Kesälomat

So, the time is nigh....summer holidays here I come! Heading to Scotland (sunny Glasgow) on Friday, Juhannusaatto, for a wee stint at "home"!

I am, however, working for the first week in Scotland; mostly with the Scottish Enterprise and a joint international study we've been doing with them, amongst other things.

My wisdom tooth has once again got infected so I will hopefully be getting that extracted next week by Andrew. This morning was reasonably amusing, I had to go to Hatanpää (the public emergency hospital in Tampere) to visit the dentist (Hammaslääkari). She asked in Finnish whether I understood and I told her some and she took that to mean ALL, blatantly, but it was fine, I managed to understand her in the end, I was quite impressed with myself! :D

She took one quick look in my mouth and just prescribed antibiotics. Result.

However, on leaving the hospital building I got a wee bit disoriented and couldn't find the bus stop...so I wandered around for a while, stumbling upon some buildings and a part of the hospital which I later ascertained was the mental institute! That explains the screams I could hear from the buildings, fear! I must say though, the patients have a very nice view, right on the banks of Pyhäjärvi!

Well, 1 day left in the office and then I'm offski! I anticipate missing Finland though whilst I'm away (that is, a sunny Finland, to be more accurate!) and all the wonderful Finnish customs!

Hauskaa kesää kaikille!

Hermia Kesäpäivä in Evo

25 of us from work headed to Evo, a national park area near Hämeenlinna in Finland, for our company summer day. An early start, the bus left at 8am, but everyone was in high spirits! It was sunny, warm and it boded well :) 1.5hrs later we arrived for breakfast, including the obligatory coffee (kahvia) and got our brains in gear for some strategising, values and group work before lunch!

After lunch it was time to hit the outdoors! We split into two groups to head into the forest in search of beaver lodges, 1 group walked there and the other went in canoes (later we would swap means of transport for the return journey!). We certainly found the beaver lodges but the creatures themselves were far more elusive (sadly), it seems they come out and work most at night! Most of us were suffering from the evil Finnish mosquitos at this point, that is, those of us who didn't use any of Kirsi's 10year-old shoe polish-resembling Scout mosquito repellent!! Just as a point of reference, Finnish mosquitos are much larger than the typical Scottish midge and they just love your blood....bastards!

On reaching our mid-forest clearing we had some games and activities to do all together. There was frisbee golf, archery (a lot of fun but I have now got such a nasty purple bruise on my arm...it's really hideous!), measuring the height of trees (geometry at its best!) etc! Our team did pretty well (there was me, Harri, Vito and Timo) and came 3rd overall!

Then we had some snacks and the drinking began ;) We headed back to Evo-centre in great anticipation of our savusauna (smoke sauna) and the chance to swim in the lake for the first time this year (properly i mean, where there is no hole in the ice!) and it was AWESOME! so refreshing after a somewhat sweaty trek and believe it or not, the water was pretty warm (someone said 16degrees but I think more like 20!) gorgeous! After the smoke sauna there was the regular sauna and some swimming and messing around in the other lake, whose water was even more pleasant!

Then it was dinner time, which was lovely (from what I can remember ;)) no really, we had a very entertaining discussion (me, Vito, Jenni, Matti, Tiia and Sanna) about Finnish v Italian girls etc etc! the wine and good humour was flowing and soon it was time to head back to Tampere in the bus...which was equally entertaining, including much singing (in Finnish and Italian) and banter!

Some folks bailed out in Hervanta and others (including myself) headed into the city centre and onto the boat which is a pub, on the lake!

All in all, it was SUCH a fun day! I love the Finnish summer, way of life and culture! It was just so nice to hang out with the folks from the office in different surroundings...you guys rule! Ich hab euch Lieb!

Mänttä

We spent our work team day in Mänttä (about 1hour north east of Tampere) last week, in a lovely cottage on the side of a lake. It was so peaceful; very conducive to working, strategising and of course relaxing! In the afternoon we went on a quad bike safari through the forest and at one point, through the lake, it was sooo neat! The quads were 3000cc so pretty fast and on one straight stretch (an old air strip) we got to test what they were really capable of! Need for speed!!