My living

First of all. I have much improved version of this page. Use this link!

One has very big difficulties to see me from that picture. But our climate is such: then there is extremely dark!

My address is:

Olli Arnberg

Rautakiskonkuja 5 C 32

02600 Espoo

Finland

Moving is November 15th, 1997. Maybe a month after that, I can say something. But it appears to be very promising indeed... The size of that place is quite great: 56 quadratmetres - nearly double of that in Postipuuntie! My wheelchair needs that space!

I live in 2nd floor (when the incoming floor has been named "K"). High enough, that Helmi wouldn't have sudden idea of jumping from balcony. Which appeares to be totally incorrect: she jumped down. And Ökö did that, too.

Lift is quite essential thing for me! Okay, I must admit, that my wheelchair fits very tightly in the lift... But it fits!!

Balcony is extremely big! And it has (how should I explain it) "windows". That makes it usable time many months more (because winters are very cold in this country (and long, too)). And not so much dirt comes in.

Here in Finland, flats bigger than some size (and that size is extremely tiny (because people here are sauna-nerds)) have their own sauna. I have such in this flat... The "kiuas" is heated with electricity. Okay - wood would make better - but that's quite impossible!

Then some pictures before anything. For instance, that horrible colour goes away...

Bed-room

Living-room

And balcony.

My balcony at end of September. Normally balcony isn't usable then. Much too cold. But the glasses are quite magical!

Then pictures about "real" state:

Kitchen

Dining-area (notice the cat-art, too)

Bed-room (normally Helmi isn't that close!)

Living-room. I sit in that chair and watch telly. By the way, Helmi doesn't voluntarily come to my lap - she was given to me.

My computers. They are so important!

Then some (extremely small) renovations to make this apartement suitable for handicapped person. Espoo city payed for that...

Sauna

I'm really tired after sauna. Or relaxed.

Sauna (You know, that word "sauna" comes from our language) is extremely important for us in Finland.

Then quite special Christmas-sauna. Usually that's 24th, but not possiblr with me. I'm holding a 'vihta' (okay, someone call it with a name of 'vasta'). One whips oneself with it. That makes sweat to run fiercely. And quite nice flavour into the sauna.

Bu rhe way, Ökö was there...

According the old religion here in Finland, every sauna has an elf - quite friendly such. Ökö wants to be it!

Okey, on the other side, humans have finally done some good and usable invention.

Sauna-elf should get in. But obviously, that's just no problem with Ökö. She gets in quite rapidly. If she just wants...

This pyjama isn't so good. Because Mika Häkkinen is competing for F1 championship now I know, he won). And against Michael Schumacher. Who drives Ferrari. We have quite a frenzy here. If Scumi wins with dirty tricks, he is in mortal danger...

And then some pictures out from my balcony. As You can see, this is the most horrible time here! But anyway, here are the pictures:

Roomplan

I think, that a link to my previous flat would be very useful!

Then there are some sights from my balcony. Everything changes quite drastically here!

This is a picture of the most depressing day here. Shortest day (or is it longest night (I must ask my astronomy-friend, she knows (and yes, she knew; I don'tr give the exact explanation, You'd hardly understand it))). Anyway it's December the 21st. Winter solstice!

Luckily we have at least some snow. That makes the situation more bearable. Any - even tiny - light reflects from snow (without snow, it's absorbed immediately dark). Without snow, here is really dark.

This snow probably lasts till X-mas. There was a little frost (maybe a few degrees Celsius below zero). So we have some hope! Maybe I should make a special pictorial of X-mas here.

Then the situation in the end of January. This picture has been taken inside my balcony, because there was so awful weather! -14.9 degrees! The variation in last few days hasn't been very big: from -14.3 downto -17 degrees. Cold!
Friday February 6th1998. That's the wiev from my dining-room window. Birds sit in that tree and Helmi likes to watch them...

