Mij's Blog

The Winter Blogs

Here’s a few blogs that have been waiting patiently in my mind to be posted… be free blogs… be free...

 

... and two new albums

The Practicalities of Snow.

You know, people may say that snow is pretty, fun, even glorious… but I’ve gotta tell you. It’s really impractical.

For the second year in a row Central Finland has missed out on snow in December. It’s climate change in its full sub-Arctic glory. And yesterday I found myself saying… most unexpectedly, after yelling at the sky a number times previously for it to snow… that I think I prefer Finland without snow.

On a clear blue day (admittedly of which there are few in early winter) all you need is the heavy frost and the sun and you can convince yourself you are living in some kind of imagined icy Narnia-esque wonderland.

It has to be said, snow brings a certain freshness to the landscape and is a nice visual change from the ever-darkening days, low and heavy grey clouds and icy rain. Its flashy showiness might have some people fooled, but snow is a fickle creature with many forms. Icy and sparkly – to lure you into awe… Soft and fluffy like chicken feathers – to entice you into catching it in your mouth… perfect for snowmen… Blizzard like and breathtaking and like nothing I have ever seen… But it is impractical.

It’s deceptively deep and hiding semi-frozen dog poo… too dry to make snowmen, too wet to make snowmen, too cold to make snowmen…Your shoes get wet, it’s difficult (and terrifying) to drive, huge banks of it form, post snow ploughing, and leap out at you without notice and said snow ploughs shower you in grey road snow like an icy rogue wave at main beach while your expending all your energy just to stay upright on your bike despite the addition of over-priced winter tyres that I suspect may be on backwards.

And then to add insult to injury then snow stops you from being able to ice skate – a new found pleasure – just when you think Winter has become a pleasant and liveable season in the Arctic… the snow comes and snatches it all away. 

All that said, the Finns tell me there is nothing like the combination of blue days and snow… something we are yet to see for our selves. So now the snow has arrived I think the sky ranting may just change to demanding clear blue and –25c days. We’ll see.

So with my tongue firmly planted in cheek, I say snow is so 20^th century… That or I either have to quit my job and give up the desire to do anything to a schedule and embrace the snow for what it is, breathtaking, beautiful, fun, glorious… and impractical… and just get a little wet. Fun!

Let it snow, let it snow let it snow...

I hear those sleigh bells ringin…

Christmas in the Arctic - There’s nothing like a white Christmas… so I am told…

As in years before I have been lucky enough to celebrate Christmas twice – Euro Christmas on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas day with the Australians. This year was no different, but alas only 1cm of snow on Christmas Eve.

Euro Christmas.

So first some differences: It’s on Christmas Eve for starters. You only decorate the freshly liberated tree in the afternoon and then wait for Santa to come to the house and meet the family for present time. Santa then arrives, weighed down with gifts, often played by a willing neighbour for an increasingly large fee/Christmas gratuity – or in this case the local member of the Finnish Communist Party dressed proudly in Red and spreading joy… and revolution.

Communist Santa then asked the children if they had been well behaved throughout the year and deserved presents or a whack with a sickle or hammer, and the children recited a song/poem/spell to render Santa useless enough to take all the presents. Lulled by the song/spell Santa delivers the presents to all the family members, asks the foreigners, beady eyes focussed hard and fast, if they believe Santa is from Finland or Sweden… Still waiting for our presents and for fear of angering the Overseer of the north, we of course proclaimed Finland as home of Santa… and revolution… and received our presents… Lucky.

Then the eating begins. It’s been cold here for a really long time (since the last ice age); so traditional Finnish Christmas food has risen from what is available in the cold dark winters. Mostly than means baked casseroles made from every conceivable root vegetable, mixed with delicious spices and served steaming hot, freshly pickled fish, which is really really good and of course a baked ham. Hours of eating ensue, interspersed with phone calls home and tales of +40 degree Christmases past.

