but freezer bags and such are closed with a knot or a clip. Either way, I don’t remember! I use them a lot for food items, but it’s been too long to remember what the last non-food item was!

5. You may know that in Japan there are cafes where you can play with bunnies, cats, hedgehogs, reptiles, owls, and many other kinds of animals. Assuming one hundred percent good faith, which would mean the animals’ safety and mental health are completely assured and the animals are rescues, making it unsafe for them to be released back into the wild, which animal cafe (whether it exists now or not) would you most like to spend time in?

Dog cafe, definitely! I like dogs a lot, and if I could look after a dog the way they should be taken care of, I would have one! So I’d definitely go to a dog cafe.

But I’d also like to go to a bunny or a cat cafe, just because I’ve never have interactions with them in real life… no one I’ve ever known has had a bunny, and a few had cats but cats disappeared whenever there were visitors around, so I never got to interact with one.

So I’d check out a bunny and a cat cafe, too!

I’ve heard that there are at least one or two cat cafes in Finland, but whenever I hear one mentioned, it’s always in a bad way – abuse, breeding etc. Just a week or two there was a minor scandal about a cat cafe chain where lots of outright abuse and just bad habitat situation took place.

The Friday Five for 28 June 2024
Posted on
Jun 28, 2024

The Friday Five for 28 June 2024

Answers to today’s questions at thefridayfive@dreamwidth

1. Have you gotten everything done that you had hoped to do during the first half of 2024?

Most of it, but there’s one thing still unresolved. Namely the I’m-one-of-my-biological-father’s-heirs-but-shouldn’t-be-because-my-adoption-as-a-baby-in-1975-was-supposed-cut-all-legal-and-otherwise-ties-to-my-biological-family-completely-but-law-was-changed-5-years-later-and-we-didn’t-know-until-he-died thing. It’s still unresolved, and there’s a question mark about whether my bio siblings have done the death bureaucracy things they said they have and are required by law. Although I can’t imagine they haven’t, because they too will face consequences down the line if the things required by law aren’t done. But I can’t trust what my bio sister the executor says – she’s promised to deliver the appropriate papers after claiming she has delivered them to the tax office, but so far hasn’t delivered to me and has gone silent. And the tax office says there’s no perunkirja in existence. So it’s all unclear and I’m still having to work on this fucking thing, made difficult because it’s a rare situation so finding pertinent information is hard and I have zero money to hire a lawyer or something. These bio family are all people I have never met, I have no idea of what if anything my bio father left behind if anything (was told he was a drunkard and had debts), and I’m not taking their word any more.

I haven’t seen any papers or signed anything, and I don’t know what my legal status regarding this fucking thing is. I have to talk to the tax office to see if there was an error in the way I worded my information request, and maybe apply to free legal aid just to find out what the current situation is and then go on from there. I did talk to a free lawyer advice meeting, but that’s only for quick things that take about 15 minutes and she guided me to contact the tax office to get a copy of perunkirja (which tax office said doesn’t exist when I did). And she said that while extensions are given to create the perunkirja, 1,5 years is too long and unlikely to happen. 

This is the one thing I hoped in general to be done with at least a year back now and certainly by now.

2. Did anything exciting or unexpected happen to you during the first half of 2024?

Nothing unexpected. But participating in AKSE in April and May was exciting, and we formulated in collaboration the next steps in regards to my chronic illnesses re: unemployment and general functional ability.

3. What big plans do you have for the second half of 2024?

Because of AKSE, there are now options and directions that I can try and take steps towards. Something good may or may not come out of them, but at least I’m not hanging in limbo and waiting for nothing right now. It’s been years of that! There’s something to look forward to after a long while, a possibility of more clarity. Probably will take until late fall or even later to start on most of them because I may have a hysterectomy surgery coming up (at least I very much hope so!), depending on what the university hospital doctors think about my gynekological bleeding and dropping ferritin and hemoglobin. I myself I’m completely ready for it – I’m so fed up with problem periods and bleeding and iron infusions and iron tablets. But in any case, lots of medical and rehabilitative things that will hopefully improve my basic functional ability are planned for my near(ish) future. But really does depend on that possible surgery or whether the doctors figure out the gynecological bleeding thing as well as how quickly I can get all the needed doctor appointments, how quickly KELA will process the applications after the things they need from me and my doctor(s), and when a suitable rehab would start.

The rest of the year is looking interesting, all in all!

4. Have you taken, or are you planning, a vacation this year?

Nope, and nope. I don’t work or study so I’m “free” all the time. And I have no money to make a vacation of any sort. I’ll just enjoy fresh strawberries, ice cream and new potatoes as much as I can!

