Sea fishing in Tammisaari

Last Saturday we had a sea fishing trip in Tammisaari. It was planned few months back in our fishing club at work. They said it would be jigging in Tammisaari sea area guided by a professional fisherman. Finally it was arranged by Ericsson LMF fishing club and I am very happy to be one of the participants in this trip.

We were 8 persons, including the guide. 2 boats were arranged. Antti took his own boat, another one is owned by our guide. It's more than an hour journey from my home. I jumped in Juha-pekka's car at 7:40 in the morning and headed to Tammisaari. On the way we picked up Juha Ilmala and Mikko. We reached Tammisaari around 9:20, 25 minutes earlier than the schedule :P

Finally, Antti and other guys came around 9:45. By this time we, the first troop, took coffee in a coffee shop. Antti put his boat in water and was fixing everything for the trip and all of us were waiting for our guide. He came around 10 O'clock. I noticed that his boat is bigger than Antti's. He provided wheels to us those who have not their own. Also he provided a nice jacket for me. Then he put his boat in the water. By the way, our guide's name is Peter Lahti.

It was decided that those who don't have much experience will go in guide's boat which means I, for sure, will go in his boat since I have no prior experience of casting or jigging. 5 persons got in to Peter's boat, and 3 persons in Antti's boat. Then we started and Peter was showing the way.

Peter took us in some place and we started jigging. I threw my first ever angle to the sea. I was feeling a bit excited. After almost half an hour we got our first fish in our boat. It was Thomas who got it and it was a medium size pike. we were moving from place to place. Finally I got my first ever fish with jig and again it was a pike, around 1.25 kg, smaller than what Thomas got. I was very happy to get it anyway :)

Time was passing by and there was not many success in our boat. We heard that in Antti's boat they got 2 big pikes, both over 4 kilos. I got a bit jealous but that didn't help much. Finally around 3 PM we stopped in an island for lunch.

Our guide brought salmon soup for all of us. I don't know if it was due to the environment and company but that was one of best salmon soup I have ever had. The sea wind also made me very hungry, so I took twice. Half an hour later we left the island and again started jigging in different places.

I was seeing other people getting some perch or pike but I was not getting anything. It was almost 6 PM and hadn't caught a single one after my first catch. I was getting frustrated at the point. Finally the moment came and I felt huge tension on my jigging rod. The rod was too much bended and I was struggling like hell. Our guide screamed "It must be a big one". Finally we saw a bit of it and yes, it was big :) Peter took the fish from water with landing net. It was really big and I was smiling ear to ear :D We measured the length, it was 93 cm long. I took couple of pictures with the fish and then released it.

I was so happy to get that big pike. The frustration was gone and all the hours I spent suddenly felt meaningful. After this catch I got two perches. That was all for me. I got 4 fishes in total. We finished around 8 Pm and headed to shore. While coming back home I bought 8 perches with me. It was a long tiring but totally enjoyable day for me. New experience, lot of learning and doing at the same time. Looking forward for the next fishing trip. Ohhh, I am going to have dinner with some fried perch today :P

Waiting for our guide to arrive

Preparing Antti's boat

Set off from shore

Our guide, Peter Lahti, driving the boat

Our first catch of the day by Thomas

My first ever fish with jig

Stopped to this island to have lunch

So happy to get a pike-perch (Kuha in Finnish)

Antti's biggest catch of the day, over 4 kilo pike (Hauki in Finnish)

Juha Ilmala's biggesh catch of the day, another pike

Juha-pekka's biggest catch of the day

Here goes my biggest catch of the day. The smile tells everything :)

Programming Solution

Window seat challenge

We had to change our seating arrangement at work. Our team is going to start in a new business area along with several other teams. The management decided to put all those teams quite close to each other. So a new area has been furnished to accommodate all those teams.

Now the question is which team will seat beside window and which team will sit beside aisle? Well, we could have a raffle draw but we are not that boring people. So we decided to have some events to choose the winner, runner up and so on to decide who is going to choose first, then second and so forth. Actually it was Kari Erola's idea and we agreed right away.

There were four teams and each team was asked to propose one event according to their strength. Since my team mates saw me playing table tennis they suggested that we could propose table tennis. So from our team it was table tennis double games. 3 other proposals from other teams were fast chess(5 minutes each side), foosball, and noble game of running.