Troy has elaborated on the excess that was Christmas this year and the now infamous meat-sweats Janne found himself in… but in an attempt to only report truth on this blog… Janne would prefer to be remembered, as have a grey pallor rather than red, when the meat sweats began… and rose from the table, not the floor, to prepare a soothing ham sandwich to assist the body cope with the Christmas food overdose/withdrawal balance…

Can there even be more… Christmas Day.

Yes there can… There was most definitely more to be had on Christmas day… Troy and I did presents at home in the morning under the glow of our first ever real life Christmas spruce! and made the rest of the phone calls home, which was nice, if not a little homesick making. But buoyed buy the Christmas eve celebrations and ready for more, we braved the rain and set off for a more traditional Australian Christmas, albeit without the prawns, pools, salads and non meat related sweating.

It was a more relaxed affair on Christmas day, playing with Christmas presents, preparing slow food, sipping wine and laughing a lot.

Janne prepared a Christmas Turkey (not a traditional or common food in Finland at all). His first in fact. Dressed in fresh lemon, cardamom and butter the perfect amount of salt and stuffed with Spanish Chorizo, apricots and toasted pistachios… it was bound to be a success. Yes, shocked vegetarian readers… It’s time to come out and admit it… I ate the turkey and it was so damn good I’d do it again. In fact it was so good we couldn’t believe it. A tremendous success!

Then it was time for traditional Christmas pudding prepared 4 weeks earlier – clearly a surprise to the shocked expressions of the family. Another new food experience for them all which was really lovely.

The twins couldn’t believe their eyes as I poured the flaming blue brandy from the saucepan to the pudding setting the whole thing ablaze. My first pudding… and although it didn’t quite hold it’s shape… it tasted just like home and topped off the night.

All in all a wonderful Christmas celebration…

Hyvää Joulua

No snow and the shortest day of the year

Mid-summer to mid winter we have been visiting the summerhouse, but nothing prepared me for the experience of seeing it at both extremes. Truly wonderful.

We walked on the lake that 6months to the day Ash, Troy and I had been swimming in under the midnight sun. Now 23 hours of sunlight has reduced to 3 and half.

In true Finnish Christmas Eve-Eve tradition we spent the day outside searching for the perfect Christmas Spruce in the silent wintery forest near the summerhouse. All the while listening to the frozen lake sing under the weight of the winter. It was a strange sensation. A deep whale like sound emanating from beneath the ice. It’s caused by the waves underneath causing the massive ice sheet to rise and fall, sending an echoing sound across the silent forest. Another wonderful new discovery about Finland – in all seriousness a place that has opened my eyes to so many new things I feel revitalised on refection.

It was also a strange feeling to cut down our very own tree. Although a real tree is way more environmentally friendly than a plastic one and we chose one from a space that was readily cleared every few years, when Janne revealed the small tree we had chosen was at least 12 years old… I did choke a little.

Post tree lopping we warmed ourselves by a roaring open fire, and sipped deliciously hot gloggi. Truly an unbelievable day!

 

Working 9-5… what a way to make a living…

Well Ok, it’s hardly 9-5, but a part time job has helped us extend the Arctic adventure to the one year mark which has been great! Thankfully this particular job won’t last forever.

 

So the job prospects for a couple of guys travelling about, with no real language skills… I mean Suomi 1 was awesome, but we still have a way to go with the lingua franca. So cleaning it is. Mostly it’s pretty easy, a few offices one day, some floors the next, some extra cash to fuel our adventures… All in all a good deal really.

 

Until we went to Elonen Bakery… Sure a bakery sounds OK, fresh tasty treats, delicious smell, possible take home benefits at the end of the day… We arrived (thinking we will clean the floors as we normally do) and they told us we would be cleaning the pizza assembly line. We walked through the delicious smelling bakery section (mmm sooo good) and into what can only be described as an assault on the senses… the disgusting smelling pizza section.

 

Want to know what an industrial pizza factory smells like... hmmn. Actually it's almost impossible to describe, although a few times I might have thrown up a little bit in my mouth - and I aint never eatin frozen pizza again!

 

Anyway, first you clean the tables... easy, then you vacuum the left over flour... easy, then you get the giant high pressure hose to blast the COAGULATED MEAT PASTE from the conveyor belt... well not too bad cause you're not touching it... THEN! 

 

 

I was given this strange pole with a flat hook on the end, and the guy (only speaking Finnish) directs me to the conveyor belt just before the oven... yep this is where all good things go to die and lie there dying and rotting until some carefree foreigner looking for the Finnish experience is given the task of scraping the raw meat, rotting cheese and wet sloppy and burnt scraps from a ham and pineapple pizza assembly line into a bag.

 

So, there I was, on my hands and knees CRAWLING AROUND IN NASTY MEAT, under a still hot oven, sweating in a rubber suit, then picking the meat up with my hands, scoop scoop scoop. If there was going to be a time to vomit this was it. Luckily for my dignity I contained my self and tried to scoop the wet, greasy, foul smelling paste like meat substance into a bag and get out of there, for my next job... sluicing the meat and cheese and unidentifiable crap into a giant drain.

 

Although the meat scooping/crawling was BY FAR the worst part, the worst smell was the meat grinding room that I also had to clean, but thankfully I managed to stand at the door and blast the fucker with the hose until the smell dissipated… relatively speaking.

 

Thankfully our manager apologised, not realising how disgusting the task would be... he had a hard time holding down dinner as well.

 

END NOTE

This first part of the blog info is now a little old… and we have been back… I’m pleased to say it has improved… except for the time something looking unmistakeably like a dead bird was washed out of one of the machines… and until last night when tempting fate, and asking myself how much worse can this job get…

 

I discovered that piles of raw meat and the laws of physics don’t work well together… the lesson of the night… don’t spray a high powered jet of water into a round machine full of raw meat… It created what can only be described at a Tsunami of meat and hot water that hurled itself around the smooth machine with the fury of something Greek and mythical, and descended upon me without forgiveness. If I thought crawling in the meat was bad… how about wiping it off your face… NASTY

   

 

The bakery job has now become a bit of a running joke between us and our manager, thankfully I think that might have the last time... but I remember what happened the last time I tempted fate...

 

Blinis, Falling Leaves and Cold Swimming

So I was pretty sceptical about the wonders of Autumn in Finland... Everyone was telling me how beautiful the leaves are and how lovely it is to SWIM! (ah, it's under 10 degrees in there) and just be outside in the forest with no sound but the remaining leaves drifting down to their ultimate demise... OK I am convinced.

 

Never having seen true all-over Autumn colours I am continually awestruck by the sheer magnitude of the change (my jaw is sore from the constant jaw-dropping colour at every corner). From green to shiny gold, yellow and red in a matter of days and finding myself standing in the silence of the forest proclaiming that I love Autumn more than Summer. Sure I am prone to exaggeration from time to time... but this is stunning.

 

Our friend Georgie braved the impending chill post Rome and Barcelona and came north to wrap up her Eurovasion adventure. We were a little worried that after the cheap flashiness of Summer ;-)  Autumn wasn't going to cut it... How were we going to be able to show her what life in Finland is like. I think we managed to  share the best of it with her.

 

With grey skies and low temps we set out to introduce her to the Summer house, sauna, lake swimming, amazingly tasty Finnish treats and the wonders of a tiny University town just shy of the Arctic in October.

 

What was most surprising was the swimming and sauna experience. It's cold by the lake, see your breath 9 degrees cold, and the memory of our first swim of the year in April in 8 degree water was still somewhat fresh in our minds (painful is the word I'm looking for). But nothing was going to stop us.

 

Sauna fired up, almost hitting 90c, Georgie encouraged to embrace the heat (she managed really well! top shelf by the third time - boo-yeah), and then when we could bare it no more, it was into that dark and frosty water...

