Nancy and Timo

Relocating the snake

2009-04-11T16:42:00.006+10:00

Elvis duck got swallowed by a snake as told before. Here is a video clip telling about relocation of the snake.

At the same time when the snake was swallowing Elvis, inside the house the Misu cat cracked the toilet bowl. He dropped a glass bottle off the windowsill onto the toilet bowl. We didn't see the event but likely he was chasing a gecko. Or is there a bigger cosmic connection between those two events? Misu and Elvis came to us around the same time in 2004. I think there was only a day or two between their arrivals.

Oh, and the bunny picture on the left. It was taken in the Bunnings warehouse, where we went to buy a new toilet bowl.

On the video below I am explaining the events related to Elvis death in Finnish, but the pictures should tell it all anyway, so don't worry if you can't understand.

Just in case you are interested, here are some other video clips that I have uploaded to my google video account recently. In many of them there is Finnish narration as well.

Woodstock 2004. Mostly in Finnish. We had just moved to Woodstock in the beginning of 2004.

Timo in Singapore jungle in 2002

Timo walking in Singapore from Kenbangan to Paya Lebar in June 2002 while Nancy was travelling with her mom.

Townsville June 2003

Again me talking to my mother in August 2003. She got a VCD disk at least once in 2 months.

Our Wedding party in Finland with my family in September 2002. It was a very small, unofficial, not very traditional party attached to the local ROM.

and some more wedding stuff

Our cats in Townsville 2003

Birthday party of a Finnish lady in Townsville March 2004. She was living 2 more years after this and then was taken by a rapidly progressing cancer.

Our first Christmas in Sydney Australia 2002

Again remembering Woodstock where we were living in 2004

and again

Again our animals in Woodstck

Me in Singapore February 2002, just arrived and showing my apartment in Kenbangan, Astoria park condo.

Morning walk on Machans Beach, Cairns, Australia in June 2005

Elvis is dead - Good bye Elvis duck!

2009-04-09T20:53:00.003+10:00

Today evening we went to yoga early without locking in the chicken and ducks. When we came back, we saw our Elvis duck being attacked by a python snake. He was dead already at the time so we let the snake have him so that after it has eaten Elvis, we could catch and relocate it. So, here he is, on the way to the snake's stomack. Just his orange legs sticking out.

The nature is so cruel.

We got Elvis in 2004. He was found in our friend's suburb in Townsville. We took him to Woodstock and from there with us to Cairns. Remember how he used to play with Bluey.

And here's the video on relocation of the snake

And here are memories from the duck family. In the beginning Mavis hatched little ducklings. The father Elvis can be seen on the video too, and he can be heard all the time.

First Quarter of 2009

2009-03-12T18:03:00.003+10:00

Bluey got shaved in the end of 2008. We did it because she seems to be getting very hot during the vet season.

Misu has been playing with a little rubber snake. At first he was very afraid of it but later learnt to play with it. The other cats don't have that strong instict to avoid snakes.

We got visitors after Christmas. Did some rainforest walking in the national park nearby.

Barron Gorge National Park, Barron Falls. It is so beautiful here.

Also visited Pourt Douglas. Rains started in December and continued through January and February. March also hasn't been that dry yet.

Port Douglas is a town full of tourists.

It's mango season here in December-February.

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Timo had them even with Swedish ginger biscuits and Tofutti soy cream cheese.

But best ones are dried mangoes. Our food dehydrator was running constantly in January.

Local city wildlife, a scrub turkey.

Bush walking in the city. Blue arrow and red arrow walks are walking track on the hills made for citizens to keep fit.

We harvested some bananas.

Nancy saw Ajahn Brahmavamso in Singapore.

When it's raining, Bluey dog can be inside the house.

But the ducks enjoy sitting outside.

A cyclone brought us heavy rains in January (2009).

We wanted to get a new fridge.

And we got a Mitsubishi that has a separate vegetable compartment.

Since December we have had a dengue fever outbreak in Cains.

