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.

It's not a hobby if you post it on Facebook

Cross-country skiing is something that every Finn can do. And based on Facebook, quite many even like it. Skiing is good sports, it exercises all the muscles in your body - especially the face muscles, as you can't avoid grimaces while climbing up the hills.

Like all the sports, skiing is a matter of equipment. You need to choose your skis according the skiing style and your weight. Do not try to lie round down your weight, you'll be busted and end up having bad skis. The skis must be treated with special wax depending on the weather. The fastening mechanism of the skiing shoes must match with the mechanism on the skis - and naturally the mechanisms are not standardized. The poles need to be tall enough to reach your shoulder. You clothes shouldn't be too heavy, prefer layers instead of thickness. And as a final hint, take a handkerchief with you, your nose will run anyway.

Then where can you ski? Well, basically anywhere where there's snow, but ready made tracks will help a lot. If the tracks are forming some kind of a loop or circle, you usually need to ski the loop counterclockwise. And FYI for the people of Great Britain, we follow the right side traffic on skiing tracks. If there are hills on the way, you can be pretty sure that after a downhill there will be a curve. This is something that is very difficult to understand, even for a Finn: why do all the curves have to locate at the bottom of a hill? Your skis will carry straight on while the track is turning. Sure you can lift your feet and try to correct the direction, but how the hell you're suppose to hit on the track when you set down your foot in full speed? That's why many of us end up on butt in the curves.


Off the track on the butt

Skiing (and picking mushrooms) is obviously something you have to post on Facebook. It didn't happen unless you post it on Facebook. But watch out, the closer to midlife you'll get, the more likely you're going to get addicted to skiing. Something that starts as an innocent attempt to live down your childhood skiing traumas may actually turn into hobby. Depending on the definition of hobby, of course. But one thing is for sure: if you are urged to update your Facebook status with your skiing experience, then it's not a hobby - yet.

Laskiainen

It's laskiaissunnuntai, the Sunday prior to the Shrove Tuesday. For us in Finland the Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day is not just Tuesday, it's also the Sunday before the Tuesday. Laskiainen is again one of those days that has been cleverly explained by the bible, but obviously the roots of the celebration is somewhere much deeper.

Sled and skate board have the same shape but since sled has no wheels beneath I suppose it's ok to park here. Read more about positive experiences in parking the sled.

According the religious explanation, laskiainen refers to verb laskeutua (to settle) - to settle for the fasting that lasts 40 days until the Easter. In my opinion word laskiainen refers to laskea mäkeä (sliding), because on laskiainen you're supposed to go and slide down the hill with sled, toboggan or piece of whatever-slides-in-the-snow. You're supposed to shout for "pitkiä pellavia" ("tall flax" in English, I guess) while sliding: the further you slide, the taller your flax will grow and the better quality fiber you'll get for your linen to be weaved.

In case you're not keen on harvesting top quality flax, you can leave the shouting part, and simply enjoy sliding and focus on the food. Traditional dishes of laskiainen are pea soup and laskiaispulla, a bun filled with cream and strawberry jam or cream and almond paste. And that's the eternal debate: jam or almond paste? You can only find out by trying out.

The day of friends

Valentine's Day is here soon. Ystävänpäivä in Finnish, a direct translation would be something like "the day of friends". The Finnish word ystävänpäivä is actually quite describing, because for us February 14th is more about celebrating friendship, not that much of romantic love.

Then how do we celebrate ystävänpäivä? According to the people of post office Valentine's Day is the second busiest time of the year in terms of sending post cards and letters. That's why they publish a special edition of stamps around the Valentine's. In addition to sending post cards we celebrate Valentine's Day by eating candies. The sales figures of heart-shaped jellies and Brunberg's kisses take a small peak in mid-February. Bakeries have tried to create and advertise all kinds of Valentine's pastries with pink icing, but those ideas haven't flied too far; the February pastry market is already saturated with Runeberg's torte and Laskiaispulla, so there's no room for Valentine's pastry.

In Finland the Valentine's Day is quite minimalistic. Restaurants don't have a Valentine's menu for two, supermarkets are not selling loads of pink confetti. However, I'd like to propose a tradition for celebrating Valentine's Day in Finnish style - since ystävänpäivä was included into Finnish calendar officially in the 80's, let's celebrate it in the style of 80's: dig out a waffle maker (a piece of luxury from the 80's) from somewhere, invite your friends over and make a huge pile of heart-shaped waffles - since the heart-shaped waffle irons used to be the most common (and the only?) model available in Finland.

Material girl survives in the freeze

February is usually the month of crispy freeze. Luckily February is also the shortest month of the year. Fighting against cold is all about material science. Forget the two-striped sports socks. They are made of plastic, and simply useless in sub-zero temperature (and anywhere in public places). Forget cotton as well. You need to sweat just a little, and immediately cotton looses its ability to keep you warm.

Wool is good. If normal wool makes you itchy, try merino or angora. Prefer several thinner layers instead of one bulky sweater. Long Johns are good. Not very sexy but practical. Before investing into woolen Long Johns, check if it's ok to wash that particular piece of wool in the washing machine. Because if it's not meant to be washed in machine, but you do it anyway, you'll end up having felted, shrunk Long Johns... which will probably help you to sing like a soprano, but are awkward to wear. Wool does "autoclean" itself if you let the woolen clothes to recover in the fresh air after wearing them, but for the sake of the environment you will anyway need to wash your Long Johns every now and then. Felted Long Johns may not be the nicest possible clothes, but felted woolen mittens are great. They will keep both cold and wind away. And anyway, mittens are warmer than gloves with places for each finger separately.

In addition to lamb's wool there are other good material to keep you warm, such as silk, alpaca and some artificial fibers. And even though I was mocking the plastic socks in the beginning, it is ok to have small amounts of plastic in your socks - for example if you're planning to knits socks. Within sock yarn it's important to have some artificial fiber (e.g. 25 % acrylic) in addition to wool, to make for example the heels of the socks more durable. You don't want to have holes in the precious self-knit socks only after wearing them few times.

The sock pimp

Some years ago there was an intense media discussion about a problem that presidential candidate Sauli Niinistö had: he was frustrated to spend time in finding the matching pair for the countless number of black socks after washing them. Sauli, may I introduce a Finnish innovation to simplify your laundry circus: Supi the sock holder.

Store the sock pins close to the place you collect the dirty laundry.




Unite the socks with the pin before you dump the socks into the laundry basket. Throw the pinned socks into washing machine. Let it roll.




Use the little hook on top of the pin to hang them drying.

Insurances

The insurance system in Finland is quite different to US, and the insurance portfolio doesn't play that significant role for example when you're negotiating employment contract. I won't start comparing the two systems in details, but check out two very practical and affordable insurances:

Heijastin - reflector. That's your life insurance. The driver sitting behind the Audi wheel cannot see you crossing the road by foot unless you wear a reflector.  

Kumisaappaat - rubber boots. Your health insurance. Keeping your feet dry helps you to keep the flu away.