Moonlighting in Helsinki...

I landed on schedule at Vantaa and managed to find my car in the car park to drive home. Living in a female dominated household means our cars have tended to get names. My Land Rover Discovery, for example, is known as Disco Dan. So, my Opel Astra, registration number ALG 142, has to be Algy. I was pleased to see him and we drove home on almost empty roads, with the full moon over Helsinki to welcome me back.

Two suitcases came back with me; one contained the Whisky and Green Ginger which I am now sipping, as well as the wireless adapter for my PC, over which I am now writing this post.

Only a week to go before we head off on holiday to do the Golden Triangle in California. I can hardly wait!

Something for the weekend...

Being back in the UK for the second weekend in a row seemed a real treat. After a day working at the office in Farnborough, I had the chance to catch up with a former colleague over a pint of Doom Bar at the Lord Derby in North Warnborough. Then on for a curry with the family at the Shapla to start another great weekend.

We met up with my parents at the Spinnaker Inn near Southampton. Mum and Dad are coming to visit me in Helsinki in September with my sister, so Stephanie and I were able to talk about some of the places to visit. Of course, Dad has already done a lot of research!

Saturday evening was due to be a barbecue with some friends, but the English weather defeated us. I still cooked outside, sheltering under the parasol intended to keep the patio shady, but we ate indoors.

Sunday morning was a surprisingly satisfying mix of chores. There is something reassuring about doing these, which had been my regular weekend routine before I moved to Helsinki. And now, I am in the British Airways lounge at Heathrow, grabbing a few minutes online before boarding my flight to Helsinki. Now it's time to head for gate 22.....

An Englishman in New York...

"In the heart of little old New York, you'll find a thoroughfare.
It's the part of little old New York that runs into Times Square."

In case you don't recognise them, these are the opening lines of the song 42^nd Street. Only a few weeks ago, I was singing these on stage in our village amateur dramatic show. Yesterday I passed 42^nd Street in a taxi on my way back to JFK airport to fly back after my New York visit and I couldn't get that song out of my head! Here I am with Times Square as a backdrop.

The previous evening, I had dinner with some of my new work colleagues at The Striped Bass in Tarrytown. We sat outside on a glorious summer evening for a couple of drinks and then had an excellent meal...too much, of course. I should not have had the Pecan Pie, but it was delicious. Thanks to Laurie for looking after me this week!

Ah well, back on the diet next week.......

Welcome to America...

I arrived into JFK airport in New York on Sunday night for my first ever trip to the Big Apple (or one of the branches of the apple tree, perhaps, as I am visiting White Plains). Apart from feeling slightly nervous that I have brought the torrential UK rain with me, I am feeling a little more tired than usual after the transatlantic flight, courtesy of US Customs & Border Protection.

Our flight landed ahead of schedule around 9pm. At 9.30pm, a Boeing 777 full of passengers were standing in line for the US immigration process, always a somewhat slow but understandably thorough process. However, at 10pm, virtually all of the officers packed up and left their booths at the end of their shift. According to the American Airlines ground staff, the US Federal government is declining to pay overtime to the staff and there was no-one due on after 10pm. I was roughly in the middle of the visitors queue and it took me almost two hours to clear immigration. At least I didn't have to wait for my luggage! My thanks to the few officers who decided to stay on, apparently unpaid, to get us through.

Catching up...

It has been a day for meeting new colleagues and catching up with some old ones. On the train up to London to meet with my new PR agency, I bumped into Georgina Heaume, who was one of my old team's PR placement students a couple of years ago. She has just graduated from Bournemouth University and is looking for a PR job; she was on her way up to town for an interview. If you know anyone who is looking for an enthusiastic and capable PR recruit, let me know.

I arrived a little late for the agency meeting due to dreadful weather and slow trains; the new team were very welcoming. I shall say nothing more about them yet, as they told me they were already reading this blog!

Afterwards, I met with a former boss for lunch. Valerie Di Maria is now SVP & group marketing and communications director for Willis. It was great to catch up with her; we both seem to be enjoying our new roles!

I also caught up with Mike Daniels and Sarah Potter from Report International. I've worked with them for several years now and in my view, their company is one of the best in providing insightful media analysis. They are also great people to work with.

It's been a great day, despite the weather. Now for some R&R and a curry at my favourite Indian restaurant, the Shapla in Alresford. Yum!

The magic of the movies

My thanks to Mark and the UK comms team for inviting Stephanie and me to a screening of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night at BAFTA in London. It was a great chance to catch up with some UK media contacts and see the new movie (which was good).

There was a competition to find the best Harry and Dumbledore lookalikes from amongst the journalists and their guests. We dressed up and posed in front of a blue screen, our images were then superimposed onto a moving sky background. The photo shows me attempting to be Harry. I was aptly described by one of the UK PR agency team as resembling "a newsreader on a stick".

