Bägilätkällä Tapiolassa

Näin kauniina maanantaina oli helppo päätös karata ajoissa konttorilta ja mennä pelaamaan kierros golfia töiden tekemisen sijaan. Tälle viikolle tuli Bägilätkä tarjous Tapiolaan ja Vuosaareen, joten päätin mennä katsastamaan Tapiola Golfin, tai kuten pahat kielet sanovat: Mankkaan kaatopaikka golfin, kunnon. Kenttä sinäänsä mielenkiintoinen keskellä Espoon kiireellistä talousaluetta ja viime lokakuussa kävin siellä edellisen ja ensimmäisen kerran. Muistikuvana oli linkshengen mukaisesti kumpuilevat väylät sekä griinit ja noin miljoona bunkkeria. Muistikuvani ei pettänyt. :)

3. väylä. Nosto griinille ja 15 cm pirkkuputti

Lähtö oli tänään 10. reijältä ja pelikaverini tiesi kertoa, että lähtöteetä vaihdellaan “vaihtelun vuoksi”. Tätä mä en ymmärrä. Kenttä on kuitenkin suunniteltu pelattavaksi tietyllä tavalla, joten miksi mennä sitä sotkemaan? Muutenkin etuysi on mielestäni helpompi pelata ja väylät hahmottaa, joten sopii myös siksi kierroksen avaukseksi. Nyt sitten käytiin väylillä 10.-12. vähintään yhdessä bunkkerissa per väylä. 18. väylällä sekä avaus että lähestyminen löysivät beachin.  Olisiko nämä ollut vältettävissä, jos olisi pelannut ensin etuysin? Tarina ei sitä kerro, mutta lyönnit (39 + 53) kertoavat omaa selkeetä kieltä.

Selkeästi kovin laiskaa porukkaa kiertää kenttää ympäri. Hiekalta lyödään kyllä, mutta haravaa ei monessakaan bunkkerissa oltu jaksettu käyttää.

Avaukset snadisti karkailivat, mutta pallo löytyi helposti joka kerta. Kenttä oli erittäin kova ja monin paikoin jopa liian kuiva. Myös tuuli puhlalsi hetkittäin kovaa vastaan. Toisinaan se taas toi paljon extraa hyvien pomppujen lisäksi. Etäisyyksiä oli vaikea hahmoittaa, kun kentällä ei ole yhtään puuta ja kumpuileva muoto tekee haasteellista arvioida jäljellä olevaa matkaa. Pitänee varmaan käydä ostamassa etäisyysmittari tai pelata kenttää useammin.

Varma par väylällä 13. 

Griinit olivat huippukunnossa ja monitasoisuuksista huolimatta olivat puttilinjat sekä -voimakkuudet helposti hahmotettavissa. 15. griinillä tuli taiteiltua neljän putin arvoisesti, mutta muuten kierrokseen mahtui seitsemän yhden putin griiniä (yhteensä 31 puttia). Kuusi paria ja kaksi pirkkua jätti alun tahmeuden jälkeen hyvä maun kierrokseen.

Kentän green fee taso (68 €) on mielestäni liian korkea huomioiden kentän kokonaisuutena. Kunnollisen pukuhuoneen ja klubitalon puute varmasti karsii vieraspelaajien tuomia euroja. Mikäli alennettu hinta olisi arkisin 40 € luokkaa kävisin useammin kylässä.

Tänään kierrokseen meni 2,5 tuntia, mikä on mukavan nopeaa iltapäivän kierrokseksi (lähtö 13.10) ja olisikohan kentällä ollut lisäksemme alle 20 muuta pelaajaa. Edullisemmalla hinnalla varmasti löytyisi lähialueen business parkeista enemmänkin pelaajia nauttimaan alkukesän auringosta.

Turn the page -100 days challenge

With the New Year comes the much needed change. For a longer time I have been thinking about the ways to get myself to exercise more. I am not too large, but could easily loose a couple of kilos and enjoy life more and be more active. 

My target is to loose 10% of my body weight within the next 100 days. At the same time my body fat percentage should be 20% at the end of the period. The target is quite ambitious, but I still think it should be doable.

