It's Wappu - Vappu in Finland, the Queen's Day in Holland and 10.000 visitors!

Firstly, I would like to say I am veeeery happy to thank you for a BIG milestone you have granted me: 10.000 visits since January 2010. ISO kiitos luottamuksesta - BIG thank you for the confidence - Gracias por su visita - Tack för besöket etc.!!!

Tomorrow is THE carneval evening of the year in Finland. I seem to have been pretty good in writing about Vappu, Wappu or what the heck you wanna call it every year since I started the blog. You can check them out from here.

Part of Wappu fun is the decoration and funny clothes or items in the outfit. Or what do you think about the following...

For the ones enjoying the fabulous Queen's Day, have a blast and do not fall into the canals! Even though they are more clean than the water in the market place dock in Helsinki during the Wappu.

Eli Helsingin Kauppatorin Kolera-altaassa ei ole kovin mukavaa uida vappuna. Kuulemma. Näin on yksi sitä kokeillut henkilö referoinut. Vai mitä tykkäätte tästä Wapun jälkeen otetusta kuvasta...

Please do take care of the trash during the carneval both in Finland and Holland - Helsinki and Amsterdam, as I HATE to see our port looking like above!
...sorry J!

Hauskaa Wappua - Have a great Queen's Day!

Stay tuned, I'll try to post more stuff along the way. Keep dry - from outside - and have fun!!!

Now the summer IS here - for now // Tervetuloa kesä!

Only few days ago I showed pics with some snow at the backyard and told that it had melted the same day. The same progress had happened at the sea side as yesterday I went cycling with my son and after 21 kilometers we awarded ourselves with a terrace pitstop. This was the view then.

All the ice was gone. As we cycled the coast line we noticed still some ice between some of the islands.

Some of the bushes at the backyard were showing signs of waking up. This is blackberry.

Apple trees were still fully asleep but this giant bumble-bee had found its way inside and was trying to get back out through the roof window.

And as it was guys only -Easter, we were allowed to have guy food. Please note that we have carrot and cucumber on the table - and of course Finnish meaty sausages and German bratwurst.

And now I am writing this again at the backyard with shorts only as it is truly warm. Warmer than normally at this time of the year but still a friend of mine just flew up to Lapland for a ski trip. I am jealous so good for him!!!

Kesä on täällä ainakin hetken, nautitaan!!!

Hyvä Honka!!!

My football club Honka won yesterday the winter cup - Liiga Cup - for the second year in a row by kicking TamU ass 3-0, congratulations!

Hyvä Honka!!!

 And the good sports culture brings the team to thank the fans

One sad thing in today's game was that it could have been the very last game of the other team, TamU - Tampere United. They are in the middle of a process to keep the licence to play after being financed by Asian party who wanted to get into the league with an assumed (yep, again the assume thing...) motive to fix the game results and play with dirty money.

Hence the TamU fans were objecting potential plans of merge with another Tampere team, the Ilves.

This might be a bit surprising to some English football fans, but the pictures above and below are taken from the "game bar" that is only few meters from the pitch. And it also means the fans of both teams were sharing the bar without any trouble. You know, we have fans but very seldom the negative, aggressive behaviour that appears in violence.

I guess that's why those guys are called hooligans and not fans...

Great view to the game - in case you won't finish your beer during the break - and the most surprising was the beer price. For Finland scale a 0,5 liter beer costing 3 Euros is a bargain. Naturally you won't get it in a glass but in typical Finnish disposable plastic pint. Unless you wish to drink it from the can.

Not a bad place to spend a sunny Easter day. Tickets for the final 7 Euros to the end and 20 Euros to the sides. The normal league games were last season 5 and 15 Euros so it should not be about the ticket price to go there.

Team Honka also seems to have a good group together, a couple new interesting faces, fast strikers with African background - and of course Finnish ones too - and a goalie that I expect to leave Finland soon. Tomi Maanoja has got the capacity to become another Jussi Jääskeläinen or Antti Niemi. The ones who have followed English Premier League should recognize the names.

