Finn Mark

What I’ll miss about Finland ...

2011-06-08T16:42:00.005+03:00

Finland flag by abFlags.com

(An edited version of this post was published in the Helsinki Times on July 7, 2011).

I’ve now less than two weeks left as a resident of Finland and I am starting to take my leave from people and places that have become so familiar over the last four years.

Of course, I am very excited at the prospect of moving back home and being with my family. But I know that there are lots of things I will miss from this country where I have now lived for around a twelfth of my life.

Top of the list - people. My friends and colleagues, many now are both. Folk from the Helsinki Social club and the Finn-Brit Players. I’ve added more than 150 Facebook friends since I moved here and I hope that many of them will stay in touch after I leave.
Next, Helsinki. I’m not a natural city dweller, but this is the easiest city I can imagine to live in. Extremely cosmopolitan, small enough to feel homely, large enough to have a wide variety of choices of things to do. A largely undiscovered gem, I recommend everybody visit for a long weekend. Though maybe not between November and April unless you really like snow, ice and cold! But right now, it is spectacular. For much of last summer, it was warmer than home.
Stuff that works. That means pretty much everything here. Public transport, whether buses, trains, metro, ferries runs pretty much on time regardless of the weather. We had more snow last winter than any while I’ve lived here, but I saw no real disruption. I can send an SMS to order a taxi and it will normally be waiting outside my door by the time I have walked downstairs. And the machinery of the state is well oiled and works well, as long as you follow the correct process.
Food – I don’t mean just the great meals we’ve had in more than 50 restaurants, my reviews are still open on www.eat.fi. But some of the other treats – Fazer chocolate, great rye breads, salmiakki and salmiakki kossu, fabulous fresh strawberries, cherries and peas from street stalls in the summer, pea soup on Thursdays; I could go on, but it’s making me hungry just to write about them. Oh, and don’t forget mämmi at Easter, I think I am one of the few foreigners that likes it.
The nature – there is so much of it here, it seems, even in the city. From the majestic silver birch, the national tree, to feeding red squirrels at Seurasaari or picking wild mushrooms, I have enjoyed, as most Finns do, the chance to be “in the nature.”
Vantaa airport – which now ranks as my favourite to fly from. Easy to get in and out of and only 30 minutes from home once we’re wheels down. And the amazing experience of landing half an hour before midnight in summer still in total daylight.

I am sure that over the coming months, more will occur to me, but this seems to be a good start. But are there things I won’t miss? Two come to mind.

The first has been spending so much time away from my family. Of course, we’ve had some great times together in Helsinki. But having to say goodbye to them on a Sunday night to fly back to Helsinki has been the hardest thing to do. I’ve missed being there for four years of my daughters’ lives.

My youngest is now an adult and leaves home in September for university. I’ve joked that we have had more conversations on Facebook than we would have done if we had been living together, but I don’t really think either of us believes it. And my eldest will be married in the same month; though she left home around the same time that I did, I have missed her just as much. I’ve not seen my parents and sister as much as if I had I been living in the UK.

But the hardest has been being apart from my wife. She has been at the heart of my life for almost half of it and we’ll celebrate 21 years of marriage in September. And now we have to learn how to live together again, for the first time as a couple with no kids at home!

And the second thing I won’t miss? The cost of booze. I no longer flinch at being asked to pay more than 6€ for less than a pint of beer. I consider a bottle of wine that costs less than 30€ in a restaurant to be good value. I shall enjoy getting back to going to wine tastings with the Naked Grape and getting change from a fiver for a pint.

I am developing strategies to cope with the things I will miss from Finland. I will reconnect with my old friends in the UK and keep in touch with everyone else through Facebook. I will visit Helsinki when I can, at least for Vappu. I will try to be patient with the services back home, even though they won’t work quite as well, and reflect that it is, in part, because I am paying less in tax for them. I will import what Finnish delicacies I can. I have two silver birches in my garden and, as we live in the beautiful Hampshire countryside, I will get out into it more often. And I will revisit this blog, to remind me of all of the wonderful new experiences I have had.

So, I continue to prepare to say farewell to Finland on June 17. Because I really don’t think it is goodbye.

Final guests ...

2011-05-30T17:04:00.001+03:00

This weekend, my sister-in-law and her husband joined my wife and I for our last sightseeing weekend in Helsinki.

After picking them up from the airport on Friday evening, we walked for drinks to Kappeli on Esplanadi.

On Saturday, we visited the Kauppatori market square and then had sushi in the Wanhan Kauppahalli for lunch. We visited the Russian orthodox and Lutheran cathedrals and then to Stockmann for a little shopping, after which we relaxed on the Koff beer tram, as you can see from the photo. After coffee and cake at Cafe Fazer and a little more rest, we finished the day with dinner at Luomo, our neighbourhood Michelin 1* restaurant, with a 7 course degustation menu.

Sunday began with brunch at the newly re-opened Cafe Engel, then to Seurasaari to feed the squirrels, home for a nap before taking the tram to Sea Horse for the fastest dinner ever, followed by an evening playing Rock Band!

Today concluded the visit, with some more shopping followed by lunch at Lappi, with elk, reindeer and cloudberries all featuring on the menu. Licorice ice cream at Cafe Fazer completed the gourmet experience and we are now back at the apartment, my guests are packing for the airport.

And so, my four year assignment as unofficial tour guide for Helsinki draws to a close. It has been great fun and I am sure we will be back for further visits in the future. Though it won't feel quite the same when I am a tourist too!

Ihanaa leijonat, ihanaa ...

2011-05-16T23:42:00.001+03:00

For the last 24 hours, I have been living in the capital city of a country that has just won a world championship. On Sunday night, Finland played Sweden in the final of the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships in Bratislava. Regular readers will know that I am not a sports fan, but it has been fascinating to observe.

Ice Hockey is to Finns what soccer is to the Brits, the most popular sport. And Sweden is the old adversary for the Finns, despite that 6% of its population are native Swedish speakers. As Finland was part of Sweden for several hundred years, before they were sold out to Russia, the Finns have a gentle enmity towards their old colonial power and near neighbour. It's not strong enough to prevent them taking more than a passing interest in what goes on in Sweden; the royal wedding there last year had much of the population here gripped.

But when it comes to sport, then a match against Sweden is viewed in much the same way as an England - Germany fixture in soccer would be back home. So on Sunday night, the prospect of competing with them for the World Championships was a delicious mix of anticipation and anxiety.

Ahead of the 9pm start time, most of the bars were filling up with fans in their blue and white shirts, getting into the appropriate spirit. And the game did not disappoint. The first goal went to Sweden in the first twenty minute period. The equaliser came during the second. But it was the final period of the match that saw the real drama. Finland quickly scored two more goals within the first four minutes and then did not give up. The final score was 6-1 to Finland, with the last coming within minutes of the final klaxon.

The city went wild. As the Helsingin Sanomat reported, "By 1 a.m. on Monday morning, both the Esplanades in downtown Helsinki were packed with jubilant hockey fans, such that the earlier rally of cars hooting their horns and with flags waving from the windows was no longer possible." Many of those cars drove home down my street and I can attest to their enthusiasm. Whoever told me that Finnish men don't show their emotions has never seen them after winning a world championship!

This evening, the team flew back from Bratislava on a Finnair flight (of course). A website that I regularly use to track the progress of my incoming visitors, flightradar24.com, was so inundated with hits from Finland that it reported that it was running a temporarily downgraded "high load" version; apparently the picture at one stage looked as though there was only one flight in the air, that of the returning Finnish lions.

Tonight, they made an appearance downtown to receive the adulation of their fans. Regular readers will know that I show the image from a webcam on my blog - this was the image at 21:00 this evening, showing the market square (Kauppatori) packed with people. If anything, it looks busier than at the recent Vappu celebrations.

Since I got home at 21:00, there has also been a steady stream of fans walking home down my street, many cheering "ihanaa leijonat, ihanaa"; roughly "wonderful lions" or "love lions". You can hear the official song featuring this lyric on YouTube. The noise has only dwindled away as I write this, more than two hours later. Helsingin Sanomat estimated that around 50,000 people would turn out this evening, which would not surprise me. That's around 5% of the population of the capital area.

The surprise of the game, though, was the award of the Tournament MVP trophy, decided before the final, to the Swedish goalie Viktor Fasth. He had only let in six goals in six matches, so earned the directorate's vote for the trophy. And then let in six goals all in the same match, the final. Ah well!

A blind date ...

2011-03-29T22:33:00.002+03:00

Now, just in case my wife should get worried, this wasn't that kind of a date. I am in Vienna on business this week and last night, our local host took us for a meal with a difference.

We were told we were going to a restaurant for dinner in the dark. When we got to the venue, it was explained that this wasn't going to be a candlelit supper, but one completely in the dark, as a way of experiencing life without one of our most important senses. And as part of the experience, we knew only that there would be four courses and that we could choose meat, fish or vegetarian for our main course.

There were 16 of us in the party and we were ushered through a curtain to a holding area in two groups. I joined the second group and, once through the curtain, our waiter Mahendra instructed us to take the hand or shoulder of the person in front and then walked us 30 paces or so to our table, in pitch darkness. We had already been told to turn off our phones, so that the light from the screens would not be any help to us, so when he told us to stop, turn to our right and find our seats, we had to do so completely by feel.

We sat, having worked out that we were on the opposite side of a single, long table from the first group, who were already seated and whose voices helped us to orientate.

First, our waiters (Kristijan on the other side of the table) took our drinks orders. I opted for a beer. "Would you like a glass with that?" was answered in the negative, as I was sure that was a recipe for a damp lap at least.

After drinks were served came our appetiser. Our waiters handed us the plates and we placed them on the table in front of us. By this stage I had already felt on the table and found two forks to my left, two knives and a soup spoon on top of my napkin to the right and a dessert spoon and fork above. There was also a pen and a sheet of paper, more of which later. The starter, as I felt carefully, was a small salad, with two bowls of dip and a couple of pieces of bread. Using knife and fork in the dark was difficult, though the bread and dips were easier. I managed to finish the course with relatively clean fingers and felt proud of passing the first test. We all commented on how rich the flavours of the food seemed.

Next, the soup course. You can imagine that when our waiters told us to be careful and that the soup was hot, the idea of being handed the bowl was challenging. Fortunately, the soup bowl was also on another plate and so it arrived on the table without a spill. A pleasant minestrone, I did find that when blowing on a spoonful to cool it down, I could hear some falling back into the bowl as I blew too hard.

Between the soup and main course, we were given three objects to guess what they were. One was a model of a cobra, the second an elephant and the third, I am sure, a camel. Examining them, I found myself really noticing the texture and temperature, as well as just the shape.

Then the main course arrived. I felt a wooden skewer running through the meat and then felt saute potatoes. It was easy enough to eat the meat straight from skewer - after all, who was going to comment on my table manners? But there was a vegetable mix which was rather wet to the touch and so needed the fork. And my hands needed a wash in the finger bowl we had by now found on the table.

After clearing the plates, our waiters invited to follow their voices to join them at the bar, where they offered us a glass of grappa or Jaegermeister. I have never been known to turn down grappa and so inched my way towards them.

We were then told to find out seats again. By now, a little more confident, we worked as a team to do so. Dessert followed, apfelstrudel and vanilla ice cream (the bowl felt cold to the touch, so easy to work out what that was). One more wash of the fingers and we were asked how many for coffee. We couldn't raise our hands, so worked out that we need to call out "one", "two", "three" and so on. I was number six and we were served in the order that we called. A small plate, with a black coffee, pot of cream, packets of sugar and a glass of water. That was easy.

After another sensory exercise, which involved sniffing the contents of three screw-top containers (star anise, cloves and tea) we found our way to the exit and were shown what had been on our plates. All fine!

We also finally got to meet our waiters, both of whom were blind and so no more disadvantaged in the darkened room that they were in daylight. Mahendra, my waiter, had been in Vienna for 20 years - he came as a student, met a girl, fell in love ... well, you can guess the rest! We had a good chat; when I told him I worked for Nokia he told me how he used our products - he is a particular fan of Nokia Maps and uses the pedestrian navigation with voice guidance to help him find his way around the city.

We also got to compare notes, literally. We had been asked to write a message, do a drawing, write down the names of the objects, etc. The good news is that my handwriting is no worse when done in the dark than it is in full daylight. But that isn't saying too much.

For the group, it was a great way to experience the world of the 10% or so of the world's 40 million blind people who have no light perception at all. Or to put it another way, around the same number of people as the adult population of Finland. A good reason why those of us in the industry need to think about the accessibility of our products. It certainly opened my eyes.

Colonel in Chief ...

2011-03-07T20:43:00.000+02:00

I have been ruminating on the culinary contributions of two Colonels over the last few days, both men of history but from opposite sides of the Atlantic.

The first will be known to most in the western world, Colonel Sanders. He was the entrepreneur who, at the age of 65 was faced with the failure of his restaurant due to new interstate taking business away. He went looking for franchisees and the business became Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC), which he sold in 1964 for USD 2 million. So, his culinary contribution is a secret blend of 11 herbs and spices and a business which now feeds millions of people every day. Oh, and though he started in the US military, his title was an honorary one, bestowed by the governor of Kentucky in 1950.

The second Colonel is a little more obscure, at least to those outside of Finland and Sweden. Johan August Sandels died almost 60 years before Harland Sanders was born, yet his legacy also lives on to this day.

A Swedish soldier and politician, Colonel Sandels led the Swedish troops to victory over the Russians in the Finnish war of 1808-9 (when Finland was still part of Sweden). His exploits were recorded by Finnish national poet JL Runerberg and, according to Wikipedia, "Runeberg's poem tells a story of Sandels having a feast while the enemy mounts a premature attack. Sandels continues his meal and is accused of cowardice, after which he raises and rides to the battle, drives back the enemy and is praised by his men." It reminds me a little of the story of Sir Francis Drake finishing his game of bowls before attacking the Spanish Armada. 140 years after his death, the Finnish brewery Olvi started brewing Sandels, which has become my favourite mass market Finnish beer. On the back of the cans are inspiring tales of his courage.

So, which one should be the Colonel in Chief? Well, for me, it would have to be the real war hero who inspired a beer. But it would be interesting to enjoy both of the Colonels' products together. But I've not yet seen a KFC yet in Helsinki!

Fame and fortune ...

2011-02-02T23:45:00.000+02:00

Well, perhaps fortunate is the more accurate word, but makes for a less appealing headline. Last Saturday I was fortunate to be part of the group of performers in a staged reading of a new play, as I reported in December, playing Man in Jakob Holder's "The Open Circuit", directed by the playwright himself and presented by the Finn-Brit players.

It was my first serious role, playing the rather unaware partner of a woman facing traumatic changes in her life, forced to decide whose side he was on. My wife was among the audience, a rather larger crowd than we were expecting, and was kind enought to say that she could tell the difference between the real me and my on-stage persona. Though clearly I was not convincing enough in telling my much younger leading lady that I loved her to cause any marital disharmony.

The play was also my first rehearsed reading. It's a little more than just reading the play as a group, as we were in costume, with props and using a staged area to perform before an audience. But we were still relying on scripts, as we had only four rehearsals before the big night. So, we had time to explore our characters, something we don't do in pantomime, to really get into the roles but without the stress of learning all the lines.

All in all, I think we did well. It was a fortunate distraction for me too, as this is normally the busiest time of our working year, leading up to a global trade show and associated announcements in Barcelona. I could not have committed to the rehearsals for the spring production of "Waiting for Godot", though I am looking forward to seeing my friends here in it. But this was a great way to whet my appetitite and a great idea to bring to our TOADS group back home. I'm hoping to be part of the next staged reading, Harold Pinter's "The Birthday Party", in March.

Oh, and the fame? Tonight I was hosting the monthly pub quiz organized by IESAF at Molly Malone's. One of the participants walked over and said "Hi, I saw you in the play on Saturday. You were really good." Modest though I am, I have to admit I enjoyed the moment. Famous in Helsinki? Well, it's a start.

What's in a name?

2011-01-15T00:21:00.000+02:00

Image from Helsinki Times

This weekend's issue of the Helsinki Times, the weekly English language newspaper here, reports on the most common surnames in use in Finland.

The most popular overall is Korhonen, though more men have the surname Virtanen. One of the rarest, according to the paper, is Sirjala, with only 11 people currently using it.

The report also shows a trend consistent with other countries, with around a quarter of women keeping their name after marriage in 2009, three times the number in 1986. Almost 7% took a hyphenated name, though their children are not permitted, under Finnish law, to continue the hyphenation. In 3 out of 200 marriages, the husband gave up his surname and took his wife's. I had a former colleague in the UK who insisted her future spouse did the same, for though his surname rhymed with "strike" when spoken, written down it was Prick, not a name which looks good with either Mr. or Mrs. before it, I suppose.

It is possible to change your surname in Finland, though apparently not as easily as in the UK, where a "deed of change of name" or "deed poll" can be used and choices are unrestricted. In Finland, it seems, there are more restrictions. You can reclaim a name used in your own family within the last five generations, or you can choose a new one, but in that case it may not already be in use in Finland. A colleague chose her surname, Merestö, and I believe, is the only one using it. Finally, and particularly for the 10-20 foreigners a month who apply to change a name that is difficult to spell or pronounce, the Association of Finnish Culture & Identity has a list of"free" names whih can be applied for.

So, having already adopted the Finnish first name of Markku, I wonder what my options would be if I chose a Finn-ished last name?

Christmas was a cracker ...

2011-01-03T21:06:00.000+02:00

Today was my first day back at work, after 12 days back home in the UK and a great series of social events.

We started on December 23 with my birthday party, one with a zero at the end, though there were plenty of friends and family on hand to help me through the trauma. I was also lucky to receive over a dozen bottles of assorted booze as presents, so I shall continue to enjoy the memories through 2011.

Christmas Day was spent at home with my parents, sister, wife and both daughters, future son-in-law and elder daughter's aunt. Despite the domestic flood before the holidays, we managed to have a lovely day, with the empty Veuve Clicquot bottles to prove it.

