Photoshopping

The title is not derived from the word 'shop' and it doesn't mean anything like Shopping for pictures. It's derived from a little well-known thingie caller Photoshop. Meaning that i'll sort out and adjust my pics and the entries on Dresden, Paris and wherever I might have been will be renewed and finished.
Before this, I'll give you a cool recipe. For food. Take some olive bread and garnish it with smoked salmon and pesto genovese. Lovable.

Meow.

I went to see the little brothers and sisters (or cousins or what) of Tähti. I'm too tired to write soemthing witty, maybe I'll add some rants later, but here's the pics. There are five little ones and a bigger one with their respective mothers. The little pointed (i' e. with brown nose) is still available and it's a boy, if I remember well:-)

Little things.

I did the cleaning. I wrapped my books. I'll go reading and knitting. I'll go to the gym (I was there on Monday and my abs started to hurt today). I'm putting down some crap which will become my thesis one day. Nicely, quietly..... something exciting will follow tomorrow. Lots of pics.
Yeah, and I made some pesto and it's delicious.
And I have to add, my dearest sweetest mother called. Among other stuff I told her that I'll bring the cat to her place next week probably - and she seemed to have jumped two metres, started screaming that I'm not bringing anything.... and when I reminded her, that she said that i can bring Tähti, she said nothing and just insisted that she wants no cats in her house and that it's all my problem and that she had not allowed me getting any pets (here I'd like to remind readers that I'm 27 and sane) and that it's all my problem what I'll do with the cat. It's not fair. To announce that the cat in her house is ok, let me rely on it and then claim the opposite - and even less fair is throwing the thing on me, as if it was me who changed her mind and did it for malicious reasons. Damn.

Everyday boring life

My fridge looked like this: the poor things are a bit of garlic salami, not edible unless used in trace amounts for sauces or something, a bit of mustard, yeast, olives (bad ones, I'll have to find one who likes them) and pickled chilli peppers. Three carrots and five aged zucchini and no pasta to eat them with. And a can of beer, which Kirsi has forgotten here or it grew by itself in the fridge. I don't drink beer and I even don't buy it. There were also a bucket of yoghurt, bowl of salad and a pack of mascarpone, all half eaten. Oddly enough, the salad just smelled suspicious but I noticed that for yoghurt, there's a yellow mold that smells like mold, whereas mascarpone rots pink and smells... yuck. I did some throwing away (not throwing up, it wasn't that bad)... and realized that well, I can eat rice and legumes but still, there's the high time for going shopping. And eating plain rice and lentils sucks. The basic problem is that I'm broke (and I mean broke.There's next to nothing remaining in the bank and I just need something for emergencies or disasters. And for even worse disasters, there's the piggy bank, but it's untouchable until the house falls down or something...) so I have to suffer conscience pangs and use my father's credit card. Or starve. Okay, I shouldn't have spend last of my money for things like gift for Linda and yarn, but... but anyway. I went to the gym and then to food supplying expedition. So I upgraded my fridge thusly:
Not that it was to feed an aircraft carrier for a month... but there're a few packs of stuff in other places to go with these. Notice that there are lots of proteins. I've been lacking them lately, somehow. Especially in form of smoked salmon:-). After all, they say that smoked salmon contains something that erases wrinkles and, and more importantly, makes one think better. So if I'm to graduate this year, I need it anyway.
And a big shopping is a workout for free.... I hate workout and I hate shopping, especially when I left Tesco, where I walked some five kilometers to find the proper derivates of fermented milk to satiate my palates. Or, in normal, street English, I felt like having some cheese. And while dragging five bags of something in the hot June air, which gives you the feeling that someone is beating you with a washing cloth dipped in hot, dirty water, I just wondered why the hell I'm stinking (both metaphorically and literally, I cannot help sweating and this weather is beyond imagination of deodorant-makers) here, in Prague, of all places? Why the hell I'm not in the mountains, watching the stars? Hiking and taking photographs of flowers and... and something?
Remember my ginger? The ugly, odd-shaped bulb of the end of May? I installed it in a flowerpot and today it dug its way up to the light. A lovely nice little sprout. My basil is doing ok and there's a sprout of something else between the tiny basil plants, probably something from the previous content of the pot (I think I was planting dates.... no idea, but I vaguely recall sticking some seeds into soil). I just wonder how a ginger plant looks like. And i should invent some name for it, leave the proposals in comments, thank you.

On graduating.

