Happy holidays everyone!

Grocery shopping at Kannelmäki

My parents left for a holiday trip and left me with a car for Christmas (and my dog although he's nice and cosy at my grandsparents' at the moment) so after dropping them at the airport hotel I decided to use this gained feedom of travelling and went to check out my old hoods at Kannelmäki. Actually it was for buying some more windshield washing liquid for the car but any case, I ended up visiting Kannelmäen Prisma, a HUMANGOUS supermarket they have built there in last couple of years. It was now twice the size it was when I lived next to it (it's now the biggest supermarket in the metropolitan area) and to be honest, I find it ridiculous (it has 41 checkout counters for christ's sake). I can't imagine someone would actually enjoy shopping there. I do understand the strategy in trade perspective as people get hungry by the time they even reach the food section...
Anyhow, being there I recalled someone had mentioned they had some speciality considering the organic food stuff so I decided to check it out. It turned out to be (when I found it after walking a mile from the car section) a shop-in-a-shop for Eat&Joy Maatilatori, a succesful local/organic foodstore business which just had opened an organic megastore in the restored mall of Kluuvi. So my expectation where quite high at that point. I checked out the stall and I was pleased by the variety of organic meat (although freezed) and the flour section. On the other hand, I have to admit I was quite disappointed for the fact everything had been put for display like in a tourist shop. I mean, when I go grocery shopping, I really don't care if my jar of jam has a bow tied around it or not. It's cute, sure, but the fact is, I don't really want to buy organic local stuff for the fact the packaging looks crafty, I buy it for ethical reasons. It pisses me off so much how local food is so often marketed in this cutesy way as it's just food after all. It's never gonna be the everyday choice for people if you always have to pay extra for the time put in to making the products look extra pretty. It's of course good for products which are meant to be given as presents but I would love not to see it when it comes to regular foodstuff.
All in all, I think it's good they have the stall at Prisma, yet it's really not a reason for me to go there ever again. :D I hate supermarkets (although I have to admit I kinda had some strange love-hate relationship with Colruyt next to VUB in Brussels... Must have been the free coffee).

Finland, the country of snowy winters

Not. It's almost Christmas and this is what you can see from our balcony. Just wanted to share this as it's ridiculous.

Long time, no blogging

Lately I've been incredibly busy as I started a new job at Elisa (one of the major mobile phone and internet operators in Finland). Working every day with phones I've realised how fast the industry goes: I thought I was relatively good with technology but in the matter of fact, I'm quite clueless from time to time. So it's time for me to get modern: this is my first mobile update ever. Although even this is a bit of a cheat as I'm not on the go but at home. Anyhow, I'm really excited with my new phone I got from work (htc desire z or something) and I can't wait to start blogging more random stuff on the go.

Stress releaving meditation

I'm a huge stresser myself. Actually, I'm the queen of "I should". There is no better way of making me feel all stressed out than my own thoughts going aroung, telling me what I ought to do: "I should wash the dishes" "I should clean up" "I should be studying" "I should already have studied so much more, the test is coming next week". So basically, I should do this and I should do that instead of whatever I'm doing (which normally is "nothing at all"). I end up being so stressed up I finally manage to do nothing at all. I know it's just the way of my head going and talking to my friends, I'm obviously not the only one suffering from this. But there's a cure for this cancer!

Meditation. I'm not a huge fan of following different "schools" when it comes to these kinds of mental things. I know a lot of people find their peace while doing yoga, cleaning up the house or going to the church. I think part of the traditional "holy experience" is just the fact when going to church, you slow down and just let your mind set. There's some much information and courses about so-called "mindfullness" around at the moment and there are so many methods taught (sometimes with a hefty pricetag on them). But I think basically anything will do to get the same effect, as long as it's something simple enough and something you have to focus on. For me the normal tricks are, well, clearing the fridge (yeah, it's tad strange, I admit) and going to pick mushrooms.

Here's the result from this friday morning's "mindfullness". 2,5kg in total, I'm never going to finish these...

Instead of telling everyone to go to pick some mushrooms (which I do recommend though), I want to share some easy methods of relaxing which I regularly use.

Pick the room for this exercise where the temperature is warm enough so you don't feel like freezing while staying still. If the floor is cold, feel free to put some kind of matt, a towel or a yoga matt underneath you (but nothing too comfy though, the point is not to feel like lying on a bed). If you feel chilly, you can use a blanket to cover you. Make sure the clothes you wear are somewhat comfortable on you.

Lay down on the floor, facing up. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath once and after that, just inhale an exhale normally.

Now there are a couple of options how to make your body and mind settle.

1. Think that you're breathing through your whole body. Every part in it takes part in the breathing. You can start it from the toes up by imagining how every time you inhale and exhale, the toes are doing it too. You can also try to intentionally relax your toes every time you exhale. Then, moving up from the toes, go through your whole body ending up on the top of your head. When getting there, you can imagine the whole body at once, inhaling and exhaling and every time you inhale, the top of your head moved further away from the tips of your toes.

2. A variation of the previous, which can be done also after it. Start with imagining the head moving away from the toes while inhaling. Do the same imagination with the tailbone and head. Then move on to thinking how your limbs are spread out in a shape of a giant starfish (or a star, if you find starfish gross :D). Every time you inhale, think of all your limbs moving away from the middle where you're lungs are and relaxing again towards the centre with exhaling. Like a pulsating star. If this feels hard to do at once, you may also start with just the legs or the arms separately first.

3. Another trick to relax your body is to think about the floor you're lying on. Feel the points of your body that are touching the ground. Let all you weight fall on these points and let the floor bear you. You can go even further and imagine the ground underneath the floor and eventually, imagine the whole Earth supporting you instead of your mussels doing it.

4. If you have trouble to let your mind go and you still have all the thoughs in your head flying in circles, I recommend imagining them actually flying. Let go yf them and think of them outside of your body (you will have all the time in the world after relaxing to think about them again). Every time a thought pops up in your head, you can think of it as a balloon you release from your lap to the skyes to fly. Or the thoughts being clouds, just hoovering around in the sky above you. The point is, don't get stuck on any thought, just BE there. Doing all the previous exercises helps you to think of the present instead of the "actual" thoughts.

You can do these exercise just to wind up after stressful day (or in the middle of it) or use them as a "warm up" for some deep streching or light yoga. I do have to warn you that they might work too well: I've found myself more than once sleeping on the floor... Talking about power nap there! I always feel superrelaxed after doing this and also more happy with myself, my life and the world in general. It kinda puts your stress into the right perspective.

Toxins in clothing etc

 Here's an interesting German documentary how toxic substancies end up in Europe eventhough they are banned here:




 http://areena.yle.fi/ohjelma/1674023

Unfortuantely this can only be viewed in Finland... But still, very interesting documentary, made at least me think about my consumption choices.

Organic chicken

Good news for everyone who's been wishing to be able to buy organic chicken. After 10 years without domestic organic production of chicken in Finland, we are finally getting a producer willing to take the chance.

According to Yle Morning news Studio, we are getting some organic chicken in the market this autumn. Unfortunately first it's only available around Tampere, but I'm hoping the demand is big enough for the producers are able to broaden the coverage.

Here's a piece of news on Aamulehti some time ago about the production: http://www.aamulehti.fi/Pirkanmaa/1194692491401/artikkeli/suomen+ensimmainen+luomubroileri+kasvaa+pirkanmaalla.html


More information about organic chicken and the possible salmonella threat: http://yle.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/2011/09/luomubroilerin_tautiriskit_hirvittavat_tehotuottajia_2859679.html