Piling snow up high

For a long, long time many things have been prioritized in my life before this Blog of mine, but I have often during this time thought about what I wanted to blog about. I have had many ideas but never actually sat down to write anything.

Sometime ago, last spring I think it was, I even thought I would be back, but then never got round to it. But as so many people still seem to visit here, I made a resolution to myself, to blog at least once a month about something, anything. And maybe in time, as I did from the beginning, I might get caught in the wind and do it more often.

Anyway, yesterday, actually…I found myself once again wondering about the meaning of things. This year we have had exceptionally more snow than usual, I mean now during the time I have lived in Finland. And very cold weather for a very long period. Snow arrived earlier than any other year, way before Xmas last year and has stayed with us since. So getting to the point now, as more snow falls down from the sky, more snow piles up. Well, this has of course to be cleaned away but still the snow tends to pile up without us noticing it with sometimes inches of ice below our feet on top of the pavement and asphalt.

The snow that gets cleaned away from streets and pavements has to be dumped somewhere and this seems to be big trouble. Cities have special snow dumps and I know that the city of Helsinki for instance dumps lots of their snow in the sea. I am not here going tell you my opinion about this, you might read it in between the lines, and this was not really my point, but slowly trying to target in on it.

Yesterday, as I said, they had two big wheel loaders scraping off all the ice both our back and front yard. There were inches and inches of thick ice and they scraped it all off the asphalt so the surface of it was visible for the moment it took for it to get covered by the new snow falling on top of it and covering it.

Now to the point, the removed snow and ice was piled up on outside the asphalt. They actually went on all day with it. Big, huge 4 to 5 meters high piles with ice and they had to be dumped somewhere, but that is on the lawn where they dumped it. And where the bushes and shrubs are in the summertime and big piles of ice take months to melt. Loads of snow to melt an turn into water, watering the lawn that gets all soggy and wets it up, never dries up and smells like it does in the spring and to the enjoyment of us all, what in the winter is covered in snow well be coming out in thaw in the spring and we all know what that is, what a joy to look forward to. The smell.

Presumed consent

On August 1^st 2010 Finland got a new legislation concerning organ donation.

Earlier you always needed expressed consent of the deceased in order to use organs in transplantations, but from now on you are presumed to have given your consent for organs to be used, if there is no knowledge of you having being opposed to organ transplantation. Here you can read more about it, if you’re interested.

In a worst case scenario, if you have stated being opposed to organ donation in a will, and even made your will known to your nearest family and had it registered in your medical files, Finland has not yet got any electronic patient record database covering all health care units through out the country, so until then, when ever that may be, people are encouraged to keep a donor card with them at all times to express their will for, or against, organ donation.

So, where do you stick it in a skimpy two piece swimsuit?

You don’t usually even carry your ID when swimming; at least I know I don’t.

Heavier taxation on sweets

The Finnish Finance Ministry has made a proposition on an additional tax on candy and sweets, sweetened soft drinks, chocolates and products containing cocoa taking effect by beginning of next year.

The proposition is based on the risen consumption of confectionery, obesity and deteriorating dental health becoming more common amongst the young during the past ten years and a similar tax was actually already in force in Finland between the years of 1926 and 1999.

This additional tax on sugar is estimated to bring in about 120 million more euros a year to the state budget, and also hopefully leading to decreased consumption of confectionery with it resulting in long term savings in dental and health care.

What I wonder here is, why only these items? Why not tax all un-healthy foods more? The higher consumption of junk-food must also have deteriorating effects on the health amongst the population. And why not lower the taxation of healthy foods?

Anyway, today is the car free day for the 11th time in Finland, a day people are encouraged to leave their car at home and use the public transports, go by bike or walk instead. According to what I’ve heard, today, in the city of Jyväskylä 3000 free bus tickets are handed out, and public bus fares are available at a reduced price in the capital region . This in order to encourage better health and exercise routines, as well as being more friendly to the environment.

Finland’s second female prime minister

I just came to think that Finland now has its’ second female prime minister. And this is the second female prime minister in two consecutive cabinets of the same political party. In the year 2003 the Centre Party won the elections resulting in Finland’s female prime minister, who was in charge from mid April to end of June. This is the shortest period for a cabinet to exist, as cabinets tend not to resign until they have been beaten in the elections.