I went to school (decided not to take the exam, I'm oversaturated with data and cannot absorb any more) to see a guy which was not there and I needed to sign some papers so the other job for the day was to go to the notary. I had to wait there for nearly two hours so apart from texting people, deleting unnecessary numbers from my cell phone (Should people like Hanna know who I am, they probably still have my number somewhere in case they needed me....), I started counting my credits. I've nearly done my fourth year as far as credits are concerned (and at the end of third from the time-of-study point of view) and I cannot say for sure at which stage of study I am, because it is a total mess. We don't have to do one exam after another or in any other specified order. So I do them without any system. And I realized that to be finished, I have to do:
8 various exams
4 papers, thesis included
exam on everything after third year of study
exam on everything after fifth year of study
and that's it.
Basically, I can be finished before Christmas.
I send a message about that to a friend of mine, adding that it calls for a stake. She texted me back that I can do it. I texted that yeah, ok, bottle of something, year 1979. She assured me again that I can do it. I added that should there be some obstruction of bureaucratic character or other problems not on my side, then the first possible date after Christmas counts. She asked whether wine or port.
So I hereby declare that I plan to do my final exams before Christmas.

I'm alive.

I'm alive after having passed four exams in a row. Okay, something was a bit of pure luck, like the Italian one, I thought it was going to be ok, after all, my Italina is ok... but I forgot to consider that i speak it, i don't have any practice on grammar or things and some of the verb tenses I saw in the test for the first time. I was just two points above being kicked out. And I felt so ashamed. I promised the professor to read at least one Italian fiction book during summer.
Otherwise I managed somehow as well. Too well, which means that if the world has to keep stable, I'm gonna be failing next week.

Cool.

I'm aiming at a record, six passed exams in six working days. Weren't it for the weekend, it would be much more impressive.. but that cannot be helped. Today's historiography went far too well to be true. In fact, I had a bit of fun. I went to have some stuff signed and the woman at history department needed to examine all the people or what before she would spend a minute with me and I was just chatting with people (no, I didn't study or something before) instead of at least reading the stuff and I confess, I hoped for pure luck. And as my father says when my mom happens to manage something, stupid farmer has the biggest potatoes. I was the last for the cam, the guy ushered me into his study and said Wait a minute, I need to do something. He has an impressing collection of books so I was looking at them. Just in case there was something useful. (No, this one doesn't have any contacts in Sweden or any other interests there. I asked quite a time ago) He has also a habit of asking students how are they doing, where they come from, what they like doing/researching and idunnowhat. So he came back and said something like yeah, books, you know, there's not always what you need in the libraries... and I replied Don't tell me, I'm writing my thesis and there's absolutely nothing for the theme in this whole country... So he asked what the thing is and i replied St Bridget of Sweden... He exclaimed Oh, it's you! Heaven sent you, I knew that there was someone doing some Swedish stuff but I didn't remember you and no-one was able to tell me. So you could maybe help me with this.. and started explaining something about writing an article and finding a quote about Revelaciones and there's no Czech translation (okay, there's one from around 1400) and the Latin edition is available, uhm, volume VIII only for whatever the reason. And it's online. And I know where:-). So I promised to send him the link... and we had a nice chat about our research projects. Asa bonus, when I was leaving, there was a guy at the copier in the foreroom. He seemed vaguely familiar and when he turned around, I recognized that he was one of my previous professors from long time ago. And he was so curious, what am I doing, where I live and where I work and what I publish - here I asked whether he meant the publishing house or my own stuff and he asked for my stuff - and just a few weeks ago the history book for the sixth grade where I supplied a chapter on art was printed. Eight lousy pages as a result of three months fighting with the editor. But there's my name. And he wanted a copy and seemed to be quite happy. The guy who scares students hundred kilometers around... So I got a nice dose of self-confidence today.

leftovers

Passed another exam marked Non-European art. Japanese in my case, everything of it sucks but for whatever the reason, I have a bit better attitude to Japanese stuff than, say, Mexican. I managed somehow with quite a good result, in fact I supposed that the guy would let me pass out of sheer compassion...


Should you be interested how my knitting goes, the thick winter jumper rests in the wardrobe and will remain there, now I work on the silk thing. s it showed, it sort of grew (no idea how) to be too wide for a tank top. So I decided that stump a base for a nice silk sweater and the plain cable was substituted by a tree pattern. I have a idea how to do the upper part but i have no idea how will that look like. Some people say that I'm chaotic. I am.
To take the pic (see, it's going ok!) I had to clean up half of the kitchen (the other half is furniture) and as it goes, the self-proclaimed queen of the house somehow appeared in the pic and then mysteriously was back in the armchair in another room. The mag on the right, with the black and white pic, it's a pet extra of Russian Vogue. Irresistible, although it cost me a fortune... But I'm a good girl.

