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EESTI ELU reedel, 20. mail 2022 — Friday, May 20, 2022
Seedrioru camp workday and daycamp was a huge success
On Saturday, May 14, the Es ton ian Child ren’s Summer Camp Seedrioru hosted a special camp prepara
tion workday, in that the camp was able to offer a daycamp that allowed children to be come familiar with the camp’s activities and property, while allowing the parents to take part in the workday
without having to worry about child care. All of this was possible because Seed rioru had successfully obtained financial support from the integration foundation (Integratsiooni Sih tasutus) of the foreign ministry of the Republic of Estonia. By all accounts, the event was a huge success – over 100 people took part in jobs to help prepare the camp property for the upcoming summer, while the children’s day camp had over 50 attendees. The camp’s kitchen volunteers had prepared a magnificent lunch and dinner for the children and volunteer workers and the evening ended with a traditional bonfire. Upcoming events at Seed rioru include the traditional Suvihari summer event, which takes place on the July 1-3 long weekend. The children’s sum mer camp will be running for 4 weeks, starting on Sunday July 10, 2022. In addition to the regular 7-day per week over night camp, there will also be a daycamp running from Monday to Friday for those children who do not yet wish to stay at camp overnight. Camp registra tion is already under way, with reduced camp fees available for those who register before May 31, 2022. Further information can be found on the Seedrioru website, www.seedrioru.com. MARTIN KIIK Photos: Kairi West and Martin Kiik
Number of foreign tourists visiting Estonia rose substantially in March ERR, May 2022 The number of tourists staying overnight in Estonia increased by 276 percent last month compared to March 2021, data from Statistics Estonia shows.
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Singing to beat the blues The slimster has for decades had a bad habit. Crooning, or outright belting out classic songs that reflect positive feelings to the significant other. Never as frequently, though, as during the last two years. Such a practice certainly deflects the angst that our world is generating. This admittedly selfish be haviour is usually tolerated, sometimes even liked. Vabarna Volli provided a recent inspira tion: his Oh sa poiss causerie column inspired the lean one to start singing the first verse of that number until the inevitable took place. Get lost is better than shaddup. Which happens as well at times. The problem with singing is that the song often becomes an earworm. A topic that is not new. An insidious, quietly present noise in the sub conscious, often pealing with repeats. And it will not go away, unless the radio is turned on or a CD is chosen to drive away the otic nematode. The gracile guy has quite the repertoire. Mostly North American. Hence in English, but a fair bit in Estonian too from his misbegotten youth, classics from the past, dating back even to the 19th century. And a few German numbers as well. (In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus is certain to irri tate. Being a wisenheimer occasionally is part and parcel of a solid relationship…) However, usually encourage ment is to croon the song Far, far away. Responding with Bei mir bist du schön does not count, apparently, for the lyrics are in English to a Yiddish melo dy. Oh well. Das ist mir egal. The internet is a bane, a pox on humanity – yet a necessary evil. Social media proves the evil part, but there is no deny ing the good side. Research and entertainment. The wannabe Bing Crosby has an old friend, meaning three quarters of a century have passed since he appeared on this orb. Now he is using Facebook to share his love of old songs. Posts a song with a theme on weekday mornings, usually from the 50s, 60s, but sometimes newer. The splinter was intrigued, regret ting that principles were against signing up for that networking and communication site. But the offer was kindly made to
have the song of the day emailed, which was gratefully accepted. Many wonderful tunes that had been lost from memory have thus been resur rected. And, alas, sometimes also becoming a daily presence in the mind. A couple of weeks were devoted to Bobbys, singers with that first name. A telephone request was made for Bobby “Blue” Bland and was recipro cated. Which of course led to an hour of life wasted on YouTube, a great source of old music and wonderful for banishing the blues. Not Bobby Bland, of course. Once again a phone call was made, in the course of which the slimster asked the man with an encyclopaedic memory for songs – who sang You must have been a beautiful baby? (Which of course is part of the domestic song cycle, especially in the mornings when she is tousled, grumpy, and waiting for her coffee.) Turned out that it was Bing Crosby. Leading to YouTube, of course. Bobby Darin – fitting the theme, covered that wonderful song. Yet Mr. Darin had already been featured. The Michael Bublé version is OK, but nothing compares to the 1938 original. Do check it out. YouTube is, alas, addictive. Just like Google, they know what you have listened to, and make recommendations, as well as other recordings by the chosen artist. But hey, during the pandemic, trying to dis tance, what better way to spend time after quotidian responsi bilities have been fulfilled. Which leads us back to the beginning, and Oh sa poiss. Ivo Linna’s fine recording of this jaunty number can be found on YouTube. Iff stays true to the lyrics, which, admittedly, are a little risqué toward the end. Meie Mees, on the other hand, goes Weird Al. Their sly changes, additions merit careful listening, bringing a smile for sure. Both versions are recom mended for those who are not familiar with this song, adapted to a German reinlender tune. Certainly music, song is the best way to banish any stress, anxiety, and negative emotions. Whether singing by oneself, to others or spending time with classic recordings, a sure-fire recipe for feeling good.
In March, 192,000 tourists stayed in accommodation estab lishments in Estonia. Of those, 77,000 people were travelers from abroad and 116,000 were domestic tourists. “The number of foreign tour ists has not yet reached the pre-pandemic level, but it was only 38 percent smaller than that. In March 2021, there were just 8,700 foreign tourists. The number of domestic tourists set a new record, just like in January this year,” said Helga Laurmaa, analyst at Statistics
Estonia. Domestic tourists spent a total of 197,000 nights in accommodation establishments. 68 percent of domestic tourists were on vacation and 23 percent were on business trips. The biggest share of domes tic tourists (34 percent) stayed in Harju County, followed by 15 percent in Pärnu County, 14 percent in Tartu County and 10 percent in Ida-Viru County. Lääne-Viru, Saare and Valga counties each accommodated 5 percent of domestic tourists.
OTEPÄÄ SLIM
