Tuesday, April 30, 2013

I have no ideas for a title

Titles are so yesterday. Pff, i have no idea, what i`m going to write yet and if i have finished writing, it`s usually full of different stuff, there`s no way i`ll find a suitable word or two to describe it all. For now on, i shall just add randome words for the title. That keeps the excitement up also! Or that`s what i`m hoping for...

As The Client is coming this Thursday, everyone`s really busy and there`s a lot of things to get ready before that. It seems that it`s going to be impossible in some matters. For example, we`re doing this one wall thing. It is a decorative part, that you hang on the wall. It`s about 2m high and maybe 3-4 long (my womenly eye doesn`t work in a way as a man`s eye would work. You know: 200m? how the hell should i know how far away is that? or How far away is that house, you ask me? I don`t know, i`m a woman. or How heavy is this thing? What? I don`t know, quite heavy. Could be 2kg or 10kg. etc.) So, it has a bottom and a top part, where are going to go 80 pices that are 2m long, 150-300mm wide and 8,7mm thick woodpieces (jes, these number i know, because it`s written on them). At first i had to sand them to the right thickness. That was quite tricky, because the machine changed the level all the f*ckin time! And today was the first time they fitted the fins (jeps, these pieces are called fins) into the bottom part. And they fit perfectly! I just held my breath at that moment and almost pissed myself out of reliefe! I would say, thank you god, but he didn`t have anything to do in it, so nääh. I´ll thank myself. Aaaanyways, after i sanded them into the right thickness, we had to sand the edges off a bit and then start dyeing with black dye. All this sanding took about 4 days maybe? Cannot remember anymore. Too long anyways. So, we started dyeing them and then at some point it turned out we are in a position in which we lack dye. Not a really nice durprise, i must say. That made things much more complicated, because we should be ready with everyhting by tomorrow evening, but there`s still missing the top part and we have to dye still about 15 fins and then have to colour them all over again with another coat... My neck starts twitching, when i think about it all. Today i spent most of the time sanding the dyed fins, because the dye is mixture with water and that makes the wood "hairy". It was exciting to fins some other colour from my nose earlyer. Such fun! The gray and yellow days are gone, black is back! Yeaaah!

So, we are in a position that seems impossible to finish the damn thing. Not only do we have to colour the dyed fins again, we also have to put danish oil on them. (neck twitching again) Well, today i was 10 hours at work, so i guess it`s going to be another 10 hours tomorrow. Fingers crossed, that we somehow will manage. Would be nice. You know, not to be involved all the time in some things, that don´t get done and then there`s the couple of Finns, who everyone can blame. Hahahhaa, but that`s why we are here for :P (HAH, my first smilyface! Grand, i`ll rise a glass for myself)

Allthough the days are fast and furious, there`s still time for a lot of laughter and stupid jokes. Yesterday the Big Bear told me that i should not joke around with him in the beginning of the week, because then he`s grumpy. I should do all my jokes on Friday. I thought that was a joke... it wasn`t...


the dogs are a nice part of everyday life there aswell. Here you can see The Main Man`s parents dogs. (And yes, i changed The Master to The Main Man, because my dear argentinian dude likes to be called Master. It brings a big pleased smile on his face every time i use it. I usually bow down at the same time too. It makes it all much more dramatical and awesomer for him.) We call the smaller one Rotta and the bigger one The Old Dude. They`re both so funny-looking. Lettu-dude is always annoying him. And he`s annoying everyone else also... ofcourse. Today he stole things from one of the japanese guys about 4 times. He ran quickly under a car and was super-excited and very proud of himself. Must have been quite a pain in the hole i can imagine. But i still love him. I secretly pet him when no-one`s watching. I`ve understood it`s not a good thing to just play with the dog in the worktime. But why the hell is Lettu-dude there then! He`s a puppy and a rather awesome one i can tell, so how can i NOT be distracted all the time? He has even stopped pissing on the floors and doing less biting on peoples legs! Oh i adore him. You should see his face when we all arrive in the morning. "jeee, more humans!"

Secretly i hope every mornging that the car-ride is going to be a bit safer. I have noticed that when i ask a lot of questions and disturb the driver with my annoying sh*t, he drives quite ok. But i´m not a morning person and it`s really hard to produce a lot of sentences then. I told them one day when we were leaving the workshop, that they are to most crazy car-owners i have ever met. They giggled a bit and 2 seconds later Master just sprayed water from a hose inside the car (in my face). So what can you do but just grow into it and maybe some day start enjoying it. Maybe even love it.

