Million, billion, aren't they the same?

Lately I've been an angry citizen and tax payer. My anger originates from the local politics: Helsinki city board of health affairs were supposed to make a first go/no-go decision for a huge IT project about patient data management system. The decisions made in this particular project potentially effect on the whole country, and the costs of the nation-wide project were estimated to be 1,2 to 1,8 billion euros. In the Finnish economy scale that's a huge project. And one bittersweet detail in this fuzz is our dear neighbor country Estonia, who was able to create their patient data management system with 10 million euros. Well, at the moment the project is on hold, thanks to active discussion in social media.

     Now that's what I call a data management system

It's quite easy to mix millions and billions. I know that the limits of my understanding go somewhere close to 1 billion: I can understand the scale of 1 million. I'm able to understand that 100 million is huge amount of money - that's a scale of a big construction project. As an engineer I'm able to count up to 200 million, 300 million, 500 million and all the way up to 999 million - I understand that the next round figure after 999 million is 1 billion, but I'm struggling to understand the true scale of 1 billion. I just understand it's a hell of a lot money. And I hope the decision makers understand that too.

Let's try to build some perspective to this 1,2 to 1,8 billion. GDP in Finland is about 180 billion. So the estimate of the patient data system project is 1% of the GDP. That's insane. Industry sectors should be measured as "percentages of GDP", not IT projects. Take mining industry as an example. In 2010 the mining industry in Finland was about 750 million euros. In other words, this IT project is twice the size of our mining industry. The project is about the same size as the water and waste management sector in Finland. Really, IT projects are not supposed to be that big.

In 1990's, during the great Finnish recession the GDP dropped 13%. I'm happy that we haven't faced that kind of a drop ever since, but it's clear without saying that also the standards of economy have changed since the 1990's. Nowadays zero-growth in GDP is a concerning news. Decline of 1% in GDP breaks the news for sure, and then they'd be screaming about depression for sure. So practically this IT project could push the Finnish economy into recession, right?

We'll, it's easy to nag about the price tag without offering any kind of reference. I'm not an expert of massive data management systems, but my gut feeling says that with 50 million a nation size of Finland should be able to get a decent patient data management system.

Beer for middle management

Finns have probably always liked beer, but in the past 10 years the small individual microbreweries have started to raise their head. And they surely are warmly welcomed to boost the flat offering of Lapin Kulta, Karjala, Olvi and Koff. The latest newcomer in the Finnish microbrewery scene is Ruosniemen Panimo, Ruosniemi Brewery. The past couple of weeks have been historic for Ruosniemi guys, since their debut beer has just become available in couple of pubs in Helsinki and Pori.

Pikkupomo. As you can see from the receipt, I paid the beer myself, 

so this is not one of those "blogger-gets-goodies" sponsorships.

The first publicly available beer of Ruosniemi Brewery is called Pikkupomo - the name refers to a boss working in the lower middle management. I ordered a glass of Pikkupomo at Pub Black Door in Helsinki city center. And boy oh boy, that Pikkupomo was my kind of boss: brownish, somewhat bittersweet and chunky on the body. A very tasty summer ale. I could take assignments from this kind of Pikkupomo.

The guys behind the brewery have their background mostly in chemistry. They have academic degrees in chemical engineering, process technology, foam formation and all kind of master stuff in the field of chemistry. The brewery thing is not exactly a profession or main job for any of the Ruosniemi guys, even though the brewery itself is very professional - they have even purchased old professional dairy equipment and pimped the hardware to meet the needs of their brewing process.

Ok, so it's not a full-time profession, but then how do you categorize or describe this kind of microbrewery activity? For sure you can't call it amateur activity - amateurs would never get a reliable process in place. Even though the brewery is not the main job of the Ruosniemi guys, I feel 'hobby' is a misleading term too: making miniature aeroplanes or knitting socks can be a hobby, but entering the beer market with a commercial product is totally above the hobby level. 'Brewery as a lifestyle' sounds like it's directly from a shiny design magazine. Maybe 'a lifeline for real-life pikkupomos' would be describing enough?

