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.

Codebreaking

The Finnish National Consumer Agency has won the first ever EU's consumer campaign award. The award was won for the online game called “Galactor and the Codebreakers” among EU member countries' best consumer campaigns. The game has been developed in order to increase young consumer’s awareness of their rights and obligations concerning online shopping. The game has already sp far been distributed to Sweden, Denmark and Iceland and an Estonian version is also currently under development as well as France has expressed their interest in the game in question.

By the way, now the foreign minister apparently has confessed to having sent text messages to both the blonde busty model and her sister as well saying that it now it is up for the general public to decide upon his credibility. Well why having denied it in the first place to later confess, “doing Clinton”.

So here’s my question of the day;

What is the use of old school photos?

You have never seen your classmates since you quit school and most of them you do not even remember their names neither do you care to but still you keep them as memorabilia and look at them with occasional longing to your youth. Many of them have moved places and changed their names, at least all your girlfriends have, and some male as well. There seems to have gone fashionable in marrying women with more uncommon names and starting using them so even tracing them nowadays is almost an impossible task even with the aid of the Internet.

Strange seeing your offspring go through all the same faces in their lives, and teenage love is no joke! It has to be taken seriously, and it is serious business. No jokes about it, at least so that it shows. How serious wasn’t I back then some decades ago, with first infatuated in this and then that boy.

Fortunately I have the advantage of having lived in a couple of countries during my life I do not bump into old acquaintances or old loves. No hard questions asked and nothing to explain to the offspring. Not that there is anything that could not be spoken of, but I’d rather do it back at home instead of having to air it in the streets like a girl friend of mine the other day. And as this was an old not mentioned about ex-love, well you can imagine the interest it caused in both her child and husband.

Anyway, old photos are utterly useless, just taking space and gathering dust which I happen to be allergic to. There is one single advantage though with them, I can show that I looked the same as they do now, that we were dressed the same as they are today back then, years ago. It shows that the fashion is just like the one back then. One seems to forget how ridiculous the fashions are, cuts, colours, accessories, make-ups and hair do’s. Lucky children with parents that have saved everything from their adulthood and not as me having moved so many times and had them thrown out in the course of time. Still I do remember some “special” garments I used to have with a longing, but would not fit into anymore if I could try them on. I guess this is another sign of the course of time, getting bigger.

And respectable family mothers are not meant to be following the latest trends by the letter so I will stick to my old fashioned classic style. Old, used and boring I am told by the offspring added together with some sweet suggestions of some refreshing ideas for my wardrobe. Sad there is no weddings in sight, just one funeral I am not able to attend to.

Still, maybe I should break my own dress-code and get some new stuff.

Another fabulous day

Some days really are a drag, and this certainly was one more of them, the ones you really could do without ever having to experience.
The morning went well with a nice late breakfast spent mostly in bed watching TV, but as the day went on things changed. The day was planned for some browsing on some nearby flea markets, just to get out and see if anything worth the while might find itself a new home with us. Walking out to the car I of course fell head over heels on the icy ground that had been concealed with fresh snow during the night scratching my both knees and right hand in the fall. So I had to get back inside and get changed as I was bleeding all over my jeans and the woolly I was wearing. Having rinsed off most of the blood from my wounds and leaving the clothes to soak in cold water in order to remove the blood stains, we happily left home and went shopping.

Nothing really worth to mention as bargain on any of the visited flea markets we did a few acquirements anyway and went home for some nice afternoon tea and that is the point I would like to do without of yesterday. Kettle on but with a loose lid on is not a good combination for this accident prone female and here we went again, of course the lid came off when I was pouring the hot boiling water into the teapot, and of course I burned my hand. Fortunately it was just my right hand, and not the pair of them, but it still was the already once injured one from the same morning.

When bleeding is hard to stop you sometimes use the measure of burning the wound, but a fresh wound that has just settled and is still throbbing is not a very delicious combination. The burns were as severe that I for some time actually considered seeking medical help for them but the some what surprisingly sounding house remedy of pouring as hot water on your burns as you can stand for as long as you can take it with out screaming too much is remarkable and helped once again. And the chamomile and St John’s Wort ointment is also another remarkably soothing thing to smear in on any kind of cuts, bruises or burns. Mind you this was not a minor burn but still treatable at home as result of the hot water treatment.