A friend is going to move to my place sometime next week. Linda, the red-haired from my birthday party pics:-). Her flatmate/landlady left for two months plus and left her in the middle of an apartment.. or rather a construction site with one decent room of three, adding that she should pay the whole rent and find some flatmates or something and take care about the construction works. So she desperately asked for help and as there's no-one for the summer, i'll have some company. And fun. Expect some party entry around next week.

Sick tired and sleepless

Kirsi left yesterday and emptiness spread around the house. Maybe it's the heat that makes me feel so tired - yesterday I came home at five, staggered around the kitchen for a while and then just fell to bed... I got up, friends were invited, cooked some potatoes and panna cotta (the easiest dessert in the world and one of the best). It didn't help my awful mood, though. Nor the storm which cleaned the air a bit. So today, instead of studying a bit before another exam (okay, passed the yesterday's one, if you ned to know), I was leading my complicated social life on the internet. And Her Stellar Majesty found another interesting place to lazy around.

Busy day

I had meant to go out. In the morning I decided that I wasn't going anywhere, no way, study reasons.
Then I got to the kitchen and Kirsi told me that there's enough for one more coffee. I thought she meant hot water but it was the coffee which was used out. A few months ago mom had sent me somehting like three jars and I sort of thought that there's coffee enough. Kirsi reminded me that she had already bought another jar a few weeks ago
I still didn't plan to go anywhere but after something like 11 I craved for my regular dose of caffeine and moreover, the piece of ginger started to turn green. Like this:
Usually when food starts turning green, it means nothing good. But the ginger is sprouting - so after a question to my botanist friend, 'Will it grow if i dig it into a flowerpot?' and his answer, 'Sure', I realized that I needed not only coffee but also a flowerpot. So I set off for Ikea, a grand ocassion to have a nice hotdog of definitely a poor quality but I like it and a few toxins won't kill me. And I checked whether nes volumes of Bonniers Lexikon had not appeared - they did not. *
On the way from Ikea I dropped in Tesco and got the flowerpot; they have them cheaper in the flower shop in the next street but that one happens to be closed on Sundays and I didn't want to delay the action.
And when messing around Tesco, I got a knitting magazine hoping that there might be a hint how to make the lacy paterns. There wasn't much useful but this leaf pattern will be useful - the principle was explained quie well and now it needs just a few brain cells to apply and creatively widen the possibilities.
My tank top (?, haven't decided about the upper part yet) is going okay. I ripped the moebius strip, made another moebius strip (only idiots do the same mistake twice) and the third attempt seems to work. I got some ideas for future cool sweaters so we'll see. The leaf pattern, although there are at least three mistakes in the test piece, did enormous things to my self-confidence. (those particularly dedicated can guess what exam I do on Tuesday....). The yarn is undyed, I'll do something about it when the whole piece is ready. Silk dyes nicely and this colour, I myself would call it grey plague, is no good.
I also discovered a jar of tomato puree. opened, half empty, not turning green yet but who knows. Add to that a box of eggs in the fridge and the idea that a nice heap of pancakes could improve the day is evident. I thought about pancakes caprese (apart from usual stuff, add the puree, basil and mozarella - in this case it was some stale parmesan). I proved to be a bit moronic when I grabbed the first flour I found and it was roughly ground..... To keep the stuff together, I had to add the fine flour, another half a litre of milk and as a result, the caprese thing was a bit dissolved.However, the result is nice, orange and tasty and to boost my self-confidence even more, I learned how to turn the pancakes in the air.


*To explain to the rest of the world: for whatever the reason, in Ikea in this cuntry, they have swedish books in the shelves to demonstrate that the shelves good look with books in them and they don't mind if someone takes them. And they change them from time to time - I just wonder whether all the two dozens of Swedish language students go to pick something to read or whether they pass it on to, say, France or Nigeria.

Nearly perfect.