Design machines

As I wrote earlier, it was a surprise for me that the ice hockey world championship games were hosted in Helsinki. I was equally surprised when I saw the construction work of European athletics championship at Helsinki Senate Square - are we hosting those as well? Obviously I'm not the primary target group when marketing sports events, since these Helsinki sports events keep coming as a surprise to me.

The Helsinki happening that I haven't missed is the World Design Capital year. I've spotted WDC logos, ads and events everywhere. But that's ok, I feel I belong to the primary target group of WDC fuzz. To be honest, I think the WDC marketing has been even a bit too active, I think they've tried to put word "design" into places where it doesn't belong to.

Anyway, today I visited HI Design exhibition at Kaapelitehdas. The exhibition is part of the WDC and it presented design, industrial art and wonderful Finnish machines. There were automatic forklifts, nice elevators, new tram, building automation system running on solar power, the device history of Nokia phones, etc.



There was also an armored vehicle. I believe for many Finns it is perfectly normal to present a tank as a crown jewel of Finnish design. But I can also imagine that armored vehicles in general may not be 100% politically correct piece of design in some other cultures. Well, in some cultures you don't consider tractors either as top design - but we do.



The exhibition is free, and it's open from Thursday to Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm until September 2nd.

Tramsformers

In Helsinki city center you should keep your eye on the ground, especially when crossing a road on tram rails.

The other ones rule the hoods of Kamppi, Urho Kekkosen katu.




And the others' territory is at Kluuvi, Aleksanterinkatu.

Now this is the kind of sightseeing I like!

Vappu in pictures

Vappu is the only real carnival in Finland, and therefore it deserves its own post in pics. Pictures tell more than words.



It all started on May Day's Eve at restaurant Allotria. Good swing, good food, good mood.



Vallilan vapputanssit, dancing in the park at Vallila.



Puhvetti stands for affordable home-made snacks.



Watching the May Day's Eve over the roofs of Helsinki.



Please don't pee on the street.



Sitting Bull crossing the Pitkä silta with quite a speed. I wonder if he's a working class hero or capitalist.



Manta a.k.a Havis Amanda bathing in the morning sun on the first of May.



Julkku magazine, made by teekkarit, sold by teekkarit for teekkarit.



Kaivopuisto and Ullanlinnanmäki in Vappu morning.



Yes, Vappu is the celebration of students and other folks wearing overall.



These were invented long before OnePiece and other trendy jump suits.



Retuperän WBK playing newer French horn music.



People, take off the cardboard stiffener from your hat! Nobody's cap is that stiff in real life.



Delicious picnic sandwich.



Some doughnuts and pavlova.



Now that's what I call uniform! Cap, beige spring coat and a glass of bubbly.

It was a hauska vappu!

Kristina från Duvemåla

Yesterday I went to see musical called Kristina från Duvemåla (Kristina from Duvemåla) in the recently renovated Swedish Theater.

The story is based on Swedish epic about immigrants who moved from Sweden to America in the late 19th century. The musical is written by the ABBA guys Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus - but the music was not exactly Waterloo or Dancing Queen type of songs. But I liked the it. However, it wasn't the compositions or the story that made the musical good; the key was the leading actress Maria Ylipää and her beautiful, beautiful voice. She didn't sound like a traditional "singing actress", and she wasn't "acting singer" either (although her role was mostly to sing, not to act), but her voice was simply clear, flawless and beautiful.

Unfortunately you can't use words "flawless" or "beautiful" to describe her wig. It was a clear wig, a clumsy one. She had to be transformed into a blond, as Swedes do, but the wig was horrible. Another negative side of the musical was the duration: it lasted for 4 hours. I know it's difficult to be compact, and therefore I respect it so highly - but I'm sure they could have squeezed it into 3 hours.

