Helsinki november night

All the hard working office rats gather around in downtown
in nightclubs and bars to celebrate the time before christmas
and the fact that they still have a job that wasn´t given to the chinese
Maybe later next year it isn´t so but that should be worried later
Now they are happy and drunk
and then they wander around looking for taxi at the end of the mile long cue
the cold wind and the rain sobering their heads
Another low hanging artificially lit cloud making friends with them
Electric blue is the colour to set the mood
--
I´m just an outsider here
always have been
it doesn´t really affect me in any way
Sometimes I want to be an insider
but it´s too late now

Cloudbusting 465

This one has been in the cue for a long time
Waiting for the right time
epiphany
revelation
inspiration
understanding
I know it´s there but it doesn´t come
Now the time is right
to be born again as electricity on screen
Go!

Cloudbusting 464

When I was a kid I had this friend, maybe I call him Sam. We used to play in the basement of their house. It was a large labyrinthine place with couple of naked lightbulbs hanging around there. It smelled like puke and mildew and it was always cold and damp even in the summer. The basement looked just like a crack house but there was no crack or other drugs in Finland then. Not much at least. There was a lot of cardboard boxes thrown in and we used to cut the boxes with scissors to make them look like spaceships, cars or houses. If it was a good sunny day we would take the boxes out to the yard in the small patches of grass between the warehouses and garages. Smoking workers of a tyre company or truck drivers on their breaks would sometimes comment our constructions and offer us cigarettes. They would warn about them too, of course!

Sam was bullied often. He would many times yell back "When I´m grown up, I will come back and have my revenge!" after he was once again beaten after a stupid joke. I sometimes wonder if he ever came back for his revenge but I doubt it. He was more like a clown and he rarely remembered the old fights. Kids don´t often do that anyway.

Then we went our separate ways and didn´t see again as often happens when people go to different schools. Then many years later one murky autumn night when I was walking back home Sam ran towards me in a hurry. He only managed to yell "You stupid piss!" (free translation) until he disappeared without lowering his running speed. Sometimes in the autumn in a similar kind of night I wish he would have stayed a little longer at that moment and say how it´s going and maybe crack a few jokes, but it was not meant to be as he wasn´t that kind of guy.

Cloudbusting 463

November is a month of big contrasts. It´s like a machine with one knob with two positions: ON and OFF. It´s either total blue or total grey. In the space between those two there might be something to see and this is it. My 5 minute chance last week to do some cloudbusting for a ghange.

Weekend reflections: Tapiola central pool

The Espoo cultural centre and it´s reflections in the mirror of the centre pool of Tapiola in Espoo, Finland.


The swimming hall of Tapiola by the same central pool.

These aren´t enormously innovative reflections but I couldn´t resist them while passing by one afternoon at 5 pm!

This was my Weekend Reflections post. See more there all weekend.

Cloudbusting 462

There is sunlight only between 9 and 16
There might be blue skies but that would be rare
I´m just too busy to leave the desk
It´s easier to just bury myself between the chair and the computer
Sometimes I accidentally glimpse the blue sky from this window in the ceiling
If I was a real convict I would want to have at least that much to see
but being in a windowless place would be too much
Why am I thinking about being a convict?
I´m not, I´m just too lazy to go out every now and then
Maybe I should today
but of course, today there is nothing to see...

My World: mailbox

At the previous round of My World I was asked to share a better view of the local mailboxes and here it is. Finnish mailboxes are orange painted metal. The heavy base is concrete and I don´t think I have ever seen one fallen to the ground. Only detail is the lid that is cut from an aluminium profile. The form is very simple. In the middle of the front there is a blue disc for sticker ads of the post. This place usually attracts other stickers too. On the left there is two mailboxes side by side and that is a common solution for really crowded places in the city center. Because there is an even top on the mailbox, this causes that it is sometimes used as a "nightclub-table" and there is often stuff left on top of them. It´s also handy to keep gloves up there while you put in many letters/postcards etc. Remember that people need gloves 5-6 months a year here.

These mailboxes were the results of a design competition in the 90´s. All details of that competition have vanished from the internet so I can´t share the names of designers etc. I will share that later if I find the details.


A better view of the lid. There is also another smaller version of the mailbox that is used in the suburbs. It stands on top of a heavy metal bar and is attached to the ground. The boxes are emptied usually either at 9:00/9:30 or 16:30/17:00.

That was my My World. See more there.