Carnival in Helsinki

Only a few blocks from where I live we have Linnanmäki, a nice amusement park that opened its gates for the first time on May, 27th in 1950. Linnanmäki means Castle Hill and doesn´t have a castle but is very well situated on a hill, so you can see it already from a distance. Especially one of Linnanmäki´s oldest rides, the wooden rollercoaster Vuoristorata (build in ´51) can be spotted from as far as the city center.

The park has currently 40 rides and of course you gotta pay to use them. Admission though is free, so you can go there to just check out the place or have some cotton candy and feel like a kid. Lintsi, as the locals call it, is open from April to October. Since I moved to Helsinki I never made it there but last weeks Valokarnevaali (= carnival of lights) finally lured me in. The carnival is always the last attraction announcing the park´s closure until next April and is highlighted by fireworks on Sunday. No question I teamed up last Friday with my girl and two friends to give Lintsi a go. Here are some pictures from this beautiful autumn evening:

Obviously one of the roller coasters, this is Tulireki.

I´m convinced they formerly used this hell of a ride to train Russian cosmonauts!  

This isn´t an UFO but a granny magnet called Panorama Tower. Nice views!

On Sunday I went to Töölönlahti with my girlfriend to see the fireworks. A good choice, as it was the perfect spot to enjoy the short but beautiful spectacular. Taking pictures wasn´t easy but I´ll include one here anyway. I like the reflections on the bay and the way the explosions look just like a firey grimace.

And to give you the feeling you would have been there yourself, here comes a little clip from last night´s fireworks that I found on YouTube:


Thanks to pir3 for uploading this!

Make sure to check out:

linnanmäki.fi (Choose English if needed)

Getting it done...

..takes a little while but we´re still on it! So far we recorded all drum and half of the guitar tracks. The typical problems like finding the time to meet up, then finding the right sounds and fighting the techno-fuck have delayed our recordings. The usual madness of making a demo. What we came up with until now sounds promising and I hope that we get it done soon. Stay tuned, blogheads!

SONG FOR TODAY:

7 Seconds - Still on it

End of the tunnel?

I walked through that passage every day.

Unfortunately not. It´s the end of my työharjoittelu, the six weeks of my job training are over tomorrow. Almost scary how fast time went by. It was an overall great experience as I was given the opportunity to carry on my profession in Finland - and in Finnish!

Didn´t speak English one single day which wasn´t easy but eventually very beneficial. I liked my job, got along with everyone and was told on several occasions that my work was very appreciated.

So I had high hopes that the whole endeavor would result in a steady job but things didn´t pan out that way. To hear that the current situation is difficult and an employment not possible at the moment is pretty tiring. I have been through that already in Germany but why should it be any different here than in the rest of Europe? Here they call it lama, there they call it Rezession, I call it a pain in the ass!

Good thing is that the company offered the possibility to continue my training and I will take the offer if the red tape okays it. Please understand that the company´s name and details regarding my job remain unmentioned. Although I enjoyed my time there very much and I want to stay put, I´m still a firm believer in keeping work and spare time seperated. Just saying.

SONGS FOR TODAY:

The Rolling Stones - You can´t always get what you want

Therapy? - 30 Seconds

Finns get seksi

Johanna Tukiainen. Singer, model, host and poetry in motion.

Oh là là, and they get seksi all the time. They get seksi because of translatiivi! What? Sexy transsexuals?! In Finland?!? Well, might as well be, I wouldn´t know. Being rather unkinky by nature the translative however is a grammatical form used quite often in Finnish. It indicates a change and refers to something or someone transforming into a different state.

The ending of the translatiivi is always -ksi and is added to the stem of a word.

For example: if you want to say that you´re planning to become an engineer (= insinööri), it will translate to "minä aion insinööriksi."

Another one: if you´re thirsty but penniless in a bar and the local drunk has again passed out over his beer, you can give him a tender punch in the liver and ask him: "Juotko lasin vielä tyhjäksi?" - "Will you still empty your glass?"

Good example, bad advice. If you pull that one off, you´re on your own! But I guess you got it now anyway and "tämä riittää perusteluksi" - this suffices as an explanation.

But why do the Finns get seksi now? Well, when the translative is used for adjectives, especially when they describe a feeling, this rather dry subject becomes quite juicy and funny. Many adjectives have the suffix -nen, e.g. iloinen (cheerful), onnellinen (happy), surullinen (sad) or vihainen (angry). The stem form of these words ends on -se- and is always used when the basic form is altered. So the genitive of vihainen would be vihaisen. When we let the translative kick in now it finally happens: you take the stem vihaise-, drop the n and add the suffix -ksi. Now you can say: "Tyttöystäväni tuli vihaiseksi" but it doesn´t mean that your girlfriend looked pretty hot when she got angry. Your gal just got mad, plain and simple, pleasant side effects not included.

So Finns get iloiseksi, onnelliseksi and surulliseksi etc. day in, day out and it seems only foreigners like me find it so goddamn funny. The best of all is that "seksi" used as a noun means nothing but "sex". Still nobody here turns punaiseksi (red) when saying these kind of things - absolutely elusive!


Maybe just goes to show that I have a dirty mind but there´s another funny thing.
It is a.) the favorite joke of many a tourist who went to a Finnish supermarket and b.) apparently invisible for the Finns, they don´t seem to see the obvious. Here´s what I´m talking about: like many other nations the Finns like their sweets and potato chips, preferably in biiig bags. What is bag in Finnish? PUSSI! Ahem...and how are biiig bags advertised in Finland? Right:

Also minipussis are available, if that´s more to your taste.

As opposed to many other languages Finnish only knows one sound for the letter S. It´s always a feast for me to see trailers for foreign movies/series on the tube and hear them announce for instance an Arnold Schwarzenegger flick in thickest "finniss prronanssiessen". If you pronounce the letter S Finnish style it will sound just like "ass". One big supermarket chain over here is called S-Market, so you can actually go to the (as)S-Market to buy some megapussis and no one gives a damn. Isn´t that beautiful?

SONGS FOR TODAY:

Rod Steward -  Da ya think I´m seksi?


The Cramps - Can your pussi do the dog?

New bloghouse

These are busy days, my dear blogheads, days that are slowly but constantly getting colder. Can´t do much about the tight schedule of late but I pretty damn well can give you shelter from the chill of the oncoming autumn. So please feel welcome here at the new LIFE IN HEL bloghouse while you´re waiting for something sensible to be posted!

Got a little bored on the old layout (yes, yes, black always looks kewl, dude - I know) and since I don´t have to prove my punkrock / street credibility to anyone, I got rid of the urban black and white, gothic font meets graffiti tag style to settle for something more homey, light and colorful. That by the way is something you learn to appreciate in the dark half of the year.

But what is it? A mökki? A sauna? Well, it could be a smelly outhouse but I guess it should be whatever you want it to be. So if the new design makes you wanna drink beer/Kossu/coffee/Coke - be my guest.
If you feel like heating up the oven and taking off your clothes - that´s fine, too. But please don´t do a number two in front of your screen while reading this - it would somehow spoil the atmo no end...

SONG FOR TODAY:

Statler Brothers - This Old House