Steven&co - Estonian tales

The old man and the sea

2008-03-04T09:52:00.002+02:00

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...

Educational travels

2008-02-14T23:01:00.003+02:00

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 ...

Art and "pannkoogimoos"

2008-02-11T13:13:00.003+02:00

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 :-)

Living

2008-01-17T11:28:00.003+02:00

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 :-)

2008

2007-12-30T23:19:00.000+02:00

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...

Ready for the winter

2007-11-03T09:22:00.000+02:00

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!

Audience?

2007-09-18T22:51:00.001+03:00

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...

Money money money...

2007-09-18T22:22:00.000+03:00

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

Brotherly love

2007-09-16T22:00:00.000+03:00

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...

The cost of children

2007-09-15T22:36:00.000+03:00

+ 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...

Joonas live in Liimala stadium

2007-07-08T22:28:00.000+03:00

"Hiire Hüppamine

Hiir ostis endale hüppenööri,
hüppas nagu tuulepööris,
esimesed jalad ja tagumised jalad,
uih! ja aih! Küll hakkas palav!

Oh seda meelelahutust,
hiire nahk vajas jahutust."

It's all about a mouse that has bought a skip rope (hence the choreography) and that got too hot from jumping. The rest of the song has been withheld from our boy's sensitive ears. In the second part, the mouse takes off it's sweaty skin and hangs it out to cool and dry, after which some cats come to claim it, the mouse and the cats fight over the prize and our little mouse - although the winner in the end - finds itself severely disadvantaged on the labour market due to a torn skin...

A bootleg video (8 MB) of the performance can be found here.

Joonas walks!

2006-04-17T22:01:00.000+03:00

He surprised us with three steps on Thursday, but he really got the hang of it durning the Eastern weekend: Joonas is walking. Not very straight, but daddy has been known to walk less steady in his student days :-)

I'll try some movies this time...

8 and 2 MB, if you have to mind the little bytes...

The commentary voice in the style of bad French movies from the seventies (irritating-man-talking-nonsense-through-blocked-nose) has been studied upon and is meant to distract attention from the mess in the house :-)

His highness’ statistics...

2006-04-06T11:11:00.000+03:00

On April 6th

80,5 cm
10 kg
47 cm around the head

One year later...

2006-03-29T11:21:00.000+03:00

Happy birthday, little boy!

One wonderful year has passed. It's all going way too fast, that's for sure...

Starfish and coffee...

2006-03-06T17:32:00.000+02:00

The deadline for the Armenian project is close (actually, it is getting further away the more I pass it).

A few more reports and proofreading nights, and then a seminar in Yerevan on the 15th...

Must...finish...reports (snore)

Joonas vs. Vastlakukkel

2006-02-28T20:18:00.000+02:00

Where did he get the pastry?? Find out from this post...

Interesting weather

2006-02-28T19:56:00.000+02:00

It is snowing a bit today.

See it live on this webcam or admire the result here...

Vastlapäev... with whipped cream

2006-02-28T11:38:00.000+02:00

Today marks another of these special days for the Estonians. Not an official holiday, but celebrated everywhere, "vastlapäev" marks the demise of winter and the end of the cold days. Or rather, should mark that - it has been snowing non-stop and I wouldn't particularly like to say that -8 is a comfortable temperature.

The tradition comes from the countryside, where winters were long, dark and full of nothing to do. The February snow, "higher temperatures" and brighter days were very welcome after weeks of gloomy weather, and vastlapäev was a day to look forward to, particularly for the children who could start playing outside a bit more often again.

The main event on vastlapäev nowadays is the eating of “vastlakukkel”, a piece of pastry that is best compared with a dryer version of a “boule de Berlin”, but filled with whipped cream instead of with vanilla pudding. These pastries are only available here around vastlapäev, and sold out within hours. More traditionally is going down a hill by sledge (or by all means possible or impossible, actually). The one that slides the furthest is considered to have the best harvest in the coming season, which of course is celebrated with liberal servings of vodka.

Even more traditional (but less to my taste) is eating pea soup with "feet and ears" (of the pigsy kind), and making toys out of pig bones and a piece of string.