In each category the gold winner gets 7 points, silver 4, bronze 2 and 4th place team gets 1 point. In table tennis, opponents were chosen by lottery. 2 losers will play for bronze and 2 winners will play for gold. The chess also went the same way. Fusball was in round robin fashion. Games were 5 minutes long. Winner gets 2 points, loser gets 0. If it's tied each side gets 1 point. At the end of the round robin the points are accumulated which decides who won gold, silver and bronze. The running was really interesting. You have to run 150 meters, open a can of beer(non alcoholic), drink it and run back that 150 meters. There one representative from each team.

I participated in all the events from our team. In table tennis and foosball I had partners but chess and running I had to do alone. The first event was chess. I managed to get the bronze there. Then table tennis and of course we won the gold since it was our strength :P Then come the foosball and after the round robin our team won bronze again. Among the 3 games I played in only 1.

The last event was running and we went outside. The rule was explained and we 4 went to the start line. With the ring we started to run and suddenly realized that I haven't run sprint for a long time. After 10 seconds I found myself the last guy there. I reached the beer can point at last when all 3 runners were already drinking from their can. I opened my can, took my first sip and the first guy already took off from there making his can empty. I was thinking I have to drink this faster. So I took a big sip, still couldn't finish it. Then a small third sip made the can empty and I started running back while the other 2 guys were still struggling with their beer. I ran as fast as I could since I knew that they were fast runners than me. But finally I could manage to finish as second :) It was pretty tough and I was totally out of breath after the run. But I enjoyed it so much.

After all the event the points were calculated and it seemed that our team ended up being second with 15 points. The champion team got 18 points in total. All in all, it was a nice 2 hours event full of fun. After the event we went to the new team area and choose the place one by one according to the position in events. So we haven't got the window area but we choose the next place after that. But it was not about the seating area. I don't think people care that much about the seating area in office but it was just having some fun in a very busy afternoon which made everybody compete, support, fight and laugh. One thing I will remember for a long time. I forgot to bring running shoe, so I was very unhappy that I had to run with my boots on. Then suddenly Jarmo took off his shoes and told me to try those because they were like sneakers and obviously softer than mine. I tried but they were so loose. His feet are bigger than mine. Interesting, never thought that my colleague will give me his shoes to wear :P



Programming Solution

Trip to the most southern part of Finland

In this easter holiday we had a trip to Hanko, the most southern part of Finland. It was Sunday and some of my friends wanted to have a long drive. We were also interested. Since we don't have a car we just jumped into one my friends' car. We were 13 in total and went with 4 cars.

On the way going there, we had 3 cars. But, Shohel vai and Shahrukh vai joined us in Hanko beach. It was 116 km from our home, so pretty long drive. The beach in Hanko was nice, it's sandy and quite long, the longest I have seen in Finland. We spent couple of hours in the beach - had snacks, gossip, and played a bit of frisbee golf.

On the way coming back Hasan proposed to go the village Fiskars. He said it's a nice small village where the famous Fiskars company started their journey. We had time in our hand and sun in the sky, so decided to give a visit to that place. To our amazement the road to Fiskars village is very nice - ups and downs with lots of bends. It was a bit challenging for the drivers but enjoyable for us who were sitting behind :)

We spent half an hour to the village. Just walking around a bit and then headed back to home. It was a nice day out with nice weather. Here go few pictures of the day:

 Just reached the beach

Pushing the pram in sandy beach is not so easy :)

A part of the beach

The group sat on a high land to have some snacks

Now the photographer, Wali, is among us :)

Very happy for sun-bathing with jacket and cap on :D

The color of the water and sky was very nice 

Family picture :)

Best portrait of the day :)

In a restaurant on the way to Fiskars. We had a stop over to have some lunch.

That is the road to Fiskars village

In the village already

It's pretty old, isn't it?

 The trees look beautiful in dusk light, even without leaves.

Programming Solution

Herwood deshi badminton tournament 2014

Last month a badminton tournament among the Bangladeshi folks has been arranged in Tampere. It was a whole day event on March 15. The idea of the tournament was as following:

Interested cities give names of their players for both single and double games. 2 single players and 2 double teams. Players play with other city players and collect point for their own city. At the end total points collected by all players of a particular city will be that city's final score. In this way the best city in badminton will be decided.

Along with badminton there were table tennis tournament as well. In badminton Tampere became the champion while Espoo being runner up. Table tennis was individual competition. Shaikat vai became champion there and Mohsin became runner up. Also women were playing badminton.

Aside from sports there was a small food fair. The food were prepared by the women and sold for a small amount of money. The day was full of event and everybody seemed to be very much enjoying it. We stayed in Tampere on that night and came back the next afternoon.

I have only one picture from that day. Here it goes while taking our runner up trophy in badminton for Espoo.