A couple of days later, Stephanie and I visited a former colleague and long standing friend, who cooked sous-vide, which I think could become my next experimental cooking style when I return to the UK.

We then travelled to my wife's sister's home for wonderful food and an evening of ever-so-slightly competitive games, the classic charades and also Lyric.

Finally, New Year's Eve was spent with friends from our village. I made piparkakut ("pepper crackers" or gingerbread, pictured) and served it with Glögi: we also made canapes of smoked reindeer.

All in all, it was a great holiday and it was really tough to come back to Helsinki, though it was good to see my colleagues at work today. But an early night is definitely now required!

Treading the boards again...

2010-12-13T00:37:00.000+02:00

Today I attended my first auditions for a serious acting role. Of course, I have auditioned before for our village pantomimes and spring shows, but those are rather more light hearted. It was a more daunting process than I had expected; after performing for a panel of three experts, I now know a little more about how the X-Factor contestants must feel. I was also pondering on the differences between auditions and job interviews, since my contract at work expires in June next year. The latter combine describing your vision for a role with examples from past experience and achievements. Auditions are totally in the moment, with no ability to say "I got wonderful notices for my last role".

The happy news is that I now have a part in a rehearsed play reading, which I hope will be a good introduction to straight drama without the intense stress of memorising an entire script. We will have rehearsals in January and then perform once at the end of that month and then once more in February. The play is "Open Circuit", the latest work from Jakob Holder, an award-winning young playwright who will also be directing us, giving a wonderful chance to get a real insight into the characters from the person who created them. I will be playing MAN, so I shan't need any of my pantomime dame costume or props, either.

More details to follow, once we get confirmation on the dates. But for now, I have my bedtime reading set for the next few weeks!

Visitations ...

2010-11-21T20:58:00.000+02:00

A few weeks back, my wife, together with our daughters and their other halves, came over for a weekend. We ate well; on Friday it was the tasting menu at Farang and on Saturday evening, menu 13 at Luomo, our neighbourhood restaurant which recently won its first Michelin star.

To balance out the gastronomic indulgence, we shopped on Saturday and on Sunday, visited the squirrels at Seuurasaari and grilled some sausages at the firepit there. Then, before departing for the airport, lunch in the apartment with take out from my local pizza place, including the classic "kebab pizza", an artery hardening combination of pizza with doner kebabe meat and fixings!

This weekend, my youngest daughter is with me, the first time she has flown on her own, so a bit of an adventure! She arrived late on Friday, then Saturday was packed with a stroll around the market at Kauppatori and the Kauppahalli, Glögi at Kappeli, lunch and hot chocolate at Gran Delicato, more shopping in Kamppi, then dinner at Il Siciliano and a movie at the Bristol. Sunday was brunch at Primula, then a stroll around the shops before putting up the Christmas decorations in the apartment.

I have one more group of visitors planned before Christmas, my eldest daughter and her fiance, with her future in-laws. I hope we'll be able to plan a suitably entertaining time for them, too!

Two tips from Amsterdam ...

2010-11-11T18:37:00.000+02:00

This week started in Amsterdam, a work trip for the Symbian Exchange & Exposition. Though it was a busy few days, we managed to get a little time off and so I wanted to share a couple of things.

First was this beer, a most excellent one for those like me with a palate conditioned for English ales. And two cost only around 7 Euros, about half the cost of drinking in Helsinki. Heaven knows why the locals and tourists feel the need to seek other indulgences during their evenings!

The second tip was the Tapas bar we tried for dinner, Tapas Catala, reviewed here on tripadvisor. We stumbled on it by accident and had a surprisingly pleasant and good value supper, this time accompanied by an Amstel.

And, at the risk of ruining the headline of this post, my third tip is to visit Amsterdam itself. I've been a couple of times, but only on business. Perhaps this would be a good candidate for our weekend away with friends next year.

Oh, and I came home with a couple of new friends too, two of the large Symbian ducks (non-robotic variety). Packing them in my suitcase was somewhat amusing! My thanks to our friends at Symbian for these, mine is now sitting on my desk in Finland, looking out of the window wistfully towards the Baltic Sea.

28 years later ...

2010-10-11T00:13:00.000+03:00

My youngest daughter is in the process of applying for a university place next Autumn and last wekend was the second visit I accompanied her on, to the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. It was a nostalgic trip for me, as I graduated from UEA in 1982 and this was my first trip back to the university since then.

After a horrendous journey involving a delayed flight, the M25 and South Mimms motorway services, we arrived in Norwich around half past midnight, which gave little opportunity for anything other than sleep. I had booked us into the Maids Head Hotel. When I had been a student in Norwich, it had been the most expensive place to stay and I vowed I would come back one day and try it. You can see it in the phot, on the left of which is the former Samson & Hercules nightclub, venue for many student parties when I was studying. It appears now to have been redeveloped into apartments.

The following day, we planned a brief walk around the city centre, before driving to the UEA campus. After a rather more expensive than expected visit to Tombland Jewellers, we headed towards the market and then through some of the backstreets. The market still has an impressive range of stalls and seeing the names of the pubs around the centre felt like being reminded of old friends!

We then headed out to the university, aiming to get a tour of the accommodation and see some of the campus first. After parking and walking onto campus, the first familiar sight was the Square, still the hub of social activity on campus, a student band was playing (very well) as we arrived. The grin that this view triggered didn't leave me for the rest of the afternoon!

After a quck look round the LCR (large common room) we were taken to see a couple of student rooms. Waveney Terrace, where I spent my final year, was demolished to build newer blocks recently and my first year home off-campus at Fifer's Lane, former officer's quarters for RAF Norwich, has also been demolished, now replaced by a housing estate. But the rooms in Nelson Court seemed fine, with en-suite facilities. How times have changed! We also visited rooms in Norfolk Terrace, a very 60's looking block which is now, apparently, Grade II listed! When I had been there, they had been the most desirable blocks, with views over the broad. You can see Norfolk Terrace on the right of this shot.

We then moved on to the Queen's Building in the School of Allied Health Professions within the Faculty of Health, none of which existed as part of the university when I was there. My daughter's desired subject is Speech & Language Therapy. UEA runs this as a three year course, whereas most other universities are delivering it in four years, so it was interesting to hear more about the differences. Suffice to say, the professional qualification at the end is the same and their experience is that around 80% of graduates find work within six months of completing their degrees, which is encouraging.

After a good grounding on the course, we went in search of a bite to eat. What was the Refectory in my day is now Zest, we had a good value and tasty lunch, rather more healthily prepared than in the 1980s. And then, our final stop before leaving was the Union Bar, where my baby bought her Dad a pint of Greene King IPA, a reassuring constant from my time, though the bar itself looked very different!

All in all, it was a great day. I can't believe it has been more than thirty years since I went up to UEA as a fresh faced undergraduate. But it was, and here is my student ID photo from the time, showing not just a fresher face, but rather more hair. So now, fingers crossed that my budding student gets the grades she wants and makes the right choice, for her, of where to study. But after last weekend's visit, if she chooses UEA, it will be fun to go and visit her there. Though for her sake, not too often!

Ersatz Oktoberfest ...

2010-09-30T23:00:00.000+03:00

Tonight I enjoyed an impromptu evening out, thanks to friends and the Helsinki Social Club.

The latter organisation had manage to arrange vouchers for free beer and pretzels at Rymy-Eetu, a German bar in Helsinki. My friends had managed to get some of the vouchers and texted me just as I was leaving work. Half an hour later I was stein in hand, with the only slight disappointment being that rather than a litre of a delightful German brew, it was Koff, a very ordinary Finnish lager. But without doubt, worth every penny (or Euro cent) that I had paid for it. And the pretzel, soft, salt crusted and still warm from the oven, helped soak up just a little of the beer.

After around half an hour, the oompah band began to play. It was the first time I had seen seven Finnish men in lederhosen and, though they were entertaining, I wouldn't recommend that they give up their day jobs.

I sought escape in the men's bathroom, but even there I was not safe. Instead of piped music, a loop tape was playing useful phrases in German, then their Finnish counterparts. So, "ein bier bitte" is "yksy olut, kiittos". Though I have not done so well in my language studies here, that one, at least, I knew in both languages!

The photo, by the way, was taken on my new Nokia N8. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, it's the best phone I've used so far and we just started shipping them today. Just in case I needed another reason to celebrate over a beer!

How to lose a loyal customer ...

2010-09-18T12:28:00.000+03:00

Over the last month or so, we have had two separate incidents which have made us think hard about why we choose to do business with particular firms. Both cases caused considerable upset at the time to me and my family, but with different responses they have led to rather different outcomes for the companies concerned.

The first was at the start of our family holiday, probably the last we will take for some time with our daughters, as they respectively prepare to get married and go off to university next year. We organised this through James Villas, a company we have used several times before. We arrived at our villa in Umbria to collect the keys and were given an unexpected demand for 500 Euros as a cash deposit, which we knew we did not have to pay as James Villas had already charged us a non-refundable breakage charge.

The owner was very difficult to deal with, claiming to speak no English, so we spent two hours on the phone to the local rep and her boss and trying to get anyone from James Villas in the UK to resolve the issue. We finally got access only after the domestic partner of the local rep spoke to the villa owner. Apparently the local James Villas reps knew that the owner was (in their words) "a mental case" but continued to put their customers at risk by placing them in the villa.

The second was my daughter's recent eighteenth birthday party. We organised this in a local village hall and contracted with The Naked Grape, our local wine merchants, to run a cash bar for the evening. We've used Naked Grape for around 8 years, since we first moved here and, as with James Villas, have regularly recommended them to friends. Sadly, we arrived at the hall for the start of the party to find no bar had been set up.

In the case of the holiday, I wrote to their founder and chairman, James Needham, whom their website claims is "still at the helm" of the business. We got a badly written letter two weeks later, from a junior person, not really accepting any failure on their part and offering vouchers for £200 against a future holiday. So, an offer that costs them nothing if we never use them again and represents less than 2.5% of the cost of the holiday. When I pointed this out to them in further correspondence, their customer relations supervisor replied "in this instance I am unable to offer any further gesture or recompense. I am sorry if you remain dissatisfied and we are unable to restore your faith in James Villa Holidays". So am I, though I am prepared to offer them a gesture. I shall never use them again, nor recommend them to anyone I care about. Reader, beware.

By contrast, The Naked Grape's response was immediate and effective. Despite having been working themselves all day at the Alresford Show, they came to the hall, setup a bar and did not charge us a penny for the drinks consumed. Such customer service is rare and deserves recognition. Mark and Simon have worked hard to build up their business, now with shops in Alresford and Four Marks. They don't stock anything which they haven't tasted and specialise in good value wines from small producers and family estates. Before this incident, I regularly recommended them to friends and am very happy to continue to do so.

It seems that James Villas think they are big enough that they don't really have to take customer complaints terribly seriously. But in today's world, where I can get great deals online and quickly research reputations, they really ought to think differently. At least for one customer, they have made a big mistake. If you are reading this, Mr. Needham, you can take me off your mailing list.

Tonsorial timewarp ...

2010-08-28T15:31:00.001+03:00

Today was haircut day. This is my first weekend back in Helsinki after two weeks of holiday with the family in Italy and likely to be my only chance for a few weeks to attend to the barnet, as next weekend I shall be back in the UK for my daughter's eighteenth birthday.

In Helsinki, I have my haircut at Salon Nadem, at Kolmas Linja 1 in Helsinki. A colleague recommended Nadem when I first moved here and I have been going ever since. Originally from Tunisia, he married a Finnish girl and has built up a busy little business in the Hakaniemi area of the city, which is also home to a wide range of "ethnic" shops. For the Asian community, these shops offer a range of spices, vegetables and Halal meats which allow them to keep culinary contact with their roots. For the Brit, they offer such rare treats as Bird's Custard Powder and tins of corned beef, not easily sourced from the regular supermarkets. But I digress.

I am usually greeted on entering Nadem's place with "hei, English guy!" I don't book an appointment, so though occasionally there is no-one waiting, more often, I'll need to sit and wait while he finishes up a couple of previous customers.

The clientele is very diverse, from English speaking foreigners like me, through ranks of other nationalities as well as native Finns. Listening to him chat in a mix of English, Finnish, Arabic and French (Tunisia was a French protectorate from 1881).

I also enjoy my time in the chair. Having never been a fan of fancy hair salons, I enjoy the simplicity of his set up. From the moment the cape is fastened around my neck, I am transported back to my childhood and memories of schoolboy haircuts. The earliest I can recall was in the barber's shop at the railway station in my home town of Bognor Regis. I would sit on the board resting across the arms of the barber's seat, in order to get me to a height to prevent back pain for the tonsorialist, then while he was fixing the cape, my Mum would give the instruction "a Boston please and not too much off the crown".

Sadly, I can find no Internet reference to this particular style, though the modifier was designed to avoid my double-crowned hair from sticking up, which would now be considered quite stylish.

Today's cut tends to be rather faster (there being rather less to remove) and rather simpler; number 3 clippers at the side to keep the hair shorter. My reasoning being that it is harder to see the grey when the hair is seen end-on. And, compared to the hairstyling of other family members, rather less expensive at €15.

But after it all, I am reminded of the old chestnut about "what's the difference between a good haircut and a bad one?" Surely you know the answer? "About two weeks."

Hockey on horseback ...

2010-06-23T00:11:00.001+03:00

Last Sunday was Father's Day and I was back home in the UK to see my family, including having lunch with Dad, Mum and my sister. We met in Midhurst, a small market town in the West Sussex countryside and had a very pleasant lunch at Seven Fish.

After lunch, at Dad's suggestion, we went to watch a polo match at nearby Cowdray Park. It was a first for Stephanie and me, though Mum and Dad had been many years before. Dad noted that the last time he was there, it was possible to get closer to the action (curse those modern health and safety rules). He recalled that he had been close enough to hear the Duke of Edinburgh, then a keen player himself, swearing.

We were able to drive in and park close by the edge of the playing field; I reversed the Land Rover in to the space so that I was able to open the tailgate and provide seating with a windbreak for two of us! But the weather was kind; a bright sunny day with a few fluffy clouds and little wind, so it was perfect for watching the action.

We were there to watch the Midhurst Town Cup, played between "Silver Spring 1870" and "Salkeld". Each team has four players, there are also two mounted umpires on the field. Here you see one of the players executing a back pass. As my regular readers will know, sport and me are not best friends, so I think it best that I forego any further attempt to explain the game, but instead I refer you to the Hurlingham Polo Association web site has a great explanation of the rules and regulations of polo.

However, one element which may be familiar even to those with only a passing knowledge of the game is the half time audience participation. A pitch invasion is then positively encouraged, unlike football in which such behaviour is somewhat frowned upon. This is for the stamping down of the divots - the pieces of turf kicked up by the ponies' hooves. Those who have seen the film "Pretty Woman" will remember the announcer's advice to "avoid the steaming divot"! The last picture shows my mum and sister indulging in this public spirited activity.

But, dear reader, I do realise that you may be thinking that this is all very interesting, but what does it have to do with Finland? After all, the blog is supposed to have a Finnish flavour. Well, as we wandered around the few stalls selling merchandise, we came across Hoads of Horsham, there selling wonderful outdoor bean bags and hammocks made by Fatboy. A Finnish company. And how we spotted them in the first place was because of their (Finnish) Marimekko design parasols. So, that's alright then!

A working weekend ...

2010-06-13T23:45:00.000+03:00

This has been my desk for the last two evenings, as I am running the lighting for the first four shows of the Finn-Brit Players' production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Q-Teatteri in Töölö. It's the story on which the 1988 film Dangerous Liasons was based and our talented director and cast have created a very watchable performance.

It's my second time on the lighting desk, back at the same theatre, so it feels very familiar. In the picture you see the ADB Tango 48 control desk, which is hooked up to the various lights within the theatre. During the rigging process, the levels for each light for each change, together with the transition time, from zero seconds for a fast blackout to seven seconds for bringing the house lights up or down, are set and then programmed into the desk's memory. Altogether, there are more than seventy changes during the play.

During the show, it is theoretically straightforward to move to the next scene by press the red button, outlined in yellow tape on the picture. On top of the deck are my notes, which tell me when during the action to make the next change. And most of the time it works, though sometimes pressing the button doesn't actually seem to work. It doesn't happen often, but just enough to keep me at a high level of tension throughout the 3 hours that the show runs (including an interval).

However, the cast and director are being kind and have only made gentle suggestions on how I could improve things, there has been no shouting so far! It has been great to be involved with this production, though it has fired my desire to get back on stage; I have not done so since I moved to Finland three years ago. Perhaps I will try my hand at the next auditions.

Taking a break ...

2010-06-09T23:51:00.001+03:00

My apologies for my rather poor performance in updating the blog recently, things have been rather busy over the last few weeks. However, last weekend saw our annual city break with friends Graham, Barbara, Jim and Linda and our destination this year was Barcelona, capital of the Catalan region of Spain.

I have been visiting Barcelona each February for the past five years, to participate in the Mobile World Cognress, one of the biggest trade shows in our industry. So, for me, the city felt more like a workplace than a leisure destination. Fortunately, this weekend reset that feeling and I am now a convert to the many delights of this city.

It's going to be hard to do justice to the weekend without writing loads, so in the interest of brevity, I will list our main activities with links for those of you who may also want to visit.

Friday - I arrived in time for breakfast, only 12 hours after Blue1 were supposed to get me there (the letter of complaint is next on the to do list after this post). We took the red route on the Bus Turistic to get our bearings. Tapas and Sangria for lunch in the Bari Gotic, then to the Sagrada Familia and Casa Mila (two of the most famous Antoni Gaudi designed landmarks in the city). Dinner in a harbourside restaurant at the port.

Saturday - up and off for the blue route. Stopped off at Parc Guell for more Gaudi design, then the Blue Tram and funicular railway up to Tibidabo. Walked back down to the bus and home for a rest before dinner at Les Quinze Nits, great food at very good prices (though you need to queue for around half an hour to get in).

