When the sun is setting, between dusk and darkness, there is a moment when the light turns blue. And the world stops for a heartbeat.
The problem with a lot of street food is that it is meant to be quick in large quantities. It is often surprisingly time-consuming to cook for just a few.
Take baos, for example. Making the dough, letting it rise, steaming the buns… not exactly a quick meal.
So that’s when you cheat.
The secret is finding the right ingredients that take you 80% there. In Finland, store-bought baos work great when fillings are flavorful enough.
Naans – not so much.
People are always curious what is the hardest thing in raising twins. They expect me to describe jealousy, trouble finding own identity, or sharing (or not sharing) friends and hobbies.
No-one ever understands that the hardest thing is to stay patient in the face of stubborn insistence of getting exactly what the sister does.
Exactly.
Even when it makes no logical sense.
The biggest daily fight in our household is whose turn is it to wash teeth first. Every night!
Somehow it remains irrelevant that the other one will go 2 min later.
Kiara and Bailey have been best friends since they started school. Now Bailey is moving to Sweden and Kiara is heartbroken.
Luckily, we’ve known for a while, so there has been time to get used to the idea. Plans for video calls and visits are already in place.
The only possible upside is that Kiara might accidentally become a little more focused in class.
One of the big clichés in psychology is that happiness comes more easily if you can find childlike joy in small things.
Unrelated, I stopped today to blow dandelion fluff. A dog walker gave me the evil eye. Probably because adults should know better than to spread weeds.
The first ice cream of the summer!
Well, of course,we have had ice cream in the past months. Actually, in the past week. But not from an ice cream kiosk. (At least, not most of them. A mall kiosk does not quite count.) And we had not eaten any outside. (Almost none) And nothing in our T-shirts, with the sun shining.
Hard to explain why, but this was definitely the first ice cream of the summer. And it was great.
A few years ago, Stuart and I took our bikes on the metro to the opposite side of Helsinki. It is a great way to find some new interesting routes, instead of riding the same routes over and over again.
Anyway, on that day we stumbled upon the biggest pocket of cherry trees in Helsinki. It was the peak blossom time, and the park was phenomenal.
This year, when I saw the cherries are blooming, I decided to go back with a proper camera. But, as it so often happens, I got busy and waited a few days too long. I managed to catch the blooms maybe on the last day they were still properly pink. The sunnier batches of the trees had already turned green.
I’ll try again next year.
We had a farewell dinner for a team member, Ed, today. It started calmly enough in a nice Italian restaurant, but the time we hit the second coctail bar, I was glad the next day was a public holiday.
A good night out.
Day 100 – feels like an achievement! I had hoped to do something special for the occassion but – appropriately enough – I spent the day travelling.
A few special moments above the clouds. Then frantic rush on the ground. Broken laptop. Last minute presentation prep literally in the lobby. On my colleague’s laptop. Great lunch. Productive meetings. Good coctails. Another mad rush.
Looking back, it feels like a pretty good analogy for my everyday life.
There are moments when everything lines up – the building facade, the old green Beetle, the surfboard… The gods of photography have given you their blessing.
There is also truth to the idea that the more you practice, the luckier you get. In photography, it can be changed to: the more you walk around frustrated, the less lucky you feel. But you do learn to appreciate the rare lucky shot.
Every spring, the circus school Alanna and Kiara go to puts together a final performance. The performers vary in age from 3 to 20+, and in skill from total beginners to the performing group, but the energy and enthusiasm are always there.
Unfortunately, the lighting looked great live but was less kind to photography. Any presentable picture required at least a fraction of a second of stillness, and there wasn’t much of that.
Blue Moment 