Researchers' Night

Once a year, Lappeenranta University of Technology has a ”Researchers’ Night”, an open day for the public. The programme starts around 6 p.m. and ends at 1 a.m. the following morning. There are various demonstrations and lectures, and the night ends with a concert.

The boys and I, accompanied by Tiina, went to this year’s event.

The fun started with blowing giant soap bubbles. Henry managed to make one about 1½m long. Meanwhile, Thomas was making clouds of smaller soap bubbles using a badminton racquet.

Making giant soap bubbles (Thomas in black, Henry in stripes).

The secret recipe:

120ml water
24ml washing-up liquid
12ml glycerol (available from a chemist’s)
1.6g sugar

Mix all the ingredients carefully, making sure that the mixture does not foam. Let the mixture stand overnight at room temperature.

And you have an excellent mixture of soap bubbles!

Then it was off to the Department of Chemical Technology, where Henry made plastic jewellery out of milk, and both boys built a rainbow in a small glass, made a super bouncy ball, and got to see crystals being formed under a microscope.

Below three photos of young researchers hard at work in the chemistry lab.

Henry building his rainbow.

Researcher Henry kitted up for action.

Researcher Thomas kitted up for action.

From the Department of Chemistry it was over to the Department of Energy Technology, to grill some marshmallows in an industrial furnace, and then to the Department of Information Technology to be greeted by a talking robot and to watch a robot using machine vision to stack wooden blocks.

Some of the exchange students had stands and we dropped by to say hello to my Nepali students, below a photo of Thomas with Bishal. Thomas was very pleased to be given a small Nepalese flag.

Thomas, Bishal, a Nepalese flag and a Nepalese hat.

After watching some examples of computer animated films, it was, unfortunately, time for the little boys to go home and to bed.

And we hadn’t even managed to test quite how loud we can shout, nor use the rally simulator, nor seen the robot welding station, nor … nor…

Maybe next year!

Theology and Little People

Actors: Peter and Thomas (7 years)
Place: In the basement
Activities: Peter – hanging the clothes
Thomas – hanging around

---***---***---

Thomas: Daddy, this door?
Peter: Yes?
Thomas: Last night, was it open?
Peter: Uh, yes.
Thomas: So, there must be dwarves in our house.
Peter: Hm, why?
Thomas: I closed it, and in the morning it was open. Henry said he hadn’t been down here. It must have been dwarves.
Peter: You never know what you can find in our cellar.
Thomas: Like the Christmas dwarves.

Silence

Thomas: How does Father Christmas know Uncle Stephen?
Peter: Oh, he knows everyone.

A short silence

Thomas: You know, Jesus knows everyone and knows how many hairs they have on their head.
Peter: Hm.
Thomas: I think he must have written down the names on paper for Father Christmas. Then he can bring the presents.
Peter: Hm.

Good Behaviour

Thomas came home and said he had something to show us. It was a badge from his school for good behaviour. As proof, it is in the picture below.

This leaves us with one question; since his school is about 250m from our house, what happens between him leaving our front door and getting to his class?

Well done, Thomas!

Official school photos

Once a year, schools and kindergartens in Finland are visited by a photographer, who takes portraits of the children, as well as a class photo. Here are the boys' official school photos from the academic year 2007-2008.

Henry

Thomas

Thomas does not normally have a hairstyle reminiscent of 'The Beatles' but in the days leading up to the photo shoot, he had been ill with a stomach bug so we hadn't quite managed to get him to the barber's.

We'll try to be better organised for this year's photos.

SaiPa and Finnish humour

Many of you will know that Finns have a peculiar sense of humour - think of the Monster rockers, Lordi, first ever Finnish winners of the Eurovision Song Contest.

As a further example of Finnish humour, click on the link below to see the 20-second advert for SaiPa, Lappeenranta's ice-hockey team:

Saipan-TV mainos

(Link fixed: 11 Sept 2008)

So, what is it all about?

From the point of view of the city slickers of Helsinki, people outside the Kehä 3 ring road are all ignorant, uncivilized country yokels, 'juntti' in Finnish. The TV advertisement plays up to this stereotype.

The motorbike in the video is the classic 'Pappa-Tunturi' or 'Grandad-Tunturi', a 50cc, 2-stroke machine from the 1960s.

While the advert is all in good fun, I'd like to know whether the local tourist board are laughing.

The new ice-hockey season starts on Saturday, 13 September 2008. So remember to give the boys a shout - the chap in the video shows you how!

I found a French horn

The holidays are over, school and work are in full swing, the sky is grey, but for some people, the sun is shining; Thomas's French horn has arrived! When he got it, his smile suggested that Christmas and his birthday had arrived all on one day.

Below some photos.

Thomas blowing his horn. (The instrument is not a full-size one. )

Luckily for his parents, the music school has an instrument rental scheme as French horns are rather expensive.

After only one lesson, Thomas's playing is not to everyone's liking! Maybe because the noise sounds like a cross between an alphorn and a fog horn. But even the greatest virtuosos must start somewhere!