Great weekend, Part 2

The weather was great today, sunny, almost no wind, and some 22C. Vesa and Riikka and Kaius picked us up at 1030am on Sunday, and drove us towards the place were they keep their boat. We moved our stuff their boat and started our journed towards Stora Hästö, an about one hour drive with their boat.


This was our first time on the boat, so there was a lot to see and check out. A great boat, where you seem to forget the time and just relax. And the archipelago was really beautiful, the wind was calm - what else do you need? But it seems like the main attraction was Kaius, once again... And some people enjoyed the sun.


We arrived to Stora Hästö after noon, where Riikka and Vesa landed the boat professionally. We had some coffee and then walked around on the island for a while. I had forgot how beautiful it can be on a Finnish island! There were a few other boats and people, but that didn't bother us, so we just relaxed.


After a while we go hungry, so we gathered at the grill, put up a fire, and grilled some food. It tasted really good, but I guess anything tastes great when you have been out in the fresh air on a lovely island like this. There was a funny-looking dog (a Basset) on the island, and some fiendly people. And lot of birds. And a huge amount of small fish, that didn't seem to be at all scared even when we started the engine of the boat. Or maybe they weren't smart enough to understand that they'd seen become fish stew.

We started the return later in the afternoon and reached the sea shore around 530pm. The water was really calm, and we started to feel really sleepy after a while. There weren't that many boats around, which was a bit surprising, but maybe there will be more after a week, when many people return from vacation? We passed by an island that was covered with bird s*hit, a nuisance that seems to be common, but that the goverment doesn't care about. I'd suggest a shotgun and some dynamite to fix the problem :-)

And thx again, Vesa, for providing me with some add'l photo material, which I updated this blog entry with.

Great weekend, Part 1

We had planned to spend a day on the sea on Saturday, but the weather turned bad, so we postponed it to Sunday, instead. Vesa picked us up at 4pm and drove us to their place for dinner, dessert, some wine, and chat. And of course some time with Kaius. (Thx, Vesa, for the add'l photos that I added here after the original posting).

Nice neighbours moving away

Our very nice next door neighbours Jonna and Jouni moved away this week, after three years. They were very social, chatting with everybody, meeting at the grill, and so on. They invited us and the closest neighbours Marja, and Vittorio & Helena for a cup of tea and some caramel cake, before moving the next day. Let's hope we meet again, one day!

Lahti, confirmation

We drove to Lahti last Saturday (July 15th), where we spent some time in the very nice area of Satamaranta. It was very windy that day, but sunny, so the place was packed by people. The concert house Sibelius is situated there, along with some (i'd guess) very nice houses along the waterfront. And from what I've heard the prices are... accordingly.


We had a very good lunch in Restaurant Casseli, which has a ship/sea-oriented interior, and a very friendly personnel. It was quite a contrast to the cafees and kiosks we saw in the area before that. We stayed over night in a hotel (Sokos), and had some coffee at cafe Sinuhe the next morning, before going to the church. We were there to celebrate the confirmation of Heidi, Sirpa's very dear friend Heli's daughter.


Tatu stole the show in the church completely, being the funniest little kid I've seen for a while. And he seemd to enjoy the music a lot, "playning the organ" along with the music in the church. As a matter of fact it wasn't that dull in the stole otherwise, either, which was a surprise. But no, I don't think I'll visit a church regularely after this, either...


Outside the church there was the normal billions of roses, people hugging each other, people trying to get into the same photo as Heidi, Heidi with her brother Wille, and with her mother. And with a lot of other people I don't have documented here. And the roses were very popular, too. Yes, it was quite windy...


It was a double celebration, since it was also Heidi's 15th birthday. I don't remember even half of the names of all of the people at the party. Surprisingly the people from the church also toured everyone's house, if they so requested! There of course were lots of presents, and of course all those roses. And poses, and more of them. And when I was socialising with all the people, Sirpa's role was a little different...

Whitesnake

It was really a long time ago since I went to a concert. I've missed quite a few that were sold out (like Guns'n'Roses), but anyway. Went to the Helsinki Icehall yesterday evening, and heard a few minutes some Finnish band playing old hard rock covers, like Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, etc. The funny part was that there was one base player - and the rest of the guys played accordions (I believe)! I gotta check out their name somewhere!

Whitesnake started about 9pm with Burn with some parts of Stormbringer in it, i.e. old Deep Purple songs. Unfortunately one could immediately hear that David Coverdale had major problems with his voice, and had to sing the songs differently. He did scream bravely through the concert (I could almost feel his pain), but of course many songs lost a lot, not having his wonderful voice in shape. The rest of the band played really well, though, and the audience was quite satisfied. Called Ahle, but he was already leaving, and couldn't join us. I had a beer (well, a cider) with Helge and Lennart, who had also been in the concert. Incredible evening, I was at home around 1am, and it was 22C! And the temperature was the same when I woke up at 0520am...

Vasa, Solf, and other places halfway up in Finland

I came back from Amsterdam to Helsinki on Friday, at 1140pm, and was in bed maybe at 1am on Saturday morning... We started driving towards the North in the morning, but due to the incredible amounts of roadwork it took quite some time to get anywhere. We took a break in Pirkkala, where it was sunny and about 30C - just like it had been for a while. Yes, in Finland! Hadn't been dirving anywhere longer for a while, so I enjoyed doing quite a few kick-downs and flying pass some cars in front of me. Well, we arrived in Vasa in the afternoon, after about a 5 hours drive, or so, checking in to Sas Radisson.


Our friend Patti had invited us to his and his old buddie's multiple 40-year party at Solf Gästgiveri, a nice old place outside Vasa. The theme was Vikings, where you ate with your hands, and wiped them on the clothing you were wearing - or on the guy/gal next to you. And you had about 1kg of meet to eat... The shnaps was called Viking Blood, the drinks were poured into your tin mug, and so on.


It was really great fun, with some singing together, a guy who did a great show, and just lots of people (some 59 of them, I believe) aronnd you. The man himself received a fender from us guys, which we at least hope is a totally useless piece of ... fender ... for him. And there were a lot of the old SKJ (no, I won't tell you what it means) guys with their wifes there, like Snyppe, Kika, Mörken, Måddi, and Ahle & Kata. One of the best and funniest parties I've participated in for a long time. Thanx, Patti, for inviting us!

Amsterdam

When somebody says Netherlands to me I usually remember two things, bikes and dog shit. Actually, the latter one I remember from Hague, and didn't really see that much of it in Amsterdam. But bikes, oh yes, huge amounts of them! Too bad I didn't have too much time to walk around, because the city is really beautiful, and it was really warm, probably closer to 30C (just like in Finland, actually!).


Anyway, I flew there on Thursday, July 6th, where I met my collegue Marko. We checked in at the Lloyd Hotel, a quite special hotel with some parts looking like a hostel (and the people, too), but then some parts looking really good. We arrived in the evening, checked in, and went to the Mansion Hotel, where the was a "pre-conference cocktail party" and met with lots of great people.


On Friday we then gave a presentation of our solution at TheNextWeb conference. It was really fun and we received great feedback.
I really wish I'd had time to stay for the evening, because there was a great bunch of people going to the conference party, and the city was filled with people enjoying themselves in all those outdoor cafes and restaurants. I really should get back to Amsterdam with some more time!