Not much going on here. This week's gonna be a busy one for me 'coz my friends are coming to visit me on Sunday and they're staying here for a week. I've got work until Thursday, so I have a long weekend to prepare for their coming. Work was crazy today, so I hope tomorrow's going to be a better day 'coz we need to do so many more things that we didn't have time to do today. Wednesday's going to be a crazy one 'coz on Friday the stores will be open only half a day 'coz it's Midsummer Day's Eve so we've ordered so many things for the store to make sure it's fully stocked. Everything'll be closed on Saturday, so I have to make sure to stock the fridge full before my friends arrive on Sunday (and gotta clean up the house as well and make the beds for them).
So busy busy busy...ain't got time to think about anything else ha ha ha ha...
Anyhow, the other day we watched "The Green Hornet" and it reminds me of a movie I once watched with Jay Chou (the one who plays Kato in Green Hornet) in it. Here's a video clip of the piano battle between Jay Chou and another character in the movie. Enjoy the duel!
P.S. The Green Hornet movie is a funny one. Love the humour in it he he...
P.P.S. In the music video below, if you're not familiar with Jay Chou, he's the challenger (so the second one who plays the piano in each set of the duel).
1. Making a decision after thinking about it for a few days and knowing deep in my heart that it's the right call.
2. R2 is unwell now, which is "good" in a way 'coz then when my friends come here for a visit, he is well enough to drive to Rovaniemi to pick them up. Now I only need to hope that I won't catch the viruses 'coz it's been spreading around the village (one coworker is sick and another one started coughing yesterday).
3. FIL has stopped asking MIL, "When's your holiday ending? When are you taking me back home?" and thus MIL can now stop feeling guilty. In fact, when she took her back home for a few hours, he said that he wanted to go back home (to the nursing house).
4. I bought a tiger roll that I had never tried before the other day and it smells and tastes SO good!!!
5. Excitement 'coz my friends are coming for a visit soon (in 10 days). Can't wait to meet them!!! Haven't seen them in about 4 years. ;-D
6. Rubbing R2's cold hands to make them warm and seeing gratitude in his sweet smile. He's such a babe!!! :-D
7. Some of my fave TV series are coming back soon (Good Wife, Criminal Minds). YIIIIHHHHAAAAA!!!!
8. Buying some gifts for my loved ones and also souvenirs for my friends (grateful that I have the money to buy them). :-D
9. The weather's stopped being too hot (the other week it was 31'C three days in a row - which was unusual 'coz usually it only lasted for a day - and we don't have any fan or aircon, so it was really stuffy inside and it was hard to sleep well at nights).
A few days ago I got a surprise when I checked the mail and received a job offer from a different store. I've been thinking about it for the past few days about the pros and cons. I'm really thankful to have received a job offer, but after thinking about it, I've decided not to take it. My mind may change later on, but as time goes by I enjoy working in my current workplace more than before.
This offer has made me think about our value in life. What makes us "valuable"? In the eyes of world, it's probably how much we contribute to society or how good we "perform" in our many roles in life: as a sister, mother, neighbor, worker, husband, father, human being in general.
But what about those people whose condition makes them unable to contribute much or even at all? Like my FIL whose condition gets worse and worse? Or what about someone who's been paralyzed almost completely for years and years? I know one distant relative who's been bed-ridden for at least 17 years. Does that mean his value is "less" than others? Maybe to the eyes of the world, but not in God's eyes.
In God's eyes each one of us is valuable enough for Him to sent His son to die for our sins in the cross. In God's eyes each one of us is worth being saved. However, I think amidst this world's loud voices that tell you otherwise, it's sometimes easy to forget that if we strip away all the accomplishments and everything else that we "have earned", we are still valuable just the way we are.
The other day I was talking to my closest friends via email about different topics and one topic brought up this memory somewhere in the dark corner of my brain. Being a melancholic/phlegmatic, I never craved for the spotlight. I don't like being in a spotlight. I prefer working in the background, never to be seen or heard (that doesn't mean I don't need recognition or acknowledgment for my achievements, though). That's also one reason why I doubted myself when I first started working at the store 'coz I wondered if I'd enjoy being face-to-face with customers.
When I was very young, I was so sensitive inwards and if I made the smallest mistakes ever, I would scold myself over and over and over. If the mistake was big (at least in my eyes), it could take even days before I finally let go (yep, I'm my own worst critic). Along the road, as my self-confidence grew, I learnt to be more lenient towards myself and lower my expectations, but I only started learning to laugh at my own mistakes AFTER I moved to Finland (yep, it took me 28 years!). Having R2 as a hubby and MIL helped A LOT in learning to be more lenient towards myself. They never criticize me no matter how silly my mistakes are.