Sunday - walked down the Ramblas in the rain, great Tapas and Cava for lunch at El Xampanyet, exploring Port Vell and then back to meet up with ex Round Table buddy Ian, who was in town before heading off on a cruise. Dinner at Les Quinze Nits again, was just as good.

Monday - walked to the funicular railway up to Montjuic, then took the cable car to the castle at the top. Back for a very long and excellent lunch at El Xalet (where I had a dinner with my former Motorola team in 2005) next to the Olympic diving pools on the side of Montjuic. Walked back down the hill taking in the Olympic stadium, Poble Espanyol and through the Fira de Montjuic without all of the paraphernalia of Mobile World Congress.

Tuesday - a stroll around the city before lunch at Tapa Tapa at maremagnum, overlooking the sea. Back to the hotel, then off to the airport and home.

All in all, despite the worst efforts of Blue1, a great weekend with great friends. I can't wait for next year's!

Splendid China ...

2010-04-24T11:50:00.005+03:00

I have just returned from a longer than expected trip to China and Hong Kong. The trip has given me material for a few blog posts, so this first one will cover my trip to Shenzhen, for meetings of the Mobile Manufacturers Forum (MMF) as I am the chair of their Communications Working Group.

We travelled to Shenzhen from Hong Kong by bus, crossing Shenzhen Bay and seeing hundreds of these rafts, apparently a pearl farm. After crossing the bay, we crossed through Chinese immigration and were soon at our home for the next few days, the Intercontinental, inexplicably a Spanish themed hotel in China. The sight of the porters, dressed as gauchos complete with pink long socks and cowboy homes, seemed rather incongruous.

Our hosts in Shenzhen were one of the MMF member companies, TCT mobile, a joint venture between Alcatel and TCL, who are based in Shenzhen. After our work was concluded, they kindly organised a visit to Splendid China, a "folk culture village", or theme park, showcasing the different regions and cultures of that vast country.

Unfortunately, rain prevented us from walking around the park, but we got to enjoy the show, which featured a range of dancing and singing acts. After the show we enjoyed the second of the two Chinese meals on our trip, which were quite different from those I've experience in the UK or USA.

The scale of Shenzhen was staggering. A population around twice the total of Finland and with massive manufacturing facilities. One employer has a factory complex with a workforce of around 300,000 people; more than half the population of Helsinki, with dormitories, cafeterias, shops; in fact everything that an average town would have on one campus.

It was a fascinating trip, but by the time we were due to return to Hong Kong, we were already aware of the Icelandic volcano and that our flights back, mainly to Europe, might be a little disrupted.

My travelcard ...

2010-03-11T21:10:00.000+02:00

February 14 is Valentine's Day. Of course, I realise that as reminders go, this is pretty dreadful as it is now March 11. If you had forgotten to send a card to your beloved, or admired, it is now woefully late.

No, I mention this fact, because, ever since I joined the telecommunications industry, Valentine's Day has usually fallen during Mobile World Congress, probably the biggest tradeshow for our industry.

Of course, it used to be called GSM World Congress and happened in Cannes, then the name evolved to 3GSM World Congress to reflect changes in technology and now, avoiding any partisan suggestions from the name, we have Mobile World Congress, or MWC to the cognoscente. And for the last few years it has been held in Barcelona.

But such detail is not essential for this tale. All you really need to know is that, for the last few years, I have not been at home to swap Valentine's cards or affections on the day. My darling wife has made a point of sneaking a card into my luggage before I travelled and I looked forward to finding and opening it on the day. But this year, unusually, I was not at home before MWC and so instead she mailed it to my apartment.

For my part, I had arranged for a card to be delivered through Moonpig (thoroughly recommended) as well as roses and chocolates from Marks & Spencer (also recommended). But when I called home that evening, my beloved was somewhat distressed to hear that her card had not arrived in time for me to take it with me. Of course, I don't need a card to know that she loves me (though I recommend to male readers they they don't try the same line if they forget to send such tokens to their beloved). But, we both assumed that the card had been lost in the post and thought no more about it.

So, I was a little surprised to find this card on my doormat this evening when I got home from work. I guessed at once from the colour of the envelope that it was the missing Valentine's greeting. But what I hadn't expected was the inked stamp above the address (parts of which I have masked for reasons of privacy). It says "MISSENT TO THAILAND".

My wife trained as a teacher and has, at least to my eyes, clear and atttractive handwriting. But someone, presumably in the Royal Mail sorting office in Southampton where the card was franked on February 8, decided that my card was intended for Thailand, rather than Finland.

Though I am rather jealous that the card had a rather more exotic journey than I did in February, I would not want to be the postal worker now facing the wrath of my Mrs!

A sight for thaw eyes...

2010-03-07T18:27:00.001+02:00

This is the scene in Senaatoori this afternoon. I've been walking through the square for weeks enjoying the snowmen's playground. This is all that remains - almost all of the carrot noses and other decorations are gone.

I particularly enjoyed the alternative snow art, on the steps up to the cathedral, you can see that someone has carefully swept the snow away to form a question mark. Was this intended to have a deeper meaning, calling in to question the very nature of belief at the foot of this monument to religious observance? Or just a bit of a laugh after one Koff too many? I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

As I walked home, the idea of a nap to sleep off the wonderful brunch at Crustum was becoming more appealing, until I saw the workmen outside my building. I could't get in through the front door because of their work, this was the scene from my balcony. The one on the left has a jackhammer, breaking up the frozen snow and ice from the pavement, his colleague is moving it to a pile on the road. They have stopped now, but I have no doubt that the digger and truck will be along later to take it away to wherever they take the snow from the city. From discussion over brunch, it appears that none of us know where that is. Stay tuned for the next episode of my investigations!

Normal service will be resumed ...

2010-02-27T13:43:00.001+02:00

First, an apology. It has been a month or so since my last post and I can only plead a lack of time. The last few weeks have been among the busiest of my time in Nokia, but hopefully things will ease up now, as we have publicly announced the plans to create a new mobile software platform and it was the planning for that announcement which was dominating my life since the start of the year.

The announcement was made at Mobile World Congress, one of the largest events in the mobile communications calendar, in Barcelona, which gave me a chance to escape the Helsinki snow and sub zero temperatures for a while.

After that, I flew home for a few days to the UK for some time with the family and the chance to pick up a new (well, new to me) car which we had bought a couple of weekends earlier. This is our second Land Rover Discovery; the first, named Disco Dan, has been fantastically useful for dealing with the large volume of garden rubbish which needs transporting from the house, as well as getting us through the unusual snow and ice during this British winter, when the advantages of a 4x4 were very easy to appreciate. The new one is 10 years younger, built in 2003 and has been named Brian (because the last three letters of his registration are ENO). The differences in 10 years are quite noticeable and he is rather more posh than Dan, most importantly for my darling wife, he has a decent heater and heated seats! We collected him from Milford on Sea, which had the added bonus of having a cream tea in the Needles Eye cafe, which had the view across to the Isle of Wight and the Needles rocks which you can see above.

It was also good while I was home to see how the latest addtions to the family are settling in. The new kittens, Darcy and Willoughby, are developing their characters (most notably along the "little b*gger" dimension) and are getting on well with Zippy, seen on the left in this phot curled up with Darcy (they are both Burmese, Zippy is a lilac and Darcy a brown).

The last week has been spent catching up on work, clearing the email backlog and booking flights home for the first half of the year. I'm hoping to have lots of visitors in Helsinki this year, including my godmother and also our friends from Sweden. And next week, I am hoping to meet up for a beer with my godson, who is in Finland for a few months, studying at Tampere university. Now it's time to get some life back in my work/life balance!

Taking the plunge ...

2010-01-19T21:58:00.000+02:00

Tonight marked another milestone in my time here in Finland; I have now been here two years, seven months and two days. That in itself is not a notable fact. Tonight was my third time visiting Saunaseura, the sauna society on Lauttasaari. Again, not a momentous occasion event on its own.

No, tonight was the first time that I have taken a sauna and then dipped into the sea. Believe me, it was an experience I will remember for a while.

The ritual started with the customary shower and then in to the first of the five smoke saunas for a warm. The atmosphere in a smoke sauna is rather more pleasant than the electrically heated ones and we spent a few minutes getting a good sweat up, before retiring outside to the deck to cool off, in the -8°C air, steaming gently and overlooking the bay. After a few minutes outside we returned to the hottest of the saunas. On entering, I lifted the lid of the stove and slowly ladled water onto the stones to generate the löyly (pronounced low-loo, or thereabouts), the word which means heat, steam, effectively the spirit of the sauna.

My companion then decided it was time for me to stand lifeguard while he took a dip. We walked along the path and then the jetty, both heated with electrical elements to keep the snow and ice clear. Antti descended the steps, took a dip to neck level and then exited the water. Idecided that now was time to show some sisu and do the same. The steps went into the water, with a handful of steps beneath the perfectly clear Baltic water. The first couple of steps were the hardest, once I reached the lowest step, holding onto the frozen handrail, I repeated his maneuvre. I emerged, somewhat surprised to find myself still breathing and climbed back up the wooden steps, noticing for the first time the icicles hanging from their undersides.

Parts of me were more noticeably more affected by the experience than others. Not, as I had expected, those parts roughly halfway between neck and ankle, but mainly my feet, with which I was beginning to lose sensory contact. We walked back up the path and into the third of the smoke saunas to thaw out, noticing as we did the board displaying the water temperature, -0°C. Yes, not a mistake, minus zero. So, not quite minus one, but colder than the freezing point of pure water, because, of course, the Baltic is saline so it takes Mother Nature just a little more effort to turn it solid in winter.

After a thorough heat and a chat with the other sauna mates about the benefits of ice dipping, we showered and retired to the snack bar for a soft drink and a bite to eat. A chat about holiday plans, weekends and the like followed (talk of work, religion and politics is banned in Saunaseura, along with the use of mobile phones), after which we showered again, dressed and left.

Sitting at home, I am feeling just a little pleased with myself for overcoming my anxiety and trying this. Now I can't wait for next Tuesday and another go! Oh, and that's not me in the picture, it is from the Saunaseura website, there are more showing the saunas and other sights (all decent) from the society.

All at sea ...

2010-01-12T00:11:00.003+02:00

On Sunday, I finally got to walk on water. Well, strictly speaking it was the solid form, the frozen Baltic, rendered fairly solid by a few weeks of subzero temperatures.

Now, I was brought up never to try walking on frozen lakes, rivers etc. because any fool knows that is certain death. And in any other winter than this in the UK, it probably is. Perhaps at home this year, others will be trying this on bodies of freshwater. But sea water? I remember from school chemistry lessons that salt water freezes at even lower temperatures. So, how could something so wrong feel so right?

The image (you can click on it for a larger version) is actually a 360° degree series of 10 shots, joined using Canon's Photostitch software, which came with my camera. It's the first time I have used the software and it seems pretty straightforward. What I really wanted was to capture the feeling of space I experienced standing away from the island of Seurasaari, which we have visited in warmer weather to feed the squirrels. Just one photo would not have done that.

My native guide also explained some of the etiquette - don't walk on the ski tracks being the most important, though we did also keep plenty of distance between us and the hole in the ice used for the winter bathers.

The most eerie experience was standing on the frozen sea, on a cold but still afternoon and hearing the ships' horns hooting from a few kilometres away in the harbour - they sounded as if they were just around the corner.

Three, as it were, Woozles, and one, as it was, Wizzle...

2010-01-09T22:21:00.000+02:00

I suspect my friends and family in the UK will be sick of pictures of snow at the moment, but this scene is one that I think will be rather more rare even there.

I walked out to get a haircut today, normally something done with little thought but when it is -18°C, it took a little more preparation, including the long underwear!

On the way back, I stopped on the bridge between Hakaniemi and Kruununhaka and snapped this picture. This is the sea, frozen and then with a few days snowfall on top. I rather enjoyed working out the tracks, a baby buggy I think and the accompanying adult, separately another couple of sets and then the gentleman you can see walking away.

Dreaming of a White Christmas ...

2009-12-19T11:06:00.006+02:00

I have now been home for two nights and I'm not flying back to Finland tomorrow. I think my body has finally realised I'm not just here for the weekend and is now starting to relax.

We had a glorious weekend before I left with friends Graham, Barbara, Jim and Linda. Lots of adventures and visits, the photos of which are all cunningly stored on the PC in my Helsinki apartment, so those will have to be posted another time. But the weather there helped to get the season feeling truly festive; we had snow whilst walking from the Winter Gardens to restaurant Sea Horse for Sunday lunch and, by Tuesday when Graham, Barbara and I visited Porvoo, temperatures were down to minus 15.

I flew back on Thursday, amidst threats of a BA strike, thankfully now averted. Had I tried flying a day later, the snow might have prevented my arrival, as several UK airports were closed by an amount of snow that my Finnish friends would consider an unimpressive start to winter. But on Thursday, I put all my experience of regularly travelling this route into action. I dawdled somewhat coming off the plane at London Heathrow, ensuring that I was the last passenger on the first bus from aircraft to terminal building. Doing this ensures that I am the first off at the arrivals hall, whereupon I stride out as a man on a mission, walking the (it feels like) five miles from entry point to passport hall. The unpredictable IRIS machine worked (yay) and so I was through passport control without queueing. And despite the UK baggage handlers showing sympathy for their striking Finnish colleagues by putting our bags on the furthest belt from the exit, my case (loaded with Glögi, Finnish chocolate and smoked Reindeer) was the first off the aircraft. I was out to the arrivals hall less than thirty minutes from landing, a personal best when travelling with luggage!

The photo shows the sight that greeted me from our living room window on Friday morning. I am so glad that I repainted the sheep in the summer, as their previous somewhat green tinge (from four years or so of lichen growth) would have been rather noticeable against the white carpet which nature had provided as their setting, for the next few days at least. Will the snow last until Christmas? I rather hope so.

A day less ordinary ...

2009-12-03T00:56:00.001+02:00

Well, I think today (actually yesterday, by now) has probably been the most diverse set of experiences in the two years, five months and thirteen days since I moved to Finland.

It started with a text message at around 8am from one of the newswire journalists, suggesting that I might want to frame the day's copy of Kauppalehti, a business newspaper here. It turned out that a briefing I had given on Tuesday on a legal case had resulted in a story including my official photo, printed rather larger than the photo of our company chairman on the previous page. Surely a career limiting move!

Today was our Capital Markets Day, to which we invite representatives of our major shareholders and investment analysts, as well as journalists. It was only my second time wearing a suit and tie this quarter, part of my role was to press the button to advance the slides for my executive vice president who was presenting.

The event ran a little over its scheduled time, so I had to rush to my car to drive home and change to be assistant stage manager for the Finn-Brit Players' performance this evening. Thankfully, I was not too late and there were no traffic cops around.

The show was great, making me wish for the second time this year that I was performing rather than part of the technical crew. An evening in Marian Helmi, coincidentally my local, ensued.

I was rather grateful that none of my Finn-Brit friends had read Kauppalehti this morning, I got quite enough teasing on that from colleagues earlier. One of the joys of the group is that it matters not a jot what you do to earn a crust, you are taken on your merits as a performer or supporter, nothing more and nothing less.

On Friday, I will fly home to see my wife and daughter in their show. I only hope they have had as much fun as I have this week. I can't wait to see their performances.

From Panto to Pinter ...

2009-11-28T23:55:00.003+02:00

This weekend we have been setting up for the Finn-Brit Players' Harold Pinter revue, the latest activity in their Pinter project. Rehearsals until now have mainly taken place at the offices of the Finn-Brit Society in Helsinki - the photo shows the festive table there, selling British goods in aid of the Anglican church in the city. Expats have been able to buy such treats as Branston pickle and Frank Cooper's marmalade, bringing a taste of home for those who have been too long away from the motherland. You may recognise a few of your own favourites in the picture.

For the revue, I am assistant stagehand, building on the technical skills garnered from lighting the last show. It is proving to be useful experience which I hope to put to use when I return to the one seasonal favourite not available here, British pantomime.

While I have been preparing here, my family and friends at home have been set building and preparing for the run of Jacko and the Watercress stalk, which opens on Tuesday in Old Alresford, hopefully to the usual packed houses. I will be home in time to do front of house on Saturday night and then join the cast and crew party afterwards, helping with teardown on Sunday.

Though I love the panto and the shows we produce in TOADS, I am also enjoying the straight theatre productions here. It has been great to get some life back into my work/life balance over the past couple of weeks!

My wife is a cow ...

2009-11-16T02:31:00.002+02:00

Well, actually, she will be the front end of a cow, in the TOADS panto this year, Jacko and the Watercress Stalk. My youngest daughter is playing the rear end and tonight I saw them rehearsing this for the first time.

Normally on weekends when I am back in the UK, I leave home around 3:30pm and so am gone by the time rehearsals start. But unusually this week, I am working in the UK on Monday and Tuesday and had the rare treat of a Sunday evening at home.

You may have noticed, dear reader, that it has been over a month since my last post. I do apologise, this was down to a couple of factors, the first being that the last month has been rather busy at work and the second that I am finding, after more than two years of living in Finland, that there are fewer things that seem novel to write about. So this post is rather more focused on "home home", rather than my weektime home of Helsinki.

Last weekend was also spent in the UK, celebrating at the village bonfire night party (I have posted about this before; as usual I was flipping burgers on the barbeque and also cooked Broccoli & Stilton soup). Before that, though, we headed to Christchurch to collect two new kittens, a replacement for our blue Burmese boy George, who was run over a few weeks ago. His brother Zippy, a lilac Burmese, had never been alone since he was a kitten and so was pining for company. When we returned from the breeder with Darcy (a brown Burmese) and Willoughby (a snow spotted Bengal), you could tell that he was trying to tell us that he wasn't that lonely! However, a week later and they all seem to be getting along fine. I have posted some photos on my Facebook account but you can see them here, even if you are not a Facebook user.

Sunday was a mild and sunny November day and we were able to drive to the pub in my wife's car with the roof down, as it was 12 degrees celsius. In Helsinki I am already driving on winter tyres and temperatures hit minus 5 celsius last week, so I shall enjoy the sunshine and relative warmth while I can.

