The royal wedding was HOT - and the competition is on!

Many of us estimated the royal wedding would be hot and historical. Well, I guess the historical approach was not the one we can see below...

But I bet you didn't have a clue it was THIS hot...!

C'mon - look at the young flower girl, she has no idea what's happening but even she can't handle what's going on... I have said earlier that Prince D in Sweden is The Man but apparently these guys have the bet about who gets the hottest pic published.

School reunions -- nightmare or a night of BIG fun?

This weekend we had a high school reunion. Yep: high school, not class or a year, but I'd rather call this one a school reunion as it was not limited to one particular graduation year as such events usually are. It had as a label "our high school 1986-88", which with an open mind as mine means that anyone interested who was in the high school during those 3 years - or close to it - is invited!

On the other hand...
When getting ready or going to the scene, we are likely to face totally different reactions vs what we have experienced before. Most of the "normal" people think that they are likely to meet many great people and have much fun.

However, some guys are at the same time thinking "what if I won't recognize my class mates and I'll make a fool of myself...".

C'mon man / gal, that is expected to happen as so many have changed a lot. Then again, some look exactly the same - just a bit more wrinkled.

Organizing such an event
Many have doubts about weather they should or not organize a reunion. Is it too much work? Will anyone turn up? Do I need to coordinate it all? How do I find all the people? Who to invite or who not to?

Dear friends, use your common sense: yes, it is easy if you make it easy. People will definitely show up if it's smooth and unformal enough enough. In today's Facebook / LinkedIn world people are connected. Word gets around...!

Don't wait, do it!!!

PS Many thanks to the guys who took the effort to organize the party! If I understood correctly, it truly was as smooth as I said above. It was fantastic to meet people I had not seen since high school - some being exactly like they were back then.  It was a fun night and time went by fast!

People seemed to be happy with their lives - and that is veeeery good! Thinking of the divorce rates, I'm happy to say the statistics were not supported in that group as majority was still in their first marriage. Just like I am...

What a fantastic ice hockey game!!!

Fantastic game, both teams played with BIG heart and gave it all they had.

Sweden had a great 1-0 goal made by Mr Pääjärvi who has got some Finnish roots.

Finland came to 1-1 only few seconds before the end of 2nd round.

In 3rd round Finland stroke 2 goals in 46 seconds into 3-1. Thats something you don't see too often against Sweden.

Swedes don't give up, instead they play - as always - hard until the end. Except...

Finland stikes 4-1 and 5-1 goals at 3 minutes before the end within seconds.

6-1 a bit over a minute later. Just beautiful.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

FINLAND is the new ice hockey World Champion!

HYVÄ SUOMI!!!

Congratulations!!!

Grattis!!!

Onnea!!!

Press info and pics from YLE

Go Eurovision-Finland!!!

Guys, I can take my hat off to most of the countries for the effort and for some even for the musical performance - not that I understand the stuff - but on the other hand I'm on the same starting point as majotiry of the spectators.

That means if I think - or if you wish to say so "stink" in a funny dialect - Finland is good, it means in average someone else also thinks the same.

Having just listened to Italy and United Kingdom songs that made it directly to the finals, I can only congratulate the professional song writers but sorry mate / bella, it's not enough for me. Let's see if I'm alone with my thought!

The States of America & Eurovision

It was North Dakota!

I've been wondering what is the missing state from the flag counter as I've had there only 50 out of the 51 available.

On 11th May someone from North Dakota came for a visit so now the list is complete all the way from Alaska, via Hawaii and New York to Florida.

You can check it out by clicking the flag counter on the left side and then "COUNTRIES". By clicking the "+"-mark next to US flag you get visible a list of all 51 states and flags available. Now they are all there. UGH!

Eurovision song contest final is tonight!

Tonight is the night of tops and flops. And from experience I could say mainly flops as in average the Eurovision song contest performances are more show and comedy than music performance that can be considered art.

Once Finland has been successful and won the contest with a bit unusual song performed by Lordi. The video is worth watching - and I guess it is not a surprise to many of you that pioneer of masks KISS was Mr Lordi's favorite in youth.

I said earlier that I was quite sceptic about the guy representing Finland, but that changed when I saw his performance. Pretty good, unique performance that stands out from the majority of the songs.

What is unlucky for him is that he is # 1 so he starts the evening. If he would come up after 10-15 tättärättätättärättä-songs the effect would be even stronger. Lets hope for the best - and don't forget to follow the lyrics, there is a story...

So Eurovision final is on tonight but tomorrow is the ice hockey final in the World Championships, Finland is playing dear Sweden. I am really looking for the game!

Hyvä Suomi!!!

19 years of HOT world class player: Mikael Granlund from Finland

Ladys, Gentlemen and Playboys,

May I introduce a-m-a-z-i-n-g...
a) THE next hot hockey player coming to NHL
b) THE most fantastic goal of the season, made in a hot spot that in this case is semifinals of ice hockey World Championships

Here you are, Mikael Grandlund from Finland;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJrZEo-__r0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3g1x8CC4GE

Just before this round the same guy said in TV interview "this is just hockey!"...

PS Who is Ovechkin?

What's going on with Blogspot...?

I posted here a blog post about ice hockey and Eurovision. Today I tried to log into the mastering site and it was "not available" and at the same time this second last posting was visible.

The key question is:
Where the heck is the text I wrote and posted???

Dear Mr Google,
We still have one BIG issue to settle and I must say you have taken an extremely passive role = you are not interested at all on your customers when something goes the way you don't like!

I start to feel like Mr Google sucks! I hope I'm wrong but so far my feeling is that. And if this post or the blog is blocked some day I guess there is a connection. I still don't know what went wrong - despite of asking and challenging Mr Google - why the try of posting few ads on the page was blocked by Mr Google.

