Roman holiday

The first time I watched this movie, 'Roman Holiday', almost two decades ago in BTV under a program called "Movie of the week". I didn't understand the movie much, obviously my English language skill was really poor at that time. I watched the same movie again around 2004 and this time I understood it quite well. But unfortunately this movie couldn't make Rome an allure to me unlike 'Gladiator' which made me fascinated about Colosseum. Ever since I watched 'Gladiator' I wanted to see Colosseum in my own eyes. It's not so far away from me now. Today we, me and my wife Sharmin, are going to Rome for a week holiday and we have agreed that we will start exploring Rome from Colosseum :)

I have taken one week of my summer vacation this week and we decided to visit Rome this time. In fact it's our first alone trip together outside Finland. We are taking Ryanair flight from Tampere today at 20:35. Yea, it's a bit late and if everything goes fine we will reach Rome Ciampino airport around 23:00. Our Hotel is near Rome central. We will just sleep in Rome tonight without seeing anything. From tomorrow we will start exploring. According to initial plan we roam around Rome tomorrow, on 30th we are going to Vatican and spend the whole day there, on 31 we will explore Rome more and in the afternoon of 1 June we will return to Finland via Ryanair again. I hope it will be a memorable trip :)



Programming Solution

Got Finnish residence permit for 4 years

Giving personal update again after a long time. I have got Finnish residence permit for 4 years. Along with me Sharmin, my wife, also got a residence permit of category 'A' for one year since it's her first time category change from 'B'.

After I have got permanent job contract in Ericsson I applied to the Finnish immigration office to extend my residence permit. This time I was hoping not to get only one year visa, but I was not sure. Yesterday I got a text from them that my residence permit is ready to be picked up. Along with Sharmin, I went to the immigration unit. I was stupid enough not to reserve an appointment and thus I had to wait an hour for my turn to come. Finally it came and when I got my new residence permit card I looked at it and here it goes :) It's not only for a year now, it's until May 2016 :D I was really happy and went to work with butterfly in my stomach :P Even if it was a very hectic day at work I didn't feel so bad. It's already giving me mental peace that I don't have to apply for residence permit every year from now :)



Programming Solution

Got married

May be it's a long over due update, but anyway, I still want to tell about it. I got married on Friday, 20 January, 2012. Yes more than 3 months and I couldn't manage time to write about it. Finally I am writing about it now.

How do I feel as a married guy? I am feeling better even though I had to take care of lot of things for last few months. Things were rolling really fast. It has been decided at the beginning of January that we are getting married in Finland. Now it has been executed properly. Being far away from family it's not so easy. You have to do lot of things of your own and most importantly you will miss your family in the occasion. But somehow I couldn't manage to go home at that time. Hopefully soon :)

On 18 January I sent few of my very close friends to deliver the stuffs that were sent from my home to Sharmin's place. Ohhh... I forgot to say, my wife's name is Sharmin. She is studying in the University of Helsinki, pursuing her masters degree. I met her here in Finland in the beginning of July last year. It didn't take us long time to decide about our future :P Anyway, on 18 of January some of my friends went to her place and delivered the stuffs that I brought from Bangladesh. It was for sure in a small scale but I guess my friends and most importantly Sharmin liked it. You can see some pictures if you visit the picasa link at the bottom :)

On 19 January we had to take all the preparation for the next day. It went so fast and we were busy the whole day. Gagan, Shanila, Wali & Muna helped a lot to put everything in place. Then the final day came, 20 January. We 6 guys went to magistrate office and get married in Finnish legitimate way. It was a nice small ceremony. The magistrate talked about marriage, asked us to exchange wedding rings and then she asked if we are willingly taking the other person as spouse. We agreed and then she pronounced us husband and wife :)

After the small ceremony we went to a restaurant to take lunch. It was a nice cozy restaurant. We were there for one and half hours. Gossiping and relaxing a bit. Then we went back home to prepare for the next event which took place in the masjid to perform the marriage in Islamic way.