In january we visited Innot hot springs and were swimming in rich mineral water that came out from the volcanic soil.

When it's raining the clay is soft to dig, and red water keeps running from the property to the street.

Timo wanted to try what it would be a student in Australia.

And brought new technology to the classroom.

In March another cyclone went past us. It brought some rain but nothing else.

Again some updates

2008-12-25T06:26:00.019+10:00

Merry Christmas! On the fridge door a card from from Timo's mum in Finland, and in the fridge some chocolate that she sent for Nancy's birthday in October. Nancy is so good at keeping chocolate. But Timo isn't. I have a strong urge inside me that tells me destroy all the yummy goodies as soon as possible, or otherwise they get spoiled or someone else eats them all.

My Christmas food :) I washarvesting some sweet leaves (Sauropus androgynous) in order to make cuttings for my ny sweet leaf garden. I got lots of leaves and was storing them for later use. Those leaves taste very good, and they are also very healthy. They contain lots of protein and vitamin K. They are just excellent food fro a vegan. The tree (or scrub) grows fast and it's so easy to take care of it.

We got green tree frogs in our garden. They are cute though noisy.

We also have a curry leaves tree growing in the garden. So nice fragrant and taste.

The duck pond needs constant attention. Sometimes a cane toad is killed by a bird and dropped in the pond, and they start smelling. There is some fish living there and they eat all the mosquito larvae. Eh, and the ducks sometimes swim there too.

A snake! just a python. There are a few of them all the time.

Want to grow a jungle next to the fence line.

In our garden again: palm trees, Bangkok rose, luffa.

Luffa gives cucumber-like fruits and when you let them grow old you can use them as bathing sponges.

In December we harvested lots of luffas. Timo was pickling them for later use. Still some cucumbers also ready for harvest.

In loving memory of Ah ma (1925 to 9/11/2008). This picture is from 2003 when she visited us.

In 2002 she visited Finland with us.

Mothers day lunch in a Chinese vegetarian restaurant in Singapore.

Timo with brothers in 1977. Nice red moped.

And after 30 years. Timo's retro style electric bicycle

The Finnish moped reached 45 km/hour (and when tuned even more) but this one goes only 25 km/hour.

Engine is not very powerful, only 200w that is maximum by the Australian law.
You can't really ride up hill with this. Riding to Kuranda is out of question.

But it's practical compared to regular bicycle. When you go somewhere you don't have to take shower after the ride.

And it's so cute. The brand is Giacarlo and it's been made in China. I read that there are over million scooters like this in Shanghai.

Can't say our garden is well looked after or tidy. But we still dedicate much energy to taking care of it and want to grow our own veggies and herbs as much as possible.

Timo runs so fast. September 21st (and October 12th) was our 6th wedding anniversary. And we got this lovely card. Thank you Gwen!

Eating banana flowers. We have a few banana plants in our back yard. You can eat the flowers before they go bananas.

Just some updates

2008-10-09T15:00:00.020+10:00

There have been updates on the Finnish blog almost every month. This blog and the old picture page have been neglected.

Nothing really new and exciting has happened to us. It has been just work work and work, work to get money and work in the garden. At home peaceful quiet living with the animals. Feeding them and bringing them to the vet ... and paying the vet bills that are typically not so small ... So, nothing else but some selected photos that were taken during the year.

And one piece of video that you can see above. Just from the yard and garden. Spoken in Finnish for my Finnish blog.

And here the pictures:

Let's start from the one that has caused the biggest vet bills this year, the cute little kitten from the Woodstock dump, an alpha male with the Finnish name Misu. He has been getting some hormone shots and sometimes even Clomicalm tablets to treat his aggression and nervousness. Didn't help much but he has to be kept locked in and away from other cats all the time. Recently he has got some problem with urine crystals and infections in urinary tract related to that. Now he is on special diet. No more dog food for him. So sad! He used to love it so much and he loves being with dogs.

