The bus dropped us at the starting point in the middle of nowhere. Bagpipers and kilts, high fives and go! It had been raining and blowing the previous day in Inverness, but the Sunday morning was (thank Goodness) much better; it was chilly, but the sky was blue and the early October sun lighted the mountains around us. Whatever the result, at least I felt a part of something unusual.

I felt pretty good during the first 20 K or so - the route followed the banks of Loch Ness and I kept staring at the lake hoping to see something unusual...  My nephew was struggling with his knee - it had kept him away from running for a couple of months. He said he would finish the run no matter what. I admired his strong will but said he should not risk his health - as if an 18-year-old young man would listen to his aunt!

Somewhere along the route it started to rain - a bit only. A very long uphill at around 25 k made me think that I was crazy to do this - voluntarily. It was at this point that I noticed a young woman running at the same pace with me - she was breathing heavily, but kept going on a few steps behind me.

I stared at the lake - no Nessie.

For accomodation in Inverness highly recommended

http://www.bannermanbandb.co.uk/

Once I painted the wall of the small entrance bright blue, hung some nice pictures on the wall and put a new carpet on the entrance floor without him seeing the change. He said he was tired on his return and just passed through the entrance. A lame excuse, I think.

In January he flew to Thailand for two weeks for diving - that should give me enough time for some major changes in the house. So, where do we spend 6 to 8 hours every single day? In the bedroom - he would at least need a better excuse this time.

I started by tearing the old pale creamy colour wallpaper - it was definitely easier said than done. It took me two very long evenings to do the job, but you seldom get a chance to tear anything so it was a sort of a therapeutic experience.

So far so good. As I needed help with hanging the new wallpaper on the wall I decided to ask my sister to help me. As she is very good with details she would make sure that nothing would get missed. And I was right. The pattern of the new wallpaper was a bit challenging and a few details needed to be looked into when cutting it and hanging it on the wall. And on top of it we had fun catching up, eating and drinking some wine.

OK - I now had my new wallpaper. It was time for the next move. The bedside tables needed a new colour to match the wallpaper. Light grey.

Now I only had to have new curtains and pillowcases...

And even the dead tired diver could spot the difference!

This darkness makes me think of last summer and especially one week in the beginning of August. I spent five days in Lapland with my sister and my sister-in-law. It was a holiday away from the nearest and the dearest - the perfect holiday, that is!

We flew to the northernmost airport in Finland - Ivalo and spent one night at Saariselkä. A one-hour flight and we felt like being abroad. That's the magic of Lapland. The following day we made a roughly 30 k hike in the mountain area, enjoyed the beautiful landscape and took photos of reindeers that always make sure that they show their bum to you when you're taking a photo - a funny animal.  

I had been hiking in Lapland with my sister a few years earlier and the first thing we taught to our sister-in-law was the right kind of picnic for a mountain hike - a sandwich and a bottle of champagne and cloudberry liquor! You just pick a few cloudberries and a perfect cocktail is ready!

The following day we decided to drive to the Arctic Ocean - for a swim! It was hot in Lapland (25 degrees) - a swim in ice-cold water seemed like a very good idea. We drove to the northenmost village in Finland and stayed they for the night - in an amazingly friendly hotel close to the Norvegian border. The staff even heated the sauna for us and we had a chance to swim in the river! Fantastic. We enjoyed the neverending daylight and the midnight sun.

The next morning we crossed the border to Norway and approached the Varanger fjord - breathtaking. You could see the Arctic ocean - the misty horizon of the Barents Sea. It was almost dead calm, not a breeze. We got out of the car, it wasn't hot anymore, the temperature had dropped down to 16 degrees. But it didn't prevent the locals from being in their shorts and t-shirts! Rough conditions, tough people.

We drove the road to where the world ends - at least so it seemed. But didn't find a beach for a swim. I was driving and my sister was complaining that I deliberately missed all the beaches she spotted on the way - quite honestly the sea didn't look inviting to me and I didn't see any other people in swimming suits.

When driving back we chose another road, the one that goes close to the Russian border, so we drove close by the point where three time zones meet: the Central European (Norway), the Central Eastern European (Finland) and the Eastern European (Russia) - taking a few steps in that region basically means loosing or gaining two hours - quite unique!

Yesterday our office had a total power cut in the morning - it lasted about 30 minutes. And it is very dark in December. No electricity, no email, no coffee, no going in or out of the office, no working lifts and on top of it, no candles allowed. One colleague had a torch, that's all the light we had. And I almost missed my neighbours' multicolour Christmas lightshow...

The power cut that affected thousands of people working in the offices of that area was caused by one single squirrel that had managed to find its way into a power substation. The poor creature died in the incident. They say the blackout was actually a terrorist attack - the master mind behind it was Orava (the Finnish word for "squirrel") Bin Laden...

Obviously an accident - the real target must have been my neighbourhood. Maybe I didn't pay the terrorist enough?

My way or the highway...

Yes, but how about pruning?

This is my first year as a wine producer - my wine didn't  produce a single grape this summer. So the vintage of 2010 can be only better.

The only "´wine producers" I personally know are a Finn (my sister who knows basically everything about plants) and a Norvegian (my friend who knows everything about anything he puts his heart in). Finland and Norway aren't exactly among the countries you would regard as wine producers - but according to the EU the south of Finland is a wine producing region - yes, you should see the southwest banks of River Vantaa.... Not exactly the Loire Valley.

The word "pruning" had no meaning in my life until my Norvegian friend explained what's it all about - his grapevine in Oslo should be a touristic site. My sister visited us last weekend so I took a crash course in pruning. I have no idea if my wine is red or white, but I'm really looking forward to the vintage of 2010 - everyone interested please feel free to come to Vantaa in October, let's crash all the grapes together with our feet in a bucket! I look forward to that!

