This ship has sailed

Father and son. The picture puts our relationship in a nutshell.

Somehow hard to believe it´s already three years ago that my father died. The bare fact that he ain´t no more seems to be frozen in time, so come the end of January it always feels unreal that time has actually moved on another year.

We didn´t see each other often and when we did it was mostly bittersweet. Inbetween visits and activities a lot of waiting, subconsciously to a large extent, waiting for something to happen, waiting for something to change, waiting for him to change.

Today he´s dead for three goddamn years and often it feels like I´m still waiting.
I just have no idea what for.

SONG FOR TODAY:
(First ever re-post in this blog´s history. The words still stand!)

Bombodrom - Gone for the last time

Pick your presidentti

Muumi mamma Tarja Halonen´s time as president is up and today Finland goes to vote for a new president. Let´s see how that turns out. Although Sauli Niinistö proved to be the most popular candidate with potential 30 % of votes in the last survey, it seems as if many Finns don´t really know who to vote for. Thus it wouldn´t be a big surprise if the elections would go into a second round in February, the 5th I guess it was. I´m not allowed to vote anyway, so whatever... but if the worst nightmare comes true and Soini becomes president I´m outta here - that´s for damn sure.

Winter´s here - let´s have a beer

That was about time! Maybe all my whining about the missing winter paid off.
Whatever the reason, since last Friday Helsinki is covered in snow and I certainly hope it stays like this now. This picture was taken today round about noon by Arto Lauriala in Siltamäki, North Helsinki and beautifully shows how the snow lights up our dark days. Thanks Arto!

Hey Ma, what´s cookin?

Sunday breakfast, 11: something am, candle light and coffee scent fill the apartment.
The doorbell rings. We ignore it, we don´t open for just anyone. About to sit down at the opulent table there´s some knocking on the door followed by more ringing.

Hmm...we successfully ignore that, too, but can´t ignore the apparent commotion in the hallway. Is someone moving in / out? But why would they so desperately want to let us know about it? Nah, thought dismissed, let´s feast.
Wait...now some very distant beeping sound - like the slightest tinnitus that drives you crazy because you can´t decide if you really hear it or if it´s just in your head - becomes more discernible. We do the math: ringing+knocking+commotion+beeping = not good at all.

We open the door to the hallway and witness an exodus of neighbors down the staircase, a few remain on our floor. How did we overhear all this shouting that fills the staircase? As we look down we see the fucking fire brigade that, as we learn from a neighbor, came to extinguish a fire on the floor directly below us! Fuck, that´s bad news! How am I supposed to save all my records from the flames? Are over twenty years of record collecting doomed to go up in smoke? Will my treasure chest of vinyl melt into one big black lump of steaming, stinking plastic? Just as I am about to get nautious / religious we hear the all-clear signal from the firefighters.

Back to the breakfast table. The day is saved and so is our house, our flat and my lps, 45s, 10"s, picture discs etc. No visible harm done, we didn´t see smoke or fire. The food is tasty but for a while we are a bit agitated and confused. Phew, that was a close call.

SONG FOR TODAY:

Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire

Hab Acht!

SONG FOR THE DAY:

Hüsker Dü - Eight Miles High