The first female prime minister had to resign because of leaking some secret documents, with a male prime minister to follow from the same party. The male prime minister held his position for 7 years through out the next elections and formed a new cabinet, this time co-operating with a couple of parties.

He in his turn claimed health reasons when announcing his resigning at Christmas time last year, and has now been replaced by the second female prime minister in Finland, who was elected at the Centre Party congress in end of June 2010.

Anyway, I have noticed that there will be an election here in Finland next year. With more than 200 days to go I think that is in good time to get a real electoral campaign going, beginning it in time I mean.

World’s oldest existing champagne ?

A sunken boat was discovered in the Baltic Sea, in the Åland archipelago, in July at 45 meters depth by some divers. The boat is estimated to have been built during the first quarter of the 1800’s, and was carrying about 5 cases of champagne.

The champagne perhaps predates the French revolution and to many people’s surprise, it is still potable. According to the Finnish wine-expert that has tried it, “the champagne has not at all deteriorated, but has kept well as a red wine safely stored in a wine cellar”, and that “the aromas were impressive”. The bottles or some of the bottles maybe, are now being analyzed in France, and if their age is confirmed, it would be the World’s oldest existing champagne.

Nothing for us commoners that is, we couldn’t afford it.

How to bathe or not to?

Friday, was a Friday the 13^th, I was trying to blog but had computer trouble all day, and as a matter of fact almost the whole weekend went to getting it working again. I really don’t know what was a miss, but that is life from time to time, so here I am now, pretending this is last Friday, and blogging about the things that I was on about.

The Sauna world championship was held for the 12^th time in Heinola during the first weekend of August. The competition ended in tragic, both finalists crashed in the sauna and were rushed into hospital, one of the seriously injured, the other one dying.

The city of Heinola announced on its’ website that this will be the end of the Sauna World Championships, but just days after the statement a known Finnish merchant announced his intentions to arrange it next year. From the beginning the police did not suspect any foul play, but now they are investigating the case closer.

I like it steaming hot, the sauna I mean, but I stay only for short periods of time, go out for a while, cool down having a cool drink followed by a dip in the lake, or a roll in the snow during the winter, when given the occasion. Even with hot temps, my time spent in the sauna is never long but still, for me it is a place to relax so I think it is a stupid thing to compete about. I know people who spend hours and hours in the sauna, but then the temperature must be quite modest, for one to endure. Actually, I have noticed that spending time in the sauna on a hot summer day makes you think the hot weather is cooler than it really is when you come out. Sounds strange, but it really works!

Anyway, the kindergarten next door opened after the summer vacations, the kids outdoors blocked the noise so I did not even notice the first sign of fall, the swallows disappearing all of a sudden. The swallows moved despite the fact that we still had hot weather here in southern Finland during the weekend. I still wonder about what makes them disappear and re-appear every year.

Right to wed?

The majority of the Finns are Lutherans, even though not many seem to practise their religion much, except maybe when getting married and having their offspring christened.

If I have not got it completely wrong, in Finland the church and the state have been separated from each other since the reformation when Finland was a part of Sweden.

According to an interview in a newspaper the bishop of Oulu thinks that “the church should marry couples of the same sex, if Finland is to have a gender neutral marriage law”, and adds “this should be done for the church to save its’ right to marry people”.

I am here not taking any sides on the issue about people of the same sex getting married or not, neither am I talking about them being wed in the church. I am just wondering what the church has to do with the state, as they are separated, that is not married so both can go either way, so to say, if you know what I mean.

I am back!

Dear readers, after along looong silence, I am back.

Having been ill since end of March and having major surgery with it the following convalescence, I have not been much around, just trying to cope with every day life for a long time.

Then the heat wave in July mustered the rest of life out of me, and I was trying to cope with accelerating risk of dehydration. My main job seemed to be to intake as much fluid as possible, and trying to vary the flavours not to get bored drinking. And I assure you, this was just non-alcoholic beverages.

On top of it having had a hacked e-mail account forced me to change my e-mail address, thus forgetting to change it on Blogspot, I never knew about all the nice comments posted in my Blog until now when checking up on it the other day.

Thank you dear readers, you have made my day full of sunshine! As though we have not had plenty of it lately…

This summer has been exceptionally warm, the heat record of all times in Finland was broken several times, the current now being +37, 2 degrees Celsius!

