eamon here :)

Sold my first car

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 18:34:00 +0000

Sad to let it go

I have sold my first car two days ago. It took only 2 weeks after I put the ad online. The interested guy came, drove the car, negotiated the price a bit and then took the car after we signed the deal. Now my Volkswagen Golf is not anymore with me :-(

I got the driving license in 2010 and after I got the license I bought this car right away. It was my first car and I drove it for 5 years. It served me pretty well - aside from daily commute and short trips I had many long trips with this car and it never disappointed me on the road during long drive.

Since I have got a new lease car from my employer I had to sell this one. Keeping 2 cars at the same time is not yet feasible for me. So I decided to put the ad online and it went pretty quickly. I must say it was like a family member to us. Sharmin and Ninad were also sad to say goodbye but it had to be done. I hope it will keep running well with its new owner.

Programming Solution

Ninad has got a place for piano lesson

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 08:50:00 +0000

Ninad is very interested in music. From his very early age, If somebody sings or plays any instrument he is listening to it with great attention. Noticing his interest in music we enrolled him in municipality music institute last year. He has been going there for a year now and he was liking it. It is very basic for young children to habituate them with music. It helped him to catch different song tune easily.

Since he has been liking music we thought how about an instrument. We talked with her music teacher and she said it's a bit early for him but he can try this year for some instrument if he wants. By this time, we managed to get a second hand acoustic piano last summer with the help of two of my friends - Mohsin and Saad. Since we had this piano in our home we sometimes play without knowing anything :-P Ninad also does the same. So, we thought why not let him learn piano. As a result, he appeared in a test in June this year to enroll in individual piano lesson. Unfortunately he could not make it. Most of the kids are 6 or 7 years old and Ninad is 5 and there were quite many interested children. Needless to say Piano is the most demanding instrument here. Ninad was in waiting list. Just two days ago the piano teacher called and said that one place got empty and if we want Ninad can join the lesson already this year. We agreed right away :-)

We are so happy that Ninad could get in to Piano lesson in Kirkkonummi municipality music school. I heard that these music schools are quite good while being very cheap compared to private ones. From next week he is going to piano lesson once a week. Let's see how it goes :-)

Programming Solution

Ninad started his pre-school today

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 06:25:00 +0000

Today is Ninad's first day at pre-school. He has been excited about it for few weeks. He was having summer break from daycare for 12 days and finally he started new season by entering pre-school today.

In Finnish early education system every child has to spend 1 year in pre-school before they start their schooling. As far as I know the idea of pre-school is to prepare children for school. When they go to school they become more independent while it comes to taking their lunch, organizing their own stuffs etc. Also, I heard they will start some sort of formal education in pre-school just to get the flavor of school. They will spend some time everyday to start learning alphabets, numbers and so on.

It feels that time has passed really fast. I still remember holding him in the hospital and feeding him milk with a bottle. He was so tiny that he felt like a small cushion in my hands. It feels it was not long ago, but, in reality it was almost 6 years back. That tiny little cushion, my son, is starting his pre-school today. I wish him all the best and I really hope I can get along with him the best way possible.

Programming Solution

Got 2 speeding tickets in a single year

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 06:39:00 +0000

I have been driving in Finland since 2014. For first 4 years I haven't got any ticket, neither over speeding nor parking ticket. But, in the second half of year 2018 I got 2 speeding tickets in a very quick succession. I have been thinking did something change. After careful thought I recognized that now a days I am in a hurry most of the time. Lot of things to take care of. To manage those things I have to run often, which sometimes leads to this kind of unfortunate consequences.

I do not want to end up in a running-always-busy life. So, I decided to slow it down a bit by starting early :-) I think if I start something early then I would not be in a hurry, hopefully. Outcome is yet to come. Let's see what happens with this approach.

Programming Solution

Career move after a long time

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 06:49:00 +0000

I have been working in Ericsson for more than 8 years. Basically this is my only industrial career in Finland. After I finished my study I started working in Ericsson in 2010 and since then I have been here. Never looked around for other opportunities. Overall, I was quite happy because of the nice working environment and great colleagues. Now it is time to see something new outside Ericsson. From next week I will be Working for Unikie.

Today is my last working day in Ericsson. I have to return that badge which I have been carrying with me since 2010. I will miss many friends which I have made over the time. I wish all the best for Ericsson's future.

Programming Solution

Entered into B class in Finnish Badminton

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Wed, 16 May 2018 06:45:00 +0000

I have been playing badminton in Finland as a registered player in C class for few years now. After playing for some time I managed to get the necessary ranking points to be classified as a B class player just now.

150 points is needed to become a B class player. At this moment I have 179. So, after this summer I will be playing in tournaments mostly in B class. I am not allowed to play in C anymore. I can play in A if I want, but that may be a bit difficult for me, not yet my league :P

It has pros and cons. In B I will have more difficult games which is good for my improvement. On the other hand, I guess, I will lose more matches. But, that is how it is, and I have to cope with it :-) Let's see how it goes.

Programming Solution

First kayaking experience

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 20:33:00 +0000

I had my first kayaking experience 2 weeks ago. It was with my team mates in office. Ericsson has a kayaking club which owns few kayak of its own. We just had to reserve the kayak for that day and went for a team day out.