Get your buts off your sofa and get into the games!

PS The snow at the backyard on the first picture of previous blog had melted by 6 pm. It is not directly in the sun but still +33C in the sun and +17C in the shadow made the trick...

PPS The Google headache is still on, one small step forward but so far no sign of a positive outcome.

The winter is over - almost

I am writing this at the backyard wearing only a pair of shorts. To most of you it sounds quite normal for late April, but I can assure you it is not a standard for us Finns. To back up my words, I have a pic from the corner of the backyard.

Yes, it is snow.

I just raked the backyard and cleared the branches - so I made a quick face lift. It was not that surprising that the sun is warm enough to enable no-shirt-raking in well covered yard, but when the sun was blocked just now for few minutes by a cloud it was still ok to sit here.

Yesterday I was playing football - or soccer to some of you - outside and started it with gloves and a hat. They soon appeared to be too much, but what was afterwards surprising was the coldness when cycling.

Oh yeah, we took the bikes out as the streets are already cleaned from the sand they have been pouring during the winter. Both me and my son thought we would not need gloves or a hood under the helmet but after 5 minutes it seemed to be again stupid to assume things. Yep, assume makes an ass our of you and me, ass-u-me...

We biked to the beach cafe to have a destination and to get refreshments and obviously the cold sea impacted partly the weather. But the need for gloves started already from home area, about 2km from the sea.

This pic is taken from the same area as the next ones - but this one some hundreds of meters out from the land line. 

And these ones are from yesterday. Still piles of snow to melt.

 The land line was already clear but the majority of the sea bay was still frozen. Same thing was with the marina, few boats were in but majority was still blocked with ice.

 The cafe was closing...

So I guess the winter is about to end here in southern Finland, but in mid parts and particularly up north in Lapland the ski season is at prime. You can check out the images from Levi from here by clicking the links on the page.

It is the same resort we were in last winter. That is a year ago as this winter is not over yet ;o) Stories and pics from that trip you can find by using the Lapland -keyword on the left side and scrolling down the page.

Heil the sun!

...as the time flies, it will be soon the time to fly down to Spain again - to enjoy both the guaranteed weather, food and culture...

PS The damn flies have also noticed that the winter is over - and soon comes the mosquitoes.

Congrats to Helsinki - and I still love the Blues!!!

 Congratulate Helsinki for two reasons;
1) The bureaucrats made a smart decision after Facebook community had collected over 10.000 people supporting the mobile cafe to start up. That means the Camionette can start potentially already by Vappu, 1st of May carneval. It has been in most of the newspapers today, even in a financial paper.

2) HIFK was a stronger team and won the Finnish ice hockey championship by beating the Blues in the finals. Still, I am proud of the Blues as they overachieved what was expected from them.

Congratulations to both HIFK and Blues for a great season!

Hyi Helsinki - Shame on Helsinki!!!

The city of Helsinki has said that they wish to spice up the city. They have encouraged a young entrepreneur when he was planning and preparing a cafe on wheels to be set up in Helsinki. Also the health authorities have supported and given clear green light for the effort.

The young man has purchased a great van from Belgium - a country of mobile waffle and ice cream bars - and invested 30.000 Euros for it.

Then comes the real thing and Helsinki should give selling locations to the mobile care.

I guess you already guess where this is leading into...?

Picture borrowed from here

Yes, unfortunately the bureaucrats in the city of Helsinki peed in their pants and gave nothing, nada, empty ticket, zero locations for the car!

I find it difficult to believe this, but it seems we are running the capital city, showroom of Finland based on ancient rules and habits based on Soviet style. If something is not separately allowed, it must be forbidden...

I truly hope there will be a positive solution to this!!!

Story in Finnish in local biz paper - tarinan tausta suomeksi Kauppalehdessä.

PS Not that surprisingly HIFK is leading 2-0 in the wins of the Finnish ice hockey final series. Let's see if the Blues is able to pull out one more magic card...