Every over cast day was a celebration, as it doesn’t feel as hot as the same temperature in the sunshine. Only one day in July the temperature went below +20 degrees here in southern Finland, and the warm weather of around 25 degrees we currently are having seems like cold, especially when it is accompanied with some rain.

So now with the weather improving, that is to cool down, and here I am merely subjective, I might get some brilliant ideas to blog about.

Spring in the air

Waking up this morning I was surprised to see that the flag was hoisted outside my window and I began to wonder what the reason for the flagging was.

To my awe I found out it was not printed in neither one of my calendars, and I do have two printed Finnish calendars, so turning to the news made me wiser. Today is an optional flagging day, that means it is only recommended to flag and not compulsory, and this was to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the ending of the winter war. I still get a bit confused about all the endings of wars as the way of counting is not the same as in the rest of Europe, just the one second World War. Here in Finland there is the Winter War and the continuing or Sequel War and in both of them the Finns fought against the Russians in the east.<

The weather has been absolutely fantastic, the sun has been shining a lot lately and lots of the piled up snow has melted away. Today, despite it being Saturday, lots of the snow, was gathered off the streets by the city workers and transported elsewhere making it easier to get around walking. It is always cheerful to see the black asphalt come to day from below the snow in the beginning of spring and hear the birds twitter in the trees even with the eventual set backs of snow falling.

Finally it really feels like spring again!

New Year with a bang

In time for the New Year's celebrations the law concerning firecrackers and fireworks here in Finland was revised, well actually slimmed down.

Earlier you could bang your works and crackers (and excuse me if anyone got the wrong idea, this was absolutely not intentional) from 6 PM all night long until 6 AM the next morning. This New Year's Eve it was only from 6 PM until 2 in the morning. Selling fireworks is also from now on prohibited for under 18 years old and minors are not to handle them and wearing safety goggles are compulsory to wear when lighting the works.

With these new rules in work I was very much interested in seeing how the festivities actually would take place in practice.

On the day itself I woke up at 2.30 AM in the morning of two loud bangs in the yard, so the hours allowed did not work out as they should have. In the evening at midnight the neighbours muted their loud festive music in turn moving out onto their balconies to advise their minors lighting the fireworks. None I saw wearing any goggles, not even the adults safely on their balconies risking the limbs and eyes of their offspring.

The lights in the yard went out for several hours as someone hit the light switch with a firecracker or something, and the pub across the street had their own fireworks worth to see. Men standing on their knees in the freezing snow without any goggles, they shot them off. Some up into the night sky but most of them along on the street, that is in the end once they got them lit, which seemed oddly hard a thing to achieve.

Anyway, about 4 AM on New Years Day morning the glass of the front door downstairs was kicked in as someone who apparently did not live in this building wanted to get in, into the wrong house, as they had lost their keys. At least that is what the shouting downstairs was about.

The result of the festivities is full of strange stories, an acquintance of a friend of mine celebrated in high heel shoes, out in severe sub zero temperatures a night out in town and was hospitalized with frozen toes with an amputation of several toes as a result...the offspring of a friend spending the night in jail..and a couple of friends found themselves in another city their were supposed to be spending the night in.

So ladies, beware of your vanity, use sensible shoes when it is freezing out! And carry indoors shoes with you instead of risking your feet and toes.

White Christmas

This year we will be celebrating a white Christmas here in Finland, and as it looks the same goes for many places elsewhere as well.

Heavy snowfall and blizzards have delayed air travel and caused many road accidents also here in Finland. It is hard to fathom that the climate is warming up watching the news when heavy snowfall has hit areas where there normally is hardly no snow at all.

It is sad that the Copenhagen climate summit did not turn out well and result in anything substantial, like a treaty or something similar. Yes the industrial revolution and the Western world is to blame for most of the global warming, but who knew back then what would come out of it? That the resources were not everlasting and that nature could not cope with anything? Should then the developing countries be repeating the same stupid mistakes now, today, instead of doing something differently?

People always tend to try to figure out who the culprit is, which in this case is a huge waste of time. We might not have another year to waste until the next climate summit in Mexico next year...and we should everybody begin to do something for it...but what?!?

Ham or not?

Traditionally ham is eaten at Christmas in the Nordic countries, so also here in Finland.

At this time of the year the supermarkets are full of hams in all sizes, ecologically grown and traditionally grown from various manufacturers salted in different ways and the prizes may vary quite a bit from where you live and which supermarket you shop in. This year the prizes may drop even more than previous years as we get closer the Christmas.