On the left sugarcane plus a nice flowering tree that I can't name. And then cordyline (fruticosa), a nice purple plant. And then on the right a stughorn that was mount on a piece of palm tree trunk. And the palm tree trunk was mounted on a stump of and umbrella tree. You can see the tree pushing new shoots above the piece of palm tree trunk. That trunk has already became hollow and will be broken in pieces soon so next year might need to mount the staghorn somewhere else.

What might these nice purple flowers be called? Don't know but they are beautiful.

Our house and garden from the street. The hedge made of several types of bushes, included hibiscus, might need some trimming later on. But we'll let it grow to the fullest first.

The one who comes to the house from the street sees the red gate with some chinese decoration and the yard through the little round hole.

Hope near the fence these red Bangkok rose and bamboo will grow well and be part of the hedge that is growing mainly on the other side of the fence.

Next to the small garage area is the fence agains the right side neighbour's yard. I have been digging there a lot to remove some tree stumps, roots and just earth in order to make it lower than the floor of the verandah. As a long-term plan, I want to build some drains there for the rainwaters, and a long and narrow rainwater tank right next to the timber fence.

And then the biggest digging project. Right behind the pation there was a slope. A year ago I started removing it in order to make way to the wind to blow and prepare the area for swimming pool, spa and sauna. Again a long-term project. I have been manually digging there hundreds of wheelbarrow loads of soil, mostly just red clay mixed with some sand and broken using gypsum. No doubt that will be another life-time project for me.

Another project going on has been a little mound in the front yard next to the driveway from the gate. Lots of trees have been removed from there. Then I made the driveway wider so that you can park a small car on the side. Then I mounted some posts in order to prevent the slope from collapsing. Before that I had tried to make it higher by piling up tree trunks, clay, mulch and good quality garden soil. In a few months these posts will be covered by flowers and other plants that will grow on that mound. See the birght coloured cordylines on our and the neighbours side. I want to have more of them growing here.

The same place from a bit further.

In the front yard I have built some shelves for the cats to climb on. On the ground Misu is captured in his cat run that is connected to his big cattery on the other side of the shed house. Also on the roof of the shed there is an area for Misu where he can sit and look at the world.

Also Kitti enjoys sitting high up and looking around. She wants to take care that dogs in the front yard won't see her.

And this is the same place from inside the house. This big bedroom with air conditioning is mainly used by the cats Kitti and Spartacus. Misu is not allowed to go there and Lolitha visits only when it's raining or she is exceptionally hungry. Here you can see her eating outside and Kitti watching the cat door. Shortly after I had painted the shelves I discovered some cute purple pawprints all over the place.

Above you can see a view from our street and the Kuranda train going up on the mountain.

And the same mountains from further. Here we go for a walk with the dogs sometimes on sunday mornings.

And there is the river nearby. And there is a railway bridge over the river for sugaer cane trains.

We both have visited Brisbane, the capital of our state Queensland, this year. Timo's favourite there so far has been the rail system. Not so advanced and nice than in Singapore or Finland but very advanced compared to public transportation in Cairns.

And another of my favourite things is Leksands Knäckebröd, hard swedish crispbread (with Nuttelex vegetable-oil spread that tastes like butter). Nancy brought it from Sydney where she has been a few times. Once she brought me non-dairy cheese of the brand Cheezly and some veggie pepperoni.

And then, Singapore, of course our mrs is going there every year, this year already 3 times. I haven't been there for 6 years soon but still have strong memories connected to places there. This is the house in Hougang avenue 7 where we were living about 2 months after getting married.

It really was 6 years ago when we went to Finland for our wedding. Haven't been there since. Haven't had a sauna since. I really miss sauna.

Had a few in-real-life contacts with Finns. In the end of July when it's Midsummer in Finland, we were having a little celebration with some people of Finnish heritage in town.

During the winter I grew lots of yummy cucumbers.
They were not suitable for pickling so I had to buy proper gherkins for that puprpose. And they came out so yummy. Real lacto-fermented gherkins spiced with black pepper, mustard, garlic, dill and salt.