All in all, great music, smart stage design and jolly good actors. If you want to go and see a musical in Finland, I recommend you to take the Swedish option. Last year I went to see Les Miserables in Turku Swedish Theater, and that was excellent too - better than the Finnish version in the Helsinki City Theater some years ago.

Some advice if you go and check Kristina:

• The musical is sold out for many months on, but it's definitely worth asking for cancellation tickets if you're ready for short notice.
• If you're booking tickets right now and considering the balcony seats, book your seats on the left balcony. The actors are spending quite a lot of time at the right side of the stage, so you'll have better view on the left.
• Wear a light jacket. They have a weird, small, semi-unattended wardrobe, so you might want to take your jacket with you into hall.
• The break is 30 minutes, in case you want to optimize the toilet business. After 20 minutes of the break the queue in the ladies room was gone.

Staycation in Helsinki

During my holiday I've been mostly wandering around Helsinki like a tourist.




View from Tähtitorninmäki (observatorium hill?) to Kallio church along Unioninkatu. The church is 2,5 km away.




"On siis kevät..." - scene of a song.




Had coffee at the market place.

Looked through gateways into quadrangles.

Went to see my favorite statue, the Mouse at the National Archive. The statue is only 12 cm tall.

Hakaniemi market hall

The loveliest place to buy food in Helsinki is Hakaniemi market hall. At the ground floor you can find meat, sausages, fish, bread, pastries, chocolate, olives, spices, vegetables, candies, you name it. On the second floor there are for example Marimekko (they usually have some outlet stuff too), yarn, buttons, cards, bead work, etc.

And by the way, the Hakaniemi market square, right next to the hall is the most genuine market place in Helsinki. No reindeer t-shirsts and other tourist crap, as they do at Kauppatori market place in the city center. And Hakaniemi is just one metro stop away from Kauppatori.

Ice hockey for beginners

It's the play-off season in the Finnish ice hockey league. I have no understanding or passion towards ice hockey, but this is what I've learnt: just pick a favorite team and stand by the team in good times and in bad - that's the best way to mingle and bond with the sports people of Finland. But please be warned, ice hockey may just be the topic that reveals the full scale of feelings within always-so-calm-and-neutral Finns. The feelings can be anything between joy and rage. For example, to my experience people get very happy, they even start to laugh, whenever I'm praising SaiPa as the best team in the league.

I hope the list below helps you to get familiar with who's who in the Finnish ice hockey league. And once you're familiar with the teams, you're ready for full scale hockey debate.

• HIFK - The traditional team of Helsinki. People who have lived in Helsinki for generations are fans of HIFK. They have the image of pure, genuine, uncorrupted, rough and no-bullshitting team who raises their own juniors to stars.
• Jokerit - The new, go-getter team of Helsinki. HIFK fans think that the name Jokerit originates from joke. Money talks, so they purchase their players from other teams.
• Espoo Blues - A team name without a history. Some say it reflects Espoo as a city without a history. I preferred the old name of the team: Kiekko-Espoo, Puck-Espoo.

• SaiPa - One of the wonders of the East, Lappeenranta. The best team in the league, as long as you don't get stuck with the details, such as the games they've won, or the goals they've scored or kept.
• KalPa - The best team in the league, even when counting the goals and points. My symphaties are on Kalpa's side, after all, they are a small town team from Kuopio.
• Tappara and Ilves - The two Tampere teams which you can't differentiate from each other. If you're poetic, you can always start a conversation with "kannatetaan Tapparaa ja syödään mustaa makkaraa" - let's stand for Tappara and try some black sausage.
• Kärpät - A skillful team from Oulu. The fans are pure hooligans.

To be honest, the only form of ice hockey I really enjoy is the hockey league salmiakki candies. But if I'm in a position to choose whichever one of the orange candies, I naturally try to pick one with SaiPa logo.

