How people bathed before showers...

In my last post I wrote that we didn't have a shower or running hot water when I was a kid. Since some people have been curious about it, I decided to share the story here too.

The house where I lived as a kid was built by my grandfather when he was young. Actually, I lived in a room in which my grandmother gave birth to my father. Anyway. The house was built before running hot water or showers were common. But they had a sauna.

And so did my parents when they moved in. The sauna wasn't inside the house so you had to go across the yard to get there. It was in the same building as the bulls that my father raised for living. So when you went to the sauna, you could actually hear the animals making noises. They used to scare me when I was a kid.

And when you needed hot water, you heated it. In the sauna we had a special stove for heating water. You put a fire in it and on the top you had big water container. It's still there but I don't know what it is called. We also had two large tubs in the sauna. They were used for mixing the hot water less hot with cold water. I liked to play in the tubs because I was small enough to fit inside them. If we needed hot water in the house, it was heated in a huge pot.

And how we bathed? We went to the sauna, bathed in the sauna, used the warm water and soap to wash ourselves and we rinsed the soap by pouring water on ourselves. It was simple and there was nothing medieval in it.

In 1996 my parents decided to upgrade the house. I guess they finally had enough money for it. Anyway. My father built an indoor sauna with an electric stove, a proper bathroom and a hot water system. I was about ten years old so I remember it really well. It was so exciting to go the the indoor sauna for the first time. It felt like luxury.

It wasn't odd to live without a shower or hot water. I did bathe several times a week and since I was a kid, I wasn't even so concerned about hygiene. It was normal to me. Nowadays I would suffer if I had to live without shower. I just feel dirty if I don't go to shower every morning. It's a bit funny actually. To transform from no-shower to shower addict.

End of the winter break report

It feels so good to be home again. It was frigging cold in Viiala. And I don't mean it was cold in the outside, it was cold in the inside too. My parents live in an old house and they don't have electric heating. They're used to it, but I'm always freezing when I'm visiting them during winter time.

So... Onward with this winter break report.

On Friday I met J.J. I know he doesn't like to be blogged about (I don't know why he's so concerned. He doesn't even read my blog!) so I'm keeping this story short. He's still talented. He played some beautiful pieces to me with his new digital piano, even though he can't even read sheet notes. He just memorizes everything. He also played some acoustic guitar and showed new knife tricks. Yes. He has skills and he's not afraid to show them off.

I also visited Assembly Winter 2009 quickly with J.J. I knew there wouldn't be much to see, but a free entrance is always a free entrance. I was surprised to see how young the gamers were. I certainly didn't play MMORPGs when I was a kid, because I didn't even have a computer! Not to mention broadband. At that age I read books. And wrote poems. By hand! And we didn't had shower or hot water in Viiala. The kids are so spoiled and pampered nowadays!

On Saturday I just slacked with J.R. We read Glamour magazines together (Hannes, no comments here, please) and ate pretty much everything eatable. Free food is so irresistible. My mother also dyed my hair, so now my roots are blond again. Hooray!

On Sunday I had to study for my "Data Networks at Work" exam and J.R. had to work again. But we had little time to visit my brother-in-law's birthday party. He turned 29. He collects Lego sets and my sister collects everything with the Moomins on. My mother collects My Little Ponies. And I would collect Pez candy machines if only I had time... It seems that my family loves toys. Anyway. They had cake.

So... I had a pretty awesome winter break. Thanks to J.R, Elina and J.J. for making it happen!

Winter Break @ Viiala

I decided to have a little winter break while J.R. is working at Assembly, so I'm visiting my parents at Viiala. We arrived here together yesterday, but today morning J.R. continued his journey to Tampere where the event is held. I went with him though, because I was going to meet Elina, who also lives in Tampere.

And it was very nice to meet Elina! Last time I saw her was on last summer, when she spent few days at my place. She had some conference thingy at Helsinki. Anyway. Her apartment is still one of the most coziest I have ever been and I really enjoyed sitting on her old armchair. Of course it was also very enjoyable to chat with her. I didn't take any photos, which I regret now. It would have nicer to post this thing with pictures. Maybe next time. Hmm... I guess she liked the legwarmers I made her.

Tomorrow I'm going to meet another friend who lives in Tampere. I'm excited to meet him too, since he's one of my oldest online friends and I don't get to see him often. I'm going to spend some time with him and later we are going to crash Assembly, because J.R. is getting us in for free. And then I'm going to snatch J.R. to myself and go back to Viiala with him.

And now I'm going to spend some quality time alone, smoking cigarettes and listening to Lenka. And reading some old Glamour magazines that Elina gave me!

I'm getting stupid, part 2/4

Hey, Tooth Fairy, how much I'm going to earn with these?

Cable Legwarmers

I finally finished the legwarmers I started some time ago. I had a minor setback with the first legwarmer. I totally forgot that it was supposed to fit someone's calves (Elina's, actually) so I casted it off way too tightly. I had to unravel it and cast it off again and it kinda killed my knitting mood. I had to had a small break until I was ready to go on with the second legwarmer. Anyway. I'm pretty pleased with the end result.


I love my vintage shoes!

I got the inspiration from Vickalicious and I used the original pattern only to learn how to make the same cables. I'm going to give my legwarmers to Elina if they fit her. I'll see that on Thursday when I'm going to meet her at Tampere.

Today I also extemporaneously decided to visit Anttila and I found out that the Tamagotchi Charm sets were on sale. Of course I bought myself an own set! I use them as stitch markers.


The green fellow is called Kuchipatchi.

Nyt enää odotellaan sitä ydinsotaa

Ossi is such a good friend. Yesterday he came by and brought me a gas mask. Now I'm totally protected if, for example, nuclear explosion happens. I don't know what are the odds, but I guess it's good to have some kind of a protection anyway. And I look utterly cool with the gas mask on, don't you think?