Australia said sorry & other video

2008-02-13T14:57:00.003+10:00

Been a lazy blogger. Most of the online "leisure" time I have spent in social utilities like facebook and especially the Russian equivalent (much better, acutally) vkontakte.ru. To say something I post links to some videos made by myself and one that touched me a lot.

The latter one. The new Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd delivers apology to the aboriginal people. This is a moment that I am really happy and even proud to be a citizen of this country. I like the new government and its' policy. And I like the way the new prime minister speaks. The previous one I didn't like even to listen to ...

The video is from Google. I haven't made nor uploaded it. I even wasn't nearby Camberra when it happened.

And then a video from our morning walk with the dogs.

Looks like countryside but it is nearby, just 5 minutes drive from home.

And then a few videos that I took on February 2nd in Cairns centre where there was a Chinese New Year Celebration. Nancy didn't go to Singapore so we spent the CNY together in Cairns. We even had a dinner in a Chinese restaurant, not on the New Years eve but 3 days after it. We didn't book in advance so no room in the restaurant for the first few days after the Day Itself.

For Singaporeans and other people from big Chinese communities this might look funny and so humble. But keep in mind that there are less Chinese in Cairns than there are in an averabe SG HDB flat so the Chinese community is very small here. And many of the performers are 2nd or 3rd generation Chinese, or even pure Ang Mo's that are just interested in Chinese culture.

So instead of judging we just should say thank you to those people for arranging the program for us. The carnival is growing year after year and drawing much attention to Chinese culture in Cairns.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-06T08:33:00.000+10:00

We didn't do anything particular on Christmas. Just the regular life except enjoying the days off.
Actually, on Boxing day we did something special. It had been quite hot and humid whole December so we decided to improve insulation of our roof by buying some glass-wool and placing it into the attic.

We drove to the local Bunnings warehouse and got some wool with aluminium foil. Luckily it started raining when we drove home. The rain cooled the roof so it wasn't so hot in the attic to put the wool in place.

Anyway it wasn't an easy job. There was only very little space in the attic to go in. Nancy managed to do it and spread the stuff there. Though it wasn't easy. We could have let a professional do the insulation but at the moment, in the middle of the construction boom, it's almost impossible to get anybody to do anything.
When you do it by yourself without sufficient skills and knowledge the result might be a catastrophe. Here's ours:

Actually it wasn't totally our fault. Our electrician had made some damages around the man hole when he was connection the rangehood. Now the cyproc board gave in too easily causing the man hole frame to fall down and tear the surrounding board. Just need to find somebody to make a properly supported man hole for us.

And there is still the cats' (mainly Lolitha's) hiding place waiting for the hole to the attic to be covered or a special cat door to be built.

Between Christmas and New Year we got some nice and cool rain. It brought a few green frogs. A tiny one was climbing our our front door window. The cat on the right, our Spartacus, wasn't interested in the frog but just wanted to come in, ie. the door to be kept open for him while he was contemplating whether he really wants to come or not.

We got a visitor from Europe. On New Year's Eve Timo and her made a train trip to Kuranda.

The Kuranda Scenic Railway was really an adventure for Timo who loves bot trains and mountains (and does not like the sea or boats).

We could see our neighbourhood, Caravonica, from high up the mountains. Here you can the Barron river going down towards the hydro electric station and from there to the walley. Our house is on foot of the mountain, not far away from the spot where you can see 3 artificial lakes. Lakes belong to the park were we walk our dogs. Further, in the horizon to the left of the mountains you can imagine the Cairns airport and behind it Machans beach, the village where we used to live from 2005 to 2006.

Nancy drove to Kuranda by car and met us there. We were walking around the Kuranda village with lots of other tourists. Then we drove to Mareeba where we bought some lychees and drove to a creek to eat them.

We also visited the place where our coffee is being roasted, and at least partly also grown. It's called Mareeba CoffeeWorks. We usually buy their coffee on Rusty's markets. Timo keeps the beans in the freezer and grinds them as needed.

