The long expected part... err update
It's been three weeks since I left Finland. Nothing much has happened, but time has still gone by fast. I am trying to get used to an internetless life once again. I got spoiled on my recent visit. This is going to be a far too long and rambling update, but here it is anyhow - my life during the past weeks:

The last day in Finland was not a very pleasant one. I really really did not want to leave. I did leave though and not just because I had to, but because I was not ready to give up so easily.

The boatride from Helsinki to Germany was very relaxing. There were so few passengers that I got the entire cabin to myself. They're the size of a large hotel room - two beds, couch, armchair, huge desk... bigger than some people's apartments. All the food was included in the price and I was determined to eat my money's worth. I came to regret that decision. My Friday's program was such: wake up at 8, breakfast, back to sleep, wake up at 12, lunch, watch a movie, tea&cake, little shopping, shower and dinner. The next morning at breakfast I could barely eat a few pieces of fruit.

The carride from Germany to Holland took me 6 hours, all done in very bad fog. I could barely see the road, my poor car was trying its best to go 150km/h (about 100mi/h) and still those crazy german drivers just zoomed past me. Most of them were doing at least 200km/h (130mi/h). In that fog. Lunatics.

Miraculously I found my way directly to SPB, hesitantly knocked on the door and it was opened by a person who didn't look much like his pictures. My first, silly, question was "Do I know you?". We went for a little bit of Rotterdam sightseeing and I found myself a cheap printer. Due to his cats and my damn allergies I spent the night at another Dutch friend where I met some other old friends as well. It felt like I had just been there when in fact it was almost 2 years since I was in Holland before. The guys kept me up late so that the next morning I slept in late and had just about time to pick up some of my things from SPB and then head for the ferry.

When I finally arrived on English soil it was already about 9pm and pitch black outside. No street lights and it also started to rain. Not the best time to learn how to drive on the left side of the road, I'd say. Frankly, I was absolutely terrified. It was so strange when my brains knew that I need to drive on the left, but my instincts kept screaming at me to change lanes quickly or I'd end up in a head-on collision. I had to constantly tell myself that no, everything is just fine. All the speedlimits and distances are in miles so I have to constantly convert to kilometers to know how fast I can go and how far to go still. I had the strangest feeling when I finally turned onto the driveway at "home". It was definately a very Twilight Zone feeling. There was the house and there was my car, but the two of them didn't belong together. It wouldn't have been any weirder had my car suddenly dropped out of the sky.

The next day I went to the grocery store for the first time with a car. It was such bliss. I could buy anything and everything I needed without having to think how much I would be able to carry back in the bus. Overnight my brains had gotten used to the idea of left-side driving and it felt perfectly natural. Not once did I have to even think about it. Roundabouts are still a bit funny and in general I keep getting lost all the time though. All the roads are lined with these endless nearly-identical houses and so every place looks the same to me. It's amazing how many times I can just circle around and around and still not get where I wanted to.

As I got back to work things got a bit more interesting over at Heathrow airport. Due to fears of an imminent terrorist attack the army was called in to patrol the airport. I never saw any of the tanks myself. My only special sighting was a police officer carrying a machine gun and being escorted by two army guys as they walked through our unit. We are no longer allowed to have trash bins in open areas. Certain places had to be cleaned out completely to allow quick access to see whether somebody has planted a bomb in there or not. Our place was evacuated once due to an unknown bag that had been left behind. With all the warning signs, announcements and police officers patrolling about, it's still amazing how many people leave their luggage behind "just to make a phone call" and then wonder what the big deal was.

For the past week I've been sick, once again. I really can't believe it. The same old cold keeps coming back. When I got back from Finland I was feeling fine, but some people at work were still sick. A week later I had gotten the cold back from them. This time I decided to get myself some sick days off, even though they are all unpaid. This lead to an unbelievable quest into the English medical system. Either there is a major shortage of doctors in the London area or something else is seriously wrong. Most of the doctors operate in these very small practices, basically a private home where a couple of rooms have been converted into a waiting room and the doctor's room. I visited or called quite a number of these. They refused to see me either because I was not registered there or because I lived too far away. I offered to pay money, but still they wouldn't take me. I went to the Hounslow health center and their first available appointment would have been in two weeks. I even called the Finnish embassy to ask if I was doing something wrong or if finding a doctor in England really was so difficult. After waiting for three hours at one place I finally got into see this person who didn't exactly dazzle me with her professionalism. But she granted me the sick leave that I needed, so it was alright.

Enough rambling for now?
Posted 17:40

Alive and kicking
Back in England and so far no ran-over pedestrians. A more thorough report later on when I have more time.
Posted 19:23

Time to go, once again
My ship leaves in a few hours. I can see it from the window, as much as is visible through the snowfall and fog. It's essentially a cargo ship, but it has a few cabins for passengers as well. I'll be sharing mine with somebody else. I should arrive in Germany on Saturday morning. From there I will be driving to Holland where I will spend the night. On Sunday I will then take a ferry from Holland to England and drive the remaining about 150km to home. On the left side of the road. Quite an adventure again.