Programming Solution

An eventful year has passed. Goodbye 2013 :)

2013 was a year of lot of events for me and my family. Now we are standing at the last page of this year. I couldn't help writing a post right now, even if it's a tiny one :)

The biggest happening of this year for me is I became a father. We have got our first kid, a baby boy in November. I have told about it in my last post. This single event kept us busy for many months. During the nine months' journey and also after his birth. I think we got busier after he was born. Now a days we don't have enough time to mingle with our friends as before, but we don't mind. We are enjoying our parenthood.

Aside from that biggest event, I also graduated this year. I have finished my masters degree which was pending for several years. I just got the certificate on 20 December in a nice convocation ceremony in Tampere University of Technology. Two photos from that ceremony are given at the bottom.

Now the new year, 2014, is just knocking the door. For this year I am not going to make any wish-list. I would rather try to do things better each and everyday. Don't wanna put some resolutions in a time frame. Let's see how the new year goes :)

 The whole family in my convocation ceremony

 She couldn't help wearing my 'teekkari' cap :P

Programming Solution

The "waiting" is over :)

We have been waiting for so long time. Well, it may be debatable whether it's long or not but I think it's long; long 9 months and couple of weeks. We were waiting for that period of time expecting our first kid to be born. And now the waiting has been over and our first kid, Ninad, was born on Wednesday November 6, 2013. Yes we named him Ninad :)

The whole journey has lots of changes and several ups and downs. Sharmin was going through tough times. I tried to help her as much as I can, but that's actually nothing compared to what she went through. From the beginning I saw how difficult it was for her. Also at the end I watched her going through lots of pain. It was supposed to be a natural delivery but unfortunately at the very end Ninad was not doing very well and the doctor decided to do the operation. I wanted to be in the operation room but they were doing everything so fast that preparing me for the operation room would slow them down. So they didn't let me in. I was waiting in the labour room where the process started for Sharmin. After they took her I spent the longest 40 minutes of my life. Finally the midwife came and gave me the good news - it's a healthy boy and mom is doing fine as well :)

I went with the midwife to see the baby. Sharmin was still in wake up room, they kept her couple of hours there. My first feeling, when I first saw Ninad, was - he is so tiny :) I hold him in my hands and kept him for more than an hour. He was not crying or making any sound, just sleep and sleep. I was tickling his cheek from time to time to see if he is OK. At some point he was not responding to my tickle. I became so worried that I called the midwife right away. It's really strange - just an hour ago I didn't see him, I didn't know him at all; but now I became so worried about him. He spent his first hour of life on my hands and then we went to post natal ward where they brought Sharmin as well.

We had to stay in the hospital for 6 nights after Ninad was born - for his antibiotics and other check up. Then we finally came back home on 13 November. We were 2 when we left home, now came back with this new, unknown guy. I was pretty sure we would know this new guy more and more with time. He is now 26 days old and we already know quite a lot about him - how he smiles, how he cries, how he makes funny gestures and faces at times. I know we will get along nicely and raise a happy family together :) 



Programming Solution

First mushroom picking in Finland

Yesterday we (Sharmin and me) did our first mushroom picking in Finland. We went to Nuuksio National Park to have some cantarella mushroom. Due to our ignorance and lack of experience in mushroom picking it was really difficult in the beginning. We couldn't find any. In fact, we didn't know where to look :P But we saw lot of blue berries. So we decided to pick blue berry instead and got more than half a liter quite fast :)

While picking blue berries a lady was passing by. We saw her bucket half full with different type of mushrooms. Sharmin asked her if she can show us a bit. The generous lady opened her bucket and showed us different kinds of mushrooms and how to know them and where to look. After that we started looking into right places and soon we started to get some. Big thanks to that lady. Finally we managed to get our basket full of different type of mushrooms. Sharmin even got couple of cantarellas :)

It was a nice tracking in the afternoon. We were into the woods for almost two hours. We really enjoyed the time there and finally enjoyed our dinner with fresh picked mushrooms :)

Here is a picture in the bus on the way back home:

 



Programming Solution

Oulu trip and summer cottage 2013

We went to Oulu on 26 July. It was Friday. We stayed there for four nights and headed to summer cottage on Tuesday. It was three nights in the summer cottage and then we came back to Espoo on last Friday. So it was a week long trip full of activities and fun :)

The journey began with the pendolino train from Helsinki. I met Sharmin and Mohsin in the train station. We got into the train knowing that a 6 hours journey is ahead of us. Unfortunately my seat choosing was messed up and Mohsin has to sit in another compartment. I was very unhappy because it was me who bought the tickets.