In Kuranda it's cooler than in Cairns. The topic "could we move to Kuranda" is being discussed in our house. Especially Timo's dream is to be able to live in the countryside where there would be enought space for all of us, animals included. Mareeba is cool too since it's close to 400 metres above the sea level. Mareeba looks more plain than Kuranda and it appears to be dryer too.

This is just a house that Timo saw on the road side. Just to show an example of older houses there.
We visited the family of Timo's former colleague and for the evening we drove back home.

These two photos courtesy of Annelies, our visitor. They went with Nancy and the dogs to the beach. See the fenced swimming area on the beach. They build protected area like this on the beaches because of poisoneous and deadly marine stingers like irukandji. They also had spotted a saltwater crocodile on this beach recently.

Despite lots of Timo's unfinished landscaping project, the garden is still alive and produces aside some green herbs and vegetables, also beautiful flowers. Some of them we even can't name. like this one.

Below you can see one of the digging projects. Timo's first aim is to push the slope behind the backyard a bit backwards to make it a more open space, to keep plantation away from the house so that snakes wouldn't hide in the busheds. Also need to improve drainage, ie. stop water from flooding into the back terrace. Longer term project is to dig a hole to landscape an area for a small swimming pool or above-ground spa, and sauna for Timo. He is making the area near fence line higher and planting lots of trees and bushes there. Who knows how many years it will take. The soil is very hard and full of tree roots. Digging is possible only after rain. Then the soil (red clay) is soft but very heavy.

Working on the cattery

2007-11-09T10:29:00.000+10:00

I (Timo) took 3 days off on November 7th 8th and 9th while Nancy went camping related to her work. I inteneded doing nothing but working in the house and garden. Didn't do much. Time passes so quickly here too.

Biggest project was to improve and reinforce the cattery to keep Misu locked in and relatively happy. Misu is our 3-year-old desexed male, the one we found on Woodstock dump.

He was a tiny kitten at the time, and he loved to play with Bluey dog and hang around with Bluey and Maxi. (You can look for him on Catster, Youtube ... if you want). Lately, when we moved away from the countryside to live in the city, he has became a problem child. He grew up with dogs and never got along with other cats. He's been bullying them, especially our Lolitha cat and all the other cats in the neighbourhood. So, we keep getting complaints about him and are afraid that some day somebody will poison him. So we don't have much more options than keep him locked inside.

Initially that's what we have wanted to do with our cats, keep them inside to quarantee their safety and on the other hand safety of the native birds and other animals. With all the other cats that would be quite easy, and even letting them wander free in the neighbourhood hasn't caused any problems (except a dead bird sometimes). But with Misu it's different. He has got used to freedom. He needs a huge territory. He wants to wander around and be the king of the neighbourhood. In the morning he gets up together with me and knows it's time to go for a walk. Sometimes he walks with use one whole round around the lake, about an hour. He keeps meowing pathetically to make us slow down and wait for him. When he hasn't followed us he keeps hanging around in people's gardens keeping an eye on the road. When we come he runs toward us his tail sttraing upwards , coming and rubbing himself against dogs and my legs, rolling on the ground looking at us and meowing for attention.

So it's a tough decision to take all this away from him (and myself). I'd rather move somewhere where we all could be free... but work, money ... We can't at the moment. Even though me too rather would prefer living in the countryside. I don't need anything from town, anything except my salary. I don't go to pubs, I don't go to movies, no concert, no theatre, no church, no social events. Just a big garden and animals is quite enough for me. Well, the reality is to live in town and in this house for a while (even though I don't like the neighbourhood). So, I have started working on to
make this a cat house. That's an ambitious project, not just buying a little CatMax fencing for the backyard but altering the whole house. What makes it very ambitious is that my renovating skills don't match the ambition and on the other hand many reasons, not only lack of money, stop me paying and architect and builder to fullfill my dream. Well, I have started building climbing shelves on the walls, some hiding places and i even have made a big opening in the ceiling to allow the cats go in. Especially Lolitha likes that arrangement. When it was done she stopped hiding in drains and moved in to the house. Again Misu sometimes follows her there and bashes her up making here scream.

