I feel kind of guilty announcing that I managed to wake up with a hangover both Saturday and Sunday mornings. You see I made myself a promise that I'd be taking everything I do more seriously after returning to Estonia, but I took the piss out of the calm, relaxed weekend with the family by going on the piss with my good friends instead. So much for gaining responsibility.
Must admit it was tons of fun, though!
Friday saw us (me, Reiko, Liisa, Raigo & Kristjan) gather around the fire outside with meat, sausages, red wine and rum and the hangover that followed wasn't funny. Although the night before was with it's scandals and relationship troubles and this and that.
I had to get up at 6 in the morning on Saturday to go to the market again. With throbbing temples and dry mouth and rumbling stomach. It was fun again though.
At around 2 in the afternoon I got my mum to drive me to where the Southern Estonian Rally was taking place. Our last nights gang was there already, all rallied up. Raigo, Reiko and Kristjan are the biggest rallyfans ever, filming everything. So the the Three Wise men neglected us and it was me and the girls. I was expecting a boring afternoon and it probably would have been, but the DragonLady appeared. She's apparently former Miss Võrumaa, a middle-aged, single and very bitterly lady with nothing else to do in life than give out to the others. It came out that we had been sitting on her land, watching the rally and she had a few things to say to me. Only me she picked out, though, the others blasting loud music and having a BBQ right next to us she left alone. All I did was trample down her uncut grass (as did absolutely everyone else) and picked a wild flower while she was sitting on a pile of earth next to where I did it. Now if I had known she wasn't just watching the rally but weeding her garden as she put it, I would have said "hello", but i didn't and lots of fun for the rest of the rally was guaranteed. It's a long story, but everyone witnessing also said I had been in the right, so I'm not gonna go into it any longer. But I'm still very passionate about it because firstly, it was fun to have those arguments and secondly I cannot believe how someone her age already can still be so stupid and childish.
Anywho..
After the rally we all went for a swim, then I went to the sauna. At around nine it was time for me and Kristjan to start with the alcohol again. A bottle of not-so-good-tasting vodka called "Katjusha" later we were quite wasted (at least I was), ther Reiko and Liisa arrived. I remember bits of it, but the next thing then is waking up in the morning with a very bad taste in my mouth, but generally not feeling that bad at all. It's been proved many times before anyways that vodka leaves you feeling quite human-like in the morning after.
So as not to waste the day on laying in bed, we decided to head to the woods again for mushrooms. This time we weren't as lucky as the last, but the sauce I made (yet again the worst cook in the company gets to practice and I must say that mushrooms are far too rare for us to let me practice with them) was fairly edible.
I finished my day with cleaning up Kristjan's apartment after reikoLiisa had gone home and Kris to bed on a very full stomach.
Bring on next weekend, I'm already feeling too sober!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
TOO MUCH GOOD MUSIC....
....my head is going to explode!
Oh and I couldn't get Alex to sleep. It was me, Alex (my nearly 2-year-old nephew) and Liisa, my friend. My sis had gone to the forest to pick another batch of berries (we're like squirrels collecting winter supplies) and I had the mighty job of putting Alex in bed for his afternoon nap.
So I fed him, changed the nappy and took him to bed with me. Liisa stayed outside, sunbathing. He was almost asleep when Liisa came in to say she's heading home for her afternoon nap. And it did the trick. He started crying. And there was no stopping, because he all of a sudden realised, that mammy was not around!
So I danced around with him and sang and played and got him happy again and went for another try. As soon as we hit the bed, crying started again. I pulled out The Sheep and my best impressions of animal voices and we played with the remote controls in the livingroom. That was an hour and a half after we first tried sleeping and he was hungry again. Mostly because the first time he was too busy fooling around and the eating didn't work out too well.
We had another round of lunch and tried sleeping again.
Nothing.
Remote control seemed to calm him down the most.
Sister, where are you!?
Two and a half hours after we started the sleeping saga, his mammy arrived home, we were still on the sofa playing with the remote control, she took him to bed and three minutes later he was asleep.
We'll do it again tomorrow.