Hoping for warmer days made me think back of Gent, and of how, by the end of March, the street cafés will start to open again. How it will actually be too chilly to fully enjoy it, and how the sun sinks behind the railway bridge next to the station. How we went home after sunset, looking forward for summer and planning what we would do then, knowing that life was returning to the city again... I miss these things a lot. The comfort of sitting and experiencing the city with friends, without talking too much, just thinking the same thoughts.

Being in Estonia is a fantastic experience, but abroad is still abroad... So guys, when the street cafés are open, and the sun is still out around six: treat yourself to a nice cool Duvel (or pea soup, or white Martini, whatever fashion will rule this year), and greet the city in my name!

Daddy is learning even more Estonian

2006-02-27T22:42:00.000+02:00

Pille is at it again…

Steven: “photo in Estonian is with ph, right?
Pille: “yes, but it is without an h… and actually with an f…”
Steven: “sigh…”

Winter fun

2006-02-27T15:34:00.000+02:00

As strange as it may be in a country where winter seems to last eternally: we had our first real winter fun this weekend! Two days of playing around in the snow and enjoying sunny winter weather.

Pille went skiing (the cross-country type, also called langlauf, but without tracks), and we all went walking in the snow and threw the occasional snowball.

I also tried the Finnish sledge (basically a chair mounted on a pair of very long ice skates), Joonas pretended to be a snow angel and the family got a bit larger with the addition of a snow-little-girl-with-cap and a snow-soldier-in-the-independence-day-parade.

I hadn’t done any of these things in years, so re-living far away childhood memories made it extra fun!

Independence day

2006-02-23T22:59:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow marks one of these rare Estonian official holidays: independence day ("Aastapäev" in Estonian, which, literally translated, means "year day"). Aastapäev is the national holiday of Estonia; explaining that is more difficult than it seems...

The independence day to be remembered, February 24th, 1918, was just that - one day of independence. Before that, Bolshevists ruled, but they quickly scattered before the Germans, who were still marching strong in the beginning of 1918. Hence the one day: the Germans took over the land almost instantly. If it is of interest to you (and if you remember your history lessons): these events are followed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the treaty forced upon the Russians by the Germans on March 3rd, 1918. Under the conditions of that treaty, only Saaremaa (the big island in the West) became German whilst the rest of the country became Russian (in the mean time there was some struggle between White-Russians and Bolsheviks, so I might be a bit inaccurate here). In reality however, the Russians retreated much further, leaving the whole of Estonia under German rule.

Of course, as we know the war was coming to a close by then. Less known however is that the armistice of 1918 wasn't followed by disarmament of the Germans in the Baltics. Accomplishing that took some British intervention, which is why the autonomy of Estonia was accepted by Germany only on November 19th, 1918.

There comes the Estonian republic, one would think. Wrong again - by that time the Soviets were on the move again, occupying about 75% of the territory by December 1918. Estonia then - under general Laidoner and with British aid - fought back rather heroically, and managed to kick out the Soviets and the collaborating Latvian Riflemen by the time the new republic could celebrate its first year of independence. The first civil government followed a bit later, somewhere in 1920. So far for our "short history of Estonian independence". There is much more to tell, but this is a blog and not a history book...*

Just that there is also a "re-independence day" which takes place on August 20th, 1991, but which is not celebrated as a national holiday (the day is known though as the day on which the president traditionally opens up his rose garden).

The national holiday in Estonia is quite an event, celebrated with medals, rewards and cake in the offices. The day before, most offices close after lunch; the day itself is e free day here (which is not very common in Estonia, compared to Belgium). With any luck, you might be able to catch a glimpse of the "military parade" that takes place on and around the freedom square (look in the left corner of this image from 9:50 local time onwards).

This year might offer an extra treat: Kristina Smigun (foto: yahoo! news), the best Estonian cross-country skier and winner of two gold medals these winter games, will be racing for gold over 30 kms tomorrow (12:30 local time). Let's see if there is gold to be celebrated this time...

* Just for clarification: Estonia became autonomous once before in March 1917 under the Kerenski regime, but lost it again soon after the Bolsheviks took power during the October revolution. The importance of that short period is that the Estonian "government" managed to send out several diplomatic missions during that time, which later on proved crucial in securing international support for the young republic...