Well. I have lots of ideas on what to do, and my skills will improve a little bit with this long-term, possibly life-long project. Inside of the house has been quite much done to a decent level. Now I'm working with outside. We paid someone to build the cattery seen in the first picture. It's been build behind the office room window. There is a cat door in the window allowing the cats to go in and out as they desire. The cattery itself needed some improvements. It didn't have enough holes, and on the other hand there were wrong kind of wholes allowing Misu to escape. The door opened to wrong direction, there where no climbing shelves, no cat hammock. So there's a job for me to do. And I want to make a little cat walk around the house wall for Misu to explore more.

New Australian citizen

2007-11-03T04:02:00.000+10:00

August 31st I officially became an australian citizen. For that I needed to attend a ceremony and publicly read the citizenship pledge. They gave us a tree to plant and a small Australian flag (made in Taiwan).

Here is a link to my Google video of the event

I wanted to become a citizen because I have the feeling that I am going to stay in Australia permanently, or at least long time. Also I wanted to officially finalize the migration process. Yes, and I do want to vote. I knew there is a parliamentary election to become soon. I have got some political opinions, I know what this country needs, so I just don't stand aside and whinge but will do miny tiny part and have a say on what's happening.

Before the citizenship ceremony I needed to attend an interview (and pay, of course). That was in July in the local Immigration Department office. That wasn't too difficult, a bit exciting though.

New car

2007-11-03T03:44:00.000+10:00

In August we crushed our dear old Toyota. Luckily speeds before the accident were slow on a rather small street, so nobody got hurt. Our insurance covered the damages. The company refused to mend our car but rather paid money for it, and asked us to go and buy a new car. That meant some extra spendings, and before all we needed to find a new car. In order to find one we contacted our mechanic on Machans beach and asked whether he has anything. He did. Without much thinking we got one of the two cars he was helping to sell at the moment.

For those interested: it's 1996 model of Subaru Liberty GX Enduro (automatic). The engine is 2.2 as the Toyota had only 1.3 litres. We just hope that this is not going to eat double the petrol. At least there's enough space for the dogs in the back, and all the shoppings from Bunnings. Tow bar and roof rack will allow me to get a bicycle carrier so that I could do part of my daily commuting by bike. Will I actually do it, remains to be seen. I would love to but it's a question of time. My morning walk and working in the garden takes so much time in the morning that I don't like sacrify it to cycling. If I would cycle, I would need to leave home about 20 minutes earlier than I do when travelling in Nancy's car.

May 2007

2007-05-14T15:41:00.000+10:00

Found a new place to go for walk with dogs. It's the mountains quite behind our house.

These sweet hmong kids help their families by selling fruits and vegetables in the local market. Most of them live in Innisfail, the little town that was hit by the cyclone Larry in Mach 2006.

Yet another mobile phone image. IGA is one of the supermarkets we go shopping.

Businesses next to my office. I never eat in the burger place. Hardly can stand the smell coming from there (I'm a vegetarian and animal products don't smell food to me but something else).

No burgers, no chicken, no prawns, no millk, no cheese ... but mushrooms. My favourite mushrooms is shitake. You can't buy it fresh so need to buy fried ones. They have them in Asian markets.

Our boy cats. Not brothers.

Bluey has fully recovered after the partial ear canal ablation that was made to her in mid April. In the middle picture you can see the new ear opening that is below the ear.

April 2007

2007-04-18T09:22:00.000+10:00

Bluey's ear problems

Bluey had her ear operation on April 16th. During the past few years she has had continuous ear infections that don't respond to antibiotics or any other medication.

The video below shows that after a few days wearing a collar was not that troublesome.

2007: making our own house

2007-03-30T11:30:00.000+10:00

March is the first month of Autumn. It is still quite hot and rainy. In March there even might be cyclones like the year 2006's Tropical Cyclone Larry that hit us on 20th March. Also in the end of April 2006 we felt a cyclone, though only as flooding of our Barron river.

