25 January 2009
Moon gear is fast approaching the turn
30/01/09 19:59
It's been a very Finnish week or two.
Last Wednesday Max and I set off for the city as usual. There was 5cm of fresh snow on the roads, and I watched our bus driver apply opposite lock as the bus slid around the bend on the 6 lane highway leading to the metro station. Obviously we approached the turn a little fast - the timetables don’t adjust to the weather. The Finnish buses don't have special spiked tyres, as cars do, but they obviously have special drivers.
I had my salibandy stick in hand. Salibandy is floorball - it's like indoor hockey, and the Bilot people had booked a weekly slot for the crew to play. Salibandy is very popular in Finland - they are the current world champions. It's also popular in Australia, I read on Wikipedia. I was reading the rules on the internet via my phone on the commute.
We played for an hour. It was a lot of fun - floorball is a very accessible game, as anyone with basic fitness and hand-eye coordination can contribute to the team.
At lunchtime, I realized that I had left my new 30€ salibandy stick on the table at the sports center. I crunched back there through the snow and it hadn't moved an inch. Good honest Finns.
On Friday, we set off late for the cottage. It was Roald's first birthday, but he was left behind with Mummu. We feared that the floor of the cottage would be too cold for him, as it has been empty and unheated for a few weeks.
Six months ago, the place was green, and we were playing croquet on the lawns and swimming in the lake. This time we packed cold weather gear, ice skates, my snowshoes, and the two boxer dogs.
The tarmac on the highway is clear, but the smaller roads are covered in a thin layer of hard packed snow. The last few kilometers are gravel, but you can't really see the difference, just feel it. I think it feels safer on the gravel.
There was about 30cm of clean snow covering everything, including the lake. The area is pretty in summertime, and equally so now, but in a completely different way. The nights are still long, but there is a lot of reflected light and visibility is good. The days are still short but the twilights are long and gentle, as the sun curves slowly behind the horizon instead of crashing through it. We have endured our first Finnish winter now, with the solstice more than a month behind us.
The next day, we all had a little sleep in, and then went out to play in the snow. Coco was first - she doesn't get much off-lead time anymore, her feet and belly have acclimatised, and she ran and jumped, sprinted and skidded excitedly, digging and snorting her way through the drifts. She stuck her head deep into my footprints, completely under the snow, smelling the ground. Jerry cruised around - he enjoys it, but he feels the cold more quickly than Coco.
Max, Felix and I walked out on to the ice, first the shallow part near the house and then we strode confidently off the end of the pier. I had my ice safety spikes around my neck, but they wouldn't be needed. The ice was strong and thick, and there were people riding snowmobiles across the lake. The ice is green near the shore and black where it is deep, it's rough to touch and you can see fractures and faults through it. It's part of the landscape, imperfect, changing and dangerous. You expect it to be smooth and white, but it’s not.
I tried out my snowshoes, which were great - you can run on top of the snow quite comfortably - and Felix made a chorus of snow-angels. Then I shovelled for an hour or so to clear an area for skating. Max tried out my snow shoes with approval.
Felix had never skated, and I hadn't since I was about 13. Max has been having lessons, and Viivu looks like she has been on skates more than a few times. We zoomed around the little rink. Normally if you are having trouble or need to catch your breath when skating, you hang on to the wall. Here, we just fell into the ready piles of shovelled snow. Felix made some more snow angels.
We fried sausages over the fire for dinner - a Finnish custom, the sausage spikes are hanging on the wall next to the fireplace. Then we had a family sauna. Viivu convinced me to roll in the snow, and I did - it was shocking but agreeable on the whole. What a day. We all slept well, but Coco the deepest.
We didn't go ice-fishing, but we will do so on our winter break. I also didn't get to drive on the ice, which fascinates me for some reason. Next time. We will be there for 8 days in February.
This weekend I have my first Finnish lesson - 4.5 hours on Sunday. I've been coping quite well without, as so many people speak excellent English. You pick up words every week, but it's not fast enough. The only trouble I have is the emails that are in Finnish. Google translates single words quite well, but turns of phrase escape it.
Today I received a work email about our timesheets, something in Finnish about the impending end of month. I pasted it into Google and it reported that the "Moon gear is fast approaching the turn". In that case, I just hope the driver is Finnish.
