Snow all around

As last year snow got almost forgotten, then this season it looks that winter has decided to learn from mistakes and throw down as much snow as possible already in the beginning. So during the weekend we got just fantastic snow storm! It was nice to watch it through the window. Kaido thought that it looks so nice that he could go out for some jogging... I stayed at home and checked the time to see for how long he survives :) Well, time was impressive and well above my expectations: 1 hour, but to be honest that included also going to shop :) Anyhow, soon it became quite impossible to watch the storm as windows became like this:


By that our storm experience was not over: just by the time when it became dark our electricity went out! In our house no electricity means also no heating, no internet, no TV, no radio news, no hot food (not talking about having some tea), no lights (of course), no hot water and refrigerator turning into useless leaking box. In fact, we didn't have any water at all as obviously water pump house also had electricity outage. The water at least returned by next morning, but electricity outage continued for 31 hour. So we had 2 romantic evenings in candle light and with fireplace. At least we found out that our fireplace is not only nice to look at, but it is also sufficient to heat the house if the outside temperature is around -2°C. We still don't know what would happen with -20°C, but that, I guess, we'll find out some time in future. Anyhow, our first extreme experience in our house is over, and it wasn't that bad at all :))
The nature was so beautiful the next day! This is an early morning after the storm, view from the window (it's nice to have large windows...):


Snow piles in some places were taller than Hanna (and Hanna is now around 72cm, not taking into account boots and clothes):


Snowy road:

Playing the Victim

Last Saturday was the great day when I finally managed to go to theatre again. There was about 1 year pause because Hanna just did not drink from bottle with a teat meaning that there was not so much alternative for her feeding than me being around. Now she's already eating like "normal" people, and finally we could go to theatre. We went to see play named 'Playing the Victim' written by Iranian-Russian brothers Presnyakovs. It was staged in my favourite theatre in Tallinn - Linnateater (Tallinn City Theatre). This theatre the most reminds me of Jaunais Rīgas Teātris (New Riga Theatre) from Latvia.
Unfortunately the performance was a disappointment. The episodes somehow went on for long time, when I thought that I have got the idea and we could move on. So, it got boring to wait for those episodes to move on. Then there was some strange video going on, which was sometimes distracting to see what's happening on stage. There was also a father, who was actually dead, so kind of his ghost arrived from the other world to talk to his son. But he did it with very loud music and very strong microphone. For the first time it was so loud that I just didn't get the message what he was saying. For the second time I was already smarter and closed my ears with fingers - in that way it was possible to distinguish from the beat music what he actually was speaking. In the end I was starting to doubt if I understood the play at all, and maybe there was some deeper idea, what my mind, with education in economics, is just unable to comprehend. So, in the end I felt like being stupid and not understanding the art.
When returning home, the first thing was to search in internet what was the idea of the play. It turned out that there was no more deeper idea than what I had thought out myself. Besides there was article of Estonian newspaper Sirp mentioning some of the shortcomings of the performance what I had noticed. Well, Sirp is the newspaper for culture people with very good reputation in Estonia, so my self-esteem returned :)
Anyway, as we have to use time before the new baby is born, we have tickets for another theatre performance in November, and I very much hope that it will be much better.

'Farmer of the Year' vs. 'Home of the Year'

There are many competitions where different titles "of the Year' are assigned. One thing that somehow came to my notice this year was prize money size for 2 such competitions in Estonia.
One competition was 'Home of the Year 2008' (Aasta kodu 2008) organized by the magazine 'Kodu ja Aed' ('Home and Garden'). The prize is awarded for creating nice home with good interior, good room planing and everything what goes with it. The winner got prize money of 50000 EEK (approx. 3200 EUR).
The other competition was 'Farmer of the Year 2008' (Aasta Põllumees 2008) organized by Estonian Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce. The winner got prize money of 30000 EEK (approx. 1900 EUR).
I think this is inadequate taking into account all the effort what is necessary to became the best farmer in comparison to creating just nice interior for oneself. I don't want to underestimate the importance of nice home, and of course it takes time and money to create it. Anyway, in my opinion the farmer should get more than somebody who created nice home! Of course, I understand that it depends on the sponsors and organizers. It's interesting to notice that both prize moneys where sponsored by banks: Swedbank for home and SEB for agriculture. So, I have to conclude that banks have evaluated that they get more profit from home owners (or mortgage takers) than from farmers.

And here is one photo which is totally unrelated to home owners or farmers. One day in this autumn we went to pick mushrooms. I have to admit that choice of the forest was not the best for mushrooms as I didn't find any edible mushroom. However, it was well spent time anyway as there was nice view to the Baltic Sea, there were lots of cowberries, and also there was this nice mushroom.