Finally, you may have noticed a few changes on the blog. The new header photograph was taken from the boat heading to Korkeasaari zoo in the summer. In the sidebar to the left, I have added a feed showing my latest status as reported through Facebook; if you have not already added me as a friend on Facebook, there is a button to do so further down. I hope you continue to enjoy the blog, comments are welcome as ever.

Oh, what a night ...

2009-10-10T01:44:00.003+03:00

My wife is here in Helsinki for the weekend and we have just got back from an amazing evening.

We started with dinner at Luomo, a restaurant just around the corner from my apartment. It has been getting high praise on eat.fi, a site I contribute to (as finn-mark) and have now reviewed 45 restaurants in the last two years, suprisingly putting me among the top 5% of their users. Without doubt, tonight's meal was not just my best in Finland, but the best ever.

We didn't even see the menu before we were offered a selection of amuses-bouche; a pork and bacon sampler on a bayleaf, chicken and foie-gras ball rolled in vegetable muesli, pumpkin shreds with a blue cheese cream and a small glass of carrot and blood orange juice topped with blood orange foam.

Luomo's full menu offered a seven course meal, comprising three starters, two entrees and two desserts. We chose a more modest five courses, together with matching wines.

The first starter was a tuna tartare, served with wasabe, soy sauce cream, mango and partnered with an Austrian riesling.

Our second starter was called "deer and forest", a combination of rare venison served cold with fruits of the forest and mushrooms, including some freeze-dried berries and a herb cream. This was partnered with a German blanc-de-noirs, a white wine made from Pinot Noir grapes not left on the skins to ferment. Mushroom bread and home churned butter was served on the side with this dish.

Before the main course, we were served a home made drink, produced from Cola nuts imported from Africa, which is the origin of the more sugary and artificial cola drinks to be had elsewhere.

Their main course was duck, "sweet and/or sour". To the left of the beautifully cooked wild duck was a sour braised red cabbage, to the right a sweet onion cream. The maitre-d had paired this very well with an Italian Chianti Classico and another bread, olive foccacia, arrived with this course.

Before the first dessert, another palate cleanser arrived in the form of a tiny cone filled with lemon verbena cream.

A glass of a fruity, slightly sparkling Italian red wine was poured before the first dessert, a marriage of fresh and freeze dried raspberries, pistachio ice cream and a pistachio nut cake.

Finally, a French dessert wine accompanied the final dessert of chocolate and Porcini - a mushroom flavoured chocolate brownie topped with a chocolate ice cream, Porcini cream and a wonderfully tart, orange, Sea-Buckthorn ice cream.

The portions were sufficient to enjoy the meal without feeling bloated and I have never had such well matched wines for each dish. My only regret is that we didn't take all 7 courses, and so missed the third starter (a goat's cheese and beetroot combination) and the second entree (a bouillabaisse). We will definitely be returning - they change their menu every six weeks or so.

After two and a half hours in the restaurant, we were ready for a walk, so headed to the Svenska Teattern (Swedish Theatre) to catch the late showing of Pink Noise by Fork, a four-piece acapella band, who I saw perform last month at the Nokia World party in Stuttgart. They put on a great show, which rounded off a wonderful evening. And the weekend has only just started, as tomorrow (well, later today) we are off to the Hartwall Areena for the second time in two weeks, this time to see Elton John and his Red Piano. I can't wait.

Living in a material world ...

2009-10-05T23:50:00.001+03:00

You can't live in Helsinki for long without noticing the UFF shops. One of my Finnish friends is a big fan, regularly scouring the branch on Kalevankatu after a coffee at Gran Delicato. But I hadn't picked up on their supply chain until this weekend.

Back home, we have a lot of charity shops, run by organisations such as Oxfam, Sue Ryder and the like. Each relies on donations brought to the store. In addition, groups such as the Salvation Army or my own local favourite, the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, have collecting bins in public places; the latter has one in the car park of our village hall.

But here in Finland, UFF has an end to end approach. This morning, after a wet Sunday spent sorting through the wardrobe, I took a bag of clothes to a collecting container, one block away, having checked on their website for my nearest site.

According to the UFF website, they have these in about 131 municipalities in southern Finland. In total there are over 600 container sites. In 2008 UFF Finland collected and recycled 7.6 million kilos of clothes.

In addition to reselling used winter clothes wholesale to other European countries, they also have 8 second hand shops in the largest cities in Finland: 6 shops in the capital Helsinki, one in Tampere and one in Turku. In 2008, a total of 400,000 paying customers (or one person in 13 in Finland) visited the UFF shops.

UFF (more fully, U-landshjälp från Folk till Folk i Finland rf) was founded more than 20 years ago as an independent non-profit non-governmental humanitarian organization. In 2008 they supported 19 development projects in Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Zambia and India.

This country has a very enlightened approach to recycling generally. But I am pleased to think that my few items donated will have a positive impact on those less fortunate elsewhere in the world.

Comedy, the international language ...

2009-10-02T20:06:00.003+03:00

Wednesday saw a global comedy performance at the Kultuuritalo, celebrating five years of comedy production from Laugh Riot. They put on a show with a good selection of comedians, some local and others from around the world, all performing (mostly) in English.

It was a fun evening. Two of the local guys, Tomi Walamies and Ismo Leikola, did a very nice job of overturning the Finnish male sterotype. Yannis Pappas from the US (no, really) and Steve Hughes from Australia were also very funny, but for me the highlight of the show was Nina Conti, the only woman and the only Brit on the bill. She was the last act and the funniest ventriloquist I have seen. If you don't believe me, check out her performances on YouTube.

It was only after I got home and looked her up on wikipedia that I realised that she is not only the daughter of British actor Tom Conti, but also a graduate of the University of East Anglia, my alma mater. If only I had known, she could have been the seventh drinker at our reunion the previous evening!

Pub night with a difference ...

2009-10-01T00:13:00.004+03:00

Last night was a Global Pub Reunion for the University of East Anglia, where I studied half a lifetime ago for my BSc in Biological Sciences.

The UEA is celebrating its 46th anniversary this year and the alumni association decided it would be good to organise groups of graduates to share a drink and a few memories around the world. I volunteered to host the Helsinki event, at my almost-local, Molly Malone's Irish Bar.

Apparently, there are more than 35 UEA graduates in Finland, the association had email addresses for five in Helsinki. So, I was delighted that we had a turnout of six former students, though most of the others hadn't even started school at the time I graduated.

Their talk of computer labs with several PCs sharing one printer compared with my half-unit of computer programming, done in Fortran on punched cards and and run in two batches a day on an ICL George 4 mainframe. The mobile phone I use every day now has significantly more computing power than that device, but it was that first exposure to computing that changed the direction of my career, away from being a research scientist and towards the world of IT.

We also learned a little about the university today, through a quiz supplied by the alumni association. UEA is ranked amongst the top three for student satisfaction according to the first National Student Survey and in the top 20 in the UK by the Sunday Times. It also came top of the most recent research effectiveness league table published by Research Fortnight. We are among some 85,000 alumni, united by the university's motto, "do different". I believe I have lived up to that since and continue to be grateful for my time at UEA and the impact it has had on my life. So cheers to the other 84,994 or so who were with us in spirit last night!

Finnish exports ...

2009-09-01T00:24:00.007+03:00

I've just got back from my first ever "unconference", the Nokia IdeasCamp held at Asilomar on Monterey Bay in California (the picture shows the view of the ocean from my room.

It was an interesting experience, mixing work colleagues with some of the great and the good from Silicon Valley. In addition to the workshops organized by attendees, after hours activities included "Midnight Cooking Madness" in which a dozen or so of us cooked for the rest (I made hummus for 70 or so people and was very pleased with the feedback!). We also had a talent show drawn from those present and had a bonfire on the beach, under strict supervision, given California's current problems with fires.

The organisers had tried to bring some Finnish customs to those present. Part of this involved me importing 144 pieces of Finnish Ruisleipä (rye bread), which added 6.6Kg to the weight of my suitcase! Meatballs and pea soup were served during the weekend, together with some more traditional American fare (I guess that's what it was).

But I think my favourite experience was trying a sauna tent for the first time. A very portable piece of equipment, apparently popular with hunters, campers and the like, this was a very welcome end to the day. The experience was completed by a large paddling pool to get the cold plunge after the heat. I may have to investigate shipping one to the UK!

Those crazy Finns ...

2009-08-22T22:31:00.007+03:00

The BBC has reported on Finland's love for crazy contests. Click to see the full article, but I've pasted a few excerpts here as I think this is very much in the spirit of cultural education which was one of the reasons I started this blog.

"The mobile phone throwing world championship in Finland on Saturday is just one of many crazy contests on the country's summer diary. Helsingin Sanomat columnist Perttu Hakkinen asks why Finns have such a fondness for these wacky pursuits.

Finland is well-known for several reasons: mass-produced mobiles phones, lakes - 190,000 of them - and boiling hot saunas. Also, for Santa Claus and the Eurovision monsterman, Lordi.

Finnish summer sports and pastimes owe something to all of these things. The telecoms industry, the natural environment - and the country's gimmicky eccentric side. The list includes boot throwing, wife carrying, mosquito slapping, mobile-phone throwing, sauna endurance contests... and many more.

The most popular summer sport in Finland, however, is not wife carrying or boot throwing, but swamp soccer (SS). The SS World Championships can attract over 30,000 enthusiasts and 300 teams to the tiny northern village of Hyrynsalmi (population 2,895), travelling all the way from the UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Russia and Iceland. The game is basically just like normal soccer, but it's played on a wet, marshy swamp."

The article concludes with a quote from Harri Kinnunen, two-time organiser of the Boot Throwing World Championships. "Yeah, I know what the foreigners think," Kinnunen laughs. "Those crazy Finns!"

Hmmm.

Summer holiday part deux ...

2009-08-21T22:34:00.017+03:00

It seems amazing to think I've been back working for a week already and returned to the office in Helsinki today.

After our return from the mökki, we visited Helsinki's zoo on Friday and then flew on Sunday to Edinburgh, via Heathrow. We started with a couple of nights in Edinburgh, staying at the Haymarket area, in easy walk to the city centre. We packed in a lot - an open top bus tour, visit to the Edinburgh Dungeon, some shopping on Prince's Street, a craft market and a walk through Grassmarket and around the castle area. We didn't manage to get tickets to any of the fringe comedy festival but picked up the buzz around the city.

We then crossed the Forth Road Bridge and travelled to Stirling Castle, thence to Perth (shown on the picture) for an overnight stay and a visit the following day to Scone Palace, the original home of the stone of destiny.

From there, we visited Scotland's oldest working distillery at Glenturret, which dates back to 1775. Unlike the visits recently to Guinness and Jameson in Dublin, this place is still preparing the water of life (the word whisky is derived from the Scottish Gaelic words of that meaning, uisge beatha) in a process virtually unchanged in more than 200 years. Glenturret single malt is one of the whiskies that go into the Famous Grouse, so we had the tour and were pretty impressed.

After this, a couple of days of chilling out were called for. We stayed in Drymen, on the shores (or is that the bonnie, bonnie banks) of Loch Lomond. Though all of the scenery we saw in Scotland was beautiful (helped, of course, by the sunshine), this was perhaps the most spectacular, the largest body of freshwater in the UK (by surface area, Loch Ness is smaller but has more volume).

We flew home on the Friday, after a visit to Hopetoun House, Scotland's finest stately home, then went to Ladies Day at Newbury Races on Saturday with friends. Unusually, we came out ahead of the bookies on that occasion, a very enjoyable day.

So now it is back to work. Hopefully when I feel stressed, a look at the photos will remind me of the tranquility of the Scottish countryside and reduce my blood pressure a little.

Summer holiday part 1 ...

2009-08-06T21:41:00.016+03:00

This week saw the first part of our family holiday. Horrified at the prices quoted for Tuscany, I had persuaded the family to take a cottage in the Finnish countryside.

I've written before about the mökki thing - Finland has around half a million of them, for a population slightly less than eleven times that number. Escaping from the cities to a cottage during the summer months is considered a normal thing to do.

Regular readers will know that I have a strong affection for this country and its people, so I apologise in advance to any Finnish friends who feel my reporting has taken a more negative turn. I'm afraid our experiences this week mean it is rather unlikely that the kesamökki will become a regular fixture on this family's calendar.

I booked our cottage via a website (http://www.lomarengas.fi/, ours was number 8238 and the company's service was excellent). The details suggested that the town of Perniö, only 5km away, offered restaurants and other amenities and we would not be too far from Salo, a larger town and an hour or so from Turku, one of Finland's major cities.

Things did not look promising from the beginning. As we drove to the cottage on Finnish road #1 (European route E18), the heavens opened and the rain fell so hard that even the wipers on double speed had trouble clearing the screen. The few tunnels en route gave temporary respite but confused the GPS, already struggling for a signal because of the millions of litres of water in the air between the satellites and my phone.

Having followed the (very accurate) driving directions, we spent the last 3km driving down barely surfaced roads, finally ending up in the yard of a farm, in whose grounds our cottage was. The cottage was well equipped, warm and clean and we unpacked, before heading back to Perniö for supplies. We had plenty of choice at least, with K-Market, S-Market and Siwa all represented (first stop, though, was Alko, for the most essential provisions).

At the only bar in the town, which doubled as its only restaurant, we chatted with our waitress who was recently returned to Finland after 11 years spent studying and then working around Birmingham, the first Finn I've met with a brummie accent in English! She explained that the next day, Saturday, was the annual market in the town, worth experiencing.

So, we returned to see more of Perniö, which we concluded in rough translation means "one horse town but the horse is on vacation". We did make it that day to Fiskars, once home of the eponymous manufacturer of knives and related items but now a cute village of craft workshops and sales outlets.

Sunday saw rain, so we stayed at the cottage, swam briefly in the 21°C lake during a gap in the clouds, took a sauna and played Mah Jongg.

On Monday we ventured to Turku to see the castle, billed in my tour guide as one of Finland's most popular tourist attractions. It was shut, despite information to the contrary in my guidebook and online. The rest of the city appeared to be similarly disinterested in visitors and we returned home rather disappointed.

Tuesday gave us a warm day, ideal for chilling out by the lake (or in it) and some barbecue, so that was OK.

On Wednesday, seduced by further tourist literature found in the cottage, we visited Hanko, described as a pretty little town by the sea. It seems to have been caught in a time warp since the 1950s, though it did give me an opportunity to paddle in what I was told was the most southerly seawater in Finland (the picture at the top of this post shows the proof). We at least had found the Finnish equivalent of Littlehampton.

Today, we decided to return to Helsinki a day early, stopping in Salo for the market and a very pleasant lunch. It was the hottest day of the holiday so far, at 24.5°C, so sitting at a pavement table felt almost Mediterranean!

Now we have a couple of days before the next part of our holiday, 6 days touring in Scotland. Stay tuned for the next instalment

Lucky numbers ...

2009-07-19T10:04:00.007+03:00

A few weeks ago, I was snapped by a Finnish police traffic camera, which was in the back of an unmarked grey van parked under a bridge on the side of the motorway to the airport. I was on my way to Vantaa to fly to see our friends in Sweden; the road was clear, the weather was good and there was only one other vehicle on the same stretch of road; a taxi which I was following that suddenly slowed and pulled in to the inside lane. I mention these circumstances, not to justify my transgression, merely to set the scene.

A few days later, a letter from the authorities arrived on my door mat. It noted that the vehicle had been observed travelling at 93 km per hour in an 80 limit and asked me to confirm who had been driving the vehicle. In the UK, one can apparently decline such questions, as you have the right not to give answers which might incriminate you. This is not the case in Finland, so I sent off my details and prepared to discover my fate.

I was aware that under Finland's system, some traffic fines are salary related, determined on the basis of a certain number of days' pay. The BBC reported in 2004 that "Jussi Salonoja, the 27-year-old heir to a family-owned sausage empire, was given the £116,000 ticket after being caught driving 80km/h in a 40km/h zone". Fortunately, our family "fortune" was made from fridges rather than their contents, and I am certainly not heir to an empire, so I was confident that I would not break Jussi's record.

Colleagues at work suggested that because I was not too far over the limit, I would likely only receive a fixed penalty, so I waited to hear from the Poliisi. The second letter, shown above, arrived this week. It is a summons to present my driving licence at the local police station, between 08:00 and 18:00, any day for the week before July 27. Frustratingly, it gave no clue to what else I might expect.

So, at 10:45 yesterday I presented myself. I took a numbered ticket and waited my turn, a very Finnish way of queueing. As I was the only miscreant there, it took just a few minutes until I was shown into the office with the two-way mirrored walls and advised that my fine would be €70 and I would have two weeks to pay. I was asked if I wanted to dispute the offence, which I did not, and then was presented with the paperwork. And finally, before I left, the very pleasant police officer pointed out the section on the forms where I could make any complaint about the way the matter had been dealt with by them.

So, that was it. Twenty minutes in the station, €70 fine, no points on my license (which would have been the case in the UK) and a lingering feeling of an efficient but very human way of dealing with the matter.

I have long considered that 93 is a lucky number for me. It was the number of my Round Table club in the UK, Basingstoke 93, which I was a member of for more than a dozen years. After these events, I shall continue to believe it to be true!

Feeling connected ...

2009-07-06T12:41:00.003+03:00

A couple of weeks ago, I passed my second anniversary of moving to Finland and starting my new job. The combination of that together with an impending "big" birthday next year has put me in rather a reflective mood over the last couple of weeks.

Living away from your home country is a great way of learning about what you have taken for granted. Of course, top of the list are family and friends; I now value the opportunities I get to spend time with both far more than I used to. Then there are more subtle things, such familiar foods and beverages; I've noted before on this blog the challenges of finding fruit cake and Pimms in Finland. Finally, there are the experiences which give a feeling of connection to what has been left behind.

