Driving in the snow?

You definitely need some snow-how to drive in Finland when it snows!

Here are some tools that can make your life a bit easier.

1) A car inner heater. Finnish cars are usually equipped with engine heater and a conventional electrical plug next to the copilot seat. That's meant to use only for this kind of device. If you're lucky enough to have an own parking spot with an electric outlet, your mornings will be easier!

2) A brush. Most of them have something on the other side to scratch your windows out of ice. And please, be good and clean all the windows! Visibility is crucial, don't think that brushing and scratching the windshield is enough, you need mirrors also in winter!


3) A shovel. Am I exaggerating? No I am not! If you're gonna leave the car in the street, even if it's for couple of hours you may well need it.

And now some practical advice if your car gets stuck in the snow (other than shovel a bit).

1. Keep the wheels straight.
2. Try to start with 2nd gear rather than 1st. You get a bit more torque an avoid revving the engine.
3. Go a bit back, then a bit forth, then a bit back, and then forth again.
4. If none of this works, use the carpets under the driving wheels.

If the conditions are bad, control your speed, keep extra safety distance, don't do sudden turns, don't do sudden speed changes, be extra careful with other cars, remember that the cars will skid sideways a bit without much control, and don't try to play to be a rally driver.

And if you feel you're not in control, you probably shouldn't be driving!

Boys and their toys (GAS)

According to the Oxford dictionary, a hobby is an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure. I would very much like to question that.


Most people do take on hobbies, but not regularly. "Build your very own radio controlled Spitfire! With the first number, the wheels! Every Sunday in your paper shop!". I'm quite sure that 98% of the people who start it don't even get to the wings. Instead they have the antena of a U-boat, and the steering wheel of a classic Ford T. All of them 1:20. None of them will ever be built.


Then there's the pleasure issue. Ask some of those DIY-ers how pleasurable is to hear "oh, very creative bucket you've made" after weekends of hammering their own fingers trying to build a stool.


Most hobbies though cause G.A.S., especially among men. That is Gear Acquisition Syndrome. We spend more time and energy thinking and planning what else do we need (even though we do not need it) and then buying it than actually practising the hobby!


There are some which are especially dangerous. Photography for instance, getting into the DSLR world. You can always upgrade the camera body, or get a new lens, or a flash, or... the list of gadgets is immense. For me it isn't so bad yet... I have one camera body, three lenses, a grip for the camera and two tripods (which were gifts!).

People not musically trained but who take on some musical instrument are also dangerous. I've heard once "guitars? you just need one more. No matter how many you have". Then you go to amplifiers, pedals, software, ... the result is more time is spent reading about "the musical properties of the combination of alder and rosewood" than actually learning to play! Other than playing badly, this is the consequence:

Those two I know, because I suffer them. And it gets worse because I like to keep things in their proper place. More precisely three camera bags. I try to justify them saying that they have different purposes and sizes. Two are backpacks: the light one, and the big one (which can host a laptop); the third one is a shoulder bag. The guitars need also their own cases (two) and bags (two), plus two stands (an individual one and one that keeps 5 guitars) to keep them handy.

I'm told that there are other terrible hobbies: golf, aeromodelling, video recording and production, hi-fi systems and I have witnessed acute cases of knitting as well!

How about then redefining hobby: an activity done seldom, for which gear is investigated and bought regularly in one's leisure time, for no discernible reason.


Not sure if writing is a hobby, but I shall now stop and go and take few pictures and play some guitar before the next G.A.S. attack hits me!






PS: a hobby that I can recommend since other people enjoy it is cooking! It's fun and others get to enjoy it!

Your balcony is not a fridge (not anymore)

Finland gets cold in winter, that's a fact. And there are many things to do below -15 C!

Using your balcony as a fridge isn't one of them though. The reason is that it becomes a freezer. And then there are things we don't put in the freezer, right? Why did I have the occurrence of putting the beer mäyräkoira in the balcony...

Anyone care for a beer?

The good side is that it was easy to clean of course. All the foamed beer was nothing but ice! It didn't even leave a stain (update: it actually did leave a stain). I could tell that Mr. Bear Beer (karhu is Finnish for bear) himself wasn't happy though. He just looks like having a nasty hangover!

Mr. Karhu-Bear himself being sick

Learnings of the day then? First: mäyräkoira, which means Dachshund (or sausage dog) is also a beer 12 pack. Second: don't leave your mäyräkoira in your balcony in the winter. Third: Dachshund is the English word for 'sausage dog'!

Presidential elections in Finland!

Much has been written already, for example in euronews or in Bloomberg. Especially in the second link... I can't stop getting a grin in my face... Niinistoe, hihihi. It's Niinistö! not NiinisTOE!