It took one and half hours to reach Tampere and many people got down there. We went to the restaurant cart and spent next 4 hours there. We were gossiping and enjoying the wide green fields and trees so much that we didn't even notice how time passed. So at the end of the journey we were not so regretful for the distributed seat arrangement :)

Gagan came to train station to fetch us. We reached his home around 10 PM. We entered their new home. I took off my shoes and started exploring the house. It's a nice house with a big living room and kitchen and a huge terrace. There is a nice lawn after the terrace. I like it very much :) The first night went without much happenings. We were tired off the long journey, so went to bed early after dinner.

On the second day (Saturday) we went to Oulu downtown to have a look. The weather was nice, thus there were many people roaming around. We came back home, took rest for a while and headed to mini golf course near the beach Nallikari. All of us played and I was the lucky one to win :D The same day we went to the beach and played frisbee in the water. It was fun :)

The next day we were mostly relaxing in the morning. Me, Gagan and Mohsin started playing Tigris and Euphrates in the afternoon. The game lasted 4 hours. Mohsin played it for the first time but he won. After the game we went for biking. The girls were sleeping at that time. We biked for almost an hour. After that it was just being in home and gossip and playing pictioary and another game(I forgot the name).

On Monday we decided to go for swimming. We checked two lakes but Gagan was not satisfied with the crowd. He wanted some place with very less people. So we went to Nallikari beach again because it's a long one and you can find some place almost with no people. We again played frisbee in water, also swam for a while. On the way coming back home we decided to go to Koiteli in Kiminki.

Koiteli is a nice place beside river. There are several grill place. You can take your own food and have a nice barbeque there. I visited this place once before but not in proper summer. During summer it's really astonishing. From Koiteli we came back home and got mentally prepared for the summer cottage. Mohsin got his luggage ready to leave for Espoo next morning.

Me and Gagan dropped Mohsin to Oulu airport the next morning around 07:45 am. We took coffee in a coffee shop and then came back home. After taking breakfast Gagan went to have a nap because he will be driving to the cottage. We already finished our grocery for the cottage while returning from airport.

In the afternoon, around 3 PM we started our journey towards summer cottage. It was a nice 4 hours journey with multiple breaks. We met the cottage owner in his office. He doesn't speak English. Among us only Shanila speaks Finnish, so she was the savior :) She communicates with the owner and he showed us the way to the cottage and gave us the key. He also showed all the facilities. Before leaving he gave us a nice homemade chocolate cake as a part of welcome. We were so happy. The first night was not very eventful. We just walk around a bit, had late dinner and went to bed. Sharmin and me stayed in ground floor. Gagan and Shanila went upstairs.

On the second day we did barbeque, fishing, boating and sauna. Also there was enough time to relax. We managed to read novels during lazy afternoon. The next day (Thursday) was pretty much the same but we were playing badminton a bit. On Friday, we left the cottage at noon. The owner gave us two bottles of blue currant concentrated juice. All in all it was an enjoyable but relaxing cottage trip.

Our train to Helsinki will leave at 16:00 from Kuopio. So we had some time in our hand. So we went to Nilsiä, another small town near Kuopio. It's a nice place with hills and lakes. The combination was great. From Nilsiä we headed to Kuopio. It was 15:30 when we reached Kuopio train station.

The train journey from Kuopio to Helsinki was almost 5 hours. This time it was only Sharmin and me and our seat arrangement was quite OK. Still we went to the restaurant and spent the whole journey sitting there. We reached Helsinki around 20:50 and finally reached home around 21:40. Thus a week long vacation trip, full of activities and fun, came to an end :)

Here goes some pictures:

Playing frisbee on the beach

Now frisbee in wather :)

Mohsin in action in mini golf :)

Tigris and Euphrates. Everybody is so serious :P

Koiteli

Koiteli 2

Fire for barbeque in Koiteli

River flows continuously there :)

Wood art, on the way to cottage

Friends, on the way to cottage

Happy couple, on the way to cottage

Chappel near our cottage. The owner made it by himself.

Wooden door, nicely crafted

Our cottage

Golden light of sunset makes the cottage even more beautiful

Rear balcony, I liked the table

View from top floor

Another view

Girls watching sunset from the deck

It's Sharmin and me. You may need a magnifying glass to see us :P

Gagan and Shanila are canoeing

I was trying single row

The expert swimmer doesn't need any life vest :)

  Nilsiä, doesn't look like Finland at all

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