Coldness, Darkness, and Remembrance

21/12 - possibly the darkest day in 372 years? It is the first time since 1638 that a lunar eclipse has fallen on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. I spent most of the day in London Heathrow airport pondering the fate of my flight home (to Finland), as the Heathrow airport was in chaos, having to shut down the previous days due to too much snow (by British standards), and canceling about half the flights on the day I was supposed to fly back. Thanks to Finnair however, with the Finnish pilots and staff probably thinking "pffft, this little bit of snow? Are you kidding me??", the flights from Helsinki to London operated as planned (albeit with some delays), so I could get on the returning flight from London to Helsinki on those aircrafts. Although on my way from Finland to Taipei at the start of the trip, the Finnair strike almost cost me my trip. Ahh, the joys and trials of travels... I won't exchange them for anything else, but perhaps an occasional first class seat would be nice, though I've been upgraded gratis to biz class couple of times before (talking about long-haul, as it doesn't make a big difference on short-haul or domestic flights). Hmm, my travel tales can probably fill books, and a whole volume just on airports and flights. But who will read them? Lol... sometimes even I find myself rambling on too much as I re-read some of my blog posts. And I digress again. So yes, I got back to Tampere in the wee hours of the morning on the 22nd, briefly feeling the chill of -22C that welcomed me home.

22/12 - slightly jet-lagged, but not as bad as after the Dallas trip in October. First order of things was to confirm the redundancy status of my job thanks to the Symbian reorg. Even though I heard the news over the weekend in Taiwan (via a phone call while visiting Karen), it somehow didn't seem so real then. There's not much details yet (when's my last day? what kind of "package" will we get?) but it was a pre-notice for those of us affected so we can start looking for new opportunities, either internally or externally. While I felt bad for my situation, I actually felt worse for my manager P. She has, for about a year now, taken over my ex-manager S's job in addition to her own when S went on extended sick leave. Double the responsibilities, double the workload, and all I see from her are hard work and dedication. Yet this. She's probably going to be super busy all the way up till our last day, whenever it is. P has been with Nokia for 14 years, and contributed so much. Helped me a lot too. And now she has to deal with this while still helping those of us who are impacted. My heart goes out to her.

About my ex-manager S, the second piece of news I received in Taiwan was that of him passing away. He fainted at work one day and they found a tumor in his brain. He had an operation and it went well, with good prognosis. We were even told he'd be back at work after summer holidays. But things took a turn for the worse, and... anyway we had a memorial for him at work on this day. What's it with the Finns and not displaying emotions?!! I wasn't all that close to S and still, I wanted to bawl my eyes out. (But fought hard to control myself as I didn't want to be the only one crying.) He was so young... and so full of life. Sailing, skydiving, orienteering; he was indeed very active and lived life to the fullest. The timing of S's death and my job loss really forces things into perspective: I can always find a new job, but this is the end for him. S, while you haven't been my manager for a long time, I'll always remember you. Rest in peace.

23/12 - possibly the coldest day this winter thus far (can't imagine what Jan/Feb holds). Well at least the days are starting to get longer and brighter. Walked to work in -26C

This morning at -26C

The sun's not quite awake yet

The secret is taking a really hot shower just before leaving. I managed to still feel warm upon reaching work. Although walking back home in the evening will be another story. I think the high temperature today is -25C and low tonight will be -29C. Too bad we won't break -30C. Yet.