The boys stride off the end of the swimming pier, past the snow-covered boulder:
Felix works on his skating technique:
Viivu takes a breather:
Then shows Max the way:
Coco galumphing through the snow:
Sledging Finnish-style:
Last Wednesday Max and I set off for the city as usual. There was 5cm of fresh snow on the roads, and I watched our bus driver apply opposite lock as the bus slid around the bend on the 6 lane highway leading to the metro station. Obviously we approached the turn a little fast - the timetables don’t adjust to the weather. The Finnish buses don't have special spiked tyres, as cars do, but they obviously have special drivers.
I had my salibandy stick in hand. Salibandy is floorball - it's like indoor hockey, and the Bilot people had booked a weekly slot for the crew to play. Salibandy is very popular in Finland - they are the current world champions. It's also popular in Australia, I read on Wikipedia. I was reading the rules on the internet via my phone on the commute.
We played for an hour. It was a lot of fun - floorball is a very accessible game, as anyone with basic fitness and hand-eye coordination can contribute to the team.
At lunchtime, I realized that I had left my new 30€ salibandy stick on the table at the sports center. I crunched back there through the snow and it hadn't moved an inch. Good honest Finns.
On Friday, we set off late for the cottage. It was Roald's first birthday, but he was left behind with Mummu. We feared that the floor of the cottage would be too cold for him, as it has been empty and unheated for a few weeks.
Six months ago, the place was green, and we were playing croquet on the lawns and swimming in the lake. This time we packed cold weather gear, ice skates, my snowshoes, and the two boxer dogs.
The tarmac on the highway is clear, but the smaller roads are covered in a thin layer of hard packed snow. The last few kilometers are gravel, but you can't really see the difference, just feel it. I think it feels safer on the gravel.
There was about 30cm of clean snow covering everything, including the lake. The area is pretty in summertime, and equally so now, but in a completely different way. The nights are still long, but there is a lot of reflected light and visibility is good. The days are still short but the twilights are long and gentle, as the sun curves slowly behind the horizon instead of crashing through it. We have endured our first Finnish winter now, with the solstice more than a month behind us.
The next day, we all had a little sleep in, and then went out to play in the snow. Coco was first - she doesn't get much off-lead time anymore, her feet and belly have acclimatised, and she ran and jumped, sprinted and skidded excitedly, digging and snorting her way through the drifts. She stuck her head deep into my footprints, completely under the snow, smelling the ground. Jerry cruised around - he enjoys it, but he feels the cold more quickly than Coco.
Max, Felix and I walked out on to the ice, first the shallow part near the house and then we strode confidently off the end of the pier. I had my ice safety spikes around my neck, but they wouldn't be needed. The ice was strong and thick, and there were people riding snowmobiles across the lake. The ice is green near the shore and black where it is deep, it's rough to touch and you can see fractures and faults through it. It's part of the landscape, imperfect, changing and dangerous. You expect it to be smooth and white, but it’s not.
I tried out my snowshoes, which were great - you can run on top of the snow quite comfortably - and Felix made a chorus of snow-angels. Then I shovelled for an hour or so to clear an area for skating. Max tried out my snow shoes with approval.
Felix had never skated, and I hadn't since I was about 13. Max has been having lessons, and Viivu looks like she has been on skates more than a few times. We zoomed around the little rink. Normally if you are having trouble or need to catch your breath when skating, you hang on to the wall. Here, we just fell into the ready piles of shovelled snow. Felix made some more snow angels.
We fried sausages over the fire for dinner - a Finnish custom, the sausage spikes are hanging on the wall next to the fireplace. Then we had a family sauna. Viivu convinced me to roll in the snow, and I did - it was shocking but agreeable on the whole. What a day. We all slept well, but Coco the deepest.
We didn't go ice-fishing, but we will do so on our winter break. I also didn't get to drive on the ice, which fascinates me for some reason. Next time. We will be there for 8 days in February.
This weekend I have my first Finnish lesson - 4.5 hours on Sunday. I've been coping quite well without, as so many people speak excellent English. You pick up words every week, but it's not fast enough. The only trouble I have is the emails that are in Finnish. Google translates single words quite well, but turns of phrase escape it.
Today I received a work email about our timesheets, something in Finnish about the impending end of month. I pasted it into Google and it reported that the "Moon gear is fast approaching the turn". In that case, I just hope the driver is Finnish.
The boys stride off the end of the swimming pier, past the snow-covered boulder:
Felix works on his skating technique:
Viivu takes a breather:
Then shows Max the way:
Coco galumphing through the snow:
Sledging Finnish-style: