In the news: A(nother) volcano eruption in Iceland
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 at 16:58 | categories: General mumbling
About a year ago in the spring of 2010 a volcano eruption messed up the European air space for almost a month. Now, a year later, it’s happening again as a volcano called Grimsvötn has started to unleash its powers.
This might affect my plans in three ways: tomorrow I’m meeting my girlfriend in Paris, and she should be flying there from Oslo. As of now the chances of that happening look good, but the winds might change unexpectedly. Secondly, a couple of my friends are flying over next Sunday, and that might not happen either. Thirdly, I’m supposed to get back to Finland in less than 2 weeks and well, I’ve no idea if that’s going to be possible. At least this makes following cloud patterns really interesting.
Ash clouds
School: Knowledge & Organization
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 at 16:40 | categories: School
I almost forgot to write these school related posts, but here we go with number 3 out of 4. Knowledge & Organization was about how to get the most out of the personnel within a company through not only the organizational structure but also through physical spaces. The example was that a lot of the key information is shared while having a coffee, not through official channels. The point of the course was to understand this and come up with ways to harness that kind of sharing of knowledge.
The course’s main task was a team paper, and several iterations had to be handed out throughout the semester. The groups had to either come up with a totally new people oriented organizational structure or change an existing one. We chose to change Lamborghini, which was a bit more difficult than we thought originally.
The course is worth 4 ECTS.
1 comment »A movie festival, absinthe and on a boat–again
Saturday, May 21st, 2011 at 20:25 | categories: Antibes, Beer, Cannes, Juan-les-Pins, People
This time it was one of my hometown friend’s time to visit me in the Riviera, and the timing couldn’t have been much better. The weather was great and with the Cannes film festival going on, all the other towns close by weren’t so packed with tourists–just how I like it.
We strolled around Antibes and Juan-les-Pins as well as visited Cannes to see what the fuzz was all about. We also went to one of my favorite places here, Villefranche, to chillax and see the sun go down. The days have been pretty warm here for a couple of months now, but the nights are turning pretty warm as well and you can see couples and groups hanging out on the beach well after sunset.
I finally got to visit the famous absinthe bar in Antibes, where they have a wide selection of different kinds of the traditional artsy people’s liquor. The owner is happy to tell you everything about the drink in question, but he’ll require you to wear a silly hat.
We also rented a boat for 4 hours and drove around the coast. This time I knew better and left my valuables at home instead of dipping them in the ocean. Our oceanic picnic consisted of some champagne, foie gras and baguettes. Not a bad way to spend the last weeks here, eh?
The red carpet. No celebs at that point.
So you buy a yacht for 20M euros and choose Comic Sans for the logo? My soul is crying.
Absinthe bar. Apparently my silly hat is in the background.
Flying
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 at 18:48 | categories: General mumbling
Now that I’ve been travelling quite a bit lately, I’ve spent some time on planes. I usually choose an aisle seat at the front because it’s more quiet and provides some space for my inconveniently long legs. However, stretching the legs into the corridor usually backfires painfully since people keep stomping on my feet and the stewards know that in a fight between the food trolley and my knee, usually the trolley comes out winning.
On the EasyJet flight from Nice to Bristol I got lucky, though, and got a window seat by the emergeny exits. It was actually the first time I got a birds-eye view to the area in which I’ve spent the past few months. I noticed it’s really small: after a minute of climbing up I could see all the way from Grasse to Monaco easily, and Italy would’ve been visible had it not been misty and humid. It was interesting.
Some mountains. Nice is somewhere under the wing.
In the news: Finland wins 2nd ice hockey world championship
Monday, May 16th, 2011 at 20:29 | categories: Information
May 15th 2011 was the day when Finland won its second world championship in ice hockey. The final against Sweden started out as a thriller but ended like a splatter as Finland scored 5 goals in the last period, final result being 6-1. The tournament was held in Slovakia and the final was played in Bratislava.
To illustrate the significance of the tournament to the Finnish people, almost 2.5 million out of 5.3 watched the game on TV–almost half! As soon as the game ended, the streets of Finland were filled with people. In Antibes no one noticed except for my roommates when I was yelling and shouting during the game.
Webcam from Helsinki on the following Monday
