A bitter day
It´s your bosom possum here again and Rachel I am so pleased you are such a bubbly personality, you make us all feel the warmth of Australia.
I think that for a moment I have written so much about my home country that it´s time to talk about something else. So I give you a break at least for a day. Some of you have already hinted you would like me to be more personal, which is fair enough.
At the moment I work as a Project Manager for a small independent company, before I started with them I was a Communication Officer for one of local joint municipal development organization. I also have been an entrepreneur for many years. As you can see, I am a working girl. Also I would once more like to say how pleased I am to be able to practice my English with you. I need to use English in my job and always the text I need to produce is work related, so reflecting... let me say how wonderful it is to write something else and at the same time to polish one´s ablitity.
The man in the photo is my husband doing his favourite past time hobby raking.
Marianna I glad you talked about Ingrid Bergman, were you a ware that he died last July? Antonio so nice to hear you have such a good memories from Finland, I liked so much the way you described “trembling lights on graves”, it sounded just right.
Kirsti you mentioned Finnish Swedish Heritage Day, I am glad you told everyone about it, naturally I remembered the day. Chandra: I was born on a small farm a long time ago. We had some cows, a horse and of course domestic animals: a dog and cats. I have lovely memories from those early days. I and my sister (Rachel can I say: me and my sister) had our own cows we had to take care off daily; milking was a chore we had to do during school holidays. I will try to do some research work about farming and come back to this subject later on.
Religion you also wanted me to talk about. Faith is a difficult subject, but yes I will be talking about Finnish religion issues as well.
Today is the day one hopefully can get comfort from faith; I chose a title “a bitter day” for a reason. We have had a very unusual incident today in Finland, a shooting at school. Several people are dead, a sad day.
In spite of of the tragic occurrence life goes on, that the way of life. The good news is that 59 000 new babies were born in Finland last year. Finnish mothers have a very good maternity leave and fathers also are eligible for time off when the baby is born (Rachel, please tell us all the different usage of the words of and off) .
Do you know how many new babies are born in your country yearly?
The photo below is taken during our short winter days (kaamos time) by my daughter Katri.
Comments
Hi, Leila. Wasn't it Ana Paula who mentioned Bergman? Ingmar. Not Ingrid. Katri's photo is lovely, say thank you from me to her. When I was five I also lived in a farm, with a couple of cows, some sheep, one horse, one dog, two cats, two pigs, sheep and hen. I was at my grandparents' and I remember I churned milk to make butter that was sold in town.
Hi Leila! Italy has one of the lowest birth rate in Europe. Thanks to the recent immigration the rate has slightly gone up. A maternity leave lasts five months in Italy. Plus, Italian law also provides a number of rights for working fathers. We celebrated All Saints’ day on November 1st. Have a nice evening!
Dear Leila, This is the first time I am writing a comment to your blog,but your name and country Leila from finland is familiar for me since I have been reading student and teacher bloggs. In BBC World service I just read about Fatal shooting at one of secondary school in Finland.It is a tragic incident and the victims are very young innocent children.My heart felt condolence to the victims families. Nowadays this kind of tragic incidents occur everywhere in the world almost everyday.We have to pray god every day for world peace.As I am hindu(religion),I celebrate Deepavali(some people call dewali)which is a major Hindu festival that is very significiant in India,Malaysia,singapore and Srilanka.It is also called the festival of lights.It falls on the preceding day of the new moon in november.This year it falls on november 9th which this friday.On the deepavali day Hindus wear new cloths, visit temples, offer sweets and fruitss to their deities,share snacks and sweets to friends, relativesand poor people.In India different state celebrate this festival for different reasons.One of the reason:It is celebrated in commemorationof the destruction of the demon called Narakasura by lord Krishna. But the main concept of all the stories are same.O.k Leila I have to go now. my kind regards.
