Thanks a lot for your Christmas-letter which was waiting for us when we returned last Saturday from two weeks of holidaying in Lanzarote over Christmas and The New Year. Happy New Year to all of you too! It was nice to read about what you have been up to lately and that all is so very well with all of you.
I already thought of writing you before Christmas but as I was too busy trying to arrange everything at work, and at home, I had to postpone me contacting you up until now. Well I could of course have been writng from Lanzarote but nowadays I prefer to use a computer, it works much better and is easier to decipher. Hope You don't mind.
Yes, we moved "back" to Åland in June last year in order to see how to cope with living here after too many years in Helsinki. We had been talking quite a lot about moving quarters as Helsinki to us does not seem to be the ideal place to grow up or die in. Anni turned 7 in September and was about to start school. I had plans of trying to get a job in Copenhagen but they were of a different opinion there, on who to give the job as a advisor on kid's culture Nordically. So when the opportunity of getting a better-paid job in Mariehamn (pop. 10.477) than the one I had been struggling with for almost 14 years at the Vantaa City Library I grabbed the chance after much hesitation, and applied for the position as director of culture and libraries here in my old home town. They wanted me to come so I made up my mind to give it a try. Riitta was eager to make a move. Anni had a chance to start school (class 1) in a new town. And I think that my mother is happy to see more of me and my family. The opportunity of dropping by my mother's place regularly to check how she is doing gives me pleasure too..
As for the job I have been trying to function as a human "boss" now for 7 months and it seems to be going quite O.K. I never actually thought that I would be in charge of what 23 women and 2 men are doing, but then again it gives me a lot of chances to put many ideas into practice. I started by working hard all summer getting into the job and in August I had to do the budget for 1999. And here we are in 99 and 5% more money to spend on books, records, concerts, exhibitions etc. It really is a nice library we have here in Mariehamn, everybody says so. Some call it the most beautiful around. The IT is quite well developed as well so if you want to take a closer look, please click on www.mhbibl.aland.fi.
We were lucky to find a house for rent in the northern suburbs of town about half an hour walk, 7 mins by bike, away from the library. We sold our house in Helsinki and even made a small profit so now we are looking for a house or plot more centrally situated. Most probably we will find something before year 2000. That's what we hope for, Riitta and I. Anni is very pleased with her school and the neighbours. She has already got some very good friends. Riitta started her life here by going to a summercourse in order to improve her Swedish and since September she has been studying Art at Ålands folkhögskola in order to learn more and be able to apply for some kind of work here where everybody speaks Swedish. She was giving "Zonterapi" on and off and worked as cultural producer for Helsinki City before we moved here.
Already before moving here I was doing programs on World Music for the local station Ålands Radio/TV. I will go on to do that at least until next summer. "Varma vindar" is the name of my one-hour-show broadcast biweekly Friday mornings at 10 . The program is reprised on the same Friday night at 10 and then again on Sunday at 15:00 hrs. Working with music brings me a lot of joy and in August (12-14) there will be a big Nordic World Fest here in Mariehamn with Asian, African and Latin-American artists from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland as well as some "real" tropical bands from Africa and The Carribbean. There will also be workshops on African drumming (Senegal). Something for you Paul? I hope to announce the final program by the end of February so please keep ears and eyes open. The Nordic Council of Ministries already supported the Fest with DKK 300.000 so it is definitely ON!
I bought a tenor sax just before Christmas and blow a bit every day. By the end of the year I will be able to blow "Redemption Songs" beautifully. That's my New Years promise. Anni got a piano for Christmas and Riitta has a flute so we’ll be a joyful harmonious musical family by the year 2000 we hope.
I still work internationally with children's literature and went to New Delhi for 11 days in September to be re-elected for another 2 years as the Nordic representative in the executive committee of IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People). A week of Congress: speeches, seminars, meetings, exhibitions and social gatherings and then I stayed for another 4 days. On the first one of these I went to Taj Mahal. Well you have to, and now I understand why. Then I spent three days on my own walking around Delhi snap-shotting pics that I exhibited for two weeks in late October at the library in Mariehamn. IBBY-work gives me quite a lot of opportunities to travel. Next autumn we will meet inTokyo and the next congress will be in Colombia, Carthagena in 2000. Every spring we meet in Bologna to discuss matters concerning children's books internationally.
John is really into making films at the moment, and has been for the last 2 years. He will be working on a 8 mm film with his friend Elias Lehtinen for three full months now until the end of March. He took a lot of extra lessons and courses in school last fall in order to be able to take time off now in the winter to make his plans on making an 15 minute action movie on 8 mm come true. He is very dedicated it seems. It is a shame though that he is not able to come here for the period of shooting the movie as he is up in the middle of Finland at the summer-cottage of his pal. Last fall he was here almost every other week. I will try to get him a job here for the summer. He will turn 17 in February, believe it or not!
