A couple of weeks ago I destroyed an ants’ nest from the wall of the gear-wash using a water hose. Today, as we were packing up our gear, I found another ants’ nest – in my dive boot! It wasn’t massively huge, but there were ants – loads of them – with eggs and everything.
Creeeepy.
I dumped both of my boots just in case in the chlorine water of the pool run-off trough and Heikki finished them off with yet another installation of water hose. To make absolutely sure, I soaked the boots in the water troughs and washed all other gear too, just in case. Now they should be gone.
Did I mention I had a dream about a house full of ants last night? Ants covering the walls and the floor? With eggs?
Yeah, creepy.
I’m going to the office tomorrow to sort out the details of my short but interesting post-Bangalore career in the Corporation. Most probably I will go back once or twice after that, but that’s about it – I hope. I’m not going to say anything as fact before having something about this on paper.
Still, it’s good to be back. Clean streets, peace & quiet, me blending in the crowd… Oulu is a lot better than most of people even realise.
Dude. Sweet. Dude.
Sweet.
Dude.
Like, sweet.
We’ve been here for less than 12 hours now, and Komandoo is already blowing my mind. It’s like coming to a run-by-the-Dutch free-of-charge all-inclusive-but-exclusive-only-for-you-sir would-you-like-a-beer yes-we-have-Thai-girls buffet brothel. With Knight Rider cars all around and 24/7 ice hockey world championships on TV. And the cake is not a lie.
It’s so good I’m not going write about it any more while I’m here. There are so many better things to do.
Today and yesterday the people around us have been celebrating Ayudha Puja. For us, it looked like this:
People decorate their cars and tools, smear them with sandal wood paste and rejoice.
Also, there were lots upon lots of firecrackers going off on the main street, which alerted us (hanging out in the hammocks) to check out the convoy passing our home street a block away. So out we went to see what was going on and saw these trucks:
There were people shouting slogans on the trucks, and apparently they were happy to see us there judging by the hollering, waving of hands and smiling faces. There was one guy who looked like he’s in charge, at least he was ushering the dancers and drummers on if they tried to stay to impress the gawking foreigners as you can see from this video. And here’s the guy with my sweetie:
In other news, we seem to have a resident falcon, who tends to perch on the palm trees on our home street. Its screech is beginning to sound familiar, as it’s telling off the rooks trying to get its food. (I’m not sure if it’s the same falcon all the time, they all look alike and there are lots of them, but I like to think it’s the same individual.) I will do my best to get some footage of the big bird.
Why do I feel slight discomfort around people who use photos of themselves as desktop backgrounds?
Yesterday’s funeral was quite a heavy experience for me. I haven’t lost a single friend or relative since the eighties. My dear old grandmother was one of the nearest and dearest of them all, regardless of her memory loss and inability to recognize me properly. It’s already been a month since her death, but it only came real the minute I saw the coffin in the church. I cried most of it out during the ceremony and had a great time with people I hadn’t seen in a long, long while. It was almost like grandma was there with us one more time.
Rest in peace, Mummi.
We got my apartment cleaned up today and the keys are already with the next occupant, so I am free to start Wappu celebrations now.
No, wait. I already did. PARRRRRTYYYY!
I used my 1337 h4x0r m4d 5k1llz to modify the code our blog is running on. My posts will have the usual white date number in the upper left corner, while Eve’s will have a red one. It should be a bit easier to identify the writer by a quick glance.