Broom stick reborn

 

I still haven't foud a good place where to keep my exercise equipment, but I did change one of the equipment to a more handy one. I previously used a long aluminium handle from a mop, it's on the left in the picture. But it was way too long, I was afraid I would hit something with it while I did my exercise. Then I remembered I had an old broom stick from a broom that had broken long time ago. I cut the stick into a good lenght and then painted it white. That is in the picture on the right (obviously). Way more handy to use and to store too.

Now I'm back

I was on a work trip in awfully cold Prague. I mean awfully cold, it was like minus five Celsius! I know I sound ridiculous, minus five is like nothing compared to the minus 25 it was in Finland only one week ago. But it was humid, really humid. I have never felt colder, the minute I walked outside I got cold shivers, like the cold came from inside of me. And I had a down jacket, long johns and wool socks. In Finland I could have stood outside in that gear doing nothing for a whole hour and yet not feel too cold. Ofcourse I got a horrible cough.

I had few evenings of time looking at the sights in Prague and also some time on Friday on day time. Prague is beautiful on the winter time too, but last time I was there on summer and I must say the city was more pleasant at that time. I would think that on spring and early fall the city would too be at it's best. Prague on the winter time looks a lot like the Hogsmeade village from Harry Potter. Perhaps I've read the Harry Potter's way too many times...

It's nice to go to some trips even work trips, but I'm really glad to be back home. 

Skiing

The weekend was beautiful here. Crisp weather and sun has been shining. I walked over to the sea shore, put my skis on and skied to the bay. Of course once I did get there the clouds appeared, it had been so sunny before and once I got out of course the sun disappeared. Well, that happens.

Removing sticker residue

I showed long time ago a tip how to remove labels from jars, but I have another tip. This tip works well if you need to remove stickers from furniture or from tile.

First try to scrape the surface of the sticker away if you can. Then spray the sticker with a lubricant, with something that you would use for hinges or for car parts. You can either scrape the most of the sticker out with a knife or with your finger nail. Or if there is very little of the sticker residue like I had just wiping firmly with a cloth will do the trick. Somehow the lubricant makes the sticker more brittle and also it allows you to get under the sticky surface easily.

Once you've got the sticky stuff out you can wipe the whole area with a regular cleaning product.

This lubricant removal trick works really well for those foamy double sided tapes that are sometimes used for attaching things on the walls. I very succesfully removed huge amounts of those from our kitchen tiles few years back.

Airing day

Sorry to have been this quiet lately, I have no particular reason except that I have not done anything blog worthy, which actually is quite rare. Also next week I most likely will not post much. But then I have a good reason. I will tell you later, although it's most likely not that exciting.

On the weekend I took the bedroom blankets and pillows out to air and also some blankets from the living room. The living room carpets I threw on top of the snow to freshen them up.

I always put the blankets and pillows out with their dirty sheets, that way I don't have to mind if the laundry lines need wiping or if a bird poops on the pillows. When I bring them in and change the sheets. There aren't many better things than fresh smelling bedding and linen. Should air the textiles more often.

Exercise equipment

I did not really do any New Year resolutions or deside on goals, but I was finally motivated to do something for my neck pain, something else than just taking a pain killer. So I do just a bit of exercise everyday, but now I have a another problem.

Where do you keep your basic exercise equipment? I admit that when I do exercise I do like to do it in front of the television, so I would also like to keep the equipment in the livingroom where the TV is. I'm happy to keep the equipment in sight all the time, but not in the middle of the floor where it looks like I've just forgotten them there. If you have any hints, I'd love to hear about them.

Gray mood and weather

Got to say that the year 2013 has not started that effectively. I blame the weather. Just before New Year the temperature turned above zero and we've got rain rain rain. It feels like the winter got a sudden stop. It's supposed to get back to freezing in few days. I hope it does, this grayness is killing the spirit. We have not done any sports or been outside much. On the holidays between Christmas and New Year I did read two books and started a third one on the first day of 2013. It too is almost finished. 

My sister also yesterday flew to Netherlands where she will stay for at least six months. She got a job there and could even stay there longer, but she has promised to her self to be there at least the six months so she'll truly know how she feels about living there. While it is very exciting that she has got a job abroad it's also sad that she wont be here close to her family.  I will sure miss her. But a great thing is that we have a plan to visit her there in the spring.

So it seems the first week has been bit gray both weather wise and mentally. Got to perk up.