My car-rental dreams are now in the bottom of a bottomless pit. As a bottom of a bottomless pit is impossible, so are my car-rental dreams. Turns out, you have to be atleast 25 years old (god damn it this 1 year makes no difference! I´ll be as useless the next year as i am now!) and have to own a credit card... AAARGHHH! Well, the prices were really ok and i allready started to search for a webpage where i could order my coffin from (but i guess you need a f*ckin credit card for that also!). I guess stealing it is then. I have noticed (not intentionally) that people don`t lock their cars when they go to the shop. Have to start looking some awesome "car starts from putting two wires together that are exactly there and everything is super easy" videos from YouTube. Or i`ll just take the bus to Dublin and go to the zoo.

Yesterday was sooooo nice weather. Even today, but it stopped being nice the second i got back home. But yesterday i basically ran home, jumped to the shower and then ran quickly back to the city, just to enjoy an hour of the sun. But the wind was freezing. So it was "brrrr... Baltics" for half of the time and then a bit of "aaah, nice and warm". But it was worth it. I followed the sun, because the day was ending and i had to go along with it so i didn´t get stuck in the shadow. There was some kind of a russian family and i think they might have thought that i was stalking them. it seemed they were hanging also where the sun was, so it turned out quite awkward, because there weren´t that many people on the streets.


Uuh, i think i have forgotten to mention that we outlived 3 days of no-heating. The gas just ran out just like that. Well, we didn´t have anyways no idea how long it would last and no-one told us anything also. There are 4 big "bottles" in our little yard as you can see. Well, it`s too much to name it a yard... dear lord, i have no idea what`s it suppose to be. It`s ugly as sh*t with no purpse except mounting those dangerous-looking gasbottles. Aaaanyways, it took 3 days to get a full bottle there. It was quite sad to go to the shower and wipe yourself with a totally damp towel. Nääh, not damp, it was totally wet. Let`s not make anything better-sounding than it actually is. (and jees, damp is the word. Not moist. We were told by a totally drunk guy outside a pub. This feels like déjà-vu allready, awesome!) And have you ever found yourself thinking that is there really any point using the toilet paper? (talking about the nr. 1, not nr. 2, just to make that clear, and i guess from a womans point of view?) Neither have i... untill now, ofcourse. You see, the thing is that as the air is so damp, the toilet paper is as damp as the towels after shower. So what`s the point? Nääh, it`s not THAT bad, but i just found myself thinking about this matter a week ago or so. I feel like i should share this thought with you. Because it`s so unreal... Why is the toiletpaper wet? WHY? I`m going to invent a little toilet-paper-radiator! This should be a hit here!

Ok, that`s that. It`s going to be a long weekend this week.... mmm... Maybe i will go to Dublin, we`ll see. If i will, i`m going to visit the zoo and share random pointless pictures, taken with a phone camera, of animals everyone have allready seen. That`s a promise! Vote for me!

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Hijah! Hwaarjah!

Hello there. In this post i shall write a bit about the workplace.

