Snow! Plus Winter Vacation
It’s snowing - for once, because this winter has been the crappiest in a really long time. Last week was the winter break, but the weather made doing any winter activities a bit challenging. Anyway, the vacation was still welcome.
On Sunday Inka and I went to test the new artificial ice ring in Kupittaa. There were a lot of people enjoying skating in the Kupittaa park, and it was really nice I have to say. Inka did a few laps in the ring (she’s still learning, so I just walked with her and helped her up when she fell - which was often, but on the last lap not nearly so much as on the first). We went there in the morning, which was good because later on the day the cooling system broke down (the day was too warm). I’m not sure if it is still fixed, almost two weeks later.
On Monday we'd decided to go to the Moominworld with Inka to see the Moominland Midwinter festival. It was much smaller than last year (you couldn’t go on the ice, because there was none), but you could still ski a little, ride a toboggan, roast goodies on the fire, and of course meet the Moomins and visit their house.
Tuesday was a shopping day - I had promised to take Inka clothes-shopping already a while ago, and so the whole family went to the Mylly shopping hell mall. Found a couple of nice dresses for her, plus some other stuff (including a fancy dragon tail winter hat). Wednesday she spent with grandparents.
On Thursday we visited the Heureka Science Center, which was a blast. Lots to see there, and they have many fun devices you can try and use yourself that demonstrate different concepts of science. Plus a whole separate section for kids to play in and learn at the same time. It’s a place filled with wonder. The new planetarium show about cosmic collisions was pretty mindblowingly spectacular, and the science theater had a fun show for the children about air and gases (of course with live demonstrations of books that burn when opened, things to do with dry ice, what happens when stuff is dipped in liquid nitrogen, etc.) In the evening kaisay went to see a gig, and we stayed at the hotel with Inka, had pizza and read stories. A day well spent.
Otherwise, the vacation was pretty much spent beating the computer into submission - upgrading a RAIDed hard disc array to a larger one turned out to be a much bigger task than expected. But now it works, plus there’s more memory and a new dvd burner as well.
One should have more vacations - they are fun!
On Sunday Inka and I went to test the new artificial ice ring in Kupittaa. There were a lot of people enjoying skating in the Kupittaa park, and it was really nice I have to say. Inka did a few laps in the ring (she’s still learning, so I just walked with her and helped her up when she fell - which was often, but on the last lap not nearly so much as on the first). We went there in the morning, which was good because later on the day the cooling system broke down (the day was too warm). I’m not sure if it is still fixed, almost two weeks later.
On Monday we'd decided to go to the Moominworld with Inka to see the Moominland Midwinter festival. It was much smaller than last year (you couldn’t go on the ice, because there was none), but you could still ski a little, ride a toboggan, roast goodies on the fire, and of course meet the Moomins and visit their house.
Tuesday was a shopping day - I had promised to take Inka clothes-shopping already a while ago, and so the whole family went to the Mylly shopping hell mall. Found a couple of nice dresses for her, plus some other stuff (including a fancy dragon tail winter hat). Wednesday she spent with grandparents.
On Thursday we visited the Heureka Science Center, which was a blast. Lots to see there, and they have many fun devices you can try and use yourself that demonstrate different concepts of science. Plus a whole separate section for kids to play in and learn at the same time. It’s a place filled with wonder. The new planetarium show about cosmic collisions was pretty mindblowingly spectacular, and the science theater had a fun show for the children about air and gases (of course with live demonstrations of books that burn when opened, things to do with dry ice, what happens when stuff is dipped in liquid nitrogen, etc.) In the evening kaisay went to see a gig, and we stayed at the hotel with Inka, had pizza and read stories. A day well spent.
Otherwise, the vacation was pretty much spent beating the computer into submission - upgrading a RAIDed hard disc array to a larger one turned out to be a much bigger task than expected. But now it works, plus there’s more memory and a new dvd burner as well.
One should have more vacations - they are fun!