Hettie’s Reflections – Blog Posts

Staring At The Map

I had to work from home today because of the mom’s social worker visit in the middle of the day. Now, at half past seven, I am trying to work on ten things that are so overdue that I am afraid to think about them. I have a live election results map on my external screen, and I try not to look at it all the time. I still want it to be visible, even though the prevailing red is frustrating.

I remember that we survived one term of Trump, even though it was extremely challenging, and I believe that even with the worst possible outcome, the world won’t end tomorrow. However, I can’t work on certain things “until it is over.” It does not make sense because I will still need to work on these things regardless, but …

Ateneum

I am back in Chicago, and 200% of the time, I am busy, as anybody can figure out from my silence here. The previous post was drafted during my flight back and was not published because the in-flight internet connection went down in the middle of the flight, and I didn’t have time after that :). Still, I wanted to write a little bit more about what I saw in Helsinki.

Whenever I come to Helsinki, I immediately feel “everything is fine, and ok, and life is normal and orderly.” I know that my Finnish friends disagree with me, but we have different reference points :). This time, I worked every day, so it was not that much time to do something else. The only fun thing I’ve done was an outing with my friend Natasha: we went to the Ateneum Museum, which recently reopened after a major reconstruction.

The exhibit we saw is called Gothic Modern, and it explores the influence of Medieval art on 20th-century modern art. Each room is dedicated to one of the themes common to both historical periods: religion, life, death, sexuality, violence, etc. I didn’t know most of the Finnish artists who were part of this exhibit, and I even purchased an exhibit catalog with the hope of reading more! At some point, I stopped taking pictures because I realized I wouldn’t be able to remember what exactly had drawn my attention.

Munch
Max Klinger. On the Rails
Sasha Schneider. Feeling of Dependency

Getting back to the existing worries about the state of the economy and life instability. I would not say that the worries are unjustified. However, even now, even with all the economic uncertainties, I appreciate the virtual non-existence of homelessness, the accessibility of healthcare (yes, I know, but again – we have different baselines), and the fact that the buses run on schedule:))

My First River Cruise

One thing I am very thankful to my mom for is that since I was ten, she took me on long tourist trips, which would last for three weeks or even more. I tried to start writing about these tours several times, and each time I thought that I needed to find the photos form these trips, otherwise it doesn’t make much sense to write about them.

But realistically thinking, I won’t have time to search for these pictures for a while, let alone to scan them, so I finally decided to start writing about the trips and add the photos later, whenever I have time to find and process them (most likely, after I retire, but who knows!)

Before I start, I want to say a couple of words about vacation-taking in the Soviet Union.

I know that it was different in the beginning of the Soviet state, but by my time, most people had at least one month of vacation (and some had even more!) Vacation time was strictly about “calendar days,” not “workdays,” so if some public holidays were in the middle of your vacation, they were “lost.”

Since vacations were so long and were taken strictly once a year (in most cases, you couldn’t split it into parts), everyone tried to take them in summer. The parents needed this summer vacation to take their kids “to dacha” (as I already mentioned a couple of times), and others just wanted to have time off work. Since it was not sustainable for everyone in a company to take a month’s vacation in summer, there was a perennial nightmare of scheduling vacations in the beginning of the year and hard limits on how often each person could take a vacation in summer.

What would people do with their vacation month? In most cases, they wanted to get away from the city, and it could be just going to the countryside to visit their relatives or going to a dacha. In many cases, people could use a “trade-union voucher” to go on a tour or to some resort. A local trade union bureau would approve the distribution of the vouchers, selecting “the best workers” and/or “those who needed it most,” and the lucky ones would end up paying 10-20% of the full price.

Unlike most people, my mom usually bought the tours without trade union vouchers, paying the full price because most tours she wanted to go to were not available through the trade union vouchers. She would save money during the whole year to go to new places. For seven summers, from 1973 to 1979, we went on these tours together.

The first one was in the summer of 1973, and it was a relatively short one. We were going to take a “Volgobalt course,” departing from Leningrad and then getting to the Volga River through the system of locks, visiting Yaroslavl – an old city on the Volga River, and then returning back to Leningrad. There were several complications with this trip. First, it started on May 20, which meant my mom had to ask for permission to take me out of school on my summer break ten days earlier (that was not a problem; I was a good student). Second, I was only ten, and and a child had to be eleven to be admitted to the cruise (do not ask, I have no idea why), so my mom had to get permission from the captain of the ship. And the last problem was a force of nature: it was very early in the navigation season, and Lake Ladoga was still covered with ice, so the ship couldn’t get to Leningrad. A couple of days before the departure date, all passengers were given railway tickets to Cheboksary, where our ship was waiting for us.

