Dinner at Savoy

It was Sirpa��s birthday that week, so good timing :-) We had a great dinner (as always) at Savoy that Saturday.
Of the classy restaurants in Helsinki (that we know about), ths is the one that we have had the best service and food in.

Drink coffee

I saw this when visiting our offices in Reindeer Country and just had to put it here.

A few days in Finland

I hadn��t been in Finland since I left on the last of August, and it felt a bit strange to be back. Fortunately I got to meet good friends, like spending an evening with Vesa, Riikka, and Kaius.

We also had a few drinks at La Soci��t�� du Cochon, and a dinner in Lasipalatsi with Tuomo, Seppo, Katja, and Taru. The city was filled with Christmas parties on that night of the 22nd, BTW.

Two airports

This very nice car was on display at the Munich airport. An Audi R8 for those not recognizing it.

And then to the SFO airport, where they had several signs like this. I��m sorry, I��m fully aware of the need for airport security, but come on, this is ridiculous!

Yearly parade

The Harley guys (and gals) had their yearly parade to the city, driving to the fire station nearby my place and conrtibuting to the children��s fund. A pretty cool sight seeing 100��s of bikes, the police helping them get through, and some really nice people on those bikes, too!

New car

My car was at the dealer already on November 3rd, but (naturally) I had problems getting the money out of my bank, so I didn��t get the car until Nov 10th.
The dealer took and sent me these two pictures when the car had arrived, which just increased the pain :-) Anyway, it��s a BMW 335xi Coupe with about all the accessories from the list, except i-Drive. One of the things I like is the full iPod integration, where I have full control of it from the stereo display.
I haven��t had a chance to drive too much, but it feels just as nice as what the testers say. Well, I haven��t actually seen a test of the 335xi Coupe, yet, only of the 335i Coupe.
Some very nice roads further away from Stinsin Beach, where I will have to go back to.
Anyway, it is interesting that you can drive without license plates for a while, and that the dealer asks you if you eventually want a license plate in the front of the car, or not. Especially since not having it there is illegal...

George, heater and shower

One of my projects this summer was to transfer my CD��s to my iPod. I purchased my first device that is utilizing that, the George.

Definitely not HiFi, but surprisingly good sound for such a small unit, and the remote is great.
What didn��t work so well was the heater in the living room. The thermostat was ok, and the heater itself was as old-fashioned as all the heaters are in the US (blowing air, drying the air, and using lots of electricity), but this one is also noisy. So will have to fix that.
Except from that, everything is perfect in the apartment. As an example, the shower handle works exactly as in Finland (i.e., logically and easy) - and the water gets warm quite quickly.

Indoor skydiving

Antoine drove me and Atsushi to Freemont for something very exciting, but before that we had a Protein Burger at In��n��Out. It was actually quite good, and no bread that you had to chew.
But back to the main event - indoor skydiving. To make a long story short, it was probably the greatest thing you can do with your pants on - incredibly fun! I guess all of us have sometimes wished that we could fly, and here you could.
There is a vertical windtunnel, and if they boosted the wind (and you are experienced), you can fly there in an upright position, too. And do all kinds of incredible moves.

Finally moving in

Finally, after 9.5 weeks, (part of) my household was delivered to my apartment, so that I could move in.
No glasses crashed or anything similar, but the sofa was in pretty bad shape.
My friend Patti had donated their vacuum cleaner, which I had good use of now.
Priority nr 1 was to get the bed in place, which I did. And holy smokes I enjoyed the first night at the condo, not having been able to sleep properly for almost 2.5 months!

SanFran, Muir Woods, Stinsin beach, etc

This is the tallest apartment building in SanFran, where I��m not sure I��d like to be if there��s an earthquake.
Compared to that Muir Woods is definitely different.
And not at all as many people as I had expected.
Definitely places I have to go back to.
And the view from Mt Tam was fabulous, you could see really, really far from there.
This area would be good for paragliding, in principle...
... but Antoine wasn��t sure about the wind...
... andhe was right. These guys gave up, too. But it was nice watching the eagles fly, and discuss about the "potential" winds.
One of Antoine��s friends took us to this place facing the St Quentin (jail), which was kind of interesting, since it was actually illegal to fly in this place. A fantastic day just north of SanFran.