Work & play

Go running. Work. Play football. Work some more until it’s almost midnight. Sleep. Repeat.

Luckily, somewhere around the dots in the previous description are also loads of interesting conversations, laughter, settling disputes between roommates who come from different cultures, going out and – at last – going to the pool on campus. Last week was something like that, and in addition I even got a haircut.

Even though we finally got the access to the pool, the grumpy Finn complains: it’s the chlorine! I don’t know why pool parties would be something really fancy: the water tastes horrible and you have to take a shower anyway. Believe me, absolutely nothing beats a drop in a Finnish lake or a river on a hot day. That’s something to be proud of, and I hope it’ll keep that way. No lakes here, and I’m definetly not going to the river.

Tonight we went to see a football match at the Free State Stadium here in Bloem. It was part of the 2014 African Nations Championship, and Libya beat Ethiopia 2–0. The final is played in Cape Town on 1st of February. We’ll be then there, maybe buying some tickets...!

Avo has a buddy now. No progress, though.

Kalahari pays a visit

 

What the...?

The Beginning

Happy new year 2014! It’s also day 1 for the Avocado! The day of many beginnings.

 

P:S. How can one approximate the mean wind speed decrease inside a wind farm? Maybe I should change my topic again...

Jo’burg and back

 

I visited Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg on Friday with Noora. The two hours spent there gave just a scratch on the subject, so another round on Saturday with my young scientist colleague Nathaniel from the US was well justified. The whole place reminded me of a museum I visited some years ago with Jaakko, the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Both in the impressive architectures and the histories themselves: high unemployment of the ruling population, fear of mixing of populations, desire of ‘racial’ purity, geographical segregation (ghettos vs. townships), both happened in the 20th century, nationalist ideology etc. The apartheid in South Africa didn’t reach a ‘Final Solution’ like Nazi Germany, but I think otherwise the similarities are clear. A frightening distinction, though, is that the apartheid ended (officially) just about twenty years ago.

Nathaniel and I drove back to Bloemfontein on Saturday afternoon. He had been driving around with a friend and  was now also returning, so I also got a cheap option to make my way back. A week’s holiday was well earned and did good. I’m almost eager to start working tomorrow again.

I escorted Noora to the O.R. Tambo International airport on Friday evening and looked her disappear behind the security control (sob). It’d be fun if you would be able to go with all the way to the transport, as is the case with trains and buses (with the wonderful possibility of having a surprise trip to somewhere – although is this case it would have caused a bit too much trouble). It felt kind of funny to talk to and see her through Skype already today, as she just left yesterday evening and had travelled several thousands of kilometres to the Northern side of the globe. Anyway, it was very nice to be able to do that.

Sometimes SMS’s seem not to get through here (locally and globally). I discussed this with Jonas, and the only plausible theory we made up was that the local operators drop some messages on purpose to reduce load on their servers. Maybe.

A bug

Truly Amazing Christmas Tale

And so it was, that just before Christmas, a young couple, a charming lady and a brave gentleman, decided to make their way to a city far far away. The lady said: ‘oh my poor feet!’, and the gentleman bravely started to search a ride worthy for his lady.

This one was too stripy:

This one was too tall:

But this one did well:

They travelled through vast grasslands and over mountains.

They passed Sir Phantom’s summer cottage, but unfortunately he was not there. Sir Phantom was busy cleaning the jungle from crime before holidays.

The journey continued through darkening wilderness. They passed a small town, but there was no room for them to stay.

Finally, they found the place they were looking for. They were led there by astonishing lights, and above all that was the brightest light of all, a Christmas star.

And so the couple returned their faithful ride to the stables, without a scratch. The stable master gave them a wide smile and wished them a merry Christmas. The lady was drawn to a welcoming inn with a nice pool and glorious interior, but the gentleman said: ‘This modest barn will do just fine’. And it did, because the breakfast was splendid.

On their afternoon walk, they were suddenly drawn to a place surrounded by a mystical power.

Inside, they found the miracle of Christmas. Especially the lady did.

***

But after all, they discovered the joy of simple things.

Very Merry Christmas to everyone!

Noora & Erkka

Summer solstice

Today we had trip to the Free State National Botanical Garden. It was nice, and we even wandered to to a nearby hilltop. There were all kinds of strange plants and trees (e.g. mountain cabbage!) and the weather was just excellent. It was relieveing to get out of the city and barbed wire fences (well, the garden was fenced but no barbed wire there) for a while.

A mountain cabbage tree

Simon and an anthill

I learned that that the local anthills are real strongholds made of dried clay. Hard as rock and weatherproof too. The inhabitants spend the dry season inside hibernating and drill their way out when there’s rain and life again. We spotted also some red bishops and  African yellow weavers, but I couldn’t capture the birds with my camera.

Today is the brightest day of the summer and she is coming tomorrow! Can’t wait...

All set for an afternoon nap

Thumbs up for her

Noora might arrive here on Sunday. I hope sooooo much that everything turns out well, I hope, I hope, I hope... They really messed up her flights big time. Lesson 1: Never, ever, buy flights from a suspicious travel agent kind of firm. Lesson 2: Hmmm... I don’t know yet, but probably something will still come up along the way until we’re both here in Bloem.

Now I’ve hurt also my thumb playing basketball today. Maybe I should just stick to my computer. Oh, but that’s killing me too, because the ergonomics is just horrible. Both at my desk in Unilofts and at the library. My roommate Jonas and I a convinced that we’ll both develop some kind of back problems during the three months.