Belgium - My kind of a country for a total freeze

The previous week Belgium had +15 C and many were taking out their summer clothes, getting ready for a nice beer at the terrace bars. Few days later the shit - or snow - hit the fan and served 5-15 cm of snow. For a country that collapses from 2 cm this is a disaster as they are not equipped nore skilled to handle it.

AND THE POOR GUYS GOT FRESH SNOW ALSO TODAY!

Sorry guys, the pic is not from today...

Some articles talked about 700 km of traffic jams, others about 1600 km and total freeze on the roads. Thinking of that, it is no surprise that also our kids' old school was closed. Damn, it was closed due to 2cm of snow at our first winter in Belgium - that gave us a nice laugh.

Why?
Well, we are today somewhere at # 125 of snowdays in a row. We got few some fresh snow last week also, just a bit though... Well, we are both equipped and skilled to manage it. It's fun to drive the car in the winter and with good snow on the roads: that gives me a chance to drive instead of just steering!

Another freeze in Belgium happens when ever they have a chance to go on strike - a bit like the French. Yes, of course there is often a good reason for the strike but still. Now one of the strikes has caused me a little bit of dislike as the new car that I was supposed to get beginning of March was first expected "sometime in April" and now the system shows as a production day 26th of April and as a delivery day June 1st. Let's see what happens...

• http://www.flanderstoday.eu/content/ford-genk-staff-return-work
• http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-18/ford-s-genk-plant-remains-shut-on-strikes-at-suppliers.html
• http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-23/ford-restarts-genk-production-after-parts-blockade-ends.html

I love winter!
Not Belgium.
Except the beer. And food. And some of the... people, shopping, restaurants, touristic opportunities, and...

PS I'll try to tell you soon about a winter day today.

Go Blues!

The summer vacation started today. Unfortunately. For the Blues.

Even if this game had no meaning for the Blues, I wanted to go there. Or particularly because of that to show support. The stats show somewhat 4900 spectators, which is pretty ok for the situation. I think a full house would be ~7800...

I'd say the best moment of the night was at the end of the game. The Blues of Espoo was 2-3 behind and hunting for a goal. With about 3 minutes to go, started to sing with a nice rythm "Espoo - Espoo - EspooEspooEspooooo..." This kept going without a break even the game had a break. Blues took away their goalie and played with six, singing continued, Kalpa scored in an empty goal, and the singing continued, game ended, teams shook hands, singing continued, the team came to thank the fans and audience, and the singing continued all the way until the team left the ice.

A break of few seconds to start with another rythmic support. Hats off to the Blues Fan Club!

I hope for next season the team will come back stronger - with stronger players mixed with players from Blues juniors. A Messi of our own would be nice...

Go Blues!

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!