As far as I remember, there were no organized tours at the stops. We had a full day in Yaroslavl. We disembarked, and my mom and I went to the city and tried to visit as many museums and churches as time permitted. We loved a fairy tale -looking city, and only wished we could stay longer.

I know that I have pictures from this cruise somewhere, and I hope to eventually scan them.

My historical posts are being published in random order. Please refer to the page Hettie’s timeline to find where exactly each post belongs and what was before and after.

Forgetting Things!

I checked the closets in our hotel room in Athens three times, and each time, I found something I had forgotten! First, it was one of the DRW t-shirts, then my Kamala Harris t-shirt, and then – one of the Postgres t-shirts I purchased at the conference.

Only when we were back in Helsinki did I realize that I had forgotten a DRW reversible umbrella! It was my favorite one, and I had been waiting forever for it to appear in our gear store, and now I had forgotten it! And I didn’t even need it in Athens; I just left it in the luggage, took it out, and forgot!

Also, I forgot my DRW light hoody in Boris’ apartment, but at least this one is not lost forever, and will come to me in three weeks!

Remainig Athens Pictures

We had almost no time to do anything except for the conference since October 22 afternoon, especially because Boris doesn’t see anything in the dark, and my night vision is also far from perfect. We ventured out during the day just once when there was a last-minute speaker’s cancellation, and we visited the archeological site of the Zuess Temple.

The most impressive thing about the temple is it’s former size. I know it’s had to imagine how a size can be impressive when the temple itself is not there, but it was!

I complained about “once again, no sign and no explanation of what it is, and Boris said that usually it helps when you start reading outlous. I told him that there is no way I would understand because there was no separation between words and no punctuation, but when I started to read out loud, it actually helped!
There is a large map pf the public baths where they say where was the warm water, and the cold water, and where was a changing room,.

And we went to Plaka a couple of times, ones in the dark – for the late night ice cream :), but only after we figured out the way at the daylight.

The night Plaka looked fantastic, and I knew it was a sacrifice on Boris’ part because he does not like to be in places like this, and I usually enjoy it. However, I ended up not buying anything there. When I checked out the sandals, they said they do not carry wide width – never, and I didn’t want to purchase any silver there because it’s hard to check the quality. Also, how many silver rings can one person have?!

Summary. When we decided that we would go to the PgConf.EU, regardless of whether any of my talks will be accepted, I thought it would be a mini-vacation, and it was not. And it’s not because the conference was crowded and there were many talks to attend and many conversations I wanted to be a part of, but also because there were multiple things I worried about all the time. Most of them were community-related, some personal, like when I saw a text message from mom’s caregiver who was supposed to be there during the physical therapist visit that she couldn’t come, and others that I do not want to talk about right now.

.

I felt that I didn’t

A Week Of Working At Valo

I used Valo Work for the whole week, and each day, I loved it more. Both Thursday and Friday, I went there earlier so that I could work out and then have breakfast. Breakfasts were amazing, even better than lunches.

Not pictured: they had overnight oats, and I decided just to try a spoonful, and it turned out that they had fresh (I guess, defrosted, but tasted like fresh) wild blueberries! Absolutely fantastic. Also not pictured: a huge selection of cold cuts and cheese, and nuts/dried fruit/you name it.

Here is a picture I promised last time:

Don’t you love these sitting spots on the stairs?! And electric outlets everywhere. This area is open to everyone, and there are many other sitting areas, like this one:

I kept discovering new amenities of my private office; on Thursday, I found that each office has a fridge 🙂

Although my office rent time was technically from 9 AM to 5 PM, my key worked when I would come at 7-30, so I could leave my things there and go to the gym, and then to breakfast, and then actually start working at 9 AM. I will definitely do it again next time I am there!

And About The Conference

And of course, there was a conference! And I am blogging about it a week later! PGConf.EU 2024 took place in Athens, and that was my primary reason for traveling. It’s the world’s largest Postgres conference, but this year, it was the largest ever Postgres conference – almost 800 participants!

This time, I didn’t have any accepted talks, but as I told everybody who was wondering – nothing can prevent me from talking! And I talked a lot! Of course, I was also listening to the presentations – there was only one session in three days when I didn’t attend any talks (Boris and I went to see the archeological site of the Temple of Zuess during this time), and it was only because of the last-minute speaker substitution.