Still cooking had to be performed by someone, and that meant it was not the dinner we were supposed to be having.

Thank God for offspring and a taste for Mexican spicy food in crusty corn shells.

But this typing is no fun as it is.

Used lingerie

Second hand shops, vintage clothing shops and flea markets have been booming during the time I have been living here in Finland and more and more of them keep popping up, which I think is a good idea, make the your old discarded things available to use for someone else. There are even some recycling centres where you leave the stuff you want to get rid of and take others in return if you find something you like and recycling is an idea I am in favour of, but some of these flea markets really just are full of junk and no use items which I consider garbage but maybe someone still can find use to them.

The prices in some of the flea markets are pretty high for what they are offering so if you are looking for a particular bargain you will need to frequently spend time walking around in order to find it.

Most of the flea markets are in no comparison to their likes abroad with bargain antiques to find, that there are the antique shops and it seems there is a lack of them in comparison to the amount of flea markets and second hand shops. There is even a Saturday morning TV show called “Kirppari” which means flea market. In the program the host walks around this one particular flea market with some collector that has specialized in some item like stamps, hat or vintage clothing giving hints about what to look for to make a bargain. A celebrity is also interviewed just about anything showing one item of special importance to them and donating another to be auctioned in the end of the season for charity. It has been odd seeing people giving away fishing knives, dresses, boots, paintings and even lingerie to mention some. And people want to but someone’s stained, old bra or nightie.

I prefer my lingerie fresh from the shop, unused and for me to wear the first time after having washed it.

Less privacy

Finland has earlier been ranked as a top country concerning the integrity of the citizens but as it turned out now in the latest research done by Privacy International Finland is on a mere shared 11^th place in the EU together with Ireland and Czechoslovakia. Okay, I thought the Czechoslovakia was divided into Czechia and Slovakia or have I got this wrong?

Something here seems odd and peculiar, anyway, it seems odd that Greece and Rumania should have better security concerning the privacy of citizens, Canada I still somehow can buy. The reason for Finland to rank as low as this consist of several factors such as the phone company Sonera’s spy scandal, GPS satellite tracking and that the police can get your tax information to their mobile phones when on duty. Here comes my question, can the police do that even in their spare time?

Isn’t the tax register official knowledge anyway in Finland? And is it not good to be able to rack your own offspring by GPS to know at east where they are up to something?!?

Shopping today, the last day of this year, was as unpleasant if not to say as awfully hideous as it always is when the shops are crowded. I tend to avoid having to do any shopping at these times but this year’s holidays were quite placed unfortunately, I had no other choice. Everywhere I went I had to queue, at the pharmacists, at Alko for the midnight celebration bubbles, at the supermarket for some groceries and a couple of smaller specialized shops where there hardly is anyone else normally when I shop there. Being without wheels all of a sudden is the oddest experience. You take your car for granted, having access to it at any time of the day, and night for that matter, and always ready to go.

Well, sometimes you just have to give up your transportation, either out of convenience for mere peace in the house’s sake or to do someone a favour as they need the wheels more than you do. Having normally need for a car about twice a week, and here I strain on “must have” as in compulsory appointments in addition to all the other “just easier this way” or “just lazy right now”. When these appointments are in the middle of town it would be much easier to go by public transport as finding a parking space sometimes can be hell in bigger cities, even here in Finland. Not to mention the prices of the parking fees, and having forgotten about the parking fees the tickets are no fun to receive on your windshield. Anyway, where am I now going with this?

All of a sudden finding out what bus goes where, and when they leave can be hard enough if you are unused to it well that can be mended by either googling or asking the offspring about it as they are used commuters by now. No that hard part of it is the noise that all of a sudden surrounds you. Women happily chatting away their pastime on the bus, louder than convenient to any sitter nearby, brakes screeching, doors slamming open and shut and the odours, or maybe I should be all frank with you, the stench of bodily odours of the person sitting three rows away!

Imagine, wintertime not even summer when you get all sweaty and hot, no this fellow smelled like a full dustbin that had not been emptied for a fortnight, and believe me I do know what it smells like.