 

Screams aside it was an amazing experience, and you know that word invigorating... I think it came from Finland. After three times in and out we were well and truly warm to the core, energised and had George convinced the Finns are on to something... She was so convinced she was up for more sauna a night lake swimming the next day at Janne and Maria's house. Strangely the Finns weren't so keen on getting in the water after dark... chickens ;-)

 

On Georgie's last night with us (before a whirlwind tour of Helsinki), Janne and Maria invited us for Blinis, a sort of Scando-Finno/Russian hybrid traditional dish. An amazing meal as always, the Blinis (a freshly pan fried fat little pancake made with yeast and beer) are covered with sour cream, fresh fresh Finnish caviar and topped with Dill and chopped red onion. BEST THING I HAVE EVER EATEN. Seriously these little bites of heaven were truly amazing... I was less sold on the Salty gherkin, cream and honey version... but it was the "you can't leave Finland before eating this kind of variety" so we all had some... surprisingly it was so good as well. I don't know why I am so sceptical of people telling me things about Finland are going to be amazing... It seems to be true almost 100 percent of the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinis

 

So it's late Autumn and the snow is just waiting for the right moment to fall, the lakes poised to freeze and the Finns ready to fire up that sauna again and convince me that ice swimming is the best experience in the world... we'll see...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_swimming

I have taken a lover... her name is Barcelona.

Sitting here in the weak mid-morning sunlight, contemplating the sub-zero temperatures predicted for this week, the fact that the woods across the road are now see-through and the impending first winter snow falls on the weekend (yay)... I figured it was time to reminisce about warmer times, fresher fruit, sweeter wine and long sunsets overlooking my new favourite city in the world (sorry Tokyo and Bangkok... the torch has been passed)... Ahhh... Barcelona.

After Rome, now re-named "Stinky Garbage Capital of Europe",€ Barcelona was literally a breath of fresh air. The three of us instantly fell in love with the place. The people, the food, the buildings, the coffee and the festival atmosphere that filled the streets... La Merce was on and the city was about to get busy!

http://www.bcn.cat/merce/english/home.shtml

It'€™s hard to describe how I felt about Barcelona without just going on and on with positive overblown adjectives to say how much I loved it,€“ it'€™s also hard to really put my finger on what I loved. Partly it reminded me of Australia, the climate, the trees, the size, friendliness of the locals (in VAST contrast to the somewhat frightened and socially challenged locals in Finland). It was everything I loved about a late summer week of holidays at home I guess, the salty air, great coffee in great cafes, walking the streets and soaking in the atmosphere... and for the first time I really felt homesick,€“ which was nice in a melancholy kinda way.

We stayed in a cute apartment next door to Hospital Sant Pau http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital_de_Sant_Pau

(a stunning and UNESCO world heritage listed building still in operation) and about 5 blocks from La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi'€™s unfinished masterpiece, and it became almost our daily pilgrimage to walk by, take photos, go inside or just eat pizza in the glow the illuminated and kind of eerie spires.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia

Our days were filled with strolling through the local streets,(i love just trying to blend in and see how a local sees) discovering new foods, marveling at the architecture and exploring Mercat de la Boqueria on Las Ramblas, side streets and lanes in Barri Gothic and amazing shops, cafes and hidden wonders of El Born. And of course a lot of cheap Spanish shopping at a crazy huge brand new complex right on the wharf filled with great Spanish bargains and insane designer stores.

One of my favourites: http://www.xocoa-bcn.com/Eng/index_eng.html

Then finishing the evening with a cable car ride to the top of Montjuic and watching the sun set sipping super sweet sangria from a street stall... We were asking for trouble with that purchase.

We made our way around just a bout everywhere on the awesome metro system... please BCC visit here and replicate this! It was great... and kinda dangerous. Unfortunately we were witnesses to a robbery on the train. Three yobs got in the way of a Japanese couple and fearing they would miss the train, the tourists pushed in and were surrounded by the crims€“, the door alarm began to sound and the three jumped through the closing doors with something they had cut from the manâ€'s bag. He realised too late and ran down the carriage to no avail. It was only then we realised what had happened - it was awful to watch and from that point in we hugged our bags a little tighter and maybe overreacted a little by taking only what we needed for each day... but then again, given the lack or order in southern Europe the prospect of losing and renewing a residency visa in Spain was a little too much... better safe than sorry.

