Celebrating the 70's - A chronicle of time and temperature

  Wednesday 31 January 2024 Interesting Finnish fact number four. The Finns are the happiest people in the world. However, there must be some unhappy ones, because as of tonight at midnight, until Friday midnight, most of the country will be on strike. Fin Air has cancelled all flights and 60,000 bookings will have to be re-issued. Unions representing childcare, real estate, shops, supermarkets, hotels - you name it apart from the Alki grog shops, will all be closed. This is a political strike to show displeasure with the government’s policies. We are due to fly Fin Air to Stockholm on Sunday. Stand by for further updates. Today, I met the Chaine Bailli (president) of Helsinki for lunch at a very nice brassiere style restaurant (Alexanderplas) in the city. The Chaine des Rotisseurs, Helsinki Chapitre dinner is on Saturday and is planned to still go ahead with 210 people and hopefully the International President will be able to get here from Paris. We’re on his table as import...

  Tuesday 30 January 2024 Well, it’s only one day to the end of January and we’ve been on the road for four and a half weeks. Looking forward to a complete financial analysis of the month, although, we are €500 in the bank on our daily allowance, so I feel a blowout is due. Off to the museum of design and architecture today. Some people find that exciting, you know. Flashy took photos of the really good things. I meant to mention yesterday, the really cheap booze in Tallinn. Good vodka is AUD$28 a litre. I found a 4l bottle of Smirnoff, which I thought I could send to Tas. Alas, no post bag big enough. Also, someone asked about all the clocks in the photos. Not my posts, of course, but Lady P has this time and temperature theme. I’m pretty sure this was explained in the early days of our trip but a theme for our travels has always been chosen. So, turning 70 focuses the mind on time and hell, we’re in 60 degrees north, in the middle of winter. I think that explains the temp...

Monday 29 January 2024 A 5.30 am start in the dark and +1c to the ferry terminal to catch our ship to Estonia for the day. The day trip to Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, is a common thing for the Finns. The shopping and booze are significantly cheaper in Tallinn and they take full advantage of this with car loads of goods and cheap vodka, beer and crazy RTD’s like gin and passionfruit! It’s a similar ship to the 10-deck one we caught from Stockholm and an easy 2 hour trip on they grey Baltic. No ice though, until we reach harbour. The sun has been shining for a couple of days now and the temperature has been around 2 and 3 degrees (positive). This makes for great photos but it also melts the snow, which refreezes as ice in the shade and windy places, making walking bloody dangerous. Not for the Finns, who walkabout in flat soled ballet slippers, but mandatory spikeys for us. We had coffee and breakfast at one of the buffets on board and then we were there. Lady P had arranged to m...

  Sunday 28 January 2024 Today is Presidential Election Day in Finland, which explains the election posters, national flags and polling booths that we have noticed recently. Their process is a bit like the US but less complicated and certainly without the characters and associated media of the US 2024 presidential campaign. Pity hey? You may recall that we have had many excursions to the vast number of second hand shops here in Helsinki, looking for an outfit for Flashy to wear to the Chaine Chapitre dinner this week. As recently as last year, Finnish consumers were the world’s most diligent buyers of second-hand products. I reckon there are more stores than cafes and they are crammed full of clothes, all beautifully sorted and labelled and pretty cheap too. If I had room in my bag, I’d get some decent leather coats. Now, another instalment of crazy Finnish things: Tax information here is public, so everyone has access to your tax return information. Anyone can call the tax o...

  Saturday 27 January 2024 Another good day at around -1c to 0 c and clear skies. We have decided to take the tram out to the end of (one of the) lines, so we can look at the architecture from the warmth of the carriage. Then, we plan to look at some famous architect’s house. Lady P of course will post pictures and commentary. Now one for Claire. We sit strategically just behind the tram driver, and facing forward – that’s important, we can observe the people entering and exiting at the pointy end, Flashy observes a group of people at the tram stop ready to walk across the lights. He also spots a patch of slippery ice and says to Lady P “that looks dangerous.” Well, you know what’s coming! A woman takes one small step and whosh.. lands on her bottom. The tram driver, just about of head off, slams on the brakes to see how she is; the people with her help her up. Flashy reckons she has a broken hip, compound elbow fracture and concussion. But no. She gets up, rubs her arm and...

  Friday 26 January 2024 Australia day today and aren’t glad we weren’t settled by the Dutch, French or Spanish! As you can tell by the tone, Flashy is up and about, almost back to normal thanks to some good pharmaceuticals. We took the ferry out to one of the nearby islands – Suomenlinna, to walk about in the ice and snow in -5c to visit the Military Museum. The ferry is really an icebreaker with motors at both ends so it doesn’t have to turn around, just go out and back all day. Very interesting watching the ship plough through the ice. The museum was interesting and fairly well displayed. One thing for certain, the Finns don’t like the Russians! We decided on using the ‘spikys’ today. These are rubber pull overs with studs that go on your shoes for grip in icy conditions. They are a fantastic invention. Lady P marched off into the horizon on numerous occasions, while Flashy put one careful foot in front of the other. We found cannons. Of course we did, the island was a...