By the by, tomorrow is Market Day again ;)
Oh and I couldn't get Alex to sleep. It was me, Alex (my nearly 2-year-old nephew) and Liisa, my friend. My sis had gone to the forest to pick another batch of berries (we're like squirrels collecting winter supplies) and I had the mighty job of putting Alex in bed for his afternoon nap.
So I fed him, changed the nappy and took him to bed with me. Liisa stayed outside, sunbathing. He was almost asleep when Liisa came in to say she's heading home for her afternoon nap. And it did the trick. He started crying. And there was no stopping, because he all of a sudden realised, that mammy was not around!
So I danced around with him and sang and played and got him happy again and went for another try. As soon as we hit the bed, crying started again. I pulled out The Sheep and my best impressions of animal voices and we played with the remote controls in the livingroom. That was an hour and a half after we first tried sleeping and he was hungry again. Mostly because the first time he was too busy fooling around and the eating didn't work out too well.
We had another round of lunch and tried sleeping again.
Nothing.
Remote control seemed to calm him down the most.
Sister, where are you!?
Two and a half hours after we started the sleeping saga, his mammy arrived home, we were still on the sofa playing with the remote control, she took him to bed and three minutes later he was asleep.
We'll do it again tomorrow.
By the by, tomorrow is Market Day again ;)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Market cred
My family has been growing cucumbers for the past 15 or so summers. Those short ones, you know. As soon as I was tall enough and able to count, I was put behind the counter at the farmers market as the talkative and friendly kid out of the three of us to sell them. That makes it so that I've been earning market cred for about the past ten years.
I got up at six this morning, we packed the cucumbers and scales at the back of my dads car at 6.45 and was on the market by seven.
What you do is put up the scales, arrange the best looking cucumbers neatly to the front of the case and then you go browsing around. You see the first half an hour before customers arrive everyone is very sly about the price they put on their products. Whether the cucumbers are gonna be 20 kr. per kg or 18. That was the case today. They might tell you that they'll sell them for 20 and that's what you're gonna price them but when you leave (and their stand is in front of you) they put up a sign saying 18. And you wonder why you get no customers.
If your product is good, and I'm proud to say ours is, you get your loyals. They know they'll always get fresh cucumbers for a good price. In a small place like Võru and Võru County, the word gets around and people come to the market and buy your stuff because their neighbours granddaughters mother-in-laws postman said it was good and that the girl selling them gave him or her 3 cucumbers extra.
At about half seven, the market is officially open. Then you sell. If there's anyone to sell to.
You find out that you're not selling because the creepy looking man in front of you has lowered the price so you do that too and sell again.
There's some characters on the market.
You get your regular old women with the flowers and the dill from their garden. They've been to the market for at least 40 years already and they have the most market cred. They could tell you by heart how much a kg of cucumbers cost on the 11th of June in 1978. They also know your grandmother and what you do on your free time. and how many boys you've kissed behind the community centre corner. They have lots of market cred, community cred and they actually have all sorts of cred, the old women.
Then you get your typical farmer with wellingtons, selling potatoes and fresh peas in pods and he usually smells of pigs or any other farm animal, too. They're not that bothered over selling anything themselves, wives and children are there for that. They usually wander around and chat to the old ladies looking for information about last Saturdays market. They couldn't make it because a pig went into labour (or maybe the wife, again) and they now have 16 piglets (and six children, big families in Estonia are still generally quite small). They have normal credit.
Serious market fish come every day, even on the days there's no market and it's raining frogs. Then they sell frogs. They appear to have cred, but mostly in the eyes of the lady who collects money for the desk you sell from because they give the lady money and lots of free goods. Most people don't like them, they always bring the prices down unnecessarily early.
Young eurofarmer couples usually selling tomatoes. They're totally harmless, come in, do their thing and leave. They have no cred because no one knows anything about them other than what they sell, not even the old ladies.
There's always the graveyard plant salesmen and second hand clothes and someone at the gates offering free kittens. They're random, no cred either.
My mum creates a completely different group altogether, she has lots of cred and it simply expands to me as well.
When you go to the market, wrap yourself in as if you were going to a skiing trip, even though it's July. Seriously cold! And there's a roof over us. And if you're going buying, not selling, take a wicker basket, it adds you market buyer cred.