It was quite a nice experience even though at the beginning it was a bit scary. we were in water for two hours. The weather was good and sea was not too much wavy. So it was not very difficult for a first timer :-)

Here are some pictures:

Kayaks are out from the storage

Kanwar and Satish are trying one in very dangerous environment :P

Putting on that skirt like thingy was funny :D

Jukka and me are already took our place properly

And, we set off :-)

Quite happy to see such a nice weather

Kanwar and Jocke had good synchronization

In the sea

Programming Solution

Badminton tournament in Siuntio, 2016

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 16:24:00 +0000

Last Sunday(17.01.2016) there was a badminton tournament in Siuntio for hobby players. I participated in both singles and doubles category. I spent the whole day in the sports hall and it went pretty well for me. I have won the singles "kunto" (casual) series. In doubles I played with Mohsin as partner and we managed to make it to semi-final and lost.

My first single game was 09:00 AM in the morning. So, I had to wake up very early in a Sunday morning. The place is around 35 kilometres from my home. It took half an hour to drive there. The game started just as scheduled.

I won all the games in group level. So, I moved to semi-final. I won the semi-final as 2-1. Then came the final, which was quite difficult because I was very much exhausted. But, I managed to win it by 2-0. The doubles series started right after the singles final match.

In doubles, we did quite good in group level. We won all the matches and secured place in semi-final. we lost the semi-final match. The team who won us became the champion. So, they are really good.

All in all, I would say the day was very successful for us. Had lot of fun. I have counted at the end of the day - I played 20 sets in total - 12 singles & 8 doubles. I was totally burned out but very happy :-)

Here goes 2 pictures from the tournament:

Taking a gift from the organizer after winning the singles final match

With the runner-up

Programming Solution

Ninad's first EID

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 10:30:00 +0000

Ninad had his first EID on 28 July, 2014. It was Monday, so a working day for me. But I took one day off from work to spend this day with my family and friends :)

The day started very early. We woke up around 7 AM in the morning, freshened up ourselves and got Ninad ready as well. He was wearing his Eid panjabi which he got from Shanila's mom just couple of weeks back :)

At 08:15 we started from Olari heading to Vantaa Eid Jamat. We took 3 cars with us - mine, Drishty vai's and Gagan's. It's half an hour drive in a very busy time of the day. So the road was busy but we managed to be there on time.

There were separate places for men and women in the hall. So I left Ninad with Sharmin and went to men's side. The whole ritual took almost an hour. After that we left the place and along with many of our friends headed to Otaniemi, Shobuj's place.

We had our breakfast in Shobuj's home. It was really heavy for a breakfast. From there we went to Mortuza's place to have tea. It was a very hot day. So we were seating underneath our cloths and Ninad was wearing only his diapers at some point. Thank god he is not an adult :D

From Otaniemi we came back to Olari. Sharmin was finalizing preparations for the guests, I was taking care of Ninad. When Ninad fell asleep I went to Drishty vai's home and had lunch there. They had more than 25 guests. I came back home and then Sharmin went there because all her preparations was well taken care of already. At around 5 PM people came to our place.

We had around 20 guests in total. Ninad woke up by that time already. He was a bit suspicious seeing so many people at a time. Everybody was so full after heavy breakfast and lunch but they have no choice but to eat in our place again. What can you do? It's Eid day :)

We didn't serve food as soon. We gave them some time to digest what they have had already by then. So we offered coffee only. By this time Gagan, as a game master, arranged Mafia game among the guests. They were playing and from the scream we could easily get that they were enjoying a lot. Around 7 PM we served the food. It looked like they were a bit hungry by that time already. So could eat quite well :)

From our place people headed to Ahsan vai's home to have tea again. From there to Hasan's place to have snacks. Around 9 PM we headed to Shaikat vai's place for final dinner. Five cars headed to Muurala. We stayed there couple of hours and had our dinner there. Ninad was going everywhere along with us, except from Drishty vai's place, amazingly :-S We came back home around midnight while he was sleeping already.

This time the Eid day was full of house hopping with many people together which gave us a taste of Eid we used to have back in Bangladesh. Ninad is so young to understand the idea but he was also, at least, busy the whole day :) It was his first Eid and we enjoyed together as a family. I hope Ninad will get the social aspect of this kinda day when he will grow up.

Programming Solution

Lost my wedding ring :(

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 11:50:00 +0000

Yesterday evening turned to be a very sad one because I lost my wedding ring. Yes, you read it right. I really lost it :(

It was a perfect evening - the sun was shining, temperature was 25 degree Celsius and gentle breeze was blowing all over. I came back from work, had coffee with Sharmin and then wanted to go out. We agreed to go to Kirkkonummi lake to have a swim. As we decided we jumped into our car and headed to Kirkkonummi.

As we reached there we set our picnic mattress on the grass and I was the one who went to water first. Sharmin was looking after Ninad at that time. I was swimming for a while. Suddenly I felt something went off from my finger. I took my left hand out of water and yes, my ring finger has a whitish ring mark on it but no ring is there.

