In 14 hours around the world, thousands and thousands of Euros - Dollars, Crowns, Yenis etc will be literally burned into ashes on the skies. For a short moment of joy and visual art, we burn shitloads of explosives in the fireworks. Let's keep this in mind while enjoying them, we pay for the one way or another...
If you are involved with them, please keep safe, put some glasses on, keep the distance, if problems - wait for loooooong enough. And keep your head clear enough!!!
At the same time, do make sure that you enjoy the moment, think of the people you have met and moments you have had during the past year(-s) and pland many, many moments ahead. Enjoy some good food, drinks and company - enjoy the moment!!!
...I know I will...
I wish all of you the best possible year 2012, let it be prosperous for you and the loved ones!
Happy New Year!!!
Toivotan kaikille teille ja läheisillenne menestyksekästä, entistäkin parempaa vuotta 2012!
Hyvää Uutta Vuotta!!!
Helsinki at New Year
Image compliments by www.taivasalla.net with pretty nice images from Finland
I'll be surfing some waves today - not much and apparently the storm will be calmer than earlier this week so it'll be smooth... I am also likely to witness some fellow countrymen to behave badly, so let's see how good stories I will pick up.
It will be anyways several bad dressing, poorly behaving drunken rednecks who think they can behave as they wish. On the way back home, some of them will be blasted and trying to pull their shopping: 6 cases of beer, cider & Gin Long Drink (Lonkero) on a mini-size trolly that could hold half of the weight.
Lots of amusement epected, let's see if I'll be one of the ones amusing others ;o) Have a great day!
Here are few pics from yesterday's walk that the authorities didn't wish us to do.
Thrill started next door, where this poor pine tree is not up any more.
This one was just a small one at Mellsten beach
Last year at this time the sea was frozen. Now it is more than 1 meter up from regular. The pier is not usable for the moment, but the lamp & electricity is ready for the winter swimming.
At Kauppatori, down town Helsinki, the water was climing up towards the street.
The wind had made a to the X-mas trees. Two of these were down - but naturally I was a good man and lifted them up.
At Senaatintori the bigger tree was down for the 3rd time. Now Helsinki has doubts if they should get one at all in the future.
Nasty result - evil storm...
I just wish the winter would come - last year late November our car looked like this.
Welcome winter - or I'll go for New Year's BBQ...!
Sleeping late.
Washing the dishes.
Good breakfast.
Book reading.
Against the authority recommendation, due to the storm up to 35 meters/sec wind, a good long walk outside - images to follow.
Exciting moments to see if neighbors pine tree will crash on other neighbors electricity wires.
Visitors.
Great meal.
Siesta.
Kids movie on TV.
Sauna.
Beer.
...and it's only 6 pm - life is good and tomorrow the alarm clock is not on!!!
Jos tähän olis vielä saanu perinteisen Espoo-Jenkit -matsin, se olis sit ollu siinä...
Already now, I truly recommend all of you who can appreciate beauty-for-an-eye to go alllllll the way to the end.
I hope you all have had at least a fraction of the Christmas feelings and joy that I have had! This year we have enjoyed the time by ourselves. The kids realized that this was the first ever X-mas we had in Finland by just ourselves. When our first born was less than 1 year, we moved from one grand-parents to others, keeping ourselves busy.
After that, until we moved to Belgium, we were in a lucky enough positon to invite the family to our place. No limitations (to certain limit), so if someone wanted to have on the table a specific food item, she/he was welcome to bring it. Then we of course split the work - and my Mom did the ham as you might guess from the previous pig's ass -post...
Fan-tas-tic = Fan-tas-tis-ta!!!
Good food, wine & champagne, beautiful surroundings, lots of candles, nice presents, good stories, revealing seacrets, remembering stories and people we care about, good movies (Hurt Locker, Eemeli by Astrid Lindgren, 102 Dalmatians...), siesta, sauna, calls / messages / a visit contacts with the close family members. As I put it: Fan-tas-tic!!!
