Outside. Of the box.

It's like Peyton Place, they say. They have a fan page in Facebook. You know them by their first name. They reprehend you for moving (300 meters up the street) because they won't see you anymore. Thus you have to start liking their Facebook page or they won't give you boxes.

They are a supermarket and its staff in Helsinki. When I first lived in Canada, it used to drive me mad that everyone at the cashier got chatty at the end of my tiring working day. It's difficult to get the words "I'M GREAT!" out of your mouth when at best you're feeling kind of ok. In Helsinki the cashier will be as grumpy as you, only during years do you develop a relationship that is very much warmer than the October weather that made you pop in.

I don't live in Canada now. Yet. But this blog will come alive in March when I move there for 6 months. (Sorry, supermarket! Obviously will not even try to get boxes for that.) The plan is to love. And to write a lengthier piece than blog posts. I WILL be GREAT!

More lessons, one on germs

Back again, this time after brain surgery! These past two years really haven't been kind to me. But I'm all right now.

It's time to be kind to myself so I've started going back to the swimming pool. I often see this elderly lady there, she's quite a character, sings Nessun Dorma in the shower. This time she started talking to me because I wasn't wearing flip-flops or swimming shoes (I got a good old rant about athlete's foot). Then she decided to tell me a hygiene-related joke.

The punch line made me visualize a man using sugar tongs in the men's room and it was actually really funny, I laughed aloud with her.

What a funny lady, and Helsinki is such a funny city sometimes. And I feel like I'm getting to experience everything for the first time - only this time with experience.