Apartment Story

Today is the last year of this year's Easter break, and what a good one it has been! Thursday morning I only did a couple of hours in the office before heading over to Vantaa to pick up the person who knows me best in this world from the airport. This was to be Hanne's first time in Finland and my first attempt at merging Oslo and Helsinki.

Thursday brought with it some sightseeing, starting with the white church and the national library (have you not been to the latter, just get your behind moving and go!), followed by a Cafè Engel lunch and a trip to the Russian orthodox cathedral (turned out to be closed). The weather was all sunny and nice, but for some reason all the winds of the world had decided to gather forces in Helsinki on this day. We also managed to squeeze in the Johannes church and a walk about the Helsinki design museum before we ended the sightseeing session to go home and get ready for the evening's adventures.

Thursday night Lotta and Dave joined us at my place for drinks before we headed into town to see Combichrist in Gloria. I was a little baffled by the amounts of people that had donned their gothest outfits - it was almost like someone had picked out all the fanciest Arvika people and placed them in the same room. I wore jeans and pink sneakers. Hm. There's a good amount of what I'd call "pink goths" here, the ones that kinda pick some neon color to go with black and stick with it, hair, clothes and make-up and all.

The first warm-up act combined industrial with accordion. Very bizarre, and the white, tight pants worn by the singer made it a little difficult to focus on pleasantness. The second warm-up act was voluntarily missed due to beeriness in the bar regions of the club. There was some good DJ'ing going on in between the two. Combichrist delivered one of the better concerts I've seen with them, although I suddenly towards the end got really fed up with their inane woman-bashing lyrics. That arrogant little prick of a man has no right flinging the vocabulary he does at a room full of strong females! (As said, I was fed up.)

Friday I introduced Hanne to the loveliness of Bar no 9, and to my great pleasure she had to admit the lemon chicken is everything I said it was. Later in the day we drove out to Deb and David's for the first BBQ of the season. Other guests were their lovely neighbours and Ellen, who I will be a little sad to see going back to the States at the end of April.

Saturday I had to make a judgement call on whether or not to continue the social attack, and ended up deciding to give us a break from new people. Well, almost. We went out to meet Anu and her friend Laura at Bar 9, which was lovely as I hadn't seen her in ages, before going to Dong Bei Hu for Chinese dinner.

Dong Bei Hu used to be located right across the street from where Scott lives. I've only eaten there once, as I was horribly disappointed by the fact that the "most authentic Chinese restaurant in Helsinki" produced the same generic crap all the rest of them do. They have moved, and something favorable has kicked in cooking wise.

I had gan bian si ji dou (dry-fried green beans), a dish that alongside the gan bian'ed beef has driven me to return to China several times, and it was spot on! They went a little over the top on the Sechuan peppercorns, but as the spiciness is exactly what has me so addicted to this dish I was fine with it. The meal was smiles and happiness all around :)

The rest of Saturday was spent in the sun on my balcony with good wine and beer, and me and Hanne ended up talking long into the wee hours of the next morning. Sunday was somewhat more tired, and we basically did nothing. Well, not entirely true... we watched some movies and I got Hanne knitting! :D

As I drove her to the airport this morning, I have to admit being a little sad that Hanne was leaving. Just like I can't imagine what my life would be like without some of my friends here in Finland, she is irreplaceable and I sometimes don't realise how much I miss her in my daily life.
Takk for besøket :)

"So worry not,
we'll be all right.
We have our looks
and perfume on."
The National - Apartment Story (The Boxer - 2007)

The Daffodils Looked Lovely Today

I am not much of a poet, so I settle for enjoying the work of others. I tend to prefer words with music, but come on, what alternatively minded girl has not had a slight crush on Brandon Lee reciting Poe's The Raven in The Crow? My favorite poem has always been Wordsworth's I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud, possibly because it is one of the few I ever bothered to learn to recite by heart, and because it reminds me of Cranberries' Daffodil Lament. I wanted to blog about this during spring, when my street was beautifully lined with yellow daffodils. The opening page of my first ever homepage back in -98 was an ode to this poem, pagan symbolism and Nick Cave. And no, I was not on acid while building it.

William Wordsworth is part of the reason why I at some point grew into such an anglophile, and the early romantic and romantic era as such was the time period during which most of the classical pieces of both writing and music I love were created. Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt and off course the powerful Wagner (I once saw a "trailer trash" stage version of Lohengrin in the Oslo opera, and although unusual it was very good - I've yet to see a traditional production of it, however). Writers like Wordsworth and Coleridge, the before mentioned Edgar Allan Poe, Hawthorne, Goethe, Lord Byron, Keats and off course William Blake. Sometimes I wonder if I was born a couple of hundred years too late...

Wow, what a rant. What I wanted to communicate was as follows: I've seen O Brother, Where Art Thou? in the movies today, and liked it. One of the sirens looked so god darned familiar to me I had to ask Erin what her name was... googling it I now find out she's Musetta Vander, and I don't think I've ever seen her before in my life. She does, however, look very much like Justine Joli, which would explain why she caught my eye.

