Final farewell party / Developments in Iraq

Christmas is coming, the ground has thawed, it is getting dark, but still the worse is over and days are getting longer, slowly. And soon we will have summer, and all the joys of it. Thinking and dreaming of summer I ran some errands in the morning. As I am convinced that getting decent customer service by phone is just a pipe dream, I walked, laughing, all the way to one bank in the centre. And then the service was bad in the bank too. Do not ever go the Sampo-bank in Fabianinkaty 23. They will look down on you. And, unfortunately, it turned out that I can only get US dollars from the special bank at the airport. But it does not matter, nothing can really destroy my joyful mood!

Final farewell party

Yesterday, we had nice evening. First we visited the Christmas party of the Voima-magazine (an alternative free monthly city-magazine), met Tuomas, spirited as ever, Tove, who promised a Nokia-shaking book to come out soon, and Teemu, long-time activist and very friendly guy, who gave me a surprise present. I was touched. But we had to leave soon, my final farewell party was about to begin in Sea Horse-restaurant, my favourite restaurant in Helsinki.

Time Out has the following to say about Sea Horse

One city landmark is the Sea Horse (11 Kapteenikatu, +3589628169), purveyor of substantial and traditional dishes to a star-studded clientele since the 1930s.

Sea Horse did not let us down. The food (e.g. my fried herrings with mashed potatoes and pancakes with ice-cream and strawberry jam, S's fried liver with bacon, or Tuula's meat balls) was simple, well prepared, substantial, and gratifying. Some "celebrities" were there too: Renny Harlin, my look-alike from Hollywood, the film-mogul Markus Selin, sculptor Kimmo Kaivanto, and many figures. But the most important guests were, of course, my friends: Maunu, Tuula, Lauri R, Jaana, Tero, Ile, Ville, Aaro, Johanna, Jyrki, Antti, Mikael, Satu, Matti I, Ruurik, Sampo, Lauri K, Aki, and Jussi . It is so nice to have good frieds, who come to my bi-yearly farewell parties. I was also given some presents, totally undeserved, but naturally welcome. The evening was relaxing, full of interesting discussions ranging from rather personal issues to social security systems, to state of US economy, to computational complexity of certain simulation, to the ska-scene in Helsinki, to the life of Feynman to, well many topics. One of the best things in life is to spend long night with good friends in some excellent restaurant. One should do it more often, maybe weekly as they do it in Italy.

Developments in Iraq

As the worst single attack so far killed 19 US soldiers in Iraq yesterday, the grimm reality seems to see daylight. Even Mr. Bush Foresees a Deeper U.S. Role in Iraq, meaning at least 150000 troops there for the whole next year. Bush also said, rather directly, that things are not going well there. It also seems that more and more Americans are starting to realize, that all the reasons for the war were just lies, and that someone is resposible for the dead soldiers (if not of dead Iraqies). Some analysts claim that the whole idea is to Attack Syria next, that "the road to Syria goes via Baghdad". Be that as it may, Mr. Rumsfeld, is taking the heat. Two articles Scapegoating Rumsfeld and Now they are after Rummy claim that he is being put forward as a newly-disposeable scapegoat, so that the people will forgive the real/other neocons behind Rummy and Bush, and the the grand plan for the Middle East will be viable. This is getting interesting. But it is funny how it took only two months after the elections to come this far.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs December 2004".