Before the movie we were treated to some great close-quarters magic by Mark Williams. I love to see live magic and he was very impressive. My dad would have loved it too!

Afterwards, Stephanie and I sat through the credits, waiting for the name of the actor playing the young James Potter, Harry's father, in one of the flashback scenes. Watch out for Robert Jarvis, a star in the making. He's also the younger brother of Rebecca, our daughter Ellie's oldest friend. Nice job, Robbie!

Back home again

So, I'm finally home, after nearly four weeks out of the UK. After the efficiency of most things in Finland (except for the traffic lights, more on that another time), Heathrow brought me down to earth with a bump. No offence to Finnair, their captain landed the plane smoothly, as ever.

No, it was after I got off the plane that I got the welcome to the UK normally reserved for citizens of other countries. I know I live in Finland now, but I still have a British passport. This was part of the problem and it is, of course, all my own fault. I registered back in June for the Iris recognition scheme, with the intent of speeding up my regular trips into the UK.

The first time I used it, all went well. At that time, the regular queue for passport control was shorter than the Iris queue, but I wanted to try it. Today, feeling smug, I joined the much shorter Iris queue and, after two failed attempts, had to go and join the end of the regular line. "You have to open your eyes really wide", said the ever-so-helpful immigration officer. I can do that. I spent nearly an hour doing so yesterday, having some photos done for my new employer's press website. (I'll post some when the photographer manages to find one or two decent ones from the hundred or so he took).

Add to this that the baggage handlers loaded the luggage on the wrong belt and that I had to chase after the Hertz rental bus as it tantalisingly pulled away as I approached, and you get the idea of how irritated I was by the time I picked up my rental car and drove on the left hand side of the road in a manual car for the first time in a few years. If you were not on the M3 around 10pm this evening, you made a wise decision.

Still, I am home. As I opened the car door on my driveway, I got a waft of the warm summer night air and heard the chimes from a distant church clock striking the hour. Although the family are fast asleep, it is good to be home. And I have sorted the first job on my "honey-do" list; fixing the broadband connection! Looking forward to my first business trip to the UK and a weekend with the family. I'm picking eldest daughter Ellie up from Gatwick on Saturday after her holidays, I haven't seen her for a month.

Domestic bliss?

The weekend visit from my wife and youngest daughter went by far too quickly. I hadn't seen Sally for three weeks; the longest we've been apart since she was born. Though we've been speaking by phone and chatting via the PC, it was lovely to have her and Stephanie here with me. We made a trip to Ikea on Saturday so that she could choose bedding and curtains for her room and then had some good family time, walking around the city, eating out and catching the tram home. Sunday was spent hanging curtains, after which Stephanie declared the apartment a proper home from home. Waving goodbye to them at the airport on Sunday was tough, but I'm flying back to the UK on Wednesday evening. I'll have a couple of days working there and then on Sunday I fly to the US for my first ever visit to New York to meet the team there. I'm flying back via the UK so I'll have two weekends there in a row, which will be great.

The arrival of my new washing machine and dryer, delayed until this evening, meant that I have had the fun of washing and ironing until now. Thank goodness for the boxed set of House DVDs, they have helped me deal with all this domesticity! If you've not seen it yet, it's a US series featuring British actor Hugh Laurie. Well worth a try.

The cable guy...

The arrival of my TV on Wednesday meant it was only a matter of time before I got cable TV hooked up. Was it difficult? Not at all. I walked into the Welho shop at 6.30pm last night (they don't close until 7pm) and a very enthusiastic (English speaking, of course) assistant sorted everything out for me.

I bought a hard disk twin tuner cable box (my former Motorola colleagues will be sad to hear I could not buy one of theirs) for €369 and then €20.50 a month for their Forte channel package. Because all the apartments are pre-wired for cable, the service to my apartment was live before I got home and plugged it all in. So, I was able to do my ironing last night watching My Family and The Hairy Bikers. What bliss! It made ordering Sky+ in the UK seem like torture.

On four wheels...

I am now mobile.  I have ordered a new company car, which should be here in October, but until then I have a nice silver Opel Astra to get me around.  Shopping at Ikea will be so much easier without having to order a taxi to take us there and back when my family visit at the weekend.

Found a local

So, I've moved in to the new apartment. Yesterday was spent unpacking and tidying (don't laugh) and today I've continued. With some pictures on the wall and the PC set up, it is feeling more like home and ready for visitors.

I went for a walk yesterday and discovered Tervasaari, s small promontory from where you can get great views of Helsinki. As it was a warm evening, several residents had been washing their rugs, a traditional activity for summer.

Today I ventured forth for some shopping. I stopped for sustenance at Molly Malone's, an Irish bar near to the apartment and had half a litre of Guinness (a little less than an Imperial pint, a little more than a US pint). I had another for my Irish-American buddy Mike, who would have loved the bar. I got chatting to a Scotsman who met a Finnish girl in Helsinki, married her. moved to Sweden and now makes a living playing music in pubs around the continent. He took the photo of me and thought it would be better if the shot was at a jaunty angle, to simulate his hangover from the previous evening.

Under the name of Sanders...well, almost

One of my favourite bits of the Winnie-the-Pooh books is where we are introduced to Pooh, who “lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Sanders.”

“What does “under the name” mean? asked Christopher Robin.”

“It means he had the name over the door in gold letters and lived under it.”

Well, I don't have my name over the door in gold letters, but it is now printed in black on the door bell buttons of the new apartment block.

My 19 boxes from home arrived today, so I have a few more items to make my life a little more comfortable as well as some photos of the family. I have been missing them all dreadfully this week. Ellie is off on holiday next week, but Stephanie and Sally will be here next weekend. I can't wait to see them.

Here is what my new apartment block looks like. The door is just behind the car, my apartment is on the second floor (the ground floor is called the first floor, as in the US, just to confuse us Brits). You can see my balcony just above the back end of the car. It will seat two people and their drinks!

More unpacking over the weekend and I hope I will be able to move in by Sunday. The washing machine arrives on Wednesday and hopefully the broadband connection won't be long after that.

Making the bed...

My new apartment is starting to look more like an Ikea showroom and less like a warehouse! Tonight I built the bed, together with the slide out shelves behind and connected the ceiling light. Rental apartments here typically come without light fittings, so your correspondent has been fiddling with electrics! When I tried that a few years ago, I managed to electrocute myself, but no dramas today. All that is missing from the picture now is Stephanie!

The final delivery from Ikea arrived this evening while I was at the apartment, so I have dining table, chairs and armchair to assemble tomorrow. More pictures to follow when the living room looks tidier. My boxes from home should be here on Friday, so the weekend looks to be set for unpacking.

Médecins Sans Frontières

I've been suffering with a sore throat since I arrived in Finland, but initially put it down to taking several flights in a short space of time. By last Friday, though, I had tried unsuccessfully to get rid of it with two of my three favourite remedies; medicated lozenges and gargling with soluble Aspirin. (My real favourite is a Whisky Mac - whisky and green ginger wine - before bedtime, but I haven't got the booze to hand).

So, I tried the on-site occupational health service at the office. Former colleagues will know that we had an excellent occupational health advisor at the Basingstoke office, but my new workplace offers a full clinic, with physicians and nursing staff. The doctor referred me for a Streptococcus A test, carried out immediately, which suggested this was not the cause of my symptoms. She then prescribed Burana (800mg Ibuprofen tablets) and a Betadine mouthwash and asked me to visit again this morning.

Though I had a great weekend with Stephanie, my throat was not improved by this morning, so I was referred to a laboratory in the city centre for blood tests. I got there around 11am, was seen without waiting, had my samples taken and away I went. The results were faxed to the doctor at 1pm, she called me to advise I had no other infections to contradict her original diagnosis of an Adenovirus infection. Definitely not man flu! I am signed off work until Thursday on strict instructions to rest. I'll try, but I am itching to get back to the office before the rest of my team disappear for their holidays.

So, my first experience of the Finnish medical system has left me as impressed as I am by the other public services in this country. And yes, my throat is feeling a little better. Remedy number four? Fresh Finnish strawberries and ice cream.

What a weekend!

Well, it's the end of the weekend and Stephanie has flown home. Saying goodbye at the airport was hard, but it won't be long until we see each other again. I think it has surprised both of us just how much closer we have become since I started this new role.

We have fitted in a lot of things since she arrived at 23:45 on Friday evening. Quickest is to list the major highlights:

• Visited the new apartment and measured up.
• Spent 5 hours at Ikea in Vantaa, buying the major furniture and furnishing items.
• Lost my new Nokia N95 at Ikea (the first time I have ever lost a phone; I'm devastated) and so no pictures on the blog for a while.
• Arranged the delivery of our Ikea purchases. We chose to carry around 5Kg of goods, which got the total under 500Kg and so reduced the delivery charge to 79 Euros. For nearly half a metric tonne of shopping!
• Had a romantic dinner, eating (and drinking!) the Helsinki Menu at Nokka, overlooking the harbour, a short walk from our new apartment.
• Walked from Nokka to Esplanadi, where we had an Irish coffee at Kappeli, then ice creams from the kiosk. Stephanie had lemon and licorice, which she loved, I had my favourite, rum and raisin.
• Caught a cab home, had a walk around the area and then a sauna
• Got up this morning, caught the 65A bus from the company apartment to the new one
• Walked into town, had coffee, went to Stockmann, bought glasses and mugs, which we took back to the apartment.

After that, I took Stephanie for her flight and then returned to the apartment to wait in for the delivery. It arrived around 21:00 and then I caught the Metro back, my first trip on the underground in Helsinki and, as with all the public transport here, I'm really impressed.

It was a great weekend, but I can't wait to see Stephanie and the girls again. I'm next due back in England in mid-July.