Here is our first Finnish design attempt. Rather a retro 60s looking lamp I'd say and also appropriate for Halloween being black and orange. We are definitely experimenting and it's fun. Come over for dinner - we can see the food now that we have light. Halloween is somewhat newly celebrated in Finland, but I don't think we'll have trick-or-treaters come by. They do parties for the children instead.
Here's a sunset Gerald captured last weekend when we had several sunny days in a row. Now we are socked in with a mist that would like to be rain, but it just can't manage it. Not wet enough for an umbrella but almost. We may not have too many more sunsets to share in the near future.
Work news: upon returning from the US, I interviewed at at language school and they've hired me on a freelance basis, to teach a small English conversation class at a bank, so no more lady of leisure waiting for Gerald to replenish the bon-bon supply as I recline on the chaise. This nicely coincides with my also leading an conversation group for one of the women's clubs in town too, still to be arranged, and now I can start tapping into the ESL training I got this summer. We've been here just over two months now, and in our apartment one month. We now have a TV so we can catch up on news with the international channels, and I do enjoy the Finnish news too - it's a different way of watching but I'm getting a little more out of it each day. And Gerald has a new expresso machine so he can now get a decent cup of decaf - not common here. Sounds like we are getting more and more stuff - but most will be sold when we leave Europe because of the wiring differences. Still, we are circumspect about accumulating.
Gerald got his car upgraded to the Finnish standards this week. They had to install small sidelights which are extra turn signals on the front fenders and also an extra red light in the left brake light that's a fog light for low visibility conditions. So he's ready to pass inspection now, and then we'll put the Z to bed for the winter in its indoor parking spot. We just passed an apartment house door where someone was bringing their studded snow tires out of a storage room. Harbinger of what's to come.
We're off for a quick trip to Oporto, Portugal in a few weeks, as I tag along with Gerald on a work trip. It's ranging in the 20sC there while here we are 7C today so we'll enjoy the warmth (although it won't compare to the 91F when I arrived in Michigan just two weeks ago!) I'll be sure to get some pictures to share.