My eyes are closed because without my glasses I wouldn't be able to see anyway.

OK. Seriously. Ossi's number one intention was not to keep me protected. Last time he visited us, I fell in love with his bag. He said that the bag actually came with a gas mask he had bought for some project of his and that it was not sold separately. But he promised to try to get me one too because the set was so cheap. With 5€ you would get a very nice bag... and a protection against weapons of mass destruction. That's a bargain!





My new bag actually looks a lot like my old school bag, but it's bigger and has this military thing going on. There were actually instructions inside for what to do if nuclear explosion happens or how to protect yourself against napalm or phosphorus. That's pretty serious shit. Anyway. I think the bag calls for customization, but I have absolutely no ideas. Let me know if you have some.

I'm passionate about...

Lovely Lola from Fight or Flight has given me the Passionate Blogger award! She's super. I have secretly wished that someone would tag me to something. I think memes are wonderful, but usually more popular blogs get tagged instead of mine. I feel like a winner now.



Here are the rules for the award:

1. Put the logo in your blog post
2. Write five things you are passionate about apart from blogging
3. Tag up to 5 people on your lists and let them know you tagged them.

Hmm... I try to choose things I don't usually blog about. Let's see how I success.

1. I'm passionate about... SINGING

I have never sang in public, but I'm always singing when I'm alone. I can't imagine my life without singing, it's been a part of it for so long. I would love to get few professional singing lessons to learn some techniques, but I'm completely happy with my current skill level too. I don't care how badly I sing as long as I'm still able to sing.

2. I'm passionate about... TEA

I used to drink coffee when I was a kid, but as I grew older I started to prefer tea more and more. Nowadays I dislike coffee's taste so I hardly ever drink it. It just has to be a hot cup of tea or nothing. I don't demand much with tea: I prefer black tea to the extreme and I like it with milk and sugar, but I can go without too.


Prince of Wales, my current favorite flavor. They don't seem to sell it in Finland except on tea bags. We got this suspicious looking bag from J.R's dad.

3. I'm passionate about... BAKING MUFFINS

I bake muffins almost every Friday. I always use the same recipe, but I modify it by choosing different kind of chocolates/sweets to go with it. I think I bake so much muffins because they go so well with tea, and they are also perfect to eat while crocheting and knitting.


These didn't actually taste as good as they look.

4. I'm passionate about... WATCHING TV

I really like to watch TV with J.R. We watch shows like Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, Californication and Entourage. Our favorite is House M.D. but it's currently on a break. J.R. didn't really watch TV before we started to date, but then he started to watch TV with me and now he's hooked on. I've had such a bad influence, but like we have anything better to do.

5. I'm passionate about... BEING CREATIVE

Being creative is like the most important thing ever. I think I would eventually go insane (or become unbearably boring person) if I wasn't able to do creative things. Crocheting, knitting, gift wrapping... It doesn't really matter which craft I choose as long as I'm able to express myself with it.

Now I've told you five things I'm passionate about and it's my turn to give the award forward. But I'm going to break the rules now. I know only one blogger who is surely passionate, and that's Elina. She totally deserves this award because her posts are like oozing passion.

I'll come out when this madness has stopped (though it probably never does)

Today I opened a bottle of a (seemingly) fine red wine. And then I flushed the whole content down to the toilet. I got the bottle as a Christmas present from my ex-workplace. The CEO gave it to me personally and I didn't know how to turn it down. The problem is that I'm a very strict teetotaler. I don't drink alcohol and I would like to have alcohol abolished. It has done nothing good to our country. The Finnish drinking culture is just too rotten to accept, I rather have nothing to do with it. Anyway. When possible, I fight back with my own choices.

So I got a bottle of red wine. I obviously couldn't drink it by myself. But it would have been totally against my principles to give to to someone else. I saw no other choice than simply to get rid of it. Though it took some time. We don't have a wine bottle opener and it took all this time to come up with some other solution to open a wine bottle. I fight back. One gift bottle at a time. It's still one bottle less drank by someone else. Hooray!

Sometimes I feel very lonely with my teetotalism. I meet other teetotalers so rarely, so every meeting is important to me. They make me feel that I'm right and it's so good to know that there are others who share the same point of view with me. Maybe things will change when there are enough of us. You know, eventually people will get tired of this hypocrisy. They are so eagerly trying to ban smoking in Finland. Seriously, soon you're probably not allowed to smoke in your own house anymore. Like that would solve anything? Alcohol causes more deaths (not to mention divorces, fights, unhappy childhoods...) than anyone can count and still no one seems to do anything to stop it. "Hey, just raise the alcohol tax... just to make it low again". I wish they would dare to try something more radical, something that would actually change something.

Sometimes these things make me so sick that I don't even want to leave my house. I can't help it. Human race, oh the blindness.

Amoena is nursing

My baby's sick. He's more sick than I have ever been. It started on Thursday when he had a little fever. On Friday he had a little higher fever. Yesterday he had 39-40°C through the day... Today he was a little better at first but now he's having a very high temperature again. I made him to take some meds before going to sleep. I hope that he will now get a good night sleep. And that I don't have to wake up once in a hour. Just to make sure that he's still breathing.


J.R. been feeling sorry because he thinks he ruined the weekend by being ill. He's silly. Of course I care more about his health than knitting, crocheting, drinking tea and other stuff we usually do on weekends. It's more important to get him better. We can have plenty of nice weekends later, but not if he's dead or something. He could be a more demanding patient though. I have gotten a bit bored. He should ask me to bring him water. Like once in every 15 minutes. That would keep me busy.