Need a job?

I recently  had adverised here for a highly competent individual to join my team, with even a share in the business. Not a single application! :-)
job
Now I need something simpler. I need a driver cum secreatary wih some computer and human skills, for about about 20 hours a week. A student wanting to get some extra money to support himself or herself?
Ou
I have had about 60 applications, mainly from Finns in Oulu, retired people, students and a few really wanting to get into the job market.

Do apply quickly if you are interested. I will be interviewing this week.

Finnish TV interview about Me!

I am pleased to give you two links to a TV interview by Helena Lehtimäki of Laureus University of Applied Sciences, Espoo, about me. I really enjoyed myself! It was aired in a new TV station called CaringTV which is to motivate us older folk to do creative things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEwPv_6U0X8&feature=youtu.be

http://youtu.be/yEwPv_6U0X8

Helena and her team have gone a great job. Thank you Helena.

What is a great honour?

Yesterday I received in the post a copy of the Finn-Brits Magazine for Spring 2014 which is a special issue which celebrates 35 years of the existence of this Society to help the Finns understand the English Language and British Culture.

The magazine contains a feature about me and my work as an artist, author, but is mainly centred around the fact that I was Chairperson of the English Club of Oulu, plus being a teacher fort Finnish children to retain the English language when they returned back to Finland after they had spent some time in an English speaking country.

This is part of the History of the Finn-Brits Society. I am greatly honoured to be the subject of this article.

Hope you enjoy it.

If you are interested to interact with Finns and help them to improve their English Language skills, you will find a chapter of the Society near you. Join in - it is fun as they have some wonderful programmes around the year.

No job was too small!

When we came to Finland, both Jacob and I were unemployed. Jacob started to look around. I, too, was looking for something I liked to do. 

I did a few weeks in the Oulu University hospital with my nursing background. This was not feasible as I had to look after my entire brood (Indian style)!

Then I saw that the English Cub of Oulu was intending to run English classes for Finnish children. I contacted them. 

The Club Secretary, Pirkko Böhm, asked whether Jacob would do a talk about Indian culture.

1984 Painting of Mother Teresa by Annikki

We constructed an exhibition of all our very rich collections we had brought from India - coins, stamps, antique lamps, my paintings of birds and antiques, batiks, books,  encyclopaedias, magazines and other items from our collection. I myself did the one above one of Mother Teresa. 

Jacob and Annikki (1984)

All these were put on display, and I even dressed in a sari! Jacob dressed in his traditional Kerala clothes of the mundu with jubba! [I could not dress in a sari these days as I have outgrown all my blouses! :-)]

It was a great talk as Jacob is a very good professional speaker. He held the audience spellbound. He cleared up many misconceptions about India, but he did call a spade a spade! 

The exhibition was well received. I was pleased with my effort to bring Indian culture to Oulu, my home town. And we made life-long friends.

My English Club English Class students.

Another of my English Club English Class students.

As a result of this the English Club of Oulu, which is primarily an organistion to help Finns in Oulu improve their English, asked me to run classes for Finnish children who return from abroad so that they could preserve their English knowledge. Although it was just one hour a week, I did it with great gusto for several years. I had tapes, children's books and I used my own art to teach the chidden. I enjoyed it and I think the children also did.

In the process Jacob and I became Lifetime Members of the English Club, the status we still hold today! 

(Being a Lifetime Member is a good investment as you do not have to pay the membership year after year, you are locked in at a very low price, and the Club has the benefit of getting a larger sum which they can use when in the early stages of its existence!)

Elected as the Chairperson of the English Club of Oulu.
I am holding the gavel!

Later, because of the contribution of both Jacob and me to the running of the English Club of Oulu, I was elected as the Chairperson of the Club. 

During my time as Chairperson we organised many events including a fortnightly talk in English about various issues. Jacob did a wonderful talk about the freedom of the press in India. This was a very controversial period as the fatwa on Salman Rushdie (who was 3 years junior to Jacob from Jacob's school in Bombay, India) was issued at that time!

The moral of this story is that we made some wonderful friends due to a participation in the local clubs of the city, which has lasted us till today. 

It is another part of our Findians Love Story with the citizens of Oulu!

The reason for moving to Finland?

Many people have asked both Jacob and me why we moved to Finland in 1984?

It is difficult to give a straight answer, but there were several contributing factors, but none of them were individually strong enough to the decision. 

There was another reason which we discovered much later!

The first reason was the terrible time I went through being subjected to a false charge by the Bangalore Police which had dragged on for 5 years. I was subjected to much humiliation. But it ended with the Police withdrawing all charges against me and acting as my defenders, but then I was subjected to harassment by the Indian judicial system! 

