Category: everyday life

It Sank!

Yes, it did!

That is for the words about the Kursk submarine, which I will never forget and never forgive: it sunk! That’s a payback – it sank, sank, sank! I could not imagine this news would make me so happy.

About a week ago, Boris and I talked, and he said: you should tell your Congressman to send anti-warship missiles to Ukraine! I asked him why, and he explained (Boris is from a navy family, so I trust him with this knowledge). Anna told me that “we send what Ukrainians ask for, and they ask for javelinas.” Just two days later, I first heard that Ukraine asked, and we sent the Neptunes! And then – today! It was so-so literally what Boris said that would happen. When I called him, he sounded very satisfied with the choice of target, and then he asked: why it didn’t sink? It should have. I told him that it was not confirmed yet, and a couple of hours later – hurray!

Dark Ages are Coming

Boris says it feels like you are in the movie about Nazi Germany. He didn’t say precisely that, but he said that the signs of time look horrific, and I asked for details. And when he described to me the advertisements and the signs on the streets with the letter Z made of St. Geroge ribbons, I asked him whether it looked like a WWII movie.

Although I talk with many people from Russia these days, it was the first time I felt this cold horror. I think you need to be somebody like him or like me – somebody who lives abroad but at the same time knows how the streets used to look during different historical periods.
We will have a lot to discuss when he is back in Helsinki on Friday. When he was in Saint Petersburg at the beginning of the war, it felt different; it looks like Nazification was proceeding fast.

I know that many people can’t leave Russia; in fact, there are way more people who can’t than those who can. For them, seeing the Dark Ages coming should be unbearable.

Tonight

There was a program change for today’s CSO concert because maestro Muti tested positive and had to quarantine for a week. I didn’t want to return my ticket, but at the same time, I still had a lot to do to get ready for tomorrow’s PUG and needed to have normal sleep. And at the same time, I loved the updated program – several of Mozart’s piano concertos. I was going back and forth, and I decided to go to the first half of the concert at the very last moment.
I had a lot of positive emotions. I love it when a conductor is contacting from the piano, as Mozart himself did, and I love this full of light music, so bright and beautiful, a real celebration of life.
Also, I loved it when I saw that the Ukrainian flag was now permanently displayed on the right side of the stage, and the musicians continued displaying the ribbons in Ukrainian colors.

And I loved that the weather was finally warm, and I felt like Chicago is back.

I decided to take a Brown Line for the half of the way home to look at Chicago from the elevated level. I passed a young man on the planform talking to another waiting passenger: every morning I look outside and see the lake, and I can’t believe I live here! OMG! How much I can relate!!!

… And Other Things In Life

Boris went to Saint-Petersburg to figure out a way to get his money (The answer – no way, except for taking cash within the allowed limits and bringing it to Finland). 

When the Allegro train stopped operating again on March 28, we felt it like “The Last Flight from Casablanca.” But the buses are still running, and with no competition, they even added a couple of extra runs per day. 

 Like everything else, it’s hard to tell how long it will last, so I asked him to buy a return ticket even when he is unsure when he is coming back. I know it does not guarantee anything, but still.  

Although the bus itself is more comfortable than it used to be, the joy of passing the Russian border control and customs on the highway remained the same – the worst possible way of crossing the border. 

***

For the first time since I moved to the city, I felt a sort of resentment: I can’t take in a refugee family. It would be possible in my old house, and it can’t work in the new one. I hate myself when I see that people worse off than me take refugees, and I don’t. And when I see people dropping everything and going to Poland to help while I only entertained the thought: I should drop everything and go to Poland to help. Yes, I know very well that it would be the dumbest thing to do. I know that I won’t be able to help efficiently without knowing any of the local specifics. I know that sending money to Warsaw is the best thing I can do. I know all of the above. 

Still, not being able to do things fills me with frustration, the worst of them not being able to do anything to bring this war to an end. 

And enough of that. I often resent people worrying about the wrong things, and I don’t want to be one of them.

Apple Is A Black Hole, And Nobody Comes Back!

I started using AirTags. First, I resisted the desire to buy a package of four for $100 and bought one for $30, but after that, I already bought two more :). Boris was the first to give me the idea; I didn’t even pay attention when Apple announced the new product.

Buying the tags was not enough; you need to have some case (either a case to attach to a keychain or a case to stick it to something). So I got those, and my first AirTag went to my keys. It’s pretty cool and funny. First, you can find your tagged object using the FindMe app on your iPhone. I practiced it: the tag starts to make a sound, and the phone tells you “14 ft to the right,” and so on, and it displays the arrow on the screen. Second, if you leave this object behind (and take your phone with you), the object will start beeping. You can mark some places “home” so that the tag won’t beep when you leave an object there. The funniest thing was that when I opened the AirTag properties on my iPhone, it showed two homes: mine and Boris’. Boris agrees that your phones know too much about us! In fact, we have already caught them a couple of times communicating without our consent!

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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