There are us, the two finns (on some paper on the wall, there`s written "keep an eye on the finns"... and after my name it reads "thin girl"... wow), then there`s around 5 irish dudes and dudettes, 2 japanese, 2 argentinians, one french big bear and one german dude. One crazy crowd i must say! Now after 2,5 weeks i`m beginning to sense their humor. After understanding that, it feels like i have been given the green light. Still have to check the boundaries of the jokes. Mustn`t go too far with mine (as they are all usually really bad).
Today for example i got smacked on my arse with a pack of veneers by the french big bear (sounds like the indians gave him the name: The Wondering Big Bear, The Big Bear is angy today,  The Big Bear hunts gooses). My reaction was really lame. Usually i would just say: the f*ck. But not this time. These are another boundaries i have. Can you imagine, me not swearing? Well, it really is happening! My mum would be proud. Seriously, she would!
But ass-smacking isn´t the usual day to day thing here. Don´t worry. Not raped yet (uuh, that sounds disturbing and a bit scary... not yet... brrrr). Aaaaanyways, we have some usual thing we have to look after during the day. Like cleaning the floors of the sawdust. Reminds me of Black Books one episode: "The dust, oh the dust." "The place isn`t that dusty!" Well it is! Sometimes it feels like there`s no point in it, because 2 seconds later, everything is again coverd with 2cm thick dust layer. Don´t have to even say, what comes out from the nose all the time. I think i could build a house from it, if i would like to collect it all. Don´t know what word should i give to the "it". I think i have discovered a way to make the house more water resistant... hmmmm...
Between the cleanings we do all sorts of things. Some days i just run around like a headless chicken, because there`s just so many tasks and there`s more coming all the time. "Take this there" "Wait, no, before you do that, do this and this and this and that and THEN go bring those things and then do these and those and that and this and there and back, The Hobbit" (You got it? Did you get my awesome joke? Did you, DID YOU? Now THAT`s a good joke!). I´m feeling like i have been to the gym when i get home. But i like all the tasks. Sometimes it`s a bit hard to carry all the heavy stuff, but as they are using mostly ash, it`s much lighet that birch and that make sme really happy! Every time i have to carry something, i`m prepared for some massive back injurie, but it turns out every time, it was better than expected. It`s nice to work with some other wood than birch. I don`t like the ash veneers that much (allthough the final products look sexy as hell), but the timber is so beautiful. Love it!



My last little project was to make a house model
from MDF. Well, don´t know if i can say, it was THAT small. 800x600mm house size. I liked doing it a lot. My brain sometimes crashed totally, because there was a lot of thinking and calculating, but i`m satisfied. Even the Master (yes, i`m calling the main man Master) said "you did good". That almost brought tears to my eyes! "It`s such a perfect day lalalalaaa "





    We have one coffeebrake and lunch. That`s it. It was quite sad ad the beginning, because i was used to I´m used to having coffee brakes after every two hours (now i miss school!) and chilling after lunch. Here it`s teatime (yes, they call it teatime), back to work, lunch, back to work. The workdays are longer also and this weekend we have to help them on Saturday also. But we`ll get one Friday free! YESS! A longer weekend! Now i understand, why people are waiting for the weekend. So am i, so am i. And because i`m so excited about that, i`ll share a random picture of a dog, that i call Lettu, becaus his real name really sounds like pancake, but you should never say that! I did it, and got some angry looks at my way. So here is the Lettu-dude, who`s hanging on the table when he feels like it`s the right thing to do at the moment:

    So, after a long and crazy day, we head back to Kinsale. I still don´t really know where the workshop is because the roads are just insane. I saw a sign that showed curved road ahead 3km. THREE KILOMETERS? You kiddin`me? There should be signs that say 200m straight road, because that`s as good as it gets! I´m not even sure there are any straight roads here. Or roads that are wider than 4m. Every time i´m in the car, i find myself thinking that is this going to be the day i`ll die? Because it sure feels like dying soon. 120km/h on a narrow curved road in the middle of nowhere. And there are people cycling. I wonder if they are a part of a suicide group? If not, i would like to recommend them to find one. I felt like i would like to join one after having to drive a van a bit. First of all, i tried 3 times to enter the van from what i would say the "right" side, which here is obviously the "wrong" side. And changing gears with your left hand... not as bad as i thought, but felt so wrong. But atleast the pedals are in a normal order. Now i have a car-fever here, and am constantly thinking about renting one and going for a road trip. Should i order the coffin allready? Should get it cheaper maybe if to do it in time?

   But Kinsale! The sweetest city i have ever seen. The harbour is also a very good component. As you can see from the picture, there`s never too much colours (Sanna-Mari took the picture, so all right reserved?)
At first it felt a bit crazy, seeing a pink-babyblue-yellow-orange-whatever houses, but itś sweet. And the weather is anyways so gray all the time, so i think i understand the idea maybe? Or do i just sound very poetical and awesome right now? I´ll anyways try to make more pictures of the houses etc. But don´t feel like being abroad here (I think i got it... the thing that Anne told. You other people don´t know it, so just leave it. I said, LEAVE IT! Thank you) and that minimizes the need to make pictures of every little thing. I usually like to do it, but not this time. Just walking in the streets and thinking "Bhwaaahahahaa, no-one shall ever see what i am seeing". I´ve got the power!