In itself it made me make a decision halfway through this episode that I wanted to leave India!

Jacob was being harassed by a totally corrupt Karnataka bureaucracy, and fight as he would, there was no way around this very public battle. It sort of made him decide that he was not doing anything constructive in Karnataka, and if he wanted to preserve his integrity and honesty, there was no other way than to go somewhere his work and talents would be judged on its merits. 

So he met Karnataka Member of Parliament, S. M. Krishna, who was then Union Minister of State for Finance in New Delhi, and explained the reasons why he was pulling out and moving to pastures where he had an even chance of succeeding.

The third reason was that both Jacob and I felt that our children had received and accepted their roots in India, and we both felt that they should be given a chance to understand their roots in Finland. So, if there was an option, we felt we should allow them a reasonable period for them to appreciate this. 

The children loved their life in India and they had a close bond with their paternal grandparents, so it was a very difficult decision for them.

We waited for Susanna to finish her School and after that, we felt it was time to move as I received my freedom in March 1984.

So we processed all our papers by mid April 1984 but with no job under the belt for either of us in Finland, trusting in our Lord, we set off to Finland. 

We were welcomed by my parents in their home in Oulu, Finland. It was a small house but we settled in into an upstairs corner with our own kitchen, a living room and two small attic bedrooms.

The children were back in Finnish schools in August, but it became very obvious that Susanna, who had to move into the High School system of Finland to get into University, would not be able to survive the three  years.

Since Susanna was born in England in the 60s, she had her British Passport. When one of her classmate friends from India invited Susanna to come to England, we made the decision that for her future, she should move to England and continue her studies there.

This was the first time one of our family was leaving us, and both Jacob and I were heart-broken, but we knew that we had to be concerned about Susanna's future and not our feelings.

So in November 1984, 8 months after our shift to Finland, Susanna moved to England.

Jacob had not yet got a job, but God looked after us in may ways and we were able to survive those 8 months. 

By 1985 April it became obvious that our elder son, Jaakko. was also having problems with the Finnish education system, so when he finished his middle school, we allowed him to join Susanna in England, as he too had been born in England and held a British Passport.

This was again a big emotional blow for all of us, as Jaakko was the life and soul of our family, but his future decided our action.

By that time Jacob had got a job in the Unversity of Oulu as an assistant Researcher and as Scientific Editor of English publications for the Microelectronics Laboratory. It became obvious he was outstanding in his job so he was firmly entrenched in the University, but I was keen to reunify our family.

So in the summer of 1986, I shifted, with the two younger children to Birmingham, England where Susanna and Jaakko were now well established.

Jacob came to England in September, but he was not happy with life in England and our circumstances, while he was doing so well in Oulu. We decided that I would return with the two younger children to Finland. We returned in November 1986 to Oulu.

I must give you some background of the situation in my parent’s home in Oulu. 

Also living there was my younger sister, who had, by her rather difficult experience in France in 1965, had become a schizophrenic patient. The Finnish system was that she was to be looked after by her parents, but they were unable to control her and she ruled the roost in there home.

I could manage her, to a point, but she was milking her parents and they could do nothing.

One fateful Friday in December 1986, I had gone to town for shopping. As the Sabbath was soon approaching, I cut short my shopping trip and took the bus home. I went upstairs where Mika was listening to the radio and put the kettle on for cup of coffee. I smelt some smoke and went downstairs to see what was the problem. 

When I opened my sister's room I saw a fire raging in one corner. I shut the door and quickly told Mika to get out of the house. I ran to the neighbours and asked the lady to call the Fire Brigade.

Our neighbour, being a reporter, also called her newspaper.

We soon had a crowd of people waiting for the house to burst into flames, as was the case with wooden houses.

I was concerned for my parents, whom I knew were in the house. Mika banged on the living room window, where we knew my father was resting.

I went into the house and when I opened the door of the living room, as it was already dark (in December darkness descends by 3 pm), I could not see him, but he immediately smelt the fire. He ran out and started to collect water in buckets in the small toilet and tried to put out the fire, which was gathering momentum, with dark smoke coming out of my sister's room.

My mother managed to come down the stairs from her room. She was blinded by the smoke, but we managed to get her out of the house.

I was wondering where my father was as he had not come out of the house. So I went in and I found him trying to close the door to my sister's room to try to contain the fire, but the force of the smoke was so strong, he was not able to shut it. I dragged him out twice but he just went back in.

Finally I understood his intention and I tried to help him, but the pressure inside the room was so strong that we could not together shut the door.

The suddenly, for no reason, the door shut.

