Saturday 28 February 2009

Kalevalan päivä

Defence of the Sampo, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Today (as has been pointed out) is Kalevala day - the day of Finnish Culture.  The 'New' Kalevala is 160 years old this year (the original version will be 175 next year), and this epic poem compiled by Elias Lönnrot of Finnish and Karelian folklore creates a mythic past inextricably linked with the rise of Finnish identity and culture; and for inspiration for Tolkien's lord of the Rings.

Although pretty archaic, impenetrable, and rarely read by the average modern Finn (check here for a sample), elements from it do crop up in modern day life. Sampo - the magic mill - becomes a bank; Otava -  the constellation Ursa Major - becomes a publishing company; while several of the character names are still in use today. Even closer to home, in today's Hesari was an article about the latest comic book version of the Kalevala - whose gods, heroes and spirits were recreated out of the last construction recession, when drawn by unemployed architect Gene Kurkijärvi, and finally published this year.

If only my cartoon drawing skills were as good.

Katso ikkunasta!

Voi sattana ja helivetti, teidan tonttu on ollut talvilomalla joulusta asti, muttu ajatellin typeran hölynpöly-bloggi ihmiset mustivat suomen lippu! Täänän on Kalevalan Päivä! Katso lippu ikkunasta! Perkele!

Wednesday 25 February 2009

I'd give my eye-teeth for that...


Hiiri has an inexplicably large collection of toothbrushes...


Hands up all those who like going to the dentist. No, I thought not.

As you may remember, I have just got my Kela (social security) card, which gives me access to, amongst other things, state health and dental care. Konna has just had to spend over €500 on visiting her private/specialist dentist (to be spread over 4 visits, but still) and decided I really have to go, so I thought I should save my pennies and use the state system hammaslääkäri (lit: tooth-doctor) - much to her dismay.

I know in the UK there has been a lot of talk about shortage of dental care in some areas, waiting times etc, but my last visit in Islington, I had a walk-in, same day examination and treatment, with more treatment the next week, so wasn't expecting to have to wait three months to be seen in Helsinki. Yes the end of May.

Okay now I have to own up that is not a fair comparison - as that London dental practice doesn't even take appointments for first exam/consultation, you have to walk-in and wait. And I had a broken tooth. And it was more than three years ago. 

Too be honest I'm not generally that keen on visiting the dentist, it's one of these things I deal with by not thinking about it - I can't even remember when I went to the dentist before then... shockingly it was probably when I was still a student living in Brighton (so that would be... erm, actually I'm too embarrassed to say exactly, so lets just say it was in the last millenium). Anyway my excuse (apart from being a lazy sod) is that I probably have a mild form of odontaphobia, brought on not by the tragic selection of magazines in the waiting room, but by the rather traumatic removal of several teeth of my favourite when I was about seven eight years old. 

[If you are squeamish you may want to look away now...]

When my milk-teeth got collected by the tooth fairy, as my new teeth grew in they found things a bit crowded in my mouth. So much so that my canines (or eye-teeth, they're the pointy ones) ended up growing over my incisors/first molars rather than between them. This meant they stuck out of my gums like vampire fangs (which for a six/seven eight year old wasn't all bad news, but maybe not the best look later in life).  So they had to go. I don't remember being to worried beforehand, afterall I was getting a day off school, but obviously I had no idea what was coming.  Now since this was a) the 70's b) fairly major, I had to have a general anesthetic - which is where things started to get iffy.  Firstly they tried to give an injection into a vein in my arm. After three or four failures finding the vein they switched to the other arm, and then despite try to turn me into a human pincushion they had to give up on the injection idea, and switch to Plan B.  This turned our to be gas; I remember they rolled in a trolley of equipment and canisters, then the black rubber mask was put over my face, and I was told to count to ten. 1, 2, 3, ... the room disappeared and I fell down a long dark tunnel... When I woke up, woozy and spitting blood (literally) the teeth were gone, leaving huge holes in my gums which my tongue would find unexpectedly for weeks afterwards. All pretty scarey stuff, especially as I had to come back again the next month to have the other two out... (Or did I? My memory is strangely a bit hazy about this - did they all get taken at once?).  

I needed a light brace to straighten up the front teeth a few years later to adjust for the spacing, but at least it probably helped make room for my wisdom teeth - which I have thankfully not had problems with.  But now, however much I really, really like something, I can't give my eye-teeth for it (as the saying goes).

And I don't seem to like going to the dentist... funny that. At least I have three months to prepare myself...