Apart from that incident Barcelona welcomed us with open arms and full sangria jugs! We made friend with our new Sangria provider Don Simon... at 1 Euro a UHT pack, how could you say no! One glass and we were singing this song...

Barcelona has also brought us other delicious and exciting products... who knew Chupa Chups http://www.chupachups.com/group_history.asp came from here and that Dali designed the logo! Not me... and everyone's favourite civil war meal supplement ColaCao... Delicious... I even brought some home,€“ kind of like Milo but not crunchy.

There'€™s still so much to tell... scorpions in toffee, fruit as bright as can be for as far as the eye can see, wonderful design stores, wide avenues, warm breezes, Don Simon, festivals, dancing, street performers, cages full of chipmunks for sale on the street, the Camper flag ship store!, fresh croissants dipped in bitter chocolate for breakfast, hot and strong Catalonian coffee, music, afternoon siesta and so much more... What a wonderful experience to share with my two lovely friends.

I think I just saw some snow falling... sensible countries are never 3 degrees at midday! I wonder if my residency visa is valid in Barcelona... ;-)

Rome: So named Stinky Garbage Capital of Europe...

So there’s no denying we went to Rome... yeah yeah, everybody looooves Rome... Gotta tell ya... Didn’t love it, was kinda nasty...

We were excited to arrive in Rome, escaping unseasonably bitter Autumn weather and a top of about 3 degrees in Finland... It was hot, sunny, Italian, what more could we ask for.

After waiting for an hour for our bags to make their leisurely way from the plane to the terminal we made our way to the Leonardo Express, the direct train to Termini, Rome’s Grand central railway station (I wondered what LDV may have thought of his cartoon face emblazoned across every carriage as we rocked and rolled slowly into Rome). First impressions were good, a lot drier than Aus, but a lot of Australian trees along the rail line... we could almost have been in Melbourne will all the miniature plaster pillars and lion heads gracing the balconies on the ride into the city.

Our kind booking agency had provided directions to our apartment in Rome’s unofficial Chinatown, so we worked out which way was left and strode out into the scorching Roman sun and into some dog poo and a cloud of cigarette smoke... oh well, when in Rome they say. We headed down the side of the enormous railway station, dodging questionable varieties of poo, urine pools and garbage along the way.. the street became narrower, more filthy and a lot more smelly, so much in fact we had to gasp for air at one street corner which may or may not have claimed someone’s old Nonna while attempting to add to the already 5 metre wide and 2 metre tall piles of putrefying household waste... this would be our daily journey.

So, past some more old stuff (Nonnas and ruins) we found our street, equipped with cheap Asian grocery stores and highly praised gelateria as promised and our apartment for the next five days.

The apartment was great, very RED and very ITALIAN (just like the Campari we were sipping) and very noisy, but the noise was exciting, I peered down to the road below and across to the Piazza Vittoria Emmanuelle and thought, ah, this is Rome.

Five days was a little long for Rome just as three visits to the Vatican was also a little much, (not sure how we managed that - I don't even like the Pope). We took the stinky city in our stride, the more touristy the place the less smelly, so I guess, fortunately, it was only our neighbourhood that reeked of effluent. Walking distance to the Colosseum and Circus Maximus and a metro ride from most other sights had us riding in easy comfort for most of the time. The Trevi fountain  has held up as my favourite place, cool and in shadow when we arrived, it was a great place to  rest, eat more gelati (mmm Tiramisu was the best) and watch the hoards of tourists pose for the "money shot" and ensuring their return one day.

I found that Rome does old really well, lots of tours, lots of stolen Egyptian stuff, strange restoration projects and definitely grand sights to take in, but the social structures in town seem to be lacking. The romans seems to not care about their city, walking where and when they please, ignoring traffic lights, throwing rubbish as they walk and peeing in th streets (although it must be said Finland has a strong public urination culture as well) there seemed to be little order to anything really.