The only thing I'm missing, is a music performance - even a short one - by the shy kids of mine. I hear them practice the saxophone and clarinet, but I rarely have a chance to see them play. Just imagine one of these played by your kid, live;
For this one, I really recommend to sit down, put on the best loudspeakers you have, and either just enjoy the music or read also the bits & pieces of history that the script brings along.
Finlandia by Jean Sibelius
Farti... - sorry, mistake. Let's try again.
Walking in the Air;
Yes, you are allowed to be either jealous or think that I am insane, what ever you see appropriate. What ever your thoughts are, I'm a a happy Father - Onnellinen Faija!!!
If I only had my own Santa's little helper...
I wish you all and your families, friends, loved ones, and whom ever you are interested in, the merriest Christmas! Hyvää Joulua!
Apologies for some copy-paste tech errors...
Language Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
######
Afrikaans Geseënde Kersfees en 'n voorspoedige Nuwe jaar
Geseënde Kersfees en 'n gelukkige nuwe jaar
Akeanon Maayad-ayad nga Paskwa
Mahigugmaon nga Bag-ong Dag-on kinyo tanan!
Albanian Gëzuar Krishtlindjet e Vitin e Ri
Aleut Kamgan Ukudigaa
Alsatian E güeti Wïnâchte un e gleckichs Nej Johr
Amharic (Melkam Gena) - Merry Christmas
- celebrated on 7th January
Melkam Addis Amet) - Happy New Year
- celebrated on 11th September
Apache (Western) Gozhqq Keshmish
Arabic (Modern Standard) أجمل التهاني بمناسبة الميلاد و حلول السنة الجديدة
(ajmil at-tihānī bimunāsabah al-mīlād wa ḥilūl as-sanah al-jadīdah)
Armenian (Eastern) Շնորհավոր Ամանոր և Սուրբ Ծնունդ
(Shnorhavor Amanor yev Surb Tznund)
Armenian (Western) Շնորհաւոր Նոր Տարի եւ Սուրբ Ծնունդ:
(Shnorhavor Nor Daree yev Soorp Dzuhnoont)
Բարի կաղանդ և ամանոր (Paree gaghant yev amanor)
Aromanian Cărciun hărios şi ti mulţă-anji Anlu Nàù!
Asturian Bones Navidaes y Gayoleru añu nuevu!
Aymara Sooma Nawira-ra
Azerbaijani Yeni Iliniz Mübarək / Təzə iliniz yaxşı olsun (Happy New Year)
Basque Zorionak eta urte berri on
Belarusian З Божым нараджэннем (Z Bozym naradzenniem)
Шчаслівых Калядау (Szczaslivych Kaliadau)
З Новым годам i Калядамi (Z Novym godam i Kaliadami)
Bengali শুভ বড়দিন (shubho bôṛodin)
শুভ নববর্ষ (shubho nôbobôrsho)
Bhojpuri शुभ क्रिसमस और शुभ नव वर्ष (subh krismas auur subh nav varsh)
Regards from Joulupukki, the real one, the one that lives at Korvatunturi in Finland. For mail, this should do it; Joulupukki Korvatunturi 99999 Korvatunturi Finland
PS Regards from Heidi, fantastic Christmas - I felt myself a bit over dressed...
The pig has been in the oven for almost 5 hours - and still cooking. I'm facing midnight and still need to stay up until it is ready. Not that many degrees to heat up any more, now it is at 73 Celcius degrees and it should be between 75 and 80, depending on how we wish it to be.
Good thing is that part of the game is to enjoy chocolate, cookies and glög...
This is the first time I'm cooking the ham from start to finish - and happy to do it. Mom would be proud of me ;o) We went to say hi to her and lit a candle to warm her up on otherwise wet, gray and windy place. And same thing for my father, as well as all the others who are on top of our minds but not available for a visit or a phone call... It was still beautiful thanks to the hundreds of candles glowing in the dark.
Today is the longest night = shortest day of the year. In Helsinki, Southern Finland the sun got up at 09:24 am and went back to sleep at 15:13 pm. That makes the luxus day 5 hours and 48 minutes long. Up North in Lapland, the place where the real Santa Claus, Joulupukki, comes from the sun will rise again next year on Jan 17th.