Public sauna

If you think Finns are always quiet and never talk to a stranger, you're wrong. Very wrong. Public saunas are the places where Finns talk to strangers, proactively and even actively. And now I'm not talking about swimming hall saunas or spa steam rooms, but real public saunas with no swimming pool, no jacuzzi - only sauna, shower, dressing room and a kiosk where you can buy soft drinks and juice.



The houses built in the 50's or earlier may not have a sauna of their own, because in the old days there has probably been a public sauna somewhere close by in the neighborhood. There has been about 100 public saunas in Helsinki, but nowadays there are only few left. Sauna expert friends of mine took me to Hermanni public sauna, which is a small, cosy and maybe not that well-known public sauna with a gentle electric stove. Kotiharju sauna with wood stove is bigger and more popular among tourists, and sauna Arla is famous of its gas stove.

I warmly recommend to try a public sauna, it's a living piece of urban history in Helsinki. I can't think of any other place where people would be more equal than in public sauna: sitting and sweating naked in dark heat, side by side regardless of your background, income or opinions. That's an atmosphere you simply can't sense by reading a guidebook.

One-time ticket is around 10 euros, beverages cost couple of euros a bottle. You can bring your own towel but they also borrow towels for couple of euros. There are back washing services available, but you need to book that in advance. The real hard core adventurists may even try out kuppaus, cupping.

Public saunas

Restaurant Day

Next Saturday, on February 4th delicious things are happening: It's Restaurant Day.

On Restaurant Day anyone can set up a restaurant for a day. You can figure out the theme, menu, target group, location and dish price yourself - only the imagination sets you the limits! And then just sign up for the event with your restaurant, and you'll get your restaurant on the event site and into official map. So if you have always dreamed about the restaurant of your own, this is your chance to try it out for one day as the first step. The food can and should taste and look like self-made.

Or, if you're not keen on cooking for others, go and take a tour on pop-up restaurants at the event. Take some cash with you, print the map, plan your tour and go go go! In the past events the portions have usually been bigger than snack but smaller than a feast, so what comes to the volume of your stomach, you can afford to visit several restaurants. The atmosphere of the event is lovely, and in fact the Restaurant Day was recently awarded as a "cultural act of the year". This is simply one of the must experiences.

Espoo, the heart and brain of Finland

New York Times ranked Helsinki as the second most interesting places to visit in 2012. I'm happy for the ranking because I love Helsinki, and I think that among Berlin and London it's one of the nicest cities in Europe. But there is one thing I don't like in Helsinki: the attitude towards Espoo.

If Europeans want to act like an intellectual, the easiest way to do that is to mock Americans. The same applies to the intellectuals of Helsinki: the easiest (and the cheapest) way of underlining your own intelligence is to say something ironic and pitiful about Espoo. For example to claim that in Espoo there are no cafés, and to imply that cool people like writers and freelancers are unable to work in Espoo. Well, just for your information, Tuomas Kyrö has been spotted many times writing at Chico's Tapiola. And he's the Finnish writer with the largest amount of street credibility at the moment, isn't he.

The hipsters of Helsinki see Espoo as the incarnation of middle class life style. In Espoo everybody lives in suburbs. Everybody wears a helmet while biking. Everybody is an engineer or married with one. Everybody picks yellow foot chanterelles in the fall and skis in the winter.


Espoo may not have a history, but it sure has a future.

Dear Helsinki, loosen up. Espoo is not competing with you, Espoo is facilitating you. Espoo may not be a historical city with a lively center, but we don't care, we can borrow yours and make Helsinki history and downtown even more vivid. And yes, we are living in suburbs, but that's because Espoo has actually done something concrete regarding land-use for people to live in and for companies to run business, while Helsinki (and Laura Kolbe) has been just discussing about how to make "urban living rooms" for the citizen. And according the leaked secret plan, Espoo and Helsinki may be anyway merged into one city.

