Walking around Helsinki

It’s a while since I saw a park in the neighborhood  that I promise myself I’d have visited and finally today I did pay it a visit. I passed  by the park several time by car and my attention was grabbed by the apparently random sculptures scattered around. Mainly from the car windows I was amused by the marble pillow that was just in view, thus I took my little camera and this morning I trotted around and snap some shots. I was quite surprise by the range and the location of the sculptures, I am quite sure I missed some as some of them are quite hidden. I started from the above mentioned “Marble pillow” (no frills with the name) that is what it is: a pillow made in marble, it also give the idea of softness and pillowy nature but I can assure it is rock-hard Around it you can find the topsy turvy (and gigantic) table, and some other more abstract pieces that I haven’t portrait at this time because of the lighting conditions. On the right end side, at the end of this part of the garden there is probably the cutest art piece: the “View from Grand Popo“. This sculpture comprise 4 goats that brought up to my memory Heidi running on the alps peaks along with Peter, Snow-flake (the goat) and the sleepy dog Nebbia (I am not sure if the translation of the name from the italian would have worked so I reported it as it was). Probably for this reason I found it quite cute and relaxing…despite the huge Silja Line ferry in the background its a reminder of the distance from the mountain scenery. From this position I was also able to spot the sparkly sculpture on the other side of the ridge that I nearly forgot despite the huge bended “golf ball” is everything but discrete even in distance. Thus I got on the bridge and to the next installation comprising the 3 abstractions. The bended “golf ball” is the biggest but I would say that it is less interesting when you can appreciate the beauty of the chrome meteor-like “and Then…?” standing few steps from it. This is the most striking one of the lot, it has a very galactic feeling and it keep changing while you walk around it. The reflective metallic surface is attractive and play with the deep green around and the sun light creating textures and adding to the dynamic feel of the sculpture. The third member of this lot is the black shiny “blob” that was kind of blending in the background at first glance but I kept thinking that it has a familiar feel…untill I looked back at it to take a shot of the ensemble and I realized how “Wroom” (understated name) resembles a varnished burned turkey and laughed at the idea of the big oven necessary for such a Thanksgiving day food feast (SDB you would spend day preparing your great mouth-watering fillings…and the German would have his appetite satisfied too eheh). Proceeding towards the end of the garden on this side there is this big piece that reminded me the olive grounding wheels, part of my youth and son of Tuscany upbringing. The title (“Time takes its time“)was quite unrelated I could not get a grip on the association to the piece, yet the rustic feeling and the mirror surfaces lifted the sculpture regardless the name.

Tucked in a corner, apparently hiding from the view is the granite less appealing thing that I discovered by chance. It looked quite uninteresting while I was approaching it but when I saw the title (“Chair with a view“) and I realized what it was, I had to climbed up and look around from up there and the view was great. Moreover I really felt as an Emperor for a moment and I thought at the “Throne of Earthly Kings” in Greenwich university that I always admired when I was passing by there (despite the big question mark sculpture that was there before was a better portrait of my mental state in London).

Finally I went up nearby where I left the bike to see the remaining pieces that are quite modern and abstract thus not really my cup of tea. However the “Endangered” had and interesting look and it definitely look like a fossilized condor. The red-grey streaked granite head contrasting with the black of the body suited the piece. In addition the head part also have a remarkably natural eye mark that I believe inspired this piece. “Evil Thoughts” is an interesting crude took on modern society (I think) with a pop-art edge that is interesting but the lighting was bad at this time of the day. The other pieces where very modern and thus I report only the title of one of them: “Hole” by Reika.

On my way out from the garden I just realized that I missed a piece, literally I stepped into it before I saw it. It is probably the more linked to nature and reality of the pieces, the title “Earth’s Heavenly Senses” says it all and the idea is quite good and well performed. It made me a bit unease when I looked at it element by element (especially the hear and the nose), but looking back at it in its entirety it is quite fascinating. I guessed this is one of the piece most suited to several visit at different time to shoot all the textures and shadows and shapes possible.

Brief updates after a long silence

Bloggy my dear Bloggy I know you are thinking I am a forgetting lazy friend…but as usual you will forgive me for my long absence. I have had so many occasions and so many events I could have wrote you about but I always found something different to do (Youtubing is such an addicting thing…isn’t it?). So I decided to write down a ist of all the thing I will soon tell you about in more details.

So lets start with the bureaucracy news. After 3 months I am still waiting to receive the paper work from the police, thus I am still registered as resident in London where I guess all my documents ends up…not a big deal, I only received twice something there in the past 4 years.

Bank account: same rules apply as in England despite all the good story heard about this issue from the locals. First the bank employee do not thrust you, I guess on the basis that you are not a Finn, but I can understand that. Anyway, the fact that I have a house, a car and a car permit to park by my house should be a good start, but they do not even let you go as far to tell them. Apparently the first rule followed is the reason of presence in Finland. You have to fall into one of 2 categories: a student (with certification from the learning institutio) or a worker (with certification from the employer). Now I can go on for ages on how many other categories should be put into consideration but I don’t wanna even bother so this is the fact as it is, period.