We got fed up with waiting for the cabinet maker to start his work. He had promised to do the job already in September. Then he came in December and promised to do it before Chinese New Year. Well, he never turned up and never called. So we decided to find another solution. In the local storage shop we found metal shelves that are easy to install but firm. So, we bought them and installed to replace kitchen cabinets. Not so beautiful but practical, indeed. When looking for something you can easily browse the shelves from down, from the sides. Since we are too people using the kitchen all the time there is the problem with finding things. We never had the same stable kitchen for a long time so our things never had found their places but we just put them ... somewhere. Timo according to his likings and Nancy according to hers. As a result non of us can't find some things sometimes.

Our boys Misu and Spartacus seeking Nancy's attention in the morning of March 30th. They have been fed already so this is pure attention seeking. Both of them know how to make a pathetic meoooow to melt your heart.

Misu has lost a bit weight recently and he has some bite marks on his sides. They are old marks, maybe from February. Now fur is going off around them so they are more visible. Though we saw those marks earlier. Must have been a dog has attacked him and bitten around his belly. He is not careful enough with dogs. He crew up with Bluey and is not afraid of our dogs. He still keeps following Timo and the dogs for their morning walk. He sleeps somewhere in the house. Then after 4 a.m. when the man and the dogs go he jumps up and follows them. Sometimes he follows them all the way to the nearby park and little man-made lake but mostly he just stays in nearby yards and waits for them to come back. When they come he jumps in front of them and starts rolling on the ground making those pathetic meows. Timo needs to kneel down and pat him. After that Misu wants to walk with them to home those 10 to 30 metres. Then he'll be happy and stays outside our gate when the others go in.

When Nancy came back from her annual Singapore trip after the Chinese New Year, Timo was rewarded with a camera phone. It means that when we go shopping he's playing with his phone. Here are some results.

Every time we go shopping Timo is playing with his new camera phone (Nokia 6233). On the left you can see a pet shop displaying cats and dogs. On the right a supermarket checkout.

These are our ducks. On the left is the newcomer Trudi (Gertrud). Her we adopted from a house in Woodstock in January when we were visiting our friend family (former landlords of ours). Then there is Mavis. Her we had bought in Woodstock in the year 2004. Then Elvis. Him we found in friends' place in Saunders beach Townsville. The girls are Muscovy ducks and Elvis is a Khaki Campbell.

2006 Cairns: from Machans beach to Caravonica

2006-12-27T11:11:00.000+10:00

We didn't do anything particular on the Christmas, just enjoyed the days off. Timo had 2 extra days off and Nancy only one. Nancy was working on Christmas day arranging a little Christmas party for her "consumers" (of the public mental health services where she's working).

On Christmas day we spotted this cute green tree frog next to our duck pond. It was sleeping on the hose of the pump. Earlier this month we had heard a male frog mating on the mango tree.

Big thing of December was our new fence.
We had tried to get someone to do it already since August but all tradesmen are still extremely busy rebuilding Innisfail and other areas damaged after the cyclone Larry on March 20th 2006. This Luke we got from the local free newspaper. We had to try him even though I thought there must be something wrong with those that need to advertise on them. In the end we were right. Even though we got 45 metres of well done 180 cm high treated timber fence with a gate, the price was way too high. The guy simply cheated us and made use of our ignorance in the process. That said without further details. In the future we better do something based only on strict written contracts.

2005 from Woodstock to Cairns

2005-12-31T23:59:00.000+10:00

In the mornings they used to have their meeting on top of our toilet door.

Barron river in Cairns, not far away from Machans beach.

2004 Woodstock

2004-12-31T23:59:00.000+10:00

In January 2004 moved from Townsville to the countryside, to a little village called Woodstock 40 kilometres towards Charters Towers. It was an old cottage in the middle of a cattle farm.

There was plenty of room for animals to run and explore.

Below is a video from Youtube of our animals. You can see our new rescue cat Misu playing with our Bluey dog.

And some more of Misu and Bluey.

