The winter is not over!

If you have thought the winter is over, you are dead wrong. In the past few days we have had about 5 cm fresh snow and this morning we woke up with -15 C. And that was here at southern part of the country - up north they have -30 C and the same is expected for tonight...

Yesterday the snow was melting where the sun was shining, despite of about -10 C during the day so do not estimate the power of the spring sun. This pic was taken a week ago. The sea is frozen and this man here is ice fishing.

And if you wish to go swimming, that is perfectly fine - just bring your own towel. This place is used daily so it is real. There is a pump that keeps the water running so it stays open.

By the way, if you have not heard: I have enjoyed the winter all the time - and still do!!!

And the days are getting longer all the time; now the sun comes up at 6:35 am and goes down 6:24 pm. The day is already 11 hours 49 minutes long...

Do we have a good healthcare system?

Our daughter had a minor hand injury at basketball practice and we took her to a doctor to check nothing was broken. We could have used the public service - which in generic is considered to be good. Yes we have the system extremely good comparing to US but having experience from the Belgium system, I can say the public healthcare in Finland is nothing to write home about.

If you go to the emergency, you normally need to wait anything from about an hour up. Since we were talking about x-ray and sophisticated hand bones we decided to use the insurance and went to the private doctor.

Directly to a specialist doctor, x-ray, 2nd talk with the doctor and out via the cashier. From start to end it took about an hour and doctor's time was used for ~20 minutes.

Cheap?

Nooooo, x-ray 93 Euros and the doctor fee 75 Euros. The social security system covers 31 Euros from that, but the rest is up to you to take care of. Or the insurance like in our case.

Here is some more price info for you:
Taking a taxi at normal weekday around 5 pm is not a cheap trip - not to talk about night time. Actually taking a taxi in Finland is never cheap. Before the car starts, the meter shows 5.10 Euros and after 13 km trip, lasting 21 minutes, the total cost was 29.70 Euros. I do support deregulating the strictly limited taxi licence system - which of course all the taxi drivers are hanging on to.

At night time the cost example is 22 euros that a 5.3 km trip costs around midnight - including the 5.20 Euros we had to pay extra for the 8 minutes the driver was waiting for us. Naturally the option would have been to go out and wait for the taxi in the middle of the night in -5 C degrees... At night time the cost for starting the engine is 8 Euros.

But you can always call a taxi where you can sing karaoke!

However, I don't wish to go to the Swedish model where quality and wild competition can turn things upside down...

The quality is mixed and the competition can take the price extremely high like in Malmö train station. If you wish to get a ride for about 3 km trip, prepare to pay even 20 Euros - if they even take you for such a short trip.

So is our health care or taxi system good or not?
I really don't know...

Säämies Pekka Poudasta Eversti Pekka Majuriin

Eilisessä Hesarin Kuukausiliitteessä oli hyvä lista jo pitkään nauretuista nimien ja ammattien yhtenäisyyksistä. Joukosta löytyy uusia sekä tuttuja herkkuja. Säämies Pekka Pouta ja laulaja Arja Koriseva lienee kaikille tuttuja, mutta kenelle oli tuttuja veteraanijuoksija Vilho Loppukaarre tai urologi Martti Ala-Opas?

Klikkaamalla kuvaa näet sen suurennettuna.

Guys, this is about how the names and professions connect.
 These are Finnish ones that are difficult to translate, but what do you think about military priest called Pertti Hell who has also had international career. or ice sculpture artist Kimmo Frost If I try to translate some others, we have for example navy officer Mr Storm, gardener Plant and dentist Steelhammer...

How to avoid McTourism?

In case you want to avoid McDonalds-restaurants - or Burger King - while traveling, there are not that many options in Europe. However, surprisingly one new country has now joined the list: Iceland!

HS Kuukausiliite from today

Some years ago we were in Thailand an after Bangkok we went to Koh Samui -island (yep, I know Koh means iceland).  Great place, but the tourism is there. Real proof is having both McDonalds and Pizza Hut on the main street. Just to clarify, we didn't go - preferred more local ones at the back streets...

How to find a place without the burgermania? About a year ago Burger King pulled out from Iceland and now the last McDonalds has left the country.

While ecenomic downturn has destroyed the currency,even onion became extremely expensive. The McD lead in Iceland said that one could get a bottle of good whisky with the same money that you need to pay for a kilo of onion that they needed to import from Germany (Iceland is not the easiest place to grow veggies you know...).

If you wish to visit a non-burger kingdom, your options are Albania, Kosovo and Vatican. Story is that the Albanians have a Kolonat-chain, and their logo has got two yellow arches on red background...

Tallinn, Estonia - Worth a visit!

Before going further, my official congratulations to the Team USA for beating Finnish hockey team badly! You were better, full stop.

Then congratulations to the Finnish athletes who performed well, and particularly to the ones who won medals. Women's cross country relay team and individual 30 km bronzes, women's and men's ice hockey teams - yes, Finland recovered from the USA beating and won Slovakia in the bronze game. That one too the hard way by coming from 1-3 behind after 2nd round into 5-3 win!

