Miks? WHY are there still so many pipar/koogid (gingerbreads) left?! How on earth can you begin a new tervislik (healthy) režiim in the uus aasta (new year), when there are still so many goodies left over from the pühad (holiday)?!

There are korvi/täied (basketfuls) everywhere, ma de out of the homemade tainas (dough) of various friends and lovingly decorated with glasuur (icing) by so many different hands. So much sweet love. Yet figuratively, these piparkoogid could be seen as kaikad (big sticks) thrown into the kodarad (spokes) of your new 2018 model bicycle.

Luckily takistused (obstacles) can be overcome with mõõdukus (moderation). Make a küpsise/graafik, a cookie schedule. One piparkook with every cup of kohv or tee and soon your burden should be lifted and you could very well be as tunna & spröda as a Swedish gingersnap! In other words "thin & crispy", as the sticker on the tin of små hjärtan (small hearts) states.

FYI: Did you know the basic, nominative (nimetav) case of the noun in Estonian is actually kohv and not kohvi, unlike most languages in which the nominative ends in a vowel. When at a kohvik (café) you ask: "Palun üks KOHV piimaga." (One coffee with milk please.) While the answer to "Mida sa jood?" (What are you drinking?) is "Ma joon kohvi." The latter being in the partitive case (osastav kääne, i.e. "keda/mida?"). Just remember, if you’re talking about the noun in its plain state, what is in the cup, it is kohv, but in most other cases (situations as  well as grammatical cases), its end note smacks familiarly, internationally. A cup  OF coffee is tass kohvi and what is in the cup is kohv.

Riina Kindlam,

Tallinn