I don't want to go. I got a taste of the good life again, enjoying all the luxuries and friends. I don't want the holiday to end and to go back to work. I don't want to end up cramped in a small room with a roommate again. I want to be able to use the internet daily. I want to lie on the couch and watch TV. I want people to speak Finnish. I want to go out with friends.

I've learned not to worry too much about my emotions however. Not too long ago I was feeling reluctant to leave England. Once I get back there I'll know how I will really feel. Right now however I just feel like staring at the wall and sighing, instead of packing. I think about my pets in the care of a stranger. I think about my mother crying. Is it all really worth it? I'm back to the whining and moping again.
Posted 15:59

Joke especially for SPB and Weezil
(Trying my best to translate this joke I heard today...)
A blonde was driving down the street when she got pulled over by a police. The cop asked for registeration and licence, as usual. The blonde however had no idea what the policeman meant, but she started looking all over anyhow, checking under the seats and everywhere. The policeman figured that she must have a driver's licence at least and finally told her "It's one of those square things with your picture on it." The blonde went "aahh" and handed a mirror to the cop. The policeman took a look at it and said "You don't need a ticket, why didn't you tell me you're a police officer too?"
Posted 20:39

Right to have children
Sometimes things happen which make me think that we just took another backwards step towards the dark middle-ages again. The latest decision by the Finnish parliament to ban fertility treatments from single women and lesbian couples is one of these absurd mistakes.

In a perfect world every child would have a loving mother and a father, both of the rolemodels would be present in the child's life to teach and guide the child to adulthood. In our world however that rarely happens. Every idiot, alcoholic and paedophile is able to spawn offspring. Children get abandoned, abused, neglected and even killed by their own parents, on a daily basis. Countless children are being raised by a single parent.

As things stand I think it is crazy to still hold on to the belief that what solely makes a child happy is a father and a mother and just realize that what children really need is for somebody to love and care for them. It doesn't matter whether this caretaker is the child's adopted father, aunt, grandmother, gay couple or a single woman. Again, in a perfect world there'd be the perfect way to do things instead, but that just isn't possible.

Some argue about the lack of proper rolemodels if single people or homosexual couples are allowed to raise children. Unless the child is raised locked up in a closet they will inevitably come in contact with all kinds of people. Single parents are raising healthy, perfectly well-adjusted children as I write this. I'd also bet that most of the homosexual people living in the world right now came from within heterosexual marriages. Children never become the perfect clone of their parent(s), not mentally anyways, even if physically it'll be possible one day. A boy raised by a single mother does not turn into a woman.

Some argue that the children of homosexual couples will be teased, even abused, by other children (and adults), because they are different. I was teased, because I had glasses, something which wasn't so common place back then. Should my parents have taken away my glasses then? Badly raised children who want to be cruel to others will still find any excuse to be mean. Not too long ago children with divorced parents were an oddity and probably got harassed about that. Nowadays kids have step-fathers and half-sisters and it's accepted as normal. It's not that big of a leap to also accept that some children would have two fathers, just a mother or two mothers and a father.

It is also interesting to note that all the people who voted for the fertility treatment ban were men. Jealousy? Desire to control women's actions even more? Like I said, sometimes I think we just plunged back into the middle-ages again.
Posted 11:31

Bad boys
I must say the poster for the movie isn't too bad. A bit corny perhaps, but it has other attributes which more than make up for it... Naturally I am talking about the cute kitten, what else?



Posted 17:07

Computers and I
I have further proof that I should just stay well away from computers. They all hate me. In my previous attempts to get the mobile phone to work with my laptop I managed to screw up the settings in such a way that now the regular modem does not work anymore either. It dials normally, makes a connection, checks for account and password and everything seems fine and dandy except that I cannot do anything at all with the connection. All webpages come out as 'not found', no ftp, no telnet. It's just as if I had no connection at all, except there it is. For the past five days I had my laptop repaired at a store and they couldn't figure it out either. They told me to just use the recovery CD. Ho hum. I am cursed.
Posted 09:59

Only in Finland?
There's a new Finnish movie currently playing at the theaters. It is a true-life story based on these four brothers who grew up in a horrible home and subsequently ended up becoming robbers. Eventually all of them got caught and were sent to jail. Couple of them have already been released and the remaining two will get out in a couple of weeks as well. Especially due to the movie the brothers are now enjoying an almost celebrity status.

Meanwhile the parliamentary elections are drawing near. As it happens one of the parties asked all four of the brothers to become electees. They all agreed. So come the elections and we might have convicted felons deciding how this country is run. Absolutely crazy. Looks like one of the brothers will have to decline the honor after all though, since he's been caught stealing again after his release and is most likely facing a new jail sentence...
Posted 19:39

The weather
I admit to reading with quite a lot of amusement about the "bad" weather in Britain right now. They received a couple of inches of snow and it seems the whole country is in chaos. For a Finnish person that's just so funny. No matter how much snow or how cold it gets (I think -52C/-61F is our current record) life continues as normal. Everybody still has to go to work and to school. Planes, trains and cars work like on any ordinary day. I've been silently chuckling to myself reading about all the delays at Heathrow airport and imagining the mayhem going on at work with all those irate passengers. Thank god I am not there!
Posted 12:46