I know I'm not in the key target group of Mr Google - or am I - but I've understood that Mr Google wants to be the master of all web. There is a million and one ways to serve web needs, but a fact is that there should be customer attitude and service on top. Otherwise there is nothing!

Get your act together Mr Google!!!

PS Finland is playing Russia in the semifinals of the ice hockey World Championships, c'mon Finland - Hyvä Suomi!!!

======

Later on = written afterwards;

The same night I had written this post, both this post I had posted on Thu came back online (first I thought it was on Wed but it was on Thu), but in addition the two ones I had saved as drafts including something you might be interested in.

I was afraid I had lost also the North Dakota -stuff...

And those are not ice hockey...

Ice hockey & Eurovision is on!

Tonight is the night for both Eurovision and ice hockey World Championships. In both events it is not day 1 of the games;
In ice hockey is the quarter finals where yesterday Czech Republic sent team USA home and our neighbors Sweden did the same for Germany. Tonight Finland is against another neighbor Norway, that has performed quite well in the games but – sorry to say – tonight it ends for them. Finland will win 7-2. Game is on...!

Just like Finland scored big time on Tuesday night in Eurovision semifinals: the young guy who I was about to send directly home had quite a show – totally opposite to majority of the songs – and won the hearts of people and earned well a place in the final on Saturday. He is actually the first one to sing so don’t be late!

If you wanna check out the song, here you go! And don't forget to follow the story he is telling...

Hyvä Suomi!!!

Hyvää Äitienpäivää - Happy Mother's Day!

Today is the day when we should show more than average respect for our mothers. Those of you who's mothers are still among us, do not only plan things or leave them for "tomorrow" but do them today. You never know what tomorrow brings along - it can be a sad surprise.

Grasp the moment, pick up the phone and call the people you care. Get your ass off the chair, leave the computer and jump on your bicycle, car, bus, train or whatever and go to meet them in person. Now, not tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day - Hyvää Äitienpäivää!

The sports weekend continues with success: yesterday team Finland was struggling in the ice hockey World Championships against the hosting team Slovakia but succeeded to take a 2-1 win. That left Slovakia into even more difficult situation in the games. But for Finland it was a matter of life and death - luckily only in the sports as we always should remember what is important in the big picture.

We got a good reminder of that in yesterday's basketball game: In a standard situation where two players were fighting for the ball the both fell down. As both of them were competitive, they refused to give the ball to the other and held to it while falling. We hear a loud bang when a head hit the wooden floor and the other player lost his consciousness.

He was out for only a short moment but the hit was so hard it was wise to call the paramedics and off he went to the hospital for check up. Luckily after neurological tests everything appeared to be ok. Close call as one incident can change everything...

So get you ass of the chair and go! You can finish reading this later on.

Oh, you wanna know what happened in the game?

At least someone was smiling as winning is in average more fun than losing.

And soon I wish to see success in the more imporant game:

Go N, kick ass and take what is ment to be yours - Hyvä Honka!!!

I love sports! And many other things too...

Wappu came and went, had too much fun to write to you - or in other moments enjoyed the relaxing moments just chilling. Good fun, good company, good food (both "small" and BIG BBQ grill were in use), good drinks, good time... Many thanks to all who contributed to the fun!

Then the sports; This is a fantastic sportsweekend!

Unfortunately I was not able to start it yesterday with my own sport, basketball pick-up games with the team that I will be playing in the local veterans league final today. I've been half conditioned with a bit of flue so had to skip it. Hope today will continue towards the recovery direction and a strong contribution to the game.

As I love to...

• play sports and challenge myself physically
• watch all sports, particularly my kids playing
• cheer them or other teams I support
• spend time with my family
• spend time with other players, supporters, parents etc "good" people

...this weekend is spectaculous!

Straight from the work I went to watch my son's first football (soccer) game of the summer season. They play in a league of 1 year older players, and not the easiest one but a semi tough one. Guys played fairly ok to their own level but moved the ball too slowly and in the defense they were a bit too passive.

Resultwise they were hammered but still I loved to watch the game and through my father-glasses my son held his own on the field. Of course many things to improve but he can keep his head up and go smiling to the next game. Just like all other guys.

From the sunny but cold football pitch we all - that is the family - rushed to watch my daughter's semifinal game in the basketball league she playes in. The girls started (again) a bit slowly and gave some handicap to the enemy but stayed well in the game.

After leading 2-0 they had been more or less 10-15 points behind until the 4th quarter. With about 7 minutes in the clock, penetration to the basket and a nice lay-up: our girls took the lead by my daughter's basket and one proud father was all smile ;o) As a side note if most of the others have played already for 7-9 years, this is her second full season so she is not a point machine... However, the defense work is something that many should take lessions from! Loved to watch it!

After a fantastic, best pizza in town and a good night sleep, comes Saturday and my veteran league final. Let's see how it goes.

Tomorrow Sunday is the final for my daughter and I guess I'm absolutely more nervous than she is.

When you add on top the ice hockey World Championships that are being played in Slovakia. Finland played today Germany and barely won at the shoot out. Tonight Finland playes hosting team Slovakia that has underperfomed so far. That means we can expect a LOUD AUDIENCE in the arena. If Finland can hold their own for the first 10 minutes and the full period, it will build pressure for the Slovakian team and set a good path for a win.

HYVÄ SUOMI!!!

Let's see if I will watch the game in a bar as we have the season ending event after our game.

All this - and I get to spend much of the time with people I either love or enjoy being with, not bad at all!

Have a fantastic weekend you all!!!