It does not smell like roses!

In a hurry

Visitors often are surprised by seeing the Finnish pedestrians docilely standing waiting for the red light to switch to green and go mode, even with no cars driving past the Finns still patiently wait.

I am not sure whether the Finns are just that law obedient, or if they just fall asleep when waiting. In many other countries, including the neighbouring ones, but especially further southwards in the Europe there is a tendency to just cross the street when no cars are coming when ever possible. But now it seems to be the season for jaywalking in Finland, these few days just before Xmas and no matter what city you are in the same go everywhere it seems.

Pedestrians crossing the busiest, most trafficked street in town on red, inpatient to wait for it to switch into green and the busiest and most stressed ones are the most dangerous and daring ones. They just cross the street anywhere not even bothering about the zebra crossings and right when they are in the middle of the street there comes either a car in high speed or a bus that has to avoid running over the daring pedestrians. Sometimes it looks like pigeons running over the street. These people putting their limb and health in danger are both men and women, and no difference in sexes here apparently. They are not the young ones as one would normally assume neither are they the teenagers, instead they are the normal, average middle aged citizens.

Women in their forties with their fur coats, hands full of shopping bags scurrying across the street. Men rushing in suits on their lunch breaks to get something done before time runs out, even older grandmothers slowly walking in the middle of the street waiving their walking sticks. Then there of course always is the odd “normal ones” trying to make a short cup to the liquor shop, if you get my drift.

This strange and rarely occurring phenomenon of Finns jaywalking is best observed when on foot, and not from a car passing by. The Finns somehow seem to be in heat now before Xmas, they do not have their normal patience with waiting and queuing, shifting foot, sighing and restlessness even at the cash automate waiting for your turn to withdraw some money to buy presents with.

People are so very much more inpatient than normal right now and we are here talking winter time when things tend to be more slow and tedious in every way with the prevailing lack of light. The normal pace is completely opposite to the spring out coming of all the beautiful summer butterflies shedding their winter cocoons of multilayered warm clothing and dressing colourful and light, even with the weather not agreeing on it.

Wrapping it up

It is always sad having to attend to the birthday any child just the days before, or right after Christmas for that matter.

I am not here suggesting you should make more efforts in family planning as that is impossible, or at least so it has been for me, children are born right when they think they are ready and not when you want them or have tried to have them born. My parents tired to make my younger sister so she would have had the same birthday as I had. Such a stupid idea anyway and I am glad my sister was stubborn enough to be born a fortnight later than our parents had planned. I guess this means my parents know the exact date I was made…

Anyway, there never seems to be the right time for a beginning family, your just either get pregnant or you don’t. Sometimes it takes time and sometimes it catches you by surprise not quite at the planned time in your professional life, but that is life to you. Takes you by surprise it does, life.

AO back to this birthday issue, I am thinking of the amount of present to the birthday child as there are all the present for Xmas to get to every one, and the present you tend to get on your birthday are all wrapped up in Xmas paper anyway as it is much easier to do it so having the seasons wrapping papers ready at hand. Well, having been aware of this I have always been strict about having the presents wrapped into something else and it causes problems when wanting your presents to be ready wrapped in the store.

One of the bigger department store chains went last year through great trouble in finding any paper that was either not a Xmas one by colour or design and in the end the dolly I had got was nicely wrapped up in pink roses with pink ribbon tied around it. Just the right thing for the little girl it was destined to.

It was trickier to get the CD that was wished for as present this year wrapped up in the store, as they would have charged a whole Euro for the procedure, which I think is outrageous as they do it for free all year around except now at Xmas. The offspring that is not as accustomed customer as mum when it comes to shopping Xmas presents or any other presents for that matter that had taken charge of the mission impossible to acquire the present then continued to the next department store to get it wrapped up and was baffled by them wanting to see the receipt for the CD ringing me on the mobile complaining about it.

It seems that the thought about how and when presents are wrapped up it had never earlier occurred to the offspring, and in this particular department store the wrapping of the present would have been free of charge, if it had been bought on the premises. As it happens it was the same one where I got the dolly the previous year. So offspring rushing off home, the desperate rushing through cupboards in search wrapping paper, cellar tape and ribbon even though they are just in their designed spot as they have always been, but certainly not were found by me the raid in my kitchen cupboards.

