Hi friends, back from Sri Lanka. A happy journey, but nice to be back at home, too. First a half day in Bangkok between the flights shopping like crazy, Christmas presents, and father´s day before that. I sent a SMS to my brother asking what Niko needs, and he sent back that seriously, are  you buying  Xmas presents in September. He did not remember that I start in June. Contradiction with Pekka, he starts at Xmas Eve.

The gender mainstreaming workshop was interesting, I was learning like a swamp, absorbing new information from other countries. It is SO fascinating, this world. We were 29 people from 19 country offices, 22 nationalities. One shocking thing  was again how bl... isolated we Finns are, cross-country relationships did not exist before my generation, hardly. Isn´ t  it fascinating to hear  from  a colleague  living  in  Thailand,  who is  Pakistani  Indian, but lived her  youth  in  Bangladesh, first spouse British, second French. Her sister married to an American, and they had counted that there are  52 nationalities in their big  family. Can you imagine!! Well, did not tell that one of my friend is married to a Bosnian  man and  two other to Swedish - that´s absolutely nothing  compared  with them. Wow, we have a lot to learn!

Some of you received a recipe exchange the other day from me. The receiver is Tineke, my Dutch supervisor´s wife in Bosnia. Today  is Tineke´s  birthday, my  warmest congratulations toTineke. Some of the friends remain, and Henk  and Tineke are one of those, keeping in touch. A toast  for  you!

Kids´  suomikoulu (Finnish Saturday   school) begins today, Toivo and myself are  going  there with four other  families. Good to see how he  plays with friends. Maso, whom I mentioned last time as well, Toivo´s  mongolian-american  "buddy",  was here when I came back from Sri Lanka. A very  serious  boy, wearing  golden jewelleries...I guess that tradition comes from his mother´s side. Toivo was a  clown compared with  him, and yes  indeed he is. Huong just told me that Toivo is famous  in  Ciputra where we live, everyone knows  and  likes him as he keeps  smiling. I guess his anger  in the  evenings  may be due to that he needs to keep his  fans happy during the day time...

On Monday our first guests arrive, then two next months are pretty crowded, but so far no reservations from January  on. Who is the first???