Sunrise: 9:40am
Sunset: 14:50
Length of daylight: 5h 10m
Recent Maximum Temp: +3 degrees
Recent Minimum Temp: -2 degrees
No post for ages...
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! (sorry we’ve been busy).
I’ll start with an update on the ‘frigid’ winter: Winter started with some early snow and cold
weather in November and soon after that it warmed up, the snow melted and the
temperature hovered between –2 to +4 for the last 3 weeks. I’ve been colder in Brisbane! The stupid weather also meant that for the
second year in a row most of Finland had a snowless Christmas (it used to be a
really rare event).
In the last 2 days the temperature has finally started to
drop and I’m hoping that it won’t go above zero anymore (now to wait for some
snow). I haven’t found the short days or the cold a problem BUT the eternal
grey overcast sky is driving me insane. Since late August we have had permanent grey skies with a rare sunny day
every 3 weeks. At times I’ve found
myself getting a bit homesick and daydreaming about wearing shorts and having a
picnic with friends.
Ummm – so what are the big things that have happened over
the last couple of months?
Several weeks ago my Uncle Seppo died after a long illness
with a rare type of lung cancer. Lots of family members attended the service
which was a mix of Lutheran and Orthodox traditions (Seppo was Lutheran and his
son Janne is Orthodox). Having grown up in Australia it was the first time I’ve
directly experienced a death in the family. It was upsetting to see the impact
on people you love and care for. I was
also a bit relieved to see my cousin Janne openly grieving after months of
being very practical, matter-of-fact and assuming a lot of responsibility for
organising things. I added some photos to the website a few weeks ago.
We also got 2 jobs – delivering newspapers and cleaning. At the
start of the holiday I never thought I would look forward to working again –
but I did. Since then we’ve quit the newspaper delivery job because the pay was
crap and it stopped us taking on extra cleaning shifts (which was more than
double the pay). So anyway it’s given
us some much needed cash and some rich and rewarding experiences (ok
that was stretching the truth).
I actually don’t mind cleaning – it’s hard, physical work but
there’s something immediately satisfying about going into a building site,
stripping and sealing the floors and then standing back and thinking ‘wow that
looks brand new’. The downside is that after a couple of months we’ve both
developed tendonitis in our hands and arms. I’ve had a few weeks
of numbness and pins and needles in my right hand but it seems to be getting better after some rest over Christmas and anti-inflammatory drugs.
There are a couple of things I want to remember about this
experience:
1) The most important thing about a job is that it gives me
money. I might have become a little
bit emotionally over-invested in my old job... I want to remember the
balance between doing your job because you care about the issue –
and doing your job because it allows you to meet your own basic needs (like
money, a house to live in, food, holidays etc).
2) If my work situation isn’t healthy I can always leave.
Cleaning isn’t amazing but it’s not horrible either – the pay is low, the work
is physical, the hours are bad but it’s also low stress and I don’t lie on the
couch thinking about it for hours. So
if I am ever highly stressed for months at work I want somebody to remind me
that I can always resign and get a low-paid job for a few months while I look
for something more suitable. Like really – I don’t have any debt, I have
savings, I don’t have children – I can leave a situation and the worst that
will happen is that I have a basic job for a few months while I look for
something else.
So now Christmas and New Year have happened. Christmas was spent in Jyväskylä. My cousin Janne cooked up a storm and when
we left he was last seen bright red, sweating and lying on the couch saying ‘OH
my stomach hurts’ (before going back to the kitchen to make another ham
sandwich). After that we travelled
south to Mikkeli to visit my sister Minna - and then to Oulu (300km north) to
visit my brother (Jari) and his partner Heli while they were at Heli’s parent’s
farm. We didn’t see any aurora but it snowed enough to make some snow men, actually they were a snow duck, moose and rabbit, on the last day (photo gallery being added).
And last night we spent New Year’s Eve in town with Klaus
and Petra. It was a relaxed and fun evening. We had a couple of beers in a pub and
then went down to the frozen harbour to watch the fireworks. In Finland people
are allowed to light their own fireworks between 6pm and 6am on New Year’s Eve
so there was a non-stop fireworks display going on around the city for
hours. They started at 5.45pm (naughty
law breakers) and you could hear explosions every 3 seconds until after
midnight.
That’s about it. There’s less than 2 months until we leave Finland and start travelling
so we’re really starting to make travelling plans. Hope you all had a fun and relaxing break.
Smooch Troy
PS: Oh yeah – the
Australian Federal election happened! After months of reading news websites and opinion pieces, the election
finally happened and it was better than I expected. Yayyy – a new government, some political change and fresh air at
last. GOODBYE racist bigots.
PPS: Almost as
important was the new Kylie Minogue album which arrived in the post on a special
pre-release order from Amazon.com. Ahhh
quality trash disposable pop.
PPPS: Well what do ya know? On our
drive to Oulu we drove past this very important Finnish City…(or maybe "tiny Finnish village 400km from the arctic circle in the middle of nowhere" is more accurate)
