Grow your own frosted glass

Sugar frosted privacy

Enjoy a tasty new 'acid etched' look to your balcony. (Please note you should take a good look at the view before using this recipe as you won't be seeing it again for a while...)

Ingredients:

• 1 x glazed in balcony
• 1 x micro-sauna
• Water
• 1-2 x humans
• Seasoning: baste with beer or cider to taste

Instructions:

1. Chill glazed balcony to around -15 to -20°C (if you can't fit yours in the freezer you may need to relocate to, say, Helsinki in the winter which has an over-abundance of apartment blocks with said items)
2. Pre-heat ridiculous micro-sauna to 70-90°C for 20 mins. If you don't have a micro-sauna an ordinary sized one will work fine (or as some would say, far better), although you should pre-heat for up to an hour.
3. Place humans in sauna. You may need to do this one at a time if you are using the stupidly small micro-sauna. Add water as necessary to give the bodies a good löyly - this may take between 2 and 20 minutes depending how well done you like them.
4. Quickly move the steaming bodies to the balcony - wrapping them in towels is usually recommended.
5. Allow to rest, occasionally basting with your choice of beverage.
6. After about 5-10 mins repeat stages 3-5 until a satisfactory layer of frost is achieved.
7. Rinse humans and store carefully for future use.

Are we here yet?

Kurpitsat! From Winter 2009 - Helsinki & around.

In case you were wondering we didn't turn into pumpkins, but did actually come back to Helsinki. So what's been happening to Emmdee and Konna?

• A fancy dress party where we went as teenagers c. 1987 (for me think black jeans, sister's of mercy T-shirt, studded belt...; for Konna think language student - complete with EF rucksack)
• A week dog/house sitting (good weather for walkies in the central park - where Konna had never been!)
• Mennimme Linnänmäkiin - katso valot karne kuvista (see Linnänmaki Carnival of lights pictures on Picasa) - the lazer show was crap though...
• Five (more) boxes of stuff arrived from UK: we now have more clothes, a TV, DVD/home cinema, and A3 printer again after a year! Hurrah! (But where the heck do we put it all?)
• DVD player and printer aren't working! Boo! Where's that insurance claim form...?
• Konna is working for a small but successful and critically acclaimed practice doing very interesting buildings (down to the doorknobs) ... can't say any more than that
• We (or I as Konna is working full time now) may have some small projects coming... the big problem is of course what to call the company if we do
• Menin hämmäsläkkärille / suunhygenistille, ja nyt minun hampaat ovat (melkein) valkoinen... ja hän sanoi minulle - sinä puhu hyvin suomea jos olet assunut suomessa vain yhden vuoden (!) Well who says Finns aren't polite?
• 'Somebody' lost that dentist bill - cue comedy misunderstanding of spelling of my name on telephone: dee ... day - pay?, DEE - bee?; DAY - ...? Voisinko lähetää sinulle sähköposti..?
• First sauna for six weeks (I even started to miss it)
• First cycle ride for six weeks (since the biggie); 75km Porvooseen ja takaisin - was so damp and cold that on the way back had to stop at a bus stop to take of my shoes and socks to warm my frozen numb feet; notes to self: a) dress warmly when it's 5°C; b) after six weeks 75km is too far...
• A video of my TdH triumph is on Strands here; and my Strands page is here (a sort of Facebook/training log for running/cycling)
• We may have blinked and missed autumn... it snowed today...

Kaappi kuin kaappi

Savusauna at Taiska's cottage in Sysmä (hatch for the outgoing smoke & incoming candle light)

My mom was born in a savusauna in 1945 near the place were Kekkonen is from. Perhaps you know the place perhaps you don't - that's not relevant... Relevant is the next question that was made to my mom when she told the story of her being only 1.9kg and coming to the world only after 7 months in the safety of my grandmother's womb. the question was: 'Oliko siellä keskoskaappi?' (=was there an incubator?)

How detached are we from the reality that in 1945 in the middle of nowhere (7km from the main road to the nearest village, which is approximately 30km away) in a savusauna the last thing there could have been is an incubator, unless the Doctor travelling in a blue phone box brought it there! The next question was: 'No oliko siellä edes kätilö?' (= was there a midwife then?) Yes, the old hag from the neighbour's house, said my mom... The title 'Kaappi kuin kaappi' (= Cupboard as a cupboard) refers mainly to the savusauna acting as 1940's model of an incubator for her (and many others!)