Anyway, to the second round went Sauli Niinistö and Pekka Haavisto. Niinistö is from the national coalition, the same party in the government currently. For the Catalan readers, this national coalition, kokoomus, would be Convergència i Unió. Haavisto is from the green party, vihreät, which would be els Verds (obviously).

As a summary I'd say that the euro-sceptics have lost. Especially Timo Soini and his 'true Finns', the perus suomalainen, which in the Catalan analogy is Plataforma per Catalunya: right winged populists against immigration and paying too much attention to their own navel.

In the previous government elections the biggest surprise was the second place achieved by Soini and his acolytes. Big news also in the Spanish media! Ulta right wing party grows in Scandinavia! Europe (meaning Spain, Italy and Greece) won't get anymore help from the Scandinavians (meaning the Finns)! Bla bla...

When do news stop being interesting then? The fact that the perus suomalainen didn't get into the government didn't make it into the news. And now, presidential elections don't make it either to the headlines?

I'm right now looking at the international section of La Vanguardia, the most read newspaper in Catalunya and the third one in Spain. I happen to actually like i. It does bother me that presidential elections in Finland (one of the four AAA remaining countries in UE) aren't in the news, but things like "Obama will answer citizens in a videoconference", "Afganistan looking for its musical heritage" or even better "Chuck Norris gives his support to the republican candidate".

Serioulsy? Chuck Norris' support to the republican candidate (which, if you ask me, isn't really a surprise) is more important than presidential elections in Finland? Give me a break!

As adoptee of Finland and Espoo, I'm officially ofended.

R

Bloody horoscope

Hah, horoscope! Nobody believes in the bloody thing, right?

Astrology. I just imagine some weirdo wearing a pointy purple hat with some stars on it (made out of aluminium foil of course). Isn't that the kind of thing that comes in some weird TV channels at some weird hours? Who listens to them anyway?

When I was in primary school there was this kid in my class who was born exactly in the same day than me. Based on that, there's no way in hell that this whole horoscope business works. I was tall, he was short, I was shy, he was funny, I was a good student (a nerd) he wasn't (he wasn't): how can we have the same horoscope?

And then there are those smart asses using it as pick up lines. "Uh, you're scorpio, I'm aries. We're a perfect match!" and that's the moment she walks away. Or those that go "You're capricorn! So you are stable, don't like violence and like nice people". He's just saying that you're either a capricorn or a psychopath.

And then there are those horoscope section in newspaper. Nobody cares, but everybody reads. And, oh, if they say something positive then go for it! "Good day for investments", well it's Sunday. Some are more difficult to understand. "The crescent moon is visiting the sign, while the influence of Jupiter in conjunction with the Sun will affect it inversely". Wow, I wasn't planning to leave home, and now there this whole planetary trip? No sense at all.

But then the funny thing happend. Wifey told me that there is a new zodiac sign. What!? Apparently something called ophiuchus just made it into the zodiac. And then the bombshell: "you're not a Taurus anymore, you're Aries now". Noooooooo! Panic, havoc! What do you mean Aries? I am very Taurus, stubborn, earthy, the whole lot! I can't be an Aries! How silly was that? I couldn't care less about this pseudo-thingie which is astrology, but don't take the Taurus out of my life!

The good news? There are still only 12 zodiac signs. This whole ophiuchus business is a different story. It's a constellation, not a sign. Apparently it is something that periodically pops up and goes away. And why am I telling you this? Because I know that even if you don't care, you actually do. A bit.

A stubborn Taurus.

Neljän Tähden Illallinen: round 2

Our good friends had the good idea to have our own 'Neljän Tähden Illallinen'. That would be the Finnish celebrity version of 'Come Dine With Me'.

The basics of the show are pretty simple. There are four people, and each one of them arranges an three course dinner for the others. After each dinner, each contestant gives some points, and after the four dinners, the winner gets a price.

For the sake of our friendship, we skipped the grading and winning part. We'll all be winners! It is a lot of fun, with good company and with good food!

In the first round, one of our friends did a California themed dinner: sour dough clam chowder, baby rack ribs with mac'n'cheese and wild berries smoothie. The sour dough bread and BBQ sauce for the  ribs were self made! It was certainly an excellent dinner!

Next was my turn and I was out of ideas. Fortunately I had help from my fiancée for the first dish and from Tommin Keittiö for the main dish. I think I did come up with the dessert... not sure though. Let's get down to business!

Beef carpaccio with parmesan cheese and rucola

I found a suprinsingly good looking and well priced piece of beef fillet (K-Market in Iso Omena). What I then did was spice it up with thyme, oregano, salt and pepper by rolling it to a board.

Spices on the board, meat ready to roll!

Spiced and nicely rounded fillet

Then (Jamie Oliver's influence here), I quickly fry it in a hot pan. This gives it a bit brownish color to the outside and sticks the spices to the meat. Then I wrapped it in plastic foil and to the freezer goes for about 20 minutes. It doesn't get frozen, just firms up so it's easier to cut.

