Sibelius is champagne

Sibelius is the most famous Finnish composer. Did you know that? And now it is also Champagne.

It is actually French made champagne but the brand name is Sibelius. It is a trademark owned by the heirs of the Sibelius family here in Finland.

I do enjoy classical music but have always found the music of the composer hard to listen to in its’ pomposity. Maybe I am too old-fashioned in my taste and his compositions are too modern for me. Or maybe my mind is too simple to understand true art? But Sibelius’ music together with some strawberries and champagne, well, it might enhance the experience. That I might even enjoy!

Smog in Finland!

The forest fires are really growing into a major health issue here in Finland.

The nearest forest fires are on the other side of the Russian border (there might be other I am not aware of) and the smoke still drifts hundreds of kilometres inland! The weather being hot you would like to leave the windows ajar but can’t because of the smell of a smoke! And you can’t see anything because of the smog. Imagine smog here in Finland in the middle of Helsinki or on a lake in the middle of nowhere! Looks like rain on the horizon but smells like fire.

Being out in the woods and having a little fire, well, that is nice and cosy and even smells nice. But having the smoke around you at all times is not fun anymore. Guess we all live in a smoke-sauna for the time being.

At least they promised a possibility of rain this week and I really hope that goes for the eastern border too!

Hottest summer ever?

The weather has been extremely hot lately here in Finland. Every day on the they say the summer has been drier than ever adding the time up for three decades, 37 years, 40 years and now soon a drier summer than ever since they have kept records of it. Some areas even have restrictions on usage of water and forest fires have been a pestilence this year with smoke drifting around in the air. So this year’s bar season has been a huge success! Everybody has been sitting sipping on a nice cool drink on some outdoor terrace as often as possible…

Finally there now is promise of some rain after this coming weekend.
So maybe this is the end of the summer season?

We must do lunch one day!

Isn’t that the most convenient and nice little phrase to say just being polite and without meaning it.
“We must do lunch”, or “Call me next week”!

But just saying that without meaning it can cause you problems here in Finland. People here take your word for more seriously than just politeness. Saying a courteous non-committal “we must do lunch” the Finns really respect that you have made a promise to have lunch and they expect you to have the lunch with them!

So keep in mind what you say and how you say it, and also be in time for your lunches.

Is this the land of World championships?

This hot summer has been filled with various peculiar events, competitions and World championships. How about World championship in wife-carrying or mobile-phone-throwing? And sauna-bathing ? People come from all around the world to participate in these competitions.

But the World championship in Marsh-football was not a great success this year.. because of the dry summer. The marsh was too dry and reminded more of an ordinary football-field and the fun went missing. Imagine grown up people running around in a swampy marsh after a ball. Like an English football field in the middle of winter, just the rain and sleet missing.

Well, at least the Finns know how to have fun and are proud enough to advertise about it world widely.

There is a X-spot

We have all heard about the G-spot, but have you ever heard about the X-spot ?

Well, I had not heard about it and not even thought there was one, but I have seen it and I have proof, I took a picture of it passing it, the X-spot, the other day.

Yes, there really is an X-spot and it is not on our bodies. It is a place, or a certain location, here in Finland and I have a photo to prove it. Maybe you can find out where it is? As I am not going to tell you where it is.

Let me know if you find it!

Avian-flu?!?

What a big scare the media played upon us this spring about the avian-flu. They were telling us about when the migrating birds would be returning to Finland, then we might all get sick and people stocked up on flu-remedies just in case.

And now we are in summer and nothing has really happened. Just some dead swans found here and there around Europe in the early spring, some poultry killed cause of some symptoms of the flu in France and Zoos killing their winged residents for no reason at all. All duck ponds are quite still this summer, no birds to feed. But no cases appeared in humans and no pandemic broke out as we were foretold.

Well, will have to see what the media comes up with next year to scare the public. A couple of years ago it was SARS. Sad really that the media is so prone to report about everything that is wrong and bad in the world. Reading the newspapers and seeing the news on the TV is so depressing!

I think I will curl up in my bed, make myself a nice hot cup of tea and read a nice novel.