Visitations ...

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 ...

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.