In Utsjoki, the furthers place up there, the sun went asleep on November 26th so quite a night...
To finish off, here are some Finland facts for you, what do we close to 6 million people consume over the Christmas period;
1.500.000 liters of red wine
580.000 liters of Glögi, the sweet Glüehwein
7.000 extra overnight sleeping places in trains (that are traveling up North and back)
1.500.000 Christmas trees
Hyvää Joulun aikaa ja taikaa! 2 more nights to go before the Santa comes...
Little piggy, come here to eat and grow - Daddy's gonna eat you afterwards...
From piglet to Christmas ham in 6 months;
On Saturday Dec 3rd Helsingin Sanomat, THE main morning paper in Finland, had a story about a pig that they were monitoring from birth to meat. Of course the web version at hs.fi was shorter, so I should share some bits & pieces with you.
June 3rd the male piglet number 301 was born at Pöytyä, Finland
For the first two weeks, the piglet is fed with milk by the BIG mama pig that can weigh even 250 kilos
At the age of 2 weeks, the pig weighs 3-4 kilos and starts to get proper food, starting with fodder
When the pig is 4 weeks, he says bye-bye to mama pig and is separated also from the other sex. That is the male pigs and female pigs are grouped separately.
When the pig is 3 months old, it is already 40 kilos and picks up almost one kilo per day
The doom day for the pig number 301 was November 21st, while the weight was already 126 kilos.
On November 22nd the pig had transformed from a pig into meat, that was getting ready to be eaten around the world: Majority - including a Christmas ham - in Finland, ribs in USA, front claws - etusorkat - in Malesia where they are treated as a delicasy.
On December 24th somewhere in Finland the ham offered by the pig number 301 will be the centre point of a Cristmas meal
If you don't like the facts above, perhaps you should change the habit what you eat. At 2010 we Finns ate 71,9 kilos of meat per capita. Out of that, 34,8 kilos was pork = pig, 18,5 kilos chicken etc birds and 18,6 was from cows/bulls.
Is here in place the old saying "you are what you eat"?!? Here is a Finnish tribute song for a Christmas ham.
Luckily the singer, late Juice Leskinen was a handsome one.
Back to the pigs.
My mother used to stay up - or wake up when needed - to make sure the ham was properly cooked. A big one, in this case one around 10 kilos, took easily more than 12 hours. Nowadays we've had a smaller one for our family, even for a bit extended one, but still it takes hours to cook it and I have practiced it now for a couple of times. More I've been involved with putting the jacket on the ham, also a sort of an art that I am happy to practice more.
Since Mom is not around. And I miss her, of course more at this type of times where I have so strong memories connected! Joo, Äitiä ikävä...
My Mom loved the singer of this song, Vesa-Matti Loiri - who is not on top of my favorite list as a singer. Great artists and a sportsman in many areas. Another on in Finnish, enjoy.
5 nights to go before some kilos of pig's bum is on our table. Hyvää Joulun odotusta!!!
Christmas is right around the corner, 6 more nights to go. And 7 for the ones who need to wait for it until 25th.
When I was a kid, we had a tradition to decorate the Christmas tree only on the morning of the 24th, not before. We got the tree the day before from the salesmen nearby and got it indoors to melt down - as most of the time we had snow. In our family, we have together with my wife created the tradition so that we get the tree and decorate it some days before Christmas. Today was the day - and now we can enjoy it longer.
Let's be honest, we also need all the help we can to cheer us up, it feels the sun is not coming up at all and it is raining sideways. This has been the horror image I was NOT missing while we were in Brussels. There the days are at least a bit longer...
Yeah, down side is that the winter lasts normally 2 days, 1 day at a time during the "winter season". On a good day it feels like spring, while on a bad day it is a looong grey fall day.
We had a busy day, starting with an early wake-up call to watch a football (soccer) game at 8 am. Again enjoyable moments - naturally as my son was playing - and they got a tight 1-0 win. OK, they should have scored few more goals from the places they had, but no.
