NordenBladet – I started writing this blog already in the beginning of January but then my work and home life took full speed and the blog was postponed. So I’ll sketch a brief overview. Due to covid restrictions I have not been able to travel abroad, my longest trips have taken me as far as Tartu 🙂 hahaaa. In January Raido (my elder sister’s husband) celebrated his 36th birthday. We went to visit them and as we were in the neighbourhood, we also visited V SPA. The shopping centers Kvartal, Tasku, Tartu Kaubamaja department store as well as SPA hotel were all still covered with Christmas decorations.
While the first week of January began with a new painting for the children’s book “His Highness Mouse the First” and was largely humanities-based, then the rest of the month was rather deliberative, analytical and finances-centered. As usual, there was a lot of work with NordenBladet sites, then Airobot Technologies IPO and the sweet recognition that on January 24th and 27th we had just enough cash to invest in the bleeding Baltic and US stock markets. Regarding brokers’ board, there is a sad news, namely Marat Kasparov has announced that he will stop blogging via his page StockFanatt. Since he is an active person with a stronger than usual temperament, then I hope that he will change his mind.
What else? January also accommodated a major cyber attack that I will not thoroughly cover here, but which still ruined mine and Allan’s planned ballet night “Louis XVI – the Sun King” and quite out of the blue created a week of extra work. In conclusion it still had a positive effect because we now reviewed the servers’ security settings with a new pair of eyes. We always have several backup copies of everything in a different cloud and on hard drives, and hackers will accept bunny-pictures instead of money lol
(You can read about February’s events after the gallery)
I wrote in the October blog HERE that Estella Elisheva applied via AIS (American Councils for International Education) programme to be an exchange student in America. She didn’t pass the last part of the contest which retrospectively is a good thing. Now she is 100% devoted to the violin. This year she will graduate from the 9th grade of Tallinn Jewish School and she plans on continuing her secondary school studies in MUBA, the Music and Ballet School.
February started off with super good news! Estella Elisheva was selected to be the main soloist for Georg Ots Symphony Orchestra GOSO in three performances, playing H. Wieniawski’s piece Legende Op. 17. Me, on the other hand, I completed yet another mice series painting!
There have been even more cultural events during February. In the beginning of the month we went to the Centre of Russian Culture to see Ott Sepp’s comedy show Jokker and yesterday we went to Saku Suurhall to listen to the finalists of “Eesti Laul 2022” song contest. Speaking about the latter, I am really sorry for Elina Nechayeva that in her competing song “Remedy” she could show her voice just so little and thus was placed eighth in the competition. With a different song she would have been able to give more vocal energy. All the performers were actually really good, but my yesterday’s favourite was Andrei Zevakin’s and Grete Paia’s song “Mis nüüd saab” (“What’s gonna happen now”). The winning song “Hope” was of course also really great. Stefan Airapetjan has such a big warm aura that why not send him to represent Estonia at the contest.
To conclude the blog, here’s a tasty oven roast!
Place chopped broccoli, cauliflower, onion, meat and blue cheese into oven mold. Add spices, a pack of sour cream, and cover with water halfway to top. Then for one hour to the oven and 65 minutes after that everyone will be moaning with pleasure!
NordenBladet – For the past two days I have again been on the creativity and art wavelength. When looking out of the window in the morning I once more admitted that life in the countryside is amazing, that my home is amazing. Though life in the countryside is a luxury and not always easy to lead, I absolutely enjoy every moment of it. Living in the countryside is inspiring. Snowy wild and beautiful scenery, burning wood in the furnace, the purring cat, a large personal piece of land of the beautiful Estonia, silence, peace (unless this silence is interrupted by the noisy music sometimes voluntarily coming from my speakers).
I enjoyed a long and calm breakfast along with today’s newspapers. I drank a glass of God Morgon red grape juice, two cups of coffee, and ate my favorite breakfast – a toast with onion, salmon and caviar! Yummm… Then I took two shots of Chaga elixir and went outside to plow the snow. In the fresh air I smoothly burnt several hundred calories and gathered over 6000 steps. Then back inside, a shower, and off to the beauty salon.
Today I had my eyelashes done. I have my eyelashes and eyebrows done every 2-3 weeks, it is comfortable and then I can look fine without having to spend time on putting on any make-up. I put on make-up only when I have a photo shoot or a major event coming, on a daily basis never really.
This month I have already completed two paintings – about the first, where the mouse boy Ivar Apodemus plows the snow, I already wrote in my NordenBladet blog (see HERE), my ElishevaShoshana.com art blog (see HERE) and my OHMYGOSSIP site (see HERE). Yesterday evening I completed yet another painting (His Highness Mouse the First – series painting nr 16). It depicts two mice in the pub. I am really full of enthusiasm and power, and the more I do the more I have new energy. Recently I have been reading Merit Raju’s book “Life on a new level – Wake up with excitement. Live to the fullest. Sleep in peace.” Life really is on a new level when you focus on your development, dream, and make your dreams come true, give the best you have and have courage to be seen, be honest, loving, free and creative. Today I can claim all of this about myself – I wake up with excitement and happiness, and go to bed fulfilled!
