Finland trip this weekend
Mar. 29th, 2016 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaOn Saturday evening I got a message from O., who was at a dinner party with old friends from the student theater group he used to be active with, saying that he had just heard that his grandmother's health had taken a turn for the worse, and his dad was quite worried about it. He commented that he felt the need to head over to Finland to visit his grandmother and see for himself how she was doing. I, of course, (after checking with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lord_kjar that it would be ok to take the car) asked he he wanted company for the trip. He replied that he would be very grateful for the company, and the possibility to drive (otherwise the trip entails a bus to Haparanda, cross the river/international border on foot to Tornio, another bus to Oulu, then train to Kajaani, a journey that eats two days of travel because, of course, the various buses and trains don't have compatible schedules, but by car google thinks one can do the trip from my place in 5 hr, 21 minutes).
Since he was at a party with fiends he hasn't seen in quite a while he decided that it would be good to start the trip on Sunday morning, stay there overnight, and return Monday evening. This worked for me, since Monday was a holiday so I didn't need to be to work till today. When asked he thought we should plan to be on the road by 10:00 at the latest, so that we would have the time to get there before the nursing home his grandmother has been living at for the past eight years was closed for the day. I (andlord_kjar) had planned to visit M., a friend who is moving away on Sunday sometime between 10:00 and 16:00. Since this would be no longer possible, I sent M. a message letting him know that my plans had changed (and why), and if he were up late I could drop by that evening, once I had finished packing, since I had to go to that neighbourhood to pick O. up anyway. He said that he would be up, and I should head over.
I made time before heading out to bake a loaf of reiska to take along on the trip, since it is a nice dense bread that travels well, and I arrived at M's place around 23:30, and we had very nice visit till 0:49, when O. was home from the party and had his bag packed and was ready to go. It turns out that the reason M. is leaving is that he got a job in Ireland and is moving to Dublin. I am very excited for him, it sounds like a great adventure.
After I picked up O. he commented that given the one hour time change between Sweden and Finland, perhaps we should aim to be on the road at 09:00 instead of 10:00. This sounded reasonable to me. However, we then stayed up talking a couple of house, and so got to see the clocks jump an hour from 02:00 to 03:00, and we didn't actually go to sleep till nearly 05:00.
However, I still managed to get up on time to do my morning situps (but not my more serious workout) and pack the food bag and we actually started driving at 09:09. Since O. doesn't have a driver's licence his job was to keep me awake while I drove, which he did very well, and we enjoyed conversation the whole way there, quite forgetting to ever turn on music. We arrived at our destination at 16:46, which sounds like a lot longer than google's estimate above, but given the change in time zones, was actually quite reasonable since we stopped several times for pee breaks and petrol.
We went first to the nursing home to see his grandmother, who seems to be doing a little better than his cousin had reported at the start of the weekend, and after O's dad called and she recognized his voice, she became current enough in this time zone to recognize O., but she didn't have the energy for a long visit.
Then we went to his grandfather's apartment, which has been sitting empty for a couple of years, since his grandfather also spent a couple of years in a nursing home before dying last December, but O. and his parents (who live in southern Sweden) stay there every time they come visit, since it is in easy walking distance from the nursing home. I was really tired by that point, so I took an hour nap while he looked though the mail that has accumulated at the apartment since December and filled his dad in on more details of the current situation. Then we drove 45 minutes out to the home of his dad's cousin.
What a beautiful home they have--it used to be their summer house--a small log cabin on a lake in the hills to the north of Kajaain, that they have expanded to a full size house, and have been living in these last 8 years or so. This cousin speaks some English, and his daughter and her very tall partner, who were visiting for the holiday weekend, are fluent in English, so the conversation was a mix of both Finish and English. I was surprised at how often I caught a word in Finnish that I know, given how very few words I do know, but I guess the ones I know (including the numbers) are kind of basic and likely to come up in any given conversation.
They have a small friendly dog, who really wanted to help me with my yoga, and the 1 year old grandson (who is as tall as a typical two year old) came over to poke me in my nuppa (belly button) when I did my head-stand and my shirt fell just enough to expose it. He must have liked it, because when I was done with yoga he came back over, and tried to lift up my shirt so he could see my belly button again, causing his grandfather to say that the men in that family are not shy.
