Pages

Saturday 28 July 2012

Traffic!

I've always wondered why people drive on different sides of the road in different countries. I still don't know why, but it would definitely be a lot handier if everyone drove on the same side.

When I moved to Ireland I had a few close calls crossing the street because I was looking the wrong way. After spending months in Ireland and around its many roundabouts I got so used to looking the "right" way, that now that I'm back in Finland I'm in danger of getting hit! I was cycling and I crossed the road at a roundabout looking the wrong way. And only realised this when I was already on the other side! Good thing there were no cars there at that time.

Whenever I go back to Ireland after spending time in Finland I always open the driver's door by accident, even though I'm supposed to be the passenger. The same happens in Finland after being in Ireland. Sometimes I'm just completely confused and have to check where the wheel is before I even try entering the car! :D It's probably for the best that I don't drive (although I do have a driving license). I'd put myself and others in danger. I'm sure other people who "live in two countries" experience this too, but I also know people who have no problem driving on either side.

Anyway

I found this picture in a magazine:


red: right-sided traffic
orange: right-sided now, used to be left-sided
green: right-sided now, used to differ between parts of country
blue: left-sided
purple: left-sided, used to be right-sided (Namibia)

SEE?? See how little blue there is on the map? Clearly the right side is the correct side!

Okay, the article said that over a third of the world's population lives in these countries. But without India the amount would be very insignificant!

I'm sure now that I've posted this on my blog all of the blue countries will come to their senses and start the process of switching sides! I mean, people like me are in danger! That's why I wanted to share this :)

That's all for now.

Friday 27 July 2012

Better late than never: Ilosaarirock!

I told you I was going to a rock festival. And I went! I told you I would write something about it. And I haven't :E until now. Here are some random pictures and some text and a video at the end!

The festival was held two weeks ago, 13-15 July. It's called Ilosaarirock. Pretty much all the rock festivals in Finland are called something-rock. Ilo means joy, saari means island. Ilosaari is a little island in Joensuu city centre, and when this festival started in the 70s it was held on that island. As the festival grew the island wasn't big enough, so now the location is a bit further away from the centre of town. But all the 20 000+ participants fit well in this new area! Well it's not even that new, it's been in use for the festival since 1991.

Me, not listening to some band, wearing ear defenders. I don't like ear plugs because they won't go into my ears... This way is much easier.

Ilosaarirock is one of the biggest rock festivals in Finland. It brings a lot of people into our small Joensuu for one weekend a year! Other big ones include Ruisrock (ruis = rye) and Provinssirock (provinssi = province), and they usually have some bigger foreign names such as The Cardigans, Snoop Dogg and Snow Patrol this year, whereas Ilosaarirock usually focuses more on Finnish and local talent :P But The Darkness played at Ilosaarirock one year (and I wasn't there :( )!

So, although it's called a rock festival, it's not all rock. There's a whole stage dedicated to reggae, hiphop and R&B and there are always artists there that play electronic music. Of course in Finland heavy metal is big as well.


Bungee jumping. Naturally an important part of a music festival.

You can see what's happening here on the video at the end.

Bees kept trying to get close to me all weekend!

Last band at night.

Ok, time for the video! You can see my filming skills are outstanding. It's just clips from the festival area and soundbites from a few artists' shows! I have the bands names written as they play, if they're from abroad I have the country in brackets. If there are no brackets, they're Finnish. Enjoy!

Friday 13 July 2012

What's going on?

Soooo basicallyyyy I just wanted to update the blog with what I've been up to :) With pictures!


We had some bovine guests one day! Eight of the neighbour's nine cows had escaped and decided to wander over to our side (one of them stayed inside their fence alone...) where there's fresh grass and new exciting things to look at!


I went and informed the neighbours when I noticed the "intruders" and they came over to get the cows back. They were worried that the animals would trample something but we just thought it was fun that they came over :D They didn't break anything, none of them went missing and all was well.



We've seen rainbows pretty often this summer. Here's a picture of one of them. Well, two of them technically...?


We've done a lot of baking :P (and eating...)


I went to the Joensuu market place one day to watch my old dance group perform. (This one is a Hungarian dance, so the costumes aren't Finnish although the general genre is Finnish traditional dancing :P)


We've had lots of summer guests (relatives) over at my grandmother's house. We went fishing with some of them. I didn't catch anything, but one of the guests got two relatively big perches!


My mum and I have gone for a walk nearly every evening when I've been at her place, but often our walks turn into eating because of these! There are loads of wild strawberries on the roadsides. We curse them for growing so close to the road, but we eat them anyway.



Strawberries on a plate


Strawberries in milk


Strawberries on a cake


Mmm...

We've also found some blueberries :P And I've bought bigger garden strawberries in town. And eaten them and some melon with friends in the sun. 8)

The weather has still been nice. Still no heat wave, but a comfortable 22-25°C, half cloudy, half sunny. The occasional rain shower.

I'm going to a rock festival in Joensuu (well the only rock festival here) this weekend. Really looking forward to it. I will post some photos of it here for sure :P I have some other plans for the rest of the summer as well but I'll talk about them when I know for sure...

A big part of our day is also spent on talking to/about our cats.


I have more pictures of them in my cat blog http://sonjaskitties.blogspot.fi

I'm still too lazy to write it in both languages, meaning it's in Finnish, but it's mostly photos and short videos, so take a look :P

Until next time, bye bye!