Life happens + iPads galore

Hello from Helsinki! This is Nord Letter #7. Previous editions can be found here.

Seven editions in, it feels like a good time to define this. What this is and isn't.

This is not edited thought. There is some consideration, of course. But I send this mostly as it is written, barring correcting a few typos. Rearranging a few sentences. Making things simpler. This is not an essay or a story. Those things go through multiple rounds of better-ness, of killing darlings.

This is mostly me pointing at the week that was and saying - 'look, cool stuff!'

Anyway.

Life happens

Or alternatively, some things are in our control; some things aren't.

On Thursday, we had gone out to meet a couple of people who had reached out to Prerna on Facebook. They were new here in Espoo and wanted to make friends. They were volunteers for a church.

We met them at the library. We sat and chatted in the library. Time just went by! We sat there for a couple of hours. It did not feel like it had been two hours.

While returning, I held the door for a woman who entered just after us. She was going to the same floor as us. After living here for more than a year, I was talking to a neighbour!

See there's this joke, that people in Finland live their entire lives without knowing who their neighbour is! I thought this to be true. On Reddit and elsewhere, the general advice is this: find something you enjoy, sport or something. Join a group that does this. Then, maybe, you make some friends.

I was talking to my neighbour and it turned out that she used to work for my employer earlier. Prerna invited her for tea and she said she could never say no to Indian tea.

She joined us. We talked some more. And we made friends with our neighbour!

What is the point of this story?

When the day had started, I had some ideas about how things would go. How the meeting would go with the two women who had reached out to Prerna on Facebook. I was a little apprehensive. I was not sure why they wanted to meet us. We did meet them. And it was a fun conversation.

By the time the day had ended, we had made friends with our neighbour.

There was no plan here. It was out of the blue.

And that is the point. One might want for certain things to happen. In my head, I had formulated how that first conversation with a neighbour would go. But it never went past a moi. Until it did.

Life, happens. Some things we do control. Others we don't.

It's important to recognise which is which and worry accordingly.

Thoughts on the new iPads

On Tuesday, Apple announced new iPads. New iPad Pros with OLED screens and M4 chips. New iPad Airs with M2 chips and a new 13-inch screen size.

I am interested in the iPad Air. There was nothing exciting announced about it. It did not need to be. iPad Air is the better product in the iPad lineup.

How I use the iPad

I wanted to read a certain book. It was very costly on Kindle. It was available for free via a subscription my company provides access to. The problem was there was no way to read this book on Kindle.

So, I booted up the iPad to read this book.

This is my use case. Read books. Look at photographs. (Looking at photographs is perhaps the best use case for an iPad. Phone screens are a little too small. Airplay on TV is OK, but not ideal. iPad is just perfect.)

Potentially,

1. Watch video on the iPad and take Notes on the Mac.
   1. Or, read on the iPad, take Notes on the Mac.
2. Draw on the iPad.

Anyway, I will be getting the iPad Air at some time in the near future. The 11 inch WiFi only, base version. It is more than enough power for what I need it to be. For anything more, there's the Mac.

On Saturday, Indian Women in Finland had organised a food festival. Here are some pictures.

We roamed around a bit after that. Then finally ended the day with a dinner at Swad a new restaurant that had opened up a couple of months back and was rated a very high 4.8 on Google. We were a bit skeptical. Our apprehension was unfounded. The food was glorious. Perhaps the best food I've had since I've arrived here. It is not even close. It did not feel like they had just added stuff to pre-prepared bland gravies. It felt fresh. The spices were just perfect. A great end to a wonderful day.

I am thinking about

There should be different devices for different things, different contexts. So that you know, what you're doing sub-consciously.

If I get on the Mac, I will be working.

If I get on the iPad, I will be reading, or watching video.

If I get on my Phone, I am wasting my time.

I am watching

We watched the Gut documentary on Netflix this past week.

• Highly recommended. Beautiful animations to go with it. Simplifies a ton of stuff. Makes it watchable for the kids as well.
• Gut health is very important. It impacts both our physical and mental well-being.
• One must consume lots of fibre (around 50g per day)
• A varied diet is important as that increases the microbiome health.

That's all for this week. Still sick. See you next week.

Oh and I wrote this poem. Do check it out.