I have already posted that I decided to give up alcohol for an indefinite time. This is a gift to myself, not any kind of suffering or any of the new year’s resolutions. Yet since I like it, I have to replace it with something. I really like herbal teas which I also prepare very often from the herbs I have gathered, but I also like the taste of beer. Namely the taste, not that it comes with spirits. Thus I am testing various non-alco 0%-0,5% beers. One of my favorite is the green can non-alco Go Pilsner by Saku brewery (the price-quality proportion is suitable), yet also several other non-alco beers taste good.
Today I tested six beers and here is my evaluation of them 🙂
1. place: A.Le Coq “Warsteiner Premium Fresh” (23 kcal / 0%). Super good, big applause and words of praise… it came first very easily to my mind. It is very tasty and it really feels real, I wouldn’t believe it was non-alco, if I didn’t know. 2. place: Heineken (21 kcal / 0%) Second and third place taste quite similar, Heineken perhaps is stronger than Carlsberg. Both taste good and are great beers. 3. place: Carlsberg (20 kcal / up to 0.5%) 4. place: Budweiser Budvar (15,5 kcal / up to 0.5%) You can drink it but it is not as good as the previous three. 5. place: Stella Artois (18 kcal / 0%) Had the aftertaste of an apple, didn’t like it much. 6. place: Clausthaler (26 kcal / up to 0.5%) – this, from the six beers, was the worst, actually the only one I didn’t really like. Had a weird strong aftertaste.
NordenBladet – The year has begun actively and positively. I am observing my nutrition (I once again replaced breakfast sandwiches with a proper meal), and I made myself a present by deciding to give up alcohol for an indefinite period of time. I once more reopened my weight help account and I am keeping an eye on eating as healthy as possible, and for several months already I try to buy only e-additives-free food. It is so annoying that nowadays there are e-additives even in bread, white bread and whole wheat bread.
On January 1 I began searching for my sports watch, I charged it, and then we went for a walk. The watch helps count steps and helps remind us that it is important to move ourselves. In the summertime there is a lot of moving around and working in the garden, yet in winter I do not go outside much. So after that we went swimming for two hours and once we got back home we thought about possibly traveling to some place in the near future. And should we decide to go, then would we take the children or go alone. Would we go for a week or for an entire month etc. There is Covid-19 everywhere right now and we wouldn’t want to take the risk of staying in quarantine while abroad. We have also for some time now been thinking about getting us a “winter home” in the southern coast of Spain, Costa del Sol (we are actually keeping an eye on all of Andalusia regarding the real estate situation), yet this idea is not ripe at the moment.
It is so good to look up today’s and tomorrow’s power prices from our NordenBladet.ee electricity prices guidelines in real time! It is not good to boast but this app that we have created, is such great help! We have received so much positive feedback, we are using it ourselves and we are happy to hear that many others do the same. During today the electricity is in the green zone all day long (i.e. below 10 euro cents kWh), thus I planned to do the laundry today.
Last year we went to lots of concerts, performances and various events, and I decided that this year I will do the same and remain on the cultural wavelength. Right now I have already booked six new events for us:
* Giants’ Wonderland on the Song Festival Ground (Ivanka already went there once with her dad, but now we are going once more with the entire family)
* “Louis XIV – the Sun King” in the Estonian National Opera
* “Stand-up comedy of Priit Pius and Kait Kall Midagi Ikka (Still something)” in the Center for Russian Culture
* “Stand-up comedy of Ott Sepp JOKKER (Joker)“, also in the Center for Russian Culture
* “Eesti Laul 2022 (Estonian song contest 2022)” final event in Saku Suurhall – we also have seats there
* we also have tickets for the theatrical piece “ADA. The story untold” for August, in Kiidjärve Manor Park
The most recent event that we attended was “Eesti otsib superstaari“, the superfinals (see the full article about it on OHMYGOSSIP entertainment site HERE).
The beginning of the year has indeed been very active! I also just recently completed the first new painting, from the series of 14 mouse paintings that were exhibited at the Estonian National Museum, based on these I will also publish a children’s book about finances “His Highness Mouse the First“. Below you can see a few of the paintings from the ERM exhibition, and images from today’s painting! About the fourteen previous mice series paintings you can read more from my art blog at ElishevaShoshana.com site HERE.
Once more, wishing an active, full of inspiration, success and adventures New Year for you all!
Hugs!??
NordenBladet – We woke at about ten today morning, since we stayed up late again last night. For the past two months we have been watching 2-3 different movies every night – documentaries as well as entertainment. The most recent documentaries happened to be extremely gloomy.
We watched from Youtube “The untold story. What happened to Otto Warmbier in North Korea?” (link to video). It was about the 22-year-old American student Otto Frederick Warmbier, who died six days after he was allowed back to the USA, then already being blind, deaf, with brain damage and in coma because of the torture, according to his parents. Yet another devastating movie was “Machine Gun Preacher” from TV1000 action, based on the book “Another Man’s War”, where Gerard Butler plays Sam Childers who until this day helps save children in South Sudan and Uganda (mainly war victims). Little children are not only victims of violence and abuse in war, armed groups recruit them forcefully and send them to commit ritual murders and to fight. Very gruesome was also Peter Kosminsky’s short drama series “The State” from National Geographic. It is about four British citizens that travel to Syria in order to join ISIS, and how, after joining the terror organization it is difficult for them to cope with reality.
Why do I write about this? Because our lives are better than Paradise! Ours and our children’s lives are PERFECT. I am so GRATEFUL and FORTUNATE for my life! And I so wish that there could be peace in the world! Let’s be kind to each other – to our close people as well as others! This is a beautiful thought to start the new year! ???
So, today we woke at around ten o’clock and I thanked the Almighty that I am able to wake up in a warm room held by a beloved person. I made breakfast (fried eggs with sweet pepper) and then I started doing laundry, cleaning the house and changing the sheets, so that the house would shine from cleanliness and so that the first day of the year could begin all tidy. Allan ploughed the snow, brought firewood, heated the house and began sorting and tidying his office.. Namely, he already promised two months ago that by the end of the year the office would be neat 😀
One day before the school holiday, Ivanka Shoshana caught a bad virus from school and she still is a bit ill, even her ear ached for some time. After that we all fell ill, we already thought we had caught Covid. We are all vaccinated, yet we had all the Omicrom symptoms – slight fever, running nose, sore throat, and even aching joints. We took the test at home, we also went to take the test at the doctor’s, from the nose. Luckily, the tests were negative.
Then I posted an article about traditions and activities of New Year’s Eve, that according to our forefathers bring luck and success – see HERE. Actually these are guidelines you could follow every day 🙂
Since Ivanka is still a bit ill, we decided to spend New Year’s Eve at home. Well, perhaps we would have stayed at home also in case she were alright. It is nice to be cosy indoors and at home! I still put on some makeup, I like to look good also at home for myself. I put on a retro-style Indiska dress, pearls, and Must de Cartier perfume! For supper I made super tasty puff pastry pizza. Yummmm… If you try it, you want more!
Here is the RECIPE! ??? It is very easy to prepare..
Tha base is yeast-puff pastry (Eesti Pagar), cover it with Felix ketchup. Then, to cover, chop 2-3 large tomatos, 2 average onions, 100g green olives (Figaro) and about 30-40g jalapenos (Santa Maria). Since in the fridge I already had tenderloin with wild garlic (Maks ja Moorits), then I chopped some meat (but the dish is also very good without meat!). This done, I added the spices. I use either Knorr or Maggi Spaghetti Bolognese spices and I add a lot of it (ca one and a half pack, ca 60-70g), then sprinkled some dill, thyme, and minced meat spices. For cover, I added sour cream and cheese. Trickle about half a pack 20% Alma sour cream over the plate pizza (unflavoured yogurt will also do), and then grate some cheese on top of it. I use two different ones – Valio Atleet and Valio Italian Forte Classico. If you wish, you can sprinkle also some seeds on top (sesame seeds or sunflower seeds). 40 minutes in the oven and it is ready!
Now we enjoy the evening! PS! We drink non-alco and gluten free GO Pilsner! I have decided to make myself a favour and give up alcohol for sometime. It is good for the body and for health.
Strong hugs to all of you, and I wish you a wonderful New Year! May all your good wishes come true! ???
NordenBladet – December has been snowy and beautiful like a fairy tale. All the stores are so lovely and shiny! Bringing home a Christmas tree is not a tradition for me (I feel sorry for the trees), yet in winter I decorate the trees in my garden with colorful balls of bird food. The one who takes care of the birds in winter will have birds at hand in spring and summer!
Ivanka Shoshana creates such beautiful ceramics and there is nothing as heart warming as a handmade present! I have always been fond of her style and the pottery that she creates with a bold and open hand. She keeps inventing new and interesting things – the most recent hit is tableware with a removable lid that is decorated with a big snowman or some other nice character created by herself. Super cool idea! This year she has created seven such exclusive containers, several of them with a special dedication. The snowman-knob containers created by her became even so popular that people from the ceramics club began to reproduce them massively. How cool is that? 🙂
We filled the present bags with several items of the handicraft clay ceramics created by Ivanka (containers, trays, bowls, vases, soap dishes), with care products from our Estonian origin family brand Elisheva & Shoshana (bathing salts, handicraft soaps, hair care products, scalp care sprays), with various games and sweets. For Estella we bought facial and hair care products and for Ivanka “The Loud House” comic book and coloring books. I really like social games (possibly more than the children like them…hahaa). I found the game “Nõiakatel” (The Witch Kettle) from one of the stores, it has the label on it: waving the wand, casting a spell, ACT, PRETEND, PRESENT! It seemed so much fun when I looked at it, no matter that it says it is for children at the age of 5+ years. I can’t wait to play it. I love all kind of parlor games. For the cat I bought a new “tree” for sharpening the claws, and for my parents as well as for Allan’s parents I also made gorgeous cakes.
For some reason it is the case with making presents that I begin to buy them as early as September-October and then it often happens that I can’t keep them to myself and hand them over earlier than usual. Actually I think that you should make presents when you feel like it, or when there is a need.
We spent our Christmas at Allan’s parents’ place in the city center and enjoyed good company along with homemade delicious dishes.