So much to talk about - so little time + Horror Story Part 13

Mr Google

Firstly, Mr Google is about to drive my trust in fairness and customer service into a trash can. Which surprisingly I do not tolerate easily as I believe in clear, fair, open and win-win-win approach in business.

Who's the third winner then?
It is in many case the final customer in buyer-seller relationship...

This case is far from ending, let's see what the next steps and particularly the final one will be. So far I am truly and honestly losing my night sleep, PERKELE!!!

The Blues

YESYESYESYESYESKYLLÄKYLLÄKYLLÄKYLLÄKYLLÄKYLLÄ, BUES ON FINAALISSA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Despite of all odds, my team Blues is in the finals in Finnish Hockey League! Yes they finished as 9th in the league and came across in semi-finals against the JYP who dominated the season. Still, the beauty of sports showed it's magic and the willpower, team effort and hard work paid off against the enemy who was clearly more skilled.

Yes, the Blues made it to the finals!!!
No, it will not be a walk in the park to fight in the 2nd finals in the history of the club, but having seen what the guys can do against the teams they have played so far, I am comfortable to see what comes across!

Well, I was going to see some of the games in the arena and was online at 12 noon today when the tickets selling was opened, but the online connection was not on our side as when we got the connection at 15 past 12, all 4 scheduled were sold out...

Believe it or not, but I was booking 9 tickets for 3 moms + 6 kids, and none of the moms are at all interested in ice hocey!!! Shitty thing is that me, who is the interested one, is busy with work related dinner Yes, I've been thinking about alternative place that shows the damn tv-channel broadcasting the game...

And apparently one of the ladies was smart enough to fix the channel on TV in order to have the ladies - and I guess the kids too - for a fun sports studio!

Go Ladies - Hyvä Espoo!!!

Horror Story Part 13

As I said earlier, the horror marriage couple was taking off to the honey moon separately. "Lady" into a fab location, no idea what would happen with the groom.

Today's the main newspaper that is claimed to be respectful, quotes both the lady and the groom more or less like this;

Groom:
"Mrs treats me coldly. I guess it is because also she has got feelings towards me.!

Bride, in several occations:

"Arto (groom), why did you ruin everything?"

"You would have loved this place. We could have made love in several romantic locations!"

"There are many lonely, rich men who need beautiful company to a theathe or a VIP-pary!"

Yuppiyaieee!!!!!
It seems we have a surprising, planned turn in the game;
The sponsoring magazine brought the groom together with the bride - against anyone's will - and who knows what the next step in this comedy will be...

Idiootit!!!

You think this is the end of it???

F-word, no! The sponsoring magazine is too smart or sick, to let it go, so how about a show like this...? That can not be leading into positive things - or is it a start of a new true love...???

Again, I must apologize on behalf of my country fellow citizens...

PS I guess only few of you are aware of a fantastic story telling blog by a dear Tsupukka - go for it!!!

Oh Mr Google what are you doing to me...

I am in the middle of a small personal crisis (for now only at mental level by myself) thanks to being too curious how the Google AdWords works. They sent me a coupon that I could use for advertising, but I can tell you all the instructions, guidelines, campaign set-ups, rules, small print, terms and conditions etc. are not what one might think they are.

And it seems it will be costing me some money at the end - foolish me for not being able to comprehend all the stuff that is in between the other important things somewere there on the pages.

And of course the first reply is "There is nothing wrong with us!"...

I have now changed mails with Mr and Mrs Google for a couple of times, let's see how it will turn out to be. I wonder if they decide to block this site if I'm too harsh - Blogspot is after all a Google service.

PS Apologies for the topic to certain German and Dutchman who will recognize themselves ;o)

Breach of contract in Germany

While waiting for the Blues game to start, here is a legal case for you to judge.

A man sues neighbor for breach of contract in Germany: Paid to do it but fails to make friend's wife pregnant after 72 attempts.

