Where is Gali?

His name is Susan.

Gali — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 08:17:28 +0000

I don’t know if it’s because I’ve lived here for too long or if it’s really true but I find the center of Tallinn to be much more beautiful than the center of Helsinki. Once you start moving away from the very center and old Tallinn, I would say that both cities have pretty much the same level of beauty, although possibly Helsinki wins a tiny bit because I find the borderline-suburbian streets a bit better.

With Kadri, we saw rainbows! And sometimes it doesn’t get much better than that.

Also grass on roofs.

(photos as a slide-show and a bit bigger – here)

Visiting neighbours.

Gali — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 04:17:20 +0000

See now, for some reason, I think that the Estonian coat like to hoard all the pretty clouds and pretty light. I have never been able to see anything like it when entering the port in Stockholm or when I go back to Helsinki. But hey, who am I to complain if it’s pretty?

(and all the photos can be seen as a slideshow , slightly bigger too)

Before the Estonian coast, there were the usual Finnish suspects.

The scary bit is that I haven’t been back on Suomenlinna for literally years.

And just because I have a 150mm lens, I can use it to get the flag at the top of one of the buildings on the island.

Heeeeeee!

Gali — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 06:04:31 +0000

I am so late on this but snail mail is always awesome and Wiebke and Neens are awesome! Thank you so much, ladies! Or should I rather say, “Ignacio Veracruz Cardinal and Neens” (Ay, Caramba!)

And I got to brush up on my German and learn some more about Hki!

(bigger version over at jux)

Arm warmers – not just for angsty teens!

Gali — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 05:55:29 +0000

Learnt from the parents that apparently the French commentator was wearing a huge scarf during the Finland-France match last night. (but then someone probably told him to man up because he took it off eventually) Is it cold around here?

Well… taking a shower in a tiny studio does fog up the windows nicely.

I suppose it’s around 9 or 10C, nothing too bad yet but I have started covering my ears during my morning commute. I can stand cold fingers but cold ears on a bike are the worst.

This is soooo last century.

Gali — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 06:57:02 +0000

I’ve been on a cottage cheese kick lately. Not raejuusto but proper cottage cheese.

I feel like there should be a few hashtags after such a statement. #importanteverydaystuff #yesiknowyouallcare #hashtagsareuseful

If a journal is not for ranting, what is it for?

Gali — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 05:14:42 +0000

It’s one of those days today. As in one of those days. As it has managed to piss me off about fifteen times and it’s not even 8am yet!

It started last night when I got a flat on my way home, I didn’t feel like changing the tube on the road so I just walked my bike home. It turned out that I had no more spare tubes left and the bike shop down the street closes at 5pm and it was after 5pm. So I settled for using one of the fancy patches I have to fix tubes, except it’s all “fancy” and therefore not like the old school sand paper/cement glue/patch stuff… no… it’s a self-adhesive patch. I put it on and thought that was that. Except that the patch was absolutely no good and this morning the tube was flat again. Therefore I decided just to run to work, which was rather blah because I need a truck load of dried fruit and/or cheese the night before to run properly and that turned out not to be the case of last night. The final blow came when I realised that I forgot to bring a bra to change into (but at least I remembered everything else) and therefore will have to hang out in my sports bra all day long.

So… world, eff you too. At least for today.

But we can’t end this on a shitty note. So here is mini!Gali on a bike.

And well, at the end of the day, probably there are people out there who don’t get to ride their bikes or run or walk to work and are stuck in traffic and their days are most likely worse than mine. I mean, I take many things for granted, and that often includes cycling, but teaching a kid how to ride a bike is certainly one of the best things one can do for him or her.

But the eggs, where did they come from?

Gali — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 06:52:41 +0000

When life gives you mushrooms…

Sometimes it’s really worth taking the easy way out and making good old scrambled eggs.

… eggs, mushrooms and ham. Easy peasy.

(bigger photos here)

Where did you get the milk?

Gali — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 06:41:56 +0000

During the last Restaurant Day I went for hand-rolled pseudo-sushi at the park, alas it was raining. The rolls were good though – I picked chicken.

The girls in charge of this pop-up restaurant also had tiny packets of wasabi, soy sauce, and home made little pouches for “take away” rolls. Definitely a restaurant I hope to see at the next Restaurant Day also.

(bigger photos can be found here)

Stage 17 – part IV

Gali — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 06:12:05 +0000

First of all, now you can see all the photos in large (and some in very large) format over here. It’s a slideshow, so look for the arrows on the sides – I kind of really like the Jux way of easily making slideshows but that site is so not intuitive to use sometimes.

Now back to our normal schedule.

Oh, who am I kidding? The best part of a Tour de France road trip is the antici…pation and then it’s the part back home when it’s time to eat the cochonou.

Apéro, courtesy of the Tour de France.

Time to figure out who gets what, since I was the one who cycled the most I got dibs on the little policeman with the little bike. This year Skoda and Cofidis innovated and put LEDs in their keychains.

I think once you’ve been named “madeleines officielles du Tour de France” you’ve pretty much made it in the world of baked goods.

Bon bah on a assez de grenadine pour les sunrises de la soirées (et oui, il y avait un grand fan de cocktails parmis nous).

This wins as my favourite little bag from the Tour de France, the little jersey shaped pouch is just beyond adorable.

Amazingly enough I have never been to Luxembourg before, I suppose now I’ll have to take my bike there and try out their 600km of cycling paths that are shown on the handy little map.

Ye olde Tour de France

Gali — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 05:38:15 +0000

Part 3 of Stage 17 – finally the cycling bit has come to town!

The yellow motorcycle made us think that the échappée wasn’t that far away but it wasn’t exactly the case. More waiting. I sound like I’m complaining but after years at the TdF, the waiting is as much part of the excitement as anything. During this stage we had some peeps behind us that brought out a bottle of rosé and were listening to the stage on the radio and making hilarious comments about everything. Entertainment at its best!

Sandy Casar at the front, couldn’t have asked for anything better!

This is still one of my favourites from that day.

They’re not paid to look pretty and it seems that everyone suffered on this col de Buret, I cannot imagine how it must have been for them on the HC cols.

If I recall correctly he joined the chase group before Col des Arès.

Eddddddyyyyyy! At the front, as usual!

Team cars and a few peeps either dropping off or trying to get back into the maillot jaune group.

Some peeps make epic sufferfaces while some just look as good as ever, namely that Omega Pharma.

Andriy Hryvko in pretty Ukrainian colours! Alas I didn’t have my Ukie flag that day.

The gruppetto proper.

Philippe Gilbert looked rather worn out, I guess you can’t have an amazing year every single time.

Possibly the most dramatic face caught this time around – desperately trying to hang onto the gruppetto.

I think that my cheers for Tyler were even louder and more enthusiastic than for Eddy, but he really looked like he needed every bit of help he could get.

The final two, Jérôme Pineau and Bert Grabsch.

As Murphy’s Law would have it, the fog/clouds started to lift right after the final cyclists went by! And of course it had been perfectly sunny in Toulouse the whole time.