Anyhow, back to the dark corner in my brain. I think when I was very young, I once performed in front of a group of people (I think it had to do with dancing) and they laughed at me. I don't remember the incident, but ever since then I've been so worried about performing in front of people and I've always admired people who can perform in front of people without looking so anxious. And ever since then I've always had this idea that I'm such a bad dancer and that my body can't correspond to music and rhythm very well.
Back in elementary school, I hated it when we had to sing in front of the classroom. If I had to sing with some other students, it felt MUCH better, but if I had to sing alone? Ugh ugh...and UGH. I remember clearly the first time at the uni (during writing lesson) when my lecturer gave us a topic to write and then she gave us a few minutes to think about what to write and all of a sudden she asked me to come forward and tell the class what I was going to write (without reading what I had jotted down on paper). I remember that I was very calm at that time, which was such a HUGE surprise to me. I think of that moment as a point of progress in my life.
One of my closest friends, who's a natural when it comes to performing in front of people (she's even led a meeting in front of hundreds of people), was amazed when she realizes that other people may have problems in this area, 'coz she's never had the same problem her entire life.
It's interesting to me to be able to talk about this stuff with my friends 'coz then we get to know each other better - and hopefully then we get to understand other people better that way.
Yesterday and today have been SO HOT (30'C). Phew!!! But it won't last too long, though. At least this weekend the temperature will drop to 12-14'C during the day, so gotta enjoy the hot days while they last, eh?
Anyway, let me share with you more photos of Kankarinjärvi area in Kihniö (Southern Finland), near the cabin where we stayed. First let me share the video clip of the area (you can hear the strong wind):
Another video clip --- for some reason I combined the wrong videos in the clip above, so I uploaded another one to youtube.
And here are the pictures I took while we walked along the beach near the cabins until the end of it and then back again...
The pic below is a big chess set, but we didn't play it he he...
Finally I have time to rest and blog. Arrived at 11 pm on Sunday night and I had to go to bed right away 'coz at 5.45 I had to get up to get ready to work and yesterday I had an evening shift, so I could rest longer on Monday night.
R2 took us to the bus station on Wed morning and the bus was already there. The bus trip went fine and we got off in the train station. The train was waiting for us already, so we found our seats and sat down right away. Then it started raining in Rovaniemi. Along the way from Rovaniemi to Parkano (probably around 800 km), it kept on pouring rain (the train stopped in many stations).
In some parts it rained so hard and when we were nearing Parkano's train station, we got up to get prepared to get off, but then the train stopped before we reached the station. After waiting for 20 minutes, there was an announcement that there had been storms there around the area and there were fallen trees on the train tracks, so they had to get rid of them before we could continue our journey.
So we decide to sit down again 'coz we didn't know how long it was going to take. From the seats, we could see many fallen trees all around us. Yep...my first train journey in Finland and this kind of thing happened. Anyhow, passengers started calling the people who were going to pick them up to let them know about this condition. In the end, the train was 45 minutes late. BIL then took us to their rented cabin in Kihniö. Kihniö is an area in Parkano and Parkano is about 1-1,5 hour drive from Pori. Here let me show you the map from Sodankylä to Pori.
If you want to see the inside of the train, go to this link: Intercity Juna. Scroll down the page a little and then you'll find a picture of the train. We sat in Vaunu 2. Click on it and then scroll down the page again and under the picture, click on "Katso panoraama-kuva". Alataso means 1st floor and ylätaso means the second floor (we sat on the 1st floor). You can also see the other car and restaurant panorama pictures by visiting the first link.
Anyway, BIL told us that the electricity in Parkano had been switched off due to the storm, including in the cabin area. He still had to buy some groceries, but he took us first to the cabin to rest. Then he took off to find an open store near the area. SIL and I then left MIL in the cabin to rest while we went to the outdoor grilling place to cook some chicken. It was our first time to grill anything on our own, but we managed to do it pretty well ha ha ha...
Here are some pics of the cabin:
I slept on this red sofabed. The fireplace next to it can be used to grill sausages. :-D
Here's a pic of the fireplace:
The door on the left is the bedroom. The closed door leads to the toilet, shower, and sauna. Behind the fireplace there's a small kitchenette plus the fridge and a dishwasher.
Here's the view outside from inside the cabin:
That day we had dinner together inside the cabin 'coz there were so many mosquitoes outside. BIL came back right on time to eat. Then we just talked and played cards. Finally at around 11 pm the lights went on again and we could turn on the sauna. After sauna we played cards again until late. I'm gonna share more pics later on. Now I'm going to blog-hop a little.