I stood there still and look for the ring with my feet first for few minutes. Then I tried with my hands for few times; every time as long as I can keep my breath under the water. But I couldn't find it :( After trying for so many times I came out of water and told Sharmin about it. She is better swimmer than I am. So she went to the water while I showed her the place. She also tried many times but no luck for her either. She came out of water too without any success :(

I could not believe it. I just lost something extremely valuable to me. Something which you cannot value by money. That was a precious symbol to me. Since I got married I never took it off for a single day. It was always with me. Since I have lost 3-4 kilos of weight it felt a bit loose on my finger but that doesn't mean it has to get off while I am in water :( That is not fair :((

Programming Solution

Summer vacation starts from today

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 12:45:00 +0000

My two weeks summer vacation is starting today, within an hour :) Feeling quite happy about it. I have already taken 1 week of my summer vacation but that was not really a holiday. We travelled to Sweden to apply for Ninad's passport. This time there is no work plan. It's just holiday and enjoying about it :)

Gagan, along with his family, is coming here tomorrow. Hoping to spend some nice time with them in our tiny house. It's gonna be interesting to see how it turns out with 2 very active kids in a small apartment with their lazy parents; fathers to be precise :P

Programming Solution

Bought a car

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 10:58:00 +0000

Since I have enrolled into driving school I have been looking for a car from time to time. But I started looking for one heavily from 2 weeks before my driving test. Somehow I was biased about German car. So I was looking for mostly Opel and Volkswagen because other German cars, such as Audi, BMW or Mercedes, are totally out of my capability. Just few days before my driving test I found one Volkswagen Golf MK4 2002 station wagon model which seems quite good. Also not very far from my home, around 30 km. We have talked to the owner of the car over the phone with the help of one of my colleagues, Mika. From the conversation it sounded suitable for us. So we decided to see the car in person.

When we went to the place and had a look at the car it also looked pretty OK. Mika had a test drive for 15 minutes and he said that it was fine. We checked the service manual and looks like they have been doing servicing of the car in a scheduled manner. There were few spots on the car which the owner already mentioned over the phone. Well, it's more than a decade old car, it can't be without any spot :) We agreed on the price and made the deal.

It was Wednesday, 11 June, when we went to pick up the car. It was just 2 days after I have got my driving license. Now I had to drive it back home because Mika will drive his own car on the way back. I was a bit nervous but finally jumped into the driving seat and started the car, my first ever car :)

I drove the car to my home. Called Sharmin to come down. She was amazed to see that I was driving it back home. She thought may be Mika would drive it here. I was smiling and said that at least I didn't have any accident :P We, three of us - Sharmin, me and Ninad, had a small ride for few kilometers and came back to the parking place. Then some of my friends came to see the car. Everybody did congratulate me for getting my first car. I was also quite happy :) Well sooooooooooo happy :D

Here goes one picture of our car :)

Programming Solution

Got the driving license

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 14:09:00 +0000

I never had a driving license in my life, neither in Bangladesh, nor in Finland. But exactly 2 weeks back on 9 June I got my first ever driving license here in Finland :)

I have started my driving lesson on 17 March this year. The theory lesson was finished in 3 weeks but the practical lessons took quite long. We had to take at least 18 hours of practical lessons. At the end of 18 lessons my instructor told me to take few extra lessons because I might not pass the test. So I took 3 extra lessons and then appeared in the test 2 weeks ago.

I was a bit nervous the previous day but on the day of test I was not tensed at all. I just took it normally and it went pretty well. I was talking with my examiner and looks like he was happy with my driving. So he approved me as a driver :) It did sound very sweet when he said that after my 30 minutes long test. Now I am legally allowed to drive here in Finland and also anywhere in the world, I guess :)

Programming Solution

Ninad's first abroad trip

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:10:00 +0000

Last week Ninad had his first trip to abroad. I mean outside Finland. We went to Sweden to apply for his Bangladeshi passport.

Unfortunately there is no Bangladeshi embassy in Finland. The nearest one is in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. For a newborn baby you have to apply for a new passport. Everybody knows that. But what I didn't know was the baby has to visit the embassy to show his face. So, eventually, all three of us (Sharmin, Ninad & me) went to visit Stockholm on 4 June.

We took the Vikingline ferry from Helsinki on Wednesday at 17:30. We reached Stockholm around 10 AM in the morning next day. From the harbour I took a taxi and went straight to the embassy. We submitted his application within an hour. I didn't expect it to be that fast. Apparently there were not many people in the queue. On the way coming back we took the metro. It took a while to come to Slussen. That is the nearest metro stop from harbour. We had our lunch in McDonald's and around 3 PM we started walking towards the ferry. It left the harbour at 4:30 PM Stockholm time.

This time the trip was very different since we had a small kid with us. We couldn't go to the dance floor or to the music room. Most of the time we were with our son. On the way to Stockholm the weather was quite nice. So we went to the deck for couple of minutes. I remember, last time before this one, Sharmin and me spent couple of hours on the deck :) But this time also it was not bad at all. We were sitting in the hallway beside the window, enjoying the archipelago. While coming back from Stockholm, the weather was a bit gloomy. So we didn't go to the deck. We stayed inside, having coffee and gossip. Ninad was also happily excited. He was so interested about the seagulls and looking at them constantly. On that night we also slept better.

