Nice weekend with few Tamperelainen

It was last weekend when few Tamperelainen came to visit my place in Kirkkonummi. In total four guys came from Tampere, two of them, Saad and Rubel came on Friday night and the other two, Tareq vi and sagor came on Saturday early morning. Wali, who previously lived in Tampere but started living in Helsinki since September, received Saad and Rubel on Friday night and came to my home with them. I fetched them from Kirkkonummi railway station around 12 O'clock at night. We took dinner and started playing cards. We continued until 0330 am and then went to sleep.


The next morning Tareq vi and Sagor were on their way to Helsinki. We agreed previously that we would meet them in Helsinki railway station. We took our breakfast and prepared some sandwiches for our lunch and then started our journey to Helsinki to meet the other two guys. We reached Helsinki around 10 am and they were waiting for us in McDonalds. We bought the daily ticket for everybody and started walking towards the harbor since we planned to go to Sumenlinna island.


On the way to harbor there is one nice park and two nice churches. We took few pictures in the park and then went to the white church. I haven't been there previously. It is a very nice church. In the yard in front of the church they put many statue of bears, each represents a country. We took pictures in front of the one representing Bangladesh. Then we entered into the church to have a look inside. Here goes few pictures.




In the train, on the way going to Helsinki.




This is the nice park, there are many statues like that.




From the yard of white church.




Closer shot




Scattered on the stairs

In front of the bear representing Bangladesh

Information about that bear

Half of the bears from the stairs

Another closer look at the white church

Inside the white church

Nice picture inside

The other side

From this white church we went to another one, a Russian church. This one looks very old but nice though. We couldn't enter into this one because the gate was closed. Here is the picture of this one.

The Russian church

White church from the terrace of Russian church.

From there we went to harbor to get the ferry. Unfortunately we missed the ferry for 5 minutes. The next one was after an hour. So we had nothing to do but wait. So we just roam around in the open market beside the harbor, looked at different things and ate fried fish. Finally the next ferry came and we got into it. It was around 15 minutes journey in ferry to reach the island. The weather was really nice. We visited different places in the island and took lots of pictures. We took our lunch on a rocky shore. We were in the island for more than 3 hours. We came back in the same ferry. Few pictures from the island are here.

Eating fried fish in the open market before going to Sumenlinna

The ferry

The entrance of the island

A church in the island

On the bridge near the museum of the island

Another picture from the bridge

A cave

I don't know what it is but looks good

Another side of the island

The second top place of the beach

This bird looks so real if you look suddenly but it's made of concrete.

Another nice view

I have no idea about this :P

A panaroma in one part of the island

Protection bridge near sea

Just a gate

Sat there to take lunch

Couldn't help taking a picture with that :P

After coming from Sumenlinna, we roam around in the downtown and then decided to go to Vuosari beach. We took metro to go there. It is located on one edge of Helsinki. We were in the beach for an hour and then came back to Helsinki again by metro. Few pictures from afternoon:

The metro station

Inside the metro

The pathway to go to the beach

Vuosari beach

Rocky protection in the beach

We went to Wali's place to take dinner. We met some friends there who are studying in Aalto university. Then around 11 O'clock at night 6 of us came back to my place. We gossiped and played poker for a long time and slept very late again.


The next day we didn't go to visit any specific place. We roam around Kirkkonummi city center for a while in the morning and had some grocery. Tareq vi and Sagor were supposed to leave in the afternoon but Saad and Rubel were telling them to stay and everybody will leave at night around 9 O'clock. At first Tareq vi was reluctant to agree but finally he agreed. But, at night Saad and Rubel said that it's already night, so better spend the night and then leave the next day when I will go to work. We were laughing but finally everybody agreed to stay for Sunday night also. The next morning all of us left together. I went to work and they started their journey towards Tampere.


After a long time we guys gathered together and do things like this. It's very rare to get this kinda chance. All of us enjoyed it much. Thanks to those four Tamperelainen for coming to my place this far and also to Wali to give us time. After they left I started missing good old Tampere life again :( I am hoping to visit Tampere soon.



Programming Solution

A day full of events ended with "3 minutes in -110 degree"

The day started with late-wake-up. I was in a hurry to catch the 0859 train. I just walked so fast and managed to get into it on time. When I reached the office the review for last sprint has been started already. I joined right away. After 30 minutes of review the planning meeting for next sprint started. It was a long meeting. After half way we had lunch break and had subway sandwich with the whole team. Actually it was arranged by Peter, he picked those sandwich in the morning for the whole team.


The planning meeting continued after the lunch. At around 1200 we just took an hour break. At that time I accompanied Peter while he was going to Kirkkonummi center because I needed to pick my Finnish ID card from police office and visa electron card from Bank. I got the ID card without any problem.


Unfortunately I didn't get the visa electron card. It's not yet ready to deliver. The lady said she will send it to my home tomorrow. We came back to the office and continued our planning meeting. There were many misunderstanding but finally, I think, we managed to come up with a good plan for the next sprint.


In the afternoon I heard that Peter is going to cold sauna today. I heard about it earlier. It is staying in a room for 3 minutes in -110 degree Celsius temperature. I was quite amazed how can a person can survive in that low temperature for 3 minutes. Today I just wanted to experience this thing. I was not quite sure if I can really survive for 3 minutes but I wanted to see. So I went with Peter after work.


