Yesterday was the Independence Day in Estonia. On February 24th in 1918 Estonia declared independence; that lasted until Soviet Union occupied us in 1940. Being in an excellent geographical position is hazardous for small nations. We've been overrun by most of our immediate neighbors and some not so immediate. Estonia restored her independence on August 20th in 1991, during the coup in Moscow.

It is as if I've had two lives so far — Soviet and Estonian. I was a child and a teen during Soviet era and a young adult during the Estonian era. There have been good and bad things in both eras, but I'd never wish the Soviet era back. A Swedish era has begun in my life now; it is exiting and interesting to learn how Swedish society works.

All things domestic.

We went to IKEA yesterday and bought two Benno CD shelves and a shelf for downstairs hobby room. This extra room is a storage room with no windows and it is not connected to the apartment, but we figured it's perfect for role-playing and crafts. Also wire baskets for the bathroom and a new ceiling lamp for the entry area. All the big boxes upstairs have been unpacked and the place looks cozy. I still need to unpack my SCA and some modern clothes and arrange small things like papers, sewing notions, candle holders and tools. Some of these things I want to keep upstairs, some will go down to the hobby room.

The website is finished with an additional order of a new area. Whee!

I haven't had time to knit at all and I miss it. As soon as the downstairs is arranged and the additional order is fulfilled I'm planning to start on the Deni sweater.

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So, this is it. I'm here in a new place, new situation, new city, new country, new everything. My family has taken the change rather well, although I suspect we all have cried, especially mom and me.

Warning! Some foul language ahead.

Tuesday

The guys arrived, we took care of the errands I hadn't done on Monday, drove to my place and packed the van. To my utter amazement they fit in everything I had intended to take with me. My custom made furniture was left behind for now because there is no place to put it here. After lunch, which mom had cooked for us, we drove around the town a bit and went to the port. I'd asked some of my friends to be there at 5PM to say final goodbyes. Nobody but my brother showed up. His SO was in Malaysia at the time, one friend was ill at home, one couldn't get off work until six and one couldn't make it on time.

The goodbyes said, we went to check in. The guy in the booth said that the van is not a personal car and you have to pay extra for 45 centimeters. Fine, we did and got a slip of paper to put on the dashboard. We waited 40 minutes until toll and border control processed 2 trucks and 2 cars in front of us and when they were done one Mercedes cut in front of us. Bastard.

Let me tell you, the mood in the van was not peaceful at that point. Not only we were charged extra, the guy had cheated. The fee was 400 SEK and he asked for 800 EEK, the exchange rate is 1.7 not 2. Shithead. When I'd heard the sums I exploded because I am ashamed of my people ripping off foreigners. This is bad for Estonia's image and I want to be able to be proud of my country. Sigh.

We had nothing to declare and border guard let us through without any further incidents. Once we drove on board the people packing vehicles into the ferry said: this is not a personal car, you have to pay extra. What the!? We already did. Where's the receipt? We showed the slip we'd gotten. This is not a receipt; you have to pay or go back and get the receipt. That happened 10 minutes before the ferry was supposed to leave. We went back to check in and I spoke about shameful customer service to the girl there because the guy who took the money had vanished. We got the receipt, were admitted on board and directed to a parking spot with 8 meters of empty space front and back and 4 meters to one side. The ferry wasn't even full!

Once on board we calmed down a little, had a few drinks and went to bed.

Wednesday

We drove off the ferry, though customs who smiled when she was told I was moving in and welcomed me to Sweden. Border guard smiled as well and that was that. One of R's friends came to help unload the van and it was soon done. After the friends had left we set up computers and the stereo systems. That took us until 4AM and we went to bed exhausted.

On Thursday we started to arrange the kitchen, but it's not finished yet and I haven't even touched the boxes with books or yarn. There's sill a lot left to do, but so far, so good.

What's most important — we're both happy.