Driving home, I just missed the opening hours of my local K-Market, and hence I had to improvise dinner this evening. And for once with excellent result (should you not yet have heard of my broccoli smoothie or tomato sauce wok blunders, feel free to ask). I haven't needed to shop much since returning from China, and hence my fridge was scarcely populated with things not containing, or intended to mix with, alcohol.

wild rice
minced chilli
minced ginger
spicy sesame oil
chicken in red pepper and garlic marinade (from freezer)
Heinz Garlic Sauce (yes, Heinz as in the ketchup brand, their garlic sauce is brilliant on hamburgers)
cucumber
pesto

If you're thinking "Oh no, she didn't!" at this point, yes I did. 1.5 dl of wild rice takes about 18 minutes to finish, and in the meantime I had fried 1 table spoon of minced chillies with 1 table spoon of minced ginger in olive oil in a very hot frying pan. When the smell of ginger started clearing my tear ducts, I put in the chicken, poured some sesame oil on it, and let it fry for a while to settle in with the spices. I then proceeded to pour a good amount of garlic sauce over it all, and thinned it out with some skimmed milk as I wanted it to simmer for a while without becoming all lumpy.

This sounds weird, and I was thinking "Why did I think this would work?" as I almost managed to wait until I had cut the cucumber before I drowned it in pesto and ate it in large chunks instead. But alas, it turned into a lovely, lovely marinated chicken dish and I will make it again - I think with creme fraiche and water instead of skimmed milk, but apart from that it didn't really need anything more.

For oft, when on my couch I lie,
in vacant or in pensive mood,
they flash upon that inward eye
which is the bliss of solitude;
and then my heart with pleasure fills,
and dances with the daffodils.
W. Wordsworth, 1804

Break Me, Shake Me

Remember Savage Garden? Daniel Jones was one fine guitarist. Visually, that is. Darren Hayes got chubby, went on to do some rather low standard solo work, and off course turned out to be gay. Surprising, really, that I didn't have a crush on him. I have no idea what happened to the hottie.

The Kite Runner was a good movie. The screenplay skips a lot of what happens in the book, but not in a way that damages the story. It is slightly altered to fit the shortened format, but it all sticks well together and forms a fine product. I would even go so far as to say that you can watch the movie before reading the book without it spoiling the experience of the written story. I recommend both book and film.

Yesterday I went to Helsinki early in the morning to hook up with Deb for knitting. I now know how to both purl and knit, and have yarn and needles for more projects. David joined us after a while for lunch in Bar no 9. I had the lemon chicken pasta, which was quite good although their reindeer pasta is better. From there the day spiralled on to sports and drinking bonanza, with games watching in Elmo, chinese quisine sampling in Dong Bei Hu and beer goggles in Teerenpeli. Very fun day, but today's hangover is nothing short of record breaking.

My hopes were set rather high for the gan bian niu rou si in Dong Bei Hu, but the expectations were not met. It was ok enough, but the beef had clearly been deep-fried instead of being simmered over enough time, and hence it was rather shoe-leathery and just not right. The beans were slightly better, but not right either. So, the hunt continues.

Arsenal vs Liverpool in the Premier League was rather disappointing, they played 1-1 and hence the Gunners' chances of winning this year's league are growing slim, especially considering Chelsea beat Man City. Next week SCM are visiting, and hence we're having dinner with them on Wednesday. Thursday movie is The Band's Visit, which should be good, and then we have NNE's second anniversary party on Friday and the Helsinki Beer Festival on Saturday. Week after that brings a Paris trip with work and Funny Games.

In Trouble Is Where I'm Going To Be

My head is suffering violently today, have to try to stay clear of the crap draft beer they serve in Helsinki. Football was not specifically good again, 1-1 against Middlesbrough, a game that should have ended in Arsenal's favor. We are now second in the league and Chelsea is closing in fast. Next weekend's game should be very interesting indeed. But before that, an action packed week designed to deprive yours truly further of sleep and brain cells.

I am in need of a gas stove and a wok. Am having waking dreams of gan bian'ed beef and green beans. See, if I ever marry it will be for either food, music or books. Personality or good sense of humor? Nah, overrated :p Oh, and now I just found out they gan bian potato slices as well. I'm dying here!

Hallam Foe is the movie next week, should be good. I also found out they are in fact putting up Funny Games, so that's on for one of the April movie nights. Saw Hot Fuzz in the comfort of my own living room on Friday, and liked it well enough. Don't agree with many of my friends who have it listed as the funniest movie ever, though. I'm not the biggest fan of Scandinavian film, but I prefer the Swedish cop spoof Kopps.

I was looking through old pictures this morning, and got an intense urge to go back to Laos. I know I'm on an Asia break, but ooh, it was so nice. I'd pack my backpack full of books, load my mp3 player with The National and The Magic Numbers, and just stay there without mobile coverage for a month. Still have to figure out where to vacation this summer, and am not getting anywhere with these Luang Nam Tha flashbacks... (I later discovered it will only cost me a little more than 1000 Euros for a return trip to Luang Prabang. Uuhhh, that's a good price... I think this is going south!)