Let the best team win the Olympic gold - USA with the hamburger stand or Canada with the cheerleaders!

Back to the main topic...

Since the kids had the ski holiday week, we decided to make a mini trip to Tallinn, capital of Estonia in the Baltics. The ferry takes only about 3,5 hours so it is a good way to take a quick break. Unfortunately I had too hectic in the office so couldn't make a longer trip...

Tallinn city centre is beautiful, particularly the old town that has been renovated after the Soviet Union time that ended 1991. Historical buildings, great restaurants, good shopping and in general great people.

I recommend to visit there as soon as possible, since in the outskirts of Tallin and in other places you can still see what the impact of the Soviet Union has been. Very interesting country that has developed a lot since it got back its independence.

Go there before it becomes another European city, beautiful one though - just like Prague!

...back to our trip...

While we stepped into the ferry terminal in Helsinki, we met the first friends and while stepping into the bar at the terminal we net the 2nd friends. Small country, even if we are about the same size as Italy! Italy just happens to have 11 times more people...

I was not bothered by the 1.5 hour ferry delay which was due to bad ice situation at the Gulf of Finland. We had a perfect plan to sit down in the bar and chill out.

What shocked me was something I am still after the years in Belgium not used to - the price of the alcohol;
I bought 2 half litre bottles of soda and 2 mini bottles (equals to a glass) of basic red wine, Gato Negro. The bill was 24 Euros, while the sodas were only 3 Euros a piece...

While enjoying this expensive red, I noticed I could buy from a wine store in Tallinn a 3 litre box of Spanish red wine for 8,20 Euros or a 0,75 liter bottle of Chardonnay for 2,5 Euros. The Gato Negro mini bottles were 9 Euros a piece...

More prices from the shop for the ones interested:

0,375 litre of Vodka is 6 Euros, and if you are a pro they also sell 12-packs of them...

24 pack of Lonkero, the gin based goodie on sale for 12 Euros, normally about 17, and beer around 12 Euros. As comparison, in Finland you can get a beer pack from 19 Euros up. But they are all the basic lager with 4,6% of alcohol - due to a foolish legislation.

For example, Lidl had earlier fantastic German beer in their selection but since the beer develops still in the can, it in some cases went over the legislation level of 4,7% and they had to pull the adds off the shops and destroy them. That hurts!

Onboard the ship the wine was 3,50 Euros and Spanish Cava, the sparkling wine 4,50 Euros. When I asked for a glass of water with the wine, he sold of a water bottle 1,90 Euros since a glass would have been the same. Just to remind you, in Finland the tap water is cleaner than bottled one...

If you wanted to get hammered, the bars had a 0,4 liter pint + 4 cl of Jägermeister for 6,50 Euros.

In the ferry shop a bottle of Pouilly-Fume, a great French white, was on sale 15,90 Euros so you still gotta pay for a good stuff...

During the trip we saw some can-can dancing, watched the traditional ship orchestra perform (better than average) and enjoyed the trubadur in the pub. Not bad at all, played also Jimi Hendrix.

One thing I gotta say as positive behaviour for the Estonian drivers:
They respect the pedestrians crossing the road at the zebra line, even the taxi drivers! I am ashamed to admit than in general Finns push the pedal on the right side when getting closer to the zebra-zone.

Same stupid behaviour is with the queues: most drivers make all they can not to let you come in front of them - behaving like it would be a big loss for them...

The streets in Tallin were not cleaned from the snow at all. You can see that it has been done at some point of the winter, but not recently. And the some of the sidewalks not at all. With that one points in to Finland, but the previous one goes 6-0 to Estonia (funny, I remember these number from the Olympics for some reason...).

All and all, I am happy with the trip, even if there is not much else to do onboard but to shop, sit in the bar or play the games. I barely won my son in a motorcycle game so order in the house is clear for now. Gotta admit though that in Playstation-type of driving games he passed me already at the age of 6, even if he does not play them too much.

Still, it is fun to play with him now and then. Even if he again kicked my but in the car game.

Go to Estonia!

Yep yep yep...

So, the game is already 5-0 after 12 minutes, but when it was 4-0 I decided to take the punishment and did walk around the house. It was cold.

WHAT?
I am sitting by the tv with the laptop on my lap - and it is 6-0. SHAME-SHAME-SHAME!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, it is quite cold to do such a distance on snow - but I deserved that after all that propaganda. I actually feel bad about this since before the game I was truly excited to watch the game - what here I am writing to you... After about 15 minutes we got the first true chance to score, but you can't expect too much. Even if one of the best goalies in the world Miikka Kiprusoff takes 4 goals from 7 shots...

PERKELE, now we need some Finnish sisu to play the rest of the game so that we can walk out from the game with out heads up!

US is playing well, but 6-0. Perhaps not the result to describe the skills difference, but the performance in the first round.

Shame-shame-shame...

PS Here is a proof of the walk

It's Hockey Time - going for one more medal!