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I'll take the modem to cable company today and won't be able to post until Wednesday. So this is a quick update:

1. Pack everything I want to take with me.
   Almost there! I still need to pack toiletries and clothes, but other than that it's done.
2. Throw or give away the rest.
3. Find a store in Tallinn that sells ziploc plastic bags.
4. Get more boxes to cram more stuff in.
5. Visit tax people and get my income tax declaration sorted out.
   Tried that on Thursday, waited in a line for half an hour only to be told: come back next week. Riiight! I'll try again today, but if that doesn't work, I'll see if I can submit my declaration over the Internet.
6. Finish a website for a client by 1st of February.
   We met yesterday and they want more changes. New due date is Monday 23rd.
7. Take out braids and get a haircut or new braids.
8. Meet with friends to say goodbye.
9. Help a friend to shop fabric for a medieval dress.
10. Give back things I have borrowed.
    Everything has been given back.
11. Get back things people have borrowed from me.
12. Empty the cupboard at work and clean out the PC.
13. Get a new computer.
14. Get the residence permit stamp in my passport.
15. Go to a dentist for a checkup.
16. Have one of my wisdom teeth pulled.
17. Take the cable modem back to the cable company and have my internet connecion terminated.

Update: You may officially declare me a fool.

I thought that I'd go, have the tooth pulled and then proceed to deal with the remainder of today's schedule. Stupid! I should have remembered that I don't deal well with syringes, blood and being cut up. This has been the worst experience I've had at a dentist, even counting drilling front teeth without anesthesia. Pulling the tooth was horrible, although it didn't hurt one bit and it took more than an hour because my body tried to faint all the time. I'm not going into all the sordid details here, I'll just repeat what the dentist said after it was over: next time stuff yourself with tranquilizers or have a general anesthesia. After the procedure I wasn't up to anything but going by the drug store to fill the prescriptions she gave me and going home to bed.

I'm reasonably OK now, it remains to be seen how things are tomorrow.

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Blogger and hot.ee do not talk to each other again. I'm gettin' mighty annoyed about this and will look into renting my own domain.

Here are the socks and Sassu who just 'happens' to be wherever some action is. Because of the colors I named them my Toes on Fire socks. Please pardon the non-existent quality of the pictures.

I couldn't make up my mind which photo is better, so I uploaded them both.

The cuff on the right sock looks wider because I decided to use the zig-zag pattern after I'd ripped back to the gusset increases on the first one. It's OK, they are socks to be comfy in and have your toes on fire... er... warm.

On Monday I went back to the hairdresser and had my hair dyed. Monday week ago the plan was to get some lowlights to liven up my natural drab color. What I really wanted was black hair with some lilac highlights because my own color is so incredibly dull and since I don't work anymore I can go wild with color. Well, once you start dyeing, you must continue so it was a no-go. No work = no money for regular touch-ups at hairdresser. That lasted until a friend reminded me that my hair is short enough I can dye it myself. Yay! The hairdresser didn't have any goth colors so I got copper stripes instead. I love it! Even if I have to spend the rest of my life dyeing my hair, black is my color and it stays.

Tuedsay was spent packing yarn. I got almost all of it packed, I keep finding more skeins and I ran out of ziplocs.

Today I emptied my embroidery supplies and general sewing drawers. Just now I remembered that I missed one cupboard filled with yarn and UFOs. Sigh.

Wednesday update:

1. Pack everything I want to take with me.
   I'm making progress. There's still lots to pack, but my room is looking emptier.
2. Throw or give away the rest.
   I've stopped counting the 150 litre trashbags. It was fun in the beginning, but now it's depressing how much crap I've produced/accumulated.
3. Find a store in Tallinn that sells ziploc plastic bags.
4. Get more boxes to cram more stuff in.
5. Visit tax people and get my income tax declaration sorted out.
6. Finish a website for a client by 1st of February.
   The layout and graphics have been approved, but it still needs more materials from client.
7. Take out braids and get a haircut or new braids.
   Got a haircut, didn't like it much. On Monday I had my hair dyed black with copper highlights, I like it a lot.
8. Meet with friends to say goodbye.
9. Help a friend to shop fabric for a medieval dress.
   Went shopping today with her and another Rewal club member. She bought fabric for a smock, nothing for a dress, but now she has much better idea what to look for.
10. Give back things I have borrowed.
    I delivered some and now I've found more.
11. Get back things people have borrowed from me.
    I got back most of my books (one will be delivered in March), but I forgot to ask for a silk veil and a neckerchief.
12. Empty the cupboard at work and clean out the PC.
13. Get a new computer.
    Windows Explorer still doesn't want to refresh properly when I scroll thumbnails.
14. Get the residence permit stamp in my passport.
15. Go to a dentist for a checkup.
16. Have one of my wisdom teeth pulled.
17. Take the cable modem back to the cable company and have my internet connecion terminated.

