Category: everyday life

National Art Gallery

After the afternoon tea, nothing went as planned. First, the weather got sharply colder, and all of us ended up not being appropriately dressed for the weather. Anna and Nadia went to meet with Anna’s friends, and I wanted to go to one of the Art museums, but it turned out I mixed up which of the museums was open late. And then it was super cold, and then Nadia got sick with the same bug as Kira, and we had to cancel several things. Then Anna got sick with the same thing, and the weather turned even worse.

One thing I managed to do on our third day was visit the National Art Gallery.
The sculpture garden:

Since it was impossible to see even a quarter of the museum, I decided to focus on one of my favorites – Italian Medieval art. That was one of the best things I’ve done on that trip – seeing this art brings me immense joy.

St James 13th century
St, John 13th century
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CSO Concert

Yesterday, I was at the CSO concert. Nobody wanted to go with me, so I returned one of the two tickets and went by myself. I almost forgot that I almost always went to concerts solo before the pandemic. 

I had a physical therapy appointment at 4 PM, and it didn’t make sense to go back home and go to the concert an hour later. At least, I thought it didn’t make sense. I went straight to the Loop and found an open Starbucks on Michigan Avenue, and then I sat there with my coffee and my wrap and my laptop, facing the street and watching the people.

I realized that 1) I didn’t do anything like that for a long time 2) I missed the feeling of being all by myself in the city. 

When I worked in the office and would go to a concert after work, I always had that time between work and the concert, and I would sit at Starbucks or some other cafe, sipping coffee and people-watching. There are not that many places these days where you can sit like this after 5 PM, and it was great to feel that something is returning. 

The concert had Boris’ favorites. I still remember how he gave me the recordings of Mahler and Bruckner to listen. 

The mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca was amazing! The most unusual voice I had ever heard—perfection from the first to the last note.

And one more thing – the whole orchestra wore little yellow and blue ribbons on their chests 🙂

Mom

It has been very difficult to communicate with my mom recently. More than ever, she chooses to complain about everything. Her apartment didn’t get enough heat. I called the office; they told me they would install extra heaters, but then the parts won’t come on time (supply chain crisis), and there was almost a month wait.

So first, mom complained that everybody ignored her. Then she was happy for a couple of days, and now she is complaining that it’s too hot. She does not remember how she didn’t have any control over the temperature in her apartment in Saint-Petersburg. Now she is saying that she could always open a balcony door in Saint-Petersburg, and here she is afraid to open the window.

Then comes a usual chain of complaints like she could always look out of the window and see how people were dressed outside and figure out what’s the weather. Nothing new; it’s just that she repeats it more often, without anything positive in between.

Also, all the conversations related to the war are impossible. Last weekend, Igor brought some local Russian newspapers to her, which she could not ignore. She asks”not to talk to her” about the war, but this is becoming increasingly difficult. On top of it, she forgets more and more things and gets very defensive, if not aggressive, when I remind her. She’s saying that that’s me who forgets things and then “accuses” her. I think I need to message her doctor and ask what’s the right way to handle such situations.

Several other issues are very difficult to handle, but I will stop now so that I won’t do the same thing as she does 🙂

Sightseeing in Helsinki

Wednesday after the Nordic Day was the day of sightseeing. One of my co-workers who lives in France and with whom I wanted to connect said that she would love to do some sightseeing in the morning before we both board the plane to Paris. We only had several hours, so I decided against going to Suomenlinna, instead, I took her to Oodi library, and she loved it! She loved pretty much everything about it and told me, that it’s worth coming to Helsinki just to see this library! She asked, how could the city of Helsinki finance such a major project. My answer that Finland is a socialist country didn’t satisfy her, she said France is a socialist country as well 🙂

We had lunch at the library. Initially, I planned lunch at Esplanada, but my co-worker is vegetarian, so there was no need for a perfect salmon soup, and the library cafe had lots of vegetarian options. After that, we went to see the Church in the Rock:

And then we went to Sibelius park. On the way to the monument, I saw that cafe Regatte was open and there was no line! We seized this opportunity! We were not hungry, and caffeinated enough, so we ordered hot chocolate with no whip cream and a cinnamon bun to share. And then we sat by the fire looking at the harbor!

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Live Events: Nordic PG Day and PG Day Paris

Reblogging from the World of Data

Hettie D.'s avatarThe World of Data

It was not the first live conference after the pandemic for me – the first one was in New York in December, but it felt like the first one again! Possibly because there was omicron in between, and nobody was sure whether we would continue.

Another “first’ for me was presenting at the PostgreSQL Europen conference. Previously, I presented at European academic conferences and at US PostgreSQL conferences, but never at European PostgreSQL conferences. Interestingly, I was going to submit a proposal for a European conference at the beginning of 2020… and then nothing happened for obvious reasons.

I liked everything about both Nordic and PG Day Paris. All talks were very interesting and educational; the room was full all the time, there were lots of questions, and there were a lot of conversations during the coffee breaks, during lunch, and after the events.

My presentation “Working with Software Engineers”…

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How Things Are Developing

Boris and I spent the whole day yesterday entertaining one of my European colleagues: we went to Suomenlinna, walked around the city, ate a salmon soup for lunch, and finally made a reservation for a group dinner when other participants started to come.