That’s all for this time! Have a nice end of the year! ?❄
(When you scroll down you will find lots of pictures from our Christmas menu and the presents we made)
NordenBladet – Crispy winter has been here for several weeks already. Last week it was so cold that the bathroom shower pipe was frozen for three days. Usually when that happens, I switch on the electric heater, yet how can you now do that when the power prices exceed all normalcy limits.On December the 7th electricity prices climbed up to 1000 euros per megawatt hour (see HERE). I gave up on the frozen pipes and instead we went to the SPA.
Fortunately you can now follow on NordenBladet the daily power prices thanks to our IT department (each day’s power prices HERE). I check the new data from the table every day to see when the electricity is less expensive, and I plan my more expensive activities to the time slices when the power prices are more suitable. I have saved a lot during the past month with this pattern! The power prices info table is available for all and free of charge – check it out on NordenBladet front page on your computer or from your phone.
Leaving the cold weather and the power prices aside, the weather outside is so nice – a perfectly beautiful winter weather, a snowy wonderland, peace and calm and balance! Living in the countryside one finds the stability which tends to be lost in the city! Life in the countryside IS REALLY SUPER AWESOME!!!! I have three deer or roe deer living here… I don’t exactly know which ones (HERE you can see how cute they are), who regularly come to my garden to eat (the best catch for them is apples that were taken to the compost).
On Thursday we went to see an operetta again in the Estonia concert hall. After blogging about the operetta “The Count of Luxemburg” (read HERE), where the count’s role was performed by opera soloist Reigo Tamm and after writing that although I am not the greatest operettas fan I found that one to be rather cool, Reigo dropped me an email saying that he recommends seeing also the Hungarian origin Austrian composer F. Lehar’s “The Merry Widow” (prices info: ticket 25.20 EUR). We went to see it and indeed it was great! The spectacle was spiced up with great artist work – the stage setup and fancy costumes. So sweet that there is feedback to my blog and suggestions what else to hear and see. Thanks! Now someone might recommend a few Nordic operettas to see in the Estonian National Opera, or in Finland, or in Sweden 🙂
After the operetta we stepped by the groceries in Solaris shopping center and took our car from their parking lot. 16.- euros for a few hours of parking! It seemed expensive, especially in comparison with the operetta’s rather inexpensive price.
So what else have we been up to? What else is happening?
Estella Elisheva went to Oscar’s birthday (in Lasnamäe Sniper’s Paintball Club to play paintball) and after that we all sat down together and enjoyed at Allan’s parents’ place the club sandwiches (I guess that was the name) that Allan’s brother had prepared. Never have I before eaten such a glorious and towering sandwich! A proper gourmet sandwich!
On Tuesday, December 7th was Margus’s 52nd birthday (Margus is my ex husband and father of my children). He met with the children on Tuesday and when bringing them back home I asked him in – I had prepared a surprise cake and the children gave their presents. Both had made a lovely greeting card, Estella gave him a necktie and Ivanka gave him her painting “Ivanka and Dad” that she herself painted and that was for half a year in the Estonian National Museum at our exhibition. Ivanka’s painting has already been the topic in my ElishevaShoshana.com blog HERE. This was the first time that we sat around the table all together, me, Allan, Margus, and the children.
In our house there is always some baking and cooking going on.. now also the gingerbread season has begun and December’s holiday season is adding volume. Those of us that have not yet bought the presents then you can buy Elisheva & Shoshana handicraft cosmetics and care products with a discount code until the end of December! Find the discount code and the purchase info HERE!
Estella made cheese and garlic coating and Ivanka decorated the gingerbreads. Now I start getting ready to go outside. Today is the grand final of “Eesti otsib superstaari” at Saku Arena hall!
NordenBladet – Saturday morning I drove to Tartu with Ivanka Shoshana and Allan, in order to fetch the last articles (ceramics, paintings) from the Estonian National Museum that had remained there from my exhibition in ERM and that didn’t make it to the luggage room of the car last time. After that we met with Marie and Raido and first of all went to Kebab Pizza, located in Narva Road 113 (it is owned by their neighbour, therefore it is probably not suitable for me to say that this place looked terrrrible, icccc :D). Nevertheless, the pizzas were large, inexpensive, and they tasted very good.
Stomachs full, we drove to Kvartal shopping centre and went to V SPA on the fourth floor (Riia Road 2, Tartu), where we took the Deluxe family ticket (64 EUR), including the water world with four saunas and a sports room, the salt world and the sauna world. Four wonderful hours! I can’t wait to go there again, delightful indeed. After enjoying the SPA we shortly visited my younger sister Hanna-Liisa and then left Ivanka there for the evening and night, we then continued on to Vorbuse to visit Marie and Raido. We were all rather tired, thus the evening’s events were just one movie and a few games of poker, as it has become a tradition for us (you can read about our poker and fun nights also HERE).
On Sunday we drove back to Tallinn. As always, we preferred to drive via Imavere, Kabala, Türi, Kehra and Rapla. We got back home by dinner time and then I started preparing supper. I now have a completely NEW SYSTEM! No more harmful E-number food additives! Most of all I watch out that I don’t use food that contains preservatives (read about preservatives which should definitely be avoided, HERE). While eating out we do not follow this rule, yet on a daily basis when I shop for food I don’t buy the types of bread and cheese that are full of preservatives. I made myself a long list of the bad E-number food additives, and whenever shopping, I follow this list very closely before adding anything to cart. I am a regular client of e-Selver. It is easy and convenient to shop online and read the product label there, and once you select a product it will remain available under the “My products” menu, so that the following purchase already goes faster and without carefully learning the product description. Under special goods selections they have categories such as lactose free, gluten free, sugar free, vegan and eco, but I would really wish that they also had the category preservative free!