We decided it was like a strange hybrid of a European city and and Asian city, mainly because of the traffic, (but Bangkok was a lot cleaner).I have never heard so many horns in my life. I think the tradition is to just beep the horn wildly to see what happens... then if that doesn’t work, hop out of the car and start slapping people... That worked well each day on the corner of our apartment... at least until the hyper glamorous police arrived – decked OUT in a lot of gold bling, tight black uniforms, manicured eyebrows on both the boys and the ladies and some mighty fine "force issued" Prada sunglasses... definitely a nice look Rome!

Not much to say about the Pope, saw him, listened to him speak for what seemed an eternity!!! met  a couple of the 14 million Australians in Rome that week, got sunstroke and came back later to see the Basilica, which for the centre of catholicism had a distinct lack of old JC.

So Rome was old and spectacularly grand and astoundingly filthy... maybe it hasn’t changed in Millennia and maybe it doesn’t need to. The Campari was cold and the gelati creamy... what more do you need.

Might just nip outside for a pee... when in Rome...

This is neat...

On a cold autumn Scandinavian morning, sipping tea and absorbing the goodness and joy that comes from reading the fresh edition of The New York Times T Style Magazine.

This is neat!

Chanel Mobile Art Container

"Seems that Karl Lagerfeld is taking his job as artistic director of Chanel quite literally. His latest project? The Mobile Art container, which is to roam the world from 2008 to 2010 bearing installations by 18 international artists. But the real showstopper is bound to be the container itself: a Zaha Hadid-designed U.F.O. made of gleaming-white fiberglass with a ring of interactive exhibition space inside..."

Video View - Click here:

Strap yourself in... Winter is a comin...

Well, It’s official… the temp is dropping along with the leaves… and the weather knows no seasonal limits in the arctic… We’re strapping ourselves in and getting ready for Winter! Winter tyres ready in the shed, -40c Canadian winter boots arrived and fitted, Mittens purchased (as original gloves are too cold on their own)  New beanie purchased (same reason as gloves) Ear muffs sourced and ready for purchase once I can process the perceived shame of wearing them… but most importantly and the most exciting… Ice Driving lessons… Completed.

 

We rose in the dark, which now is not that early, but 7am in the dark feels a lot earlier than the other 7am in the all night summer sun. Donned our Autumn clothes and zipped into town for a driving lesson, (which have to say feels kinda weird post licence).

 

We headed out 50km or so from Jyvaskyla to a purpose built ice track, given that it’s only October, there’s not that much ice about just yet, but slippery white paint and torrents of water rushing over the track pretty much give you the feeling that in Autumn the road is not your friend.

 

Strapped in to our tres-butch Mercedes A class we readied at the starting line after what seemed to be an unsettlingly brief translation of the Finnish instructions about little things like safe and dangerous braking distance and icy conditions… Troy was at poll position and we tore into the track. Ok so at a modest 40 kph to get a feel for the emergency breaks and braking distance. There were a range of grades on the road, some dry, some half slippery and dry some slippery and some with imaginary reindeer we had to avoid.

 

It was actually amazing – I had no idea of the real breaking distance on the ice – My braking distance changed from 7metres in dry conditions to 60 on the ice track! Crazy. So first lesson down, slippery road = huge breaking distance.

 

Next came what we ice driving students call “the break and swerve… or else is reindeer steaks for dinner…” Fun and again not surprisingly more slippery and more difficult at higher speeds, but also more fun.

 

We zipped around the track each time the instructor urging us to go faster to notice the difference, and then test my reaction by pulling the hand break on at 60kph and spinning the car completely around 3 times – That was the most fun! But the message was obviously, know the feel of the car so you tell it what to do at all times and avoid the 360s, screaming Nannas with Nordic walking sticks akimbo, fleeing and panicked reindeer and “No Santa Claus this year kids…”

The best tip was actually to steer like a rally driver, short and shallow turns to keep the car in the right direction - and of course having been to the Jyvaskyla World Rally Championships earlier this year – this skill came to me straight away ;-)

Who knew learning could be so much fun! Now... how desperately do we need to drive to the supermarket... might just be less stressful for everyone if we walk... look out Nannas