The present was wrapped up and ready just in time for us to leave for the birthday girls’ party with the best looking home made birthday cake I have seen in decades with handmade snowmen, snowballs and fir trees on top of it made out of marzipan.

Even though the cake was gorgeous I did not have any cake this time either, as I never do no matter how rude it may seem, even though this time I am not sure whether I regret it.

Buy nothing day

To day is the "Buy Nothing" Day and the intention is to discourage people from shopping and to live without spending money, if only for this one day.

Well I fortunately did my weekend shopping already yesterday, so at least I am game for it even if unintentionally.
But the idea is good; we buy too much unnecessary things without even thinking about it.

Anyway, now Finland's largest retail fashion chains have confessed to having been selling textiles produced with Uzbek child labour, with out knowing about it of course, and the S-Group might even take some of the products off their shelves.

All textile companies are now trying to determine how much of their textiles might be originating from Uzbekistan as the Finnish retail chains wants to trade fair in all lines in the manufacturing of their products.
The cartoon Cow & chicken has been my favourite for long, but seeing it in reality is putting me off meat once again as it already did some 15 years ago, when I turned vegetarian for over a decade and am strongly considering of doing it again after having seen what I saw on the TV last night.

The Finnish welfare organisation Oikeutta eläimille, which would be "Justice for Animals" in English, provided the A-studio TV program with footage of animals cramped together in extremely bad conditions. The footage showed dirty facilities full with sick and injured, suffering animals. As the footage was shown without reference to where it takes place now Evira, the Finnish Food Safety Authority, wants to thoroughly investigate the truth in these claims and the organisation has been asked to give the addresses so the veterinary authorities can inspect the farms in question. The animal cruelty allegations hit the news big yesterday and they were even discussed in the Parliament, but I think that is fair as if we are to keep animals for food and to eat them, then they have to be respected for what they are and not kept in poor conditions in order to make a quick profit.

Unfortunately as our lives have become so urbanised most of us today are not even conscious of where the food comes from, how it is produces or how it appears on to the shelves in the supermarkets where we buy it to carry home in order to cook it and eat it. Milk comes from cartons and meat wrapped in cling-foil.

Piece of cake, or should I say peace of mind?

Disrupted tradition?

One of my traditions for more than two decades will probably be disrupted this year for the first time. I have always been very keen on trying the Beaujolais Nouveau on the third Thursday every year, the date of the premiere, when fresh Beaujolais is allowed to be sold all over the world.

This year the Finnish Alko personnel are most probably beginning a the three day strike the very same Thursday which means there is no chance the wine will be available in Finland on the premiere. And I have kept that date open without any strings attached as every year only to try the wine and have a nice time with some friends and this year it was my turn to host the event. Sadly enough nobody is travelling from abroad to Finland on the right day either so no chance to arrange it that night either. So maybe a trip abroad should be planned in order to obtain traditions.

I would not have been upset about any other date but this annual, and having become very important for me very over the years. So the Beaujolais will probably then be available in the Alko shops on the following Monday, which is the day some appointments were moved to be bale to enjoy the wine tasting Thursday. It is not the same thing to have the lambs chops and celeriac purée on its’ own even though they have also become some sort of a tradition as well.

Anyway, according to the e-mail I just got from Alko, the strike is not yet definitively set to begin, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I won’t have to plan a day trip abroad!

By the way, the Alko shops are today closed as it is All Saint’s Day as is every other shop in this country. The shops will be open tomorrow instead (except for Alko which is not open Sundays in any case) and will continue to be open on Sundays until the Christmas season is over, except for next weekend when it is Father’s Day and they are closed.

Sunday shopping

With Finland being a Christian country with a traditional Sundays rest seems a bit off in today’s urban society when Sundays happens to be the day when people have time to go places being off work, so the shops Sunday closing has seemed a bit strange. Now there is going to be a change in that and even hardware stores are going to be taken in consideration for Sunday openings in the new law proposal. According to a recently done Gallup households with children would appreciate the Sunday openings the most.