My father acted slowly but surely. His clothes cupboard was just behind us. He opened and took out his main clothes and proceeded down the stairs to the cellar, where he had his shoes.

I went out by the front door and waited for the Fire Brigade. By that time people were streaming in from around to see the blaze. My sister was standing at the gate. She told a neighbour that it seemed that the fire had not started in earnest!

I was in the back gaden watching the blaze through the window while at the same time, the small ventilation duct was billowing out thick smoke.

Te Fire Brigade arrived and the first question was whether there was anyone left into house. I told them that my mother's dog, Jesse, was trapped in the upstairs bedroom. Thy went in with a smoke extractor and soon emerged with the dog.

They acted quickly and efficiently and before the house could explode, they were able to put out the fire. My sister's room was completely gutted and the entire house was flooded as the firemen ensured that no spark was left unattended.

They took my parents to then hospital to ensure they were not suffering from any smoke inhalation problems.

Joanna had been walking home from school and when she saw the Fire Engines rushing, she thought that our house must be on fire. She and her friends rushed home, but the main excitement was over.

The Police arrived and having establishing the facts took my sister to the psychiatric hospital.

If we had moved to Finland, if my experience in England had not been negative, and if I had not returned home before the start of the Sabbath, the lives of my parents and their home would have been lost.

Coincidence, fate or the handiwork of our Lord God, could have directed efforts to ensure that my parents survived and their home was saved.

There is no doubt in my mind why we had to move to Finland. As a result of this I was able to fight the case of my sister in Court that she was not convicted as an arsonist and to also get her a permanent place in the psychiatric hospital, so that my parents were freed from her over-bearing and demanding character.

For that I can surely say what or who was the reason for shifting us from India to Finland. 

Can you?

What could drive you to create a masterpiece?

Many of you have written to me to ask how I get the inspiration to create the cake or interior decor designs, my garden designs or my paintings.

What drives me is the mood of the moment.

I see something or someone. What the meeting conveys may drive me to create my next piece.

Old Bulbs made by me into interior decor objects.
Aluminium film created into leaves.

As I have grown older, I have moved from the traditional media to new forms of art expression. Turning old bulbs into fruit and old aluminium sheet or candle canisters into roses or leaves are some examples of my new media! That has given me much joy.

In the late 1980's I was still in my chalk drawing phase.

Painting of an island in Finland from original photo
published in the local newspaper, Kaleva.

I came across a beautiful photograph in black and white in our local newspaper, Kaleva. I was immediately drawn to the photograph. I wanted to create a chalk drawing of it.

My drawing turned out to be better (in my opinion) than the original.

I wish I could track the original as it appeared in the Kaleva as it would give you some idea of how the thought processes work to inspire one to do a painting.

Many times, while driving from here to Helsinki, I have seen such amazing sceneries as we drive across the lakes and through the forests. But, I have never had the time to either photograph these, let alone sketch them, as my dear husband, Jacob, is always in a hurry to reach the end of the journey!

Maybe one day when we grow older :-), he may slow down and give me the opportunity to capture some of this scenery as we drive through this fantastically beautiful country! Scenery changes with the seasons giving thousands of opportunities!

Even in a city like Oulu, during summer and autumn, we go to the Nallikari Beach to have a pizza, sitting on the steps of the disused restaurant building, and we have captured some amazing sunset photographs.

Photo: 2010, Oulu Nallikari Sunset

To my mind, as I love photographs and painting, for me painting is definitely more exciting than a photograph as it brings in the artists feeling and depth which is not there in a photograph.

To capture a good photograph takes me many minutes as I approach the object from different angles. In the old days, Jacob used to complain as I would have to take many tens of shots with the film camera to get the right one. Now-a-days I can take as many as I like with my digital camera and knockout those I do not like.

In short, we have another dimension in a painting - the artist and his strokes of the chalk crayon!

I am now putting together my paintings to follow the first two ebooks "Edible Art" and "Nelson Mandela Birthday Cakes", both of which have received bouquets from so many of you.

Please let me know whether you prefer photographs to paintings!

Snowman Cake

In the last blog I introduced you to the very first Mobile Snowman.

Living in Finland, making art out of snow is second nature. But to create a good snow creation, one must have what I call as Snowman's snow.

It must grip and be able to be fashioned.


But making a cake which is a snowman needs something quite different.

Once Grandson Samu asked for a snowman as his birthday cake, I had to think how to go about it.

I was glad to make a really good Snowman cake, and Samu and his friends loved it!

Mobile Snowman

I took up a challenge of my own a few years ago to create a Mobile Snowman. This was the first attempt to make a mobile snowman, and I am glad to say that it succeeded!