This is Ninad's first ever trip outside Finland. He is so young to realize it but we were excited instead :P We didn't take many pictures but still here go some from those 3 days :)

The journey started in a sunny day :)

In front of our room, 5121

Happy beside window :)

On the open deck, it was very windy

Looking at the seagulls

Busy playing in the game room for kids :)

I liked that octopus :D

Inside the embassy of Bangladesh, why he is so happy :-S

In front of the embassy building

In Stockholm metro

Walking towards the ferry, in Slussen

Boarding the ship for coming back. Ninad was amazed to see that doll :)

Came back to Helsinki. That's a new ferris wheel in Helsinki harbor.

Programming Solution

Sea fishing in Tammisaari

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Mon, 12 May 2014 11:57:00 +0000

Last Saturday we had a sea fishing trip in Tammisaari. It was planned few months back in our fishing club at work. They said it would be jigging in Tammisaari sea area guided by a professional fisherman. Finally it was arranged by Ericsson LMF fishing club and I am very happy to be one of the participants in this trip.

We were 8 persons, including the guide. 2 boats were arranged. Antti took his own boat, another one is owned by our guide. It's more than an hour journey from my home. I jumped in Juha-pekka's car at 7:40 in the morning and headed to Tammisaari. On the way we picked up Juha Ilmala and Mikko. We reached Tammisaari around 9:20, 25 minutes earlier than the schedule :P

Finally, Antti and other guys came around 9:45. By this time we, the first troop, took coffee in a coffee shop. Antti put his boat in water and was fixing everything for the trip and all of us were waiting for our guide. He came around 10 O'clock. I noticed that his boat is bigger than Antti's. He provided wheels to us those who have not their own. Also he provided a nice jacket for me. Then he put his boat in the water. By the way, our guide's name is Peter Lahti.

It was decided that those who don't have much experience will go in guide's boat which means I, for sure, will go in his boat since I have no prior experience of casting or jigging. 5 persons got in to Peter's boat, and 3 persons in Antti's boat. Then we started and Peter was showing the way.

Peter took us in some place and we started jigging. I threw my first ever angle to the sea. I was feeling a bit excited. After almost half an hour we got our first fish in our boat. It was Thomas who got it and it was a medium size pike. we were moving from place to place. Finally I got my first ever fish with jig and again it was a pike, around 1.25 kg, smaller than what Thomas got. I was very happy to get it anyway :)

Time was passing by and there was not many success in our boat. We heard that in Antti's boat they got 2 big pikes, both over 4 kilos. I got a bit jealous but that didn't help much. Finally around 3 PM we stopped in an island for lunch.

Our guide brought salmon soup for all of us. I don't know if it was due to the environment and company but that was one of best salmon soup I have ever had. The sea wind also made me very hungry, so I took twice. Half an hour later we left the island and again started jigging in different places.

I was seeing other people getting some perch or pike but I was not getting anything. It was almost 6 PM and hadn't caught a single one after my first catch. I was getting frustrated at the point. Finally the moment came and I felt huge tension on my jigging rod. The rod was too much bended and I was struggling like hell. Our guide screamed "It must be a big one". Finally we saw a bit of it and yes, it was big :) Peter took the fish from water with landing net. It was really big and I was smiling ear to ear :D We measured the length, it was 93 cm long. I took couple of pictures with the fish and then released it.

I was so happy to get that big pike. The frustration was gone and all the hours I spent suddenly felt meaningful. After this catch I got two perches. That was all for me. I got 4 fishes in total. We finished around 8 Pm and headed to shore. While coming back home I bought 8 perches with me. It was a long tiring but totally enjoyable day for me. New experience, lot of learning and doing at the same time. Looking forward for the next fishing trip. Ohhh, I am going to have dinner with some fried perch today :P

Waiting for our guide to arrive

Preparing Antti's boat

Set off from shore

Our guide, Peter Lahti, driving the boat

Our first catch of the day by Thomas

My first ever fish with jig

Stopped to this island to have lunch

So happy to get a pike-perch (Kuha in Finnish)

Antti's biggest catch of the day, over 4 kilo pike (Hauki in Finnish)

Juha Ilmala's biggesh catch of the day, another pike

Juha-pekka's biggest catch of the day

Here goes my biggest catch of the day. The smile tells everything :)

Programming Solution

Window seat challenge

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Fri, 02 May 2014 14:08:00 +0000

We had to change our seating arrangement at work. Our team is going to start in a new business area along with several other teams. The management decided to put all those teams quite close to each other. So a new area has been furnished to accommodate all those teams.

Now the question is which team will seat beside window and which team will sit beside aisle? Well, we could have a raffle draw but we are not that boring people. So we decided to have some events to choose the winner, runner up and so on to decide who is going to choose first, then second and so forth. Actually it was Kari Erola's idea and we agreed right away.

There were four teams and each team was asked to propose one event according to their strength. Since my team mates saw me playing table tennis they suggested that we could propose table tennis. So from our team it was table tennis double games. 3 other proposals from other teams were fast chess(5 minutes each side), foosball, and noble game of running.