Anyway, I was shocked to by accident find out that my blood pressure has skyrocketed with out no apparent reason at all. A blood pressure going from normal this spring into 140/100 now and staying need some serious research done as no apparent lifestyle changes have been done, no radical weight gain as anything else in order to point out the reason for it. As it happens we do have a history of high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity in my family but no one has had this high blood pressure as I have been discovered with. So now I am going to have some blood test done to be able to make a second doctor’s appointment in order to hear the results. I always thought I held a healthy life, with a well balanced diet even though I have been lazy about getting enough exercise due to the arthritis in my right knee, which has developed over the years after a skiing accident in my youth.

But maybe it is not always the choices we make of our own that determines how health we are, maybe the genes have an even greater role in this as well than thought before.

Waterproof wrappings

Going for a drive out of town on a Saturday can sometimes be the strangest experience and as this Saturday was announced to be a car free day, which was not advertised especially well before hand. Many big cities had reduced their bus fare prices in order to get people using the buses instead of taking the car into town shopping, but nothing was anywhere told about the turn out of this campaign afterwards.

So our little planned trip out to the countryside became even stranger than it would have been on a normal planned Saturday drive in the countryside.

Anyway, getting out of a big city is always strange as the way people’s traffic behaviour gradually changes and every different town has its’ own traffic culture. The same rules and laws still apply in theory but not always in real life drivers act differently depending on if they are in the countryside or in a town and especially the parking is different, somehow more casual if not really peasant, sorry pleasant.

To really give you the picture of how our minds work, we act in different ways depending on if we are on foot as pedestrians crossing the street, cycling on bike or driving in our new car, it depends on your point of view whether you take the same chance crossing the street on foot or by car when the red lights are on. As long as nobody sees you, you are safe and sound; you have not broken any rules and can’t be fined for doing something nobody was there to see.

So we visited this big shopping centre in a small town with the usual chain shops and a big supermarket. All the cars were parked in rows very far from each other and you could walk in between the fronts of the car hoods, which never would have come in question in a big town as the space is limited and you have to make the best of the parking space you get. There also is no politeness here as to who is next in line to park the car in the next free space as in bigger towns and parking outside of the marked car parks also prevails, parking right next to it right in front of the entrance blocking the pathway outside the marked parking area.

Also the queuing culture in shops and supermarkets is different in the small country town compared to the bigger cities, no queuing culture there, just walking straight in front of people in line jumping the queue at the cashiers in the supermarket.

Surprisingly many small municipalities have bothered to apply to become towns here in Finland even though they have no real town centres, just houses cluttered together in between the pastures of the farmlands. No real harm there but than name town just seems a bit off here taken in consideration.

The absolute highlight of the weekend must have been the big advertisement for waterproof tea-bags that we saw passing by in our car. At least these teabags are bound to preserve the aroma and flavour of the tea in the teabags, and as they are waterproof none of it gets into the hot water the teabags are to be soaked in. So what's the use of the waterproof bags? I have no idea, except maybe you can re-use of the unused teabags?

Then there are the dishwasher tablets with a soluble plastic wrapping, that now has been introduced on the market. What is the use of the plastic wrapping as it is soluble in water? What do they protect the dishwasher tablets of, getting wet as you do not need to remove the wrapping when loading them into the dishwasher?!?

The end?

Shoplifting is more common in Finland than average in western European countries and most of it is done by the employees according to the newspapers. Finland is at the same time ranked high with low corruption according to research, I just wonder where the logic is. You can steal but not take bribes; do what ever you want to as long as you are not caught?

I have spent the most exhausting time at the vet’s with the elder of our cats and the prognosis is not a good one, possibly we might be with just one single cat this time next week but seeing your loved pet as poorly as it is at this time just makes your heart ache, you do not want to inflict them any more misery or suffering than necessary and an act of love is to know when to let go. Sometimes I wonder about euthanasia, we are allowed to help our beloved pet animals to go when they suffer, but if we ourselves when sober and at full mental capacity declare that we do not want to be kept alive artificially by machines then nobody takes any notice of it anyway.