I'm going again Thursday!
I got up at six this morning, we packed the cucumbers and scales at the back of my dads car at 6.45 and was on the market by seven.
What you do is put up the scales, arrange the best looking cucumbers neatly to the front of the case and then you go browsing around. You see the first half an hour before customers arrive everyone is very sly about the price they put on their products. Whether the cucumbers are gonna be 20 kr. per kg or 18. That was the case today. They might tell you that they'll sell them for 20 and that's what you're gonna price them but when you leave (and their stand is in front of you) they put up a sign saying 18. And you wonder why you get no customers.
If your product is good, and I'm proud to say ours is, you get your loyals. They know they'll always get fresh cucumbers for a good price. In a small place like Võru and Võru County, the word gets around and people come to the market and buy your stuff because their neighbours granddaughters mother-in-laws postman said it was good and that the girl selling them gave him or her 3 cucumbers extra.
At about half seven, the market is officially open. Then you sell. If there's anyone to sell to.
You find out that you're not selling because the creepy looking man in front of you has lowered the price so you do that too and sell again.
There's some characters on the market.
You get your regular old women with the flowers and the dill from their garden. They've been to the market for at least 40 years already and they have the most market cred. They could tell you by heart how much a kg of cucumbers cost on the 11th of June in 1978. They also know your grandmother and what you do on your free time. and how many boys you've kissed behind the community centre corner. They have lots of market cred, community cred and they actually have all sorts of cred, the old women.
Then you get your typical farmer with wellingtons, selling potatoes and fresh peas in pods and he usually smells of pigs or any other farm animal, too. They're not that bothered over selling anything themselves, wives and children are there for that. They usually wander around and chat to the old ladies looking for information about last Saturdays market. They couldn't make it because a pig went into labour (or maybe the wife, again) and they now have 16 piglets (and six children, big families in Estonia are still generally quite small). They have normal credit.
Serious market fish come every day, even on the days there's no market and it's raining frogs. Then they sell frogs. They appear to have cred, but mostly in the eyes of the lady who collects money for the desk you sell from because they give the lady money and lots of free goods. Most people don't like them, they always bring the prices down unnecessarily early.
Young eurofarmer couples usually selling tomatoes. They're totally harmless, come in, do their thing and leave. They have no cred because no one knows anything about them other than what they sell, not even the old ladies.
There's always the graveyard plant salesmen and second hand clothes and someone at the gates offering free kittens. They're random, no cred either.
My mum creates a completely different group altogether, she has lots of cred and it simply expands to me as well.
When you go to the market, wrap yourself in as if you were going to a skiing trip, even though it's July. Seriously cold! And there's a roof over us. And if you're going buying, not selling, take a wicker basket, it adds you market buyer cred.
I'm going again Thursday!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
SouthSide2008
The Foo Fighters, Bellx1, The Chemical Brothers, Radiohead and our brave SouthSide crew!
Dear You!
It was so nice! First the festival and then the trip.
I flew to Germany on the 18th of June, met Selina and stayed at hers a few days, then drove down to the SouthSide festival with her, Ella and Jevgeni. Brilliant sunshine and almost untolerable heat for three long days filled with beautiful music and definitely not enough water providing facilities.
I'm sitting on the porch at the back of my parents house, Sufjan Stevens is playing a song called "Come on: feel the Illinoise! Part I: The world's Columbian exposition, Part II: Carl Sandburg visits me in a dream" How's that for a title! There's longer ones and all the songs on the album are equally fantastic! Everything is good and the general atmosphere is something close to idyllic.
The festival, then. The highlight of the first day was, as expected, Radiohead. I bought the last album (In Rainbows) and only gave it one chance back then, didn't take it in really, but they turned me back into Radiohead religion by playing bigger part of the album and it is good, you know!
The second day treated me to Beatsteaks, a german band whose live, although I didn't understand most of what their lead singer was saying, left me in the best spirits, near exhaustion and ready to dance on. Just the right combination for The Chemical Brothers! I'm in loss for words..
Third day started off with Bellx1, who were playing on the smallest stage inside a small tent for a small crowd. Great!