In each category the gold winner gets 7 points, silver 4, bronze 2 and 4th place team gets 1 point. In table tennis, opponents were chosen by lottery. 2 losers will play for bronze and 2 winners will play for gold. The chess also went the same way. Fusball was in round robin fashion. Games were 5 minutes long. Winner gets 2 points, loser gets 0. If it's tied each side gets 1 point. At the end of the round robin the points are accumulated which decides who won gold, silver and bronze. The running was really interesting. You have to run 150 meters, open a can of beer(non alcoholic), drink it and run back that 150 meters. There one representative from each team.

I participated in all the events from our team. In table tennis and foosball I had partners but chess and running I had to do alone. The first event was chess. I managed to get the bronze there. Then table tennis and of course we won the gold since it was our strength :P Then come the foosball and after the round robin our team won bronze again. Among the 3 games I played in only 1.

The last event was running and we went outside. The rule was explained and we 4 went to the start line. With the ring we started to run and suddenly realized that I haven't run sprint for a long time. After 10 seconds I found myself the last guy there. I reached the beer can point at last when all 3 runners were already drinking from their can. I opened my can, took my first sip and the first guy already took off from there making his can empty. I was thinking I have to drink this faster. So I took a big sip, still couldn't finish it. Then a small third sip made the can empty and I started running back while the other 2 guys were still struggling with their beer. I ran as fast as I could since I knew that they were fast runners than me. But finally I could manage to finish as second :) It was pretty tough and I was totally out of breath after the run. But I enjoyed it so much.

After all the event the points were calculated and it seemed that our team ended up being second with 15 points. The champion team got 18 points in total. All in all, it was a nice 2 hours event full of fun. After the event we went to the new team area and choose the place one by one according to the position in events. So we haven't got the window area but we choose the next place after that. But it was not about the seating area. I don't think people care that much about the seating area in office but it was just having some fun in a very busy afternoon which made everybody compete, support, fight and laugh. One thing I will remember for a long time. I forgot to bring running shoe, so I was very unhappy that I had to run with my boots on. Then suddenly Jarmo took off his shoes and told me to try those because they were like sneakers and obviously softer than mine. I tried but they were so loose. His feet are bigger than mine. Interesting, never thought that my colleague will give me his shoes to wear :P

Programming Solution

Trip to the most southern part of Finland

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 14:01:00 +0000

In this easter holiday we had a trip to Hanko, the most southern part of Finland. It was Sunday and some of my friends wanted to have a long drive. We were also interested. Since we don't have a car we just jumped into one my friends' car. We were 13 in total and went with 4 cars.

On the way going there, we had 3 cars. But, Shohel vai and Shahrukh vai joined us in Hanko beach. It was 116 km from our home, so pretty long drive. The beach in Hanko was nice, it's sandy and quite long, the longest I have seen in Finland. We spent couple of hours in the beach - had snacks, gossip, and played a bit of frisbee golf.

On the way coming back Hasan proposed to go the village Fiskars. He said it's a nice small village where the famous Fiskars company started their journey. We had time in our hand and sun in the sky, so decided to give a visit to that place. To our amazement the road to Fiskars village is very nice - ups and downs with lots of bends. It was a bit challenging for the drivers but enjoyable for us who were sitting behind :)

We spent half an hour to the village. Just walking around a bit and then headed back to home. It was a nice day out with nice weather. Here go few pictures of the day:

Just reached the beach

Pushing the pram in sandy beach is not so easy :)

A part of the beach

The group sat on a high land to have some snacks

Now the photographer, Wali, is among us :)

Very happy for sun-bathing with jacket and cap on :D

The color of the water and sky was very nice

Family picture :)

Best portrait of the day :)

In a restaurant on the way to Fiskars. We had a stop over to have some lunch.

That is the road to Fiskars village

In the village already

It's pretty old, isn't it?

The trees look beautiful in dusk light, even without leaves.

Programming Solution

Herwood deshi badminton tournament 2014

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 13:56:00 +0000

Last month a badminton tournament among the Bangladeshi folks has been arranged in Tampere. It was a whole day event on March 15. The idea of the tournament was as following:

Interested cities give names of their players for both single and double games. 2 single players and 2 double teams. Players play with other city players and collect point for their own city. At the end total points collected by all players of a particular city will be that city's final score. In this way the best city in badminton will be decided.

Along with badminton there were table tennis tournament as well. In badminton Tampere became the champion while Espoo being runner up. Table tennis was individual competition. Shaikat vai became champion there and Mohsin became runner up. Also women were playing badminton.

Aside from sports there was a small food fair. The food were prepared by the women and sold for a small amount of money. The day was full of event and everybody seemed to be very much enjoying it. We stayed in Tampere on that night and came back the next afternoon.

I have only one picture from that day. Here it goes while taking our runner up trophy in badminton for Espoo.