P.S. Emmdee is now on his 'kaappimopo' on the way to kesämökki & 'rapujuhlat' (= cray fish party) for the weekend... Only 130km to go... I'll gladly wait for the Meze to pick me up. Have a good weekend you all!

Melontaretki

I'm heading to the open waters through a narrow passage

It was a pretty still & sunny day when we rented kayaks from the Föglö camping site near Finholma. We had a break from cycling on Thursday 16th July and what could have been a better past time than relaxing legs on board of a kayak. We took a local map & compass with us & bottles of water. Hat was a necessity as the sun was beaming on us.

We spotted a heron or a stork couple (didn't recognise which!... Emmdee only saw the legs underneath, so it could have been anything really...), ducks (sorsia), grebes (silkkiuikkuja), an otter (saukko), and some other sea wild life such as Emmdee capsised near the shore...

On board of Emmdee & staring at him investigating an old boat shed

After the 'melontaretki' we relaxed in the sauna, which had a fantastic setting on the rocky shore - we also threw our winter fur coats away... which means we swam in the sea (can also be a lake) first time this summer... yeah yeah - better late than never!

Sauna (bastu in Swedish) & the view out from the sauna's terrace

17 - Joulusauna

Who would have guessed the Finns like to have a sauna on Christmas eve?

(Although in the morning rather than evening - too much eating to do later...)

(Sorry Konna - the picture with the pig in the sauna [NSFW] was funnier, but the pig wasn't the only thing on show!)

Sweatpod 2000

Via YLE

Okay I made up the name, but this 'sauna capsule' is the real winning entry in the Invention Week competition. Presumably for those with small flats; and to sell to the Japanese to plug into their capsule hotels... It's already portable, but I think the next version should have bigger wheels and an engine so you can have a sauna on the move, I mean it's aerodynamic already. Just think of the time saving and stress relieving potential when stuck in traffic!

But is it just me or do you keep expecting Ripley to wake up and climb out of it?

New experiences, old ways

Smoke Sauna

Having visited Finland half a dozen times I've already experienced some of the more obvious (perhaps stereotyped) parts of Finnish culture and cuisine: like taking saunas and eating reindeer. But the start of this trip has given me the chance to try some new (to me) Finnish traditions.

We had been invited to visit at Konna's laid-back friend Taiska's family cottage - this worked quite well for us as it is on the route to Kesälahti from Helsinki - so we decided to stop over on the way. We were warned that T's mum had a reputation for providing a very generous spread, and we weren't disappointed. Included in the feast was roast elk (hirvipaisti), a bit like beef but richer, softer and almost crumbly, and which I found out later T's dad said he had a close relationship with, meaning he had hunted it himself.

T & family have been building additions and improvements every summer for years, the latest being a Kota (a sort of teepee shaped hut) but more importantly they have a savusauna (smoke sauna) which is 
the old way to heat a sauna using the smoke from the burning wood not 
just the heat for the stones and water. This gives a much 'softer' and more mellow sauna, less harsh löyly (steamy heat 
that comes from throwing water on the stove) particularly compared to 
modern electric stoves; the drawbacks are it takes a long time to heat 
(as all the heat is stored in the massive brick stove as it can't be 
burning while you use it), and smoke=soot so touch any surface and you 
get equally sooty. Not only was the sauna itself different, but for 
the first time this was taken by me with a group of Finnish males, 
including an enthusiastic and talkative rock singer, and a more 
phlegmatic T's dad; so none of that self conscious modesty needed ... 
To cap off this cultural social experience we also drank sahti (an
acquired taste - being a sort of prototype for beer with no hops and very strong) between sessions. I think I'll stick to the Lapin Kulta.  

The next day, after sleeping in an 18th century log out building 
(aitta), we went to the local town's Uotinpäivät (which is a fair that 
commemorates the Viking Olaf's involvement in the area) where amongst 
the stalls selling birch bark baskets, fake crocs, felt shoes, and 
lehtuja (fake crepes) I got the chance to hand grind some flour on T's 
Dad’s stall. And tomorrow we'll make sämpylä (something like bread rolls)...

[edited 18/8/08]