It hurts

Feet extensions
Originally uploaded by delta_avi_delta.

Went for the first cross-country ski of the year today. Ow. I went to Paloheinä, a center about 40 minutes by foot and bus from the flat. I'd never been there before (I'd confused it with another center) - hired my skis and set forth.

There was an easy 3.9km route I decided would be a good break-in. I spent most of the first couple of km looking at my feet, trying to to fall over - and so missed the signposts. After what seemed like a good distance without turning around, after a grueling uphill bit I faceplanted on, there was a signpost. Pointing back along a straighter road the way I came. "Paloheinä: 3km". Hmm.

The straight road proved useless - not enough snow cover and too many pine needles, so I crossed back across to the windy route, and shuffled back. I'd only been going about an hour and twenty minutes by the time I handed my skis back in, and hobbled to the bus, but I was done, cooked, finished.

And after that jolly introduction, is anyone up for coming along next week?

Good coffee

Good coffee
Originally uploaded by delta_avi_delta.

My (short)list of (slight) greviences with this great land has shrunk by one: I've found some ground coffee roasted outside of the country.

There's a very distinctive bitterness to nationally roasted coffee - it is to other coffees as hops-y beer is to wheatbeer - it's got a tang. If you like it, I'm sure nothing else will do. I don't.

I tried this with low hopes, but it's great. Now if only some non-has-beens would come play a gig. My Chemical Romance does not count.

Ystävänpäivä

Valentine's day, or Ystävänpäivä, is a minty fresh import to Finland, as recent as 5 years apparantly. Talking over lunch, there were complaints that recieving a card from someone was so awkward, because then you had to rush out and reciprocate. I guess the concepts of secret admirer, and anonymity will catch on a little later.

After seeing this first thing today, and after last year's chocolate fondue experience in Amsterdam, there was no question as to Ystävänpäivä dessert chez nous.

Luckily, chocolate fondue is foolproof, as certified by this certifiable fool.

The internets suggested

3x 100g Toblerones
half cup of cream
2xtablespoons kirsch

Personally that was too much cream, and not enough kirsch, but put them all in a pot, over very low heat, stir a bit, and voila! Rig a candle underneath the pot, pile some chopped fruit and cookies on a plate, keep a little bowl of chopped hazlenuts handy and there you have it - chocolate fondue.

Incidentally, isn't the "l" in Google missing? Guess cupid took it for an arrow.

***
Edited to correct spelling of Ystävänpäivä - yes, I'm an idiot :)
***

There's news and there's news

I could blog about how, after yesterday's word-of-the-day spookiness, I found myself engaging in omphalaskepsis - literally considering my over-protruding navel, when the word of the day happened to be equivalent to "chubby", but word-of-the-day posts are, like, sooo last century .

So, today we're talking about Eurovision - that thing that everyone pretends to disdain, that confuses American's because they've never heard of it, Europeans because there are some very non-EU contries in there (Russia?!), and that seemed poised to fade into obscurity as a cesspit of cheezy Eurodance and reality-tv voting mechanisms until Finnish hard rock act à la KISS blew the formulas away last year, for Finlands first win? With me?
***NEWSFLASH***

It seems the Irish, after nearly running the country into the ground winning, and then having to host the feckin' thing repeatedly in the (pre-boom) 90s, have decided to take a serious crack at it again, by poaching Finnish talent. Here at FiF we've discovered that one of the final four potential entries is written by one Matti Kallio, of Helsinki. Appropriately pictured here (second from left) in an Irish bar in Helsinki. Dun dun duuuuuun!

***RIVALRY***
Digging deeper (oh we dig right down into the dregs of the net for you), it seems one of the other entrants is written by a Swede, Stig Lindell. We'll keep you posted on this battle of the arch-rivals Sweden and Finland as it progresses - will it be like the Olympics Ice-Hockey, with the Swede eking out the Finn, or will it be like... erm... or will it be the other way around. More news when if happens.

Incidentally, if you're wondering why the Eurovision always sounds the feckin' same - old Stig has had entries for Norway and Iceland in years past. I wonder if it comes down to the same 25 songwriters year after year? Sure sounds that way.

I think I pledged here before to give the DRM thing a rest, so I'll just link to this, and this, and say nothing. I consider the promise bended but unbroken.

antiserendipitous

I've spent all morning poking around the inside of images. Jpegs. I've been begging, goading, threatening even, in an effort to make them relinquish their dark, embedded secrets - their innermost properties, that which describes them - yes! their metadata, yea even the little idea of themselves they carry inside, known to you as a thumbnail. I've just allocated myself five minutes to go check my mail, and get away from their evil bytes, and what do I see?



No escape.

On more sane footing, it's -20 C. It was +1 yesterday. Blue-skied and clear.