Onion Kid

I've been taking a long break from my PC because I've had trouble with my wrist/mouse hand/thumb. And it doesn't look like my wrist likes doing certain yoga poses, either, so I've been trying to avoid doing yoga poses that would put too much pressure on my wrists and I opt to do other types of exercises in the meantime (though other parts of my body enjoy some yoga stretches). Anyhow, this summer reminds me a bit of Indonesian rainy season because it's rained a lot. This is definitely the wettest summer that I've ever encountered ever since I moved to Finland (and the greyest/coldest too!). I've been forced to use my SAD lamp this week because my brain feels like hibernating already due to the lack of sunlight.

Anyway, I was doing some house chores today when I was reminded of the term "anak bawang" or "onion kid". I used to play a lot with my cousins and neighbours when I was young (back then a computer was considered a luxury, only owned by rich people and even then the computer was still so basic LOL!!!) so kids played a lot outside with other kids. The term "anak bawang" was used a lot at that time. It means someone who's given some slack in joining any game due to their (young) age/lack of comprehension of the game rules. Being "anak bawang" also means that you're at the bottom of the ladder, so usually you don't get to decide what to play because the games you master are the simpler ones, so you're mostly merely tagging along with the older kids. It's definitely not a nice feeling to be called "anak bawang" or "onion kid" because it means you're not taken seriously, though at the very least the older kids do let you join in their games. Still, when you're called "anak bawang", you can't help but to wish to grow up quickly he he he he he...

Do you have such a term when you were a child in your own country, I wonder? :-)

Super Wet Autumn

Of the 5 autumns I've experienced here in Sodankylä, this one is the wettest of all. It rains daily (sometimes not during the day but during the night), but every time I look out it's almost always grey and wet. We haven't even had a chance to rake the dead leaves in our yard. There are so many of them covering each part of the grass. I guess we're going to have to wait till spring before we can clean them up. That's also one reason why I haven't been taking autumn photos.

Anyway, the other day I had a surprise guest. Someone rang the doorbell and she introduced herself as the neighbour. Actually she lives in Rovaniemi, but the house next door is her mother's house. Her mother passed away and the kids decided not to sell it yet, but because the old house had never been renovated, they decided to do some major renovations to it.

R2 hadn't come back home from work by then, so I invited her in and she explained everything to me. This is all new to me! She even brought the maps of the house and showed me everything that would be done to the house (adding a door here, adding a window there, creating another bedroom upstairs, etc.). Turns out that she has to tell all her closest neighbours about all this and each neighbour has to sign a piece of paper to show that we give her permission to do the renovation, which will start next spring and hopefully will end in autumn. Each neighbour is also allowed to write a note or comment or ask anything concerning the renovation. 

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Luckily not long after that R2 came back from work, so he could also hear from her directly what would happen during the renovation. We're also thinking of changing our roof, though first we need to save lots and lots of money for it and then get a quote on how much it's going to cost. We shall see about that. We did actually ask a company already to check it out, but they called us when we were in Vienna and after that they hadn't called us back. Oh well...

My Mom is leaving to Taiwan soon with her friend. I'm VERY excited about it. I hope the weather's good (not too cold 'coz she can't handle too cold weather) and she can stay healthy throughout the trip. I'm sure it's gonna be SO MUCH FUN for the both of them! :-D

Anyway, life's been going back to normal pace. Several customers have asked me where I had been going 'coz they hadn't seen me in a long while. Told them how sick I was with flu he he he he...it's nice that some people really notice my absence from work. THANK YOU, people!!! :-D

I've been using my light therapy lamp again every day to "recharge my brain". LOVE that lamp!!! :-D Can't wait for the first permanent snow. It's gonna make everything look brighter. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!


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Technology: Then and Now

In this modern age where kids start using computers at such a young age, it seems that my childhood was like a "caveman period" for the new generation of kids. The other day in Facebook someone posted somebody else's picture that made me laugh so much.

It was a picture of a cassette and a pencil next to it. Below it is written: Kids These Days Wouldn't Know The Link Between These Two Objects.

It took me a split second to realize what it meant, then I started laughing. I remember the first time I had ever bought my own cassette. It was a NKOTB (New Kids on The Block) cassette which my cousin and I played over and over again on the tape recorder. One time it was jammed and the roll of tape got entangled inside the tape recorder (see the pic below). I had to stop it and take it out manually and then roll it back neatly using the help of the pencil. However, the second time it happened, I had to actually open the case of the cassette and roll it into place by hand VERY VERY slowlyyyyy so that it wouldn't slip 'coz then I'd have to do it all over again...

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Today I've also been talking to another hometown girl who's just married a Finnish guy and has just moved to Finland two months ago. They also met online, but I realized how different it was back then when I started getting to know Arttu and the time she spent online with him.