This weekend was a good example. Whilst my US friends were celebrating Independence Day on Saturday, I was preparing to have a few people at my apartment for a brunch and the chance to watch the Wimbledon Men's Finals on Sunday. Last year, I upgraded my Welho cable subscription to get live coverage, but this year, the same channel was not showing the matches. Instead, I was able to add a one month subscription to the Swedish TV4 channel, so that we could see the images at least. I had this in mind as my plan B, as plan A was to watch through the BBC iPlayer, using a UK proxy service. For those not too technical, this is a way of getting round the BBC's restriction of only allowing UK based viewers to see the program. Since I do pay for a TV licence in the UK, I did not feel too bad at finding a way around that limitation.

However, in the end, the BBC's servers were overwhelmed it seems, so I could not stream the live coverage. So, we had Wimbledon Radio via the Internet, providing an English commentary whilst watching the game with the Swedish audio off. This was also instructional, as we learned that live coverage is not always live. There was a delay of several seconds between the pictures and the sound. Initially, the commentators were describing the action before we saw it happen. (If Roddick had been able to tap in to this, the outcome might have been different!). After a while though, the sound was lagging up to 12 seconds behind the play on screen. At this point, we used the "timeshifting" feature of my cable box to delay the picture by about the same time, ending up with a satisfactory pairing of sound and vision.

It was a good match. But the enjoyment for me was increased enormously by sharing it with friends from Helsinki. We did have strawberries and cream, as well as a few glasses of Pimms, the staple fare of Wimbledon goers. And somehow it made me feel closer to my wife back at home, who I knew would be watching the games avidly, as she always does. I look forward to the simple pleasure, previously taken for granted, of being able to share such experiences with her again when my time here is done.

Wine, Wien but no whining ...

2009-06-22T00:16:00.006+03:00

One of the challenges of being resident in Finland is that I can only spend a certain number of days in the UK without being taxed there as well. So, the past couple of weekends have given me the opportunity to spend time with my family but without setting foot on British soil.

The weekend before last was spent in Tranås in Sweden, at the graduation of the youngest son of our friends there. Regular readers will recall that we were there this time last year too, for his sister's graduation. It was another lovely weekend and we were honoured to be part of the extended family there for the celebrations, having met up at Stockholm Arlanda airport, 45 minutes apart on flights from London Heathrow and Helsinki Vantaa.

This weekend was our annual city break with four of our longest standing friends. (As we are already in our middle years, we no longer use the pejorative term "oldest friends"). We were in Vienna, from Thursday to Sunday afternoon and have fitted in an amazing amount of walking, sightseeing, eating and, of course, some drinking. We stuck to Austrian wines for the whole trip and were pleasantly surprised.

From the cultural perspective, we visited the Schönbrunn Palace and were very impressed with what had been the summer residence of the emperors of Austria, including the parents of Marie Antoinette. Having seen the lavish surroundings in which she was raised, it is no wonder that she found it impossible to identify with the lives of the average French peasant who were her subjects. The palace is vast and well presented, the gardens range from formal planting to tree lined avenues and a hilltop Gloriette from which to observe the whole estate. We also toured the zoo, thrilled to see Pandas, great and red, as well as a host of other animals in sympathetic surroundings.

In the city centre we toured the Hofburg, as well as the State Hall, home to a fascinating exhibition of geographical books from hundreds of years ago. I came away in awe of the beautifully painted ceiling, as well as enlightened to the origins of the naval hammock, so not a bad day's study.

On Sunday, we visited the Freud Museum, in the apartments that served as living and professional quarters for Prof. Sigmund Freud before he fled to England in 1938 in the eye of the political storm facing the continent at that time. It was a humbling experience, especially as both of my daughters have a strong interest in his chosen subject.

In between, we have dined well. We were recommended to try Ofenloch and Schimanszky, offering traditional and modern Viennese cuisine respectively and were not disappointed. We also visited Griechenbeisl and Stomach, both mentioned in the Dorling Kindersley guide to the city. The first was an old guest house from hundreds of years ago and the other a more modern family run restaurant near our hotel, neither disappointed, though both were very different. The photo shows us preparing to try genuine Sacher Torte at Cafe Sacher.

Our abiding feeling after the weekend is that Vienna is one of the jewels of European capital cities and well worth a return visit.

Next weekend is the third in a row where I shall be meeting my wife in a capital city, this time in Dublin, Ireland. More on that soon.

Sticks and stones ...

2009-06-11T22:22:00.003+03:00

I had a new cultural experience this evening, playing a Finnish game called Mölkky (pronounced merl-koo), something like a combination of skittles, darts and boules. I played with some of my colleagues on the beach in Lauttasaari, where we had an enjoyable team summer picnic amongst the rocks.

There are 12 numbered pins, which are placed together to begin and then a further piece (also called the mölkky) is thrown under arm at them. If you knock down just one piece, you score its face value. Knock down more and you just score the number of pins felled. After they have been knocked over, you stand them up again where they fell, so the target pattern gradually spreads out. The aim is to get to exactly 50 points, but if you go over, your score reverts to 25. Miss the pins three times in a row and you are out. It was recommended by a colleague for us to take to the summer cottage, where we will be spending a week of our holiday this August.

Mölkky is based on older games but this version was invented in 1996 by Tuoterengas, an independent business unit in the Lahti Region Education Consortium, which provides work training services and vocational rehabilitation. The game is manufactured in Finnish pine and you can buy it from Touoterengas' online shop. On the basis of a couple of games this evening, I think this is going to be popular with our family! It will add to our collection of garden games, which also includes the Breton Palets which we bought on holiday a few years ago.

Son et lumière

2009-06-06T13:02:00.008+03:00

Yesterday was opening night for the Finn-Brit Players' double bill of Harold Pinter plays, Moonlight and A Slight Ache. I have to admit to being rather unfamiliar with Pinter's works before I joined the Players and, at my first run through, wondered what I had let myself in for.

I didn't study drama or literature very much at school and have done little to further my education in that area since. My performances have been in pantomime and musical entertainment with our local drama group in the UK. The Finn-Brit Players are a rather more serious group and so it was probably a blessing for all concerned that, on this occasion, I have been working on the technical side of the production, as the lighting operator. It has been a hugely insightful experience, which will help me when I return to the UK and our village amateur dramatic group, TOADS.

It was back in April that I joined a technical workshop organised by the Players and volunteered to operate the lights for the show. Since, then, I've been calling the lighting cues at rehearsals, but on Monday this week, saw the theatre where the show is running for the first time. Working with Antti, who designed the lighting for the show, we set up the different lighting scenarios for each play; A Slight Ache runs first and has 17 changes, for Moonlight there are almost double that. Each of these lighting combinations is then programmed into the lighting desk together with timings for each transition, so that on the night, I should just have to press one button and the change happens.

The other element is synchronising with the sound effects and music for each play. The sound operator is also a newbie, so Susan and I have been learning together. Susan is a freelance journalist for the Helsinki Times and this week's edition included her piece about the show.

I've found that as the rehearsals have gone on, my understanding of Pinter's approach has developed and I have been formulating my own theories about both plays. I have also been impressed by the performances of all the cast members, as well as the professionalism of everyone else involved. Last night, with an audience in the theatre for the first time, was a very moving experience. If you are in Helsinki, there are still some tickets left for performances next week, you can book at the Finn-Brit Players website. I hope to see you there!

En famille ...

2009-05-24T21:13:00.006+03:00

This weekend, my wife and daughters have been with me here in Helsinki, the first time that all four of us have been here together. We were also joined by our eldest daughter's boyfriend, on his first visit to Finland too, so we had lots to celebrate.

On Friday evening, we walked out to Kappeli for drinks before dinner at Farouge, where we had their excellent Lebanese meza.

Rotten weather on Saturday meant we had a rather more relaxed day than I had planned. We wandered around the city centre, shopping and then lunched at Norisushi in the kauppahalli. Back home for a rest before heading out for a superb Italian meal at Gastone, stopping only for Mojitos at Kappeli again!.

This morning, we packed the car and headed to Seurasaari to feed the squirrels (and ducks, birds and a few thousand pigeons). The picture shows the younger ones feeding the last squirrel we found, who was burying one peanut at a time for later. I hope he can find them without a GPS! After the encounter with Finnish wildlife, we went for the Reggae brunch at Nolla, before heading to Linnanmaki for an afternoon of amusement park rides, including two goes on the wooden rollercoaster, which I love.

By then, it was time to head to the airport for my visitors to fly home. Now I am back, on the third load of laundry, thinking that even with the washing machine and tumble dryer on, the apartment seems rather quiet again. At least I will see my wife and youngest in three weeks time in Sweden, when we celebrate Ludde's graduation from gymnasiet. And, excitingly, we have booked a kesämökki (summer cottage) in Finland for a week in the summer. I will look forward to reporting on that later in the year!

Vappu in Helsinki...

2009-05-07T23:17:00.006+03:00

Last weekend, we celebrated Vappu, or Labour Day, here in Helsinki. My wife flew in on Friday, May 1st and we joined an alleged 50,000 people in Kaivopuisto, one of the big parks in Helsinki, for a picnic. The picture shows the view from our spot.

Almost all of the Finns were wearing their student caps, which are rather more practical than the mortar board I graduated in. Current students also wear coloured overalls covered in sponsor's logos; the colour denotes the subject they are studying, such as burgundy for law. I suspect the practicality of overalls when drinking for a sustained period of time is not to be underestimated.

As is to be expected at any party in Finland, alcohol is consumed, champagne being popular with the picnic. As a result, with so many drinking all day, the temporary conveniences became quite busy. I did add to my Finnish vocabulary, as can be seen from this picture, taken while I was queueing. I think you can probably deduce what it means - the French word is quite similar!

Blinking into the light ...

2009-04-26T17:01:00.006+03:00

This has been my first weekend in Helsinki for five weeks and it really does feel as though the city is waking up for summer.

On Friday, I was in the tent at April Jazz (more correctly the International Jazz Festival in Tapiola). Playing live were excellent local singer Tuomo and a British group, US3, amongst whose hits in the 90's was Cantaloop. I'm not normally a fan of rap, but their fusion of jazz and hip-hop, with a stage show full of energy, was a great way to start the weekend. I caught the free jazz-bussi from the city centre, which added to the sense of adventure!

On Saturday, the cultural experience continued, with an introduction to another of Helsinki's ex-pat communities. April 25th is Anzac Day, originally to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I but now commemorating all those who died and served in military operations for their countries.

There is (of course) a Finn-Anzac society here, who celebrate the day with a picnic on the beach in Lauttasaari and I joined them with some other friends. We (of course) took a barbeque and grilled English sausages and drank Pimms, to show solidarity with our fellow Commonwealth citizens! One of the members had even made Anzac biscuits; my Mum baked these during my childhood and it was nice to have a reminder of home. Though the weather was a little cold, the sun was out and the view over the sea from our picnic spot was glorious. I even have a little celebratory sunburn as a result.

Today was a technical workshop organised by the Finn-Brit Players, as an introduction to sound and lighting techniques. They share the challenge our TOADS group at home suffers, trying to find volunteers to help with these areas for productions. I have been persuaded to take an apprenticeship in lighting for the next show, a Harold Pinter double-bill in June. I hope that this, too, will be an illuminating experience!

Round and round the castle ...

2009-04-20T20:59:00.004+03:00

Readers may notice that this is not a Finnish landmark. As I have only spent four days in Finland over the last three weeks, this post is about our weekend trip to Arundel in West Sussex to celebrate my wife's birthday.

Arundel has been a favourite destination for many years. I grew up not far from here and when our eldest was small, a visit was always a popular choice.

We started with a tour of the castle, seat of the Dukes of Norfolk, set in 40 acres of beautiful countryside and dating back to Norman times. After a stroll around the gardens and tea and cakes, we visited the Roman Catholic cathedral of Our Lady & St Philip Howard. Back to the Norfolk Arms to get ready for the evening and then out for dinner at Butlers. (In case anyone from the restaurant is reading, here's what a Caesar salad should be. It should have egg and anchovies. Romaine lettuce not mixed leaves. Definitely no cherry tomatoes. And no vinegar in the dressing!)

On Sunday, after the inevitable full English breakfast, we took a stroll at Swanbourne Lake, a former mill pond which is now home to a variety of wildfowl. This and the surrounding land was purchased by the Duke of Norfolk in 1787 and forms part of the Arundel Park. Our memory was that the full walk around the lake took around one and a half hours, so we nearly didn't attempt it. Of course, it used to with a young daughter, but with both of our girls now grown up, the full circuit took around half the time!

It was a wonderful spring weekend in England, with flora and fauna at their most appealing. For more pictures, see my Arundel 2009 channel on Ovi Share. Many happy returns, darling!

Easter bun-nies ...

2009-04-08T21:10:00.005+03:00

I blogged last year about some of the Easter traditions here in Finland. This year, I decided to do just a little to share one of ours from the UK, so during my team meeting this week we had Hot Cross Buns which I imported at the weekend.

This was somewhat of a logistical challenge. As they are traditionally served hot (!), I needed to find a way of warming them and concluded that the microwave in the office kitchen would not suffice. So, I brought in my toaster from home. I did wonder whether the health & safety folk might object, but we avoided setting off the smoke detectors, so I think I got away with it!

The buns proved popular, as expected, since they are similar to some of the Finnish pulla. I hope that one of the beliefs about the buns holds true; if you share them with someone, you supposedly ensure friendship for the coming year. I am fortunate to have a great team already, but there's no harm in taking out a little insurance!

Hob nob ...

2009-03-25T20:47:00.003+02:00

Regular readers may remember the incident with my suitcase and the cooker in my apartment. Entirely unrelated to this, my oven gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago, just before I was due to host a Sunday brunch for some friends here. Fortunately, cooking a full English did not require more than the grill and stove so we managed, but the following week, thanks to my landlady and the nice folk at Nordea who manage her affairs, a new oven and stove were installed. The repairer insisted that the previous ones were beyond economic repair and they have been taken away to one of the local museums.

The new items arrived with manuals in all four Nordic languages, but not English. I am now in discussion with their help desk to see what can be done, but the particular models are only made for this market. The hob is easy enough, despite having no knobs or buttons, you just have to touch it in at least three places to turn it on. This should ensure that it is Mark-proof.

However, the cooker seems rather more complex. I have managed to work out how to use the grill but the oven has more combinations than my bicycle lock. I may have to take the book into the office and beg help from a colleague. The real novelty, though, is being able to see through the glass door to the inside. The old oven allegedly had a glass door too, but years of cooking had given it the same level of transparency as the rear screen of my car after weeks of driving through the Helsinki slush.

So now I look forward to cooking a Sunday roast and trying the cooker out in anger. Any takers?

Splitting hares ...

2009-03-22T18:46:00.004+02:00

Today was another beautiful sunny day, so I took the chance for a walk with friends around Lauttasaari. It means"ferry island", as until the 1950s, the only way to reach the island was by boat. But then came the bridges and now I drive over the island every morning on my way to work.

About half way round, we spotted this fellow, not quite the mad March Hare, but he was a little odd. As I walked towards him, he ran away, though I managed to catch this photo as I was walking back to my chums and they shouted "he's behind you" (in panto fashion) as the hare was doing his best to chase me! Compared to similar creatures in the UK, he was a lot larger, more the size of a small dog than a large rabbit and it was fun to watch, just for a while. It also reminded me of the book my team gave me last year, The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna, a well respected Finnish novelist. I can now understand why the hero Vatanen was so taken by the eponymous animal.

We also saw some great sights during our three hour amble, here is one of my favourites, combining rocks, snow and frozen sea. For more, see my Ovi Share Finland channel.

The gloves are off ...

2009-03-21T18:18:00.002+02:00

It is finally feeling like spring in Helsinki! The temperature today was +4°C, which feels positively mild. Of course, it is around the same temperature as the inside of a fridge, but after the winter we've had here, together with a sunny sky, the grey of this city in winter seemed a little less drab.

I walked to Hakaniemi for a trim at Nadem's, my Tunisian barber, and felt brave enough to leave my gloves in my bag. Not at home, but at least I didn't put them on. And despite a very short haircut, I didn't feel the need for a hat either. The picture shows the view from the bridge en route; yes, you can see footprints. The sea froze during the winter, then snow settled on top of it and the Finns, displaying extraordinary sisu, like to take their constitutional walking on the water. Most Brits are brought up to believe that walking on frozen rivers and lakes is dangerous enough; doing so on the sea sounds even worse.

After picking up some groceries, I then walked into the city centre for some other bits and pieces I didn't know I needed until I saw them, then headed to Café Engel for a coffee and Lingonberry pie. Now I am procrastinating, trying to delay starting my Finnish tax paperwork and then the ironing.

Reversal of fortunes ...

2009-03-16T23:28:00.002+02:00

Tonight was the third pub quiz I have attended in Helsinki, organised at Molly Malone's by IESAF, the International English Speaking Association of Finland. On our first outing in February, we came a creditable fourth out of fourteen teams. Last week, my team came last, though at least that meant we won our €10 entry fee back, though that was little compensation. Both of these evenings were the regular "first Wednesday of the month" quiz.

This evening, IESAF organised a special event for St. Patrick's Day, Molly's being an ideal venue. Of course, St. Pat's isn't until tomorrow, but the pub has a party on then, so our team joined a couple of dozen others (or so it felt) for a quiz based on a broad Irish theme. And we won! As well as winning Molly Money for highest or joint highest scores on three rounds, our winner's prizes were four return flights with Aer Lingus to Dublin, plus vouchers to spend at (non-Irish retailer) Ikea. Not bad for a Monday evening.

It seems the prize may cost me a little though, as I shall now need to work out when Stephanie can join me for a long weekend in Dub, sometime between now and the end of June. The year is beginning to look busy!

Two Left feet ...

2009-03-05T21:16:00.002+02:00

My new shoes arrived today. I happened to be at home when the Posti man called and delivered them into my hands.

It has been a month since I was measured for them, so I was keen to see how they looked and, more importantly, fitted.

You can see more pictures in my album on Ovi Share, but in short they arrived in the box, plastic wrapped for shipping. Each shoe was in a soft cloth bag with the two wrapped in tissue paper; it was like opening a birthday present I had sent to myself!

They look rather smart and the right shoe is personalised with my name and customer number, ready to order more direct from their website. The left lace is customised with a badge bearing the Left logo, just in case I was not clear which foot it was for!

