Mens night making Sushi at the Jolas

Cairo

Visiting Cairo was like revisiting my memories on India. The smells, the dirty streets, the chaotic traffic, no rules, the people trying to get an extra dollar from you. All the negatives are compensated with the overall experience of experiencing live and a new place. Streets full of life. Men and women behaving so differently.

The Pyramids are great. The city is literary in the middle of the dessert. Sand all over. We were at the five stars Hilton Golf resort. A bit too far from anything for my taste. And since Cairo is not too warm this time of the year, I could not really enjoy much outdoors.

I went to see the Egyptian museum and saw the Tutankhamen sarcophagus, really worth seeing it, as well as the rest of the museum. I went then to the bazaar and got almost lost there. Some of the streets get mixed with private home corridors and back stores, making from the place a labyrinth.

I tried the local pipes and avoided eating anywhere else than in the hotel, but still got a bit affected the stomach.

Istambul

I did a stop over in Istambul of about 3 hours, so I took a taxi and went to see the city. Although it was night the city changed completaly my perception of Turkey. Istambul could be any city in Spain. But a really beautiful one. I liked it so much that I promised myself I will be back with Tanje. The Bosphorus bridge and the Mezquites are impressive. The old town is like old towns are supposed to be, fill of life, smells, little shops. A mix of East and West.

Pare unas 3 horas en Estambul e mi camino a Cairo. Cogi un taxi y me fui a ver la ciudad. La verdad es que ha cambiado mi idea de lo que es Turquia. Aunque era de noche pude ver una ciudad que no tiene nada que envidiar a las ciudades mas modernas de Espana. El puente del Bosforo es espectacular, pero tambien lo es toda la costa, la ciudad antigua y las mezquitas. Una mezcla real de este y oeste.

The pyramids of Giza

Large and decadent. A pitty the camel riders spoil part of the experience.

Fuengirola

Now that the weather in Finland is quite disappointing it is a good time to remember last fall when Tanje and Noel spent 5 weeks in Fuengirola and I went down to spent with them most of the weekends. It is notorious the big difference in temperature between these 2 cities in Europe. They had a great time going to beach every day after school. The place is not very beautiful but remains a proper lively town with a good mix of Scandinavian expats and locals.

Ahora que el clima en Helsinki es bastante pobre, sin nieve, gris y frio, viene bien recordar las 5 semanas que Tanje y Noel pasaron en Fuengirola en Octubre. Yo pase bastantes fines de semana con ellos. Ek tiempo fue fantastico a excepcion de un par de dias de fuertes tormentas. El pueblo nos es muy bello pero tiene mucha vida y una buena mezcla de escandinavos retirados y locales.

New Year in Spain

We spent New Year in Zaragoza with my parents. For the first time we ate the grapes at El Pilar square with the final countdown, fireworks and the Tv cameras, it was super crowded and good weather. We also went to see the family in Alcaniz and in a trip full of fog one day skiing with Tanje in Formigal with great weather. We had dinner with Francisco and PAtricias family. Noel played all night long with Francisco and Alvaro. Noel had a great time waiting for the three kings who this year arrived on the evening of the 5th :-)

Pasamos el anyo nuevo en Zaragoza con mis padres. Este anyo por primera vez comimos las uvas en la plaza del Pilar, con fuegos artificiales, las campanadas y las camaras de television. Tambien fuimos a ver a la familia a Alcaniz en un viaje con mucha niebla y pasamos un dia esquiando en Formigal con un tiempo fantastico. Francisco y PAtricia nos invitaron a cenar y Noel lo paso genial jugando con Francisco jr y Alvaro. Lo mejor del viaje fue las espera de los reyes magos que ete anyo llegaron un poco antes la tarde del 5 :-)

Red cheeks

Opening gifts

Noel se encarga de abrir regalos.

Equinox

This last fall like every year all the Fjord offices met together at a warm place. This time was the little island in front of Cannes. We spent a long weekend sharing the vision, projects and having a great time. Matti managed to capture this amazing picture in the middle of a thunder storm.

Violas birthday

Nice cake at our neighbours party.

Noels birthday

A few weeks ago Noel turned four. We had a great party with our friends kids. First we took them to Tanje's school gym where the kids had to go through an adventure circuit. Then we went home where we had a dinosaur party. the kids played for us in their improvised band.

Hace unas semanas tuvimos la fiesta de cumpleanos de Noel con los hijos de nuestros amigos. Primero los llevamos al gimnasio del colegio de Tanje donde tuvieron que hacer una gymcama. Luego fuimos a casa donde les esperaba una fiesta de dinosaurios. Al final nos tocaron unas canciones es su banda de musica improvisada.

Posting from Facebook

Woow, and now it is a full circle, I can post from anywhere and it goes everywhere :-)

Noel when listening the pirates song

Noel makes ungry bad pirate face
Noel pone cara de pirata feo y malo

Trip to Alavus

In August we visited one of the most beautiful landscapes I have seen in Finland. It was in our friends Suvi and Anthony where our kids learned fishing in a beautiful lake.

En Agosto visitamos uno de los paisajes mas hermosos de Finlandia. Fue enla cabana de Anthony y Suvi donde nuestro hijoa aprendieron a pescar en el lago.

Hong Kong

It seems to get harder and harder to post regularly. So there we go here there is a picture from Hong Kong, my favourite city in the world. The place is like waling in the middle of Blade Runner. I met with Tomi Ahonen there, we went to Disneyland and found amazing sea food in a remote village. FANTASTIC

Parece que es cada vez mas dificil escribir regularmente. Asi que ahi van unas fotos de G´Hong Kong, donde estuvimos este verano. Hong Kong es mi ciudad favorita. Alli estuvimos con Tomi Ahonen, visitamos Disneylandia, super curioso ser el unico occidental en las colas, y encontramos un sitio increible para comer marisco en un pueblo de pescadores remoto. FANTASTICO

Australia

Here we are in Australia. It all started with me finishing work still at the airport before leaving, but then I got business class seats. GREAT. I picked up Tanje and Noel from Bangkok 3 weeks ago. We had a bit of time and we went downtown. Big mistake because it was jammed. Back to the airport and we arrived to Sydney 6am. The arrival was shocking. Australian authorities are the most assertive I have seen. Dogs, regular checks, and paranoia about anyone trying to smuggle anything, QUARANTINE was the word all around. Sydney is super beautiful specially the water front and the opera, which is officially my favorite building in the world. We spent a few days mostly in the business district and around the seaside. We went to see whales, fantastic. It is awesome that they were just a about 4km from the harbor, and the ocean opens as soon as you cross the cliffs narrow.

Then we went to Cairns and spent a few days exploring Kuranda, Palm Cove and Port Douglas. The beaches from Palm Cove to Port Douglas are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. We saw the mangrove, the rainforest and the fauna, wallabies, cangaroos, koalas, cocodriles. The best was the trip to the coral reef. Where we spent the whole day. This was by far the best underwater experience I ever had. There was more diversity and colors that in the caribean or in Thailand. I saw a shark, Barremundi, hundreds of amazing corals and fishes.

Now we are in Melbourne, visiting Karoliina, Tanjes sister, and his boyfriend, Phillip. We went to see top of the highest residential building in the Southern hemisphere. And yesterday we went to Phillip island to see seals and penguins.

This weekend we go to the Great Ocean road and next week leaving to Honk Kong.

Tia Pilarin y Tio Manolo

Reunion in Alcaniz

Noel & Pablo

Family meeting Spring 2008