By that time, my camera battery was near death and I hadn't brought the charger, so more time to actually concentrate on listening and looking and dancing. I'm too hooked up on taking pictures and making videos most of the time, which is really annoying, I'd rather have the memories in my head. But then again, with a memory of a goldfish, I'm probably still better off taking the occasional photograph.
The third night ended with Foo Fighters, who were a big disappointment, to be honest. I was actually waiting for the gig to be over so I could leave, because they really weren't giving it their best.
Then there were Flogging Molly, who left me seriously bruised and with my dress ripped and Sigur Rós, simply beautiful, but too atmospheric for daylight and the heat, perhaps. All and all, it was great fun and the spontaneous "trash jam" that took place on the last night was so spot on. Everyone having a blast banging the hell out of empty 5-litre beer kegs and those big green plastic trash containers with whatever happened to be in hand and parading around, singing, chanting, generally having the greatest time!
After we got back to Selinas place, i fell asleep for 16 hours and would have slept more, if she hadn't woke me up.
Two days later, early in the morning, we headed South. Hitching. It only took us one day to get to the South-West corner of Germany and then, through France, to a gorgeous town called Berck Sur Mer in the North-West corner. Spent the day on the beach. My face got sunburnt. Unfortunately the mixture of occasional clouds and wind and cold water took the wish to go swimming away even from me, who usually (as histry has shown) doesn't back away from any kind of chance of a dip in the water.
That night we slept on a field. It was warm.
We already made it to Rotterdam on our third day. Which, as you might have already realized, didn't really give us a chance to look around and discover the places we drove through. A pity, but with the limited budget we were on and the heavy rucksacks we were carrying we kind of didn't feel like it anyways.
We stayed in The Netherlands for a week, though, so got a chance to see a bit of this and that. Rotterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem and Den Haag, to be percise.
Spent two days in Zandvoort, visiting our friend Severine who we had first met in Clonakilty. She and her boyfriend also showed us Haarlem, where I would go shopping any day of the week, but preferably with money. Since I didn't have any, I wasn't enjoying the whole in and out of shops experience that much. But I'll go back. After I win the lottery, of course.
A day in Den Haag left me with the funniest tan lines ever. I'm really like a proper zebra or something like that. And so ridiculously brown, be jealous! Oh, and we went swimming and the waves were super and the water so warm and I didn't wanna come out at all!
It's getting dark here, it's 23:23, better put on the lights and go make coffee.
Right.
Aah, this is ridiculous! I now have no internet because i moved the laptop to the side a bit. For example I can only sit in a certain position in a certain place here outside so it'd pick up the wireless from who knows where.
Anywho.. lights are on, I have a BIG cup of coffee, woolly socks from the grannyfactory and a warm jumper (Nick, it's proven very handy, big cheers!). My coffee comes with honey from dads bees. Yum!
Where was I.. in case anyone's still interested in finding out what happened later.
It was a pity to leave Holland, but Berlin was to be reached and we did it in about 12 hours I think.
We were staying with a friend of Selinas there. He showed us around, took us to one of the markets they have around the city on Sundays that I'm so fond of. Then to the little beach clubs and underground places alongside the river that are gonna be torn down soon to make room for big corporate buildings. They're having last parties there at this period to protest and show their opinion, but it's not likely to change much.
Although I would have loved to stay, I left Berlin after two days, mainly because I was getting seriously homesick.
It was the week at my parents place that did it, playing with Alex, my nephew and getting the hang of family life again. And country life. With all the weeding and lawn mowing and the cherries are ready for picking now, we'll be making jam tomorrow. And in September, we're gonna start with homemade apple cider. Supplies for the hot days next summer.
Okay, so I left Berlin.. took a train to Frankfurt so that I could start hitching from there, but I never took into account that I could end up on the side of the motorway with nowhere to walk, trapped, basically. So there I was, ready to throw myself in front of a car to get out of my misery, when the motorway police pulled up next to me. After I had explained my sad story and big wish to get home, they took me to the border, which was only 2 km from where I was standing as it came out, and told me to never get lost next to a motorway in Germany again and basically to get the hell out of Germany and to the hands of polish lorry-driving perverts, but they said it in a nice voice.