Programming Solution

An eventful year has passed. Goodbye 2013 :)

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 15:02:00 +0000

2013 was a year of lot of events for me and my family. Now we are standing at the last page of this year. I couldn't help writing a post right now, even if it's a tiny one :)

The biggest happening of this year for me is I became a father. We have got our first kid, a baby boy in November. I have told about it in my last post. This single event kept us busy for many months. During the nine months' journey and also after his birth. I think we got busier after he was born. Now a days we don't have enough time to mingle with our friends as before, but we don't mind. We are enjoying our parenthood.

Aside from that biggest event, I also graduated this year. I have finished my masters degree which was pending for several years. I just got the certificate on 20 December in a nice convocation ceremony in Tampere University of Technology. Two photos from that ceremony are given at the bottom.

Now the new year, 2014, is just knocking the door. For this year I am not going to make any wish-list. I would rather try to do things better each and everyday. Don't wanna put some resolutions in a time frame. Let's see how the new year goes :)

The whole family in my convocation ceremony

She couldn't help wearing my 'teekkari' cap :P

Programming Solution

The "waiting" is over :)

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 15:19:00 +0000

We have been waiting for so long time. Well, it may be debatable whether it's long or not but I think it's long; long 9 months and couple of weeks. We were waiting for that period of time expecting our first kid to be born. And now the waiting has been over and our first kid, Ninad, was born on Wednesday November 6, 2013. Yes we named him Ninad :)

The whole journey has lots of changes and several ups and downs. Sharmin was going through tough times. I tried to help her as much as I can, but that's actually nothing compared to what she went through. From the beginning I saw how difficult it was for her. Also at the end I watched her going through lots of pain. It was supposed to be a natural delivery but unfortunately at the very end Ninad was not doing very well and the doctor decided to do the operation. I wanted to be in the operation room but they were doing everything so fast that preparing me for the operation room would slow them down. So they didn't let me in. I was waiting in the labour room where the process started for Sharmin. After they took her I spent the longest 40 minutes of my life. Finally the midwife came and gave me the good news - it's a healthy boy and mom is doing fine as well :)

I went with the midwife to see the baby. Sharmin was still in wake up room, they kept her couple of hours there. My first feeling, when I first saw Ninad, was - he is so tiny :) I hold him in my hands and kept him for more than an hour. He was not crying or making any sound, just sleep and sleep. I was tickling his cheek from time to time to see if he is OK. At some point he was not responding to my tickle. I became so worried that I called the midwife right away. It's really strange - just an hour ago I didn't see him, I didn't know him at all; but now I became so worried about him. He spent his first hour of life on my hands and then we went to post natal ward where they brought Sharmin as well.

We had to stay in the hospital for 6 nights after Ninad was born - for his antibiotics and other check up. Then we finally came back home on 13 November. We were 2 when we left home, now came back with this new, unknown guy. I was pretty sure we would know this new guy more and more with time. He is now 26 days old and we already know quite a lot about him - how he smiles, how he cries, how he makes funny gestures and faces at times. I know we will get along nicely and raise a happy family together :)

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First mushroom picking in Finland

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 14:08:00 +0000

Yesterday we (Sharmin and me) did our first mushroom picking in Finland. We went to Nuuksio National Park to have some cantarella mushroom. Due to our ignorance and lack of experience in mushroom picking it was really difficult in the beginning. We couldn't find any. In fact, we didn't know where to look :P But we saw lot of blue berries. So we decided to pick blue berry instead and got more than half a liter quite fast :)

While picking blue berries a lady was passing by. We saw her bucket half full with different type of mushrooms. Sharmin asked her if she can show us a bit. The generous lady opened her bucket and showed us different kinds of mushrooms and how to know them and where to look. After that we started looking into right places and soon we started to get some. Big thanks to that lady. Finally we managed to get our basket full of different type of mushrooms. Sharmin even got couple of cantarellas :)

It was a nice tracking in the afternoon. We were into the woods for almost two hours. We really enjoyed the time there and finally enjoyed our dinner with fresh picked mushrooms :)

Here is a picture in the bus on the way back home:

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Oulu trip and summer cottage 2013

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 13:57:00 +0000

We went to Oulu on 26 July. It was Friday. We stayed there for four nights and headed to summer cottage on Tuesday. It was three nights in the summer cottage and then we came back to Espoo on last Friday. So it was a week long trip full of activities and fun :)

The journey began with the pendolino train from Helsinki. I met Sharmin and Mohsin in the train station. We got into the train knowing that a 6 hours journey is ahead of us. Unfortunately my seat choosing was messed up and Mohsin has to sit in another compartment. I was very unhappy because it was me who bought the tickets.

It took one and half hours to reach Tampere and many people got down there. We went to the restaurant cart and spent next 4 hours there. We were gossiping and enjoying the wide green fields and trees so much that we didn't even notice how time passed. So at the end of the journey we were not so regretful for the distributed seat arrangement :)

Gagan came to train station to fetch us. We reached his home around 10 PM. We entered their new home. I took off my shoes and started exploring the house. It's a nice house with a big living room and kitchen and a huge terrace. There is a nice lawn after the terrace. I like it very much :) The first night went without much happenings. We were tired off the long journey, so went to bed early after dinner.

