The Rolling Stones at Olympic Stadium – what a night!! :)
But I must say I still liked the Who gig better. The atmosphere was somehow "intimate" despite the fact that the venue (Hartwall Arena) was huge, although not as huge as the stadium.
Today was a loooong day in the office. We have to file all travel documents through Personec Travel, which is a program from hell. I ended up spending a little bit over 2 hours trying to clear my travelling expenses for the trips to Japan and the US. I would say I'm above average computer user with use experience of dozens of programs and some programming skills. But no, this is obviously not enough for being able to clear two trips in two hours. The result (after sweat and near-tears) was only one trip cleared (which in fact bounced back later!). After that I was done. And also ready to rip off heads of the mean and useless people who have "designed" the stupid program.
Once I realized I had also missed the 7 o'clock train to Tampere, which means I will not be at home until a little after 10 o'clock, I was ready to scream. The only solution to ease out the pain, was to stop for sushi at Kamppi Center. It helped.
Time to celebrate Vappu! It must be different in all countries, but at least in Finland it is a milestone on the journey from spring to summer, and according to students the most fun holiday all year. Riksu is not a big fan of Vappu, so this year (like previous years) I spent it with my friends in Helsinki.
Today I visited the Embassy of Brazil, because I needed to register for a conversation class. I hate it that last spring when I took Portuguese lessons at Diálogo in Salvador, I was able to speak quite well, but now I have forgot the most of it, since I never get to use it. I've been wanting to take lessons for a while, but in all universities and schools in Finland, they teach Portuguese Portuguese, not Brazilian Portuguese. And I don't want to lose my Brazilian accent.
I just figured out a few days ago that I should probably take a look at the Embassy's webpages (why didn't that thought come to my mind earlier???), and so I did and found a perfect class which starts April 19. Yippee! And an even bigger yippee to myself for today, as I was able to survive with my Portuguese in the Embassy. :)
On my way back, I passed by Helsinki Cathedral which was whiter than I remembered.
It was a great day for both Juho and me: I received the news that Tekes is going to fund our 3-year project and Juho got a job, too. Yippee!
To celebrate, I had a dinner and a few drinks with my colleagues, and went "home" to Tetti's quite late at 23.30. I noticed she had put up Easter decorations, which date back a long time. The tiny chick figures made me laugh before I went to bed.
After work, before I took the train back home to Tampere, I had sushi and coffee with my brother Juho in Kamppi Center.
It is getting more spring-like in Tampere but even more so in Helsinki. In both cities the temperature has been hovering around 6–8 °C (42–49 F) and it's been sunny. It's hard to spot snow in Helsinki anymore. I was so excited about spring and the plan was to take a very springy picture but I ended up shooting DDR in November...
I stayed at my grand-aunt Tetti's as usual. She made one of my favourite dishes: nettle crêpes. (They go very well with lingonberries.)
PS. Yep, I know this is not the first time I write about nettle crêpes, but the first time this year anyway: 03.10.2006, 15.12.2005, 05.11.2004
Once again my friend VR works against my going back home to Tampere. This winter has been especially hard on our friendship. Usually it's been because of the weather, but now it seems to have been a technical problem on another train. When one train dies on the tracks, it messes up all the other trains, too...
