Time goes by -- so QUICKLY!

They came, they saw, they got conquered.

Jula & Katja came and went - and it's already been weeks since! And still I haven't been able to find any time to report on the matter here. Ya, I'm pathetic, I know!

But here I am now - and I don't have TOO MUCH to say. Everyhting we did, was not-so-special to me, so actually I should've asked the gals to do this reporting for me... Going to a cottage for a sunny and warm early-september weekend is nice - but pretty common - for a finn. Also heating up the sauna, rosting sausage on open fire while the night wraps its wings around us, rowing a boat on a calm lake or dipping into that still-warm lake after the heat of a real, wood-heated sauna --- ya, we just do things like that up here. And we're also called a bit mad because of that.

After a somewhat calming two nights at a cottage my guests were still to face one more challenge: my family! I loaded the tired foreigners into our car and off we went: twoish hours later we reached the heart of "lake-Finland", and it's pearl: Kinkomaa! :) The poles were seemingly tired (Michael fell a sleep on our backyard lawn!), but they coped while Katja was making a livley conversation with my parents, my sisters - and I think she did try to chat up my little nephew too... (Taavi 4 yrs) ;) After a rich reindeer-supper we finally headed back towards Helsinki - but not without a small twist: instead of taking just the boring main-roads I decided to drive just a notch longer on a scenic route via Punkaharju. This plan backfired a bit though, since half of our party was fast a sleep through the whole thing. Oh well, that route was much nicer for the designated driver also!

After our great Finnish escapade we stayed stedily put in cozy and sunny Helsinki. I had to work and girls strolled around downtown area taking pictures of all the silly, finnish things they came across with. I also made them eat several dubious finnish foods before they were able to flee the country... ;)

Since the visitor-week life has slowly gotten back to it's normal patterns; work, some school, some school-skipping and several lazy, lonely nights with just tv keeping me company. My work-contract was renewed from the beginning of september - and now I have a steady job!! So, there's no end to these days in the office in sight... but also; the paychecks just keep on coming - and it actually got somewhat bigger in the process too! So, smooth living in the soon-winter-wonderland! (=there's already snow up in Lapland!!)

A year ago we had just started school in Limerick... HOW IN H*LL CAN TIME FLY BY SO D**N QUICKLY???