And so to try them on. They fit well, quite a different feeling than buying ready made shoes which fit where they touch. I have had them on all afternoon in the apartment and am fairly certain I am going to like them. One of my colleagues has warned me that they are an addictive experience!

Nice buns ...

2009-02-25T19:01:00.004+02:00

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, celebrated in the UK and many other countries as Pancake Day, when by tradition the store cupboards are emptied in preparation for Lent.

In Finland, the tradition is different; the Lenten seasons starts 50 days before Easter on laskiasunnuntai (nearest English translation is Quinquagesima Sunday). This starts the three day feast called laskiainen (Shrovetide) that ends on laskiaistiistai (Shrove Tuesday). The Finnish traditon is to eat pea soup (normally served on Thursdays) and laskiaspulla, a special type of buns filled with jam or marzipan and topped with whipped cream. The picture of these pulla comes from the Helsinki Times website.

Sadly, I missed both traditions this year, tying to stick to my existing abstinence programme. But the pulla do look good.

Love is the key ...

2009-02-23T00:36:00.002+02:00

I have had two unpleasant incidents with my keys over the last couple of weeks. The first came last weekend, when in a rush to get out for an evening of games playing and movie watching across town. I have lived here for more than eighteen months and for the first time, leaving in a rush to catch a bus, forgot to take my apartment key. Of course, I realised just as the door clicked shut and had that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Luckily, I had not left the building, so was able to check the notice board in the hallway and, by a process of elimination, identify the service which could help. One phone call and twenty minutes later my rescuer appeared. The door was opened in exchange for a 2o Euro fee and I was on my way, thinking how this compared with UK experiences. When eldest daughter locked herself out on her 21st birthday, a rather expensive locksmith visit was added to the costs for the evening. I wonder whether there is a business opportunity for a low cost "keyholder" service back home?

The second incident was today (Sunday), when driving back to the airport after my first weekend home in three weeks. We'd had a great time, despite my coming down with a cold, which has left me feeling somewhat slugged. As I got to Heathrow and returned my rental car, I realised I had left my Finnish keys - car, apartment, desk etc. - hanging on the hook in the hallway at home. The same sinking feeling ensued, but I phoned home and my darling wife, without hesitation, got in her car and drove to Heathrow, almost in my tyre tracks. Together with youngest daughter, they got the keys to me in the nick of time; I managed to make the flight with a few minutes to spare.

So, despite missing Valentine's weekend at home, for the perennial reason of Mobile World Congress, I can say that love is key for a happy marriage. I suspect, though, that this second incident may end up costing me a little more than 20 Euros!!

Building memories ...

2009-02-14T10:01:00.006+02:00

This week, the builders took down the plastic sheeting and scaffolding and unveiled the construction opposite my apartment this week. It was not quite as exciting as unwrapping a present, but it does look marginally more attractive now than it has done during construction.

It is a new building for the University of Helsinki, which has a lot of property in this area. I am not sure whether it is going to be student accommodation, or teaching rooms, or something else, but I am sure I will find out later this year.

Construction started last October, just after my parents had been over to visit. According to my landlady's agent, construction should be finished on August 14 this year. I love the idea that they are confident enough not just to state the month, but go right down to the day, I don't thinky you would get that from British builders! As well as causing some disruption with reduced parking in the street, the footpath which went down the side of the building has been temporarily diverted, though through a charming group of university buildings with an old cobbled yard.

The second photo shows how the space looked before, my Dad took this shot when he was here. At least some of the large trees have been preserved, so that once the building is finished, it will look like it has been part of the cityscape for a while. But it doesn't give me quite the same view from the balcony.

If the shoe fits ...

2009-02-09T20:10:00.005+02:00

Friends and family will know that I am rather fond of shoes. I believe that owning more than 40 pairs is unusual for an Englishman, even one with two homes. However, until now, all my purchases have been from the stores, ready made, even if some have been particularly splendid.

This weekend, I took the next step (sorry) in my journey of discover in footwear. I was measured in Helsinki by the left foot company, for a pair of individually made shoes.

This company is a Finnish success story. In 1998, they began developing "a system that enabled detailed measurements of the customer's feet using 3D technology. Three years of in-depth development work led to the creation of the CMS system, which forms basis for the left foot company's activity.

The CMS system makes it possible to manufacture individual shoes with an efficiency almost matching that of mass production. Using computer aided design, 3D foot scanning, computer guided cutting systems and an automated production control system, tailored shoes can be manufactured industrially."

The process involves wearing socks printed with grids, then standing on a scanner bed with a camerate that travels 360 degrees around the foot, creating a 3D image. With one fluorescent yellow sock and one fluorescent green, each with a pattern like graph paper, I did feel somewhat like a mathematically obsessed Teddy Boy. The details are checked and stored and you then receive a unique username and password to use on their website.

After that, the challenge is to choose what style and colour of shoes you wanr. They have hundreds of variants to choose from. I eventually opted for their Via Nomentana style in Coffee / Cognac. You can find them on this page, they are also shown in the image above.

Now I have to wait for delivery, by post, in week 10. Apparently, if I am not happy with them then we retry until I am. Once I am certain we have a good fit, then I can order further pairs from the website without needing to go back for another fitting.

I look forward to reporting to you on the results. I hope I shall be head over heels!

Compact and bijoux ...

2009-02-02T20:41:00.004+02:00

I've been back in the UK for the weekend and, as I do frequently, hired a car to drive home and then back to the airport.

Normally I book the car separately, but for this journey, into London Gatwick, I got a deal from Easyjet to include car rental through Europcar, a company I have had good service from when renting at Heathrow.

To keep the costs down, I booked a 2 or 4 door compact car, expecting a small Ford or similar. However, when I collected the keys, they were for a Citroen. I've not had great experience with that marque before, so was not expecting to enjoy the drive, but hey, it's only for a few hours. I was even more surprised when I went out to the parking bay and found that my ride was one of these pictured, a C4 Grand Picasso, 7 seat MPV. Compact it is not, but it was all that was left and time was pressing, so I set off.

I've joked with my wife before that with the number of cars I am renting, perhaps I should start reviewing some of them for the blog. I think, though, that might cause several readers to go and check out something more interesting. In short, this was a surprisingly good drive, the car handled very well, the diesel engine was lively and responsive, delivering around 44mpg for the weekend and, should I ever be looking for a seven seat vehicle, I would consider it. Of course, as I already have a seven seater, my Land Rover Discovery, I don't think it will be an immediate purchase.

When I returned the car, I was pleased that I had paid the few pounds extra to reduce the insurance excess to zero. Pulling into the filling station, I managed to scrape the rear nearside wing on one of the metal poles designed to avoid people driving into the pumps. Perhaps if I had been given a compact as ordered, that wouldn't have happened!

Going underground ...

2009-01-29T22:28:00.003+02:00

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 ...

2009-01-14T22:13:00.004+02:00

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 ...

2009-01-10T23:18:00.004+02:00

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 ...

2009-01-08T21:12:00.007+02:00

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 ...

2009-01-05T13:30:00.009+02:00

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!

Renta Santa ...

2008-12-24T19:10:00.005+02:00

Tonight is Christmas Eve and in millions of households across Finland, Father Christmas will be visiting to deliver presents to all the good little girls and boys. Which helps answer one of the conundrums from my childhood:

Q: How does Santa visit every home to deliver the presents in just one night?

A: He starts earlier in Finland, because it is closer to Lapland, where he lives.

For us growing up in England, Santa visited in the middle of the night, but only if you were asleep. Of course, now in the wisdom of parenthood, we understand that this is a ploy to get the kids to bed so that mum and dad can breathe a small sigh of relief, eat the mince pie and drink the whisky left out for Santa and then wrap the final presents.

But in Finland, Joulupukki visits while you are awake. And sadly, it seems, so often at just the moment that dad (or grandpa) has nipped outside to empty the bins, or some such pressing activity.

For the older children, such a ruse is easily be seen through and so there is a seasonal opportunity to hire a Santa. My most recent Finnish lesson included a few tips on what to look for in the small ads for Joulupukkipalveluita, or Father Christmas Service. A sample is show in the image, you may need to click to make it large enough to read. (The handwritten notes are my own from the lesson).

First, a good word to look for is kokenut, meaning experienced, isokokenut denotes very experienced. Next, autoleivat is a good idea, meaning they have their own car - a good idea as it means they are likely not to be drinking too much of the koskenkorva which is offered at each house they visit. To be certain, raitis means they don't drink at all. Luotettava means they are trustworthy, something to consider when entrusting them with your little treasures. If the ad states lauluttaa then they sing (I would certainly want to see sobriety combined with that one, just to avoid off colour lyrics).

The most impressive, though, is the display ad with the picture. This is for a genuine Santa from Korvatunturi in Lapland, the genuine home of Santa.

So, should you ever find yourself in need of a rental Father Christmas in Finland, I hope this information will be of some help. As for me, I shall be waiting for Christmas morning to open the presents with my family. Until then, I wish you Hyvää Joulua.

Season's greetings ...

2008-12-19T16:53:00.003+02:00

This was the electronic card I received from the relocation company who moved me to Finland last year (which I have used with their permission). I include it to give you a seasonal greeting in Finnish.

The most common wish at the moment is hyvää joulua - literally good Christmas. The word used here, rauhallista, means peaceful, also an important sentiment especially in Finland.

Back in the UK, our TV rituals for Christmas Day include the Queen's Christmas message. In Finland, the Declaration of Christmas Peace from Turku seems to have a similar place in people's hearts. According to the city of Turku's website, this has been read out in Turku almost every year since the Middle Ages. In addition to watching on Christmas Eve on TV, radio or the Internet; thousands of people arrive at Old Great Square to hear the words ring out from the balcony of Brinkkala Mansion.

"All of Finland settles down for Christmas as the bells resound through the square. At Christmas travellers can also find a moment’s peace in Turku.The bells of Turku Cathedral and city’s other churches toll the joy of Christmas, and on the night of Christmas Eve the cemeteries of the city are brightly lit with candles people have brought to the graves of their loved ones."

This evening, I am flying back to the UK for two weeks. I wish all of you reading this blog the same as I am looking forward to...a happy and peaceful time with those you care most about. Rauhallista joulua!

Shopped out ...

2008-12-14T01:51:00.004+02:00

This weekend was planned as a shopping trip for Stephanie, but unfortunately she is ill and so has not been able to travel.

I felt it my husbandly duty to still make a pilgrimage to the St Thomas Christmas market on Esplanadi on Saturday. That was a mistake.

Not because there was nothing to see, quite the opposite. With over 120 stalls selling handicrafts as well as food and drink, there was no shortage of things to look at, smell or taste. No, it was trying to do this on a Saturday afternoon when the whole population of Helsinki seemed to have had the same idea. I have never heard the word anteeksi (excuse me) used so frequently.

I didn't drink glögi (mulled wine) this time, but did have "Kuusamo fishes", as the English translation read. These are pretty popular fast food here at markets and the like - usually called Vendace, they look like (and taste like) Whitebait, but are a different species of fish. They are served hot, fried on a large, flat pan and often with a garlic sauce.

I hope to make it back during Sunday, perhaps a little earlier than I did today, to get a few final gifts for the family. I will be flying home for the holidays next Friday, trying the new service from Helsinki to Gatwick with EasyJet. For those who have been considering a visit to Helsinki but concerned about the cost, this is going to provide a great option. I hope to report on the trip in a future post.

Knightly news ...

2008-12-12T17:32:00.005+02:00

December 6 is Independence Day in Finland and among the news items associated with the day was the award of honors by President Tarja Halonen. This year's honorees included several of my work colleagues.

A member of my unit management team was awarded Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland (the picture shows the star of the order). Congratulations, Timo!

Finland’s institution of knighthood stems from the holy orders that the Catholic Church established in the Middle Ages. There are three official orders in Finland; in addition to the Order of the Lion of Finland there is the Order of the White Rose of Finland and the Order of the Cross of Liberty. The President of Finland is the Grand Master of all three orders.

As a Brit, I am rather more familiar with the honours system in the UK, ranging from peerages through knighthoods to commanders (CBE), officers (OBE), and members (MBE) of the order of the British Empire - my neighbour Paull at home has an MBE. If you are knighted in the UK, as one of my former bosses was, your first name formally changes to begin Sir xxx. Here in Finland, there is no such recognisable designation. Nor is there the invitation to a royal palace to have your honour conferred in person by Her Majesty or her representative. Instead, the organisation that nominated you (most likely your employer) makes the presentation instead.

The administration of these honours is carried out from the House of the Estates (Säätytalo), on the same street as my apartment in Helsinki, so now I know what they do in there. Also notable is that recipients pay a fee based on the level of the award, to defray the administration costs (though my source notes that this is usually paid by the nominating organisation). Now that is a "cash for honours" scheme that the UK might like to consider!

He knows where you live ...

2008-12-01T12:04:00.003+02:00

...but do you know where he lives? Everyone in Finland does - Father Christmas (or Joulupukki) lives in Finnish Lapland. On Sunday he was visiting Helsinki, though; I passed him meeting with some members of his fan club in Senate Square on my way to lunch.

My Finnish friends have their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve, unlike us in the UK, where we open presents on Christmas Day (in our house, this normally starts pretty early in the morning). It must be because he starts so much closer to all the Finns, who get their deliveries before he traverses the skies over the Baltic en route for the North Sea and landfall somewhere around Harwich.

What's in a name?

2008-11-29T23:04:00.002+02:00

My Finnish lessons continue, with my instructor Mimmu showing patience above and beyond the call of duty. By the end of the hour and a half we spend together, I feel that I am making progress, but after a couple of weeks, the next lesson feels more like a remedial class.

However, some of it sticks and I was able to identify colours by their Finnish names whilst touring Ikea today. Punainen is red and Valkoinen is white - those are easy to pick up from a wine list, of course. Today I also recognised Keltainen (yellow) and Musta (black).

I also learned in this week's lesson the origin of the name of the area of Helsinki where I live, Kruununhaka. It apparently dates back to the days when Finland was part of Sweden and this was an area populated by the nobility. Kruunu means crown, the haka part refers to a fenced area where the horses are kept. So, I live in the King's paddock. I feel rather more posh now!

In the bleak midwinter ...

2008-11-24T23:32:00.002+02:00

OK, so it isn't really midwinter. But it feels like it back in Helsinki, after a few days away in the UK and California.

I landed last night at Vantaa at 23:40, only 10 minutes later than scheduled but in a ghostly white landscape, several centimetres of snow on the ground and temperature of -5C. After my customary speedy exit and dash through customs, I waited for my luggage to hit the belt. And waited. The cold weather was slowing down the usually speedy ground staff and eventually, after an hour of waiting, my suitcase arrived.

Then outside to grab a cab. But there was a long line of passengers waiting for taxis and a rather intermittent supply. Forty five minutes later, I was inside a warm Volvo and on my way home. After an object lesson in why the Finns make such excellent rally drivers, we slid to a halt outside my apartment, just two hours later than my normal return time, and four hours sleep before heading to work this morning.

My only consolation was that, had that much snow fallen in the south of England where the rest of the family live, the infrastructure would have ground to a halt. And this morning, when I needed a cab to work, despite the still dreadful conditions, an SMS to Helsinki Taxi with my address got a reply within seconds even when the phone number was constantly engaged, then a cab arrived within 5 minutes. Driving home this evening, I was so glad I got the winter tyres put on before I departed for California. My only worry is how I'll drive on snow back in the UK, when I forget that my tyres don't have metal spikes fitted!

Finally facing my Waterloo ...

2008-11-02T19:05:00.004+02:00

What to do on All Saints Day in Finland, a public holiday on a Saturday, when no shops are open? The answer turned out to be a triumph for Anglo-Finnish cultural exchange. We went to see the "sing along" version of Mamma Mia!, now the highest grossing British film at UK box offices. For those who've not heard of it, the film is based on the musical show, in turn based on the music of Abba.

We went to see the movie here at Finnkino in Kinopalatsi last time the family were over and enjoyed it, singing along in our heads. But the producers had an inspired idea and have issued a version of the film with the song words displayed, karaoke-style, so that you don't have to listen to your neighbours get them wrong.

This seems a stroke of genius for the Finnish audience. Karaoke is popular here; in fact, Finland holds the world record for karaoke singing, after they won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006. In my neighbourhood there are two karaoke bars and I have been known to indulge myself, in true Finnish style (which involves the consumption of alcohol, purely to lubricate the vocal chords).

Behind us in the cinema was a group of already well lubricated students who were almost in tune and almost in time. The most hilarious moments included them singing along with Colin Firth trying to emulate his English accent. Funnier than this was when one of them, inexplicably dressed in a gorilla suit, tried to chat to my daughter's friend in Finnish. I'm not sure which was the most surprised!

If you think you can cope with the idea of Pierce Brosnan singing (badly) to Meryl Streep, then I recommend the film. If you like the songs of Abba, the plot does not get in the way of a good sing-along. And though I doubt that any UK cinema would allow the level of harmless fun that our good natured Finnish students were enjoying, it is definitely worth seeing this version of the film in a crowd. Preferably a very large one with very few people who know you!

Social climber ...

2008-11-01T21:25:00.003+02:00

Today I took my visitors to Seurasaari to see the squirrels. For the second time, I had no treats for them but this did not deter them from coming to see us. Here, my youngest daughter is wishing she had a peanut or two.

It was cold today and we stopped at the kiosk for a hot chocolate. Sadly they did not sell nuts for the animals, but the girl behind the counter informed us that squirrels like Pulla. So we bought one, with every intention of feeding them on the way back to the car. Sadly, once my visitors discover they liked Pulla too, the squirrels lost out. Never mind, we've now bought some nuts and plan to visit them again. I hope we can find all the ones we had promised to feed today.

Twice as ice ...

2008-10-31T23:02:00.003+02:00

The half term holidays are in progress in the UK, so my wife and daughter are visiting me in Helsinki with one of my daughter's friends. We managed to pick the weekend of All Saint's Day, which means that the shops will be shut all day on Saturday and so we will have to do something non-commercial then.