We had a really nice visit with them, and returned to the apartment in town around midnight, but didn't actually get to sleep till after 03:30 (I really enjoy O's company, but I don't tend to get much sleep when he is around).
Monday morning we slept in a bit (if one can count seven hours as "sleeping in") and visited his grandmother again, but she was pretty deeply asleep--she did squeeze his hand back when he held hers, but couldn't wake up enough to actually talk, so we didn't stay long, but he did make time to chat with the nurses on duty about her condition (of course I couldn't follow any of that part of the conversation, since my handful of Finnish words aren't useful when discussing medical conditions).
From there we went to the nearby home of another of his dad's cousins for lunch. This cousin speaks no English at all, so O. needed to translate for us to communicate. They fed us a yummy pie for desert, so I asked for the recipe, and I look forward to giving it a try:
Persikkapiirakka
Pohja:
125 g voita
1,25 dl sokeria
1 muna
3 dl vehnäjauho
1 tl leivinjauho
Rahkaseos:
1 pak rahkaa
1 dl vispikermaa
2-3 rkl sokeria
1 tl vaniljasokeria
3 munaa
--Vaahdota voi ja sokeri. Lisää muna ja jauhot
-- Levitä piirakka vuokaan
--pohjalla rahkatäytettä ensin" "sitten persikat ja loput täytteestä
180 C 35-40 min
Which means (more or less, I think):
Peach pie
crust:
125 g butter
1.25 dl sugar
1 egg
3 dl wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
filling:
1 pkg curd cheese
peaches
1 dl whipping cream
2-3 tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
--cream together the butter and sugar, add the egg and flour
--spread crust into the pie dish
--mix filling and put half into the crust first, then the peaches and the rest of the filling
180 C, 35-40 mins
***********************************
We left their place at 16:03 and got home at 21:46, which looks like less than six hours of driving (and good conversation), but given that hour time change at the border, means that, with stops, it was nearly seven hours.
Needless to say, it wasn't a good weekend for exercise, but it was great for good company, and O.'s dad was really glad that he was able to make the trip on such short notice and report on grandmother's condition.
Now I need to see if I can manage to focus on work today--it being Tuesday I am on campus till time for Phire practice (and annual general meeting) followed by choir, so even though I made time to type this when I ought to be working, there is still time to accomplish a fair bit, in theory.
lord_kjar that it would be ok to take the car) asked he he wanted company for the trip. He replied that he would be very grateful for the company, and the possibility to drive (otherwise the trip entails a bus to Haparanda, cross the river/international border on foot to Tornio, another bus to Oulu, then train to Kajaani, a journey that eats two days of travel because, of course, the various buses and trains don't have compatible schedules, but by car google thinks one can do the trip from my place in 5 hr, 21 minutes).Since he was at a party with fiends he hasn't seen in quite a while he decided that it would be good to start the trip on Sunday morning, stay there overnight, and return Monday evening. This worked for me, since Monday was a holiday so I didn't need to be to work till today. When asked he thought we should plan to be on the road by 10:00 at the latest, so that we would have the time to get there before the nursing home his grandmother has been living at for the past eight years was closed for the day. I (and
lord_kjar) had planned to visit M., a friend who is moving away on Sunday sometime between 10:00 and 16:00. Since this would be no longer possible, I sent M. a message letting him know that my plans had changed (and why), and if he were up late I could drop by that evening, once I had finished packing, since I had to go to that neighbourhood to pick O. up anyway. He said that he would be up, and I should head over.I made time before heading out to bake a loaf of reiska to take along on the trip, since it is a nice dense bread that travels well, and I arrived at M's place around 23:30, and we had very nice visit till 0:49, when O. was home from the party and had his bag packed and was ready to go. It turns out that the reason M. is leaving is that he got a job in Ireland and is moving to Dublin. I am very excited for him, it sounds like a great adventure.
After I picked up O. he commented that given the one hour time change between Sweden and Finland, perhaps we should aim to be on the road at 09:00 instead of 10:00. This sounded reasonable to me. However, we then stayed up talking a couple of house, and so got to see the clocks jump an hour from 02:00 to 03:00, and we didn't actually go to sleep till nearly 05:00.