Daddy is learning Estonian

2006-02-22T23:44:00.000+02:00

I finally found an Estonian language course - one that actually is taking place (all the other courses were cancelled due to too few participants, or were too low or too high in level, or were impossible because I was travelling, ...).

From now on I am learning that strange language I hear on the trollibus every day.

And I can assure you, it is not easy!

The secret life of a baby

2006-02-20T23:52:00.000+02:00

Ah, these wild Saturday nights... For us old folks, it has been a long time past, but apparently babies also go party in the weekend.

This time, the excuse was the first birthday of Meena. So the babies prepared a dancefloor and arranged loud music, and started a party as only they know how.

Mommies and daddies were tolerated, but probably only to assure that there was food on the table. An orgy of milk and cake. Pigs, that's what they are, these youth nowadays...

Digital Tallinn

2006-02-15T00:06:00.000+02:00

Just found this great site via Johns blog: Tallinn.info

It hosts a webcam with a nice view of the old town, and a virtual tour of the city containing panoramic pictures which you can drag around in and which allow you to see a site from different angles.

It also has a whole bunch of very nice pictures - you can even change the music using the bottom right menu, really nicely done! Let's hope Gent picks up the idea one day...

Chilly, isn't it?

2006-01-20T19:28:00.000+02:00

It started on Wednesday: -17,8 in the morning. Thursday showed a cool -18, and today the thermometer indicated -22 (all these temperatures are in celcius; I include a picture in Fahrenheit for those who are interested). During the night one could see -25. The picture is taken this Friday around noon. Outside of the city, temperatures of -35 are reported.

It is pretty warm and comfy indoors, as long as you don't go too close near the windows. At these spots the floor is pretty freezing, and there is even some ice on the inside of the glass.

Snow is predicted for next week; lets hope they are right. No pretty pictures for now though. Just freakin' cold...

His highness' statistics...

2006-01-19T17:58:00.000+02:00

On January 19th, 2006

76,5 cm
9,450 kg
47 cm headspan

Helping daddy with the job

2006-01-05T20:12:00.000+02:00

The past few days have been rather busy managing a project on document management. Reading reports, writing my own reprots, project administration...

This evening, Joonas decided to help me a bit. A good thing that he only found some papers I had used and recycled already, otherwise I would not have been so happily taking these nice pictures :-)

But here it is: document management "Joonas style" - the crime, the discovery, the denial...

Season's greetings

2005-12-21T21:00:00.000+02:00

Cheers! *

* Soovime teile helgeid ja rõõmsaid jõule ning õnnelikku uut aastat!
* We wensen je een warm en zalig Kerstfeest en een gelukkig nieuwjaar!
* We wish you a warm and merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Cheese and raindeer

2005-12-21T20:15:00.000+02:00

We enjoyed a very nice Christmas party yesterday, organised by the e-Governance Academy. It was a very cosy evening of chatting with colleagues and their family, and we dined in one of the many speciality restaurants you can find in Tallinn, St. Michaels. This one is a cheese restaurant - very nice and tasty and with a dedicated service.

A big thank you to eGA for having us there!

"Belgian colony" Christmas party

2005-12-17T20:26:00.000+02:00

The Belgian embassy had a treat for us this evening: a wonderful concert of the Belgian ensemble Collegium Vocale, followed by a cosy reception featuring some very nice Belgian beers (including Pater Lieven, Gulden Draak, ...).

A big thank you to the ambassador and his staff!

Trott the Globe!

2005-12-07T11:22:00.000+02:00

I was in Brussels for a few days to attend a conference (read a report on e-Governance Academy news: European Development Cooperation).

Just enough time to hug the family and to launch a valliant effort to save the brewery of Hoegaarden... and the Duvel brewery as well, while we were at it.

His highness' statistics...

2005-12-01T21:22:00.000+02:00

On december 1st, 2005

75 cm
8,410 kg
45,5 cm headspan

Tunesian press

2005-11-22T20:50:00.001+02:00

A free and frank press, important enough to care for... Ah well, have a look for yourself at the Tunisian press and let me know if your impression fits mine. You can find the special covering the summit (the French abbreviation is SMSI) here.