To make up for that, we hit the shops in the city centre yesterday and today have been to Itäkeskus ("east-centre"), one of the big shopping malls. This enabled my dear wife to indulge one of her favourite tastes here in Finland, for a dippi softis from Spice Ice. Today she had mixed chocolate and vanilla ice cream, dipped in liquid licorice which then sets hard, then dipped in licorice-flavoured sprinkles. I had the same ice cream combination dipped in toffee. Daughter #2 had strawberry and vanilla dipped in chocolate and covered in sprinkles and daughter's friend had chocolate and vanilla dipped in chocolate. Here you see the two girls enjoying the treat, before it got messy!

What's in a name ...

2008-10-23T00:19:00.004+03:00

Several readers have asked me whether I will continue to blog when I return to the UK and, if so, whether I will keep the same name when I am not living in Finland. Of course, mine is not one of the highest visited online brands; according to Google Analytics I have had 81 unique visitors in the last 30 days, making 207 visits between them and viewing 1.33 pages each time on average. But it does deserve some thought. So when I passed this pub today in London, it did start me thinking. It is reasonably descriptive and includes a spelling mistake, so at least matches the current name.

However, it would not fit with my newly found sense of humility (a very Finnish trait), so I think I shall have to keep searching for ideas. All are welcome, though there is no rush, as I will be in Finland for some time to come.

A manor to which I could become accustomed ...

2008-10-13T11:55:00.004+03:00

I am back at Sannås Manor near Porvoo this week (I blogged about my last visit in April), for a Cutting Edge course for 18 of the brightest stars in our communications constellation. I am looking forward to some engaging dialogue and insights from a truly global group. I am "godfather" to the course, which I believe involves making the participants an offer they can't refuse if they don't turn up on time!

Oops, I did it again ...

2008-10-01T18:56:00.006+03:00

My tale this time is proof that lightning can strike twice in the same place. Well, maybe not lightning. And maybe not the same place, exactly. But the same victim.

Friends and family will know that when we moved into our current home around six years ago, it needed a lot of redecorating. The only room that didn't was the kitchen. Not entirely to our taste, but it had been recently renovated. So we were going to live with it, at least until I managed to set it on fire and then blow it up.

It's a long story, let's leave it at leaving a plastic tub full of shopping on top of a ceramic cooker hob (that bit is important) and then going out. On our return, the tub had melted, caught fire, burnt parts of the kitchen units, then two aerosols amongst the shopping exploded, fortunately blowing out the fire but at the same time, blowing out the window and door. Just the memory of it makes me cringe even now. The silver lining was that our insurer paid for a new kitchen and our neighbours saw an increase in their premium costs next time they renewed.

Fast forward to 2008, last weekend. I'd spent the weekend back home with my family. I returned to Helsinki with my LighterLife foodpacks in my favourite TravelPro flight case. I took it into the kitchen area and the only place to put it to unload was on top of the ceramic cooker hob. Yes, that's right. You would think I had learnt my lesson, but I was tired and in a hurry. I must have nudged the control knob when I put the suitcase on the surface, because a few minutes later when I was elsewhere in the apartment, I noticed a smell of burning. Returning to the kitchen I found clouds of smoke and moved quickly to get the suitcase off the hob and onto the balcony.

Here you see the aftermath. I got to the case before it actually caught fire, but it is nonetheless ruined. It's a shame because it has been with me on so many trips that I shall need to find a very similar replacement. Perhaps it could go on my Christmas list?

One unexpected benefit has been in a little variation in my diet. The LighterLife chicken soups now have a faint barbeque flavour...

Hunter gatherer ...

2008-09-21T18:16:00.013+03:00

Today I fulfilled an ambition held since last Autumn; to go mushroom picking in the Finnish woods.

British friends will recognise this as a very dangerous occupation: we are trained from a young age that the only people who gather fungi from the forests are witches and foreigners. The BBC has been reporting deaths and illness amongst amateur mushroom hunters and a survey is now underway in Scotland to find out how many people are engaging in this activity. Apparently, the credit crunch is meaning that free food is more appealing than ever.

But here in Finland, it is a normal seasonal activity. My native guide had offered to trade their knowledge of the countryside in return for me driving there, so on a beautiful sunny morning, we set off.

The countryside here is full of colour at this time of year, easily matching any Autumnal display I've seen at home. After half an hour or so, we arrived at our destination (of course, this must remain a secret; the first of a few pointers I was given in mushroom etiquette).

The next pointer was to look really, really carefully. It takes a while for the eyes to become accustomed to looking for the fungi. Today, we were mainly after Cantharellus tubaeformis, funnel chanterelles. If you look closely at the photo, you'll find some (you may need to click to see the picture full size).

Tip number three was very understandable, given the size of the mushrooms. Even if they are too small to pick, don't tread on them, but leave them for the next hunters in a few days.

Of course, Sunday is really too late; we should have been out on Thursday evening to get the best of the crop. However, after a couple of hours my guide had a decent number in their basket and my Stockmann paper carrier bag held around a litre of chanterelles, so we headed back to the city.

The final challenge was what to do with them. Soup is a popular option, or a mushroom omelette, but I opted to dry the larger specimens. Here they are, threaded onto a length of cotton and hanging across one of the guest beds. I will let you know how long this option takes to dry them out, I am guessing a couple of weeks. As long as they are done by October half term, when the family are coming to visit, all should be fine.

With the smaller ones, I made a sauce with some sweated onions, cream and some seasoning. On top of toasted rye bread and finished with some shaved parmesan, they were delicious. And three hours later, I have no stomach ache or other symptoms, so I think they were probably safe!

For more photos from the trip, visit my mushroom hunting channel on Share on Ovi.

Serendipity ...

2008-09-15T14:12:00.004+03:00

For my constitutional stroll on Sunday, I decided to turn right out of my building instead of left and ended up walking through Hakaniemi and then took a bridge over the railway line and ended up by a small kiosk selling coffee, five minutes before it closed at 7pm.

I found myself with a delightful view over Töölönlahti; the white building in the distance is the opera house.

It just goes to show that even in a big city such as Helsinki, you are never far away from nature here. I was listening to a Monty Python album as I sipped my coffee and enjoyed the view. Serendipitously, as I got up to leave and finish my walk, their Finland song began playing! It felt right, on a cold but bright(ish) autumn evening.

This paperless office idea will never catch on ...

2008-09-10T18:16:00.008+03:00

HP have mailed me to say that from September 15, the HP Blog Printing service will be shutdown. I have therefore removed the printing icons from the blog. I know this will inconvenience at least one of my readers (sorry Mum), so have been investigating an alternative.

If you want to try HP Smart Web Printing, you can download an application to your Windows XP or Vista PC. It adds a button into your browser which then allows you to select part of a browser window (for example, one blog post) and clip that either for immediate printing or to print as one of a selection of clips. Once you have clipped it, you can resize it too (useful for those who want larger type). At first glance, this looks quite useful.

Please try it out and let me know what you think. I am going to be doing the same.

Going nuts in the woods ...

2008-08-31T21:16:00.004+03:00

This is my travelling companion from today. He's a red squirrel, quite a rare sight in the UK but much more common in Finland.

I visited Seurasaari, an open air museum on one of the islands of Helsinki, around 7km from my apartment. There are a lot of old buildings which have been moved from their original sites, showing what homes in Finland were like in days gone by. During the summer months (which technically includes today, though it didn't feel like it) there are also folk in traditional costume who show how life was lived.

I stopped for a kahvi (can you guess what that is?) and noticed the smell of woodsmoke, which was coming from a public grill for makkara, the Finnish word for sausages. Cooking these over a wood fire is an important part of outdoor life here. Since I am currently doing the LighterLife programme, I did not linger once they started cooking! The programme is working; I've lost over 6Kg in three weeks. I have another 4Kg to go before I transition from "obese" to just being "overweight" - what an ambition! 2Kg after that will take me back to where I was in June last year, when I had just finished the programme and moved to Finland.

Because I am avoiding real food, I did not risk temptation and buy peanuts for the squirrels. It rather irritated the fellow in the picture, who, while I was getting the phone ready to take his photo, ran up my legs and onto my back. Fortunately, he was not in a vengeful mood and scurried off to the trees, posing for this shot before he disappeared.

A touch of brass ...

2008-08-23T23:37:00.003+03:00

The Helsinki Festival is going on at present. Last evening was the Night of the Arts - my normal route to work through Senatoori was blocked by a huge stage, which last night was the venue for a concert including the five top songs from 1968, voted by readers of the Helsingin Sanomat. According to their pages, "Friday sees the Night of the Arts in Helsinki, a free culture'n'fun happening in in which museums and art galleries, bookstores and libraries all keep their doors open late, and more than 200 events are held throughout the city and suburbs. The hugely popular night on the town was first arranged in 1989, so this is the 20th celebration of the occasion." I was bushed, so didn't make it down there.

Instead, on my afternoon constitutional today, I caught this brass band performing at the Espa stage on Esplanadi. It was a strange experience - in the midst of the more traditional pieces, they played a country and western number. I then noticed that they were using clothes pegs to hold their music on the stands and avoid the pages blowing in the wind. I started wondering whether the clothes peg was invented before some of the instruments. You can tell I have not been getting out much lately!

A week in Tuscany ...

2008-08-12T23:27:00.008+03:00

So it doesn't sound as dramatic as A Year In Provence, but the therapeutic effect is not to be underestimated. We stayed about 20km from Arezzo in the middle of Tuscany (think of Italy as a boot and Tuscany is the front of the thigh). The picture shows the view from our villa.

It was our first time in Tuscany and won't be our last. We've been to Italy before - a great holiday in Sorrento, weekends in Venice, Rome and Florence and I've been to Milan several times on business. Each time, we have loved the warm welcome, the great attitude to life and, of course, the food and drink.

Italy was only unified in the late 1800s and each of the regions proudly reflects their contribution to the union. We were close to the Chianti region and after a day in Siena, visited Castello di Brolio, the home of Barone Ricasoli on the way home. One of the former Barons not only was prime minister of Italy but also devised the formula for Chianti Classico. Sadly I was driving, so had to break my normal rule when tasting wine. I usually don't spit at tastings, since my mother once told me it was rude to spit and I always try to be polite.

We spent a few days just chilling by the pool, barbecuing ourselves and some local produce, but also managed a few other days out. We tried two great restaurants in the main square - lunch one day at Logge Vasari, dinner the next at La Lancia D'Oro - the owners are brothers and the food in both is up to the same high standard. The degustation menu at the second left us waddling back to the cars. They share the same website and, as you can see from the photo, the same terrace facing the piazza.

A highlight for me was our last day, spent in Florence and then Pisa on the way back to the airport. We revisited Il Latini in Florence, where a four course Tuscan meal with some of the most delicious ham, pasta, roast meat and dessert cost only 40 euros a head, including plenty of their house Chianti. Our first trip here was with friends last June and the return did not disappoint. The pedestrian navigation feature of Nokia Maps got us around the city and we visited the Duomo as well as the market. Afterwards, we travelled one hour to Pisa and took the obligatory photos of the leaning tower.

When we checked in for our Ryanair flights home, we discovered the true cost of our bargain shopping. Our four cases were cumulatively 17kg over the weight limit of 15kg each. The low fares airline was charitable though, and only charged for 5kg at 15 euros per kilo. Ouch. Perhaps the biggest surprise for us with the Ryanair flights, though, was that Pisa Airport is less than 5km from the city centre. Somewhat closer than Stansted is to London, or Skavsta is to Stockholm!

Kippis ...

2008-07-26T22:34:00.004+03:00

We had a lovely lunch in Tallin, a great Indian at Elevant. Although it took nearly two hours to finish, it was great and we experienced our first wild boar curry. Sally and Jess seemed to enjoy theirs too.

After drinks on the roof terrace at the Palace Hotel back in Helsinki, Stephanie and I went to a beer festival in the square by the railway station. Our favourite beer was the Pils from the Plevna brewery in Tampere.

Thank heaven that tomorrow is Sunday. I think a lie in is called for after a hectic few days. Let's hope that the beers were pure enough to avoid a hangover.

Space invaders ...

2008-07-25T23:29:00.002+03:00

I'm having a great few days on holiday in Helsinki. My wife, youngest daughter and her friend are with me and we have been enjoying some of the city's leisure time attractions.

Yesterday we visited Linnanmäki amusement park. Unusually, the park is not owned by a commercial enterprise but by the Children's Day Foundation, which collects funds for child welfare work. The park was good value for money - we got onto all the rides we wanted with less than 10 minutes queueing for any of them. A highlight was the wooden roller coaster, originally completed in 1951. It was the first time I had ridden a wooden coaster and the smell of wood preservative added to the experience. The ride features a driver on each car, who appears to be responsible for engaging the cable which pulls the cars to the top of each slope and then braking them again if needed.

Today has been a shopping day; rather inevitable with three girls. Stephanie managed to buy two pairs of shoes in the first shop, so was happy.

Tomorrow we are off to Tallin, capital city of Estonia and 100 minutes away by high speed ferry, so I expect to have more to report in a couple of days.

Just one thing is concerning me. My shower is usually home to one bar of soap and one bottle of shampoo. At the moment, it has 9 visiting lotions and potions and two objects which resemble ping pong balls wrapped in net curtains. I am not asking what these alien items all are, just making sure I don't tread on any of them as I perform my ablutions. A small price to pay for such enjoyable company!

Improving cycle time...

2008-07-22T11:23:00.003+03:00

No, don't worry, this is not an essay on business performance optimisation. I was directed to the YTV website, normally used for planning bus, tram or metro journeys in Helsinki, but which also has a cycling route planner. With its help, I was able to find a way to avoid that bl**dy hill in Lautasaari (the blue line on the map) and cycled in this morning, my last before vacation, five minutes faster than my previous best time despite the a headwind over the bridge from Ruoholahti.

Today is my last day before holidays; we start with a few days in Helsinki with my wife, youngest daughter and her friend. Then a villa in Tuscany beckons for a week, after which a few days catching up on the gardening back in the UK. Bliss! All I have to do is cycle back to the apartment and my holiday begins ... once I finishing tidying before the inspection party arrives. I think that might be my fastest cleaning cycle ever, too.

Anyone for tennis?

2008-07-08T23:35:00.005+03:00

Saturday was Ladies' Singles Finals day at Wimbledon and I thought I would bring a taste of English culture to my colleagues in Helsinki, so I arranged a Pimms and Strawberries party. Just to be sure I had enough Strawberries (Mansikka) I bought this tray of 5 kilos of the finest Finnish fruit. They do taste as good as they look, we are at the height of the season here.

Of course, with Strawberries should go some cream. I know the word for cream (kerma), so felt confident looking for that in the K-Supermarket. A moment's challenge to work out which was whipping cream? Whipping isn't a word that has come up in my 3 Finnish lessons, in any of its meanings. So, check the can of spray cream - no, don't buy it, but look for a word that matches with one of the various cartons. That worked! A little Grand Marnier added before you whip gives a luxurious touch.

I had also decided to bake some Marmite whirls, so needed some frozen pastry. That had to be chosen by a process of elimination, using the pictures on the packets. Eliminate the filo, the pie crust and the pulla and I was left with a picture that looked like a salmon-filled strudel. That worked too (recipe below).

The game itself was OK, but not outstanding, especially since I had needed to upgrade my Welho cable TV subscription to get the channel showing Wimbledon. Still, the same channel shows the Formula 1 racing, so I was at least able to watch Lewis Hamilton win at Silverstone on Sunday.

But, when I settled down to watch the Gentlemen's Singles Finals, the channel was not broadcasting it live. Instead, they chose to show the Boys' Singles Finals? Why, you might ask, would they eschew what has since been described as the best Mens' Final in history? Simple. Finnish junior, Henry Kontinen, was a finalist in the Boys'. Sadly for Finland, he lost. Congratulations, though, to Laura Robson from the UK, who won the Girls' Singles Final. A Brit who can win at Wimbledon? There's something worth raising a glass of Pimms to.

Marmite whirls

Open up the sheet of thawed pastry
Spread with Marmite
Sprinkle with grated cheese
Roll up tightly like a swiss roll
Cut 10mm slices and place on baking parchment
Bake at 150º C for 30 minutes
Allow to cool, if you can, before eating.

Seize the occasion ...

2008-06-29T19:06:00.005+03:00

This was the view from my hotel room in London at 5am on Tuesday morning. Considering I had only had 1.5 hours sleep, my hand was remarkably steady.

As the purpose of my blog is primarily to keep friends and family up to date with what I am doing, rather than to talk in detail about my work, I don't intend to say too much about the event, other than it has been why I have been rather busy over the past couple of months and the reason I was working over what should have been a relaxing Juhannus weekend, as were many of my colleagues.

We were in London to make the formal announcements around Nokia's offer to acquire the outstanding shares of Symbian Limited, as well as plans to establish the Symbian Foundation. It was my job to lead the external communications planning for this for Nokia, working with the other companies involved. The announcement was made 10 years to the day from one of my first PR tasks with my last employer, when Symbian Limited was created. I had a bit more notice this time round, as in 1998 I got less than 24 hours notice!

I don't propose to debate the initiative here, there are plenty of technology blogs out there that will do that job. I would, though, like to thank all of my colleagues old and new who worked together to make this announcement happen. I must make a note in my diary for June 24, 2018, though I hope we'll all be speaking again before then!

The following day I had a chance to catch up over lunch with a friend in the Black Friar pub in Blackfriars. It's well worth a visit if you are in the area, with vaulted ceilings decorated with inspirational mosaics. I was sitting opposite this one and thought, as I enjoyed a pint of Timothy Taylor's Landlord, how appropriate it was for a PR person.

(This is my first photo taken indoors with the Xenon flash on my new Nokia N82).

Hyvää Juhannusta!

2008-06-20T09:26:00.008+03:00

Today is Midsummer, a public holiday in Finland, known locally as juhannus, named now for St. John the Baptist but in reality a festival which pre-dates Christianity, as a celebration of the longest day of the year. This evening, Finns will be enjoying Yötön Yö (the nightless night) with the traditional diversions of sauna, swimming, grilled sausages and some booze, with kokko (a bonfire). Many will have travelled to Kesämökki (summer cottage), either their own or a friend's, but it is apparently possible to celebrate Midsummer in the city too, according to the Helsinki Times.

