packing, packing, packing

and it's snowing, snowing, snowing outside

not working

listening to:
Rings "Black Habit"
i saw them play live yesterday, and today me and N went to buy cds from their hotel room!

blue room, quickly

cake from O on a little bench Y found. sunny tea moment.

the renovator's bed. (photo from Y, his last morning)

listening to
Blonde Redhead "Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons"

trying to get started with work

V's night visit

my baby, she went away for the night yesterday. for the first time!
to my mum's place. they should be coming back soon.
as well as Y, from HIS last weekend in Manteli.

now it is just me and N, the grandpa cat. strange.
working, packing, working, packing.
gluing. (lots of little broken things)
it is winter again, snow and sun.

photos from 2006.
friend N and Y roof building of the new part.
V at home, cat N sleeping in the background.

listening to
PJ Harvey "White Chalk"
Charlotte Gainsbourg "5:55"
Julie Ruin "Julie Ruin"

the last weekend

V and i painted eggs in the morning.

yesterday was our last aller-retour trip to Manteli. feels unbelievable.
this is our last weekend in town alone. O posted about our day, some photos there!

today has been about packing, V finding wonderful accessories to be "prince Kirsti", looking at books, old photos... disappearance of time, then suddenly evening.

(trying to take photos with the video camera, no luck. the big camera stayed with Y in Manteli. it has some wonderful images from what seems to be renamed the Blue room, formerly known as working room)

switches

yesterday the mail guy (we've had the same guy for over 3 years! i've seen his hair grow and grow and grow, and now he suddenly cut it again.) brought a letter from dear J, finally back from honeymoon. i've missed her letters, we write so regularly. she also forwarded these light switches that were sent to their Berlin address. ebay finds, 10 switches. simple and beautiful. hurrah to Y!

there's so much i haven't seen now! the floors, the walls, the ceilings, running hot water, plugs... there were great helpers too: C and M, then M, then S. this is old side. kitchen is grey, kamari is birds, ceilings are shiny white, floors are bleached. Y's idea is that the old side is cool and light, the new side warmer and dark. during the next 4 holiday days i will see with my own eyes. it's the last chance to see the house empty. hoping our little cat H is well, she remained invisible to Y for the whole week they were there, and he had to leave her behind. we have a food messenger for her.

we had a car trip with V yesterday, picking up Dr Hauschka and organic broccolis and more paint. the ceilings need one more layer. we paint with Auro, i want to mention it, because it is such a good company. and the importer company too, sweet couple. they offered us chocolates and ecological hand soap they also import (Awalan). we pretended it's very spring and V had her new shoes on.

to do

my Helsinki to-do-list seems to include mostly shopping - as if i'm never coming back again. here's V's new spring legs.

i started to get birthday presents well in advance too. 1 and 1/2 months to Y's 33 years and 2 months to V's 3 years.


one thing to do was to go get some books, i was paid in books for a job. so i got these now. only one of them i was going to get, the others were very new.

the list of things i want to do before we move:
-go to the Tretyakov exhibition
-go to Kiasma: Nan Goldin and Julian Schnabel exhibitions
-go to Suomenlinna with the maintenance ferry
-go the nepalese across the street one more time
-go to national museum shop and 4 other shops
-meet with EVERYBODY
-have coffee at 4 cafés
-see 5 movies
-go to yoga maybe one more time

things i have to do:
-finish translating 2 books
-finish translating one very nice job i got (i will advertise it here later)
-pack

one more pile: some favorite books on their way to a new home. i realised there are so many favorite books, sitting on the shelf under a layer of dust. some books get to live behind glass doors in Manteli!

to miss

there are not many things i'm gonna miss about this flat. the spring sun in the kitchen is one though. not a heavy loss, there will be new suns. high ceilings of course. but that's it. i'm so negative about this house, it's never-ending renovations all around - which are reaching this corridor 2 days after we're out of here.


but this area in general, it is definitely wonderful. if you had money to buy and make big flat. (but still, i think a kid should have a forest.) (a grown-up, not necessarily!) the upper photo is one of my favorite views, but i don't think it has the same feeling in a photo. in real life you can see beyond cars, but in a photo they are there. our street begins from the tower. straight ahead there's a staircase down, and a little restaurant we have never been to so far. i made a reservation for next week. then to the left from there are the icebreakers. i miss them already. in the winter, usually, it is the strangest effect when they leave to do their job on the Baltic sea. it feels like entire buildings are suddenly missing. this year they've stayed there. another missed winter experience: walking on the ice. the sea never froze.
we were walking home from kerho last week. this fence too, i'm very attached to it.

last week on a sleeting grey day i saw this: a guy having a coffee, sitting outside the kiosk on the corner of our street. from a big mug. in a terrible weather. i don't know how to describe him, but he had a soulful face. and good style. and this whole scene looked like New York. i wanted to stay and watch. last impressions of my neighborhood.