10 Helsinginkatu: New neighbours by Thanos Kalamidas
24 January 2009
So suddenly, after three years in this neighbourhood, I was getting to some kind of action. I don\'t know if I mentioned it before but I am the stereotype of a city boy. I love pollution and I love the neurotic movement of the big cities... |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 5 by Thanos Kalamidas
31 January 2009
Four hours after I came out for another cigarette everything looked as though the big move was over. The big truck had left and the cars looked more carefully parked... |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 6 by Thanos Kalamidas
04 February 2009
I was in the pub the other day with Richard and Marc when a man, who I had the feeling I\'d seen too many times before, entered carrying a small red box and talking on his mobile phone. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 7 by Thanos Kalamidas
08 February 2009
We were still in the Sport\'s Pub drinking our lagers slowly and waiting for another friend to join us so we could move all together to the next pub. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 8 by Thanos Kalamidas
11 February 2009
I pretended leaving so Marc wouldn\'t feel uncomfortable following the other two upstairs where the other members of the lonely hearts club was waiting and when I reached the bar on the ground floor turned and ordered another bourbon. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 9 by Thanos Kalamidas
14 February 2009
As I said, I very rarely hear my mobile and it was pure luck that I heard the sound and I felt the vibration this time, modern mobiles, along with the noise, vibrate as well, which reminded me that I had turned the sounds on... |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 10 by Thanos Kalamidas
18 February 2009
Over the next few days I was a bit busy, nothing really serious since I\'m free-license in my work and I don\'t speak Finnish which means I\'m never really busy but I\'m fine somehow with it. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 11 by Thanos Kalamidas
22 February 2009
Marc was continuing his usual excuses about me having misunderstood his music taste and I was watching Leena walking fast just on the other side of the glass window. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 12 by Thanos Kalamidas
25 February 2009
Why every time you have a problem the last thing you always think to do is the obvious? I had spent already a couple days thinking about the bloody ring and I had come without any answers... |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 13 by Thanos Kalamidas
04 March 2009
It was pure coincidence that until a few months ago I knew very little about MS. I just knew that it was leading to some kind of paralysis and it was pretty painful until a friend called me late one evening from Greece with tears and in a near hysteric co |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 14 by Thanos Kalamidas
07 March 2009
Risto is a morning person which means that I was expecting his mail with the answer to come sometime early in the morning so I started checking my mails just after seven every morning. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 15 by Thanos Kalamidas
10 March 2009
We ended up in the same place again drinking cappuccino and eating cinnamon buns. Lately I have the feeling that we are like a long-time married couple, we have said all the important things so we know what each other thinks without talking about it... |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 16 by Thanos Kalamidas
14 March 2009
\"Pieteri! That\'s his name!\" Leena said laughingly when I asked the name of my neighbour who was trying to learn French! \"Oh, it\'s a long story but when he was young a car hit him somewhere near the supermarket...\" |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 17 by Thanos Kalamidas
18 March 2009
Over the last twelve years I have had a plan for a book. These twelve years I have written anything you can imagine except my book, which was supposed to be the main plan. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 18 by Thanos Kalamidas
20 March 2009
So there was something going on between those two, obviously! The way she was walking next to him, somehow trying to be part of his air made me sure that here was a woman in love. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 19 by Thanos Kalamidas
25 March 2009
\"Hi, I remember you don\'t speak Finnish!\" she said with a beautiful smile on her face. \"Hi!\" I answered back surprised. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 20 by Thanos Kalamidas
31 March 2009
I tried not to think about the invitation for the rest of the day and just ignored all the little voices and my imagination that was trying hard to build up some kind of story. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 21 by Thanos Kalamidas
04 April 2009
Back in the seventies, when we were talking about drugs and how to deal with the whole increasing phenomenon, we always blamed somebody else and not our system to deal with the phenomenon, the information and the education. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 22 by Thanos Kalamidas
11 April 2009
I just wish there was a way to see when somebody is a crook! I mean I had this strange feeling about the man with the red ring, I knew that there was something wrong with me and that he was not good news but how could I say that? |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 23 by Thanos Kalamidas
16 April 2009
And here I was sitting in front of a small coffee table with three cups of coffee, well one cup and two big mugs with a heart design on them. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 24 by Thanos Kalamidas
23 April 2009
I\'m not in that school that believes that a strong handshake shows the man but somehow Juha\'s handshake was not what I expected. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 25 by Thanos Kalamidas
30 April 2009
I was still on the same cup of coffee, I suppose that I drink my coffee very slowly has something to do with the fact that I smoke. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 26 by Thanos Kalamidas
04 May 2009
This time I had to go out for a cigarette and thankfully Juha didn\'t follow but Leena followed me. She obviously doesn\'t smoke but I suppose she was trying to be a good hostess. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 27 by Thanos Kalamidas
13 May 2009
And when I arrived at the platform, guess who was there in her coat and small glasses, looking at me as I came out from the station: Leena! \"Hi again!\" she said with this funny Finnish accent that makes everything so flat! |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 28 by Thanos Kalamidas
17 May 2009