Mimmu, my Finnish language teacher, has told me that she will be performing another juhannus ritual - picking seven different wild flowers and putting them under her pillow, so that she will dream of the man she will marry. If it works, then watch for news next year, as the weeks around juhannus are apparently the most popular in Finland for weddings.

I, however, am back in England. And with a huge inbox of email to deal with, I don't think I shall have too much time for celebrations today. But I will raise a glass this evening and wish all my colleagues and friends in Finland a good Midsummer. Hyvää Juhannusta!

Happy Birthday Helsinki

2008-06-15T15:48:00.004+03:00

Thursday June 12 was Helsinki's birthday. I felt awful, as I hadn't got it a card or anything. But this weekend, there have been all sorts of activities going on around the city.

In Senaatoori Square, in front of the cathedral and close by where I live, there has been a regional exhibit celebrating the food and crafts of Poh jois Karjala, or Northern Karelia, on the border with Russia. As well as trying a simple dish made from lamb and barley, I bought some juice containing birch sap, rhubarb and lemon. It's quite refreshing and unlike anything I've tasted before.

Elsewhere in the city, there have been other live music performances and cultural events, making the most of the great weather we're enjoying at the moment. On Esplanadi yesterday, I am fairly sure that I was the youngest person watching the rock band playing in the bandstand opposite Kapelli. Never have I seen so many walking sticks tapping to the beat!

It's now nearly a year since I moved to Finland. On Friday, I started my Finnish lessons, a course of ten, ninety minute lessons. I look forward to reporting on my progress through the blog.

Grattis Ebba ...

2008-06-11T01:12:00.012+03:00

We've just had a long weekend in Tranås, Sweden, with our friends Lars and Gunnel. Their daughter Ebba was graduating from Gymansiet (upper secondary school) after three years of studying and a big party for family and friends was in prospect.

As ever, we had a great time with them. We first met around 10 years ago through Round Table when my club, Basingstoke 93 was celebrating its 60th anniversary and Tranås 93 were one of the international twin clubs who joined us in the UK for the celebrations. Lars and I were chairmen of our respective clubs and we've been good friends ever since, visiting each other on several occasions and our kids have almost grown up together. For both families it has been a great opportunity to see how people live in different cultures, upholding the Round Table aim to "further the establishment of peace and goodwill through international relationships".

Stephanie and I arrived at Arlanda airport on Friday, she from Heathrow and me from Helsinki. An error on Hertz's part meant we ended up being offered a Volvo C70 convertible for the same price as our standard rental, which was a bonus on beautifully sunny weekend. A four hour drive and we were in Tranås and enjoying the evening sun overlooking Lake Sommen. This is the view from the deck of their stunning home. After a quick beer, we tromped into the neighbouring forest to cut young Birch trees to decorate the outside of the house, trimming them with balloons in blue and yellow, the Swedish national colours.

On Saturday, we travelled to the town where Ebba had been studying. By tradition, the graduating students have a final meal together and are ceremoniously set free at 1pm. Parents and friends gather outside with placards showing photos of the kids and then and hang flowers and other gifts around their necks, after which the students board a variety of farm trailers and commercial trucks, also adorned with Birch trees, and then are driven round the town. This picture shows Ebba in traditional graduation hat, with her younger brother Ludvig and a photo showing her first attempt at styling her own hair!

Here you see Ebba and her classmates letting their hair down (OK, so she trained as a hairdresser, what did you expect me to say!) as they set off for their parade.

After the ceremony it was back to Lars and Gunnel's place for the party.

On Sunday, we relaxed with a boat trip on Lake Sommen, a picnic on a secluded lake shore, a beer at the ferry terminal and then a visit to a friend's summer house before another of Lasse's delicious meals, this time barbecued salmon steaks. Monday morning came round all too soon and it was time to head back to the airport.

For Ebba, Monday was her first day of work as a qualified "frisor" at Gunnel's salon. We wish her a long and successful career. Ludde - good luck for your graduation next year!

Spring in Helsinki ...

2008-05-25T21:03:00.013+03:00

This has been my first weekend in the apartment for a while and there has been so much to do. My first unscheduled task was repairing the window blind, the cord of which snapped when I was letting the sunshine in on Saturday morning. I was very pleased to work out how to fix it and where to get the replacement cord and got a feeling of satisfaction when the job was done.

After that, I visited Maailma kylässä, the World Village Festival, in Kaisaniemi park. The festival has over 300 partners, including 200 NGOs as well as educational institutions, museums, public authorities and businesses. The aim, according to the organisers, is to provide "a meeting point open to all presenting cultural treats and surprises from all over the world: music, dance, organisations and food, as well as a place to encounter new viewpoints on tolerant multiculturalism, development work and globalisation, as well as finding ways to influence things in daily life." It was interesting, I listened to a couple of bands, tried some Himalayan food and wandered around the stalls. After a while, though, the call of my own culture prevailed and I headed to Molly Malone's for a pint (well, a half litre) of London Pride.

Today I got on my bike for a ride around the city. I stopped at Carusel for an iced Latte and possibly the world's best chocolate brownie. This now brings the number of restaurants I have reviewed at eat.fi to 30.

After that, I cycled to the flea market at Hietalahti, which was open for the second time this year. I managed to visit it on the last Sunday of the 2007 season in September, so it was good to see it bustling today. The panoramic view is another one taken on my Nokia N95 with Panoman software, it's worth clicking to see it full size. It's made from 3 shots, see if you can spot the join!

Then, back home and time to wash the car and change its floor mats from the winter rubber ones to summer carpet, another ritual I have to get used to. Now, only the ironing awaits ... which is why I am writing the blog!

A feeling of resignation ...

2008-05-18T15:51:00.003+03:00

It is twelve months to the day that I resigned from Motorola and started the current chapter of my working life. I was 46 then, quite a respectable age and one at which many people might already consider that the big changes in life are all behind them.

Not so for me. I have probably experienced more change in the last 12 months than the previous 12 years put together. I have moved company, moved home and certainly moved on.

My new life has meant making a new home away from home, new colleagues and new friends and new challenges. Working in a different, European company culture has been interesting and I am still learning about the differences.

Through all of this, one thing has remained constant, the love and support of my family. Though we may be spending more time apart than we are used to, the days we spend together are more precious for that. I'm looking forward to our summer holidays soon and the chance to spend a little longer than a weekend together.

To my friends and colleagues old and new, who have been reading this blog and encouraging me to write, my thanks too. It is easy to wonder whether the effort is worthwhile; then a note from one of you reassures me that it is indeed. Please do keep the comments and emails coming, I appreciate them all.

My girl works down the chip shop ... and I met Elvis ...

2008-05-11T12:35:00.005+03:00

For those familiar with the songs of Kirsty MacColl, a couple of this weekend's events together put me in mind of her 1981 single, "There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis".

We've been in the East Riding of Yorkhire for a wedding and, on the evening we arrived, the hotel was in the middle of an Elvis night. Parked outside was this rather amazing vehicle, the ride of Steve Caprice, the evening's entertainer. It was rather a surreal experience to be sitting next morning at breakfast and to see Elvis arrive for his full English dressed dressed in skin tight jeans and a very, very frilly satin shirt. Even more suprising was, when the waitress spilt some tea, to hear Elvis exclaim "oopsy daisy" in a broad Yorkshire accent.

The other item in the title refers to my youngest daughter's news. She has just got her first job, as a customer service operative in a traditional English fast food outlet. I am proud of her, she has been determined to find a part time job and have some independent income rather than rely on her parents for everything. At her age, I was selling ice creams from a kiosk outside Butlins holiday camp on the seafront in Bognor Regis. I am glad to see her following in the family tradition of food retailing, which dates back to my Nan. She had a sweetshop in Brighton's Preston Park district for many years which I remember visiting as a child. It seems from the web that a few other people do too, this one remembers my cousin Anne.

Under the influence ...

2008-05-08T01:39:00.002+03:00

May 1 is a public holiday in Finland, known locally as vappu. According to the Helsinki Times article, "These days the vappu celebrations already start on the last day of April when the Finns let their hair down and celebrate the coming of springtime with large quantities of alcoholic beverages."

I decided this year that I would spend the May Day holiday at home in the UK, after all, I don't need to be in Finland. After all, as I come from a country which could probably get Binge Drinking recognised as an official sport for the London Olympics in 2012, I figured I wouldn't learn much staying in Helsinki. So, instead, I visited my parents and had dinner with my Ex-Round Tablers' Club - it was good to catch up with all of them.

After a pleasant weekend helping my amateur dramatic group set their stage for this week's performance, I flew back to Helsinki on Sunday. Driving out of the airport there were Police officers standing in the road, stopping every car. For the first time in my life, I had to take a breathalyser test. As I had not drunk on the plane, I had no problems. But as I drove away afterwards, I did wonder whether they might actually have been checking that I had enough alcohol in my bloodstream to be allowed back in to the country!

Drip drip drop little April showers ...

2008-04-30T22:58:00.003+03:00

I've been enjoying a week living back with the family in the UK. When my time comes to return permanently from Finland, I think we will need a programme similar to those devised for returning captive bred animals to the wild, otherwise those I love may never recover from the shock!

The first thing I have noticed (well, actually, it has been pointed out to me) is that I am rather loud, especially in the mornings. Whether this is male pattern deafness setting in, I am not sure, but there was a lot of shh-ing going on this morning from my wife and younger daughter, lest I wake the sleeping beast that is our eldest. Since she has been known to create holes in doors simply by throwing a hairbrush, I suppose it was wise counsel.

Secondly, I am remiss in completing my "honey-do" list, a concept introduced to me by a former colleague with an American husband, for whom such things are apparently part of the marriage contract. Normally, my visits to the UK involve a lot of changing of light bulbs. This time, I have at least managed to drain, clean and refill the hot tub. Since it is raining at the moment, I am not sure whether I shall get to enjoy the benefits before I return to Helsinki at the weekend.

Tomorrow is Vappu in Finland, the Labour day holiday. As I speak, I suspect many of my Finnish friends and colleagues may already be in a state of total lubrication, ready to spend their day off recovering from a hangover. I wish them all a happy holiday. I will be visiting my parents on the South coast of England. I am hoping that today's relentless drizzle will abate and I might actually get to see the sea.

The weather does remind me of the Channel Islands weather forecast which Stephanie and I were given when we visited Jersey a couple of years ago (that's the original Jersey, for my trans-Atlantic readers, rather than the New one). It was very simple. "If you can see France, it's about to rain. If you can't see France, it's raining".

Blazing Saddles...

2008-04-24T22:31:00.003+03:00

I am feeling rather smug. I have just returned from my first bike ride in nearly five years and managed to cycle the route I would take from home to the office.

A friend once remarked that middle age is when a broad mind and a narrow waist change places. I hope that the mind is not narrowing, though if it is, I shall simply say I am becoming more focused. However, the challenge of keeping one's weight in check does seem to become more difficult as one gets older. At least, it does for this one! So, I resolved to purchase a bike and, after a visit to the K-Citymarket in Ruoholahti, this blue Maxim 26" hybrid bike found its way back to my apartment block. I really liked the 28" bike which had even more whizzy features, but I couldn't sit on it without falling over, as my legs didn't quite reach the floor.

We have a locked bike storage room on the ground floor, so I don't have to drag it upstairs. Tonight, after checking the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV) website, which has a cycling route planner showing all the bike paths, I set off. An hour and a half later, I returned, tired but happy.

Now, gentle reader, you may ask, why did it take so long? After all, plotting Snellmaninkatu to Keilalahti on the website suggests that the 8.5 kilometre journey should take 30 minutes at their default speed of 17 km/hour. So, the round trip should only have taken an hour.

Ah, well. Three reasons. First, even with 21 gears on the bike and a noticeable lack of mountains, I don't think I am averaging that speed yet. Second, I had a little navigation incident caused by forgetting my reading glasses even though I had the map (I must ask the Nokia Maps team when they will add a cycling mode!). It was only a short detour; eagle eyed locals will notice that where I took the photo from is not actually on the direct route!

And the third? I had to stop half way to buy a spanner (a wrench, for my American readers). Before setting off, I hadn't checked that the the nut underneath the saddle was properly tightened, which meant that the saddle kept slipping and pointing upwards. At the risk of offending those of a delicate disposition, this does have rather profound effects on the nuts above the saddle. So if you see me walking like John Wayne in the next few days, you won't have to ask why!

To the manor borne ...

2008-04-18T00:13:00.006+03:00

Over the last couple of weeks, I have had the chance to stay in two Finnish manor houses, now converted to training centres and hotels.

The first was Sannäs Manor, about 10km east of Porvoo, a town I had already visited with the family when they were over. Sannäs dates back to the 15th century and became a manor in the 16th century. The present main building (where we had my team building days) was built in 1836-1837. It was designed by Carl Engel in the Empire style. The appearance has been changed in the 1880s and 1890s. Some of outbuildings including the gate and the granary were also designed by Engel.

The second was Hirvihaara. The history of Hirvihaara Manor dates back to the 16th century, though the present main building was built in 1918. It served as a war hospital during the Second World War, and the tower was used for air surveillance. The manor house is used as a hotel and restaurant at present. This one had the added benefit of a traditional smoke sauna, which was a great way to chill out after playing my worst ever game of pool. We were playing on a quarter size snooker table, with rather narrow pockets. At least, that is my excuse for a game of doubles that lasted nearly an hour and a half.

Finland has a number of these manor houses and I hope to explore more during my time here. This useful web site will be a handy reference and also has a number of other buildings of note.

Clearing up ...

2008-03-30T16:38:00.003+03:00

I have spent my first Sunday alone in over a month tidying, ironing and doing the chores. It appears I am not the only one, as the city is working to get rid of the accumulated snow from the last week.

For the last half hour or so, this digger has been working up and down my street, shovelling up the mounds of snow into a couple of trucks. I shall be interested to find out where they take it to, there being no equivalent of a rug in the middle of the room to sweep it under.

Just the ticket ...

2008-03-29T19:35:00.006+02:00

I spotted this driver's novel approach to the parking challenge mentioned in my last post- how to deal with the big piles of snow? Park on top of them. Of course, you need a big 4 x 4 vehicle to be sure of success.

However, I noticed as I walked past that the owner had a surprise to come back to. One of Helsinki's finest traffic wardens had left a parking ticket under the nearside windscreen wiper. As I can't read Finnish, I was not able to see whether it was for parking too far from the surface of the road. I suspect the truth is more down to earth, as the car was within 5 metres of a pedestrian crossing (you can see the sign just behind the car).

's no parking ...

2008-03-28T23:41:00.003+02:00

Gunther (my Audi A3) has been spending a lot of time under the snow this week. The photo shows him on Sunday after we got back from lunch, but by Wednesday he was parked further up the street under about 10cm of snow.

One of the challenges when it snows is that some of the parking spaces end up full of the snow which has been cleared by the snowploughs. On Tuesday evening I had only one choice of spot and didn't notice that about 1 metre of Gunther's rear end was overlapping a restricted parking zone, where you may not park between 8am and 5pm.

When I went to drive to work on Wednesday at around 8:30am, I was excited to see that there had been a further fall of snow overnight. However, it had not deterred the Finnish traffic warden from writing me a ticket and reaching through the drift to secure it under my windscreen wiper; I was somewhat less excited to find that as I brushed the snow off the car.

It is only my third parking ticket, at €40 a time, since I moved here. If I add the €36 for each six months that I pay for an on-street parking permit, it still costs me less than renting a garage. But I can't help feeling a grudging admiration for Helsinki's traffic wardens, who don't let these adverse weather conditions deter them from their noble work. Yet another example of Sisu!

Easter in Helsinki ...

2008-03-27T22:41:00.005+02:00

So, we had a blissful few days over the Easter weekend. Good Friday and Easter Monday are both public holidays in Finland, as they are in the UK, so my wife and daughters flew over on the Friday and arrived in time to get settled in the apartment before venturing out for dinner at Ateljé Finne. Stephanie tried the Licorice Creme Brulée.

After dinner, we walked through the very cold wind to Esplanadi and stopped for a reviving drink at Kappeli, a favourite spot. Following that, we walked home and saw the illuminated cathedral, as mentioned in the last post.

Saturday, as the only day that the shops would be open, meant some serious retail therapy for my girls. For dinner we visited Sundmans Krog, right on the South Harbour close to the market hall. The food was excellent and we walked home happily full, just missing the end of the Easter performance in Senatoori square in front of the cathedral.

On Sunday, we walked to the tram stop, in just enough snow to cause trouble for those of us with little experience of wintry conditions. We caught the 3T tram to Kapteeninkatu to take lunch at Sea Horse, a well known restaurant offering traditional Finnish fare. Their Salmon Soup was excellent, followed by a selection of traditional entrées. Somehow, Ellie's vegetarian cabbage rolls were filled with meat and Stephanie's Pike-Perch fillets had a few too many bones, but Sally's meatballs and my Scandinavian hash were excellent.

Returning to the apartment, we had our traditional Easter egg hunt with a twist - having no garden meant that we did this indoors, but Easter would not have been the same for any of us without it. We then tried a few Finnish traditions, eating mämmi, an oven roasted, malted barley porridge. It tasted a little like liquidized malt bread and is an acquired taste. We also tried pasha, a dessert of Russian origin. But rather than me try to write it all up, I recommend the article from the Helsinki Times which goes into much more detail. We did also try the Mignon eggs from Fazer, possibly the most palatable treat of the day!

On Monday we had a walk, a coffee and then I cooked Salmon for lunch, before we finished watching series 6 of Scrubs (probably our favourite TV show) and then drove to the airport for the flight home.

It was a lovely weekend. We reflected that back in the UK, we would not have spent so much time just being together as a family. So much has changed for us all in the last twelve months that it was good to take the chance to think about what we have to be thankful for and enjoy each other's company.