Sunday 22 February 2009

Laskiainen

Pikkan laskiainenpulla Porvoosta (manteli, ei hilo)


Tänään on laskiassunnuntai ja on seitseman viikkoa ennen pääsiästä (
Easter). Myös tänään on kaksi päivää ennen laskiaistiistai - englanniksi Shrove Tuesday. Syödään laskiainen pulla (kanneli manteli tai hillo) suomessa. Englannissa tehdään pancakes (lettuja) laskiaistiistaina. Pidan lettuasta enemmän kuin laskiainenpullasta - ehkä minun täytyy tehdä niitä itse Konnalle ja Hiirille.

As well as eating those slightly strange cream and almond (or jam) buns, laskianen Sunday is traditionally celebrated with a 'sliding festival' of sledging and other winter sports - but don't ask me why!

Thursday 19 February 2009

Tampere proof

Finlayson sign: from Tampere 02/09

Team hölynpöly drove to Tampere last several weekends ago (well better late than never) to look at Vuores, one of the two Finnish Europan10 competition sites. It snowed on the way there, rained on the way back and was misty inbetween.  Tampere is sometimes compared to Manchester; having a somewhat similar history and built heritage (e.g. brick mills and warehouses) from having a significant cotton textile and clothing industry, much of which now converted for residential and cultural uses (e.g. the Finlayson area). 



We were staying in urheiluhullu Sportgirl's apartment (in a converted shoe factory), although Sportgirl was of course away doing something ridiculously sporty as usual - this time a 24hr nordic skiing competition - in which she won the women's class and came 5th overall, covering a staggering 270km. Yes I know, Finns are mad. Last time we met (a few weeks previously) she was preparing for a skating competition (outside/distance rather than twirling in sparkly spandex) as part of the same overall Kalevan kierros competition, and when we first met her a few summer's ago she taught us how to canoe. (Luckily we had just been on a cycling holiday so didn't feel totally inadequate.)



Vuores (strapline: 'the small town in the midst of nature') itself if still just a greenfield site (although being Finland that should be greenforest), although work has started on tree clearing and road building, mainly by blowing things up to judge from the signs, so there wasn't an awful lot to see apart from trees, rocks and a bit of a slope. Hard to imagine that by 2015 homes for more than 13,000 inhabitants and business premises providing 3,000 - 5,000 jobs will have been built in the area and as the site of the 2012 Asuntomessut (the annual housing fair - see here for some pics from Vasa last year) and so may get 200,000 visitors over a few weeks. I should add here that we most definitely did not get the car stuck on a snowy track and have to dig and push it out with the help of a passing local in his Subaru Forester. No, never happened. We also cruised around the neigbouring area of Hervanta, which mainly gave us tips on what not to do, although we came across a rather curious set of 80's buildings at the centre, which we didn't understand the significance of until later.


The weather put an end to our plan to visit the observation tower, as 12€ is a lot to pay to look at the inside of a cloud - as you can see above. However while wandering around the town centre I did manage to buy 2 pipoa for 1 euro from H&M and spotted a poster for an architecture exhibition while lurking in a cafe.  The exhibition turned out to be on the works of Reima and Raili Pietilä, well known humanist-expressionist-modernist architects (in the 60's anyway, maybe only in Finland now), who have several major buildings in and around Tampere - including those curious 80's buildings in Hervanta. I was rather taken by their early works, such as the Dipoli student union building in Espoo (which I must try to get to see sometime), and Finnish pavilion for'58 World Fair in Brussels, the but less so by the later ones (although certainly interesting and unusual) which we actually saw there though.



We rounded off the trip with a visit to the Plevna restaurant / beer cellar, also in the old Finlayson area. (It's named for the old Finlayson building it is in, which itself was named after the siege of Plevna in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 where the Finnish Guard were involved in the battle. The building was the first in Finland (and only 4th in Europe) to have electric incandescent lighting using Edison's 110V DC system). They specialize in a selection of their own and some imported beers and ciders, along with a range of hearty Finnish food, in a somewhat Germanic beer-hall style setting. The menu suggested combinations of drinks and food, so I went for a dark Plevna beer and the sausages and potato pannu. This turned out to be literally a frying pan full of creamy sliced potato with four types of sausages, and pickled cucumbers heaped on top, and probably enough for two people- but somehow I managed...