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The socks are finished. If the photos are decent I'll post them after I've taken the film to the lab to be developed.

Yesterday I went to the Rahvakunsti Klubi to see what has become of the fabric I'd woven there. The club had warped 20 meters assuming there were more than 2 people interested in weaving. There weren't, so we had to find somebody to weave the rest of it. I only wanted one Estonian medieval wrap skirt (~2.5m) and my friend wanted a shoulder wrap (~1,7m). The lady my friend found had finished weaving last Saturday and she had done an excellent job. I ended up buying 7 meters of her fabric, besides paying for the materials which I wove myself. One warm handwoven 15th century cloak coming up for an event in March. I can't wait to start sewing!

Where did this medieval stuff suddenly come from? I belong to The Society for Creative Anachronism (aka SCA) kingdom Drachenwald and also to a Medieval Club "Rewal" in Tallinn. Both of these organizations study middle ages and have events where members dress up as their medieval persona. Fun, fun, fun. I've been interested in middle ages since I was a kid and now I have found people to dress up, play, party and discuss things with.

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After knitting the heel thrice, I finished the sock I started on wednesday today.

I had ripped it out to the gusset increases because they were contributing to the problem of The Humongous Heel. Increased only 3 times every other row on the instep side, instead of 4 times every row on heel side. Much better! Now the sock fits perfectly and the heel is also proportionate.

On to the second sock.

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Today is 100th birth day anniversary of my paternal grandmother.

She was the "Town granny", meaning that she lived in the same town with us. Mom's parents lived at countryside far away. She babysat us, played with us, told us stories and taught us many things. Her patience with us must have been incredible.

My grandfather had been taken to Siberia and never came back. She raised her two kids alone during difficult post-war times and was always there when mom and dad needed her.

When my aunt was giving away granny's things last year I got some of the towels she had woven and embroidered. They will be treasured, as are the memories I have of her.

On 8th of April there will be 18 years since she died.

I still miss her.

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Yesterday after picking up my passport from the embassy I had an hour before the dentist appointment. There are two yarn stores near the dentist office and naturally they were the best places to spend time in. No, scratch that, it should read: to spend money in. Which I did. I figured I it'll be a long time before I have a chance to visit them again so I stocked up.

I bought two skeins of burgundy red Bergere de France's Magic to make a hat, two skeins of Sport and one Jaspee to make, house socks, also from BdF. Three hanks of black Liisu Käsitöölõng for German Ren hose, one skein of Jil Color to make a second glove because I ran out and three hanks of Bulgarian yarn called Deni. Deni is for a big cozy sweater with a hood I plan to start in Sweden. I have ten hanks of it now (9 black and 1 red) and I hope 1000 grams / 2000 meters is enough. It must be. I can't pop into the store after work and buy more if I run out!

When I got home, instead of starting to pack, I cast on for the socks. Well, my toes are cold and my Regias are too good to wear at home. I finished one sock, but it's going to the frog pond. It fits, but visually the heel is too big and the toe is too small. Bummer. I'll rip the heel and foot out and knit them again with modifications. Perhaps I should try short rows instead of peasant heel? Hmmm... We'll see, the color combo is good and the yarn feels good on foot. Now I heed to get the balance between heel and toe right.

What else I have accomplished:

1. Pack everything I want to take with me.
2. Throw or give away the rest.
3. Find a store in Tallinn that sells ziploc plastic bags.
4. Get more boxes to cram more stuff in.
5. Visit tax people and get my income tax declaration sorted out.
6. Finish a website for a client by 1st of February.
   The layout and graphics have been approved, but it still needs more materials from client.
7. Take out braids and get a haircut or new braids.
   Got a haircut, I'm still not sure if I like it or not.
8. Meet with friends to say goodbye.
9. Help a friend to shop fabric for a medieval dress.
10. Give back things I have borrowed.
11. Get back things people have borrowed from me.
12. Empty the cupboard at work and clean out the PC.
13. Get a new computer.
    There are some weird things going on with IE and Windows Explorer. Other than that it's fine.
14. Get the residence permit stamp in my passport.
15. Go to a dentist for a checkup.

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