Interesting things in my postbox

On Saturday morning I found nicely printed, illustrated, colourful material in my post-box. The title said "Kuidas ennast kaitsta kemikaali ohu korral?" or "How to protect oneself in case of chemical danger?" Everything is very fine, but I see one problem with it: it is nowhere, not even in smallest print somewhere in the corner, mentioned who has prepared it and who has sent it to me. I guess it might be municipality from City of Tallin, but it's only a guess. In general, I don't like to receive anonymous materials. Perhaps next time someone puts into my mailbox another nicely printed, well illustrated, colourful material with different title, for instance, "How to make a plastic bomb?"

2nd gold for Šmigun and Estonia!!!

Well, nothing very much more to add. Superb result!!!
Otherwise I'm happy also for Latvian hockey team that, totally unexpectedly for me, didn't lose to USA with 3:3. I didn't see the game though since I decided to use good and long sleep as method No.11 for my terribly running nose. That helped a bit, by the way.

The conclusion is that for Olympic Games it's good to have international relationship as I receive double joy: I'm happy when Estonia gets good results and I'm happy when Latvia does!

How to stop running nose?

The folklore goes that if you treat running nose, then it stops running in 7 days; if you do nothing, then it stops running in one week. Or other way round, I never can remember. [sounds somewhat funny in English, but I hope that at least idea can be caught] Although I know this rule , I'm still stubborn and running nose as well as bit of cold is so disturbing that I have tried many different methods, some of them really strange. Here is the list of 10 things I have tried:
- Rinogēls - Latvian kind of gel for running nose, which cannot be bought in Estonia, so I had to import it
- drinking lots of hot tea, with lemon and without
- drinking Coldrex - before the sleep and sometimes during the day as well
- making hot bath for feet
- going to sauna
- massaging Vietnam Golden Star balm between toes before sleep (Estonian: vietnami salv, Latvian: zvaigznīte)
- eating sandwiches with fresh onions
- heating sea salt in the pot and breathing the vapours
- putting the same hot sea salt in some cloth and keeping it on the nose (I don't know if it really matters whether it is sea salt or some other substance which is possible to heat, but they say it matters :)) )
- eating lots of honey, on toast or just like that

Of course, nothing has helped so far. Any other methods you can suggest? I could try :))
The good news are that my running nose has lasted for 5 days already, so "only" 2 more should be left.

Sometimes...

... life is bastard!
Nearby Tallinn this winter has been going like this so far:
At first, there was no snow, and it was not cold at all - not possible to ski. My health was good.
Then it was cold, and there was practically no snow - not possible to ski. My health was good.
Then it was very-very cold, and there was practically no snow - not possible to ski. My health was good.
Then it was snowing a lot for one day, but by the evening it started to rain and snow was gone - not possible to ski. My health was good.
Then it was warm, there was no snow - not possible to ski. My health was good.
Then it was very, very cold and even lots of snow came down, but air was too cold for skiing - not possible to ski. My health was good.
Then it finally went warmer, and there was still a lot of snow. And the weekend came with perfect conditions for skiing. It was this weekend. And what do you think what happened?! I got ill!!! It's just so unfair: it's the first perfect time for skiing during this winter and I am ill for the first time this winter. Life is bastard sometimes!

Otherwise, I'm happy that life is going well for others at least as Kristina Šmigun made an excellent competition today and won gold medal!!! It was good to watch how happy she is!

And, by the way, it's a small jubilee because this is a post No. 100 in this blog!

Olympic mood

This year Olympic Games are about passion and love. Latvians love their neighbours Estonians a lot and, therefore, are making jokes on them. Today I received nice greeting from Latvia wishing good luck for Estonian Olympic team with picture of the team added :))
Otherwise, opening ceremony is going on right now. While watching it, I had a discovery that I have seen already quite a lot of opening ceremonies, but unfortunately I cannot recall anything special where I could right a way tell which Olympic games it was. Obviously all this pompous event makes no impression on me since nothing remains in memory.

Estonian Olympic Team

Stockholm 400 km

When entering Tallinn from Narva side or Piibe maantee shortly after Aegviidu crossroad, there is a roadsign that says 'Stockholm 400'. Good one :). That's it, not showing which way or how to get there: (ferry or driving around Finnish gulf, or swimming perhaps?) - nothing. And further on driving into Tallinn there is not a single word about Stockholm anymore. Somebody just liked to put that 'Stockholm 400' there :))
Otherwise driving in Tallinn is getting more challenging with every day. All lines to indicate lanes, stop lines, zebras etc have vanished, and it's total Safari. It just confirms my belief that studded tires for city driving are stupidity. Especially I dislike when people using studded tires are complaining about Tallinn streets, how bad the coverage is and how fast new streets wear down.

Ilzes!

Shis foto ir daavana visaam Ilzeem, kuras es (ak-vai-ak-vai!) neapsveicu vaarda dienaa, jo gandriiz nemaz nepamaniiju, kaa 27.janvaaris paskreeja garaam un izraadaas, ka februaaris jau labu laicinju kaa iesaacies!
Daavana Ilzei, kas nemaak gatavot picas miiklu, bet cep lieliskas siermaiziites un runaa franciski!
Daavana Ilzei, kas var dziedaat gan altu, gan sopraanu, un dara to vienliidz ljoti labi!
Daavana Ilzei, kas lolo meitinju un senos laikos biedeeja kaiminjus ar dziesmu "Maatei"!
Daavana Ilzei, kas veel nav iemaaciijusies ungaaru valodu, bet toties maak sarunaaties ar cilveekiem, klausiities un pamaniit vinjus!
Daavana Ilzei, kas iemeegjina roku visaas lietaas, no kaa man nav gandriiz ne mazaakaas saprashanas: dramaturgjija, IT, fizika, zhurnaalistika un kas veel tik sekos!

Mõnus...

Mõnus - one of the words that I cannot appropriately translate neither into English nor Latvian. Versions of 'pleasant' or 'comfortable' offered by the dictionary do not seem good enough. Mõnus is:
- driving in the dark winter evening when it's slightly snowing, getting this feeling of driving into space (or Windows screensaver :) )
- sledging down the hill in temperature of -15 degrees Celsius and getting into sauna afterwards
- vanilla ice-cream with chocolate pieces
- reading a good book on Sunday evening and no TV
- feeling the snowflake falling on the nose and melting

There is one more word, which is impossible to translate. "ei viitsi". And now I "ei viitsi" to go to sleep. Therefore I'm sitting here.