On the second day (Saturday) we went to Oulu downtown to have a look. The weather was nice, thus there were many people roaming around. We came back home, took rest for a while and headed to mini golf course near the beach Nallikari. All of us played and I was the lucky one to win :D The same day we went to the beach and played frisbee in the water. It was fun :)

The next day we were mostly relaxing in the morning. Me, Gagan and Mohsin started playing Tigris and Euphrates in the afternoon. The game lasted 4 hours. Mohsin played it for the first time but he won. After the game we went for biking. The girls were sleeping at that time. We biked for almost an hour. After that it was just being in home and gossip and playing pictioary and another game(I forgot the name).

On Monday we decided to go for swimming. We checked two lakes but Gagan was not satisfied with the crowd. He wanted some place with very less people. So we went to Nallikari beach again because it's a long one and you can find some place almost with no people. We again played frisbee in water, also swam for a while. On the way coming back home we decided to go to Koiteli in Kiminki.

Koiteli is a nice place beside river. There are several grill place. You can take your own food and have a nice barbeque there. I visited this place once before but not in proper summer. During summer it's really astonishing. From Koiteli we came back home and got mentally prepared for the summer cottage. Mohsin got his luggage ready to leave for Espoo next morning.

Me and Gagan dropped Mohsin to Oulu airport the next morning around 07:45 am. We took coffee in a coffee shop and then came back home. After taking breakfast Gagan went to have a nap because he will be driving to the cottage. We already finished our grocery for the cottage while returning from airport.

In the afternoon, around 3 PM we started our journey towards summer cottage. It was a nice 4 hours journey with multiple breaks. We met the cottage owner in his office. He doesn't speak English. Among us only Shanila speaks Finnish, so she was the savior :) She communicates with the owner and he showed us the way to the cottage and gave us the key. He also showed all the facilities. Before leaving he gave us a nice homemade chocolate cake as a part of welcome. We were so happy. The first night was not very eventful. We just walk around a bit, had late dinner and went to bed. Sharmin and me stayed in ground floor. Gagan and Shanila went upstairs.

On the second day we did barbeque, fishing, boating and sauna. Also there was enough time to relax. We managed to read novels during lazy afternoon. The next day (Thursday) was pretty much the same but we were playing badminton a bit. On Friday, we left the cottage at noon. The owner gave us two bottles of blue currant concentrated juice. All in all it was an enjoyable but relaxing cottage trip.

Our train to Helsinki will leave at 16:00 from Kuopio. So we had some time in our hand. So we went to Nilsiä, another small town near Kuopio. It's a nice place with hills and lakes. The combination was great. From Nilsiä we headed to Kuopio. It was 15:30 when we reached Kuopio train station.

The train journey from Kuopio to Helsinki was almost 5 hours. This time it was only Sharmin and me and our seat arrangement was quite OK. Still we went to the restaurant and spent the whole journey sitting there. We reached Helsinki around 20:50 and finally reached home around 21:40. Thus a week long vacation trip, full of activities and fun, came to an end :)

Here goes some pictures:

Playing frisbee on the beach

Now frisbee in wather :)

Mohsin in action in mini golf :)

Tigris and Euphrates. Everybody is so serious :P

Koiteli

Koiteli 2

Fire for barbeque in Koiteli

River flows continuously there :)

Wood art, on the way to cottage

Friends, on the way to cottage

Happy couple, on the way to cottage

Chappel near our cottage. The owner made it by himself.

Wooden door, nicely crafted

Our cottage

Golden light of sunset makes the cottage even more beautiful

Rear balcony, I liked the table

View from top floor

Another view

Girls watching sunset from the deck

It's Sharmin and me. You may need a magnifying glass to see us :P

Gagan and Shanila are canoeing

I was trying single row

The expert swimmer doesn't need any life vest :)

Nilsiä, doesn't look like Finland at all

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First ever summer trip to Oulu

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 10:20:00 +0000

I went to Oulu many times before. So many times that I lost count :) But I never went there in a proper summer; either in winter, or in autumn or in spring. This is the first time I am going in summer :)

We, Sharmin and me, have decided to visit Oulu in this summer couple of months back. Mohsin also showed interest when he heard about it. So finally we are going as a three persons team. I am going to leave office after an hour and will go to Helsinki train station straight from here. It's going to be a 6 hours' long train journey. Ahhh!!! Like Sheldon and Gagan I love trains :)

We will stay in Gagan's place 3 days and after that Mohsin will come back to Espoo and We four (Me, Sharmin, Gagan and Shanila) will go to a summer cottage near Kuopio. We will stay there 3 more days and then will come back to Espoo next Friday.

There are many plans for this coming week. For sure we will have lots of fun. I will try to give update when I come back :)

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Sailing among Espoo archipelago

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 08:32:00 +0000

I have had my first sailing experience yesterday among the archipelago in Espoo. It was one my colleagues, Seppo's sailing boat we took. We started from Kivenlahti and sailed around the Baltic sea for a bit over 2 hours.

On Tuesday morning we got an email from Seppo asking us about going for a sailing afternoon in his boat on the very next day. It was a very short notice because you cannot be sure about the weather in Finland several days before. Well, it was early enough for me and I decided to go. Few of our other teammates were also interested, so we were finally 5 in total - Seppo, Jarmo, Aulis, Mika and me. The primary plan was to sail for a while, stop in one of the islands, have a barbecue and then come back to Kivenlahti.