The Punavuoren Putiikki opened, it is in full swing and it also already belong to the Design District circuit. After my first step into the “Boutique Little Helper” (i.e. painting walls, scrabbing floor and moving furniture around) position, I started to get on the ladder…incredibly enough I already accomplish to get the position of Visual Merchandiser expert (that for who doesn’t know, it is the posh name for “the person who dress the windows”) and I am already at two window displays. First was a “Wedding” theme to show the bridal lingerie and accessories, second (and current) is “Circus” as Hanna Haavikko’s new collection is inspired by the biggest show in the world…and to be fair was also much easier to visualize in my mind than the Finnish Tango inspiration for Tyra Therman’s new outstanding underwear collection entitled Tango Finlandia.

I also managed to start my career as fashion accessories “designer” by selling my first broach to a very happy customer. Moreover I am the (semi)official photographer for the shop and the products.

I got to know better some of the Burlesque scene characters around by attending a couple more events in which I was the assistant for Miranda Lingerie.

Panama Party has been as usual a success, you know what I am speaking about bloggy, the yearly event organized by T’s mother staging entertainment, lovely atmosphere and the always great Play-Back competition…I will come back to this with pics and clips as soon as I get them. Laugh a-plenty are guaranteed.

The most unexpected thing was that I got interested in photography, so I started to read books on the issue (and I am still at the level of not understanding 2/3 of the words) hoping to have time to learn to use the SLR camera and help T in some of her photoshoots. Instead as soon as I was able to handheld the camera I found myself to act as a pro and having to take the shoot for the Dimun autumn collection with a professional model and so on. I was a bit nervous but hey I did my best and I have to say I learn a lot from the errors and next time I will be more aware. Anyway I think some of the post-production pics are quite good  for a first attempt

Breakthrough moment was also the discovery of the Finnish Library system. The libraries here are as well organized as I have never suspected them to be and so user friendly that is impossible not to love them. Not only they have 10 or so libraries in Helsinki (all linked) each one more specialized in a certain subject, so you have to pick your choice to start with, but you can also reserve a book and having it brought to your nearest library at a very fair small cost, be notify when the book is ready for picking up and enjoy. Library here are very comfortable places, spacious and pack with goodies and books in all languages, you can use computers, read books, magazines…and all of them have a HUGE collection of comics and mangas to read through on a rainy day or to take home and enjoy on the sofa.

The first library I visited was the one that impressed me the most is in fact the audio/video library…you can select from a great collection of CDs and DVDs and they also have some consolle games…such a thing is the best ever deterrent for video piracy I have ever experienced. I am finding the lack of the dozens of people trying to sell me pirate DVDs at the shop exits, bus stops, tube stops and so on in either London or Rome or wherever else nowadays, very refreshing and relaxing! Plus the fact that I can leave the books at any of the library to be brought back where they belong (at no charge) is a great PLUS!!!

Another one of the news that I have forgot to tell you Bloggy is that I have found a job position and I will soon start at one of the University campuses (so I will be able to attend a good Finnish course and have a cheap and good gym to shake my very lazy past few year…s).

I guess that with this, my confused update is done and I will come back with details and more events I forgot soon.

An overdued update…

Oh dear Bloggy sorry if I haven’t been in touch for so long. I have had so many thing to take care lately and I have never been able to get round and update you. Between the trip to Åland, the graduation ceremony in London, the opening of the Punavuoren Putiikki (the studio and shop of my lovely half), the weekend spent with my onions and beans and the neverending weeds I gather pics and lost them between the 2 computers. Now I finally cut out some time and I will start from somewhere…but where, let me see…

Åland, the wonderful island of Ahvenanmaa. This is a very strange and charming place. Firstly I have to tell you that the trip was my first 2CV trip ever. We met with Tyra and her mother in Kirkkonummi after having packed Priscilla with all the camping gear and got rid of the back seats. From there we headed to Turku where we would have embarked on the ferry boat to go to the island. The trip was enjoyable and full of expectation. Tyra and I in Priscilla and Tyra’s mum and Helli in…wait what is it call…ah nowadays it is Perkkele (Tyra’s mother partner 2CV) renamed after the long list of problems that it had lately.

Being on the Ferry brought me back to my first “cruise” between Helsinki and Stockholm overtaken several years ago with my good friend Katy. The big ferry full of youngster heading for a fun time to spend in the disco trying to score, and the thousands of people ready to splash money to get the duty-free products (mainly cosmetics and alcohol).