Hi Leila I read in internet the new about the shooter in the school. Something bad is happening in our modern society, starting with how easy is to get a gun. But life goes on...and babies are a proof of that. In Chile the peak of newborn babies was in 1992, with 292.000. Since then, the number of births is decreasing every year and in 2003 it was 234.000. I didn't find more recent data. Our birth rate is nowadays 1,9 children per woman. In other field, your husband only need a white beard to look like Santa... Good Bye
What's happened in Finland today ? Normally your country is very quite !!
Hi Leila. Beautiful photos. I feel sorry for the shooting. I've just heard of it watching the news and as we rarely have news from Finland, it immediately reminded you. I understand what you feel. Last weekend I was happily playing with rackets and playing football when I saw a violent scene at the beach and I was shocked with that because it's not common here, not in my city. A guy had robbed a couple and the locals started running behind him (here people use to react angrily to the thieves and if they are caught, poor of them!)but suddenly the criminal showed a gun and luckely the police arrived and the policemen were so quick jumping over him. One of them put his foot over his head. I cannot forget this scene. I had nightmares at night. I would need a search to answer you about the number of newbabies per year 'cause I'm not sure. I'd like to thank Naheed, with your permission, for what she has written in the Stephen's column. Naheed I'm honoured to be your friend (the best part of this website is that we can communicate through the pages). I send a kiss to you from Brazil and to every friend from here. I'll celebrate 1 year reading this website very soon. Good night Leila and friends.
Hi Leila :-) You said your husband's hobby is raking? Wow! I could accept it being one of his pastimes but hobby? Gracious, no! In the picture he doesn't look so unhappy so that he have to make raking his hobby. You mentioned about your pets: a dog and cats. In Poland most people prefer dogs, which are thought to be very ineligent animals. Personaly I think that cats very often show higher intelligence than dogs. Lots of people think they are stupid because they are very independant animals and that's why they are difficult to be trained. From my own experience I can say that black cats are the cleverest. It's difficult to explain why, but, believe me, it's true. By for now and until next time.
Hello Leila! Oh it was nice to know more about your work. For sure you are a working girl :-). I don´t know the number of babies who have born in Brazil recently. However, according to some researches this number has been decreasing during the years. By the way Leila, thanks for the pictures. The sunset picture is amazing! Good night, see ya, Ana Paula.
Yes, that is the bitter day with Finland when school shooting day happened. I would like to express my sympathy with you and your country too. Please keep writting as the way you sharing with us your view of life. Cheers!
Hi Leila, I have read on the local media of Taiwan, newspaper and TV, that Finland had a massacre after a hootings at a small town school, I hope it's a bitter day instead of bitter days. May God bless Finland and the whole world.
Terve Leila, I read about the shooting incident in Finland in today's newspaper. It was shocking and sad, I pray that may God keep us all in His safety. Seeing the photo of your husband I can say that he is a good natured person. The photo taken by Katri reminded me of Adriana's photo of the moon, It's lovely! As for the birth of babies in Pakistan per year, it's 27.74 births/1,000 population (estimated), Total fertility rate: 4 children born/woman and Fertility decline rate: 1.8 children per woman per decade. I will be looking forward to reading about farming. Naheed
Hei leila...I'm so sorry about the Finnish news...I've just read about the student that killed at least 8 people in a school in southern Finland...It is also said that he had talked about what he was going to do in the internet! Horrible! What can lead a young man to do something like that? Some years ago something similar happened in a school in Argentina. The shooter was a 15 year-old boy who was apparently mistreated by his father that also considered him incapable of doing things right. He was withdrawn and used to be alone most of the time because his classmates used to mock at him. It is said that he had told his partners to stop treating him badly or he would killed them all. One morning he entered the classroom with his father’s gun and started shooting to his peers. He killed 3 students and many others were seriously injured. No doubt that he could have had psichological problems but his classmates’ rejection could have had something to do with his reaction too. Adolescents are emotionally vulnerable to criticism and can be easily harmed or hurt…When things like this happen I can’t avoid thinking What could have been done in order to avoid it? Many things, but now is too late…As you said “life must go on”… As regards your question on birth rate in other countries, In Argentina about 700.000 babies are said to be born every year, a lot isn’t it? I think this has a lot to do mainly with the fact that Argentina is an undeveloped country. It is not at all surprisingly to find families with more than 10 children. Sometimes the poorer they are, the more children they have, a real pitiful situation!…By the way thanks for sharing your family pictures with us! Your daughter is very pretty and your husband seems to be a ver good man, I guess that from the expression of his eyes…You have a wonderful family! The picture of the kaamos time is simple magic!!Have a nice day!