I seem to be getting back to this ethics again, and the issues still has not become less hard to handle. At least now we will have one more week to prepare for the death of one of our family members, and looking from the brighter side, it might be false alarm as the vet made two different diagnoses with two completely different outcomes. Either it works with the treatment or it makes the situation worse and we will be going back to the vets for the final.

Going off

One thing I have been wondering about is that everything and anything is marinated in the supermarkets here in Finland.

When walking through a supermarket there are chopped, sliced whole or diced chicken, fish mostly salmon, meat chopped, sliced whole or diced and chopped, sliced whole or diced poultry and they all come in several different marinades and packed ready to just fry in a pan.

Then there are the unseasoned ones, the same fish, beef, pork, chicken and turkey but without any spices that is more expensive than the marinated ones. And what do they put into the marinade that makes them less expensive than the plain, unseasoned meats? Or has the plain meat after the best before date has run out been re-packed and shoved into a spicy sauce to conceal it not being as fresh as before?

And what is in the marinades anyway as there are plenty to choose between the tangerine, garlic, herbs and barbeque ones only to mention some for each of your chopped, sliced whole or diced variety of chicken, turkey, pork and beef?

This is said to be a development during the past few years as people have less time for cooking, well how hard can it be to season it in your own way and being sure of its’ freshness and how it tastes without the spices to cover it if being slightly off?

Anyway, the strangest things begin to happen with people when they fall in love, their personality alters and the younger the person is, and the unsure of themselves the persons are, the more they try to match their partners, their boyfriends and girlfriends. And as you begin to date and go steady, you want to see the other half as much as possible and the time is limited if you are going to different schools and do not share a hobby.

Now the latest turmoil in our home had been discussions about all of a sudden quitting about a hobby that has been around since early childhood, which during the years has become a way of living, and it would be hard to be without it as much of the excessive energy is used that way, and I think it would be the wrong thing to do right now.

Even sadder is that the offspring has good chances of becoming a professional in it, if not even real world class champion but surely to live of, and many others would give their right arm for being as good as that. Well maybe not, they would not be able to without the arm but you get my drift, so now we are trying to talk calmly about thing and explain that too much time together might even be bad for the relationship as you have to be an individual, to know who you are yourself, before you can be joined and one with somebody else.

At least that is what I have learned from life. Maybe it is some kind of marinade this love thing too, you just don’t see it yourself while being in the middle of it and too much company might also sadly enough make relationships go of prematurely.

Cleaning fish

Why do women always eat for comfort in the middle of night in all movies and TV series? Do women really eat that much to make themselves feel better? I know that certain days of the month main interest is what is in the fridge but I do not eat in the middle of night if I am sad but then I do not entertain myself with TV shopping as any shopping for that matter either a women are supposed to do. I like getting new things yes, but I hate the “walking-around-shops” bit about it that i had to once again go through today.

And when having got something new you always have to wash it before wearing them anyway in order to avoid all the chemicals that are used when manufacturing clothes.

Fish was caught on yesterdays fishing trip so I had to perform some filleting of them in order to get the offspring to eat them as fishbone are not one thing that is considered fun to eat, just the cats who do not mind the aesthetics about the fish they eat, just that it tastes great! Perch is delicious but are a hassle to get them de-boned and filleted and my hands look just as cut as they always do after having cleaned fish.

Today an investigation was performed in the woods once again, to see if the Chanterelles are big enough to be picked as my husband has his secret picking spot and he does not want to go there in vain. The ones in the neighbouring woods were fine so tomorrow I am probably looking forward to doing some cleaning again, just hope the greed does not hit this time and that he only brings big ones home this time.

The weather has been excellent lately, warm and sunny and no rain in sight so I am looking forward to going out for a walk around the near-by lake tonight and take some photos of the surroundings. Kids swimming in the lake, flowers on the meadows or birds in the sky and maybe even a picture of a flamboyant sunset. Like the sunsets you only get at this time of the year.

Bonus drinks

The Finns are flooded by various bonus and frequent buyer points in all department stores, restaurants, petrol stations, food chains and supermarkets.

For every chain there is a different card and the points earned are counted differently from each other resulting in thick wallets for anyone living in this country. A thick wallet has earlier been thought of as being full of money but in this country it is merely the amount of plastic cards, not even credit cards, resulting in it being thick.