The trip went quite well, we arrived in Mariehamn, the island’s main city at around 1:00 am. We then headed towards our camping destination. Obviously we got lost and endure a little detour (what in my old university slang was known as a Peach-circle), and then finally arrived at our host’s house. The first night we slept inside and from the day after we camped in the garden. The schedule for the trip was to work in the morning to renew a little house that Tyra’s mother has been given as free use by our host and going to visit the place and some of the family friends in the afternoons and eves.

First visit planned was to a museum-house in the inland where one of Tyra’s friend take care of the Swedish semi-pro theater, they stage all performances in a shed. This was the first time that I truly understand the strange duality of the Finnish island of Åland. In fact despite Åland is a fully Finnish region the Ålander do not speak Finnish, sometime in the past the Fin-Swed stronghold decided to swap to Swedish and tried to become part of Sweden. Unfortunately for them, Sweden rejected the proposal as Åland strongly need a governmental support as it is not self-sufficient, thus the Sweds turned down the request because the cost to keep it up were and still are high. Nonetheless, the language was already changed and they did not go back to Finnish. This has caused a strange loop, as Tyra’s mum was explain me, now they reached a point were some of the families are split as part of the relatives still living in mainland Finland and their relatives in the island are not able to communicate anymore. This is a shame especially because in some instances there are grandparents that are unable to speak with their grandchildren. But enough with the odd duality of the place.

The staged theater act was quite interesting and some of the scenes full of pathos thanks to a very eye catching scenography. I could not obviously understand a single word but that hasn’t been a big problem. After the performance I had the chance to have a guided tour of the big farmhouse-museum. The place it is so charming, all the rooms have been redecorated mainly by Tyra’s mum some years ago using the ancient techniques that the original decorator would have used. The story of the place is also tint of tragedy. During a Christmas day several years ago the all house burned down and luckily enough the place was well insured, so that they have been able to rebuild it. Unfortunately all the decor was gone but for some pics retained in photo-books of people who lived there and moved out previously. For this reason Tyra’s mother was called and she copied and reinstate the full glory of all the rooms following the pictures provided. She did a hell of a good job, where wall paper was required, she developed the pattern and send it to a specialist that hand painted a new batch of wall paper for every single room, and she painted all the rest of the house herself. The surveyor of the place is a lovely anglo-Aland lady that is so welcoming and warm-hearted that I think is impossible to dislike. She invited us for supper at her summer/sauna house by the sea. The summer house is placed in a heaven on earth corner. We arrived driving through the country and then a short drive through the woodland rich in pine trees and soft ground. In less than 20 minutes we arrived from the heart of the inland to the edge of the island. When we parked the car I was not yet able to see the breath-taking view. One minute after, when we stepped over the wooden floor of the summer cottage I was speachless. The house sit as on the cross between the woodlands and the rocky shore that jump into the Baltic sea. No pics taken with my little digital camera will be able to render the real power of the place. We had a lovely dinner with the hosts (funny enough they are food experts and I found myself with my hands on several Coop products from my beloved country) and then we took turn in the sauna. It was gorgeous, the sauna room has glass windows overlooking the sea so that you can totally relax and enjoy the view. Needless to say we got out of the sauna, walked to the edge of the rocks and jump in the open sea…as usual my love for unusual things and my naive fear of unknown and dark waters made me jump in with such nervousness that mine wasn’t more than a dip and a rush to get out of the sea as soon as possible. So fast I was that I got a bruised knee in the process. It is also true that the extremely cold water on the very hot skin from the sauna effect, would have not allow me to stay a second longer in the open sea without serious possibilities of a heart attack, so there you go, I have been in the water as long as Tyra did endure herself (so much for the “local”girl). I will always remember this particular sauna experience along with my wintery lappish one and I hope I will be able to enjoy them again as soon as possible.

The following days we kept working and we visited the city of Mariehamn that had an uncommonly number of overseas visitors, thanks to the fact that we arrived at the same time of the starting of the Natwest Islands game XIII, so we were surrounded by the teams of the Shetlands, Isle of Man (that for me will remain the island that goes places), Menorca, Jersey, Cayman island and Bermuda for some example. Oh and the quite numerous Gibraltar team (that sounds as odd as Israel taking part in the Eurovision…is Gibraltar an island?!?I didn’t recall this piece of information). We went to sun bath and “dip” in several beaches. Interestingly all the sandy (family orientated) beaches comes with a very long slow deepening water front, so slow that you have to walk 200m to get to water that reach your knees/thigh, by that time the water was so cold for me that I would not have venture further to see the cliff marking the end of the island and the start of the open sea. Strange is also the fact that apparantly for some practical reason all these places have been carpeted, every there ant then you can see wrinkles coming out in the underwater floor of a sort of canvas that goes on and on. It is probably the system they have used to get the sandy beaches or to get a child friendly water front, somehow it reamins a funny mystery to me on how, why and who has thought such a strategy. But there you are, this is briefly my visit to Åland and some of the pics I have taken.