The next step is cutting the meat with a sharp knife. I used a ham/salmon knife. Funny, right? According to the label, in Finnish is lohiveitsi (salmon knife), in Spanish cuchillo jamonero (ham knife) and in English just ham and salmon knife. To get the slices thinner we used a rolling pin wrapped in plastic foil (I don't like raw meat and wood combination).

We used olive oil and lemon juice in the base of the plate, laid down the meat and finally add some shaved parmesan cheese, rucola and sea salt.

Mmmmm....

Fried monkfish with sweet potato and  three sauces

The idea was good but it is difficult to find monkfish in Finland (rap in Catalan, merikrotti in Finnish). I did find it though, also in the same grocery store! The person who sold it to me wasn't very familiar with the fish, so I took the full piece and decided to clean it and fillet it myself.

For those of you who may not know it, monkfish is a fish with delicious and very white meat, a big spine bone (?) and no other bones (espines in Catalan), and it is VERY ugly. We saw huge looking ones in Stockholm in the Östermalm Saluhall next to some salmon fillets.

Anyway, the first thing to do is peal it and get all jelly looking stuff from the sides away. If you slice it perpendicular to its spine, once fried you can actually eat pretty much everything, but I wanted to leave just the good stuff for this special dinner.

The full piece, all included. Yak.

Skin pealed, removing the big spine bone.

Two beautiful fillets.

I then spiced the fish with salt, pepper and a little bit of curry powder, fried it in a pan to get it brown and a little crunchy outside. With such thick pieces of fish that means that the inside is likely to be raw still (yak). Tommi's trick is then to wrap it in aluminium foil and finish it into the oven (around 180 degrees and 10 to 15 minutes).

The sweet potato needs a good hour in the oven at 180 degrees. Mine was a bit 'al dente'... not bad, but it should have been more cooked.

And for the sauces I didn't find what I was looking for. What I would have like to do: all-i-oli, tapenade and roquefort sauce. Instead I offered dijon mustard, soy sauce and blue cheese (not roquefort though). Since I was disappointed with the sauce selection I decided to serve them in summer pumpkin. I had to carve them and then cook them 'a la planxa' so everything in the plate could be eaten.

Carving the summer pumpkin to hold sauce

And it was good, the fish was nicely cooked and tasted good as well. The sauces, the sweet potato and the pumpkin... well, next time they'll be better!

The main dish!

White chocolate and lime mousse

I'm hopeless at baking or making any kind of dessert. The only thing I can kind of do is 'crema catalana', but get me out of that and I'm like a fish in a garage.

Luckily for me my fiancée knows about this stuff! So she did guide me along the whole process. Cut this, boil that, stir this, a little more, mix it, pour it... and I was just following instructions. Technically I did it, in reality though the merit is all hers. That's also the reason why there aren't any pictures of the process... The result was delicious though.

White chocolate and lime mousse

Enjoy your meal!

Bon profit!

Hyvää ruokahalua!

R

PS: I'm looking forward the next two rounds now :)

El caganer: one of those traditions...

Today at work one colleague walk to me and asked me a question. "Listen, my kids have been studying Christmas traditions around the world. Is it true that you put a pooping guy in the Nativity scene (Joulu seimi)?". Far from being puzzled I just smiled and said, "yes, of course".

Hmmm... once said, requires some explanation. "A pooping guy" sounds funny but it's a pretty accurate translation from "el caganer"; I still prefer the Finnish "kakkaaja" though. What's that about all then?

The traditional Catalan "pessebre" (Joulu seimi in Finnish) contains Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus. In addition they usually have behind them a mule and a cow. Then there are the three wise men bringing gold, incense and myrrh. I've always seen just a box, I don't think anybody knows what myrrh is. Then we have few shepherds, and few sheep with them. The more serious people may use some natural stones and moss ("molsa" in Catalan and "sammal" in Finnish) to decorate it. The most spectacular ones will contain even a river with running water!

The basics: Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus.

The three wise men on their way!

And now we get to business. It has been a long trip for those shepherds, hasn't it! Walking in the night to see the baby Jesus, and on the way... well, there's no more elegant way to do it that behind the bushes. And here comes the caganer! He's just a poor dude caught in the middle of business.

El caganer, kakkaaja

Though I'll accept few yäk and uuuu, that's just another tradition, and as I posted earlier, keep your traditions! And just for fun, I'd recommend you checking google images for caganer, you'll find few interesting alternatives!!

Bones festes! Hyvää Joulua!


PS: keep your traditions, as long as they don't hurt people or animals... like throwing a donkey down a bell tower (we used to do it but we stopped!), or bull fighting (which some #@!?&s consider and art...)