I prepared Maks & Moorits “Tenderloin steak with wild garlic”. I stewed the meat nice and long in the oven, since the weekend’s power prices were better than usual (electricity’s real time prices are accessible via NordenBladet’s app sitewide, you can conveniently FOLLOW HERE). The meat turned out delicious. I also offered fried potatoes, peas, and fresh Grüne Fee green salad with sour cream. The drink this time was primrose tea – certainly from nature and gathered by myself. Primrose’s great medicinal properties are described HERE. Yummmm..
Monday was the 22nd which means it was Allan’s & Helena-Reet’s day! We celebrate it every month on the 22nd as long as it becomes a public holiday (which means forever, hahaaa..) As has been our tradition that day – I always prepare lasagne or whipped cream cake (or perhaps even both!) and Allan brings me a new flowerpot (or cut flowers). ???
Yesterday we went to Keila cultural centre where Comedy Estonia performed with the stand-up show “Autumn Tour” (Sügistuur), ticket: 15.90 EUR. On stage were (the exact line-up): in the first part Daniel Veinbergs, Claus Mootse, Roger Andre and Mikael Meema and in the second part Rauno Kuusik, Aleksandr Popov, Karl-Alari Varma and Ari Matti Mustonen. The show was hosted by Sander Õigus.
The hall was full of people (considerably younger audience as compared to the show “NUTA või NAERA” a week earlier, which I wrote about HERE). For me it was something new that in the middle of the show people would drink beer and cognac and other drinks and the host of the show would calmly joke about it. People who were late kept entering and they, too, were automatically integrated in the show. Super good improvisation ability! I took a picture of the stage but as the lighting was quite weak then I had to draw a face to Sander myself (like Mister Bean drew for Whistler’s mom in the movie “Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie”). The night was entertaining and got a great ending with a photo session where the performers posed with the visitors. So, for preliminary info for the future visitors of Autumn Tour, you will be able to take photos also afterwards ??? hahaaa.. Just before us several professional poses were struck by the always merry and energetic influencer and TV3Play celebrity baby blogger Kristina Suuroja-Pärtelpoeg, who was visiting the show with her television hostess friend Brigitte Susanne Hunt.
Anyway… the show was fun, the atmosphere was relaxed (read: moderately vulgar). Estonian top comedians are super friendly and fun and just as I got back home I wished to get tickets to a new Comedy Estonia event. Next time it is already Ari Matti Mustonen’s “Flamingo”, with warm-up by Mikael Meema.
NordenBladet – To start with, HAPPY INTERNATIONAL MEN’S DAY, DEAR MEN!! What would we, women, do without you?! We just wouldn’t do without you! 🙂 As always, I do not know where to begin with the blog and what to leave out of the story, because a lot that can be reflected on is piling up. It would be easier to blog each day separately… But I will try to bring to you the highlights of the week.
MONDAY—we made a cool app for the Estonian and Finnish NordenBladet site—a synopsis of electricity prices: ELECTRICITY PRICE GUIDE.
I promise that for those of us that love to economize, the electricity price guide is a game changer. Estonian electricity prices are lately very high and sometimes they are so high that it makes sense to consume less at those times (i.e. it’s not worth to cook meat in the oven for three hours and to do the laundry another time). A good example is the 15th November comparison for Estonian and Finnish electricity prices. The difference is so big! (see below the comparative table)
Our table is very easy to understand (like the traffic lights, showing good prices with the green light, medium prices (10-20 euro cents per kWh) with the amber light and the red colour shows prices that are 20+ euro cents per kWh. The table displays today’s as well as tomorrow’s electricity prices and info is visible on the web page and also from the cell phone. The more considerate use of electric power is nature-friendly, so that in any case it is reasonable to compare electricity prices and to consume at a suitable time. Read more about the app here: ELECTRICITY PRICE LIVE.
Talking about economizing, I would like to mention the Scandinavian Vogue that is issued six times a year. I like their business concept – the magazine can only be preordered, thus there will be no edition lying on the shelf in the store. I preordered the first two volumes (which have been published thus far). Wonderful work that has been done by Martina Bonnier and her team of editors. With every breath you feel the haute couture and the quality in the magazines as well as on the web. Fingers crossed – I hope my daughters will be able to become sufficiently successful so that one day our tiny Nordic family brand Elisheva & Shoshana will find a spot for ourselves between the covers of the magazine.
TUESDAY—Marketing of the electricity market price guide
The alarm went off early-early so that we could take Ivanka to school, and I was tired-tired, because on Monday we had pushed the electricity prices observation table live and the testing of this was still going on late at night. Even today the written code is still only just a few steps down the road and there’s a plan to create many extras (for example also the price with VAT) and also we plan to prepare a gas price guide. Since there was great interest and lots of feedback (well, it indeed is a necessary tool!), then we also plan to create a new improvement so that bloggers, webpage admins or anyone actually who is interested, could display this electricity price table on their pages. The entire Tuesday was spent marketing the app.