Smoking became prohibited in bars and restaurants from 1st of July here in Finland and I have been out a couple of times since then but I have not noticed anything peculiar about it until yesterday when come to think of it.

As I am not a habitual smoker I do not tend to notice whether people smoke or not and being on a terrace basking in the sun while having a drink the other day, well to be absolutely honest with you, the drink being accompanied by a cigar I did not even reflect that I might be breaking the law. There were ashtrays on the terrace so I guess it was allowed there, but without thinking about it I might have been lighting it inside when getting it. Funny how you tend to forget things, it would just have been natural to have lit up right there at the counter in the bar with the matches I got for it.

According to latest facts today about 25% of the Finnish women are heavy drinkers compared to only 12% in the 1960’s. Why?

More liberal drinking habits or just equality in a stupid way between the sexes, women trying to catch up with men who are physiologically better equipped to handle alcohol or are just more women unhappy than forty years ago?

Or are these the same 13% women that were not drinking then but are now retired, no job and no kids at home more having nothing better to do with their time than to drink? How is heavy drinking measured, compared to you weight, your muscle mass, what you drink, how much you drink or how often you drink? There too many factors involved in this to make any sense in anything but I just love statistics as I always come to think of new questions and you can turn the same facts any way you want to still it being the truth.

Anyway, this having a drink now and then is a good idea to use some of the points earned I just found out by accident when asked about it by the bartender paying for the drinks being out on the terrace.

Well, well, does this mean that I have to do even more shopping than I currently am doing earning as many bonus points as possible in order to pay for all the drinks I am to have this summer sitting in the sun on terraces all over town?

Shopping

Is shopping easier with a girl or a boy? When the children are small everyone with boys are complaining about how boring the clothes are and wish they had girls as there is a greater variety in what to choose from.

With older boys there only is t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, men you just buy a suit and the proper shirt and tie to change with according to the occasion. With teenage girls you have to get a new outfit every time with the right shoes and accessories and the same jeans and t-shirts as for the boys for every day life.

I just spent hours and hours in town walking in and out of every shop in town, searching and looking for the right outfit as girls “know what they want but can’t find it”. Sore feet and no zest, near to loosing your temper, permanently this time.

Well, in the end of the day, just before I went bonkers a nice dress was found together with matching shoes but no bolero as they are out of fashion. Could have told her that but would she have listened to mummy or known better? And a disagreement about a handbag, still tights, a shawl and accessories to locate and time running out soon.

Thank God for mobile-cams and credit cards! Send the offspring out to town, have them send pictures home of the wanted item in question along with information about the price, say you say and they can debit on their card.

No need to loose your nerve anymore, why did I not think of this earlier?

Jinxed

Getting proper insurance can be difficult in Finland if you have received a marking in your credit records for unpaid bills.

If you have a marking registered in your credit records your insurance application might in the worst case be completely rejected or you might have to pay the fees for your insurance up to one year in advance. Even getting a home insurance might be difficult and as there currently are about 300.000 Finns with credit markings, it suggests that many families lack home insurance in this country.

Strange how some things just get jinxed, like this SONY digital camera that was given as a graduation present to the off spring last year.

In one months’ time it stopped to work properly and went for a warranty check up and as the camera did not work as it should it was replaced by a new SONY model with more pixels which was a nice surprise.

The problem is not really the camera not working properly, it is the owner of the camera shop where we got the camera from the beginning. Well, having had my own a bit more expensive about for three years than the model in question, I guess I should know something about digital cameras but being a lady, the owner thought I had no idea about anything and talked very rudely and demeaning back to us in the shop when filling in the warranty forms and sending off the camera for its’ service. He was quite sure it would turn out to be our fault and it would have been better to buy a new one in the first place.

Collecting the camera went easier as I took dear husband of mine with me and as he seems to get some respect by the photo shop owner. Then three months later the second camera began to malfunction as the previous one and also went for a warranty check up and was also replaced by a new model with more pixels, once again a nice little surprise.