All that is Finnish has been considered as better, cleaner and safer than anything imported from abroad and so far that has been the same with the traditional Christmas ham. This year it is not discussed whether or not to glaze the ham or in what way to do it but whether to get a ham or not and many hams might not be sold at all as Finnish pig meat, or the pig farmers have lost their good image.

An activist group called "Justice for animals" secretly filmed Finnish pig farms two years ago publishing their filmed material, which was not nice to look at. The condition of some of the pigs were, well, I'd rather not mention it here so I guess you get the picture. I am sad to say I do not anymore recall what, or if anything came out of their action then, as I doubt the details of the farms in question were ever made known to the officials. But when doing the same thing this year again the Finnish Food Safety authority did inspect the farms in question and found major
negligence in half of them.

Anyway, protests are rare in the middle of parliamentary sessions here in Finland, but earlier this week one took place, and this when TV was broadcasting the discussion that was taking place at the time. Two persons hung a streamer from the second floor balcony stating "Is this what we want to do to the animals?" together with a picture of a pig lying down for all the world to be seen.

Strangely enough, the pig industry was granted government funds to clean up the image of Finnish pig meat not too long ago...and this prior to these incidents as far as I know. So the funds might come in handy for a campaign for improving the image, but what I am really concerned about is the conditions of the pigs...not the farmers that treat them badly.

So the big question in Finland this year is not whether to get an ecologically grown ham but if to get a ham at all for Christmas...

Sunset all day long

Only one week to go before Christmas, and you can tell that when shopping, all shops are filled with shoppers and there are long queues at the check outs.

At least the pre-holliday panick has not yet stricken, that is normally not detectible until next week, the day before Christmas Eve itself, and on Christmas Eve morning, the last desperate rush before the shops close for the hollidays. Spouses who have forgotten to get the other half anything, or just late shopping as in not enough time.

I have luckily been able to get most of my shopping done already, just had an item to get for Saturday's birthdays party. Sad to be born so close to Xmas especially when a child but we all have to be born sometime.

Until recently the skies here in southern Finland were overcast for weeks, it was wet and murky which made me sad and depressed. Now with the weather colder, actually colder than normal for this time of the year in the whole country, when one gets to see the sun and sky makes one, at least me, much happier and more content with life. It is nice to know that on Monday the light changes and we will be having more daylight time every and each day, as now it looks more like it is sunset all day long.

Strikes in season

Apart from the ginger bread and mulled wine this year's holiday season seems to have a new thing that is trendy and that is having a strike.

Not like going bowling but as in walk out from your job.

The financial industry is planning to begin their next week, as they want their fair share of the companies' profits. The union says that the cash machines will be running and that the wages and pension are to be paid to their due accounts despite their possible strike if the transfers are made before hand. Remains to see the result.

Last week the aviation baggage personnel walked out of their jobs at Helsinki airport in protest with it resulting in flights being cancelled and a luggage clog up with thousands of suitcases still to be sorted out .

The employees of one of the mobile phone operator walked out today and the IT sector have been negotiating for some time now about a pay rise.

Maybe this is a new way to get more time off before Christmas for them who have jobs as they are envious of the others who have been being laid off and made redundant?

Reckless drivers

Traffic accidents with young adults have lately been on the rise in Finland.

Alcohol is unfortunately all too often involved in the serious accidents involving younger people and sadly enough you too often read or hear about accidents with young men as drivers. Young men with fresh driver's licenses here in Finland, at least according to statistics, seem have a knack for driving fast and recklessly. Therefor it now is discussed whether or not to, reinstate the 80 kms per hour limit with a label about it on the rear window that used to be the standard for fresh driving license holders in this country.

And the pro's and cons for this seems to go on endlessly. I am told that some driver's used to get a compulsion to overtake cars with these speed limit labels on the most dangerous road stretches, and that many did not bother to keep their sticker on the window of their cars.

But then on the other hand, more experienced elder drivers are no safer with impaired eye vision and longer reaction time.

New flagging day

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius was born on the 8th December in 1865, and from the year 2011 this will be a national flagging day to commemorate his birth.

Sibelius composed many music pieces inspired by the Finnish national epic Kalevala, as many of the artist of his time. His most famous work is Finlandia which by many Finns is considered to be the real Finnish anthem. Finlandia was apparently from the beginning called "Finland awakens" and strangely enough, it seems to even have been the national anthem of some African nation for some time in the late 1960's, or so I have heard.