I met with a lot of people: my old friends and colleagues, people who heard about me or read my blogs and were happy to meet me IRL, and people whom I helped in different ways. Unfortunately, there were also many stressful moments. I tried to meet with a couple of people to solve some long-running issues, and that didn’t happen, and I keep chasing them from the first day of the conference till the last day.

No pictures of me, but plenty of pictures of my good friends:

9I made sure to attend almost all talks of female speakers!

Something everyone should know!
Роберт Хааз — человек, уважающий свою аудиторию, и очень много делающий для поддержки начинающих
As always, I went to Robet Haas talk!

Summary: lots of positive emotions and good ideas, but too many people!

Coworking In Helsinki

This is the first time I am working from Helsinki since I started to work for my current firm – not just connecting here and there, but actually working. When we started planning it in June, I started looking for a coworking space, and I found one close to our place. It’s only a 10-minute bus ride, unfortunately in the direction opposite the city center, but still very close.

In June, we went there to find out all the details. I liked what I saw and heard. I could claim a free day within the first month I sign up for their web app and then pay per day, or buy a series or a subscription (which I didn’t need, but that was an option). Monday was my first day in this coworking space (a free day), and I loved it. I immediately bought a ten-day series for a private office.

Here is what I got:

  • The room is a private office “for 1-2 people”, it has a desk, two office chairs and two stools, a desk monitor, a wall monitor and a white board.
  • It has a private bathroom with a shower, towels, shamooo/coditioner/hairdryer
  • There is an ironning board behind the mirror and an iron
  • Also a mini-kitchen with the sink, the kettle/tea bags/coffe/milk:
Continue reading “Coworking In Helsinki” →

Acropolis

When we were in Athens last time, we wandered around without tour guides, and I wanted to take one “proper” tour. I booked it for the first half of Tuesday so that I would be free to meet with people arriving on Tuesday afternoon.

Short summary: too many people! Back in 2014, we were in Athens in March. It was warm and there was enough tourists around, so I pictured pretty much the same in the second half of October, but I was wrong! This time, there were crowd and crowns, and one stream of people moving up the the Parthenon, and another stream moving dows. The marble steps polished my millions of feet made these ups and downs quite adventurous.

It was still beautiful, and the sky was still blue, but I missed the lonely climbs we had back then, when at least at some moments, there was nobody except of us, the mountains, and the marble.

Continue reading “Acropolis” →

Traveling With Russian Passport

That was the first time in a while that I traveled together with Boris and had a connection in London. Actually, since I had a connection in London on my way to Helsinki, I had three London connections in a week!

The first one was just me, and there was a very long wait, and no priority line was opened.

The second one was with Boris, and we had it all:

  • Interrogation at the passport control in Helsinki
  • Interrogation at the boarding gate (the gate attendant started checking the regulations for transfers – as if Boris was the only one transferring person without a UK visa)
  • Interrogation in Heathrow
  • Long lines at security without a priority lane
  • Barely made it to the gate

The third one, again with Boris, on our way back from Athens

  • The online check-in didn’t issue a boarding pass for him
  • In the Athens airport, a BA counter attendant went to check the regulations (as if Boris was the only person connecting without a UK visa).
  • Then he called another associate, and this whole process took twenty minutes, and for some reason, they asked for my passport as well. They finally issued boarding passes for both of us, adding that Boris “can’t step out from the airport” in London (as if it was ever different). Then they tried to convince us to check in our carry-on (we refused because we didn’t want to wait for our luggage at 11 PM)
  • We finally made it to the lounge, which was not very impressive (fun fact: you had to go to another lounge for a toilet)
  • Interrogation at the border control, however – no lines!
  • Surprise: no lines at the security check!
  • We were absolutely sure we wouldn’t have time to go to the lounge, but because of zero wait time in the security line, we had it!

Completely unexpected:

  • When we arrived in Helsinki and had to go through passport control again, they figured out that “we were together,” and despite my protests, they sent me to the same officer who talked to Boris. I should have said that “we are not traveling together,” not “we have different passports,” but I didn’t realize it right away, and then I was a subject of interrogation. They assumed that I wanted to stay longer and asked whether I had a residential permit, and then when I said I didn’t they asked to show my returning ticket.

Summary: it was so good to finally be home, and before midnight!

P.S. Just to be clear: I understand that the suspicions against Russian passport holders are completely justified, and that post is not a protest.