Lea and Simo live in a self-built detached house in Lieto. They have retired a few years ago, Simo had a long career in the building sector and Lea as a laboratory worker. Now the time passes while doing chores at home, and Lea also does voluntary work and organisational activities. She is also physically active and takes English classes, among others, at the community college.

Simo has always liked work and doing things with his own hands. Nowadays his illness restricts it somewhat, but instead he reads a lot, plays the horse races and sometimes meets his friends at the local pub. The 21-year-old cat Martti and their daughter and her family are an important part of Lea and Simo's life.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Martti the cat woke Lea up with a loud miaow at 6.50 a.m. Lea got up to feed the cat, made herself some coffee and prepared Simo's breakfast; instant oatmeal, yoghurt and bread. She put her gym equipment in her backpack, because the gymnastics group for the seniors would begin at 9.30 a.m. Simo woke up too, read the newspaper and had his breakfast in bed.

"Simo always, well earlier sometimes said, that, that why don't you ever talk all gooey to him and I said that Martti never has an evil word for me, ye-es" –Lea [laughing about Martti the cat]

After the gymnastics Lea ran some errands: she mailed the water meter readings, visited the health care centre to renew a prescription, and stopped by at the canteen of the support for the elderly organisation where she volunteers. The next Sunday, it would be Lea's cooking shift.

"It was a kind of a lifeline that like I don't like just being here at home and clean and organise and sit here and what not. I feel right away, that when I am a little busier at one or the other of them volunteer jobs that I have much more energy in the evening too..." –Lea

At home Lea took some fire wood in, fed the birds and boiled some potatoes to go along the cabbage casserole she had made earlier. In the evening Lea would be going to Turku and she would be home late, so before leaving she had to do her English homework for the next day.

Simo's day at home passed quietly. In the afternoon a friend came to visit and they filled in their weekly racing coupon, after which they went to the pub and dropped the race coupons to the kiosk.

Lea, for her part, did the laundry and began to prepare for the evening and the trip to Turku.

Lea had the Neste senior club meeting at a bar called Old Bank. In the day Lea had been an active member of the recreational society of her work place and now after retiring she was still eager to keep in touch with her old work mates.

On the way home Lea stopped by at a home decoration store to buy some inexpensive hand towels.

They spent the rest of the evening watching TV. Lea watched a soap opera enjoying her licorice with the cat in her lap. Finally, before going to bed, Lea gave the cat some midnight snack, cleaned its eyes and checked that the doors were locked and the lights were off.

Thoughts about everyday life

"The days are just about this normal living and these small things and what comes up each day and the everyday life is comfortable safe – I am happy, content with this everyday life, and I don't want no big changes in it" -Lea

"That [work] is part of human life, isn't it. And when you had the skill and was interested and whenever there was new things, I could keep up with it." –Simo

"So almost every morning I just loved to go to work. It was a lovely walk down the hill to the laboratory, look at the beautiful sea and things and like this. So that, of course it was the money, the money was important too, but I don't think I would have been there if I, if I hadn't really liked it." –Lea

"Back when these minute steaks came and those who knows what and I was working on the road – and I remember once in Porvoo, hell no is there anything there? No proper homely fare here? Yeah, yeah, there's this service station diner, go there. They have really good… So, you always expected to get home and even if [the meal] wasn't perfect it was always better." –Simo

"We may take two or three-day bicycle tours when we ride, we ride for like two hundred and fifty kilometres or so... but like just the short little tours on a whim, I sometimes go with my sister, we hop on our bikes for a bit and when it's a nice weather and then we take a turn there and well let's go there and there and then we look at ourselves and go hey hello we've done thirty kilometres already." –Lea

"If it's a wonderful weather on a summer day – I sure won't waste my summer days cleaning up, but I'll go paddling or cycling or do some yard work. That'll wait for me. – I'll do the laundry every now and then when the basket is full or it's a very nice laundry-drying weather, that is, the lilies of the valley are blossoming, then you need to do all kinds of laundry to get the smell on them." –Lea

"It's pretty important for me, being ecological, so that when you love the nature the ecology comes right along – so I sort out everything there, I have many bins where I put all the different things and a composter and all – which is now frozen but, but well – it is a very very important point to save this world for our coming generations too." –Lea