Helsinki wouldn't be as appealing as it is without Espoo. Helsinki may be the soul of Finland, but Espoo is the heart and brain. Espoo pumps life into Helsinki. Espoo acts logically and lets Helsinki be the decadent one. Soul is something mysterious and unique, something that nobody can completely chasten. But in order to nurture the soul you need both heart and brain for sure.

In sickness and in health

Cold, flu, temperature, fever, sickness, illness... I'm not sure about all the nuances of the seasonal flu in English, but it all comes down to running nose, sore throat, coughing, sneezing and cold. People tend to say that germs, viruses and bacterial don't survive in a freezing cold weather - which means that a wet winter like this is ideal for catching a cold. I don't know about that, but currently I'm having my first flu in three years (and the past two winters have been extremely snowy and cold).

Being ill is miserable, but it's even more miserable in unfamiliar environment. I hope these are useful:

Apteekki - pharmacy. You can find pharmacies in almost all shopping centers, but you might need some with extended opening hours: There's a 24h pharmacy in Töölö, Mannerheimintie 96, and another one in Helsinki city center that serves from 7 am to midnight.

View Pharmacies in a larger map

Särkylääke - painkillers. The most common painkillers sold in Finland are based either on ibuprofen (such as Burana and Ibumax) or paracetamol (such as Panadol and Paracetamol-Ratiopharm). You don't need a recipe for these medicine, but they may not sell you more than one box of each at a time.

Mustaherukkamehu, mustaviinimarjamehu - black currant juice. Mix it with hot water. Black currant is rich in vitamin C and it's the only juice that actually tastes when you're palate is gone with the flu.

Health care. All who live permanently in Finland are entitled to primary health care and hospital services, regardless of the nationality, additional insurances, etc. Based on your home address you belong into certain health care region, and you should visit the nearest health station, unless it's an emergency (seasonal flu is not an emergency). Check out more information on the website of your city - at least Helsinki and Espoo have quite ok info in English too.

Hätänumero - emergency number. That's 112, no need for region codes. If you only need consultation (and not an ambulance) there's a 24/7 phone service for health advice: 09 10023. This number is valid in Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Kauniainen, and Kerava, and they serve you in Finnish, English and Swedish.

Despite the coughing and sneezing: Happy New Year!

P.S. I'm shocked about the English web pages of Yliopiston Apteekki. All they have in English is "year 2010 in brief". Who's interested in 2010 in brief when you're looking for relief to your pain? How about having opening hours and contact information in English instead? I had to send them some feedback, let's see if they reply.

--

Edited on Jan 4th 2012: The director of e-services and marketing at Yliopiston Apteekki replied to my feedback. She thanked for the idea of translating the opening hours and contact info into English, as they see tourists and immigrants as important customer group. Let's see when they actually get the pages translated.

(B)lock the doors and close the blinds

The great holiday sale is everywhere. I'm not usually a friend of sale nor shopping but in the past days I have probably spent saved by sale shopping more than I would have earned at the same time by working.

Nonetheless, one can consider shopping trips also as real estate field study. I've faced one questionable jewel of HVAC design in almost all the shopping centers I've visited in the past sale shopping days: blocked sliding doors.



Why do shopping centers block the sliding doors of their main entrance? No, it's not a maintenance break, it's because they don't want the chilly air to blow in. Then why on earth do most of the shopping centers in Finland have such a door system that allows the chilly wind to blow in? Tell me about it. Chilly weather simply cannot come as a surprise in a place like Helsinki!

In professional terms I'm a bit disappointed with Kamppi shopping center. Kamppi is rather modern shopping center, it did win several awards in the building and construction industry - and yet they couldn't come up with any smarter HVAC solution than blocking the sliding doors whenever the temperature drops below +3 C. New innovations needed here, please.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela

This is an opportunity served on a silver plate: Art exhibition by Akseli Gallen-Kallela is open until January 15th at the second floor of Tennispalatsi, right next to Kamppi bus station. They have free entrance from Dec 27th to 31st - so this is your chance to get to know the Finnish artist. The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday at 11 AM - 7 PM, but e.g. on New Year's Eve they close at 3 PM.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela was the hottest artist in Finland in the late 19th - early 20th century, and he had a significant role in building the Finnish cultural identity. His most famous pieces are large oil paintings, but he also made frescos, posters and more symbolic experiments.