5. Have you ever wanted to be one of the people writing and posting these questions?

The thought has occurred to me once or twice.

Posted on
Jun 14, 2024

The Friday Five For June 14

 

Friday 5 for June 14: A Wrinkle in Time – http://f.riday5.com/2024/06/14/friday-5-for-june-14-a-wrinkle-in-time/

1. When have you refused to do what (seemingly or actually) everyone else was doing?

I can’t remember actual details anymore, but when I was in my 20s, I absolutely refused to go into bars/night clubs no matter the occasion. Once when I was around 13-14, my school class organized a disco as a class celebration, complete with colored flashing lights and darkness and loud music. I totally refused to go into our class room while that thing was happening, and sat it out far far away in the hallway for the hour it lasted. (I… didn’t actually mind – I hated school and didn’t really care for the other kids and my friend was in the other class so it wasn’t like I was missing anything or anyone I liked! I had a book and I read and that was a far more pleasant activity than what school ever did. If they had asked me… I’d much rather the school day had ended an hour earlier that day than have some disco party.)

All of these refusals I did because loud music and flashing lights in darkness always trigger a migraine attack and always have, even when I was a kid or a teenager. Participating would’ve been pure suffering.

2. When have your faults been helpful?

Can’t remember.

3. Have you called anyone Uncle or Aunt who wasn’t related to you or married to a relative?

I’ve never ever called anyone Uncle or Aunt. I call all my Mom’s and my Dad’s brothers and sisters by their first names.

Actually now that I think of it, I don’t think anyone in my family calls anyone Ancle or Aunt but by their first names (or nick name if that’s what the person uses). The only person I’ve called something other than first name is my Mom’s mother – she was mamma or Alli-mamma (her name was Alli, and mamma is one of the Finnish words for grandma)

4. When did you last reread a book?

I reread books all the time! I checked my list of books read this year, and turns out I haven’t reread one so far this year – too many news ones coming from the library reservations all the time!

To answer the question: last year but I’m not sure which month exactly because I don’t record that information but it would’ve been in the last two or three months of the year judging by its place on the list. The book was the Finnish language edition of Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun, and the I read the first time in the 1980s and this was the second time. Because I felt like reading Agatha Christie again and Mom wanted to get rid of some of her books and I took that one.

5. Honestly, if there is a battle between good and evil, which do you think is ahead?

Evil, sadly since the current far right goverment got into power last year.

 

The Friday Five for 14 June 2024 – https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/126858.html

1. What is the oldest object you own?

I’m not sure – a lot of my stuff are very old! I brought over many of the kitchen table and chairs, bed frame, utensils, plates and glasses from when we divided my childhood home stuffs when Mom and her SO moved in together in 1995 and then again when I moved into my own home in 1998 and we sold my childhood home. The kitchen table and chair and the bed frame my Mom bought sometime after Dad’s death so those things are about 32 years old. The plates and forks/butter knives even older than that because we had them when I was a kid as far back as I can remember. They might be anywhere from 1960s to early 1980s. I’ve never wanted replace them because their design is better than any of the newer ones I could have bought (my Mom jokingly complains that her and SO’s are much worse – they kept his when they moved in together and that she regrets letting me have them LOL). I also got a set of new forks and butter knives that were popular for free with some order or another years ago and they are terribly clumsy and unattractive. The ancient forks and butter knives and the plates all sit in hand so much better, and the soup plates particularly are great – when you carry them are much less likely to spill from while carrying them around full of hot soup than the newer soup plates I’ve been forced to use at work and friends etc.

2. What object have you owned the longest?

The same things listed in the previous question. But if I answer for an object that I’ve actually bought myself for myself… some book most likely. Some I bought as a teenager in the very late 1980s or early 1990s. No idea which of the books is oldest own, but it’s probably one of the Dean R. Koontz ones.

3. What is the newest object you own?

I think the newest notable object is the Lamy Studio Rose I bought in February when it was 25% off? I can’t think of anything newer that isn’t like tiny paper clips or food or meds or something like that.

4. Who is your oldest living relative?

Both grandparents are dead on both my Mom’s and Dad’s sides so I think it’s Mom’s SO, I guess significant others are considered relatives? At least of the ones I know well, it’s him. We’re not in close touch with relatives (my Mom has tried but it never took really and she’s given up) and I don’t know their exact ages on the various significant others/expanded family side.

5. Who is your youngest living relative?

No idea! Like I said above, we don’t keep in touch much and while I know my cousins have children, some of whom are now young adults and might have kids of their own now too since the last I heard from them.