Eisbein lovers live happier!

Guten Tag!

Ich liebe Eisbein. Yes, I love it. Siis rakastan sian jalasta tehtyä herkkua. The best Eisbein in Helsinki you can get at a genuine German restaurant Zinnkeller, that has been here for tens of years and ran by a true German gentleman,Wolfgang W.

Most of the time I eat there - which is not too often - I order Eisbein. The other option is german sausages and meat in various forms. But the Eisbein, that's the thing! You can get it cooked in about 0,5 hours, but if you order it 1-2 days in advance, they prepare it even better.

One word of warning though;
In case you are extremely sensitive to the visual part of the meal, think again before ordering.

More about Eisbein from Wikipedia here - tai täältä. How to cook it? Check from here.

Guten Appetit!

PS The Blues is out of the play-offs. Still, now I'll put on my Blues hat, pipo, and go for a walk on ice. The sea is still frozen in many places...

Still at winter mode

The winter is still here - and that is quite normal, it is only early March anyways... We have close to 50 cm of snow and at the moment close to -10C outside. Niiiice and cool. We even got few cm of fresh snow yesterday so it's quite pretty.

It was not that pretty in all places yesterday morning, as the dirty road sides are part of the season-ending-package.

My ice hockey team the Blues of Espoo has had a bit weak end of the season. They have 2 games to go and they need help from other teams to make it to the play offs. Now it looks bad as they are losing 0-3 to the jumbo team at the end of 2nd round - damn! Still, it's possible so let's keep the faith and never give up!!!

C'mon Blues!!!

Tour de Estonia

Instead of the traditional ski trip for the winter break we decided to do something else - Tour de Estonia!

Five days, four nights in different places, spa treatments, sports, shopping, good food, sightseeing, fun time together. What else one would need? After a few gourmet spa days we decided to do a bit of extreme travel for the end of the trip;
Imagine a traditional saloon at the preeria, horses outside, lady serving beer and juicy local food, music corner, giant fireplace, few rooms upstairs for the travellers. Get the pic...?

Transfer that into today's Estonia in the middle of nowhere, add wifi, Tuesday night = staff leaves early and the house is solely for us.

That's where we were!

But hey, they have TVs in the rooms, all 10 inches and 5 channels of them!

Palvelua kiitos - Service please!

Here is an article I came again across with. Question is "can you get good old fashioned service" nowadays? I say you can, but it is rare. We must remember that in many cases a great service must be earned, good should be a standard. Just think about it for a second.

If you are in customer service situation, on or off work. Yep, off work also as you might need to cooperate, give & take with neighbors, friends, school mom/dads etc. It is standard that you are - or should be - polight. When someone for example asks for a ride that is a bit of extra hassle for you, do you make up a laim excuse or is the other party nice/enjoyable or in a good give&take position that you are happy to go for the extra mile.

In some situations you might get the extra little bit by being angry and demanding customer, but do you think it builds up a long relationship that serves you the great service next time?

http://www.taloussanomat.fi/markkinointi/2013/01/25/palvelusta-tuli-simputusta/20131247/135?rss=13

Palvelua kiitos - it's not all about the price...!

These were served on the table - and price was good. Bookstore cafe "Cookbook" at Tartu, 2nd floor of the Tasku shopping centre across the road from Kaubamaja. Fabulous cakes & coffee!

Winter art

Good evening,

Apologies for the crappy quality of my phone's camera. I guess I'd need to change it - as soon as it breaks down... Here is some winter art for you.

The puikko

Los puikkos

The Jaws

May I introduce: Marge Winter Simpson

Remember, it's always good time for bbq!

Have a great weekend you all!!!

Tervetuloa takaisin lomalta, ahkerat kansanedustajat!

Tänään loppui kansanedustajien "loma". Edellinen istuntokausi - siis se, missä he tekevät yhdessä niitä töitä, joihin me olemme heidät valinneet - päättyi ennen joulua ja tänään alkoi kevätistuntokausi. Jotkut heistä ovat tehneet töitä enemmän kuin toiset tässä välillä, joillain ei ole juurikaan ollut lomaa.

Vai onko?

Ministereillä on ollut omat sitoumuksensa, mutta harvalla heistä on ollut todellisia velvoitteita. Keskustalaiset ovat käyneet tupailloissaan ja demarit kiertäneet kenttää. Jotkut persut ovat toteuttaneet itseään perisuomalaisissa baari-illoissa tai puhumalla elämää suurempia, vasemmistolaiset ovat punoneet juoniaan, vihreät halanneet puita ja koksut hioneet talvi-svingiään. Tai sit ei.

Ylen Teema-kanavalla on juuri alkanut dokkari Suomi-iskelmästä. Suosittelen!

Come-back after 25 years - Just ski it!

