Monday -.-

A Charming Mass Suicide by Arto Paasilinna

After starting my adventure with Finnish literature with Moomins book, I reached for another Finnish author Arto Paasilinna. I got this book from book exchange otherwise I probably wouldn't bump into it. The title intrigued me:) Although it sounds scary, the book is truely positive. It starts when two men decide to commit suicide and they choose the same place and time for it. When they meet there, they decide to postpone the suicide and moreover they come to an idea that there must be much more people with the same intention in Finland. They send an advertisement to the newspaper and gather a group of desperates who want to finish their life and they set off by bus in a journey through Europe to look for the perfect place to commit mass suicide. The story is a bit predictable but it 'radiates' with positive emotions and it contains considerable dose of black humour:)

The Insurgent Post

I was looking through old photos and found some from my visit in the Warsaw Uprising Museum some 2 years ago. Among them are photos of the letters that people were sending during the Uprising and I thought it might be an interesting topic for mail lovers. Sorry, the photos are not of best quality.

"On 1 August 1944, the Warsaw Uprising was launched that lasted for 63 days involving the civil population, including women and children. Upon its failure, the residents were driven outside the city or placed in camps and the city was razed to the ground. The losses of the civilian population as well as Polish culture were formidable: burnt libraries and museum collections, temples and palaces. Nearly 200 thousand Warsaw residents perished and 84% of the buildings were destroyed". [source]

As soon as the fights started people organized the Scout Field Post (I hope I translated the name well) that was functioning within the limits of Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising. The post was run by volunteers and sending letters was free of charge (although people were willingly "paying" with books, bandages and food for people in hospitals). It produced it's own stamps in 5 different colors for each of 5 districts. The post boxes with the sign "The Insurgent Post" were located in 40 points of the city. The letters were delivered by scout boys and girls. They could contain up to 25 words and were cenzored (there could be no military information in them). Daily were sent from 3 to 6 thousand letters. During the 63 days of the Uprising 200 thousand letters were delivered. It was one of the biggest organisational phenomenas during the Warsaw Uprising, functioning in extreme circumstances.

In those letter people were writing mostly about their situation, if they are alright and asking for health of their relatives and saying that they're missing them.

If you ever visit Warsaw don't miss the Warsaw Uprising Museum:) It's organised in a very interesting way, even for those that are not particularly interested in history.

Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson

 [source]

The first book that I read this year was... Moominland Midwinter by Finnish author Tove Jansson. Surprisingly, Moomins are not known everywhere but in Poland this was very popular cartoon when I was a kid. Somewhere inside, although the number of candles on birthday cake is growing dangerously, I am still a kid and love fairytales. And Moominland Midwinter is just perfect story for this time of the year.

Moomins fall into winter hibernation each year but this time the Moomintroll wakes up suddenly in the middle of the winter and cannot fall asleep anymore. His family sleeps soundly, Snufkin is gone till spring and the world outside is... lost under the deep duvet of snow. Reading this story is like discovering winter once again because that's what Moomintroll does, only he does it for the first time in life. Lonely at first, he soon becomes accompanied by a bunch of little creatures and animals that come to his house in search for shelter... and strawberry jam. Moomintroll, in the beginning miserable about the winter, slowly accustoms to it and maybe even starts to like it. Sounds nice, huh?:)

I have also made quite a discovery (that is probably nothing new to those who read Moomins stories but it is new to me). As a kid I only watched the cartoon and never read the books before. Now who watched it too, put your hands up if you were scared of The Groke!

Turns out this scary Groke, my childhood fear is not a bad creature. She's just lonely! She looks for warmth but wherever she comes everything freezes. No wonder noone wants to be close to her. Poor Groke:( *hug*

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Birthday stationery + more stamps

It was my Birthday this month and I generally don't show the gifts I get but I decided to make exception this time because I was really amazed with this marvelous stationery set! The paper is thick, smooth and shiny which unfortunatelly is not visible in the photo. It's really professional stationery set... which my dear amiga Sharonita designed and made for me by herself!

She hopes I will use but it's so beautiful that I am afraid I will have blockade to spoil it with my handwriting and what's worse - part with it! O.O

Maybe I'll just affix it with 'Look but don't touch' warning and leave it for myself :P

Also, although I'm not yet out of stamps, I ordered new ones because most of the ones I've had  were of the inconvinient value and all of the same. I needed bigger variety to match the needed prices of letters and here's what I got :D I could spend hours on philatelic shop's site *w*