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Finnish music

On 4.11.05, a Finnish band was going to perform at a club near the ETH. The club, bQm, is located at a very nice place, as you can see over the whole downtown and the bay area from there. I went there as there supposedly was going to be other Finnish people too. I had never heard about the band, ASA, but I thought it would be worth the shot.

Well, it was nice again to chat with some Finnish people, but the music was not that good. Finnish white hiphop rap -music is not the best type of music, so I tried to ingonre the band. One funny thing, the bartenders had notes with most common Finnish sentences needed in bar, so when ordering drinks, the bartender tried to ask: Mitä saasi ola? (What would you lick to have?), and Kusi frangia (Sex frangs). I know Finnish is not the easiest language to pronounce for foreigners, so it was heartwarming to hear them try so earnest. They also served this traditional Finnish food, karjalanpiirakka (Karelian pasties, a.k.a. Karelian Pie), which was also a nice gesture for Finnish people in foreign country.

The same Finnish guy, with whom I had been drinking also the previous time when I was at town, was also at bQm. He said me that he had read my posting about that previous time and that I had mentioned him also. He asked why I didn't mention that he's single, and publish his cellular number so that someone looking for a date could call him. Actually later that evening I saw him in the presence of some young ladies, so I guess I have to ask him for an update if he still needs his phone number published.

When I left the place, I took the night train to Bubikon. In the train, the inspector from the Railway came to me to ask for my ticket. After showing him my ticket, he asked for another ticket. First I didn't understand what he meant, but after some ten minute conversation in German, I understood that you need to buy extra 5 CHF ticket for the night train. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of this, and he wrote be a fine for 80 CHF. The stupid thing, the fine is 80 CHF if I didn't have any ticket at all, so I tried to tell him that I really didn't know about the night extra. Would I be so stupid that if I knew about this extra, so that I would get the ticket without the extra, and then the fine is still the same. He told me that I can try to call their office and ask for deduction, but that he cannot help me.

I called the office, and told them about the situation. They told me that I have to pay the 80 CHF. After trying to explain that as a foreigner and first time in the night train, no-one had told me about the night extra, not even the guy at the counter in Bubikon where I bought the return-ticket to Zürich. After long conversation, the lady at the office agreed to halve the fine, leaving me with 40 CHF payment. I didn't totally agree with this either, as if I'm guilty for trying to travel without a ticket, I should pay the 80 CHF, and if I'm not guilty, I should pay the 5 CHF which is the night extra. This 40 CHF sounds like that they just would be happy if I paid them something. I'm still thinking if I'd give them another call and try again to tell that I wouldn't have bought any ticket at all if I was going to travel without a valid permit.

On 11.11.05, the Rasmus was visiting Zürinch in Kaufleuten. After some minor problems, I managed to buy two tickets, although the concert was quite sold out. My girlfriend arrived to Zürich in the morning of 11.11., so the second ticket was for her. Rasmus seems to be quite popular here, so most of the crowd were local people, although you could spot some clear cases in the crowd who were Finnish. The concert was quite nice, altough the crowd was little bit too jumpy and pushy for my taste. The crowd bahaved better in the Rammstein concert last year, but I guess the reason for this was that the crowd for the Rasmus was quite young by the average.

A view from Säntis

During the weekend with my girlfriend, we visited the Säntis mountain viewpoint which I had visited with my parents some weeks earlier. Again the weather was nice and we were able to see to quite long distances. This time the temperature was a little bit colder, and there was also some snow in the mountain.

In the Zürich bay, there was this one annual vine festival, VinaExpo. Every year when the winter is coming, the ships which travel in the Lake Zürich, are parked around the bay before being shut down for the winter. The ships are connected to each other via bridges, and many wine dealers come there to show their products. You pay small fee for the entrance, but inside you can taste the wines for free. Sounds good, and we went there to buy some wines. Unfortunately, I didn't know that you cannot buy the wines, but order, and also the minimum purchace was usually a case of six bottles, so this didn't suit our needs so good and we left the area quite soon.

Recently, I've tried to play the World of Warcraft more than before. I've set myself a goal to reach the level cap before christmas, so I've spent quite many evenings in front of the computer. I also finished watching the 'Allo 'Allo -comedy series, and now started to watch the Joey, which is a spin-off from the popular series Friends. After first few episodes, the Joey seems to have quite the same jokes as he had during the Friends, so if they don't invent something new apart from the big breasted sister, I think the series will not live for too long. I also got the satellite system up and running, so now I have more channels to not watch.