This picture is time-wise quite near to previous. I thought, that weather report said, that this day is probably the coldest in the whole winter. No!! Maybe I had some quite vivid dream...

This picture has been taken at 2 PM. The temperature was -14C. Coldest temperature in that day was -17C. Okay, I admit, that this was rather cold, but not extremely. Next day the temperature was -3C.

This picture has been taken on March 11th, 1998. This is very beautiful time (okay, one has to be in rather warm place). As You can see, the weather is very beautiful, not even one cloud in the sky. That makes the temperatures vary quite drasticly during the day: highest temperature -3.0C (in very sheltered places, surely above freezing) and the lovest -14.5C.
April 12th, 1998. The weather forecast said, that today we have a snow-storm. I don't say that! Very little snow anyway (You can see it in the picture). But not much, no! Highest temperature was 1.3C (above freezing-point!) and lowest -2.8C. OK, usually we have a little bit warmer in that time.

Ice thickness is about 0.5m. But not everywhere, there are places, where there's just no ice (one friend of mine saw some swans in such). That makes walking on ice very dangerous thing now!

Somewhere it was said, that spring is late this year. But not anymore! Quite intense heat-wave came in last Wappu. Now (that's May 3rd, 1998) the temperature is 23C. And there are small beginnings of leaves (we call those as 'mouse ears').

Mother's day -98 (that's May the 10th). Very warm day indeed. I didn't made any temperature-measurements, but You should just trust me. And my wheelchair is so sweaty! By the way, my house is behind that car-park.

Situation in May the 18th, 1998. Not very many days from the previous picture. But everything happens so rapidly then! The blossoming tree is maple, by the way.

Everythin in Celcius-grades! Lowest temperature was 9.9C. And highest 28.0C. And inside, the lowest was 23.5C and highest 27.9C. I mention these, because I sit in very uncomfortable wheelchair. Hot time is misery for me, pure torture!

May the 30th, 1998. That's quite important day! Because the schools end in that day. Graduation, very important thing here.

Lowest temperature was 7.0C. And highest 20.5C (that must be very incorrecy; maybe the Sun shined to the tremperature sensor). No rain that day. Although it was just...

Long time since my last picture: now is July the 13th. Highest temperature was 26.9C and lowest 15.3C. We had very big rain in the morning and I thought, it rains at least a day or two. No! This picture is takes at 19:00. No clouds, no nothing!

We had very strong thunderstorms last weekend. Maybe this rain was some kind of "afterglow" of them...

August 12th, 1998. This is what I see from my northern window. This picture has been taken at 5PM. Then the temperature was roughly 16C. Highest tempature in that day was 17.7C and lowest 9.2C.

Maybe some kind of pre-autumn is coming - the colour of these trees, that isn't so good anymore.

Our metearological istitute has made a long time-scale forecast - one for the whole summer. and it predicted quite warm weather. I was worried, I don't like hot weather (this wheelchair gets so sweaty thing then). No worries! Because that forecast was quite unreliable.

Septembet 26th, 1998. Autumn is coming! The difference with previous picture is quite dramatical. Autumnal equinox was just a few days ago. Highest temperature was 10.9C and lowest 4.2C.

October the 17th, 1998. Autumn is quite full now. Or nearly gone! There are only a few leaves in trees left. Highest temperature was 7.0C, and lowest 4.9C. Not much difference, eh? This is due to the thick clouds. And we had rain in the evening. But then we had party by Taru Maamies!

Day after this (and night after it) we had really big storm. For instance that Nordic Jet Line had to turn back. I made my Tallinn-trip with it (but that was in the summer, of course).

Everyone asked why we didn't have a big party after great championship (so, this picture was taken on November 2nd, 1998) by Mika Häkkinen. This picture explains the situation. It has been taken near midday, because otherwise it would be much too dark. This time of Year is very depressing: extremely dark, quite constant nasty rain, and then cold.

Highest temperature in that day was 4.0C and lowest 1.5C. Not much change in them. But that is explained by thick clouds.