The first one was made in Annikki's mother's Oulu Kampitie home in 2006. The grandchildren loved the idea. I got a friend from Bangalore, Vishwa Mallabdi,  to do the filming.

I first constructed a short hill slope in the garden. I had to make it absolutely smooth. 

Then I created a snowman on top of a plastic snow platter which the kids in Finland use to slide down snow slopes.

It was a delicate operation to place this at the top of the slope.

Once I did this I carefully moved it to the edge of the slope so that it would slide down by itself using gravity. 

We tried it many times and it was hilarious. On one occasion the head of the snowman fell down at the foot of the photographer! Merriment all around!

Then, for Samu's birthday in 2008 at their Vesaisentie house in Oulu, I created another Mobile Snowman. It was made on a longer slope. We had slightly better cameras at our disposal. Watched by grandson Daniel and Samu's friends, Samu and I sent it on its way.  The children loved it.

It was another original challenge as an artist that I successfully completed.

Launch of eBook Version of EDIBLE ART

Finally we have been able to launch the eBook version of the book "Edible Art".

Radha (aka SRK, Sriradhakrishnan Polsetti) finished the editing of the photographs, working late into the night. Without his inputs this beautiful book would never have seen the light of day.   

Once this was done, Jacob inserted the text in English for most of the photographs and the details. This was edited by Annikki as she wanted to ensure the facts were correct. 

Memories fade over the years, but her intimate knowledge about the designing of each cake and the circumstances of their creation, never faded from her artist's mind.

We decided to use an image taken at the end of the Eighties for the cover.

This is a picture of our nephew, Samuli Reinikka, when he was a little boy and his spontaneous reaction to seeing this Ginger Bread Creation by Annikki. He certainly wanted to get his teeth into it.

Radha and Annikki created the cover by removing the background and the final result was the grand cover.

Every time Jacob completed the cover text, Radha would rearrange it so his name vanished. He gave lots of lame excuses! 

Annikki was adamant as she knew that without his dedicated input this project would never have seen the light of day. aAnnikki and Jacob have always believed that credit must always be given when credit is due.

After working a long day at the office, Radha would come home and work late into the night to ensure that every picture was good enough to earn a place in the book. 

He worked out a background picture strategy for most of the pages, where he embedded the main picture as a background on which he placed a filter on top of which we could put details and text.

 Both Annikki and Jacob liked this idea.

Radha had to return to Bangalore, so Jacob was left to complete the book.

The decision was to launch first the eBook. Again using Radha's input, Jacob decided to use Scribd.com and put the pdf format file on line.

Converting the Powerpoint presentation to the eBook format was not too difficult. 

Before we realised this was an eBook and it was on the Apple Apps Store.

We priced it at just $4.99, as Annikki was really keen to showcase her cake designs in front of the world.

Another waste recovery idea - Old Bulbs

 I was collecting used bulbs and turned them into pears and other Interior Decor ideas.

Have fun.

Turning waste into something artisistic

I will, in some of my blog entries, show you that everything can be made useful.

For many years I was saving the little aluminum cases in which the little candles came. Jacob wondered why I was saving ththese useless pieces of aluminium.

I planned to make these roses and little leaves from those little candle holders and they came out better than I expected. It was a lot of roses and leaves I could make and besides displaying them as above, I attached them to some of my home made greeting cards.

Special Christmas Offer

Annikki and I decided to make a special Christmas Offer of the Paperback version of our book "Edible Art". It would make a very special Christmas gift for your loved one.

We are working out a special discount price with the publisher and the first page will carry a signature of Annikki.

We are working out the shipping costs so that you can take advantage of this special offer. (Already people from Oulu have started to take up this offer.)

Watch this space as we release details here.

This picture is the most famous of Annikki's Ginger Bread creations. The stained glass windows were created by slicing sweets into thin slices. Based on the type of knife used, annikki created different effects! The small Christmas tree in the foreground took over two hours to decorate as Annikki threaded the decorations hanging on the tree through very tiny holes she created on the ginger bread tree! The doors were hinged so they could open and close. She used black liquorice hinged sweets to tet that feature.

It won the Oulu Rotuaari (Walking Street) Ginger Bread Competition prize in 1998. 

It lived for several years under a plastic wooden frame cover as no one wanted to destroy this creation.

LAUNCH

This is a still life painting by Annikki, one of the many beautiful works of art by her.

The intention of the blog is to bring to light the art of Annikki. It will talk about her paintings, her interior decor expertise, her designs of cakes, gardens and snow creations. The blog is authored by her husband, Jacob, and herself.

We really would like your criticism and comments.