We passed the cathedral - the square in front of it was almost dead. One tourist bus from France stood there alone. Why on earth did these people come to Helsinki in November? Probably a "madventure".

The Helsinki Art Nouveau brochure was getting wet in my hands - I ticked every  "pearl" we managed to see on our route. My sister struggled taking photos in the pouring rain. But honestly, we quite enjoyed what we saw. It was great to look at Helsinki from a different angle - looking up. The Art Nouveau houses need to be looked into every single detail and the most interesting details are usually above the street level: towers, decorations, sculptures, balconies, windows of different sizes, charming gates - it's sad that the modern age doesn't allow such creativity.

In one street corner, next to one of the "pearls" there was a small confectioner's shop - we couldn't resist going in. The smell of chocolate was irresistable - and so was the shopkeeper. The young man knew everything about chocolate, he explained us all about the process and the different sorts of cocoa (Madagaskar, Peru...) and how you can immediately taste the differences. Chocolate is like wine - you first like the sweet milk chocolates but later on the dark even bitter chocolates seem to taste better. The shopkeeper has his own recipe for mixing cocoa mass in France - he carefully chooses the right mixture of cocoas from different parts of the world. I bought a box of handmade chocolates to Jari - I had forgotten his "name day" on Friday, and as the way to a man's heart goes via stomach...

A crazy idea crossed my mind after this Art Nouveau Tour - why don't I start a new business: Art Nouveau Runs for tourists! There are always some crazy people who like to do their daily exercise during their holidays. Why not combine it with a guided tour! Maybe a 5K and a 10k option? Beginners and advanced? I'm sure I could make an arrangement with the "chocolate boy" and bring the group to his shop to make up for all the lost calories after the run...

For the best chocolates in Helsinki see: http://www.chjoko.com/index_en.html

Since the assumed place of the party was a walking distance away from our house, we decided to walk there. After some trials and errors we scored and found the right block of flats in the middle of similar looking buildings.

Make (our host) and Riitta (his newly wedded wife) welcomed us at the door - at least our dress code matched with theirs. So far so good.

The party had been going on for quite some time. We were introduced to the people in the living room: a couple of friends, sisters and brothers of our host couple with husbands, wives and a few children - and The Mother of our host. Make told us that his mother was invited to every party any of her four children ever threw as this Super Granny (72 yrs) was a Party Girl. I vaguely remember seeing this Party Girl at our host couple's wedding in August - in the night club in the small hours.

Talking about the wedding; this is Make's third marriage and the priest, a friend of the family, said to him at the wedding: "You better make sure this is your last one as I'm not going run this ceremony for you ever again." Fair enough.

I was still wondering what the occasion was - you never have both friends and relatives at a gettogether unless there's a good reason...

Our hosts were still expecting one couple to arrive (only to leave their luggage on their way to the Eros Ramazotti concert in Helsinki). Make told us that the couple had just recently got engaged - the plan was to surprise them with champagne on their arrival. They were very surprised when they got the champagne glasses in their hands and we toasted on their engagement - not because of the nice gesture, but because the toasting was a bit premature - they had set the date (1 January) but they were not engaged yet. Embarrassing... They left for the concert in puzzlement.

So, it wasn't an engagement party.

We ate a bit and drank a lot and then it was time for karaoke - we were told that they always had karaoke at their parties. And guess who was the first to grab the mic? Yes, the Party Girl. The children (aged 46, 47, 48, 49) call her Sybä - you would expect somebody called Sybä to be something like 15 to 20 years old. And Sybä knew how to rock!

When the Super Granny, Party Girl, Sybä left the party she whispered to me that she wouldn't be leaving so early otherwise, but she had to check up on her mother (93 years) on her way home... Wow!

After the Party Girl left, it seemed to me that the party died. We left when the "almost engaged " couple joined the party after the concert. I was afraid they might start karaoke again singing Eros - "Parla con mee -eee".  As we were leaving Make invited us to his 50th birthday party in March - the "formal" invitation would follow. Can't wait to see the Party Girl again!

So this wasn't a birthday party, either...

Last spring we decided to go to Riga. Before the trip my sister came up with this great idea that instead of everybody reading everything about Riga superficially, each would actually pick one interesting aspect  or theme and focus on that - this way each of us would be responsible for one "guided tour" in Riga and we would get more insight on the city. In brief: less in breadth - more in depth. We agreed to launch this new approach immediately.

I knew very little about Riga, so I was pretty much open to any ideas. I happened to see a friend of mine who had been in Riga on business a couple of times in the past. She suggested that I'd concentrate on the Art Nouveau houses in Riga. Great - now I had my theme. But what was Art Nouveau really? I needed to get some expertise in that before the trip.

Thank goodness for Google! I learned quite a few things about Art Nouveau - the key idea was to create a better environment for everyday life with the help of art and architecture. Aesthetics was important. There were freely arranged windows, towers, balconies, gates, decorations etc. in the buildings. I got really absorbed in my theme. To my surprise I also learned that Finnish architects had had major influence on the Riga Art Nouveau houses and Helsinki was actually one of the finest Art Nouveau cities in Europe. What?

It's funny really how easily we miss the beautiful things that are closest to us - after our Riga tour I've seen Helsinki in a very different way. You need to see it through the eyes of a tourist! And that is why the Travelling Trio will gather in Helsinki next weekend - and guess what my theme will be?

You can admire the pearls of Art Nouveau in Helsinki from the tram or by walking - download your own survival package here:

http://www.hel2.fi/kaumuseo/jugend/jugend_esite_en_ve.html

The translation was funny, not English, nor Finnish but Finglish but more importantly, it butchered the whole story.

But this is as high as it goes - if I were to write a blog in Italian I would be butchering the language the Google way. Capisce?