We went to the masjid around 17:30. At that time we were 8 people. Shaikat vi joined us as one of the witnesses. The imam also talked about marriage, what it means and how we should realize our responsibilities to each other. Then he asked our opinion in front of the witnesses. After getting our consent he pronounced us husband and wife and made dua for us. We came back home but didn't stay together on that night. We stayed in our own places, different home :(

On 21 January there was traditional Bangladeshi ceremony called "gaye-holud" (body-turmeric). Around 40 people came to that occasion and wished us with blessings. Many of them prepared different kinds of foods. Interestingly it was Sharmin's birthday and one of the ladies prepared a huge birthday cake for her. At the end of the program there was music and almost everybody danced with the music even though most of us don't have expertise in that region :P but it was a pleasant evening and we enjoyed a lot.

Then the biggest event came on 22 January, the wedding reception. I invited around 80 people in the reception. It took place in one the villa in Espoo called Villa Solkulla. It was a nice place. The food came from a restaurant called Samrat. I had few of my Finnish colleagues present there with their wives. They also liked the food, as well as the program. It started at 13:00 and ended around 18:00. We stayed there couple of hours more to finish all the business. Then we returned home and this is the first night when we came to same house. There were few small rituals in our home arranged by our friends. I guess the picture section will tell you more :)

Here goes the picasa link for the pictures:
Dala
Biye
Gaye holud
Reception


Programming Solution

New year

I promised to give regular update again but I couldn't manage time :( I have been busy with quite many things lately. I wanted to write a post at the beginning of new year but I couldn't. Anyway, now I am writing :)

New year has been started. I hope this new year will be kind to me. The first part of 2011 was not so good for me. I was struggling with many things. Finally it started getting better and at the end it seemed quite good. I hope this year will keep the goodness as it started. I wish it would be kind to everybody I love and care for. I have been thinking about this new year and few promises came to my mind.

1. I will wrap up my masters degree this year. It's been hanging for a long time now :(

2. I will get married and start my family life after the big storm last year.

3. I will forgive all the people that I couldn't forgive last year. I also want forgiveness from others if I did anything bad to them.

4. I will make my financial situation better this year. Will manage my economy in a better way.

5. I will go for skiing and skating, hopefully not alone.

6. I will improve my badminton skill and try to be a permanent member of the first group in Ericsson ranking.

At this point these are the promises that came to my mind. I will go through it at the end of this year if I am still alive, and see how much I could accomplish. Wish me luck :)



Programming Solution

Pietarsaari trip for badminton tournament

I haven't written in my blog for long time. It was a long break. Finally I broke the ice and decided to give my updates here again :) Good thing is it's resuming with a trip post :)

I am going to Pietarsaari today to participate in a badminton tournament. I will participate both in singles and in doubles. In doubles I will play as Babu vi's partner. I am really honored that he allowed me to be his partner. The initial schedule for my matches can be found here. All the 3 matches are knock out fashioned. If I manage to win any of these games I will play more. Wish me luck :)

I will take the train from Helsinki. It will take four and half hours. Tareq vi is supposed to join me in the same train from Tampere. Babu vi will be in the train station to fetch us. It will be a nice trip I guess :)


Programming Solution

Euro trip 2011: Czech Republic

From Vienna we went to Prague, Czech Republic. It was 18 July. We had to take early train in the morning, at 08:25. We woke up very early in the morning, got ready, prepared light breakfast, ate and headed for the train station to catch the train. We found ourselves running in the train station to get in. We managed to get in at the very last minute :P

In the train, we met an American old guy, a literature professor, who is going to Prague to attend a conference. He is a jolly person. We gossiped about many things. He recited few verse from Shakespeare. Later on that day we met this guy again near the clock church. He took one of our pictures :) The train journey from Vienna to Prague was very nice. I liked the landscape. We had snacks in the train cafe. The journey was about 4 and half hours. We reached Prague central railway station around 13:00.