In Stuttgard, Germany a court judge must decide on a case of honorable intentions in a sitution where a man hired his neighbor to get his wife pregnant.

It seems that Demetrius Soupolos, 29, and his former beauty queen wife, Traute wanted to have a child badly, but Demetrius was was told by his doctor that he was sterile.

So Soupolos, after calming his wife's protest agreed to pay his neighbor Frank Maus, 34, to impregnant his wife. Since Maus was already married and had two childern, plus looked very much like Soupolos to boot, the plan seemed good.

So Soupolos paid Maus 2500 Euros for the job and for 3 evenings a week for the next 6 months, Maus tried desperately, a total of 72 times to impregnant Traute.

When Maus's wife objected he told his wife, "I don't like this any more than you, I am simply doing it for the money".

When Traute failed to get pregnant after the six months, Soupolos was not understanding and insisted Maus to have a medical examination, which he did.

The doctor's announcement that Maus was also sterile shocked everyone except his wife, who then had to confess that Maus was not the real father of the two childern.

Now Suppolos is sueing Maus for breach of contract, in an effort to get his money back, but Maus refuses to give it back saying he did not guarantee results, only that he would give it his best effort.

...so I guess there is no factory quarantee in this...

Out of tune: The Blues and Horror Story Part 12

Well, I must say this was not that big of a surprise that the #1 team of the season stepped up yesterday in their home arena and beat the Blues 4-2. No worries, the series continue tomorrow night at the Blues Arena so let's hope for the best and cheer the Blues for a 3-1 lead in the games...

C'mon Blues!!!

Also congratulations to HIFK for making it to the finals!

7-1 win didn't leave much to discuss and for the ones following NHL: Mikael Granlund scored 2+3. Don't be surprised if you see him on that side of the big water next season. He was injured for a while this season (concussion) but he's back. Big time...!

PS What else is going on in the world? Not that much. 

 Unless you consider the latest of Horror Story as such:

Young Mrs traveled for the honeymoon by herself. Yes, without the husband and she even said she wishes "they will not arrange" her husband over there as she does not want to see him. They in this case means the magazine that has financed all the fun.

Yes, the filed divorce is still in process just like it has been since 1 week from the wedding.

For the Finns - and even a French lady who studies Finnish ;o) - you can read an update from here.

Museum tip in Helsinki

I came across with info about the Helsinki Civil Defence Museum that seems quite interesting. Väestönsuojelumuseo in Finnish, located in Kruunuhaka.

Among other stuff, you can experience what it feels like to be in darkened apartment during a bombing in 2nd world was. They also sell material like fire distinguisher.

They are open only on Saturdays from 10 to 14. Go there, I know I will some day sooner or later.

For other museums in Helsinki, check out this site.
PS Tomorrow night is the 3rd semi-final game between the Blues and JYP in the Finnish ice hockey league. Blues has got 2-0 lead in game wins and since you need 4 wins to go to the final, it can still turn both ways.

C'mon Blues!!!

Was Captain Cook a Mac-man?

Where the heck is the pirate flag coming from?

Do you have any sensible explanation to why is there a pirate falg as "visiting country"? I don't have one. Google's humour for April fool's day? Nooope. Also it truly seems Captain Cook was using either Mac or PC, I just wonder which...

Can you hear the Blues?

Yes I can!!!

The blues is playing sooooo hard now that I definitely can hear it. Blues has now played 2 games against the # 1 of the season with extremely surprising results: They won both games!

Tonight Blues took 1-0 lead, but JYP came back.
Blues took 2-1 lead, but JYP came back.
Blues took 3-2 lead, but JYP came back.
Blues took 4-3 lead and JYP never came back.

However, I would still put my money on JYP and would be damn happy to lose it.

At the same time, HIFK of Helsinki is 1-1 in games against Lukko from Rauma. It would be great to have finals with 2 teams from the capital area, but let's not dream about that yet...

HIFK plays again tomorrow, let's kick some Rauma ass!