Oh, gosh, something very odd also happened on Tuesday.. Namely, when I was driving Ivanka back home from school, my ex husband texted me while I was on the road, and due to this I became so upset that, you know what: I GOT LOST. I took the wrong turn on the road that I have been using for nine years from day to day, and kept driving in an emotional state of affect until I was 40 km away from home. Then I stopped the car, called Allan, calmed down, switched on „Waze” and got back home. Not possible only in Russia, possible also with Helena-Reet.
⬇⬇⬇ This is what I look like early in the morning 😀
WEDNESDAY—Bernese mountain dog and comedy show „NUTA või NAERA” (sob or smile).
My previous neighbour’s (yes, the same woman that makes the wonderful Napoleon cake) dog had puppies a few months ago ? . They are crazy cute. Already in 2012 I planned to get a dog.. I even posted two blogs about that: We will take a dog VOL1 (this article is available only in Estonian) with the subtitle „Why do we need a dog, which dog, and how to get the husband to agree”and VOL2 (this article is available only in Estonian) with the subtitle „preparations”. Mhmmm.. So far we do not have a dog yet. The main reason for this is actually that the dog will be binding. When there are a lot of business trips it won’t be reasonable to keep a pet. The cat would generally be pretty much OK on its own for a few days. Anyway, she still has two male puppies left and so I simply had to check them out „just in case”. 🙂
There are plenty of cultural events happening. For Wednesday we had planned to visit Keila culture house where Henrik Normann’s jubilee performance named „NUTA või NAERA” took place and where he shared the stage with the brilliant Brigitte Susanne Hunt. Brigitte is almost like the young Anu Saagim… actually I don’t know if it is proper to say so, because Anu Saagim does not appear to be more than 35 years of age and she is probably invincible when it comes to acting boldly. Okay, let us leave this be. The point is that Brigitte is fine, enterprising and very cool and it is even inspiring to see how energetically she goes about the entertainment scene and how confidently she is doing her thing. And Normann indeed is worthy of the praise! Though it sometimes may seem that he cannot leave behind his Maie-character, this probably is mostly just a little whining remark on my side. Comedy is the most difficult among other genres. Well wouldn’t you try it yourself to come up with good jokes and make the audience laugh for several years.. Ain’t easy. The atmosphere of the event was very friendly and the evening was a great one. By the way, to all fans of Normann, I recommend his recently published book „Tee nalja, Normann!” (Make jokes, Normann!).
THURSDAY—A day for the family and for the children.
While I myself am now also observing the daily electric power prices, then in the beginning of the week with the higher prices I did not wish to do the laundry. However, yesterday we already had a huge pile of laundry, and with yesterday’s more suitable prices I started doing all the laundry. I refilled the washing machine several times, cleaned, praised my man, stroked my cat, and dealt with the children. For several years already Ivanka and I have been attending an individual clay class with a private teacher, and it is a pure pleasure to watch her become more skilled in the craft. In our family we highly value handicraft. Currently, for many hours we have been making ceramic presents for our friends. These same beautiful clay containers as yet work in progress are viewable HERE. They are cool, aren’t they? I myself am such a fan of those snowman-knob containers designed by Ivanka.
FRIDAY—International Men’s Day
In our house celebrations on all kinds of holidays are held in high regards, because we truly enjoy dining and on a good occasion we also enjoy the drinks 😀 hahaaaa. Today the children didn’t go to school, Estella Elisheva has had distance learning lessons for two weeks and we also let Ivanka stay home today. We had a nice long sleep, prepared a nice breakfast (buckwheat porridge, egg, olives, fresh cucumber, herbs and sour cream) and then I went to the dentist. For the second time already I went to the Unimed Clinic, to Jelena Jegorova, and I must admit that she is the first ever dentist in my life that does not miss out on the anesthesia part.. It is a rather different emotion to be seeing the dentist when you need not feel the pain from drilling the teeth. After that I came back home, with half of my face completely numb, and began laying the Men’s Day table. I cooked a crispy chicken fillet, pasta, and as a side dish offered canned peas, cottage cheese and tomato-sour cream salad. For dessert I made a juicy curd-whipped cream cake with abundant almond and banana coating.
And to conclude today’s blog, once more: LONG LIVE MEN! It is great that you exist, I would happily celebrate your day every day 🙂
Hugs-kisses! Until next time!
And for a suitable mood a nice song for all men: Yaki-Da – I Saw You Dancing
NordenBladet – Lately I have been a loyal client of Piletilevi (i.e. a consumer of culture). Be it theatre, operetta, musical, concert, stand-up show, cabaret night or a talk show. It is good to see what’s new in the world, to get out of the home-and-work routine, and I like to spend quality time with Allan. We try to find time for ourselves every week (discover new restaurants, SPA-s, exhibitions, hiking tracks, etc).
In the first week of November we went to the Estonian National Opera to see Franz Lehar’s operetta “The Count of Luxembourg” (info about prices: entrance for one is 38.90 EUR). The producer and artist is Thomas Mika and in the role of the count was the amazing Reigo Tamm. Reigo is definitely familiar for many of us from the TV-series “Alo” where he played Rein’s son Ahti. The opera hall was completely full and the night was great! Though I am perhaps not the greatest fan of operettas, I must admit that this one was very good.