I was out of the town and it was cool. I'll do such things more often.
Yesterday I had an itch in my hands, it was caused by the bad world all around and general discomfort and the 18 balls of silk yarn hidden in the wardrobe only increased it. So I went to the gym which was a particularly bad idea, regarding my hurting knee and on the way back I dropped in the department store to get a 3mm circular needle and spent hte whole way on the metro by thinking what whall I do. Well, in fact I was reading Populärmusik från Vittula, this book always improves my shitty mood. But meantime I was thinking about the patterns. I cannot do anyhting lacy and as they had colors only for vegetable fibers, I had to give in the idea of a creative evening and dirty kitchen. So I thought up a tank top with cable pattern, casted on 210 stitches at the third attempt (couldn't get enough for the tail) which showed to be 204 after I started the pattern and today, after some effort on the train and in similar situation I got this: Moebius stripe. I'm ripping now and I'm pissed off. Damn pissed off. (And i was in a bookstore where they had a kilomoter of shelves labeled Hobbies. There was basically everything, from marquetry to embriodery, including masterworks like become a Zen master in ten easy steps but no damn book containig some instructions how to knit those cool lacy patterns. Damn life.)

Thursday and things

After having done nothing for most of the day - as usual, sleeping, studying, eating, drinking enormous amounts of coffee... but stop, almost no eating, in fact, because I was sick. I made some lentils before I went to my dance class, but just because I wouldn't want to be falling.
There has been something wrong with my knee. Probably I pulled a tendon in the previous lesson so I kept it bandaged and it settled... until after ten minutes of the dance class. Then I cursed myself for the following 80 minutes because it started to hurt like hell.
I felt down all day long. There was some bad news on Wednesday, every other person is pissed off by me or something and in some it got such proportions that I thought about using the picture gallery of my friends on my fridge door as darts target. However, I survived.
Not that today would promise something exciting. Tähti has grown annoying and every morning she howls and wants food (I'll buy some crappy granules as soon as possible) instead of nicely miaowing and wanting a cuddle as it used to be until some five days ago. So I grabbed her (howling) and took her for a walk. Twenty minutes outside proved to be effective and she's sleeping in the armchairs since we came back (howling - she liked it outside:-))
I should knit something. My hands feel neglected.

Nothing. niente. ei mitään.

I'm stuck home most of the time and believe it or not, I'm studying, writing my school papers and hanging online just meantime. Well, today I went to buy paper and have a coffee with a friend and it took four hours.. but she just needed to talk and as she seemed to be damn unhappy...
So here I am, at the com, trying to read something in German (one of the languages I do not know), Tähti is sitting in my lap and nothing happens.

My birthday party

I made myself a nice cake. First I thought that cake with candles is a bit childish for my age (27 in papers, around 150 judging from my cynicism) but after a discussion with a friend who was storngly for - there's no fun without candles and things - I decided to make one. Should i decide se a bit earlier, I'll have someone to bring me one... but on a short notice, it's a bit problematic. And one can never rely on people, they have so disgussting cakes in the Tesco-like places and a decent place makes cakes on a special order usually. And anyways. So, I made one.
As for rose wine, I like it. It's sort of funny and I discovered an odd predilection for it some months ago when I went to buy something to pour on my stewed veggies. For veggies, it's white only - red changes color to weird and disgusting. However, I found the rose shelf filled with usual rose things.... and a Chateau Tetrapak rose. I didn't know whether I should laugh my ass off or whether to faint of surprise.... a wine for homeless connoisseurs? and apart from some muscatel (ok with zucchini, peppers, green peas, a tiny bit of ginger and some good, nice fresh tomatoes, for example) I got a bottle of good nice rose for my pleasure.. and stuck with it since. Actually, my wine-loving friends, upon having heard that there's the no-quality rose as well, wouldn't believe me at first and then checked that I don't invent stories, fell for it as well. Anyway, I installed the candles, meantime Birgitta got stuck in conversation with Kirsi, my flatmate and were happily ignoring me.... Anyways, that's me blowing the candles, if you haven't already guessed it:-). Rare pic where I don't have a double chin. By the way, there was nothing left of the cake, next time I have to make more of it. Most of it disappeared within twenty minutes and that's the approach I like. People eating and enjoying it. it seems that the cake was my last decent meal for a few weeks... Diet sucks indeed, but it has to be. There's special offer iceberg lettuce in the local Tesco so I'm a rabbit these days.. luckily, I like iceberg an things like that. Hitherto. I'll let you know after a few weeks how I feel about carrots and high-fibre bread. Maybe I'll turn green (You are what you eat, isn't it:-))). However, apart from five botles of wine (thank you, friends), I got a chocolate from Jakub (he commented it that it's a good one, but with too much cocoa in it and that he actually dislikes those and has had it at home for quite a time and hopes that there's no worms inside) and a bag of Mozartkugeln from Barka, the official party photographer, as it developed, who had been to Austria (she said that she had to tie the bag with a ribbon and staple it, or else she would eat it whole), and a book of Vysocky's poems, translated, of which I happened to read the very morning before and left a message to Barka and she was sooo absolutely nice to pick Linda and they went and got it together and said that the bag in which they packed it was almost more expensive than the book... so there's not only gift recycling but also gift wrap recycling. Long live ecology.
Tähti showed to be a great party animal. She is very social and after first few minutes when she was a bit nervous of so many peopl around, some of them walking on their four, calling kisukisu and wanting to grab&hug her, she started walking around (on people's laps, of course) and had her great time as well. She's still asleep around now....

