Lent is almost at an end. It's a time for spiritual spring-cleaning, so to speak, and I tried to think about what I have achieved during these give or take 40 days. I counted up the days just now, and I noticed with some amusement that I have apparently not seen any reason to write things down in my calendar during that time. It's mainly because ( Read more... )

   I've been feeling a bit bad today. You see, I sent off that translation I did, and almost by return of e-mail, the client pointed out a mistake, that was simply an extra word I had left in. The other client, whom I wrote the bill for, wasn't altogether happy with my work either, and said she had to correct some punctuation errors and small ( Read more... )

   I went to buy that present for my goddaughter today, and I ended up with pencils, fiber-tipped pens and paper, all of the Moomin brand, and with a card with Mickey Mouse, She loves both of them, she watches them on DVD, and her parents learn all the songs and dances of Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse. I don't know how much she draws these days, but at ( Read more... )

   I'm blogging early for once, just to get this out of the way. And no, I don't have anything planned for later, except for reading about 100 pages of the book I'm going to tell you about on Monday. I don't know if I'll read that many pages, but it may turn out I'll read even more, because that book really is one of my all-time favourites.   It's ( Read more... )

   There are things to celebrate today. It's the end of Purim, so happy end of Purim to all who find it relevant! I may write about the Jewish festivals at some point, because religions and festivals are interesting, but I'm a bit tired today, so I'll let it go for now. It's also Womens' day here in Finland, and Mother's day in many other countries ( Read more... )

   I was reading about national stereotypes on the Television tropes page. It's interesting, this stereotyping, that we all embrace more or less. It's much easier to think of all French people as wearing striped shirts and carrying baguettes, than to see them as a diverse group of people. The stereotypical Finn is someone who carries a knife, gets ( Read more... )

   I've been thinking about stories today. I read The little mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, and it's been a long time since I read it last, but it hasn't lost its charm. We have all seen the Disney version, I think, but I never like the movie versions as well as the originals. And this one was definitely "disneyfied", with so much comic relief ( Read more... )

   That's what they call Valentine's day in Sweden, "Day of all hearts". In Finland, we call it Ystävänpäivä, "Friends' day". I like the Swedish version best, because Valentine's day isn't just for couples. I think friendship is even more incredible in some ways than love. but that may be because I've never been in a long-term relationship. I'm so ( Read more... )

   It's Saturday again, and I spent the day with my parents. It wasn't as cold today as I feared, so I didn't mind coming home by bus and walking home from the grocery store, especially since I bought some chocolate cake. The apple crumble is no more, and I have a sweet tooth, especially before Lent, when I will try to cut down on sweets and ( Read more... )

   It's the 10th, and so I'm going to tell you about what I'm reading. I'm really supposed to tell the other members of the bookworm_memes group, but I haven't done that yet. Maybe I'll try that in March.
   I'm reading Abundance, as I did last month, and it's been a pretty slow read, since I'm reading many other books too, but it's a steady ( Read more... )