The third camera has now been up and running since last fall but has now stopped working and is behaving just like the two previous ones and off spring is once again without a camera for the time being. I am not sure whether it is the camera itself that is jinxed or me going to the shop but I hope to have my spouse with me on Saturday on this one.

Unfortunately there is no proper insurance against bad shop keepers and I seem to be stuck with having to do business with this one until the camera jinx is over.

TV Sunday

Interior design has grown popularity here in Finland lately, and a couple of programs on TV are worth the while in my opinion. Unfortunately they are broadcasted at the same time on Sunday mornings when I like to watch the re-runs on TV so I have to choose between which one of the two to watch.

I am quite fond of Finnish design as it is in itself quite distinct in being plain and straight forward without too many frills or extravagnzas but I do not agree with the whiteness they have adopted into everything in interior design. First it is hard to keep clean, with kids and cats, and I like some colour as you might discover from my e-cards for instance.

Another thing I enjoy watching on Sundays are all the cooking programs that are re-run their second time. Most of the program I watch also post their featured recipes on the net, which is good as I do not always get them while watching the program itself.

At least today there is not going to be any try-outs on any recipes even if the ingredients would happen to be in stock et the moment in my cupboards, not with the kitchen in the mess it was left in yesterday after the service guy!

Anyway, soon all the shops are allowed to be open on Sundays again, sometime in May if they have not changed anything about it this year so I can even enjoy trying the dishes I have not got the ingredients to at home.

One sure thing in Finland is that you will never stay secure with anything here, the Finns surprisingly change their minds. Not maybe the average citizens, they have their opinions which rarely seem to change, but the politicians and with them the authorities suffer from a great obsession to change everything from how the last government, or city council for that matter, decided upon it to be once and want a change, to alter it the complete opposite if only possible, just to make a difference, no matter if good or bad.

And now with a new government soon to begin their rule, with it consisting more of right-wing politicians than for decades we might be in for quite a few surprises these coming years. So with any good luck there might be a better consistency in when the shops are kept open as the opening hours of the shops here in Finland do not seize to amaze me in one way or another.

Why are the shops only allowed to be open from early morning until 6 pm on Saturdays and on Sundays they do not open before 12 am but can stay open until 9 pm? Has this something to do with the traditional Saturday sauna or what? And I am not even going to get into the opening hours on days preceding or following a public holiday like at Xmas or at Midsummer’s Eve!

Opening hours?

I always have difficulties to remember if the shops are open on Sundays or not here in Finland. In the summertime they are and then also at Xmas time, but why they are not open rest of the year evades me completely. And why do the shops and supermarkets close at 6 pm on Saturdays? Weekends as it happens is the time people are free, so they can do shopping, spend their money in the supermarkets.

Another thing I keep wondering about it the logic in lunch-hours, and this applies not only it Finland. If you work fulltime the most convenient time for you to run some errands to the post-office or the bank for example is many times exactly when there is just one person to take care of your business. Of course they do have to have lunch-hours too, but hey, are they not in customer care so where is the logic here, least personnel available when most customers? Should they not be there when the customers are able to come? Get some extras to come during the lunch hours, many people would be happy to have a halftime job. One comes in for the morning, the other for the afternoon and they both are present during the lunch hours.

Elitist shopping

You should know how to dress to be able to shop as you might be treated like you dress, or talk for that matter.

There is a department store that has store in some of the major cities in Finland, and even some places abroad such as Estonia and Russia. If you go shopping there especially in the store they have in Helsinki, in the women’s clothes department, or men’s wear for that matter, speaking Finnish, then the sales persons do not even pretend to see you, even if you are dressed smartly.

Try the same thing when without make-up and dressed like coming from you country home and speak Finnish Swedish, then the elitist salespersons all compete to service you.

I have tried this myself and seen it work this way. Why?

Well, my theory is that the upper class used to be Swedish speaking. As today there no more is a such distinct difference between the elite of a upper-class of company CEO’s and other well paid people, and the Finns have a tradition of fear and awe for the patron and boss, they act accordingly. They respect the one who pays the wages not to loose their job.

Am I wrong? So stop thinking about racism here, it even exits between the Finns themselves, there is no equality in this country, not between the sexes or in any other way. Or is there?