Last weekend included a visit to club Vatican, and Father’s Day.
Saturday in Vatican Tallinn (Pärnu Road 3, 10143 Tallinn).
Since we really enjoyed the cabaret evening that we spent in the restaurant Mermaid in Viru Hotel (read HERE about the visit to the variety theatre), the event including a show as well as a dinner, then I tried to find something similar, with à la carte menu as well as entertainment. This turned out to be “A frank talk show with the Timmers“, that was held in Tammsaare park in club Vatican. I was also a bit curious… I wanted to know what this kind of a talk show would look like. 😀
The evening with entrance (ticket for one 25.90 EUR) + dishes was rather expensive, but this is yet the way entrepreneurs earn their money. As Kirsti herself put it: the stones(crystals) that you buy with a high price from the esoteric shop and then gently stroke won’t bring wealth to anyone, it still is just the work that does. So it goes… It’s true, I believe so myself. Kirsti and her daughter Merily definitely are industrious – they are good witches, psychologists, as well as public speakers (no need to mention the experience with TV and radio broadcasts). Fortunately the talk show didn’t end up being too mystical and commercial (i.e. let us find a problem for everyone and then you are welcome to let me help solve the problem for some money 😀 hahaaa).
What delicious dishes did we eat?
For an appetizer we chose Buffalo chicken wings with blue cheese sauce (9EUR), a salad with grilled chicken (10EUR). For the main course the both of us took beef tenderloin (21EUR one main course), that included potato au gratin, parsnip puree, caramelized onion, cherry tomato and chimichurri. And for dessert salted caramel cheesecake (5EUR/pc). For drinks, a bottle of Cava Clos Amador Brut with the night’s price 35EUR/bottle. At first, looking at the menu it seemed kind of “ordinary and boring” but the dishes were delicious! I recommend it! A masterpiece was the sauce that went with the chicken wings!! Yummmm!!
So, once more, a nice and successful night!
Father’s Day came in five acts this year and it already began on Saturday.
Act One: Ivanka Shoshana (13) spent the entire Saturday with her father. They visited several exhibitions, Vesivärava Cafe, and the cinema. Saturday is usually 3-4 times a month the day of Ivanka and Dad. Margus comes and picks her up from my place at around ten-eleven, and then brings her back home at about four-five.
Act Two: Sunday morning at home. Since Allan plays a big role in Estella’s and Ivanka’s life now already more than a year, then the girls made him a nice Father’s Day card. Allan or Uncle-Allan as they call him, is like a bonus-dad, an extra grown-up in their lives. I laid the beautiful table that did not miss a home-made cookie cake. (PS! Hahaaa.. take a look at the hungry face of the cat on the window, waiting to be let inside… life in the countryside…)
Act Three: Estella Elisheva (15) drew her dad a beautiful Father’s Day card and for half a day cooked a chocolate-brownie cake. Allan went to the shop twice so that there would be the RIGHT flour and the RIGHT decoration. She adjusted each decoration several times because when she sees her dad so scarcely (she meets with her dad 3-4 times a month on Sundays for a few hours), then it was essential that the cake looked absolutely perfect. The cake did look beautiful and tempting. Estella placed it on a clay plate made by Ivanka, and began waiting for Margus. They had all Sunday planned (cinema, etc). Usually they go to play padel or table tennis, and have lunch (mostly they eat in Ülemiste Lido).
Act Four: Me, Allan and Ivanka went to Mõigu to wish my dad a happy Father’s Day. My dad, too, got a nice home-made cookie cake and at school Ivanka had made her grandpa a splendid card. We went rather promptly, because my mom lately gets very nervous about everything. If not, she would soon be “Gosh, what shall I put on the table” and “Jesus what my hair-do looks like”, “Ohh, I cannot clean the rooms enough until that time” etc. As there is always something to put on the table (we also take sth along) and the hair-do is posh and the home is always tidy, then we spared her of the excess nervousness.
Act Five: We also went to congratulate Allan’s father. Also his dad got a homemade cake – mille-feuille Napoleon cake. This time the honour of making the cake did not belong to me. I ordered it from a good previous neighbour because she does the world’s best mille-feuille. Several times I have been at her place, “practising” the making of the cake, so maybe one fine day I will become as good at making it. 🙂
NordenBladet – School holiday is half way through. Estella Elisheva is indoors practicing the violin and also watching movies from morning till night, I do not allow her to go outside to train, until she is completely well again, because last time when she played football outside during a storm, she caught a proper cold. Ivanka Shoshana treasures her newly attained “The Loud House” coloring books like sacred relics and abstains from colouring the pictures. Today I went with her to the ceramics class and she made a nice named piece of ceramics that she plans to give away as a present.
