A tale of two citizenships

This last week saw round one of our presidential elections and a bit of an upset. Round two candidates are Pekka Haavisto (Greens) and Sauli Niinistö (National Coalition Party). I previously wrote about the candidates here. Currently support is running 60 +% for Sauli, 30+ % for Pekka. One more week to go before round...

Pea Soup: A recipe

Further to my previous posting, here is the (metric) recipe. Pea Soup (serves 4) 2 l water 4 dl dried peas 750 g pork shank or blade / chuck (on the bone) salt to taste 2-3 medium-sized carrots. (1-2 meat or vegetable stock cubes) Soak the peas overnight. Add meat and carrots to the soaking...

Pea Soup….

Recently The Beader posted about how she doesn't really 'get' pea and ham soup. She would have a tough time in Finland, where pea soup is regularly served up for school lunches, at lunch restaurants and many dinner tables on a Thursday night. Wikipedia has this to say on the matter 🙂 It's been a...

and the candidates are…

As promised previously, here is some information on this year's presidential election candidates. The link behind each candidate's name will take you to a short interview that was conducted in English before Christmas. I think this may be the first time that all the candidates have been interviewed in English and by the same person. David...

My first restaurant review

There's an old saying that if you  have a good experience you tell 1 person and 5 people if it's a bad experience. Well I thought I should do a little research and it turns out that these numbers aren't so exact. Rule of thumb seems to be that you'll pass on the good news to one...

Two little words…

I'm on a mission this year. I want to bring back the humble art of saying Thank You. Previously I've tried really hard the day after the night before to send a little card to the host (or hostess as the case generally is for BookClub gatherings), just to say thanks for a nice / fun...

A week in the life…

This is what I've been up to today. We've had a busy week with three meetings about the grade 7 decision. The coming week has three more. Then there was the health professional who brought four little letters to the table and a possible chemical solution. Still working my head around that, and I'm not...

Election time is looming…

In two weeks time we go to the polls for round one of the Presidential elections! This is the first time I'm able to vote in the Presidential elections, second time to go to the polls (we had parliamentary elections last April). The presidential term is 6 years long. My first visit to Finland coincided...

On my bedside table

It's not often I read a book that makes me want to go back in time. This one did. After reading this, I would have liked to have seen the last days of Ceausescu's regime. Highly recommended.

Flowerpot Rock

This little snapshot is of something very near and dear to me. The area we lived drew it's name from this rock and when I was older people were always intrigued to hear that I came from a place called Flowerpot. At school I copped endless Bill and Ben jokes. (Hand's up if you remember Bill...