There I was.. decided to sit down and have a ciggy, when a truck pulled up next to me and asked me where I'm headed. So I got a lift for about 80 km. By then it was getting fairly dark, but I was in high spirits and dancing and singing on the roadside with my thumb up and got a lift in about 2 minutes. Couldn't even finish a song, dammit!
The guy promised to take me to Warsaw where he lived. We arrived there 4 in the morning, so he decided to drive outside the city, about 50 km, where his country house was. I got to have a shower there, 9 hours of sleep and breakfast and then he took me a further 50 km towards Lithuania. And the whole time we weren't able to fully communicate because of the language barrier, which makes the whole thing even more beautiful. You get to see how your whole being and not just words can bring out the nicest side in a complete stranger.
Joni Mitchell is halfway through her "Blue" album, which will forever remind me of Zandvoort! My coffee's gone cold.. It's dead quiet outside, a couple of grasshoppers in the distance. You'd love it here!
Then I met The Pervert. A smallish lorry pulled aside and I got in, closed the door and he reached, grabbed my boob and smiled. I got off and showed him The Finger. And it was kind of funny then, because I've never been happier over someone grabbing my boob 3 minutes into our aquaintance. If he had had the chance to start driving first, I might have been in a spot of trouble.
From there on it went ridiculously smoothly, I was home in no time. Exactly 3 weeks after leaving. Short and cheerful!
It's just so upbeat, my whole life at the moment. Hope you can say the same about yours!
All the best,
Me.
I flew to Germany on the 18th of June, met Selina and stayed at hers a few days, then drove down to the SouthSide festival with her, Ella and Jevgeni. Brilliant sunshine and almost untolerable heat for three long days filled with beautiful music and definitely not enough water providing facilities.
I'm sitting on the porch at the back of my parents house, Sufjan Stevens is playing a song called "Come on: feel the Illinoise! Part I: The world's Columbian exposition, Part II: Carl Sandburg visits me in a dream" How's that for a title! There's longer ones and all the songs on the album are equally fantastic! Everything is good and the general atmosphere is something close to idyllic.
The festival, then. The highlight of the first day was, as expected, Radiohead. I bought the last album (In Rainbows) and only gave it one chance back then, didn't take it in really, but they turned me back into Radiohead religion by playing bigger part of the album and it is good, you know!
The second day treated me to Beatsteaks, a german band whose live, although I didn't understand most of what their lead singer was saying, left me in the best spirits, near exhaustion and ready to dance on. Just the right combination for The Chemical Brothers! I'm in loss for words..
Third day started off with Bellx1, who were playing on the smallest stage inside a small tent for a small crowd. Great!
By that time, my camera battery was near death and I hadn't brought the charger, so more time to actually concentrate on listening and looking and dancing. I'm too hooked up on taking pictures and making videos most of the time, which is really annoying, I'd rather have the memories in my head. But then again, with a memory of a goldfish, I'm probably still better off taking the occasional photograph.
The third night ended with Foo Fighters, who were a big disappointment, to be honest. I was actually waiting for the gig to be over so I could leave, because they really weren't giving it their best.
Then there were Flogging Molly, who left me seriously bruised and with my dress ripped and Sigur Rós, simply beautiful, but too atmospheric for daylight and the heat, perhaps. All and all, it was great fun and the spontaneous "trash jam" that took place on the last night was so spot on. Everyone having a blast banging the hell out of empty 5-litre beer kegs and those big green plastic trash containers with whatever happened to be in hand and parading around, singing, chanting, generally having the greatest time!
After we got back to Selinas place, i fell asleep for 16 hours and would have slept more, if she hadn't woke me up.
Two days later, early in the morning, we headed South. Hitching. It only took us one day to get to the South-West corner of Germany and then, through France, to a gorgeous town called Berck Sur Mer in the North-West corner. Spent the day on the beach. My face got sunburnt. Unfortunately the mixture of occasional clouds and wind and cold water took the wish to go swimming away even from me, who usually (as histry has shown) doesn't back away from any kind of chance of a dip in the water.
That night we slept on a field. It was warm.