A light snack at Plevna... From Tampere 02/09

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Red tape and icicles

From Around Helsinki Winter 08/09

This week is the Finnish skiing holiday - and apparently as we are having a 'good' winter (i.e snow on the ground) the sports shops have all sold out of their 'sale' skis. Even though there has not been a lot of snow fall in the last few weeks (in fact it even rained once) there has been white all around for at least a month now, and in the bright sunshine and clear skies of today it is quite lovely.  There are also lots of icicles hanging from gutters and eaves, although they tend to be quite hard to photograph (had to stand in the middle of a street to get this...)

I can now tick off another couple of things from my list of Finnish 'bureaucracy' that needed doing (maybe I should say 'official existence'), although I hope the latter is only temporary:
  • I now (finally) am part of Kela (so have access to various social security and health care things)'
  • I am officially registered unemployed (although fat lot of good that is as I don't seem to qualify for any benefits).
This is the first time I've ever been officially unemployed in the 20 years since I left school. Even in the last recession when I was on my 'year out' between degree and diploma in Brighton, and there was very little work around, I managed to find a few architectural things to do, making models and helping tutors with competitions mainly (and drawing layouts for caravan parks now I come to think of it!).  Mind you I also worked for a temp agency, which meant things like cleaning wards and toilets at a mental hospital; clearing tables and washing dishes at a department store restaurant; stewarding at football matches; moving office furniture etc. People were generally quite surprised to hear I had a degree in architecture.

I wonder what qualifications you need for clearing snow?

Sunday 15 February 2009

Pikku hiljaa

Pikku = small
Hiljaa = quiet
'pikku hiljaa' = slowly

Yesterday we moved back to Mellunmäki (Lit: noises-hill) from Itäkeskus (east-centre), where we have been flat sitting for the last  six or seven weeks. (Actually it is much quieter here). Internet access was a bit spotty there (which is one of my excuses for the paucity of blogs) but mainly it was the novelty of unfettered access to a leather sofa in front of large, new TV with cable, a recorder, DVD and Xbox hooked up to it that distracted me in my spare time. Since we don't have sole use of the (old) TV here, and it doesn't have the peripherals I expect to be spending more time with my laptop again.  I've also go a few posts I started writing but didn't finnish to catch up on, so expect a spike in activity from hölynpöly towers...

Setä ja täti

Olemme nyt setä ja täti - minun veljanpoikani syntyi pari päivää sitten. No niin, onnantoivotukset keskiveljalleni ja hänen puolisollensa! *

Last week the topic in my conversation course was perhe - family. Which was a subject on my mind anyway for the reason mentioned above.  Compared to English, Finnish is sometimes a bit funny when it comes to words for relatives, being alternately vague, very specific or over endowed. You may already know that there is only one word for he/she (hän), which gives you an idea of what I'm getting at. 

  • Children (lapset)
  • Poika - boy or son
  • Tytär - girl or daughter
  • Sisko, sisar, systeri - sister
  • Veli - brother
  • Nephew - no specific word, but the compound: veljanpoika / sisarenpoika (brother's son / sister's son) is used
  • Niece - again no specific word: veljantytär / sisarentytär (brother's daughter / brother's daughter)
  • Setä - Uncle (Father's brother)
  • Eno - Uncle (Mother's brother)
  • Täti - Aunt
  • Käly - Sister-in-law
  • Lanko - Brother-in-law
  • Puoliso - spouse, partner
  • Mies - husband, man, mister, male, bloke, etc... (could be confusing); Aviomies - husband; Avomies - cohabitant/common-law husband (i.e. not actually married but in finland has same rights - which is lucky if you miss the i out on a form...)
  • Vaimo / Aviovaimo - wife; Avovaimo - cohabitant/common-law wife
And for especially for my mum:
  • Grandmother - isoäiti, mummo, mummu, mummi



* If all that didn't help translate, it says: We are now uncle and aunt - my nephew was born a couple of days ago. So, congratulations to my middle brother and his partner!

Saturday 14 February 2009

Friends: The one where it isn't quite the same as St. Valentine's Day


Tänään on ystävän päivä - mutta 'Valentine' on erilainen...

If you are used to the British / American commercialised version of St. Valentine's day (selling the ideal of romantic anonymous gestures like flowers, chocolates, champange, of maybe a candlelit dinner for two, or a  surprise trip to Paris) you could be forgiven for thinking that Ystävän Päivä being today, 14th February, is just the Finnish version of that. Not quite.  

After Konna and I became a couple, the first time St. V's day came round* I had known her (and anything about Finland) less than a year. So I was a bit taken back when she got a number of cards and presents from Finland, and even more confused when they turned out to be from various mainly female friends; was there something I didn't know about her past!? Well of course there was (although not like that). In Finland Feb 14th is 'Friends Day' (no, not a celebration of the TV show) and is not so strongly connected with romance, and cards an presents are swapped by friends, although the Anglo-American version is encroaching... 