We all wish you all the best for 1999 and hope to see you before the shift of the millenium.
Time to come up North!
Tom + family
I already thought of writing you before Christmas but as I was too busy trying to arrange everything at work, and at home, I had to postpone me contacting you up until now. Well I could of course have been writng from Lanzarote but nowadays I prefer to use a computer, it works much better and is easier to decipher. Hope You don't mind.
Yes, we moved "back" to Åland in June last year in order to see how to cope with living here after too many years in Helsinki. We had been talking quite a lot about moving quarters as Helsinki to us does not seem to be the ideal place to grow up or die in. Anni turned 7 in September and was about to start school. I had plans of trying to get a job in Copenhagen but they were of a different opinion there, on who to give the job as a advisor on kid's culture Nordically. So when the opportunity of getting a better-paid job in Mariehamn (pop. 10.477) than the one I had been struggling with for almost 14 years at the Vantaa City Library I grabbed the chance after much hesitation, and applied for the position as director of culture and libraries here in my old home town. They wanted me to come so I made up my mind to give it a try. Riitta was eager to make a move. Anni had a chance to start school (class 1) in a new town. And I think that my mother is happy to see more of me and my family. The opportunity of dropping by my mother's place regularly to check how she is doing gives me pleasure too..
As for the job I have been trying to function as a human "boss" now for 7 months and it seems to be going quite O.K. I never actually thought that I would be in charge of what 23 women and 2 men are doing, but then again it gives me a lot of chances to put many ideas into practice. I started by working hard all summer getting into the job and in August I had to do the budget for 1999. And here we are in 99 and 5% more money to spend on books, records, concerts, exhibitions etc. It really is a nice library we have here in Mariehamn, everybody says so. Some call it the most beautiful around. The IT is quite well developed as well so if you want to take a closer look, please click on www.mhbibl.aland.fi.
We were lucky to find a house for rent in the northern suburbs of town about half an hour walk, 7 mins by bike, away from the library. We sold our house in Helsinki and even made a small profit so now we are looking for a house or plot more centrally situated. Most probably we will find something before year 2000. That's what we hope for, Riitta and I. Anni is very pleased with her school and the neighbours. She has already got some very good friends. Riitta started her life here by going to a summercourse in order to improve her Swedish and since September she has been studying Art at Ålands folkhögskola in order to learn more and be able to apply for some kind of work here where everybody speaks Swedish. She was giving "Zonterapi" on and off and worked as cultural producer for Helsinki City before we moved here.
Already before moving here I was doing programs on World Music for the local station Ålands Radio/TV. I will go on to do that at least until next summer. "Varma vindar" is the name of my one-hour-show broadcast biweekly Friday mornings at 10 . The program is reprised on the same Friday night at 10 and then again on Sunday at 15:00 hrs. Working with music brings me a lot of joy and in August (12-14) there will be a big Nordic World Fest here in Mariehamn with Asian, African and Latin-American artists from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland as well as some "real" tropical bands from Africa and The Carribbean. There will also be workshops on African drumming (Senegal). Something for you Paul? I hope to announce the final program by the end of February so please keep ears and eyes open. The Nordic Council of Ministries already supported the Fest with DKK 300.000 so it is definitely ON!
I bought a tenor sax just before Christmas and blow a bit every day. By the end of the year I will be able to blow "Redemption Songs" beautifully. That's my New Years promise. Anni got a piano for Christmas and Riitta has a flute so we’ll be a joyful harmonious musical family by the year 2000 we hope.
I still work internationally with children's literature and went to New Delhi for 11 days in September to be re-elected for another 2 years as the Nordic representative in the executive committee of IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People). A week of Congress: speeches, seminars, meetings, exhibitions and social gatherings and then I stayed for another 4 days. On the first one of these I went to Taj Mahal. Well you have to, and now I understand why. Then I spent three days on my own walking around Delhi snap-shotting pics that I exhibited for two weeks in late October at the library in Mariehamn. IBBY-work gives me quite a lot of opportunities to travel. Next autumn we will meet inTokyo and the next congress will be in Colombia, Carthagena in 2000. Every spring we meet in Bologna to discuss matters concerning children's books internationally.
John is really into making films at the moment, and has been for the last 2 years. He will be working on a 8 mm film with his friend Elias Lehtinen for three full months now until the end of March. He took a lot of extra lessons and courses in school last fall in order to be able to take time off now in the winter to make his plans on making an 15 minute action movie on 8 mm come true. He is very dedicated it seems. It is a shame though that he is not able to come here for the period of shooting the movie as he is up in the middle of Finland at the summer-cottage of his pal. Last fall he was here almost every other week. I will try to get him a job here for the summer. He will turn 17 in February, believe it or not!
We all wish you all the best for 1999 and hope to see you before the shift of the millenium.
Time to come up North!
Tom + family
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