While at \'Baker\'s\' I tried to write down some of my thoughts about the whole thing but nothing could come in mind, it was the blood ring there and it was the alcohol abuse, it was Leena who, for a reason I could not understand, wanted me to accept Juha |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 29 by Thanos Kalamidas
20 May 2009
Kiasma has a nice cafe downstairs and I go there sometimes mainly because I can combine a coffee with a visit to the museum\'s bookshop. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 30 by Thanos Kalamidas
22 May 2009
I have to admit that this is not the first time I hear similar stories but till now it was always from men and that somehow makes it different, coming from a woman especially a woman who carried a young baby... |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 31 by Thanos Kalamidas
29 May 2009
I have problems with waking up in the morning and I have had this problem all my life. I think I have mentioned it before, so when my doorbell rings at seven thirty in the morning it is not the best time for me... |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 32 by Thanos Kalamidas
05 June 2009
Is Juha at home? Is he alright? I thought this was the best way to make it look like I was ignoring her bruised eye. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 33 by Thanos Kalamidas
09 June 2009
So I was full of contradicting thoughts, from one side I could see what Helena had said the other day, that Juha was just a big bullshitter, I could get angry with him every time the bruised eye crossed my mind... |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 34 by Thanos Kalamidas
06 July 2009
The chicken was just too dry and the thin slice of feta in the middle didn\'t help much, the oven potatoes were not cooked enough and coriander is not a herb Greeks use, oregano is the herb used for oven potatoes. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 35 by Thanos Kalamidas
27 July 2009
Coffee was ready in a minute and mine had no alcohol in it this time. I had already explained to her in detail that due to my health condition and all the medication I take, alcohol is something I should avoid most of the time. Juha, on the other hand, di |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 36 by Thanos Kalamidas
31 July 2009
Watching people around me, or just those walking on the streets, has always been something I like doing. Sometimes I wish there was a kind of camera, a small and good one that could take really good photos; a camera that I could always carry with me and p |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 37 by Thanos Kalamidas
06 August 2009
I was sitting there, not being able to say a word, feeling like somebody had thrown a glass of cold water at my face. Leena sat on the other side of the table, having a cup of herbal tea in front of her and a thin smile on her face. \"It was Juha\'s idea! |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 38 by Thanos Kalamidas
18 August 2009
Of course there was somebody else who talked to me on my way out of the mall after Leena\'s news, and of course it was Leena, the other Leena, my other neighbour. Half a cigarette had somehow calmed me down, so when I felt somebody watching me, I turned a |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 39 by Thanos Kalamidas
20 August 2009
Actually she suggested it herself! Well, not bourbon, but definitely whisky. So there we were, the two of us drinking in the afternoon. Two handicapped people, one with a glass of whisky and the other with bourbon. And all this despite the strict restri |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 40 by Thanos Kalamidas
14 September 2009
Juha had managed to wake up everybody\'s monsters, and as I found out very soon, he had also woken up his own monster. When I stepped out on my patio early in the morning for my first cigarette, Leena was waiting with a hot cup of coffee in her hands. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 41 by Thanos Kalamidas
22 September 2009
\"I don\'t know! He left! He went to his children!\" This was the only thing Leena managed to say after half an hour with tears still running on her face. I didn\'t dare to ask what had happened and how it had started but she answered. |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 42 by Thanos Kalamidas
26 September 2009
I was devastated, I had spent my entire evening trying to sort out the puzzle of tens of photos, pictures and watercolours, trying to find the right frames for each of them and putting them back together. I had two black rubbish bags and dozens of pieces |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 43 by Thanos Kalamidas
09 October 2009
For the next few days I was pretty busy and I think intentionally I tried to put Leena in the back of my mind. Marc was in one of his dark moods again complaining about everything and everybody and mainly because he couldn\'t buy anymore DVDs lately! Late |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 44 by Kate G.
15 October 2009
\"I thought it would be a good idea for us to sit together somewhere ...neutral!\" These were Leena\'s words while she was moving from my side of the table to the opposite side to sit next to Juha who had finished with his black liquid and was already hal |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 45 by Thanos Kalamidas
07 November 2009
Sometimes writing what happened nearly a year ago I mix events and naturally things happening to me today with the events that occurred a year ago. This moment I’m sitting in front my computer watching the snow outside, something that fascinates me |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 46 by Thanos Kalamidas
15 November 2009
I think I have said it before but it is so strange when the victim of some kind of injustice is close to do comparing it with similar cases you hear or read in the papers. When you read about domestic violence victims in the newspaper you have the luxury |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 47 by Thanos Kalamidas
17 February 2010
Leena, can you understand that ...something must change? I asked quite suddenly watching her drinking slowly her tea. \"You mean with Juha?\" she asked and I nodded. \"Yes, I know that something must change!\" she said with a sigh, \"I loved him!\" she ad |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 48 by Thanos Kalamidas
18 April 2010
As I was saying in the last episode I was standing in front of Leena\'s house trying to light a cigarette when I felt something happening on my left and I saw my cigarette flying in the air. The pain came after and it was bad. It started from my arm and h |
10 Helsinginkatu: Chapter 49 by Thanos Kalamidas
23 April 2010
It was early evening and the sun was still up in the sky. The snow had melted and a rain a few days ago had taken the last bits of the white patches here and there. What was left was only the sand and the rocks they had spay all around to protect people f |
| |
Newsletter
Subscribe
Contact
Search