I have to share this.

100% silk yarn. For 27 CZK per ball. Which means some funny 540CZK per kilo. Or 20euros, if not less. It's undyed so I'll see to it and make somthing totally cool.
Note also the other contents of my table. typical intellectual mess. The folio on the upper left is a diy copy of first volume of Imagines Sanctae Birgittae by Aili and Svanberg, the basic thing to start with my thesis. An Arvo Pärt CD. Never met anyone who would fit into the general idea of normal person and listen to Arvo Pärt. The steel thing on upper right is bookweight (based on the example of paperweight; designed to keep books open and nt floating around in the wind) by Sagaform. One of the coolest things I have. Most of my space is covered by such a mixture of odd objects and mess is my natural habitat.
Meantime, I went voting, created my birthday cake (I'd never say how difficult it is to get the birthday candles - those thin, small ones....) and it's great. There should be some details done more neatly but I'm no professsional cook so I can dare for a minimal imperfection. However, I cook good. Just to warn some random guys: it doesn't mean at all that I'm a housekeeper, no, thank you. I'm an artist.

Back home

This welcomed me when I arrived on Monday morning, a bit used up and definitely not ready for cleanng or something. I don't remember leaving the yarn around, but cats are cunning bastards, i can quite believe that Tähti opened the wardrobe hwere I think I had stored it. Note the white carpet - it would be every cat's favorite place for puking on.
Anyways, I rewound the ball, blogged some stupidity and went to parents', as promised. And needed to get a paper that I can vote outside of my original place where I'm still registered, which was the main reason.
I mentioned my cousin getting married. So... we got the invitation. I had expected, knowing the family, that the weding was going to be kitschy romantic... but the invitation hints that it's gonna be überkitschy and everything. Golden envelope, inside there was a golden sheet of paper with some embossed flowers or what, bound with a white and gold ribbon. Inside this paper there was another one, thin white with golden print, curly letters saying what and where. And regarding that the guy is French and as fas as I reckon, In France a small wedding is something like 80 people.... Oh my. So there's not gonna be a bride in a big (rented) dress with a crinoline. There's gonna be crinoline and a trail and million metres of synthetic lace, bridesmaids carrying the veil, plastic-looking cake dyed pink, as in the most disgusting American soap operas.... And thus I decided for a subversion. Regarding that the bride's parents are damn snobs... who however don't have the class (it doesn't mean that they're not nice people... i mean something like when they have the table set with salad cutlery and normal cutlery and dessert cutlery, they cannot make the difference but hey have it in such a way, because it looks posh....), I think the coolest subversion is to look better than bride. Apart from her, I can wear a flame red Versace dress with bare back and dance on the table, should it be the case.... The only problem is that the abovementioned dress is a size smaller than I (which explains why I'm hungry now). But... we'll see. On every posh-looking ocassion like this, something funny happens. I'll inform you when the time comes.
I didn't have a clash with mother, although I could. She is checking the internet for traces of me again, probably because I erased my old blog which she did find. She checked my drawer, too. My drawer! and she didn't have decency enough to keep it for herself. Well, she didn't say Oh, i just wanted to know what things there are so i read them thru.. she commented that I pay too much for library fines, i said that it's not anything I would describe as too much and she said something about hundreds (CZK, 28 of them for euro, moreless)... so I got it, those were the bills for international loans and I just store them in my drawer along with some office mess. My drawer, what the fuck she thinks....
And now I'm back in my Prague appartment and I'm wasting time.... and no-one is checking how much I spend on what or how much photocopying I do - mom decided that copying it useless, because I should learn what's in the books or articles. (And because there were no copiers whern she was at the university, so I don't need it either....). made my record, 654 pages of Medeltida skulptur i Finland within three hours. I just wonder whether the copiers still emit so much ozone.....

I mustn't disappoint you

So, i made a few pics in Paris. They're not photoshoped, I don't have the thing here so you might expect an update later.