all things me

Once again there is maintenance work going on in the building. In my apartment they’ve changed the balcony doors and adjusted the sauna doors. Recently, they checked the temperatures — that was just last week but now they’re doing it again next week. Why? I have no clue. I’m getting tired of letting strangers wander in my home unattended.

This latest crew left everyone a message (I love to proofread them, by the way) telling what to do while the measuring is going: keep all doors closed, windows closed, air conditioning at a certain setting, and make sure that pets etc. can’t flee.

Er, etc.? What? Spouses? Slaves? Hostages? It’d be a shame to let the ransom money slip through your fingers just because of some stupid construction workers.

Wow, it smells so amazing in here. I just took a plateful of Christmas muffins out of the oven. They’re spiced with dark syrup (delicious, I had to lick the spoon), cinnamon, cardamom, clove, and raisins. Now I’m patiently baking a sweet potato casserole — for one and a half hours. I still have all my presents to wrap but I’ve got all night.

In the morning Dad is going to pick me up (he was hoping I’d come today for sauna, but that didn’t suit my plans…) and I’m going to have rice porridge ready for him. I even bought a bag of mixed nuts so I can have an almond in the porridge (I don’t need whole almonds so I got the nut mix) Rice porridge is a Christmas tradition but I don’t think anyone else in my family likes it. However, when I told I was making the porridge myself this time so that Mum didn’t have to bother with it, Dad complained how he wouldn’t get his porridge then. I said I’d make it.

I wish you a happy Christmas time!

Today I set to assembling the desk I got on Wednesday. The manual had an image on the cover saying I needed two men, a hammer, and a screwdriver. I thought screw it, I’m going to do it all by myself. And you know what, I did.

All I needed was one girl, a hammer, a screwdriver, and a little resourcefulness, so I just had to make a small correction to the instructions:

Next task: the bookcase. I may need to swallow my pride and ask someone to help me with that one because it’s quite heavy.

The furniture delivery was scheduled to arrive today. I got a call yesterday that they would be bringing it sometime between 5 and 9 pm.

I’m taking the next two days off (summer holidays in the middle of winter) so I was working my head off to try and get my tasks at some sensible stage. I was supposed to leave at 4 — didn’t quite manage it. It got 4:30 and I thought I had to leave no matter what. So I did.

Then I got stuck in traffic. I was sitting nervously in the bus, thinking it would be just my luck if they were early. I was thinking like that because then it would be just my luck that they in fact arrived five to 9 pm… which would’ve been better.

Well, at 5 pm sharp I get a call from the post office. I’m still sitting in the bus at this point. They were parked in front of my house. I said I’m there in about 15 minutes and they were nice enough to make another delivery first since it was close by.

I jumped out of the bus, ran to the train, stood nervously in the train, ran to the next bus, sat nervously in the bus, and ran home in the nice and slippery snow mush.

Just in time. I managed to move some stuff away from the foyer to make room for the packages, take a breath, and then I got the 2nd call.

The packages are here but I’ll probably leave the assembly to Friday. I know I’m nuts but I’m leaving to my grandparents early tomorrow, and in any case I have to think how to arrange the furniture in my bedroom.

And now as I’m browsing my bank site I notice they charged it off my bank account instead of my credit card. Good thing I had balance! (And good thing the pay day’s soon, I’m not touching my savings account.)

I did it. I ordered a desk and a bookshelf from a Finnish online store. I’ll hopefully hear from them by Tuesday on when the furniture would be delivered.

I’m not going to say a thing to my parents or sister (or probably anyone who might spill the beans) until I have the stuff here. That’s in case something goes wrong (they are delayed, order’s messed up, packages broken, or something like that) — I don’t want to give Dad yet another furniture-related mishap to snicker about. I’m paying for it on delivery so I don’t have to worry if they bail out on me and the stuff never gets here.

I do hope everything goes well because the furniture I found look sooo lovely (dark wood, yum)! I can’t wait to get my “office stuff” out of my clothes closet (!) and onto the shelves where they belong.

[Edit] Oh yeah, I received an email on Monday (I think they tried to call me first but I didn’t hear the phone in time and they hung up). The estimated delivery is on December 9 or 10. Whee! A month to go!