I was very excited about the trip since I heard about it. The next day I went to work with jeans and T-shirt, took my baseball cap and sunglasses with me. We left office around 16:00 and went to the harbor in Kivenlahti where Seppo keeps his boat. It was a very sunny and warm afternoon. Within 10 minutes we started the boat.

At the beginning the boat was running by engine. After around 15 minutes we were far enough from the harbor to get enough wind to put the sail on. Jarmo was with the wheel. Seppo stopped the engine and put the sail on while me, Mika and Aulis were helping him. He can handle it by himself but we were interested to participate in the activities :)

When the sail is up the boat was running with a speed of 5.5 knot. Sometimes there was heavy wind and the boat was really leaning on one side, almost felt like it's going to flip over, but the captain (Seppo) assured me that it's normal. So no need to worry because it wont flip over very easily.

After around half an hour of sailing Jarmo told me that I can take the wheel and try to control the boat. I was excited; bit afraid at the same time because I have no prior experience. But they assured me it would be fine. So I took the wheel and it was very thrilling when a heavy wind hits the sails for the first time. It felt like something is pushing the boat in one side but you have to do jig-jag movement to keep the boat in steady position and pace. Of course Seppo and Jarmo was assisting me continuously.

There were many boats passing by and all of them waved at us. It's a custom while sailing. I learned the proper way of waving :P Also, some good piece of information like boats who are sailing always get the priority over boats running by engine. So if you wanna get priority turn off the engine and put up the sail. Of course you need proper wind support :)

When we were thinking to stop in some island, suddenly, the weather became gloomy and we noticed few drops of rain. One part of the sky was really dark, so the sea may get a bit risky. So we decided to come back without stopping anywhere. We turn back and headed to Kivenlahti. At the time of return we didn't get good wind support. As a result, we had to rely on the engine several times. To be honest, it's much more fun with sail than with the engine :) I was with the wheel until we came very close to the harbor again. Seppo took the wheel from me to moor the boat.

It started raining when we came back to shore. It was a right decision to come back at that time but of course it would be interesting to stop in one of the islands. However, it was a spectacular experience for me - I had great fun, enjoyed it to the fullest. Additionally, it increased my fascination for boat to next level :)

Here goes some pictures of the day:

Kivenlahti harbor

This is Seppo's boat. He is already on board. Jarmo and Mika is on their way

Me with Aulis on the front side of the boat

Leaving the harbor

The boat is running with engine. Jarmo is with the wheel.

View of archipelago

Far enough from harbor to get the wind. Time to turn off the engine and put the sail on :)

The first sail is up

Both the sails are up and catching nice wind

Me with the wheel :P

The crew, except from the captain. He was busy taking this picture :P

Came back to harbor again

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Relaxing trip to Stockholm

noreply@blogger.com (geteamon) — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 08:20:00 +0000

Last week Sharmin and me had a trip to Stockholm. It was again a boat trip with Vikingline. The main reason for this trip was to apply for machine readable passport for both of us. There is no Bangladeshi embassy in Finland. From Finland, the nearest embassy of Bangladesh is in Stockholm, Sweden. Since applicant's biometric information is needed for MRP we had to go there in person. Another reason of visit was to go to my cousin's home. They have been living there for almost 30 years. My cousin was eager to meet Sharmin and that is why we decided to give a visit and stay in their place

Our appointment in the embassy was on Tuesday, 11 June, 2013. We started our boat trip from Helsinki on Sunday afternoon with Vikingline Mariella. The weather was extremely nice. This is the first time for me to stay on the deck for hours. We had dinner in the restaurant. Also had a nice sleep at night since the sea was calm.

We reached Stockholm the next morning. My cousin's husband came to the harbor to fetch us. We reached their home, had a nice lunch and gossiped with my nephew, Mugdho. Unfortunately Sharmin was having breathing problem due to the cat they have. I didn't know she has a cat allergy. Anyway, we had to visit the doctor in the afternoon. We also roam around Stockholm downtown after that.

The next morning we went to the embassy of Bangladesh and submitted our application forms. Mugdho was accompanying us. We went to a Thai restaurant for lunch. The food was really delicious there. After the lunch we went to see the Vasa Museum. I liked this museum, specially the ship was spectacular. It felt like I was standing in front of The Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean :P We spent half a day there.

On Wednesday afternoon we took the return boat. It was the same boat as previous. This time the weather was even nicer. We spent several hours on the deck and saw the sunset in the sea. Had dinner in the restaurant and enjoyed the music in the dance hall. The next morning we took buffet breakfast in the boat. It was a nice breakfast with so many different kinds of dishes. This trip was a done in a relax way - we didn't go to many places and we didn't run at all. At the end, it felt like a nice holiday trip :)

Here are few pictures:

On the deck on the way to Stockholm

Lunch time :)

Ship Vasa

Near Stockholm downtown

Beside a lake in Fastra Strand

Me, same place :)

Sunset from deck, on the way to Helsinki

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