Now i finnish (you got it? there was a joke in the sentence! Awesome, isn´t it?). I took Sanna-Mari`s advice and made the layout a bit easier to read. Usually i just write and then it`s one big block of text, but this time i even played a bit with the pictures. And must i say, it was rather difficult. It was as crazy as fitting pictures in Word! Thank`s to this, i don`t even know if i want to show you some more. It all comes from my valuable time, you see.

All the best and arrrrghh, hwaarjah!

Monday, April 22, 2013

The thing is...

Lovely day for a Guinness, as in raining like a m*therfucker and windy as hell? Well jes sir, it bloody well indeed is a great-day-for-Guinness every day then! (And i took my sandals... fools hope.)
What can i say after two weeks of chilling and hanging in Kinsale? I like it! (you weren`t expecting that, weren`t you?) There are still some strange things here i haven´t figured out yet. I know how to say "hijah" or however it should be written. I like to think that it sound very Irish even when silly little me sais it. And i say Finland "fnlnd", because it`s the proper way here. You know, not making any sense while talking, so it sounds like your mouth is full of dry bread? Yeah, exactly, that kind of proper way. And the other thing: you`re walking on the narrow-as-possibly-can-be-street and random peaople say "hijah" and "hwaarjah" and you have absolutely no idea, what to answer. I´m usually sticking to "hijah" myself also or just making a face that i didn´t see or hear anything. You see, i have tried different answer for this "hwaarjah": "Fine, thank you", "Fine, thank you. And how are you?", "Thank`s, fine", "Fiiiiiine", "Oh well, it`s raini" etc. But i haven´t figured out, what`s the real "right" way. Because if you really start talking how you are, like "uuh, it`s kinda cold today, isn´t it?", then they make a fish-face and it seems that they are not listening at all and they just don´t give a sh*t. So why are you asking then at all? It seems to be a overall polite matter, in which no-one should ever reveale the true meaning of "IT". I think i`ll continue my tests. And at the end of it, i`ll give them a cup-cake, their own medicine in a kind and affectionate way (referring here to the super delicious cup-cakes that they make). I still feel like an unpolite ass (ass as a donkey, no bad language here, my lady), because i sometimes just don´t remember to answer the "hwaarjah". Or it`s not automatic yet. The other day i went to buy a on-the-go coffee and the sweet man said: "Hijah, hwaarjah" and i just said "Hijah, one coffee please." God damn it, Sandrinja (ou jes, this is my new nickname at work... dear lord...), ANSWER THE GUY, for crying out loud! But no... I just ram into the shop and ask what i came here for. But i made a little chit-chat, to cover the mess up. I guess it`s not a big deal, not answering to the mysterious question that has no answer apparently, but it bugs me still. I haven`t found a book here about it either. I bought a book about Irish insults (as you migh allready imagine, there`s books about every little Irish thing for the glorious tourists). Thought that it might take me far enough here. But i guess "stick it in yer arse" isn´t the thing to fool around with.
I haven´t had any cultural shocks except people being ridiculously nice here. The beer tastes as good as it can get, food is delicious at the restaurants (have visited a few places only, but it was gooooood... mmm...), prices are bearable, architecutre is totally my cup of tea, weather... well, you can whine about the weather everywhere, so there`s no point to say anything more. Everyone here thinks that people, who come from the baltics are not afraid of the cold. (They have a saying here, that if it`s cold and windy, it "brrr... baltics". It`s true! A totally drunk man outside a pub told us! You better believe that!) I guess they have stories for children, how finns and other "cold freaks" run around naked in the snow and have no heating systems at all, because that`s totally normal. I feel it`s never too much to say to them that unlike in Ireland, people in other countries know how to build houses! As i`ve understood, it`s totally regular thing that on a rainy day the water comes into the house. And from where might that be? Ceilings and under the doors ofcourse! We even had a snail cruising around the coridor one day. And there is a rusty screw next to the window of my room. How long has it been there? I might guess a day should be enough for it to totally rust in this not so dry air.

Allthought i can hear the crowd asking for more, i shall finish for today. The magnificent internet we have here is so fast, that i think it has opened www.google.com by now. Usually takes couple of minutes here and there. But atleast we have it! It`s small and hideous and hides in dark places, but it`s our own sweet internet.