Little sister

IMG_1372_1 Hosted on Zooomr

(Btw, this is the 300th post on parawars!)

The best summer

I cannot wait for this Summer. I think it will be the best one ever.

We are in South Africa until June 16th, when we leave in the evening to Helsinki, via London. We then spend nearly four weeks in Helsinki, seeing family and friends we haven't seen for a year, getting back into the flat and hopefully buying our first car and a new camera :) Our Canadian friend from here, Charlotte arrives in late June and stays with us for two weeks.

We then all leave to Amsterdam on July 9th for four nights and nearly five full days of fun, where Annie will be joining us. Charlotte's mum has paid for our accommodation our two Mum's have paid for our flights (thanks to all!).

Milja, Annie and I will then fly to England while Charlotte heads back to the American continent, where we will be floating around, visiting London, Cambridge etc, and seeing school friends (some who will have finished uni, scary!) and finally celebrating my 21st birthday. We will also look at buying a new computer while we are over. We fly back to Helsinki on 6th August.

We then have about four weeks to settle back in the Finnish swing of things before university starts for me in very late August and for Milja, too, if she squeezes herself onto the course she's applied to. If not, then she can be like I was for almost eight months, a bum :D

Art project

IMG_1478_1 Hosted on Zooomr

Yesterday I was painted on for Milja's art project. She is doing Life's Journey I think, and it is coming out quite well so far. I am always impressed with the quality that she produces and I hope that she can continue to be arty when she finishes school in the Summer and goes to Uni (maybe not this year) to do a Social-based subject.

Old Helsinki

While Minna was in Finland last month, she bought a book of photos from the very early 1900s taken by Signe Brander. It is a great book, and I can even recognise places in the photos, even though it was 100 years ago.

Flicking through the book I found this very funny photo. I showed it to Minna, who laughed but said that she hadn't realised as it is normal to have the Swedish and Finnish together on signs.

Bad Sauna Hosted on Zooomr

Here are some more photo from the book...

Old Helsinki 2 Hosted on Zooomr

Old Helsinki 1 Hosted on Zooomr

International Day

Saturday was International Day at AISCT. We were at last year's event too - we were over here on holiday when it was on. Milja had signed up, along with most of her class, to help with set-up and some of the games during the day, meaning she could collect some of her mandatory 20 hours of community service.

We spent a total of about seven hours there in the hot sun. We both were a little burnt by the time we left. It was a great day though. We helped with the ball throw and the bowling, and one of the bouncy castles, which was abandoned quite early on because it was too hot for little feet to jump on.

There were baskets to bid on, made up of products and items from different countries. Minna and Matias were bidding right up until the last second, trying to win two of the baskets, which indeed they did buy. They won the Vietnamese basket and one of the African ones.

Milja has now completed almost half of her community service and will volunteer at nearby DARG, a dog rescue centre, to complete the rest. She will not graduate without first finishing her 20 hours work.

Sand dune jumping

Sand dune jumping 2 on Vimeo

[Blogged with Flock]

Amsterdam

Last night, after Peddlars, Milja and I (and Sean who was with us and had to stay until we left) went to Charlotte's to arrange and book flights for our trip to Amsterdam in July.

We booked them using STA Travel, and managed to get reasonable prices. Charlotte is arriving in Helsinki in the evening of June 26th, and then us three will all fly on the same flight
to Amsterdam on July 9th, where will be stay for 4 nights. Charlotte's mum very kindly offered to pay for the hotel because we are putting Charlotte up for 2 weeks in Helsinki.

Charlotte is flying into Amsterdam with her family on June 26th, and then coming to us in Helsinki, while her family will carry on to America - she got a return ticket AMS-HEL. It took us a while to figure out which flights matched and which didn't and when to fly etc. We managed to leave before 10pm, about 2 hours after we started planning.

Now we need to book flights from Amsteram to Stansted (9th July), and then from Stansted to Helsinki (early August). Our Summer is shaping up!

[Blogged with Flock]

If it was up to me

If it was up to me Hosted on Zooomr

Digital Fortress

I have just started this book, an older one by Dan Brown. I'm really enjoying it so far - it is based around a computer security algorithm that has to be stopped from being released worldwide, of course entwined with the mystery and adventure that is present in Dan Brown's novels.

Recommended if you enjoy Dan Brown and computers. (I'm not going to see Milja read it any time soon!)

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Sickness

There seems to be a small round of illnes going round the family. Yesterday Heikki stayed home ill with a cold, and I had a minor sore throat. When I woke up today it had become much more raw and Milja told me to stay home. Minna is also home today with a cold, and Matias almost stayed home because his temperature was 38° C this morning, although it went down before he left for school.

[Blogged with Flock]

How many of me

I found this site today, which is quite fun - see how many people there are with your name (only USA at the moment).

howmanyofme.com

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 26 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

You asked for half a cup

You asked for half a cup Hosted on Zooomr

Weekend

The past weekend was very quiet. Family was gone, and we even had the house to ourselves for most of Saturday and some of Sunday.