It was previously planned that we would be in Prague only for 5 hours. So we had to look around the city within that time. We started from the downtown, went to the church which has this famous astronomical clock. On the way we ate pizza for our lunch. For me it was one of the nicest pizza I have ever tasted. It was also very cheap. We passed through the Charles bridge and went to the Prague castle. It's on top of a mountain. According to the Guinness World Records, it is the biggest ancient castle. You can see the beautiful view of the city from that place. The day was very nice, bright and sunny. From the castle we went to see one of the weirdest structure of the world. Actually it's the transmission tower for the television center but somehow it looked really weird, doesn't match with the city's usual structures.

After seeing that building we had to do some grocery for coming days and it was almost time to leave Prague. Our next destination was Zurich and again we found that we were running out of time. So, run guys, run :)

Facts I noticed:

1. The look of Prague is different. There is not many high rise buildings. Many houses have tally roof, mostly of red color.

2. Roads are very narrow and so many steeps.

3. It's much cheaper compared to Finland.

4. Prague is a city for tourists. Lot of tourists all around.

Pictures:


The train from Vienna to Prague



Restaurant in the train



We requested the restaurant attendant to take a picture for three of us



Me, solo



In front of Prague central railway station



Typical European street



Interesting color of the building



Starting to walk to explore the city



Interesting way to leave your sign in the city. You can buy those blocks and write whatever you like and leave it there



The souvenir shop



The church



Church again



In front of the famous astronomical clock



Dressed up like a king, though the umbrella doesn't go with the king :P



Me and Shanila



Gagan barged in :P



Nicely framed



The American guy took our photo



Another shot in front of the church



Just a smiling face :)



Prague museum



On Charles bridge



Trying to figure out the correct way to the castle



Friends



On the way to the castle



Summer snow :D



We had to climb a long way



This is a scary thing outside of a restaurant. The restaurant was decorated with lots of torture equipments, no idea why



Many stairs to go



Almost on top



Now we are on top surface



The couple on top



Again requested somebody to take our picture



Nice view of Prague from the top



The weird television tower



Another look



At the bottom of that tower



Programming Solution

Euro trip 2011: Austria

The second country in our list was Austria, the country of Mozart. Our plan was to visit Vienna and see only the downtown. From Budapest we took a train which runs between Budapest and Vienna. It was only 3 hours travel to reach Vienna. We reached after 16:00 and got in the hostel by 17:00. It's a nice hostel - neat and clean, the staffs are friendly, we even got attached toilet and bathroom with our room. We freshened up, took a bit rest and then went out to roam around the downtown.

There are many attraction in Vienna downtown and interestingly they are quite close to each other. So if you take few hours walk you can see many attraction in Vienna city. The weather was nice. We saw many people roaming around, the whole town is in festival mode, music was going on in many places, plays, shows and so on. We saw museums, cathedrals, parliament building, opera house and several other old buildings which I don't remember fully. At the end we took a ring tram to have a round to the whole city. Unfortunately we got lost :P and it took a bit longer time to return to our hostel. It was almost 11 O'clock at night when we returned. Somehow we couldn't manage to taste the coffee in Vienna :(

We prepared our dinner in the shared kitchen, ate and went to bed early since we had to catch early train next morning to go to Prague :)

Facts I noticed:

1. Vienna is a very live city. Lot of things are going on here and there - sports, play, various show, dance, opera and so on. It was not any special day but looks like it's a festival in downtown.

2. People speak average English, not very fluent.

3. The downtown is very clean but not the whole city.

4. Tram and metro service is quite good.


Pictures:


Just got down in Vienna



Me as well



After reaching the hostel



A roadside restaurant in downtown



I guess it's the opera house :P



Trying to shoot something with my mobile camera :P



A bunch of people were singing loudly together



In the heart of downtown



A Mozart replica



Two guys dressed like Mozart in front of the opera house



That's Mozart cafe



International dance festival, the poster doesn't look like dancing though :P



The opera house



A nice square. The concrete balls is caught our eyes



Nice shade by the afternoon sunlight through the cloud



Don't remember what was that :-S



Vienna museum



Museum again



Having snacks in front of the museum



Asked somebody to take a picture of all three of us. Should have removed the Fanta can first :D



The parliament building (from tram)



Programming Solution