Ladies and Playboys, Friends and Family, Sports friends and the rest,

Prepare yourselves for a fanf***ingtastic ice hockey game between Finland and USA, the good old America.

Firstly, I must thank you Americans as well as the Canadians who both have contributed to the skills of the stars in Team Finland. Yes, Teemu Selänne - Finnish Flash - was already a great player when he came to NHL and in his rookie season with Winnipeg Jets he won the best rookie award, Calder Memorial Trophyn after clearly breaking the NHL rookie award with 76 goals and 132 points. That is also the (shared) best goal score of Europeans in NHL. Nowadays he has scored most points ever in Anaheim Ducks, where he also won the Stanley Cup 2007 - after 15 years in NHL. He also just became the best ever scorer in the Olympics history...

What about Saku Koivu then? The captain of Montreal Canadians for many years. Unfortunately he got cancer but was able to beat it and came back - and is playing tonight in the Olympics. His younger brother Mikko is a forward for the Minnesota Wild and is the team's current captain, also a member of the Finnish team.

Then we have Niklas Hagman, Jere Lehtinen, Jarkko & Tuomo Ruutu, Toni Lydman, Valtteri Filppula, Olli Jokinen, Kimmo Timonen, Joni Pitkänen, Miikka Kiprusoff, Niklas Bäckström, Sami Salo, Antti Miettinen, Ville Peltonen, Niko Kapanen and many others who YOU DEAR AMERICANS have helped to develop what they are today!

So many thanks and apologies for kicking you guys out of the Olympic Final! No, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics semifinal ice hockey game has not yet started, it is in about an hour, but that is the unfortunate (or fortunate if you look at it from the Finnish perspective, like the women's Sweden - Finland bronze game yesterday) fact that will soon happen.

Oh, I hear some of you disagree but you are too shy to say it out loud? Click the "Comments"-field and say what you have in mind. I say we win ;o)

If for some strange reason you guys trick the game and win, I promise you to walk bare feet around our house the ~200 meters, about 600 feet. The Canadian friends - and Sara who also knows the snow life - know what that means. Cooooooooooold! And I promise to do that without any vodka.

SUOMI - SUOMI - SUOMI - SUOMI...!!!

Let the games begin!!!

No more medals

According to my previous estimation, Finland should not get any more medals in the Olympic games!

Earlier we got the silver from snowboarding and were as good as Kazakhstan. Today we tripled the amount into 3 by having strong team girl power: Women got bronze both in 4x5 km cross-country relay as well as in Ice Hockey.

Congratulations to both!!!

Try clicking the first red&white video-logo & text "Naisten jääkiekko....FIN-SWE: 3-2..." for an interesting finishing of the winning goal on this page.

At the same time I must apologize Swedish friends since it has been a dark day for the hockey fans. Morning started by men's team being dropped out by Slovakia and just now Finnish team left the Swedish team on 4th place. However, in both games Sweden put up a good fight!

Also in Curling Sweden was doing well against China, it seems they made it to the Final against Canada!

Back to the Ice Hockey;
I am afraid that the Finnish Ice Hockey team will perform well and take a medal so my estimation becomes low. Also there is a small chance that Hannu Manninen, Finnish athlete in the Nordic Combined can hold his own in the skiing. He is in fairly good position after the ski jump but you never know...

Then we still have the figure skating, a sport that is always enjoyable to watch.

For women's ice hockey final I wish more luck to Canada - even if it does not matter that much to me who wins. Also USA would deserve to win, but if nothing else then to balance USA - Canada writing (I just wrote about American burger dream McDonalds ;o) )

Enjoy the games!!!

It was McDonalds in disguise...!

Yep, the answer to my previous question was McDonalds. They have faked the Niittykumpu restaurant at Espoo, Finland as a healthy, fancy looking place. The food is still the same but you can enjoy the environment better.

Eli vastaus aiempaan kysymykseen on McDonalds Niittykumpu Espoossa, joka on naamioitu viihtyisämmäksi ja terveemmän oloiseksi.

Can you see the M-sign in the middle of this pic, behind the biiig pile of snow?Hidden, just like the M in the middle of the green apples in the previous post.

Näkyykö Mc-merkki lumikasan takaa? Piilossa, aivan kuin M-kirjain edellisen postin vihreiden omenoiden keskellä.

 

It was surprising how fast two of the 15-packs of nuggets vanished, but luckily I didn't have to eat them by myself...
Thank you for the multiple replies, I guess you are just too shy to talk ;o)

Kaksi 15 kananuggetin pakkaa hävisi aika vauhdilla - mutta oli minulla apurit syömässä niitä.
Kiitos vastauksista, taidatte olla vain liian ujoja puhumaan ;o) Anonymouskin taisi juuri menettää purilaisaterian kun en voi millään tietää kuka on...

Which restaurant - Mistä ravintolasta?

Can you figure out from which restaurant these pictures are from?

Mistä ravintolasta nämä kuvat on otettu?

If you do - or can guess, click "Comments" at the end of the text. 

Eli klikkaa "Comments" jos keksit tai arvaat!