Steven&co - Estonian tales

It's a bit quiet on the blog these days.

Ever since I have bought a recording of nothing but the sea in my favourite esoteric shop, nothing much happens in the evenings any more.

The idea was to get Joonas to sleep a bit easier, and it works - sort of, most of the time. But it is most effective in its unintended consequence: these days, after the nightly reading moment, you can find daddy sleeping on the sofa. Until it is time for bed.

Never mind the ironing...

Boum-boum-aeroplane in Armenia - fortunately carrying limited consequences...

Plane crashes in Armenian capital

Ten people were hospitalised with injuries [EPA]

A plane carrying 21 people has crashed on takeoff from Yerevan, Armenia's capital, injuring at least 10 people, the head of the country's civil aviation authority has said.

The plane, a Canadair CRJ-100, was heading for Minsk, Belarus, when it flipped over on the runway at Zvartnots airport early on Thursday, Avtiom Movsesian said.

The plane burst into flames and ten people were hospitalised with injuries.

Gevorg Abramian, a spokesman for the airport, said none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

He said there were 18 passengers and three crew members aboard.
The plane belonged to Belavia, Belarus' state airline.

After the crash, it lay upside-down at the airport, much of the fuselage blackened and gutted by fire.

Source (article and picture): Al Jazeera (Who else has decent coverage on this part of the world?)

The educational aspect:

• Avoid the destination country and origin state of the plane, Belarus. As if I needed a crash to make that decision.
• Be even more suspicious when it concerns planes manufactured by Bombardier - it is not the first time something is amiss with planes from these people. Granted, it concerns a different type of aircraft as taken out of flight by SAS, but as all educated Belgians know: "trop is teveel" when you are talking about coincidence. (If you are not Belgian, don't worry about not understanding the pun. We would need at least a cosy evening and some glasses of Duvel to explain the whole thing to you - just mention the name from the article should you find yourself in Brussels and bored one day.)
  
• Next time I'm in Yerevan airport: look out for burn marks on the tarmac.
  

A few years of experience have served me well, and have kept me out of situations where all control is lost ...

Monday is pancake-day.

On Mondays, after the afternoon snack, I pick Joonas up from school and we head to what is euphemistically called art class. Art is relative - most of the time we mess around with paint, flower, dried leaves, glue and soap bubbles, accompanied by some nice songs and playtime. Depending on the age of the artists, part of the output gets eaten, something which is luckily taken into account when choosing the materials.

Joonas loves going, mostly because the teacher every time succeeds in introducing a theme and in making it fun for all ages. Not that he displays any apparent artistic talent, but the nice coloured stains on his (and mine) clothes sure make everything nice and joyful.

After this "fine mess" it is time for pancakes. In recent weeks, Maria (Gerli's daughter) joins us, to eat and play. Two rascals with character, but it certainly livens up the place :-)

Once in a while, we are contemplating looking for a larger place to live in. Ideally, that would be a small house, or a large apartment with a bit of a garden (so that the kids can play outside without the need of having to find a nearby park).

Living, however, is expensive here, and it becomes more so every day. I often hear people in Belgium complain about the rising prices of houses, but that seems to be trivial compared to what is going on in Tallinn.

For example. An apartment such as ours (the comparison is easy, as all these places have the same floor plan) is now typically advertised with an asking price of about double what we paid ourselves three years ago. I have to disappoint those who would attribute this to renovation - see for yourself on what you could get for that price (*). If we had the pleasure to welcome you in our place already, you will understand that it would be folly for us to ask for less. In any case, if we decide to sell and move on, I am surely going to invest in some cleaning up and a professional photographer...

All the places we have been prospecting easily cost around 160.000 euro. And that does not buy a lot - some 75 square meters in a reasonably safe and accommodating part of the city. No luxury, no guaranteed green area. I hardly dare to draw comparisons with what a city like Gent has to offer, but I have seen recent adverts where newly built apartments in the city centre were priced at about that amount for at least 100 square meters.

The bank would have no problem helping us out. Considering a mortgage over the course of 30 years, they would happily borrow us up to an amount for which we would pay off about half of our current family income. Half. That shocks me, frankly. Two kids typically cost about 26% of the family income. Add to that a 50% payment load, and then I see trouble looming ahead. Never mind a car, or holidays - what about sickness, an accident, chronic diseases that easily may pop up in the next 30 years?

It seems to me that many people risk getting into serious problems in the near future. A tough-to-comply-with loan in a boom-economy with high inflation rates (around 10%, the latest figures say) and a rather underdeveloped insurance market... it all seems a recipe for disaster. Whether or not a bank behaves responsibly offering such constructions is of course another debate.

The problem of others may of course offer new and better opportunities to us. As sorry as we feel for those that no longer can meet their obligations, the fact of the matter is that lower housing prices and a lower interest rate can only be beneficial to us. True, the price of our property will go down too (and probably faster, if we factor in the "location location location" element), but we didn't exactly buy the place as an investment. It was at the time simply cheaper to buy than to rent.

So for now, we sit and wait a bit. Perhaps prices are down more after summer, perhaps there are changes in our family income. The need is not that urgent that it can't wait until after the traditional summer camp. Even though there is increasing pressure. Mattias will start to walk soon, and for Joonas, the place is often too small as it is. Then again, probably any place would be.

(*) Two remarks are in order: 1. The pictures are also under this link - just in case the place is sold and removed from the agents site before you read this. 2. Pille insists that I mention that the interior is "typically Russian". I was more talking about the renovation, but I agree that it is a taste I have never seen in Estonian homes :-)

We wish you all a warm and happy 2008, filled with beautiful days and room for new and exiting things.



A brand new year to discover and to experience, and to be safe and cosy at home...

Joonas has new slippers to trot around in, Mattias enthusiastically bites his new colourful hedgehog, and there is a new supply of chocolate and Belgian honeybread. In short: everyone happy. Especially daddy's mood has dramatically improved after the short visit of uncle Johan and of grandma.

And it is snowing. We are ready for the winter!

There is said to be an audience of people who still check this English blog once in a while and have to struggle with the Dutch version... I might take up this English version again (albeit selectively). But only if I know someone will read it.

So, let me know! Click "comments" under this post and drop me a line if you are interested in resumed translations...

Since our lives seem to be linked to the Euribor these days, we might as well give it a place on the blog...

6 maands Euribor

It is fun to see how well Joonas and Mattias get along. Joonas helps out a lot and gets easier going by the day, Mattias has specialised in charming everybody to oblivion, and both of them take turn entertaining eachother.

A little clip can be seen here. The quality is not too great, but you will get the picture :-)

And while I'm at it posting video: this one finally made it on the blog...

+ 110 EEK (about 7 euro)

... for a taxi, because I had decided to work the weekend in the office, Joonas had locked Pille out on the balcony and I had to rush back to liberate the trapped home forces. A good thing she took her cell phone with her... and that I wasn't in Bucharest...