We already made it to Rotterdam on our third day. Which, as you might have already realized, didn't really give us a chance to look around and discover the places we drove through. A pity, but with the limited budget we were on and the heavy rucksacks we were carrying we kind of didn't feel like it anyways.
We stayed in The Netherlands for a week, though, so got a chance to see a bit of this and that. Rotterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem and Den Haag, to be percise.
Spent two days in Zandvoort, visiting our friend Severine who we had first met in Clonakilty. She and her boyfriend also showed us Haarlem, where I would go shopping any day of the week, but preferably with money. Since I didn't have any, I wasn't enjoying the whole in and out of shops experience that much. But I'll go back. After I win the lottery, of course.
A day in Den Haag left me with the funniest tan lines ever. I'm really like a proper zebra or something like that. And so ridiculously brown, be jealous! Oh, and we went swimming and the waves were super and the water so warm and I didn't wanna come out at all!
It's getting dark here, it's 23:23, better put on the lights and go make coffee.
Right.
Aah, this is ridiculous! I now have no internet because i moved the laptop to the side a bit. For example I can only sit in a certain position in a certain place here outside so it'd pick up the wireless from who knows where.
Anywho.. lights are on, I have a BIG cup of coffee, woolly socks from the grannyfactory and a warm jumper (Nick, it's proven very handy, big cheers!). My coffee comes with honey from dads bees. Yum!
Where was I.. in case anyone's still interested in finding out what happened later.
It was a pity to leave Holland, but Berlin was to be reached and we did it in about 12 hours I think.
We were staying with a friend of Selinas there. He showed us around, took us to one of the markets they have around the city on Sundays that I'm so fond of. Then to the little beach clubs and underground places alongside the river that are gonna be torn down soon to make room for big corporate buildings. They're having last parties there at this period to protest and show their opinion, but it's not likely to change much.
Although I would have loved to stay, I left Berlin after two days, mainly because I was getting seriously homesick.
It was the week at my parents place that did it, playing with Alex, my nephew and getting the hang of family life again. And country life. With all the weeding and lawn mowing and the cherries are ready for picking now, we'll be making jam tomorrow. And in September, we're gonna start with homemade apple cider. Supplies for the hot days next summer.
Okay, so I left Berlin.. took a train to Frankfurt so that I could start hitching from there, but I never took into account that I could end up on the side of the motorway with nowhere to walk, trapped, basically. So there I was, ready to throw myself in front of a car to get out of my misery, when the motorway police pulled up next to me. After I had explained my sad story and big wish to get home, they took me to the border, which was only 2 km from where I was standing as it came out, and told me to never get lost next to a motorway in Germany again and basically to get the hell out of Germany and to the hands of polish lorry-driving perverts, but they said it in a nice voice.
There I was.. decided to sit down and have a ciggy, when a truck pulled up next to me and asked me where I'm headed. So I got a lift for about 80 km. By then it was getting fairly dark, but I was in high spirits and dancing and singing on the roadside with my thumb up and got a lift in about 2 minutes. Couldn't even finish a song, dammit!
The guy promised to take me to Warsaw where he lived. We arrived there 4 in the morning, so he decided to drive outside the city, about 50 km, where his country house was. I got to have a shower there, 9 hours of sleep and breakfast and then he took me a further 50 km towards Lithuania. And the whole time we weren't able to fully communicate because of the language barrier, which makes the whole thing even more beautiful. You get to see how your whole being and not just words can bring out the nicest side in a complete stranger.
Joni Mitchell is halfway through her "Blue" album, which will forever remind me of Zandvoort! My coffee's gone cold.. It's dead quiet outside, a couple of grasshoppers in the distance. You'd love it here!
Then I met The Pervert. A smallish lorry pulled aside and I got in, closed the door and he reached, grabbed my boob and smiled. I got off and showed him The Finger. And it was kind of funny then, because I've never been happier over someone grabbing my boob 3 minutes into our aquaintance. If he had had the chance to start driving first, I might have been in a spot of trouble.
From there on it went ridiculously smoothly, I was home in no time. Exactly 3 weeks after leaving. Short and cheerful!
It's just so upbeat, my whole life at the moment. Hope you can say the same about yours!
All the best,
Me.
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