My liverleaf day arriving

Hey all :) it's April, right? I've decided to cut down on being miserable. Plus, looking at the time, in New Zealand and Australia it's my birthday already. Big party coming this friday, so everybody, prepare. I'm expecting at least a moral support, even if you can't hop on a plane and fly over :)

A while ago i had a discussion with my friend Peter about proverbs. I was looking for an English equivalent for Estonian proverb 'Igaüks on oma õnne sepp'. He said it should go 'We are the architects of our own fortune'.
Of course the literal translation from Estonian (the no-nonsense peasant language) would be 'One is the smith of one's own happiness'.

Now i'm really interested how the same saying goes in other languages. Greek, Portuguese, Hindi, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, you name it! all posts are most welcome. It doesn't have to say the same thing, just about give the same meaning. So as a birthday present :) i'd like you to write me the saying in original language and also the translation in English.

I will then print them all out, stick the paper to the wall and read like a mantra every morning. Now that should do the job, wouldn't you think?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! :)

World superlative?

Today i'm not going to talk too much, just briefly about two things. Firstly, i went to the notorious KuMu yesterday and liked it a lot. Not very many people were there (surprise-surprise!) and it was all quite enjoyable. I hadn't seen most of the pieces before (only from books) because they used to store them, there was no place to display.

But of course there was one typical little example of KuMu culture, hehe. It happened 15 minutes before closing time, 17:45. They announced that it was time to leave... no, i can't say 'announced'. It sounded like thunder coming from the speakers. Everybody around me jumped a bit and i think i screamed a little. Nerves...

It did work wonders though, everybody left in a hurry. Me too, because i really believe after this nice little "warning" the next thing you see will be two big security guards that drag you down the stairs and throw you out of the door. So you'd better obey.

Ok, the other thing - i was reading the official Visit Estonia homepage and found a description that sounded so familiar and funny:

"Estonia - a world superlative!

Discover Estonia and you will see it is phenomenal. Like Alice in her Wonderland (rings any bells?), you will find there is even more to see in Estonia than you have dreamed about. The dream world becomes real and the reality is unbelievable."

Mmmmmm. Well, what can i say. Yeah, the reality is sometimes quite unbelievable but i'm not sure if it's a good thing. So long.

"If nothing else works... (Vol 1)

...a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through" (Monty Python)

Hello everybody. Sorry again for being away for so long, i've been busy with real life. Anyway, I'm feeling very snappy today. In fact, professionally furious (and for once i'm going to talk about something interesting instead of going on and on about my private life. Consider yourselves lucky!).

About 6 weeks ago a very important building was opened in Tallinn. KuMu - abbreviation derives from the words Kunst (art) + Muuseum (museum, obviously). So, this is our new art museum and exhibition centre. It's supposed to be the biggest in the whole Scandinavia and Baltics region. The building itself cost 50 million USD. Now one would assume that something like that could be a real tourist attraction, n'est pas? But no. Did you bother to click on the link already? Don't. It will "Open soon". Actually they just didn't think about registering the domain in time and now it belongs to someone else who is probably looking to make money on this. And i can't really blame them, at least they were wise enough to take action.

Ok, maybe everything is not lost yet. Maybe some poor tourist is smart enough to look for information in the Art Museum of Estonia web page. Let's try... Yay! A lot of information in Estonian. Not let's see what we can find under the link 'English' in the index page...

I suppose you already guessed that, huh? Obviously the English version is 'under construction'. Nice going, really. I mean, it would probably take a whole hour to put up some basic information about the opening hours and ticket prices in English. And who could spare that precious time on something so insignificant.

I was actually extremely surprised when the director of KuMu happily announced in the opening day that some tourists from Korea and Finland were among the first visitors of the building. I have no idea how they got there. I wonder if they know it themselves. Maybe they just got lost in the city :p

"If nothing else works... (Vol 2)

Ok, anyway, they opened this building. And then someone probably came to a brilliant idea that in order to use the museum properly, it should have some visitors. So they organized an ad campaign. An outdoor campaign, to be more exact. You know, i can just picture the key people (the director of KuMu of course, and some snob from the ad agency) sitting around the table and discussing what needs to be done in order to bring "common people" to the museum. "Hmmm," says one. "We should use slang and bright colors. It's an ok thing to do when you're targeting this group." "Good idea," says the other. "But let's spend as little on the campaign as possible. We built the house for 50 million USD, so the campaign can look cheap, doesn't matter."