Actually we, 5 colleagues, went there. It's a luxurious hotel. They have this service. We had to sign a paper with all our address and contact information (may be because bad things may happen anytime) before starting. Then they gave us woolen socks, rubber shoes, woolen gloves and woolen earmuffs. We were only in shorts and just put on those things that they gave us. After getting ready, they were giving us instruction how to move the body continuously and how to ask for help if somebody feels dizzy or sick. After the instruction the girl opened the door and let us enter the room. It was full of white smoke, may be nitrogen gas or whatever which made us totally blind and OMG, it was damn cold. Damn unbelievable cold. Within few seconds my nose became numb. We were moving our legs continuously. After one minute the girl announced "1 minute" and asked if everybody alright. Everybody said yes. From the very beginning of second minute my nose was totally frozen and my eyes were getting frozen as well. I was scared and I just closed my eyes totally and didn't opened until I came out of that room. Peter was continuously shouting to make fun but I was not in a situation to enjoy the fun. The girl announced "2 minutes" and asked again if everybody is alright. I wanted to say I want to go out but finally controlled myself and said I am OK. The third minute was ticking. I was stamping my feet on the floor and counting. It was getting unbearable. Every second seems so long. My ear was waiting for the announcement from that girl but it seemed that she was not going to announce it ever. My thighs were getting numb and I was having hard time to move my feet. My elbow was kinda frozen and I was afraid to straighten my hand. I couldn't think of anything else but the announcement from that girl. I almost asked for help and at that moment the girl announced "3 minutes". She opened the door and we came out of the room. It seemed that somebody just put fire on my nose. It was hard like ice. I was even afraid to touch it thinking that it might break. My eyes were teary, I couldn't see well. The girl took us to a salt room full of easy chair. We sat there to relax. My nose was still burning like hell. Peter told me to move it a bit. I started touching it and the burning was lessening. It took almost 15 mins to get some feeling on my nose. We were in the salt room for 20 minutes. After that we just dressed up and left. It was an experience for lifetime even though very difficult to endure :)



Programming Solution

Another birthday passed

Today was my birthday. Just passed another year of my life. It's kinda special day for me, not only for my birthday but for some other reason also. Well, the day did not go so nice. I had lots of problems in my work. Nothing was working properly for me. I had to struggle a lot with my working environment which is so annoying. But the good part of the day is, one of my colleagues, Aila, gave me a center table today and it's quite nice. Moreover, while coming back from work I decided to go to shop and buy my own gift. Actually I bought not just one, but two board games for me. One of those are for multiple purposes, you will get six different games inside that. At least I got some gifts :)

The table and my own gifts :)



Programming Solution

Room orientation changed

Yesterday I got the sofa in my home and today after coming from office I just changed the orientation of my room. Let's have a look at the new orientation of my room :)

The sofa is just in front of the bed now, separating bed room and living room :P





The cabinet comes nearer to the pc table :)



Programming Solution

Inception: another Christopher Nolan's masterpiece

[Image source]

I have been thinking to watch Inception for quite a while since it was released in Finland but I could not manage until today. Yes, today I finally watched it in a movie theater. It was Peter, my colleague, who bought the tickets and offered me if I want to watch this one. I agreed happily. So today, in the afternoon, he picked me up in front of my house and we went to watch another box-office hit movie by Christopher Nolan.

The storyline seems quite interesting to me, it made me concentrate on the movie all the time. While things were happening I had to think as well to sort it out. Moreover, the visual effect was so nice to watch in big screen. The bottom line is I liked the movie and it made me more fan of Christopher Nolan. The night became perfect after having a nice dinner in a nice restaurant at the heart of Helsinki downtown. Interestingly, it was provided by Peter again :D



Programming Solution

Bought a couch

I just bought a couch from a Finnish girl. She is moving out and willing to sell her couch. I was willing to buy because I have only one chair in my room in front of my pc table, so if somebody comes to my home he has to sit on my bed which is not so nice. It's a three seated couch. I think I got a good deal just for 20 euros because she delivered it to my home :)





This is my couch





I don't know if the orientation is good but I didn't find any other suitable place to put it.



Programming Solution

Real "Pinball", played for the first time

After office Peter told me he is going home by walk. We live in nearby places. I was thinking to join him because I haven't walked for long for a while now. Finally I joined him and it took us 50 minutes to reach his home. Well my home is 15 minutes more walk from his. He offered few backgammon round. FYI, he plays lots of board and card games, and he is a professional backgammon player. I agreed on his proposal wanted to learn some backgammon strategy. While I was in his living room I found a huge machine like thing with four legs. Amazingly I recognized that it's a pinball game set. I never saw a pinball set in real. I always played it in computer. It's a huge and heavy. We played few rounds and it turned out that the real one is much exciting than the virtual one. After that we played backgammon and Peter describes few strategy to me which I wish I can remember. I took few picture of his pinball set. Here they go:




The huge pinball set. The sound is awesome with loud speaker.

Look at the shelf, thousands of comic collection. Unfortunately all in Swedish language :(

Peter is playing now :)



Programming Solution

On the way to Oulu

Writing this post from the train. This is the first time I am using wi-fi internet connection while on a train. Actually they started this service from August 2010, only in pendonlino train. Right now I am at the end of my journey. It's a long one, almost 6 hours. I watched 2 movies (District 9, The Big Lebowski), surf facebook and did some junk browsing as well. Still 30 more minutes to go to reach Oulu. So I decided to write this post for my update :)



Programming Solution

New home

On 31 August I moved in my new home, in Kirkkonummi. It was quite a hectic job to shift all my stuffs. I had to go back and forth by train from Espoo but it feels good when I came here. It's one of my firsts, my own apartment. I don't have to comply with anybody else. Even though it is small I liked it so much. Let's have a look at my new home :)

The main entrance

The whole block

My apartment from the back door

The view from the back door, looks like a forest :P

Another view from back door

Inside my room, my bed and shelf

Corridor, separated by closet

The big window

Kitchen

Another view of the kitchen

My first iftar in my new home, lots of food :D



Programming Solution