The good sir Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (friends may call him Ben Ali), featuring prominently in the newspapers, is the beloved president of Tunisië. Not quite the "président fondateur de la république", but something that resembles the concept very closely. More courageous Tunisians told me that the man was kind enough to pay the old president a visit, 18 years ago in the middle of the night, merrily had the old man declared senile and unfit to govern and climbed the throne himself.

For those interesting in reading up on Tunisia, here's the link to two little articles orginating from the website of Amnesty International (1, 2).

Postcard from Tunis

2005-11-18T11:01:00.000+02:00

The event in Tunis is a very busy affair. About 20.000 people and a whole lot of events going on at the same time.

One very nice happening (going on right behind me) is the presentation of the "One Laptop per Child" project. They have a working model here, and it is attracting quite a crowd. More info can be found at laptop.media.mit.edu. And no, you can't buy the thing here - it is only for sale in very large quantities.

Trott the Globe!

2005-11-12T17:58:00.000+02:00

Back from Yerevan (Armenia, indeed), now off to sunny (?) Tunis!

www.itu.int/wsis/

Trott the Globe!

2005-11-01T20:55:00.000+02:00

I will be e-govving in Yerevan November 2nd to November 9th. The first reader who can tell me where that is gets to have a go at it again next time! :-)

http://www.europehotel.am/index.php?t=8

Brrrrr...

2005-10-25T19:54:00.000+03:00

Seen snow already, early morning yesterday; this morning started with a chilly -0,2 degrees... Trying to observe the breathclouds walking on the sidewalk out of the windows of a cold trolleybus, slightly changing course to hear the first crack of the first thin layer of ice on the puddles, pondering wether or not to get out that cap already (wherever I put that thing away for the summer). Good thing that I am not in Belgium, where it is now an unhealthy 20 degrees :-)

Luckily, one of the nice things of being your own boss is that you can work from home quite often. Nice and warm with the baby in the background - bring on that winter!

His highness’ statistics...

2005-10-20T18:59:00.000+03:00

On October 20th

72,5 cm
8,010 kg
44 cm around the head

Developing new skills: grabbing daddy's new camera...

2005-10-03T15:09:00.000+03:00

Ooooh daddy... what are you holding there? Gimmegimmegimme - I want to put it in my mouth! Oh, it's flying away again...

Digitally yours, again

2005-10-02T15:25:00.000+03:00

I had to do a month without one, but I finally managed to buy a new one digital camera - as from today, I can terrorize the family again with a brand new Canon Powershot A510.

It must be said that Canon has the best optics in this price range, and enough reputation to convince me of sufficient quality. Anyway, the choice for this A510 with "only" 3.2 megapixels was not made lightly; I spent evenings on the internet and roaming the shops to find the best deal for sale in Tallinn - the A510 was a logical choice. Not the most sexy camera available (for some serious drooling, check out the Olympus Stylus 600), but a decent little thing with two undeniable advantages: it uses ordinary AA batteries (rechargeable, courtesy to mother nature) and has an optical viewfinder instead of only an lcd screen. Call me old-fashioned... This camera will take me some getting used to though, the flowery taste of autumn has to do as a first try (it is cropped from 2048x1536 to 640x480 - so don't draw any conclusions as to quality yet).

Now how much did all this cost? 178,85 € for the camera, a nice Case Logic pouch for 6,09 €, a superfast memorycard SanDisk Secure Digital Ultra II 1 gigabyte 101,92 € (which, plugged into my laptop, doubles as emergency external memory for documents), and a bit of extra power provided by the new 2500 mAh rechargeables from GP for 18,91 €. 305,77 € in all - slightly surpassing my set budget of 300 €. I don't need any extra's any more now though.

A review of this camera can be found on http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a510_a520-review/, where you can also find images of the camera itself.

Opperdeflop...

2005-09-10T15:23:00.000+03:00

Today was the day daddy got to hand Joonas some fixed food for the first time. Not that it was the first time he got fixed food, but I had been away for a few weekends, so this was the first time I could take things (notably the spoon) into my own hands at the noon feeding.

Appelsauce of sweet summer apples with bananamash... Maybe the recipe is something I will remember, or is it that content look of his, the surprise of seeing daddy at the other side of the spoon? Or the fact that he takes everything we present to him with the utmost calm and confidence?

Tears of happiness. Again. Never thought a baby could be so wonderful...