She told me that they spent a lot of time sending messages via Facebook because it was cheaper than sending SMSes. When I first got to know Arttu better in 2000, mobile phone providers had just started their SMS services. Back then I still had my 56 Kbps modem to connect to the internet (yeah, so very slow!), so for me it was much cheaper to send SMSes compared to being online all the time. These days in Indonesia there are so many internet providers with faster connections and cheaper prices, so it's natural that it's getting cheaper to connect with people via Facebook or Blackberries compared to sending SMSes.

Talking to the younger generation makes me feel like I came from a distant age and time ha ha ha ha...It doesn't necessarily mean I feel old, though, but it's such a huge contrast that happened in just a few years (I was still using the 56Kbps when I left Indo in 2007 and nowadays the internet connection can be as fast as 1Mbps or even faster than that - depending on what kind of services you subscribe to).

When I look back to my childhood, I remember so many wonderful traditional children's games that we had with my friends and neighbours. Kids these days don't know those wonderful games anymore 'coz they grow up with Wii and stuff like that. These are some of the wonderful games that we played in the olden days:

Congklak
Bola Bekel (explanation can be found in the middle of the page)
Hopscotch

There are also some running/jumping games, but I don't really remember the rules anymore nor could I find any info in English. All I knew was that we had so much fun!!! :-D

Babies?

One of the things I dreaded when I went to Indo the other month was who was going to come up with the "baby talk". I dreaded that 'coz I would never know how to deal with them: do I tell them the truth or do I just smile and say nothing? The truth would be too complicated to tell, but I did tell "the truth" to one person who finally mentioned "baby talk".

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One neighbour, upon seeing us walk outside the house, said, "Going out? Hurry and make some babies!"

I stopped, smiled and said, "It's OK even if we'll never have babies."

You should've seen her face!!! She didn't see that coming! With a shocked look on her face, she quickly said, "DON'T SAY THAT!!!!! I'm gonna pray for you so that you'll have kids."

Deep inside I was sighing and rolling my eyes, but to her I just smiled and said, "Why, THANK YOU for your prayers."

Why is it so hard for people to understand that we're OK even though we have no babies? It seems that THEY are the ones who want US to have babies more than we do. Don't get me wrong, though, I DO appreciate them and I DO understand their wish for us, but why can't they understand that it may not be what we want anymore? It almost makes us feel that we're not "complete human beings" without kids in our life.

FYI, two relatives hugged me upon saying goodbye, rubbed my belly, and whispered, "I'm praying for you to have babies."

OK, that's all good...but my cynical mind thinks, "If God says no, no matter how many times you pray, you won't see the result that you're wishing for." That's why I asked my closest friends for God's peace beyond understanding instead of asking them to pray for us to have kids.

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One close friend told me, "You shouldn't have said that to the neighbour. You should've just smiled and said nothing."

Maybe she's right. I begin to feel that there's no use trying to make them understand our situation anyway. Oh well...

Meant To Be?

One of the stories that often happened in the past (read: during my grandmother's generation and sometimes even during my generation) was a forced breakup of a couple since the parents disapprove of the relationship. There may be numerous reasons as to why the parents did that. Some of the reasons may be reasonable, some may not. Let me tell you a romantic story of my Mom's uncle.

When he was young, he fell in love with a neighbour girl. Unfortunately, the neighbour was a native Indonesian and his traditional Chinese parents forbid him to have anything to do with her. Then then introduced him to a girl and they eventually got married. Decades went by...the neighbour girl got married, as well, and had plenty of kids and grandkids.

I don't remember anymore whether my Mom's uncle got a divorce or his wife died, but in the end he met the neighbour girl again and found out that they still loved each other. They ended up being together once more in their old age...how romantic is that? ;-D

I don't know whether they got married or they just lived together, but the story proved to me that if some people are really meant to be, no matter how long it takes for them to be together and no matter how many obstacles they have to face to be together, they'll end up together anyway! I can just imagine how happy they must've been that they finally got a chance to be together again, even after their skin had wrinkled!!! ;-D

I also have a sad story about a forced breakup that happened recently. A friend of mine has an elder brother and this guy had been seeing a girl for years. However, the girl's parents disagreed to her choice. Last time I heard from my friend, the girl had been married off to a guy. She tried escaping from the arranged marriage, but I guess in the end she didn't have any more choice.

I think parents sometimes have valid reasons for not approving their kids' choice of spouses, but sometimes they can be wrong. After all, they're only humans and sometimes they dislike their kids' spouses merely due to personal reasons or even prejudices. All in all, I'm glad that my parents approved of my choice of spouse and they supported me wholeheartedly. ;-D