5,3 million Finns

At the end of the year all statistics tend to pop up more than any other time of the year and by the change of the year into 2008 Finland is estimated to have 5,3 million inhabitants. Actually I think it said “Finns” in the original Finnish text I read but as this is my translation, I prefer to use Finns, even with the risk of it being a misinterpretation of statistics and it would not be as funny then.

Anyway, the next phrase informed that the immigration to Finland had never previously been as high as the current year and that 23.000 people had moved to live in the country. So how many of these 5,3 million Finns are not Finnish citizens? Or have dual citizenships for that matter, just to try to get the word “Finns” right here.

The winter still has not arrived to southern Finland.

There is no snow to be seen anywhere, except some small stacks of it melting away in secluded and shadowed spots. If I remember this number correctly, the average temperature here in southern Finland has been 9 degrees all year round, which is about 1,5 degrees warmer than normal. The lakes are now almost iceless again and here there are again talks about going fishing on Tuesday as this happens to be a tradition, to go ice fishing on New Year’s Day. Well, there was no falling on their last trip on Independence Day either but now I seriously doubt I will allow my dear spouse to go fishing with his crazy fisherfriend. There must be something more lucid to do than risk your life because of the whim of your colleagues, maybe I should throw a dinner party, no, actually lunch would be better timewise in this case.

And our youngest family member, who not at last even has received a genuine name suiting her, is always on the move, nipping a quick bite at your toes when ever passing by so the reindeer bones we so kindly were advised to try help sometimes and at other occasions they are forgotten about. The whole family has been very cautious about letting the toilet seats and the lid on top of it in order to prevent the kitten from drowning but just this morning I woke up by a hollow echoing screech intertwined with a big splash before the toilet seat was banged up and down by a cold and wet kitten rescuing herself from the toilet. At least we now know she can swim and that she also is able to get up from the toilet should she falls in a second time, which I seriously doubt.

Strange, all these things every kitten tend to do at least once, either out of curiosity or maybe more lacking the needed knowledge about things. Talking about a narrow view of the world, the kittens, just knowing our apartment to about 3 feet high from the floor not knowing there is more to the world than that!