Here you can see some examples of this immortal campaign (i took the photos on my way to work one day). The posters use images of well-known pieces of art from the 19th and mid-20th century. Which is not such a bad idea, at least everybody should know them. The problem is the message. See the orange splashes in picture on the left? The first says: "Doh... me? Doh... KuMu?". The other invites people to see her new home, using a really archaic language that people last used in the 19th century. There was another poster in the series, a girl with a dog and the orange splash saying "Don't worry, Estonian art won't bite you!". Eeeeeeeeew!

Now take a look at the picture on the right, please. This is a big poster that stands in the middle of the old town. Near a somewhat famous sculpture of a goat (hey, stop laughing, over here all pieces of art are somewhat 'famous', at least they try to be. This isn't Rome, people :p). Anyway, the poster is pointing at The Goat and says: "KuMu is not cheap with art". Now try to imagine that the words GOAT (kits) and CHEAP (kitsi) sound similar in English, as they do in Estonian. Would it sound funny or witty to you? No? Well, neither does it in Estonian. I'm more like... well, ashamed to read it.

I can't understand why, WHY they couldn't see the obvious and launch some kind of normal campaign at the same time, using our independence day celebrations as a supporting cause. It's a national museum and what better occasion to point that out than the national day. They could have used direct mailing with invitations to celebrate that day in KuMu. Plus, you know, there isn't that much to do in Estonia in the winter anyway! They could have done a number of things instead of producing a patronising, horrible campaign. Could have, would have, should have! I'm professionally very irritated. And i'd like a word with the ad agency people. For totally wasting the taxpayers' money.

"If nothing else works... (Vol 3)

More faux pas's: Last week i wanted to attend an opening tour that they organize every Saturday. So i called the KuMu ticket office number to get some additional information. I was stopped in half a sentence by a grumpy-voiced receptionist who bluntly said: "Wait. I'll give you another number". Ok, i called this other number. I called 4-5 times that day. There was no answer. Then i gave up. I will go there one day, sure i will. When i start feeling less grumpy myself.

By the way. It's closed 2 days a week and the rest of the days it's opened only till 6 PM. Which makes it very hard for any working person to visit...

Oh, and listen to that: they organized a huge opening ceremony. Which is certainly a normal thing to do. Many VIPs were present, including the presidents of Estonia and Finland, all together about 2000 guests. My friend was there and she said it was the weirdest event she has ever seen. A lot of speeches and bla-bla, no chairs, nowhere to sit (and many of those VIPs were really old people who almost had to pass out during the whole process). But the best part was the catering. You know what they served? Unpeeled boiled potatoes - just cut into pieces - and sea buckthorn champagne. You heard me. See, the sea buckthorn is cultivated in Estonia. It's supposed to be really good for your health. And no, it's NOT possible to make champagne out of it. As my friend put it, it was some kind of soggy orange liquid that nobody dared to touch. And that was all the food there was.

I just don't know. Is that supposed avant-garde, or what exactly is it supposed to be? Is there a rule somewhere that everything about art has to be weird, pointless and not understandable to us common people?

Anyway, welcome to Estonia! This is our official slogan. It cost about 1 million USD to develop the slogan with the logo. See, we're pretty good in throwing away money (sometimes). And If you ever happen to come to our part of the world, definitely visit KuMu. But be sure to e-mail me first, or you'll never find it. See ya.

Feeling grateful

Hello everybody, and sorry for my long absence.

Today i just need to say that... i only just realised how lucky i am. I have a couple of really great, loving, best friends who are always willing to help with everything in their power.
There are many wonderful people, not only here but all around the world who are always unbelievably kind and thoughtful with me.
And - I have the bravest, most adorable daughter in the whole world.

Love you all so much :) And thanks!
(i'll be filling this blog again in no time)