We rescued a baby possum and helped it to grow up and go back to the wild:

2003 Townsville

2003-12-31T23:59:00.000+10:00

Mid January 2003 we left Sydney and landed in Townsville airport. We chose Townsville as our first place of residence because we wanted to live in warm climate and especially because Nancy got a job there. We had hired a man from transfers service. He met us in the airport and helped us to bring our cats to a cattery until we could hire a house to live.

Three days later we were living in this house in Douglas near the hospital where Nancy was started her work.

In March 2003 we took a dog, actually we bought her in a carage sale.

Timo doing Nordic Walking in Townsville on the mountains behind the James Cook University. 2/2003.

View over Townsville from Mt Stuart towards the centre and Magnetic island.

Timo wishing Declicious Christmas trying to find a nice combination of Western and Asian traditions in our family's Christmas celebration. Actually we do not celebrate it much.

Here some more pictures of Townsville.

Pictures from Townsville

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Ross river in Townsville

Towers of Mount Stuart

Up on the mountain but not top yet

Pictures from Sydney 12/2002

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00009_Sydney_landscape, originally uploaded by sippala.

Somewhere near Connell's point and Hurstville. December 2002.

After modern almost fully automated Singapore rail system the Sydney rails was quite an experience. Taken on December 2002 in Hurstville, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Married

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Wedding in Finland:

Wedding in Singapore

Married life

Singapore 2002

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This a the story of Timo going to Singapore in January 2002 until him and Nancy travelled to Finland for Wedding in September 2002.

Kitti cat had the main role in the story. Timo adopted the kitten that Nancy had found on the street.

Goodbye Finland

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January 28th 2002 Timo flew from Helsinki Finland to Singapore.

The year 2001

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In the ear of 2001 Timo was living in this suburb. It's called Rastila and it's located in the very East of Helsinki. Behind the shopping centre here is the metro station. From there it took about 25 minutes to ride to the centre where he used to work.

Name of Timo's home street was Meri-Rastilan tie.

In the year 2001, before moving to Singapore, Timo was working near this place in the very centre of Helsinki, capital of Finland. Address of his office was Mikonkatu 15. From the office window he could see the railway square. In the other end of the square is this statue for the Finnish national writer Aleksis kivi. It's in front of the Finnish National Theatre.

On his summer holiday Timo made a train and bike trip to the North. He saw these lovely cows in Lumijoki on his way cycling from Oulu to Raahe.

Near Raahe there is the village called Saloinen from where his mother's family has been living for centuries.

Centre of a Finnish village (parish) is traditionally the Lutheran church. In Finland the state and Lutheran church have a strong connection, as it is in other Nordic countries and has been in Germany too.

Timo's year 2000

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Timo was working for the Finnish government. He had quite a few service years and when working he was working long hours. So he had many days of and long holidays in addition to travelling for work. He got to see "the world", meaning Europe, a little bit.

June 2000, Ireland. Irish music:
Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Older photos

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Timo with brothers in Finland in the year 1983.

Nancy's pictures

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Here are some pictures from Nancy's life before Timo.

Here she is as a baby!

Family of Timo's mother

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This is Timo's mother as a teen with her best friend. The photo was taken somewhere in 1950's.

This is picture of the farmhouse that belonged to Timo's maternal greatgrandfather Henrik Sippala. The same family has owned these lands at least from the end of 1700's.

Details of the house.

The parish of Timo's mother's family is called Saloinen, formerly Salo. Later it was joined to the town Raahe in Northern Finland. This is the Lutheran church of Saloinen. Attached to the church there's a graveyard, last resting place of many Sippala's.

A photo from may be 1940's. Somebody from America visits the farm. Notice the old T-Ford car. It belonged to Timo's grandfather Erkki Johannes Sippala.

Timo's great grandparents Henrik Sippala and Hilma nee Kerola. Photo taken may be in 1940's in Saloinen Finland.

A family portrait from 1940's. On the up right Timos grandparents and Timo's mother in front of them. Timo's aunt as a baby sitting on her grandmother's lap.