And the snow came in next day after that announcement! Okay, this picture is from Friday (that is November 6th, 1998). Usually that first snow melta in few hours. But not this. Some kind of meteorologfical things... We had about 10cm (about four inches) of it. But just no problems! That's just very normal thing here, no reason to do any special things (like closing highways or schools). No need!

Now is Wednesday November 11th. And everything is still here! Very unusual thing. Highest temperature has been -2.4C and lowest -10.0C. Cold (okay, in March I'll call it warm). And that snow is still on the branches of trees. Usually that is bown away in first wind. But when the snow melts a little and then freezes. Then it sits there!

That thing is called in our language "tykkylumi". And that happen newarly every winter in the northern parts of our country. But very seldomly here. That's quite deadly thing to trees: it prevents breething, and it's heavy. But who cares - it's so romantic!

Our independence day is on 6th of December (one can see our flag there (blue cross over white background)). That day is full of hyper-patriotism! I must tell about the traditions.

We had three quite bitter was during WWII. Hmm, that was 50+ years ago. But still people remembers those things. After those wars we had just none (and hopefully that thing remains so). But our soldiers worked for UN. Very much so.

All the students march in a torchlight procession (at least here in Helsinki). With student-caps on.

The top of everything is the gala by the president. About 2000 people get invitation to there. That invitation is really big honour - very few decline it.

Very often the temperature is extremely low. Or it snows. Or both of them. No exeption now: it snowed quite heavily. Highest temperature was -3.1C and lowest -5.7C.

December, 22nd, 1998. This is really the shortest day here. OK, in whole northern hemisphere (and longest in southern one; that thing should not be forgotten).

This day was relly cold: highest temperature -4.7C (=23.5F) and lowest -13.1C (=8.4F). And weather broadcasters predicted quite heavy snowing for Christmas. Romantic!

Tuesday, January 26th, 1999. Rather blue. And quite dark picture, too.OK, that darkness is explainen by the fact, that I took the picture between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. And the sun is very near setting then. Of course, partly it can be explained by clouds and so on.

Temperature was from -9,6C (=14.7F) to -15,7C (=3.7F). Cold!!

Next night was coldest in this century (okay, that's in Lapponia, something like 1500 kilometres to the North from here): -51C (I don't know, what that's in Fahrenheits; but really cold). And next night was even worse: -51.5C. There were long breaks of distribution of electric current. Five to six hours. That makes cold houses...

I had quite cold weather, too: -24.5C (=-13.8F). But temperatures inside were just OK: max 23.8C (=65.6F) and min 17.7C (=74,8F) (that seems to be months old). In fact, janitors put much more oompf to burners.

Thursday, February the 4th, 1999. That picture seems to be so dark and gray. But that is explained by heavy snowing then: about one inch per one hour. Janitors must love it...

That doesn't make any big troubles in traffic, though. Naturally traffic is slower then. But everyone understands that. Though nothing bad happened then. Because our drivers know, what to do then. They have to. And wheels of our cars are specially equipped for winter-driving.

Maximum temperature was 2.3C (=26.1F) and minimum -2.7C (=27.1F). Above freezing point! But just no melting happens, only quite nasty ice-layer was formed...

Wednesday, February 17th, 1999. Yesterday we had really heavily snow. Okay, that caused some minor problems in traffic. But (as I have said so many times) not anything major.

Janitors have probably quite colourful language. But those having towing trucks or small garages; they smiled broadly: pennies from heaven.

Highest temperature was -.4C (=31.2F) and lowest -8.9C (=15.9F). Usually, the temperature is very near to freezing-point, when snowing. I wanted temperatures for Wednesday. But (naturally) I forgot that. Now, that's temperature from days Wednesday to Friday.

This piucture is from Friday. And thney have problems with that snow: so extremely much of it.

So pretty sight! That might be harmful to trees, but who cares: they look so beautiful!

Quite clear sky!!

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