A Life in Waiting

Nothing like a little Frank to get you in the mood to start writing about your past few weeks away from good ole New York, New York.  I just sat down at a quaint little local pub, right here in Töölo where Ria and I live, and as I pulled out my laptop, Frank Sinatra came on the overhead speakers to ready me for the task that I’ve been putting off for too long.  I’m actually sitting in the non-smoking section of the bar.  See, most of Europe has adopted the no smoking in bars/restaurant law, but some places (such as Helsinki) have different stipulations that home.  I don’t know the actual wording, but basically you can have dedicated smoking and non smoking sections in the pubs as long as there’s plenty of space and ventilation to keep it separated from the non-smokers.  However this place, Fellows Bar, has a non smokers section, as opposed to a smokers section.  First one I’ve seen.  So naturally I have the room to myself.  Heh.

I have been debating on how to write about the past 2 weeks.  Should I write them as if I wrote them as the events took place, or should I just do a small recount of the time since they weren’t overly exciting?  As my memory is not too sharp these days, a recount would probably be the best way to go, not to mention that I have been wanting to speak about plenty of other things, that are not really chronologically correct.  So here goes.

So I really never got a chance to say much about Finland at all.  Other than I landed safely and will be spending Christmas here.  So I landed here at Vantaa/Helsinki airport on December 12^th and was greeted at the gate by Maria and Lexi.  After being mauled by the two of them, we hopped in the car and headed to Töölo, a section of Helsinki where our flat is.  Now remember I pretty much stayed up throughout the night to ensure I caught the 4am sardine can to the Milanese airport.  So I am quite exhausted at this point.  We get back to the flat at around 11am and it’s a rare 40deg F and sunny outside.  Not the Finland I was expecting.  In fact, I have never seen the Finland I was expecting, as I have been in this country during the months of November, December, January, and February and have yet to see any snow, ice or frigid temperatures.  I think Maria’s just been exaggerating this whole time about her “brutal” winters in Finland.  Phishing for sympathy I would guess.

So after her rather persistent cousin forces his way in to see me that morning, Ria and I just relax and eat a nice home cooked meal before I pass out for the duration.  The next few days were spent trying to regain my bearings in this city I visit for a week or so every year.  We met her cousin out again and also one of Maria’s best friends, Annette.  We all go watch this rather crappy parade in downtown Helsinki and then go grab a bite of food.  Afterwards we head up to one of the older and more prominent hotels in the city to their rooftop bar that overlooks the whole city for drink and to toast Maria’s new business venture as she had signed her contract earlier that day. 

New business venture.  While back in states and towards her last few weeks in New York, Maria shadowed a local doggy daycare owner to learn all there is to learn to run such a business.  As it would be much more difficult to run a horse training in Finland as it was in the states, Maria realized that she needed to find a new path to career fulfillment if she wanted to successfully stay out of the corporate world that she loathed so much.  So the world of dogs seemed to be the best alternative for her.  (and I’m sure that her unhealthy obsession with Cesar Milan didn’t hurt either) 

In the month that she had spent here in Finland sans me, see got her business registered, a loan secured at a local bank and found a suitable space to house such a project.  Now all she needed was a grunt to do all the heavy lifting.  So all day Friday and Saturday are spent measuring, drawing a suitable plan for the dog pens, and driving around all over the area to find out what kind of building materials are available to build with. 

After finishing up with our errands, we head to Maria’s parents house in Espoo, a neighboring city for dinner and to begin the Christmas gingerbread cookie and house construction.  It was great to see Aila and Raul again, they are truly wonderful people.  So warm and welcoming, I feel very comfortable in their home.  We enjoy an incredible home cooked meal and then have drinks as the women prepare the dough and bake the gingerbreads.  As the gingerbread process is a two day process, we end up spending the night.

Sunday morning Raul lets me raid his rather extensive tool collection so I can begin constructing the dog huts in the following days.  After dropping off all the tools at the dog hut, we swing through the city, grab Rasmus, Maria’s brother, and head back out to Espoo.  The rest of the afternoon was spent decorating the cookies and building and decorating the house.  That evening we head back into the city.

Well this is getting long, so I will stop here and continue above. 

One Response to “New York, New York”

1. Tim KP Says:
   December 31st, 2007 at 9:56 am

   Grunt labour, you?……no…..
   

   Well I hope all is well.
   I liked browsing through your Picasa album, especially the one of you sleeping on the job.
   You can take the boy out of NY, but not the NY out of the boy.

   Please wish Maria success in her new venture!

   As the Finnish say, Onnellista uutta vuotta!

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