However, I still managed to get up on time to do my morning situps (but not my more serious workout) and pack the food bag and we actually started driving at 09:09. Since O. doesn't have a driver's licence his job was to keep me awake while I drove, which he did very well, and we enjoyed conversation the whole way there, quite forgetting to ever turn on music. We arrived at our destination at 16:46, which sounds like a lot longer than google's estimate above, but given the change in time zones, was actually quite reasonable since we stopped several times for pee breaks and petrol.
We went first to the nursing home to see his grandmother, who seems to be doing a little better than his cousin had reported at the start of the weekend, and after O's dad called and she recognized his voice, she became current enough in this time zone to recognize O., but she didn't have the energy for a long visit.
Then we went to his grandfather's apartment, which has been sitting empty for a couple of years, since his grandfather also spent a couple of years in a nursing home before dying last December, but O. and his parents (who live in southern Sweden) stay there every time they come visit, since it is in easy walking distance from the nursing home. I was really tired by that point, so I took an hour nap while he looked though the mail that has accumulated at the apartment since December and filled his dad in on more details of the current situation. Then we drove 45 minutes out to the home of his dad's cousin.
What a beautiful home they have--it used to be their summer house--a small log cabin on a lake in the hills to the north of Kajaain, that they have expanded to a full size house, and have been living in these last 8 years or so. This cousin speaks some English, and his daughter and her very tall partner, who were visiting for the holiday weekend, are fluent in English, so the conversation was a mix of both Finish and English. I was surprised at how often I caught a word in Finnish that I know, given how very few words I do know, but I guess the ones I know (including the numbers) are kind of basic and likely to come up in any given conversation.
They have a small friendly dog, who really wanted to help me with my yoga, and the 1 year old grandson (who is as tall as a typical two year old) came over to poke me in my nuppa (belly button) when I did my head-stand and my shirt fell just enough to expose it. He must have liked it, because when I was done with yoga he came back over, and tried to lift up my shirt so he could see my belly button again, causing his grandfather to say that the men in that family are not shy.
We had a really nice visit with them, and returned to the apartment in town around midnight, but didn't actually get to sleep till after 03:30 (I really enjoy O's company, but I don't tend to get much sleep when he is around).
Monday morning we slept in a bit (if one can count seven hours as "sleeping in") and visited his grandmother again, but she was pretty deeply asleep--she did squeeze his hand back when he held hers, but couldn't wake up enough to actually talk, so we didn't stay long, but he did make time to chat with the nurses on duty about her condition (of course I couldn't follow any of that part of the conversation, since my handful of Finnish words aren't useful when discussing medical conditions).
From there we went to the nearby home of another of his dad's cousins for lunch. This cousin speaks no English at all, so O. needed to translate for us to communicate. They fed us a yummy pie for desert, so I asked for the recipe, and I look forward to giving it a try:
Persikkapiirakka
Pohja:
125 g voita
1,25 dl sokeria
1 muna
3 dl vehnäjauho
1 tl leivinjauho
Rahkaseos:
1 pak rahkaa
1 dl vispikermaa
2-3 rkl sokeria
1 tl vaniljasokeria
3 munaa
--Vaahdota voi ja sokeri. Lisää muna ja jauhot
-- Levitä piirakka vuokaan
--pohjalla rahkatäytettä ensin" "sitten persikat ja loput täytteestä
180 C 35-40 min
Which means (more or less, I think):
Peach pie
crust:
125 g butter
1.25 dl sugar
1 egg
3 dl wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
filling:
1 pkg curd cheese
peaches
1 dl whipping cream
2-3 tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
--cream together the butter and sugar, add the egg and flour
--spread crust into the pie dish
--mix filling and put half into the crust first, then the peaches and the rest of the filling
180 C, 35-40 mins
***********************************
We left their place at 16:03 and got home at 21:46, which looks like less than six hours of driving (and good conversation), but given that hour time change at the border, means that, with stops, it was nearly seven hours.
Needless to say, it wasn't a good weekend for exercise, but it was great for good company, and O.'s dad was really glad that he was able to make the trip on such short notice and report on grandmother's condition.
Now I need to see if I can manage to focus on work today--it being Tuesday I am on campus till time for Phire practice (and annual general meeting) followed by choir, so even though I made time to type this when I ought to be working, there is still time to accomplish a fair bit, in theory.