We have been having weird weather here lately, a sort of rain that comes into contact with something and then freezes solid. Causes a lot of trouble with cars, as you can imagine. On the bright side, literally, it is getting lighter. The Sun is coming up at around half past eight and sets around fourish, so we are getting about eight hours of light now. Ok, so there has been clouds the last two days but I have seen the sun a few times this last week.
On Friday Tanja and I enjoyed going round town trying to find a gift for a friend's Son who turned one. Well it was a lot harder than we thought but we did see loads of childish things that we both wanted (We are big kids at heart) ["I'm not a big kid. I'm a little kid." -Tanja]. It didn't help that most places seem to be in the middle of renovating but we did managed to find some soft toys and after finding two suitable we narrowed it down to one. After we narrowed it down to one, we had to decide which one of that particular one we wanted. The soft toy was a Dog with long arms and legs and very soft and cuddly. So after buying that and a bag for it we headed round to Elder and Sister Christensen's home, they are leaving to go back to America on Thursday after serving a mission here in Oulu for the last year and a half. So they invited us around so they could donate some of their items to us, as it would be too expensive to ship back. We ended up leaving an hour later loaded down with about five carrier bags full of picture frames, cooking utensils (I got a "holy" cake tin, woop woop) and a ton of herbs and spices. The Christensen's have been good friends to Tanja and I, as well as everyone they have come into contact with, and I think they will be sorely missed. I know I will miss my intellectual sparing with Elder Christensen.
On Saturday I woke up at six (A new regime I am working on as my new job involves getting up early) and felt great. I finished off my blog post on the Finnish Swastika and then made fried eggs, crispy bacon with rye bread for myself and Tanja. I was planning to surprise her and give it to her in bed but she woke up just as I started cooking. ["You could've told me to go back to bed. Duh.." -Tanja] The morning was spent chilling on the sofa with my wife, watching LA Ink (A show based in a Los Angeles Tattoo shop that is full of drama, one of the few bits of TV I watch) and then we had a visit from the Elders. Originally I was going to go with them to a local apartment to help teach someone but he cancelled at the last minute so they gave a wee message to myself. Tanja was in the shower, so she missed all the fun. Elder Bushman brought another Elder with him, Ingesoll, seems he likes to swap Elders. After the Elders left Tanja and I went round to Iida and Samo's flat for Daniel's first birthday party (after a quick stop at Lidl). There was mini-pizzas, double chocolate brownies, fruit, cake and loads of noisy children. Instead of blowing candles Daniel had a small cake for himself, which he destroyed after a while of working out what to do. A great idea for a one year old I think.
Sunday was Church day and so it was three hours at Chapel but this Sunday was Ward conference and so the lessons got mixed up. Janne and I went to the family home ["It's not a 'family home', it's homehome!" -Tanja] straight after Chapel to start the lunch while everyone else had meetings. After eating a nice stew and potatoes, followed by home made baked Alaska, I was out home teaching for the first time in ages. Felt good to be out again doing things for the Church. Then it was home for 'Once upon a time' and early bed.
So then came the five o'clock alarm and I was wide awake ready for the day ahead. So once I got some corn flakes in me and dressed, I headed out of the door to where I was being picked up by another worker. ["Whoa! Where's the credit for your incredible, loving and supportive wife who got up at the same time with you?!?" -Tanja] The drive is forty minutes but it goes very quickly. So my job is spud sorter, these potatoes come along a conveyor and it is my job, along with three others, to pick out the bad ones. Black rotten ones, as well as stones, go in a bucket on the floor. Then ones with big splits, more than 30% covered in eyes or more than 20% covered in black spots go into the middle conveyor where they go into a separate crate. There is one million kilos of spuds to go through and we have six to eight weeks to do it in, so that means roughly twenty five thousand kilos of spuds need to be sorted every day. I am enjoying being out of the house and even though it is seven and a half hours of standing or sitting on a 'bar stool', bent over a conveyor, looking at hundreds of spuds, the time flys by. We have to wear mask because there is muck everywhere but the masks aren't doing 100% and I seem to be sneezing up mud but at least it is only mud and sneezing it up, I will start to worry when my sweat turns to mud.
I am writing this after my second day and I can say I am knackered. My neck is sore but I feel good from it though. I will write at the end of the week to keep you all up to date with my adventures. I will now get my wife to read through this to spot the grammar errors and spelling mistakes, I think she can be my chief editor. ["Chief editor? Hmm.. I like the sound of that. ;)" -Tanja]
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