Hyvää Juhannusta!

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

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 Pohjois 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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!