Got extra money on Friday along with my salary (“vacation money”) and, of course, went shopping on Saturday. I bought a lot! An electric mixer, a deep frying pan (not for deep-frying, just with high edges), a stand for clothes (because otherwise I’d keep them on my chair which isn’t practical), covers for the hotplates, and probably something else, too. But most importantly, I got carpets!

I bought a round grey rug for the living-room. There’s enough red already (curtains and easy chair) and I needed something grey so my couch doesn’t feel too lonely.

I was looking for something, anything, for my bedroom and I found a lovely plum coloured rug.

Yummm. I didn’t have a colour scheme for my bedroom yet so this decided it. It’s great, because plum/purple was a colour I wanted somewhere.

I’ve found a lovely desk but it’s in an online store so I’ll have to think (and ask around) whether I have the courage to order it. And I still need some lamps.

As much as I love living by myself, I’m finding it very difficult to get used to living in an apartment building.

For at least two months after moving in, people were drilling a lot. I’m pretty sure it was the same people because the drilling sounded the same every time. I wonder if they have any room left on their walls…

The drilling has got rarer but what will never go away is the sound of my neighbour’s kitchen drawers. The drawers are loud, I know because mine are too. Unfortunately, their kitchen is on the other side of my bedroom wall. And they are early birds — even on weekends. I’m not because I want to stay up late at least once or twice a week.

I can also hear the blender and the beating or chopping, but the drawers are the worst. They’re driving me absolutely bonkers.

And Dad said, Let there be light: and there was light in a trusty old department store. And Minna saw the light, that it was good.

And Minna said, let there be curtains in the living-room, and let them divide the lights from the lights. And Minna bought the curtains, and they divided the lights which were outside from the lights which were inside: and it was so.

And on the third day of August Minna ended her work which she had made; and she rested on the Sunday from all her work which she had made.

Not before making the resting place of course.

Oven is a dangerous thing, you know. I can’t remember a lot of times when I haven’t burned myself on the upper edge while putting something in or taking something out of the oven.

Today I’ve been making raspberry pie and in addition to forgetting to buy creme fraiche (I had it in my hand but between the shelf and the cashier, it disappeared! It’s missing from the receipt so I didn’t pay for it thankfully.) and probably botching the pie dough (40 g of butter and 10 cookies is supposed to make a dough you can mold?! Yeah, right.), I managed to burn both my arms.

Right arm while putting the pie in, left arm while taking it out. I really need shoulder-length oven mittens. (Or better yet, a head-to-toe padded and insulated safety overall.)

I’ll take a picture of the pie (it’s not very interesting-looking) when it’s done.

I’m so clumsy in my kitchen anyway (emphasis on “my” because it’s just a matter of proportions — mine or the kitchen’s). The hood of the stove is above my eye-level so I’m always bumping my head into it when I cook something on the back burners. I thought of taping some yellow and black warning tape on it or attach some dangly things (beads or something) there. Also the cupboard doors are hazardous because I’m always forgetting them half-open — bruises and bumps are guaranteed when I’m unloading the dishwasher.

Anyway, here’s the pie!

It’s not burned (I had to take it out of the oven a little prematurely cause I had to leave to meet my aunt at the train station) but the cookie colour or butter seeped into the filling. It was delicious, despite the missing fraiche (I used some lemon juice as a substitute for sourness).

My bed (who cares about that) and my TV stand (!!!) finally arrived! Now I don’t have to stare at the floor while watching TV! They would’ve delivered them last Wednesday but I was 400 km away from home — at our summer cottage — so I had to postpone it to this Monday.

I assembled the thing this morning. I had received and assembled that small drawer on the right side of the TV before. First I thought I wouldn’t attach the backboards to the stand (they’re just thin panels that are nailed to the stand) but then I noticed they leave a hole in the middle for all the cords to get through — excellent! Now the cords are in an almost-manageable mess hidden behind the table.

The top drawer (under the TV) holds my remote controls, the bottom drawer is currently empty, the bigger drawers are pretty much unused (I put user manuals there for the time being). I’ll have to think what to put on those lower shelves, I don’t have enough gadgets. Maybe I’ll bring my favourite CDs there so I don’t have to get them from the bookcase whenever I need them.