The Art of Golf

At the moment I`m in Thailand, living in Jomtien near Pattaya, and playing golf every now and then in the nearby courses.  Yesterday I played  18 holes in the Pattaya C.C. with Keke and Janne.  And  last week I have been in Emerald C.C. and Pleasant Valley G. & C.C.
Otherwise I like it here, but playing, in the temperature of over 30 degrees centigrade, is a little bit too warm ( or actually hot), and so, even  if you use a car, after a few holes your shirt is wet from sweat.
That´s why I am flying next week to Spain. It might be more expensive to play there, but at least it is cooler there.  I shall stay in Malaga, Torremolinos area, possibly visiting Fuengirola and Marbella.

THE ART OF FLYING THE GLIDER

This summer I have been on a glider flying course in Hyvinkää.  There,in the small airport, the local club (HyIK) has had a course every summer.  Most of the pupils are 15-16 year old boys, but there are a few girls and a few 50-60 year old men also.  I have been flying now almost the whole summer, over 60 flights, but I have not yet got my flying license.  Maybe I get it this month?

However, it is a nice hobby, you are privileged to fly in 1200 meters (4000 feet) over the town where you live and look at the beautiful scenery.  Sometimes I remember how Henry Miller in one of his novels describes his thoughts, when he was looking down from the Empire State Building in New York, and wrote that the people were like human ants, hurrying here and there, everybody having important duties to do, but when you look at them from a distance, you realize their actual non importance in relation to the universe.

St.Patrick´s Day

St. Patrick was celebrated yesterday also here the traditional way, by parade and by drinking Guinness and Kilkenny.

Golf

Yesterday I was playing golf with Keke, a new friend of mine. We went in a minivan with a group of other Finnish players to a club called "Pleasant Valley", which is situated about one hour´s drive from Pattaya. We took a golfcar and two caddie-girls, and it was really a pleasure to play with the help of these two nice young caddies. And the car was good to have to speed up the play and to protect us from the sun (it was about +36 centigrades).

My granddaughter

There was last week a grandparent´s day in the daycare center of my granddaughter, Kaisla Liisi Linnea, in Järvenpää, Finland.

Shadow of the Wind

I just read the last pages of a thick novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The original name of the novel is "La Sombra del Viento". It tells about a young boy, whose father owns a bookshop. The boy gets a mysterious book, and he starts to unravel the fate of the author of this book. And everything happens in Barcelona in the 1930s and 1940s. It is a good book.

Last year I read another book of Barcelona, "Cathedral of the Sea" (La Catedral del Mar) by Ildefonso Falcones. It told about this Spanish town in years 1300-1500. It was also good.

And during my stay in Thailand I happened to found in The Chiangmai White House guesthouse a very good book of Sera Beak: "The Red Book" ( A Deliciously Unorthodox Approuch to Igniting Your Divine Spark).