Something that happened in Kota Kinabalu during those about 6 weeks I spent there
I did some audio interviews with people and uploaded them to my paid account on Soundcloud.
Later I stopped paying and uploaded those posts to youtube before making them into videos by adding some phottos.
My audio blogging in English, originally from Soundcloud but I stopped paying and it disappeared. Now I put the original sound into youtube with some photos of the time.
Here is what I try to say for the start of the video ... Wishing everybody a Happy Chinese New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai!
This pst is made in 2017 but I date it to 2014. I am located now in Southern Vietnam, geographically not too far away from Borneo, it is just across the sea. Now it is Lunar New Year, here in Vietnam not Chinese, no CNY but TET.
I am happy to be here and happy not to be in Malaysia. 2014 and 2015 I mostly spent in Malaysia but already got to know Vietnam as well. I had a realationship with a Malaysian Chinese lady. It never worked out and I finally accepted it, not earlier than in January 2016.
In 2013 I had made a long walking trip in Australia for farewell to the country that I had migrated to about 12 years earlier and became a citizen in 2007. I had been staying away from there 3 months at a time since 2010. In 2013 I truned 50 years old and got a Wheelie walking trailer that a small company in Holland in manufacturing.
During the trip I was hunting cheap flights online, and found Airasia flight from Melbourne to Kota Kinabalu. So, I left Melbourne in Mid January. I settled in a hotel and later rented a room in KK. I went to do yoga with Gokul Yoga by Jani Jaatinen and enjoyed his teaching a lot. I made some friend in the yoga class and one via Couchsurfing.
I am not adventurous enough to do wild camping in Asia. In Australia and Europe it is safe and convenient but not here
flying Airasia is a pleasure to the eye but not to the stomach. They do not have proper vergan options.
I started using Facebook in October 2007 and have been using it since that time until February 2021 when Facebook deleted my old account with all the memories during those 14 year and many friends all over the World. They did not tell me the exact reason why and did not give me any opportunity to defend myself. They just started asking for verification of my acccount several times a week First they asked me to provide verification code sent by email, then take a photo or video of my face. Finally they asked me to give a verification code sent to my phone number. They provided 3 old phone numbers. I tried to contact their support to explain that I can not verify via phone number. They said that I will have 30 days to verify after which my account will be permanently deleted.
They offered me to create a new account, there was a button for that after I had blocked out of the disabled account. I did and managed to add some of my old friends back but I lost all my posts on my timeline and all posts in numerous Facebook groups. However they provided me all my data for download. That is better but still not the same. Now I am losing many frieds and many memories esspecially with those 5 friends that had their profiles on memorial state.
What did I do to deserve all this agony? Why did Facebook started bullying me? I am devastated and sad. It will take me years to start rebuilding all those documents of my life.
One of our wedding ceremonies in Singapore, October 2002. In the middle there is the Buddhist monk that blessed us and our cats in the presence of 70 cats of MettaCattery cat shelter and a few friends.
In the year 2003 we were living in Townsville, tropical Australia. I was trying to find a new kind of Christmas spirit in the new conditions. Both of us love durian fruit, so it became our new Christmas tradition. There is also a little bit Chinese influence, the red shirt and chopsticks.
November 2nd 2007. After 14 months of growing our first banana plant is finally flowering. Can you see the little baby bananas inside? We might get some bananas from our own garden for Christmas!
Early in the morning there is peace ... well, not so quiet either but lots of tropical and other birds around. You can hear the dogs panting so it is a little bit hot even this early. Taken in Caravonica, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Jyväskylä, Tourukatu 8. 1990 / 1991 ? I was living in this nice wooden house. I paid my rent by maintaining the house and the yard. It was build in the year 1914. During the Second World War the house was almost destroyed by a Russian bomb.
Some memories from Singpapore. This post has been created afterwards using old audio clips and photos. I have just dated it to December 1st 2002 when I had left Singapore for Australia and the big adventure that started in January 2002 was over. My Singaporean wife and myself and our 2 cats moved to Australia.
Embedded audio clip from my tumblr.com blog should open in the windows below.
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.