Hi Leila, I wondered why you always tell us Swedish and Finnish name? Are both of them official? Another thing I wanted to talk about is that your country seems so "mature" to me compering to our country. I really like zyour writing, but I agree with others that it rather a type of "work" writing. Bye and continue writing about such interesting topics as religion and politics I really liked it. Jola
Hi liela,Your husband looks like Santa Claus, red hat,red coat, friendly face. say hello for me to him please.
Hi Leila, your husband looks like the Santa claus. red cap, red coat, and friendly face, say hello to him for me please.
Hello Leila! All photos look really finnish in every inch! Beautiful, thanks. Do you know that I thought long that I was the oldest `student´ on the page here? Then, you´ve come in March and started to be my favourite immedialely.With Kirsty I do know only you two Finns on this space. Now once again (as at Adriana where I should once use giggle instead of laugh) I have to correct my formulation about that Bergman film to be precise. Actually, I was only able to distinguish that I wasn´t listening swedish but not to understand what was in film spoken in English. Do you have in Finnland the clok changing event?
Hello,Lelia I watched the tragic incident on TV last night and with your permission,I would love to say that my heart goes out to the victim's families. Even though you have a finger in many pies you seem to have laid-back attitude about life.I wonder what makes you keep on going and so confidence and enjoy your days. Thank you very much for your another wonderful post, and could you give my respect to your family? have a good day!
Hello, Leila! I feel as though I already had a chance to meet you and to get to know you, a feeling dating back from the time when we blogged with Naheed, before you started as a BBC blogger. I can say that I know about Finland as much as I have seen in the travels on the Croatian television. The thing which struck me the most, especially being the girl born and bread on the Balkans, is that the women in Finland are the heads of their families. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that men rely completely on women's decision and advice, wouldn't it? It's totally awesome to see the winter's sunset or is it sunrise in Finland, even if it is in the picture!
Hi Leila, You are really a working girl as you say. And I think too, you have a high level of English knowledge. Coming to the sad news; for a moment I was afraid because yesterday, listening to the BBC in the car I heard the speaker talking about it and mentioning it occurred at some kilometres North of Helsinki somewhere called Jokela*. My friends live in Ohkola. With the pronunciation I was not sure I had heard correctly so I texted my wife who made a phone call to them. It is really sad. Because of that event I have learnt that Finland is the third more armed nation in the world. * I know now it is Jokela because in the meantime I have read the news. In fact Ohkola is not so far frome there.
I wonder what's the matter with people that doing such things!!! They should go to the psychologist. I feel sorry for murdered families. Your husband looks like nice man. I've no idea how many new babies were born in my country. I must say our maternity leave isn't such profitable. Regards Majka
It was a really sad event with the shooting schoolboy yesterday. Never did I think I would get news about Finland in a BBC LE blog before the news on TV.
I come from pakistan in holland. I am a student of Euro Port Business School.I read it what you write.It is so nice Perfession you chose. I like it
this is very beautiful scene u know i love it
Hi Leila: I had a problem with this page, I couldn´t see it complete in my computer because.. (do not laugh) when I arrived to your husband photograph, the explorer has an error and I cannot continue to use it.Now I could read the rest in another PC. Very good photographs of your country. Sorry for the tragedy. I am also a working girl, but I am single.
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