The weather is just unbelievably sunny and there is almost no wind, even on Suomenlinna!
I can’t say that I forgot about the war yesterday – it’s impossible to forget, and we talked about it with everybody. However, this morning I received an unexpected email: the DevDays Europe conference in Vilnius, which we were going to attend in April, was converted to a virtual event due to all kinds of concerns, including the closeness to the conflict, even though Lithuania is in NATO.

I am not sure what I will do with this, from whether I am still going to present at the virtual event to whether I am going to fly to Helsinki anyway, or we will swap the trips with Boris. I know it’s a very small thing that has nothing even close to people getting killed, but I was like – how I am letting Putin disturb my life!

Even before that, we talked with Boris about how we see our future and the future of Russia. His point of view is even grimmer than mine, but I am starting to agree with him that unfortunately, no matter how and when this war will end, it won’t be the end of the current regime, same as the Winter War and the defeat of the USSR in it changed nothing. So we are thinking that he would be a “German scientist in exile” during WWII, until… I am still not ready to agree with him on what exactly this “until” is going to be but…

Tulips

My neighbor gave me tulips for International Women’s Day, and they lasted for nine days! Can you believe that the second photo was made on March 17th??

Friday!

Today was one of these days when I wondered what I would do without Wellness Fridays?! My flight is at 10-30 PM, and I spent the day catching up on everything.

I had to go to Palatine because I finally had my crown ready, and that was my last visit to my wonderful dentist. As much as I love her, going to Palatine for regular dentist visits is non-sustainable.

Since I was already going to Palatine, I also scheduled a haircut before the dentist. I knew I would have almost two hours between the dentist and the train back and thought I should meet up with somebody, and then my Palatine neighbor called.

I do not think she ever called me since I moved; she only texted me from time to time. This time, she called and asked me how I was doing, meaning the situation with the war. It was so good to know she cared; many people around me did not even understand why I should be concerned. Being an emigrant from after-WWII Austria, she understood.

We talked a lot about the war, what was happening, why Putin did what he did, and why many Russians supported him. She asked me how this war could end and what I thought about the best outcome. She told e that in the place where she does her hair, the owner is Ukrainian, and the staff is Russian and Ukrainian, and how everybody is devastated, and how she decided to give them money so that they could send it where it is needed most. It was one of these conversations which brought me hope and reinstated my belief in humanity.
The war highlights the worst in people and the best in people.

***

Now I am sitting at the airport gate waiting for my flight boarding. And just arriving at the busy airport, almost as busy as before the pandemic, and seeing how the boarding procedures got back to where they were before the pandemic – this all felt incredibly optimistic. I remember all the cries of how “it will never be the same,” – I knew even back then, that they were wrong.

The War Is Everywhere

It is indeed everywhere, it’s not like there is nothing but the war on my mind, but whatever I do, whatever other people are doing – the war is in the background, the war is visible, and the news about the war shape the news broadcasts everywhere in the world. 

I mentioned the other day what my neighbor said about Tosca. It turned out that it was not just her or me, but that was the intention. Last Saturday, the opening night of Tosca started from the Ukrainian Anthem, and the cast dedicated that performance to the struggles and courage of the Ukrainian people. 

Yesterday, one of my coworkers mentioned in the speaker’s slack channel that the PG Day Poland was postponed. People started to talk about how it is sad but understandable and started to ask what is the new date. Then another person (the one I respect a lot) said: it’s a little surreal to me that people are being bombed, and we’re talking about it in terms of the impact on our conference schedule. 

This conversation triggered something for me. For the past several days, watching the stream of Ukrainian refugees arriving in Poland and Poles going out of their way to accommodate them, I thought that my “historical Motherland” needed some financial assistance. 

 During that conversation on slack which I mentioned earlier, somebody said: you should reach out to A. to find out the details [about the PG Day Poland]. And then my immediate reaction was: why I never thought about reaching out to her on the subject of donations? 

She was indeed delighted when I reached out and said that Poland is “out of everything,” warned about the fake charities, and gave me a vetted list of trustworthy charities that assist refugees’ resettlement.

For now, I plan to give 2/3 of my donations directly to Ukraine and 1/3 to this Polish resettlement agency I chose. 

Then, I was terrified by the news about the potential peace proposal from this BBC news program. It sounds so evil that I can believe this could happen! President Zelinskiy cares about the Ukrainian people, and he can go a long way to stop the bloodshed. But what will happen if peace in Ukraine is achieved at such a price? Looking at what the Russian government is saying these days, and knowing Putin, you can bet he would announce such peace as Russia’s victory. We wanted to liberate the Russian people in Ukraine, and we did! We wanted to stop NATO expansion, and we did! And we got a Crimea! And things are going our way! If the condition of the peace would be disarmament of Ukraine, it is an insult to the heroic Ukrainian army and all her people, and what will stop Putin from repeating the attack? And most importantly, he would emerge from this war unpunished! And that would be the most unjust thing, and I do not want to let it happen.

Why?…

… i always pack a night before departure? And why does it take five hours?…