  Wednesday 24 January 2024 Like a dog with a bone – Lady P chases down the paperwork to get a refund of our train tickets that were cancelled because of the German train strike, two weeks ago. You can imagine the “correctness” of the form. Flashy even needed to get on the other computer and find out the NAB’s swift code to facilitate a payment/refund. Well, while looking at our account today, I discovered that those efficient Germans had refunded us without request, straight into our bank (not sure how they got the details!!) get this, two days after the strike. If I hadn’t gone back through pages of transactions looking for something else, we’d never have found it. How embarrassing! A groveling  apology to those lovely Germans is emailed immediately. Now for another interesting Finnish event. The Air Guitar World Championships which takes place annually in the Northern city of Oulu. During this contest, participants from all over the world get on a stage and compete in...

  Tuesday 23 January 2024 A lazy day today with some admin. A quick run into town and still no black trousers. It’s been +3c all day and the snow is melting fairly quickly, but it’s still very slippery. Made leek and potato soup for lunch. Using up the leftovers. Since the next couple of days are probably going to be lazy, lay about ones, I will entertain you with some little known facts about the Finns. Here’s the first one Finland Has Plenty of Bizarre Competitions Many bizarre and crazy competitions are organized throughout the country. For example, one of the most famous competitions in Finland is the Wife Carrying World Championship. Basically, it’s a contest in which men have to carry their female teammate (this person doesn’t necessarily have to be their wife). The contestant who can carry his teammate first through the obstacle track wins the race. And what’s the prize? As many litres of beer as the winner’s teammate weighs in kilos! This seems to be the preferred...

  Monday 22 January 2024 We are out of the minuses today, cracked zero and there’s light snow. They are predicting heavy snow later, so heading out early and changing the puffer jacket for the wolf fur. A mixture of tram, Metro and walking in the continuing hunt for some black trousers. Now, we didn’t find any but we got a bow tie that matches the jacket, so, we are getting closer to a complete outfit. It's been zero all day with continuing light snow and this turns to an icy layer where people have walked. Even the Finns are complaining about the weather. Across the road from our apartment is an indoor collection of boutique shops, crafts, high end butcher, cafes and fishmongers, so we headed in to get some fish. We decided to have a light lunch in the café owned by our fishmonger mate, whom we befriended last week. Smoked salmon, herbs, and mayo piled on black bread and four very large oysters with a full glass of Alsace Riesling and an Italian red were superb. Feeling re...

  Sunday 21 January 2024 It’s morning now -1c and snowing lightly. Staying in and doing admin today. Gave the robot vacuum cleaner another go. More fun than watching TV. We are locking in some more travel and accommodation to get us from Helsinki to Stockholm, Oslo and Bergen. However, there are some challenges. Four days before we are due to fly to Stockholm, the entire Finnish air system, along with other supporting unions, are going on a two day political strike, shutting down the entire airport system. Hope they don’t extend the strike. Then there’s the weather. No surprise that we are in the coldest Arctic blast to hit northern Europe in decades. This is disrupting travel of course, so we will just have to go with the flow – not that there is much of anything flowing around here. We saw a family walking on the frozen sea yesterday. On top of the ice there was a layer of snow about a foot thick. We took photos but there’s no way either of us were going to save them if t...

  Saturday 20 January 2024 A balmy -12c today. Too cold for snow but Flashy’s old Alaskan bank robber neck roll came out to go under the trapper hat. He looks like something out of South Park. You can tell when it gets below -6c, you can feel it on your cheeks. However, off we went by trusty tram into the ferry terminal area to marvel at the frozen sea and wander about the outdoor market with the locals. A couple of the tents were serving refreshing beverages and the two famous Finnish dishes – meat pies and hot dogs. We noticed a number of men, women and kids emerging from the public sauna and immersing themselves in the icy sea water. We forgot to bring our reindeer-skin mat to sit on in the sauna, so had to give it a miss. Went to a nice bar for a coffee and a beer though. A pint of the local brew was very good. Since the sun was out in full, even if only for the next three hours, we went for a walk to build up the step count. A visit to a nearby Orthodox Cathedral was -...