This process has lasted for at least 3 years, that is the 4th winter in a row. Ever since we came back to Finland from Brussels, I've been more and more thinking - at winter times - what if I'd get myself cross country skis and get back in that Finnish pain-in-the-bum skiing.

The last time I was on cross-country skis was almost 25 years ago (to be exact, few weeks from that). It was in the army and I remember the skis very well: Karhu No Ski.

You have your army winter rubber boots on, the ones with ~0,5cm thick foam boot inside, and as I was in the navy, it was not a key thing to survive on skis. Lucky us.

Before the real thing we had the practice on the training court with line-up etc. A bit like this - and remember, the snow is not a must in the army, it just makes things easier.

Then we headed to the sea - we were in the navy anyways. Winter, finland, cold, ice - get the picture? If you didn't get it, the sea is frozen most winters. So frozen you can drive a car on it. So the sea ice it is. There are no tracks made so part of the training was to make it. If you were the first in line, you cleared the path for the rest in a 20-30cm thick snow. Tough job to be the first. Same thing if you were the last: As it was not an extremely cold winter, between the snow and the ice was a layer of waterly slid. That made it for the last ones a bit tough to ski, particularly at the break. If you didn't keep your skis moving during the break, the slid froze at the bottom of the ski = impossible to ski after that. Shit happens...

Today the stars we in a right position. No other priorities or reasons to do something else, I was at the opening hour 10 am at Oittaa, Espoo to rent skis.

Well, little people are little people and as we have so many of them around, I had to settle for boots too tight. Damn Fischer, they told you make shoes bigger than # 48, but why the heck they had none in the shop...?

With no other options, I took the skating boots and skis to go with them and headed to the lake. Yep, again on the ice, but this time on a made track. "Skating?" someone is wondering now. There are two types of skis, skating and the traditional ones. If you wanna know more, CFG.

~7 km in ~45 mins without the skills, I didn't fall down a single time (it was close several times) and I sweated like in a sauna. Fantastic work-out, that I most likely will repeat! I guess it would be best to get my own skis - and particularly boots ;o) I gotta say the nature was fabulastic too!!!

While I am writing this, I am looking at a rabbit at our front yard, 5 meters from the window. It's the local guy that has been around quite often - several times at the car headlights... It's not eating our apple tree so there is no need to kick his (or is this mrs, don't know...) bum out of our yard. Neither there is a need to get him in the oven as I am full from the best pizza in town and for tomorrow a fabulastic meat dish will go in the oven in a bit. For 12 hours, wow!!!

Let's ski!!!

Positive New Year 2013 - Positiivinen Uusi Vuosi 2013!

I want to wish all of you a joyful, happy, successful etc year 2013!

Kaikille menestyksekästä, onnellista, hauskaa, loistavaa jne vuotta 2013!

...I guess I will continue entertaining you again this year. Stay tuned.

I've been watching the X-Factor USA, which runs in Finland few weeks behind the live shows. We saw tonight the final shows and the result show is only on Friday. That means please do not tell me the result - not that I would care that much...

There has been one song that blew me away, I simply loved it hence I will share it with you. The Beatles song performed by the Emblem3. Too bad they dropped out but let's enjoy this one - it gives a great positive twist to start the year!

This one is a version with a longer introduction and sound check.

...and here a recap without the extra blaablaa...

Have a fabulastic year 2013!

It is not THAT serious - stink positive!

C'mon Finns, chill out - it is not so serious that you would have to kill yourself! The only thing that serious would be that you would have killed someone else - which then requires you to take responsibility and stand up for your acts. A chicken would kill him(her)self.

Finnish main magazine www.hs.fi tells that the level of Finns making suicide has dropped to the level of 1960's, which is good. The bad thing is that we are still multiple vs other Nordic countries. Another one is if at 1960's all suicides were registered as such - you know the world was a bit different back then.

Oh boy, please focus on the positive things and let the bad ones come & go without major harm. There is something good in everything!

Joo, hyvä homma, että itsemurhien määrä on pudonnut 1960-luvun tasolle, mutta jokainen on liikaa. Hieman ryhtiä elämään, nukkukaa yön yli - ei se niiiin vakavaa ole!

Stink positive, people!

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain... NOT!

Yesterday morning we woke up with a nice -15 C and a sun shine. During the day the temp climbed up to -1 by late evening and today we started with a sad +3 C. I hate the slid - loskapaska! I have said many times that I rather take -20 C than +1 C (which means slid - loskapaska).

Now all the light snow packs up and becomes heavy, causing problems to the rooftops. I am glad that with few Euros I get the snow work outsourced to a person I'd give the money anyway: My son.

I just heard of a problem in my office, luckily the system is set so that it does not require my involvement...

Have a great day, I return to work task list!