Well so the celebrations of the Independence Day are over and done with, the TV repeatedly runs clips of the reception and media still relishes on who did what, and wore what yesterday, the same annual discussion and procedure as every year.

Two plates policy

Since Finland joined the European Union the president has been able to take part in the summit in addition to the Prime minister at her own request, and the number the plates laid has so far been two, one for each partaker, the so called "Two plates policy".

With the EU Lisbon treaty having been reinforced yesterday, a decision upon the issue has to be made as the number of participants has been specified to just the single one from each of the member states.

So the hot topic for the last week or so has now been about the two plates to be laid at dinners. Or rather who has the right to attend in the first place, the President or prime minister of Finland.

Here the President and the Prime minister seem to agree, on disagreeing on the issue.

The Finnish President claims she has constitutional rights to attend to the summits, and the Prime minister contradicts this in his turn in concordance with the constitutional committee that he is to attend. The constitutional committee has for some time now been considering changes in the Finnish constitutional law with this amongst other issues.

The problem was apparently vented, according to the media, when the freshly elected EU president visited Helsinki yesterday meeting with the Finnish President. His only comment was, that the issue it has to be sorted out between the two themselves.

Following the development of the two plate policy, and maybe even the end of it, will at least be some change from the pig flu news that has been on all the time and become a bore.

Get to see your doctor

I really hand another subject in mind when beginning to blog today but today's subject just took overhand of my writing.

I had a call from a girl friend of mine about her husband who had noticed change in his behaviour of passing water as well as he's "the right age" and that's when you should see a doctor and so he did.

Or at least he tried to. He called his doctor to get an appointment but could not make an booking until the next day (which is today so I still don't know the outcome) as the booking system could not give any appointments until today, the beginning of the month. And as it is not considered as urgent, (which it might not be but still might as well be very urgent) he probably wouldn't get to see his doctor for at least a fortnight, he was told. But how on earth can you not book appointments for more than one single month at a time?

What kind of stone age booking system is that?!?

According to my experience, men tend to take their time to get an appointment to the doctor even when concerned with minor things as a common cold, and when they think it might be something wrong, as in a case as sensitive as their prostate, even more so.

Taking in concern the threshold for a man to call about his prostate and being ready and willing to go and have it handled, maybe even tampered with, his most private parts, well that's completely another thing than the annual visit for us women to our gynecologist, the old usual bore, so I think it was urgent and should have been taken more seriously.

This worries me quite a lot, not his prostate, but the way the health care act. First they want to educate us about what to look out for, then when you notice what you hopefully should not see, then you act as you have been told, and the result still is null and void. So in the end, what's the use? Given a little time you get used to the nuisance and forget about it.

And this is just one single case, how many are there out there?

Yes, you might save your life if you get to see the doctor but you might die trying to see him.

Better crop but less?

This year's cereal crop in Finland is better than the average.

At least that is what the headline of the news. According to what I read, 2009 is the third year in a row that the crop is bigger than normal according to the preliminary statistics from the Information Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Finland.

Especially the wheat and barley crop were well above the average, but instead the rye and oat crops were below the average. So maybe the crop is better, but still is less than normal as well?

Anyway, the Finns consume 100 million tons of rye per year and most of the rye consumed as rye bread, as rye bread has been a necessary part of the Finnish diet for centuries and as the rye crop was as much as 31 percent less compared to last year and Finland will have to import rye in order to meet demands.

It seems to me, at least looking at the published statistics, that there is not enough rye growers is this country and instead of growing something else that is subsidized with funds from the EU, it would be better to grow more rye.

Sunday shopping

Now we have entered into the winter season's Sunday shopping, the shops are allowed to be open for business also on Sundays.

This year with the novelty that yesterday the parliament finally granted for the Sunday openings to be continuous from the New year on. Before the decision was taken a lot was discussed about the prices going up as the wages for the employees will rise, as Sundays are more expensive for the employer to use their staff.

I can only see a lot of advantages with the Sunday opening. Families are better able to plan their shopping and even make a day out of it, less produce for the supermarkets to waste as the shops are open every day, you can better plan the transports and probably don't need as much shelve space, and if we are lucky the food prices may decrease even more than they have done since the VAT on food was decreased some time ago.