1. Writing up the weight each morning, just like Urho Kekkonen did.

2. Drinking a glass of water with each cup of coffee (beer and wine). And actually at any given occasion. :)

3. No more junk food. More healthier lunches and dinners. I am really bad for eating in the morning, but I will have some kind of breakfast each day,

4. Exercise more outdoors. That is plain and simple. Not just for being fitter, the fresh air does really good

As there is no snow in Helsinki yet, cross-country skiing will be added to the agenda at some latter point. But I will take part at the Winter Run on the 7th March. 5 km to be done. Luckily +Neila Rey has the perfect program for that. 5K, here I come! :)

5. Daily push-ups, squats, sit-ups and planks. 

The future starts now!

Jolla part 2

The latest update on Sailfish OS to 1.0.2.5 was really good. I tried to update the device on the 27th December as it was released and had only problems. The store was overloaded and I was close to throw the Jolla out of the window!

Yesterday I managed to get the device updated and did my first visit to Yandex store as well. Now I have a phone, that is connected to both Jolla's and Yandex's stores and Twitter and Waze running on the device. Fousquare App does not work on Sailfish, but other than that, I have now a cool phone for surfing and quit times. I have not connected my email to sync with the phone.

To use Jolla on a daily basis and I would need the native Google Apps. My daily life runs on those. Of course I could take a Nexus tablet with me and use Jolla just as a phone. You know, for calling and text messaging. Just like in the good old days! ;)

Sailing with Jolla

I received my Jolla yesterday. It looks sleek, unique and cool. I did pre-order it on May 20th, so there has been a long waiting period and high hopes. Social Media has been full with teasers of the new phone throughout the whole summer and autumn.

 It takes a while to get used to Sailfish OS, but all settings can be found easily and you can have tons of individual settings for your phone. Some of the features needs to be googled in order to find out what to do. The user guide is not the best one.

Jolla store has the “main” applications available and I did not (yet) create a Yandex account. That needs to be explored later on. All Android apps should work on the device, but I have not tried to figure out how to get them all up and running.

 My problem with Jolla is that, I have gone Google. Both at work and in the private life. I need the native Gmail, Google Calendar, Plus, Hangouts and Google Authenticator application. Without those I cannot work. I have been using Android for three years now and also had an iPhone for the past 1,5 years. On those OS these applications work fine.

 I got my Google account run on Jolla. Contacts were synchronized easily and connection to Gmail was enabled via IMAP. So 90's. ;) here was a Outlook App available for Sailfish, but not yet for Gmail. The push functionality is needed in today's hectic life.

I will definitely give Jolla a new try later on. I like the phone, just need to get all needed apps running on the OS. As of now, it is not the one for me.

Bose QC 15

I bought today the really great Bose´s noise cancelling headphones. I have received recommendations to do so several times, but now I finally managed to finally get them. They are just exellent! I wish to have bought them previously.  That was money well spend. :)

Trust me on this one: Go get yours today!

Mahdox Surf

My Carpe Diem moment was, while visiting Philippines, a surf training at Mahdox. 

I have never surfed before. Once for many many years ago I have tried wind surfing. That lasted for max 20 mins and i gave up. I have also tried Snowboarding in my youth and as every youngster in the 80’s I had a skateboard. All of these are now in past tense. Surfing might be for the future as well.

I took the JoyBus from Manila to Baler. It is a long ride, but I guess the best way to make the trip. I just takes 5+ hours through winding roads. You might be able to sleep or not. In the darkness you will not see the scenery anyway.

I stayed over at Mahdox Backdoor and had one hour lessons for each day. I was fun! It was also very physical. I found out new muches in my body. Mikaele, my instructor, took good care of me and on the first waves I managed to ride to the shore. That felt great! Of course many times I did fell to the water. Nevertheless I have surfed on the waves of the great Pacific Ocean.

Baler is a small coastal town with locals. Not too many tourist find their way there. I was probably the only foreigner there. The small restaurants on the beach had great food for really cheap prices. They just opened a high class hotel, so the prices are likely to go up. If you are planning to surf, check out Mahdox and Baler. You get your moneys worth.

The Wing

My travel experience was just lifted to another level. I flew from London to Hong Kong on my way to Manila. The upper deck on 747 was truly nice and the BA staff took good care of me. The sleeper bed/chair was a little too short for me, but I managed to snooze away a few hours of the flight. Couple of movies and a few glasses of Champagne was not bad at all.

At the Cathay Pacific lounge the experience was lifted to another level. I have been to several louges in my life, byt this one is perfectly cleen and the staff maitaines the place without any remarks. Having a cold beer and a hot shower is a really cool thing to do on a layover. Not enough time to visit the city, but great way to spend some time on a busy airport.