So Happy Friend's Day to all our hölynpöly friends...



*Actually there is another story about that same year - but Konna say's I can't tell everyone she fell asleep halfway through the fancy romantic candle-lit meal I made her on our first Valentine's... 

Friday 6 February 2009

Ice, ice, baby

Ice fishing/Pilki: From Helsinki/Porvoo January 09

In the last couple of weeks (yes I know it's a bit late, but hey - this a blog not a news service) Helsinki has finally had enough snow (10-25 cm) and a cold enough period (-10 to -15°C for several days) for the lakes/sea inlets to freeze properly/thick enough to be walked on (I heard it's about 15 cm). With the cold temperatures came a few days of clear skies and the sun skimming over the roof-tops and tree line, bringing out skiers, skaters and ice-hole fishers to enjoy the ice and snow.

Unlike the UK, Finland hasn't run out of salt and grit yet, and life just carries on in these conditions (which of course are normal/mild winter here), but at a cost in resources and equipment which I imagine would be difficult to justify when only used a few days a year, or every 4 or 5 years on the recent scale:
Local councils [in UK] spent £138m last year on clearing snow and ice. The Highways Agency spends another £30m on average.
But Finland, which has a similar sized road network to the UK, spends more than £400m. [source BBC]

In fact there has been some debate here that in Helsinki (particularly younger people) are getting used to milder, less cold/snowy winters and aren't so prepared for harsher weather (there was a recent case reported of child dying in -20°C in a sledge while parents were skiing); and that drivers (particularly bus drivers) are less used to driving in snow here now. 

There is also the cost to individual drivers, as by law you have to fit winter tyres which are going to set you back several hundred £/€ at least (probably more as most people by a whole second set of wheels).  This also means that snow ploughs and diggers start clearing the snow at 4am so that everyone can get to work... not a quiet operation outside your bedroom window I can assure you!

---

The snow and ice is just as slippery here as anywhere else, and despite best efforts to grit and sand (not much salt though, Finland is cutting back as it pollutes it's many lakes as well as hardening your arteries) every square centimetre of Helsinki, while out walking on Sunday I still managed to slip and land on my knee, while simultaneously straining my calf (how is that even physically possible?) - so have been limping around ever since. Maybe I will have to get spiky winter over shoes like the grannies wear...


Thursday 5 February 2009

Runebergin päivä


Runebergin Torttu: Hfb:lta Flkr:lta


Tänään on Runebergin päivä, ja on lippu päivä Suomessa (minun täytyy sanoa, koska Sähkötonttu kiroilaa jos unhotaan lippu päivä). Johan Ludvig Runeberg on Suomen kansallisrunoilija. Hän oli suomalainen ruotinkielinen runoilija, kirjailija ja toimittaja, ja hän syntyi 5. helimikuuta 1804 ja kuoli 6. toukokuuta 1877. 

Eilen me söimme runebergin torttuja kun kävimme sähkötalon aaltokahvilassa jälkeen minun suomen 'keskustellaan' kurssi.

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Happy Birthday Mr. Hugo Wave...

From Favourites

Aalto means 'wave' in Finnish.  Which is appropriate for an architect who brought sinuous, wave-like, fan forms to soften and humanise rational, rectilinear, Modernism. His first name was actually Hugo - maybe he liked the alliteration from his middle name more...

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto. Syntyi 1898, kuoli 1976.

Sunday 1 February 2009

Where's my zero-emission jetpack?

COPYRIGHT: KAUKO HELAVUO & FINNAIR


If you've read George Monbiot's book Heat you'll know that there is a considerable school of thought that flying just isn't a sustainable way to travel if we want to tackle global warming (along with combustion engine cars and, annoyingly, high-speed trains amongst other things).  He puts forward a convincing argument, and yet I have still flown at least 3 times since reading it.

Finnair is 85 years old this year (which is a strange number to celebrate if you ask me, but maybe given global economics waiting another 5 years is too risky!) and unsurprisingly for an airline are similarly in denial about there being a sustainable future for air transport with their Departure 2093: Five Visions of Future Flying with no.2 being 'flying is ecological'. Of course they don't say what the weather is like outside, although the ability to land on water is mentioned which will be useful if the ice caps have melted by then.

On the design front they present their 'future fleet' of supersonic, super wide-body cruisers, space hotel shuttles, and personal zero-emission aircraft. But one question where's my jetpack?