After a short Sunday siesta it was time run some errands - with also a tree in mind. The options are to buy a tree from one of the pop-up sales spots around the corner, or from one of the bigger stores. I chose the second option as it had been raining a lot and I didn't want to get a wet-wet-wet tree indoors. It didn't harm that to my knowledge the price was also lower in the store.
We've had traditionally the standard tree, forest spruce - metsäkuusi. During our Belgium years we got used to the Abies Normanniana, somewhat Caucasian tree with longer, thicker and softer needles. The good thing with them is that they don't drop the needles that easily. The down side is that they don't smell as good as the forest spurce...
The standart spurce costs from about 15 Euros up to I guess 50, while the Caucasian ones are from 25ish to 60. I love the plastic net that they nowadays use all over to wrap the tree for the transportation. Veeeeery handy!
Well, this year our tree looks like this - every year a bit different as we have shitloads of decorations. Too much someone would say. And actually has said.
Sorry about the pic quality - it was easiest to use the phone camera as it is smoothly connected via bluetooth to the laptop I use to write this. No wires - no worries (I wish)...
Come on Christmas, we will be ready to take you - snow or not, we'll just put up more candles and outdoor fire! Hyvää Joulun odotusta!!!
I have few friends who suffer from a horrible hangover. I do not envy them!
For the ones who wonder what that is, I can tell from hear-say it is a physical and mental feeling one has got - usually - the next day after having plenty of alcohol.
Now the story tells that an American non-scientist has found a formula that should cure it in 15 minutes. Apparently he has had a need to cure himself several times, as he has none formal medical background. Somehow he has managed to get a partner to bring the product to the market in US and it is expected to hit Europe next year.
Story in Finnish is in local online tabloid Iltasanomat. I bet you can get the most of it - if in need for a cure.
Toisin sanoen Ameriikan ihmemaassa on joku amatöörijuoppo kokeilujen kautta löytänyt lääkkeen, jonka pitäisi poistaa kankkunen 15 minuttissa. Eurooppaan mömmö on odotettavissa ensi vuonna.
94 years ago Finland got independent from Russia. After that we've had some a few times arguments with the eastern neighbor. Every independence day the national broadcasting company shows the old school black-and-white movie "Tuntematon Sotilas" - "Unknown Soldier" from 1955. It is about the second world war in Finland, the contingency war we had on the Eastern frontier.
To get to the mood, check out from Youtube the Finlandia by Sibelius...
Tonight is also the traditional President's reception with somewhat 2.000 guests = hands to shake by the president. It's been a fun event to check out the outfits, one more horrible that the other - and some positive ones too.
I've not been invited yet, so I need to comment it by hear-say and media experience, but the dancing is not something I'd be looking for.
The ones who wish to watch it online - like we did during the Brussels years - visit here. There are also pages with about this year's events in Finnish in here, for images later on 18:30 Finnish time (CET +1 hour), check out the "Kuvagalleria"-section.
Toisin sanoen, jos haluat seurata Linnan Juhlat 2011 online internet-lähetyksenä, se onnistuu YLE Areenalta 18:30 Suomen aikaa. Tietoja päivän muista tapahtumista löytyy täältä.
Happy Independence Day of Finland -
Hyvää Itsenäisyyspäivää!!!
PS I almost forgot that today is also Saint Nicholas day. In Belgium today is the main present day of the year, Christmas has come along only afterwards and nowadays kids have two opportunities for presents...
The Flying Finns is a mythe that has got some background - I'd say we have earned the sayings;
"If you wanna win, hire a Finn!" said one ralley guru once.
Teemu Selänne of the Anaheim Ducks is called the Finnish Flash etc.
Hmmm, the Finnish track and field athletic club in Brussels is called Flying Finns, but I guess it has got nothing to do with the topic ;o)
But I would say this one from Formula One podium tells a lot;
I am sure this brings smiles on certain faces particularly in Brussels, Roma, Amsterdam, and Paris...
If you have some doubts about picture manipulation, check out this news clip from HS.fi.
PS 21 nights before The Santa comes! PPS I can see the old friend from the past, the sun. Cold -1C but beautiful day...