Yesterday was Sean's birthday. He celebrated it on Saturday. We went round briefly during the day where he was haning out with Jamie B. We left at lunchtime to get some Primi takeaway. We went home, Milja slept for a few hours, I read and then we went back for his party. It was fun and we met some of Sean's friends from Johannesburg. We left before midnight because we were knackered.

Yesterday we didn't do much at all. We watched The Simpsons for a while in the morning, sunbathed, had a lovely quiche for lunch, and then Minna, Heikki and the kids came back from their trip. I slept most of the afternoon on and off, and Milja did some school work.

We were planning on going to the movies in the evening as usual, but in the end we decided against it and stayed in and watched a Green Wing before falling asleep.

No EVTEK

In the end, after all the problems I had about study status in the Autumn, I will not in fact return to study at EVTEK in the summer.

:)

This is because EVTEK has merged (or will, this month) with another institute, Stadia, to form 'Metropolia', which is where I will return to to continue my studies.

Read more (in Finnish).

I passed Java

I just receievd my Assessment 2 results for my online Java course that I finished last month. I passed! :D

I didn't get as much as my 82% mark in the first assessment, but I did manage to pull out an "excellent Helicopter program" for one of the questions.

It's as if he never left

While Dad was over, we drove along Chapman's Peak Drive and stopped at one of the laybys. I noticed that someone had written GAVIN on one of the rocks (along with hundreds of other names and comments people have graffitied there). I took a photo of him next to it, but I didn't post it online.

When the girls came over, I took them along the same route. This photo just had to be taken :)

Absent but still around Hosted on Zooomr

And again

Mum and the girls left this morning. They took off about 8:15am I think. They were up very early at 5:45.

Again we had an amazing time with visitors. It was _great_ to see them, as the last time was July last year. It has been really good to see family again, although it would have been great if Adam could have made it. Blooming university, cor!

So now it is back to normal again. Nothing major coming up. We have already started to make plans for the summer with trips to Amsterdam and England to arrange and book. Only four months until we see people again. And I can't wait.

Memorial

Memorial Hosted on Zooomr

I am still uploading photos from a few weeks ago with Dad. This photo was taken on 30th January when we went to the Rhodes Memorial.

More photos from Dad's Visit here.

Three came, one left

Mum and the girls arrived yesterday morning. Dad went to the airport to collect them and the new rental car they will use, then they came by the university to pick me up after my second (and last) lecture of the week.

We had a lovely lunch at Primi before Milja came home, when we went with Annie and Lauren to Cavendish for a spot of shopping. Then it was time for Dad to depart - Milja and I escorted Mum to the airport and helped her home again. It was weird having people arrive and others depart in the same day. Hard to juggle the emotions.

All three girls are sleeping heavily still. They were quite tired last night.

Peace, love and directions in kilometres

Peace, love and directions in kilometres Hosted on Zooomr

Romeo and Juliet

On Monday evening, Milja, Heikki, Matias and I went to an open-air rendition of Romeo and Juliet in Wynberg. I really enjoyed it - I haven't seen a play for ages. It was great to be able to see this play in particular again, as I studied it in depth in Year 9 English (8 years ago now, how times goes fast). This time I was a bit more into it and I understood it more. Back at school being *made* to understand it took away some of the *want* to understand it.

The play started at 19:45 and it was getting dark. There was great lighting throughout the play and the darkness helped. The stage was open and backed by a large tree and undergrowth which added to the atmosphere. About an hour into the play the stars came out.

There were some crude parts, which were giggled at by the hundreds of school children in the audience, but it was really well done and now I want to see the film to compare the two different efforts. I never thought I would enjoy a Shakespeare, let alone want to see it again :)

By troubled waters

By troubled water Hosted on Zooomr

From a recent visit with Dad to Cape Point. More photos here.

Milja's photos from The Hague

I am currently in the middle of processing and uploading some of Milja's hundreds of photos from The Hague.

Her photostream is at zooomr.com/photos/miljarowden. The THIMUN SmartSet is here.

Enjoy :)

IMG_0866_1 Hosted on Zooomr

Long and Straight

Long and straight Hosted on Zooomr

Fun with Dad

Dad has put some photos up on Zooomr...

http://zooomr.com/photos/ruhdun

I have started going through all my photos and uploading them. It will take a while as there are hundreds to choose from!

I have a SmartSet here which will constantly update when I add more photos to Zooomr from the time Dad is here. (It might not work at the moment, there seems to be a problem somewhere....)

University has started

... but I am not there today.

Last week, the Orientation Week, went really well. It was mainly admin, registering, hearing about how the uni works etc, and on Friday we had the usual get-to-know-eachother team building exercises. I talked to a few of the guys on the course, and they are very friendly and lively. It should be a good time.

I got my week schedule also on Friday. As I am registered for just one of the four subjects/modules on the Multimedia course, I do not have many lessons. In fact, I only have Wednesday 8:30-10:45am and Thursday 8:30-12:15. I am doing the Multimedia Equipment subject, which is basically theory behind the Multimedia field and then onto photography and videography. I, unfortunately, leave before the video part kicks in, but the photography part looks to be interesting. The other subjects, MM Skills, MM Electrotechnology and MM Applications I have covered before at EVTEK, so it is good that I chose this Equipment subject.