Then a sightseeing tip for the spring: Gallen-Kallela's studio is located in Espoo, right next to Leppävaara. The house is amazing, there's a café on the yard and the view is beautiful. It's really worth visiting (at least the garden, if you don't care for the paintings that much) for example on May, when the nature around the place starts to bloom.


Näytä Gallen-Kallela studio suuremmalla kartalla

Something concrete

Yesterday I met a nice Dutch lady (meeting a nice Dutch isn't the news, I think I've met only nice Dutch people). She was the mom of the family where my friend was staying during her exchange student year. I ended up talking about concrete with the Dutch exchange mom. Precast concrete, to be more precise. And why did we have this concrete conversation? Well, because considering the size of the population and the size of the construction market, both Finland and Netherlands are world's top countries in using precast concrete elements. At least that's what they taught us in the university, and my experiences at work are supporting the claim.

A nice precast concrete building in the Netherlands 

(image from Tekla global BIM awards)

I don't know for sure what's Holland's excuse to use that much of precast elements in the construction, but at least in Finland the top three reasons have been the unfavorable weather, high labor costs and migration from countryside to cities in the 60's.

In the beginning of the 60's the population of the capital area was a bit above 500 000, and by the end of 60's it was nearly 700 000. I may be exaggerating a bit, but still, the population increased by one third during a decade! So they needed to build. A lot. Fast. In the construction boom of the late 60's and early 70's some of the concrete block houses were designed to last for 30 years only. They were not designed to go through the putkiremontti, they were not designed to go through the facade renovation - which makes the renovation really expensive today, and even after the renovation end result may not fulfill the requirements of the 21st century.

So, what shall we do with Merihaka? Any concrete suggestions?


Näytä Concrete block houses suuremmalla kartalla

Another view point

I've been on guided Helsinki tour few times. To be honest, mostly the tours have been quite boring: We've been sitting in a bus or tram, the guide has explained some details about this and that - without trying to put them into any relevant context, theme or timeline.

Two classical buildings that each sightseeing tour passes by and all the guides mention, are the National Museum and Finlandia Hall - they are conveniently just opposite to each other, and the busses and trams drive in between the buildings.

Instead of spotting the National Museum and Finlandia hall on a boring sightseeing tour, take a walk around Töölönlahti, the small bay next to Finlandia hall. Have a (coffee and pulla) break at Sinisen Huvilan Kahvila (Café at the Blue Villa). Look at the other side of the bay:

The dark vertical stripe on the facade of Finlandia hall matches perfectly with the tower of the National Museum!

The urban history

There are 108 cities or towns in Finland. Most of the cities are nice - in summer. According to the city marketing department, their city is the most unique place with fascinating history, clean nature, and generally, it's the ideal place to live your life and practice your business.

In reality there are three cities in Finland. Each of them have intriguing history. Right.

1) Turku
Former capital. Has always been there, excluding the times it was burnt down. Finnish language was invented in Turku, which is scary because Turku dialect sounds as if lamb was baaing in Finnish.

2) Helsinki
Current capital. Was established by a king of a neighbor country, and he had to force people to move into Helsinki.

3) Other 106 places with the legal status of town
The foundation of the town was established in the end of the last ice age, when the melting ice and snow run into rivers. 11 500 years later someone decided to build a tissue paper factory by the river and set up two concrete block houses. 45 years later someone decided to quit the paper factory and merge the town with the neighbor town.

So there are 108 cities in Finland - in summer. And nearly each of the 108 cities host some sort of a festival during the summer time. But only three of the cities are not sleeping on winter: Helsinki, Turku and Tampere. Tampere is the only town from the third category that has managed to turn into something like city.