Going Postal

« A postcard of the Helsinki Kauppatori circa 1940. »

My mother-in-law, Eila, recently found a few more vintage Helsinki postcards at a fleamarket in the series I am particularly interested in. I'm not a professional collector, but I really would like to find out more about Suomen Kuvataide Oy, the company who printed these cards, and more about the cards themselves. I have enough postcards now that I will start putting together a postcard section for the website. There was a postcard show this weekend in the main postoffice, but we were too busy with a sick Otava to go. Part of the show, Easter Greetings, will continue through 3 April and will even be open over the long Easter weekend when everything else is closed and the streets of the city are deserted.

This is our last week in the old office building before we move to the new office building and people are either frantic or waiting around for the gears of progress to catch up. It has all the joys and expected last minute surprises that moving a big datacenter has to offer and, well, maybe a few extra just to keep things 'interesting'. I came in late on this project so my office is packed, the systems won't move for another two or three weeks and I'm just trying to stay out of the way when I can't be helpful.

I found out that I'm getting a corner office with walls of windows which amazed me since everyone else chose their offices long ago and this is one of the best offices on the floor. I looked a bit more closely at the floorplan and realised that everyone passed up the big, sunny office for much smaller and darker offices because, unlike me, they wouldn't have to share the space with anyone else. I'm so used to cubes that having only one other person in an office seems almost managerial. I thought being alone was what telecommuting was for. Solitude and privacy are such a driving force in Finland it's almost a miracle that people manage to meet, copulate and reproduce. ;)