Towards Summer

It's already one month since the last update. Things are progressing rapidly. Iines already talks a lot. Words like äiti, isä, puuro, kukka, kakka are in her vocabulary. Also it looks very promising that we even might see summer soon. For us it has been almost 1½ years from previous summer.

Iines is more and more interested about things happening around her, especially now when it's nice and warm outside. Dogs are one of her real favorites even in telly. Also she occasionally is very stubborn. Sometimes to be able to get Iines' toothbrush back after a wash you need to wait until she's well asleep. I'm expecting some rather hectic times during the coming summer.




What's wrong in this picture..... ?



In the Easter time we were busy socializing with family and friends. One night Otso's cousins Mikko and Jaakko together with Heta and Hannu enjoyed dinner at our place. Jaakko was visiting Helsinki and his brother. He's currently living in Joensuu after a few year stint in National Theatre of Karelia in Petroskoi. We all enjoyed some good stories from that time.



Lucky ones of us even managed to later go out for few drinks.



A true sign of spring, changing the tyres. Iines supervises.



Last weekend first we all went to Paula's summer house for some family catch up. Perhaps the biggest things was Iines' first sandpit experience. It didn't take long for her to catch the clue and start demolishing the sand cakes that I kept building. On Saturday I drove to Teemu's summer cottage for the traditional Wappu warmup weekend with the friends from Uni. Very nice and relaxing weekend first with family then later with old friends that many I hadn't seen for ages. The weather was nice throughout the weekend and also the forecast is looking quite good for Heta's and Hannu's wedding on the eve of May Day. Fingers crossed.

Hannu's Stag

Last weekend was the BIG weekend of this spring for many of us. It was Hannu's stag do from Thursday to Sunday culminating to Finland's world cup qualifier against Wales in Cardiff.

Thursday - When it all began


Guys listening via Skype while Hannu was giving a presentation for some loco from "Spanish Meteorological Institute" at the conference center of Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.


The questions started to get weirder and weirder, the slides started to get dodgier and I guess the tequila bottle cleared Hannu's last suspicions.


After a long journey we finally arrived to 007 Hostel in Bristol around 02:30 am. At that time the place looked rather dubious. But at the end of the day I can nothing but warmly recommend this spot if you're a budget traveller in Bristol. Our hosts were excellent, the beer was served cold at any time of the day, breakfast was included to the price and we had a door in our room ... well at least on the second day (Image Copyright Rami R).


We were the only customers in the only dorm they had. 16 Lads in the same room, very efficient and compact.

Friday - The Offical Stag Day


Chris, our guide in Bristol, met us at the hostel 09:30 in the morning and lead our hungry group to a local breakfast joint where we enjoyed full English breakfast and some instant coffee.


Crew is ready for some action in downtown Bristol.


Even the weather was on our side (Copyright Rami R).


While Hannu and Beni went to the interview with BBC we chose our positions around the pub area. Local ciders were really popular among us too.


The mandatory engineering part of the stag do... I didn't know Hannu has a university degree in cleaning. This time it was some silicon wafers from Hannu's earlier life. Makes a nice pint mat.


Boys will be boys (Image Copyright Rami R).


The mandatory harass other people part of the stag do. Hannu surveyd people's knowledge about Finnish sport legends. It all started well when the first person looked at the first picture and correctly announced Lasse Viren (Hannu btw claimed he was wrong). However from that point it was pretty much downhill all the way.


Stag do without a bit of footy at the park wouldn't be a proper one.


The pitch was chosen very carefully... on top of the hill with a view over Bristol (Image Copyright Rami R).


Hannu was the keeper of course.


While we had some good time in the penalty shootout.


Before heading to the neon lights of Bristol we had a nice traditional British dinner... curry (Image Copyright Rami R).

Saturday - The Match Day


After a short bus trip to Cardiff, we checked in to our hotel and prepared ourselves for the important game. Even after 2 very short night sleeps you could sense that something big was about to happen... the optimism was with us.


Everything is set. Boys are back in town.


Few quick ones on our way.


We were right on time to join the parade of the official supporter club of Finland.


Oi Suomi On @ Cardiff on our way to the stadium (Video Copyright Sami A).


Ääriliike (Image Copyright Rami R).


The Millenium Stadium, capacity 74500, was not quite full.


The atmosphere was very good anyways. Finnish fans outsang the local fans by far.


After the game Kaisa, our local connection, took very good care of us by showing the pubs and clubs where to celebrate the victory and have some good time (Image Copyright Rami R).

Sunday - When we all were feeling good



Thanks everyone, especially Chris and Kaisa!