Going underground ...

For the last couple of weeks, I have been hoping for snow, lots of it. This may seem strange, as for most of my time here the thought of snow has been a bit grim. Of course, it does make the place look like a proper winter capital and enhance the light, but it comes with a downside if you park on the street. You need to clear the snow off the car before you can drive. If the snowplough has been past, you may also need to dig your way out.

All this changed two Fridays ago when I finally got a place in the parking garage beneath my apartment building. There has been a waiting list since I moved in, but over the holidays my name moved to the top of the list and I got a mail from my landlady's agent at Nordea to say I could rent a place. On the day my wife was due over for the weekend, I visited the service company, taking proof that I had paid the security deposit into their bank account, so that I could sign the contract (written in Finnish, of course) and collect the keys and the transmitter for the door and gate.

The rental cost works out to around the cost of a latte a day, which at this time of year seems well worth it. Being able to drive out with clear windows and above zero inside temperatures still seems a novelty. Of course, with the space come some rules. I can't use the space for anything other than a car, I need to keep the space clean and tidy, can't repair the car or wash it in the space and I can't sub-let it.

What surprised me, considering the waiting list, was just how may spaces are empty, all the time. There are also some rather cool cars down there, a big old Rolls Royce, an American cruiser (as yet unidentified) and several Porsches. However, Gunther is not going to get ideas above his standing as there are also several Audi A3's in there as well.

Fawn again ...

This evening, I donned ice skates for the second time in my life, on a team outing to Jääpuisto, the Helsinki Icepark in the railway station square, Rautatientori. I had a real feeling of déja vu.

My first ice skating attempt was in 1983, when I was living in Poole, working for a small computer dealership in that English south coast town. Having never even roller skated, I had all the coordination of Bambi in the Walt Disney film from 1942. The girls from the office convinced me to come along and with one on each arm, I made a lap of the rink.

Today was much more successful than 26 years ago. Feeling (and clearly looking) very wobbly, with a blonde on each arm, I eventually managed two circuits of the outdoor rink after a couple of rest stops! I then decided to sit back and watch the rest of my team, most of whom have been skating since they were kids and make it look very easy.

We were sharing the ice with a TV crew, filming for a travel programme. A young couple were skating for the cameras, pretending to be just another pair of skaters out for the evening. But the crew picked the wrong subjects to film. One of my team has figure skated competitively and put everyone else to shame with her effortless and graceful performance. In her normal, modest way she deflected any attempt at compliments from us, almost embarassed by the attention. But watching her skate, you can see that she is literally in her element, at one with the ice in a way that most of us, especially me, can only dream of.

My wife and daughters love the UK TV show, Dancing on Ice; back in 2007 before I moved to Helsinki we saw the live show at Wembley Arena. After today's experience, I am even more in awe of the celebrities and professionals on the show. And determined that it won't be another 26 years until I try it again. Apparently, you can get lessons, even for middle-aged novices!

Chilling experiences ...

The wintry conditions are causing trouble. This post reports a personal injury and trauma caused by frozen pipes, though not quite what you might be imagining.

Temperatures in Helsinki this week have dropped to minus 15 degrees Celsius at times, with clear and sunny skies. The photo shows a spectacular sunset reflected in the windows of my office building, taken just before 4pm on Monday.

I have been glad of the winter tyres in the last 48 hours as we had a fall of snow on Thursday evening. I was visiting another office and parked up around 4pm in clear conditions and when I left around 7:30pm, there was around 2cm of snow over the car. I can understand why my Finnish colleagues look forward to the snow; the increase it has on light levels during the day is very noticeable at this time of year, when things are so dark for much of the time.

As I was driving to work the next day along the Länsiväylä (the Western highway), the view was quite splendid. The sea had frozen on the surface during the week between some of the islands and then the snow had settled on top of the ice. A boat in the middle of the water looked as though it had been left in a field - I have no photo, of course, as I was driving!

The snow accompanied an increase in temperature, though it is still below freezing at night. This morning, despite wearing shoes with commando soles, which I thought would be safest, I slipped and fell over. As often described, it seemed to happen in slow motion; I managed to think about keeping my head up and avoided tensing up. I like to think I went down rather gracefully on to my back. My immediate reaction was then to quickly scan the area to see if anyone had witnessed my embarrassment; fortunately not. The bruises are just now beginning to hurt - heaven knows how I will feel after ice skating with my team, we are planning to go next Wednesday evening. Fortunately, the hospitals here are fairly used to dealing with winter injuries, so whatever happens I should be in good hands.

The frozen pipes were not here in Finland but back home, near Winchester in the UK, where the temperatures also fell below minus 10 last night. My wife called today, concerned that none of the toilets would flush and there was no water coming out of any of the taps. After a short phone tutorial on domestic plumbing, she performed suitable diagnostics in the loft and elsewhere and we concluded that the supply pipe to the house must have frozen. Thankfully, after a few more hours and also running some hot water down the drain that runs alongside the supply, the situation resolved itself. It's at times like these that I most feel the difficulties of not being there to help. She did point out that this problem was not really my fault, rather poignant after the episode just before Christmas, when I put a screw through the central heating pipe while doing some DIY!

I shall keep my fingers crossed that these are the worst problems the cold weather will cause us. At present there is a 5 degree difference in the temperatures between my two homes - surprisingly, perhaps, it is plus 2 Celsius here in Helsinki and minus 3 back in Old Alresford.

Sober as a Finn ...

For the last few years, it has been my practice to swear off the booze for January. It seems a reasonable idea, as I probably end up consuming my January allowance during the Christmas holidays. The original reason I did it was to prove to myself that I could give up for a month, but recently it has also been a way of reducing my calorie intake. This year is no exception, after an indulgent holiday at home I am putting rather more strain on the strain gauges in my electronic scales, so losing a few kilos is now imperative.

When I mentioned this to a colleague at work, she informed me that this practice is called Tipaton Tammikuu in Finland, literally meaning dropless January. This seems to be sponsored by the authorities in Finland - there is even a website for fellow participants, though sadly only in Finnish. It has a countdown timer until the end of the month, accurate to the second, together with a planner so that you can track your progress and helpful hints and tips. Helpful, of course, if you can read Finnish.

To anyone else who is attempting abstinence this month, good luck and let me know how you do.

Mummy for nothing ...

First, a Happy New Year to you, dear reader. My thanks for the messages you've sent during the past twelve months and I hope you will continue to visit during 2009.

Though I don't normally use this blog to discuss products in detail, I did want to report on an addition to my communications system which I hope will make it easier for friends and family to keep in touch, as well as saving some money from my mobile and UK home phone bills.

Santa brought my wife and I a pair of DUALphone 3088 Skype phones, which allow us to make point to point calls over the Internet for no extra cost, beyond the monthly broadband subscription. Of course, computer users have been able to use Skype for voice calls over the web for some time, but these are different as they need no PC connection. For that reason, they are perhaps a little easier to use and therefore more likely to be used as an alternate to calling my mobile.

I was impressed at how easy the phones are to set up. A small DECT box connects to the wireless router with an Ethernet cable and can also be connected to the landline if there is one, hence the name DUALphone, as you can then use it for ordinary phone calls as well as for Skype. A separate charging base is plugged in to a power socket where you want to keep the handset.

After this, you log in to the phone with your Skype username and it then copies your existing Skype contacts, if you have any, to the phone. And then you are ready to start making calls!

Though the basic Skype service is effectively free, I have paid a small annual subscription which then gives me unlimited calls to European landline phones, as well as a voicemail service. I can therefore call my mother for no additional cost (hence the rather contrived title of this post).

For friends and family in the UK, it also provides me with a UK number that they can call at normal rates to connect to me, even if they don't have Skype. I won't post my Skype username or the UK phone number here, but please get in touch if you would like them.

So far, it seems to work well and has been dubbed "the batphone". Sadly, I resemble Adam West rather more the Christian Bale, but never mind!