  Friday 19 January 2024 It has stopped snowing and is -3c. Today it may get to -9c. We have decided to go out exploring using the tram which is about 150 m away from us. However, as we intend to walk the streets seeking out the second hand shops for Flashy’s tuxedo, some careful layering is called for. First on are the heattek tights and over them the merino tights, tucked in to woolly socks. Then a long sleeve heattek top. Now, there is some discussion as to whether a merino jumper should be added, but by now one is expiring in the 20c apartment, so the jumper is put back in the wardrobe.  A good flannelette shirt goes over the top and cotton (useless really) jeans form the base layer. Stout, waterproof boots are next. Then, when you are ready to depart - and you have to move to the door to the street pretty quickly or you will melt - on goes scarf number one, then the puffer jacket, then the new fur trimmed trapper hat, then scarf number two to keep the hat’s long ear f...

  Thursday 18 January 2024 The predicted snow finally arrived this morning and it is covering all the cars in the street. It could be a stay at home day today, perhaps make a ragout for pasta tonight? We did spend a lot of time today at the window, looking out over our snow filled park and staring for many minutes at the falling snow. You’d think we’d never seen it. Yes, the ragout was delicious with the pasta and a Cote du Rhone rouge was just right. We watched “Boy Swallows Universe,” which is serialised here in Finnish, except we found the English button and there you go we can watch a great Australian show. We read the book and it’s author was for a time the editor of the Cairns Post, which just goes to show that anything is possible. I can report that there are many people out socialising and dog walking, some having a fag out the front, which necessitates taking one’s gloves off. However, it is only -2c. One little doggy had on a snow coat and little booties. His tumm...

  Wednesday 17 January 2024 After a -14c start this morning, the temperature rose to a mild -4c by 11.00 am. Eschewing one wool layer and only one scarf because of the warm weather, we headed off for an explore of the Metro and some shopping. The big, red digital clock outside on the building said it was 0c, Penny’s watch – surely such a magnificent time piece couldn’t be wrong - said it was -7c. Flashy stuck his nose out from under his scarf, into the cold and proclaimed that it was indeed close to zero. Beautiful weather. A coffee and a cake at the local coffee shop and into the Metro. A very easy system, too. We were on the hunt for some clothing and shoes for a formal Chaine dinner in February so, dress shoes for both and a dinner suit or similar for Flashy are required. Lady P lead us to a number of really great second hand clothing stores. She has a nose for this sort of stuff. It’s in these stores that Flashy gets his trapper hat for €15 (just for fun) and a pair o...

  Tuesday 16 Jan part 2 More interesting Finnish facts. Finns have a reputation for being heavy drinkers. They contribute to this stereotype by being drunk in public during such celebrations as Vappu, when they are abroad on holidays, or when retelling this stereotype to visitors or newcomers.  Sound like anyone we now? But is this stereotype of the drunken Finn correct? What about that reputation then? Have they earned it?Well, some Finns think they have. At least in the sense that often their aim is to get drunk. According to a Finn I met in the pub, they don’t tend to just drink one or two glasses of beer (mainly) or wine with food. Rather, they consume alcohol in the absence of food with the explicit intent of getting drunk. Sound like anyone we know? In the last decade or so, however, Finns have started to frown upon getting drunk. Only about a third of them now think that getting drunk is just an innocent way of having fun. According to that august, reliable and well lo...

  Tuesday 16 January 2024 This week is going to be an admin week, so to keep you interested, I thought I’d share some amazing facts about Finland and Helsinki. The northern part of Finland is in the Arctic circle (>66 0 N) Arctic comes from the Greek (Arktos) meaning “bear” - as in polar. Bet you didn’t know that. Helsinki, at 60 0 N, is still pretty close to Santa’s home. So, in the middle of winter, it’s appropriate that we see snow and chilly temperatures. It’s very pretty, though. Finland looks big on the map, but it’s not quite 5% the size of Australia. Just a little bigger than Victoria, really. And Helsinki? Well, at 1.6 million out of the total 5.5 million in Finland, it’s the largest city. Oh, by the way, the sea here is now frozen. Shipping lanes open though. Now back to the Arctic Circle. It’s in this little circle that you get a polar night and a polar day.  The polar night is a phenomenon where night lasts for more than 24 hour...

  Monday 15 January 2024 A very short but necessary, due to the fact that we have heavy(ish) bags and it’s been snowing for a while and the footpaths are a bit slippery, Uber ride to our apartment for the next three weeks. Super modern and spacious and decorated almost exclusively from Ikea. The cat is sitting on a mat in the bathroom, staring at the wall. Sulking or just being a cat? Flashy knows how to deal with cats. (NO!, not rule 22), I’ll give her treats. A warmish day, around -6c. It’s been snowing lightly since we woke up but that did not stop us from walking around the corner to the supermarket for a shop-up for the week. A couple of admin days coming up, with loads of laundry, sleeping, reading and maybe playing cards. Amazing how supermarkets are laid out the same the world over. Lizard people for sure (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilian_conspiracy_theory). Also watching TV here. Managed to change the settings to English. Oh yes, 1980's Rock TV. Great hair! ...