Regular summer weather...

The regular summer weather in Finland: You never know what you get. Yesterday it was so warm and nice, but today hardly a summer at all...

The perfect summer day

When we want to visit our relatives' summer cottage in Virrat, we usually take the bus. If you have the time and if the weather is nice, you should definitely take the 99-year-old steamboat Tarjanne instead. It takes about 6 hours from Tampere to Virrat, but it is worth every minute.

Feels like summer!!

Look at the temperature chart! Today and yesterday it's been like two summer days. Over +20 °C (68 °F) both days, although almost 0 °C (32 °F) at night. Today I went cycling with short tights. What a feeling! Well, the rest of the week is going to be crap, but who cares today!!!

Snow...

I woke up today, took a look outside, and nearly screamed: it had snowed!!! Fortunately it melted away by afternoon.
But still, please Mr./Mrs. Weather, make up your mind, what's it gonna be, spring or winter?

Kokoomus and Greens win + it's snowing

Kokoomus wins big time and also Greens get one more seat in the parliament. Yippee!!! :)
AND it started snowing again. What is this...? I want my spring back!!

Spring!

It is getting more spring-like in Tampere but even more so in Helsinki. In both cities the temperature has been hovering around 6–8 °C (42–49 F) and it's been sunny. It's hard to spot snow in Helsinki anymore. I was so excited about spring and the plan was to take a very springy picture but I ended up shooting DDR in November...

Where's the snow?!

Where's the snow? Is winter really over now? It looked a lot different just one month ago. The winter in Tampere this year was really short I'll say:
January 16
January 22
February 3

VR

Once again my friend VR works against my going back home to Tampere. This winter has been especially hard on our friendship. Usually it's been because of the weather, but now it seems to have been a technical problem on another train. When one train dies on the tracks, it messes up all the other trains, too...

Cold but sunny

It's been quite a cold week in Finland. The good thing about cold weather is that usually, when it's cold, it's also sunny. We geared up for the weather and walked to the centre to run a few errands. I should have worn sun glasses, as the sunlight was pretty bright because of all the snow.

weather, fish, carpet

1) As any other true Finn, I pay a lot of attention to weather, and also like to talk about it. (This is probably because the weather here so often sucks, and we feel grateful and overly happy when it doesn't.) So I must declare today the most beautiful winter day so far (this winter). :)
2) They had an open house today at Tampereen Akvaarioseura (Tampere aquarium association or something like that), and since their premises is just around the corner from where I live, I had to pay a visit. (I have been a member for about 3 weeks now.)
3) We went to pick up the white carpet we had ordered for our living room. It's quite nice.

Real winter in Otaniemi

It's finally a real winter in Otaniemi, too!

Lactose

It is the most perfect winter day. It's also Anna's first day on maternity leave, so she invited me to have lunch with her. (On Mondays I always work from my home office, not from my actual office.) We ended up in Sevilla, where the food was OK but something else not: They did not have low-lactose milk! Therefore I was not able to enjoy my cup of coffee, which was in fact included in the price of the lunch. How is it possible that in a big restaurant like that, they don't have low-lactose milk? (Interesting statistics, by the way.)

My birthday in Dublin

Dublin is great, although it rains every fifteen minutes, and sudden gusts of wind feel like they are going to rip your hair off... Lots of Irish Pubs. But I believe they call them just pubs here in Ireland. :) 5 of us are staying in an apartment we rented from Ellis Quay Apartments. It's only a walking distance from the centre, and roomy and clean, and
recommendable. Hmmm... and yes, today I turn 29. I have decided that I will stay 29 from now on. :)

What's with winter?!?!

What's with winter?!?! We had a real winter two months ago for a week or so, but after that it's been mainly just water. Is this now doings of the global warming...? Will we never have a white winter anymore???