I am taking with Ivanka Shoshana (13) individual private ceramics classes for many years already. She values handicraft and after our exhibition in the Estonian National Museum (read HERE and HERE), where, for all of Estonia, also the best of her handmade ceramics was displayed, she is putting an even greater effort in the activity. I like her artistic signature. Her ideas are very unique, exciting and original. I like the way how creatively she approaches each piece. In our home, also for several years, besides the ceramics made by me, we are also enjoying the pottery that she has created (clay plates, coffee mugs and small bowls). In today’s class she started preparing a present! What could be cooler than a handmade and named present! Today a great multifunctional container was made, its lid is decorated with a snowman-knob and a dedication TO OTTO FROM IVANKA! I can’t wait to see what colour she will paint it after burning it! Though I have not been very busy adding entries, still you can read more about creating ceramics and about our paintings from our handicraft blog that is accommodated by our family brand “Elisheva & Shoshana” web address –> ElishevaShoshana.com.
Arriving home, a DPD courier was waiting for me, bringing to my door the package I had ordered from MyLook. Lately I have been completing almost all my shopping and payments online – it is simply so convenient. A few clicks and the products are in the “shopping cart”, paid for, and on their way. Since competition between the web stores is tense, then, thank God, the goods are arriving more and more quickly. I ordered several face care products (my current favourite is Lancôme), shampoos, lotions and soaps! Yes… we do not merely use Elisheva & Shoshana handmade soaps and shampoos – first, because we also want to try out products of other brands, and second, because the skin needs a change. Using the same product all over infinitely is not good 🙂 From flowery scents I really like: gardenia, magnolia, jasmine, vanilla, lily of the valley, and peony.
And now about the renovation! Had I known that renovating is so much fun, I would have done it more often! As I wrote HERE, then I have decided that I will renovate on my own – how difficult can the painting of the walls be, huh?! Hahaaa… and it is not nuclear physics! The aim is to refresh children’s rooms and the vestibule – new wall paint, new big closets, new lamps, new curtains or shades. Currently we are in the place where we have painted the walls and assembled the closets… Now the lamps and shades need to be purchased and we need to discuss which painting will go exactly where.
Now how does one then renovate on one’s own? Here are my tips:
Tip #1: turn to those that know better! Therefore, I turned to Allan (who probably masters all things in this world) and said that I am about to renovate and am wondering where to begin. I wanted calm and plain paint instead of the current wallpaper. Did you know that you can paint the wallpaper? It is not even necessary to tear the wallpaper down. You will need: masking tape (for example MAALRITEIP VIBAC 219 38MM*50M – price ca 2-2.50 EUR), to cover the spots that you do not want to paint (plugs, base molding, etc), then two rolls for painting, a long roll handle, a large underlay for the roll, and wall paint. I bought 2 ten-litre mat colour Sadolin Bindo 3 white paint (cost of one can is ca 40-50 EUR), that we had blended with a different colour in Bauhof. You choose the amount, tell the merchant that you need a different tone, and they mix the extra colour into your paint can without service fee. The paint menu cards are available in every store near the paints section.
Tip #2: Covering the floor with newspapers as I had initially intended (for the sake of economizing, or perhaps even recycling) is not a good idea. Buy a proper large roll of broad kraft paper – it is inexpensive, will stick well on that same place and afterwards it is easy to clean up.
Tip #3: Taping must be cautious, since this is the most difficult part of the renovation and will take the longest. Once all the edges have been well taped, the painting becomes easy! Do not forget to carefully take the tape off as soon as you finish painting, because the tape will stick to the paint later and may tear the paint off! Heh, I am already talking like a professional painter 😀
Tip #4: Put three layers of paint on the wall, then the result will be smooth and beautiful and you may be sure that the wallpaper pattern will not show! Should the wall have little holes from nails od perhaps small cracks, it would be wise to fill those beforehand with white repair express plaster and putty shovel (or using own hand). Use for example: PENOSIL AKRÜÜL STANDARD VALGE 280ML (will cost a few euros). With the big roll paint in the center of the wall, however, the places that need more attention (edges of the wall and around the plugs), those would need to be painted with a smaller roll.
Tip #5: This one is probably the most important of all tips.. should your hand get tired (mine got tired quite soon ?), then ask your sweetheart if he would be kind enough to lend you a hand and proceed with the painting work 😀 Using this tip, we got our walls painted really fast! Hahaaaa.. We didn’t even wait very long to let the paint dry, and it wasn’t even necessary, because the paint dried quickly. After the first layer we let the paint dry just an hour, after the second layer ca 5 hours. We added the third layer on the same day in the evening, and the renovation of the vestibule as well as the children’s rooms was completed in just one day! Luckily the paint doesn’t have a strong smell, we were able to use the room already one day later.
We ordered from JYSK two large and massive closets (VEDDE 4-door closet, 219x197x53cm, total cost 798.- EUR). Again we thought, no outside help – we ourselves assembled also the closets. Well yes, the details that needed to be assembled were a million, but I must say, I have quite the head for this task – I am a good “map reader”. One closet came with a broken panel, but luckily they had a spare one in stock and we could replace it with a new one. We assembled two closets in one day! A cool experience! We get all kind of cooperation going well with Allan, any work and any undertaking just seems to pass effortlessly in our hands! 🙂
To finish it up, a few pictures from today’s dinner that I made: fresh salad, grated beet, mashed potatos and meat sauce. As always, it was very delicious 🙂
Today’s blog is already getting very long, so the training plans and the depression topic that I mentioned last time will remain for the next time.
