Xmas blues

It is this time of the year again: Xmas. As a kid is was much waited for. In Finland the Santa visits the families on the 24th in the evening. The kids get to sing to the Santa, and even sit on his lap. Smaller kids start to cry as they're afraid of this strange man who brings presents, but who also CAN bring twigs if the kids haven't been nice.

No matter if the Santa sounds a bit like uncle Oiva who lives next door, you believe in the real Santa anyway. If you don't, you might not get presents!

Anyway, as the time passes, things change, and although Xmas is still very special time of the year it comes with the Xmas blues. At least to me it does.

You notice that yet another year is gone, and your spare tire is still on your hips despite your decision in the beginning of the year. And no, you didn't get that personal project done. 

And if you live abroad like I do you're not still fully integrated within the local populace. You do have social contacts, but your relatives and closest friends are often so far away that a quick visit isn't really an option.

 

Oh well.

 

At least it is not cold over here (thus, no skiing this Xmas, either)...

 

But, at 3km there is snow. Not much, but anyway (this from last Sunday)

Strange, how we get used to things

While sitting onboard a ferry I just realized how much I have learned to rely on mobile data. Mobile nets are not reachable for most of the journey, which feels really strange.
Should I get worried for my addiction?

A strange webshop experience

I had a very strange webshopping experience the other day. I wanted to buy stuff and expansys offered in this case the things I wanted. I've bought from expansys.co.uk earlier, so I though "why not".

Then I noticed that they have a local, CH website, contact information and all and I thought "Great!".

So, in shopping frenzy I put the goods in the shopping cart, headed to the cash register, typed in my credit card information and I was a bit surprised to notice that the "Verified by Visa" question didn't come.

Thought nothing of it, until the next day I received an e-mail asking me to scan my credit card and ID/Passport and upload them to their website.

WHAT?!?!

They must be out of their mind!

Certainly I expose myself to the identity theft by scanning my passport - NOT! I stay away from their website from now on. Search continues...

Wholegrain sourdough rye bread

This is how my SO is making sourdough ryebread, Finnish style. It is adopted, more precise version of the way I used to make the bread before we met, which was borrowed from the Kotiruoka -book published by Otava.

Here it is:
The sourdough starter:

• 1dl sourdough from previous attempt (if not available, look at the bottom of the recipe)
• 1l lukewarm water
• 600gr wholecorn rye flour (in Switzerland the Roggenschrot fein, available from COOP for example, works well. The flour available at Landi is too blond).
  

Mix the sourdough with the water, and then add the flour. Mix well so that you get a smooth mixture.
Let ferment under a cloth in room temperature from 1-3 days, depending on the temperature and how sour you want it. I use 3 days. Mix regularly, at least once/day. The mixture starts bubbling, and if you don't mix often enough, it will look funny. Don't worry: unless it turns orange or catches mould (grey hairy stuff) it'll be fine.

The final stages:

• about 40gr yeast
• 1dl water
• 900gr wholecorn rye flour
• 1tbsp salt
  

Mix the yeast into the water so that you get smooth liquid. Pour that, salt and the flour to the bowl with the sourdough. Mix well, a couple of minutes. Take 1-2 portions of the dough and freeze them for the next batch you'll be making.

Let ferment for a couple of hours.

Knead the dough down, and form 3 or 4 balls from the dough, and place them on the baking sheet covered with baking paper. Let them rise for 1-2 hours (depending on the temperature and your preference), and put in pre-heated oven (180C, 50 min in convection oven, 200C and 1h in a traditional oven).

If you drum the bottom of the bread with your finger it'll sound a bit like a drum when the bread is ready.

The taste is best when the bread is still warm, but it is a bit harder to slice. Also: fresh sourdough rye bread is hard on your stomach, don't eat more than 2-3 slices before you're used to it. After 2-3 days it is easier to your tummy.

And about the starter: the best is if you can "borrow" the starter from somebody. If that is not possible, I've heard that you can use 2-3 slices of a sourdough bread or Finn Crisps instead. The dough will get better in the subsequent rounds, though, so please be sure to save some.

If you live in Switzerland, drop me a line and I'll put some dough via Post.

Please notice that it can happen that the dough go bad. You might want to save samples from a couple of earlier batches in case this happens to you.

The ladies spend almost 10 months of their life selecting clothes

I already knew this, but now it has been proved true: the ladies spend quite bit of time in front of the clothes rack.

And rightly so, they look stunning!

A nice customer service experience for a change

I just wanted to tell about a wonderful customer service.

I ordered a case for my phone from expansys.com. It arrived as promised (apart from the fckup on the part of the courier, didn't find the bloody address at first).

The case was nice, and light. I used it every day.

Last weekend I noticed that it is coming apart. It was splitting. I had used it just for 2.5 months. Blah!

I sent an e-mail to expansys people asking them what to do.

They're sending a new one, no hassle!

Hmm. I'll probably buy stuff from then in the future.

Stupid radioshows

wonder why every radio station has to have
two radio ‘announcers’ making the program. Isn’t music good enough? Is
it too expensive to broadcast just news and music, so that the stations
have to put two dimwits on the air to fill the waves with cheap noise?

And what it is with these endless call-in shows? Who listens to them? And who calls in? I certainly don’t know anybody who does.

ARGHHHH!

On rush hour traffic

Why on earth car drivers HAVE to drive on to the intersection, when they clearly see that they have to stop and block the crossing traffic?

What do they think they’ll gain? They just stop other people from getting to their destinations.

I
can understand that sometimes you just misjudge, or are too deep in
your thoughts that you make a mistake. I make a similar mistake maybe
once a month. But looking the traffic it seems to me that 2/3 of the
drivers left their brains behind when they started the engine.

What is God?

have often wondered, why people find it
mandatory to believe in something greater than you, often labeled as
God. After turning 15 or 16 I have started to think that there is no
God. I cannot find any evidence of God’s existence, and much of what
goes on in the world seems to me to prove that there indeed is no God,
or not atleast a God that is good, as Christians preach.

I
find the consept of God a good one, though. Many find the believe
consoling, and the religion helps some to get rid of alcohol, drugs etc.

On
the other hand I’ve often wondered the fervor with which some atheists
deny the existence of God. If the God doesn’t exist, why bother? The
fact that some people believe in God doesn’t hurt any more than some
other (often young) people believe in Santa Claus.

And nobody can agree on what God really is. Not even persons who have the same religion. Oh well!

Do you want to know what plausibility quotient of your idea of God has?Lookie here!

Of life and tv shows

Sometimes it is unnerving how real live and tv shows resemble each other.

I was driving to work in the morning rush hour, when I noticed what
the passangers in the car next to mine looked like. I almost drove off
the road.

I was driving with the characters from "The League of Gentlemen"! (http://www.leagueofgentlemen.co.uk/)