Punk rocks

Some prejudices seem to become mellower by time.

Finally, the cult punk band the Sex Pistols got to hold their concert in Helsinki last Saturday. Last time they were scheduled in Helsinki for a concert in 1978, but it got postponed by three decades as the band was forbidden entry to the country. This as a result of protests from child protection and youth agencies as the Sex Pistols back then was considered as bad influence to the Finnish youth together with the band splitting up for a period of time.

This was the Sex Pistol’s third appearance in the country, and maybe there are not as many fans dressed up in the proper punk manner as in the good old days, as most of them must be at least my age, and many things change in time, and three decades is a loong time.

Ah, sweet youth of mine, brings back memories.

Cheaper air fares

The budget airlines are beginning to discover Finland for real!

Earlier there have been only the ordinary airlines to fly with but since Ryan air began their flights from Tampere a couple of years back with a brief additional visit by Sterling air in Helsinki for some months, now more low cost airlines are hungry for a piece of the action, which of course is good news for travellers. Berlin air has been flying from Helsinki and soon to come will be the low-cost airline Easy jet. Mind you, be well advised, what you get with budget airlines is not the same as with the “ordinary” airlines, that we have been well informed so well about with a couple of TV series, what can go wrong, can go wrong.

But you might just as well be lucky enough to get what you want, just a cheap seat to far away countries away from the normal routine. Just what I would need sometimes, just a one way ticket, never to return...

I guess I will have to suffice with just a good book in the meantime.

Specialized in a generality

How strange does it not sound when somebody has specialized in general medicine?

I know that the word is used in many other languages, but it just occurred to me the other day how stupid it really sounds.

Anyway, I was admitted into hospital for some major surgery, just routine stuff but minding the rumour the hospital in question I was an outpatient, I was quite a bit worried about having it done there. And it turned out excellent.

The surgeon that was performing the operation took his time to see me before the procedure, to talk things through and chat about common trivialities such as the weather, which I normally find boring stuff but this time joined in out of sheer pleasure, it really took the edge of my by then almost panic stricken fear. Nest came along the anaesthetist, to interview me about possible allergies, when I had eaten and if I’d taken any medication in the morning. Same questions, which was asked in the pre-interview the precedent week by a nurse. The longest time it took was the waiting for getting in to the theatre and estimated time had been mentioned as 6-7 hours before I could leave for home loaded with a stock of heavy painkillers. I was quite amazed that just after having had major anaesthesia when I was sedated and the drugs totally knocked me out and 3 and a half hours later I was ready to leave for home in perfect condition!

Oh, and about the huge misunderstanding that Finland should have health care free of charge, well that is a huge lie as they do bill you for it afterwards.

No blueberry-pie

Finally the summer vacations are over and done with, off-spring is back to school and I am able to get down to normal business!

This summer was more hectic than ever and all plans got turned up-side down countless times and therefore the lack posts in my blog these past three months. The summer has been quite unusual in many aspects as the weather has changed between heat wave in early summer and cold periods so there has been no blueberry pie this year as previous years. The blueberry blossomed at the time of unusual night frosts so hardly any blueberries at all are to be found in the neighbouring woods. Also the chanterelles are later than usual and today for the first time dear spouse of mine has gone to see if there is any to pick, so if we’re lucky we will have some for dinner tonight.

At least there is some hope for mushrooms as lately the rain has been pouring down intermittently.

Watch your step

Shoes are to be registered here in Finland.

For almost two decades The National Bureau of Investigation has been planning to set up a national shoe-print registry here in Finland and by end of this year it is proposed to become reality. The police believe that the shoe-print archives could assist the authorities in solving crimes together with the already existing fingerprint and DNA databases.

Maybe watching a little CSI has helped along the way, making this fast move.

So from now on, watch where you step when off on shady business, or keep a pair of spare shoes with you at all times and be sure to rid of your old shoes in the nearest bin as soon as possible.

Come to think of it, maybe this is what we women tend to do here during the winter. We walk around outdoors in heavy winter boots, carrying our nicer indoors shoes with us in our bags, changing them when entering indoors. That means we are leaving fewer footprints, or maybe more divided footprints? Well at least mixed messages if to be interpreted with the aid of this shoe print archive.

No time to waste

I have lately been quite busy with getting my book ready to present for publishers, and now it finally is ready in three languages.

Just to slip in the post and mail to hopefully well chosen recipients, or to THE one that will publish it. And preferably by Christmas time as it is a book about Xmas.

The tedious bit about it has been printing all the copies, sorting them out with the illustrations and accompanying letters and presentations. I would have gotten it ready by end of the week but run out of envelopes and problems to sort out jammed into the same time and I had to prioritize the more acute things. But I am glad this is no professional envelope licking, like a political campaign I have volunteered to stuff envelopes and fortunately now I can get some pre-taped envelopes as I ran out of the old fashioned lickable ones. Colour cartridges for the printer and paper to print on it with were the other things I run out of, so I have some acute and serious shopping to do.

Time flies by and now we are already into end of May, soon to begin June. And I have forgotten about three dozen of good subjects to blog about have. Some made it to getting written down on a piece of paper, others I just thought about and forgot. All the same, you can never get time back and the time I have been spending off line has not been wasted.

School will soon be out with all the traditional festivities that come along with it and the beginning of the summer season with the occasional weddings and a few confirmations compulsory to attend to together with one “big” anniversary during the Midsummer weekend that might not be celebrated at all, as the person in question has been hospitalized for some time now and is more or less presumed not to return home anymore.

A girlfriend that just had to attend to a funeral on Friday has been so stressed with overtime at work that she was happy to have it to attend to get at least one day off in order to get rest some.

Choose your parents well

Dear spouse of mine watched a very interesting TV show some time ago, that I was unfortunately not able to see at the time, but was referred about very keenly so I had to google about it.

The programme was very interesting indeed, and I went through extensive research criss-crossing the Internet. As you might know, gene research has been going on for some time now and we learn more and more about genes and their effect on us as time goes by and I was surprised to hear that a gene mutation actually can be good for you!

I had always thought mutated and malformed genes were bad for you but no, not always, is the case so. In fact, possessing this particular mutated gene could save your life, and the lives of your children

About an average of 10% of the European population are estimated to have this mutation in their CCR5 gene. 16 % of the Finns and Russians and 14 % the Scandinavians possess the same gene.

This particular gene is called the CCR5 and the malformed itself has its’ own name, “Δ32”.

But first we have to leap back to the dark middle ages and then back to our time in order to understand what I am ranting about here. What was going on in the middle-ages? Well,” the black death” or the plague, was two thirds of the population of Europe and those with the mutated Δ32 inherited genomic sequence are those who survived, passing on their defect gene, which in this case was life saving, to their off-spring. Generations and generations passed by and then came the HIV-virus and AIDS.

You might now wonder where the connection is, if there is any at all, but I assure you that there is one.

Now comes the interesting part, the Finns are said to be resistant to HIV infection, but who wants to try it out on the entire population as they might be so absolutely wrong as they can be. According to research the possession of the Δ32 gene makes you of HIV if you inherit it doubly, that is from both your parents. If you have inherited only the half you are able to delay the onset of HIV once you’ve become infected.

So if you want to have unprotected sex and no worries about HIV, be aware of whom you chose as your parents and ancestors!