January 27th 2002 I left Finland

I have dated this to the day when I left Finland for Singapore, January 27th 2002 but I am writing this 15 years later.  I live now in Vietnam, in a small village with tropical fruits, small rivers and channels in the Mekong delta area. The Lunar New Year is coming on 28th.  On January 28th 2002, 15 years ago I arrived for the first time in my live in tropics. First ever touch with tropics and Asia was in Bangkok. It was only for an hour. Then we continued to Singapore where I settled in.  The year 2002 was a remarkable turning point in my life. Something that I could never have expected, happened. I haven't turned back yet but the adventurous is going on. or at least life is going on. 

I had a very nice apartment in the Eastern Helsinki, in the suburb of Vuosaari   I wasn't renting and I hadn't bought the apartment, until of about 60 sqm. I paid about 20% of the value of the apartment as the membership fee of a housing co/operative, and got the right to rent my apartment for cheaper than I would rent a similar place on the rental market. In Finnish the term asumisoikeusasunto refers to buying the right to live there. 

It was really a nice place:  a small bedroom separately and then big livingroom and a kitchen on one side of it.  I divided the room with a desk that I had constructed the Multiplan shelving elements that I bought in ISKU shops in Helsinki.  On the desk was my computer and peripherals, then into it I had embedded a space for a serve computer and other stuff that I wanted to hide.   I was watching TV so I had a huge TV set nearby. I actually did not see much on the screen but at least I heard something when I was working on my computers.  When the September 11th terror attacks took place in New York I was tuning a server to be put inside the counter. 

On the other side of my workstation counter was the kitchen table, just a few steps away from my office chair.  Behind it there was the kitchen itself, a good oven, dishwasher, fridge. I usually cooked my own food, especially during the last year 2001 in this apartment because I had decided to eat healthier and lose weight, even reduce smoking and eventually quit it. 

Finnish houses are almost airtight, well insulated against the cold weather outside.