Monthly Archives: December 2012

working and enjoying in Finland

Week 50
Joensuu, Finland

This is a post dedicated to our dear friend Marcus, who has inspired us to enjoy life at its maximum 😉

Let me explain. Often people that care about me tells me that I should relax. The comment arises because most of my time I dedicate it to work.  Nevertheless, I should confess that I have been lucky because what I do is what I like to do!  The only BUT is to  find a proper mechanism to be paid constantly for what I do 😉 that is work in process!!

In October 19th  while being at a summer cottage with my dear friend Kirsi, we were commenting about this: there is not one way to live life, and it is hard to find your own way. So, advices and suggestions are always welcome!. Marcus has encouraged us to enjoy more 😉  as both of us are perceived as kind of workaholic. Actually, it is common that we get together to enjoy time and work. So, this time we decided to document some of our hard work lives and share it.

1) First we need to drive some kms until reach out cozy summer cottage. Once there we discover there are still FLOWERS!!!!

Flowers in late autumn

Flowers in late autumn

2. Harvest some bio and unique carrots!

I confess this activity was new for me, and I did not help THAT much, however I did enjoy 🙂

Harvesting 1/3

Harvesting 1/3
Harvesting 2/3

Harvesting 2/3

Harvesting 3/3

Harvesting 3/3

3. After harvesting, one has to clean the carrots from all the dirt

washing

washing

4. Then prepare the carrots for WINTER. This work is done indoors by pealing and cutting the carrots.

preparing for winter

preparing for winter

5. Ready to get into the freezer

ready to go to the freezer

ready to go to the freezer

6. Maybe I am not dress in proper office dress code,  but in a cozy environment one gets ideas to do some writing…..

some writting as well

some writing as well

7. After so much hard work, SAUNA!!!!!!! 🙂

This part of Finnish culture is from my favorites! 🙂

sauna

sauna

8. After sauna, fireplace 🙂

fireplace

fireplace

9. Before the day is over, a toast for our friend!

toast for our friend

toast for our friend

It is an ART to balance work and pleasure, specially in this modern “knowledge society”, but the day was productive, we got food, enjoy nature, and start and finish and abstract, in addition to actualize ourselves…..So it was not difficult to have sweet dreams and see a new sunrise (ok, the sunrise below does not look as sunrise but it is a new morning on this trip!) 🙂

next day....

next day….

However, I confess I am in the process to balance work and pleasure.  Maybe, lately the relax part is expanding! 🙂 Perhaps the secret is in discipline and small production batches!

In any case, thank you for my harvesting teacher and our inspiration for this post Marcus 😉

Next post about: games and coincidences…

my game experience with: rüsselbande

Week 48
Joensuu, Finland

Since long my internal voice tells me: write in your blog about the games you play.

Ok, the idea is cool! Specially because the games one plays as the books one reads and the people one interacts with are part of one’s experience. All sums up!

However in order to write about games the follow up question is: how or what shall I write about games? There are plenty of games reviews out there, from commercial and academic perspective.  In addition, from my personal viewpoint:

  1. Each individual has a personal game experience.
  2. Each time I play a game, my game experience changes due to multiple factors. For example: my level of tiredness or energy, the time at what I am playing, the ideas and things that are in my head, the people I play with, how is the day, the meanings surrounding me while playing, and the list continues….

As this is MY BLOG, and I decided it is my virtual reference point, what I want is actually a digital memory of bits and pieces of my game experience 🙂 

Hence, the first game I want to write about is rüsselbande. I played this game this year in late October with my niece and sister. I had a good time and right now I want to play it again.

What I find fantastic of rüsselbande’s game mechanics is: it is fun for a four years old as it is for a 45 years old. Good design Alex Randolph!

Here some photos to make you craving to play it as well!

The game russelbande

game rüsselbande

ready to start

ready to start

the pig race starts

the pig race is tight

a free ride for three of us

a free ride for three of us

blue is getting behind

blue is getting behind

advancing

advancing

the end is very tight!

the end is very tight!

actually the blue, which was me, did it ok at the end! 🙂   Looking forward to play this game again 🙂

Next post: working and enjoying Finland….