Foreign Parts
Stephen's been in Helsinki, Finland this past week for a Technical Planning Workshop for the company he works for, which is a Finnish-Swedish IT Services Company (you notice how casually I wrote that, just as though I understand what it means). He is, as previously mentioned, Half Man Half Computer, and so he does understand such things.
They booked him into a hotel for the first couple of nights but he had to set off without knowing where he was staying after that. Finland were playing Germany in Helsinki and every hotel room in the place had been taken.
So for the third night he had to travel about 100km outside Helsinki to a place called Lahti. And this, dear reader, was the name of the hotel he stayed in.
How dodgy does that sound for overseas business trips?
Here's its website if you happen to be passing through Lahti.
Which you probably won't be. Because it isn't near anywhere. Except St Petersburg. It's not too far from Russia and Stephen said everything felt much closer to Russia than to the rest of Europe.
But hey, I've been travelling too. I've been to Rotherham this week. Twice. And Barrow-in-Furness.
In case that Finnish story made you feel homesick for Britain, here's Amy's very comforting, very pretty garden in Barrow. (Click on it to enlarge the photo)
Amy was my mother's best friend from school and married her first cousin, and we've always been very close. She's eighty-four, like my mother, and, like my mother, remarkably fit and very resourceful.
Her neighbour put an ugly concrete wall at the bottom of the garden, and she didn't like it. So she found two large mirrors from an old wardrobe and put them at the bottom of the garden, thus blocking out the concrete and reflecting the garden - if you look very carefully you can see the mirror at the bottom of the garden in this photo.
It looks great - - the only thing is, if you wander round the garden, from time to time you will notice a pair of disembodied legs doing the same thing. It can take a while to work out that they're your legs.
Travel, eh? Amazing the things you learn.
They booked him into a hotel for the first couple of nights but he had to set off without knowing where he was staying after that. Finland were playing Germany in Helsinki and every hotel room in the place had been taken.
So for the third night he had to travel about 100km outside Helsinki to a place called Lahti. And this, dear reader, was the name of the hotel he stayed in.
How dodgy does that sound for overseas business trips?Here's its website if you happen to be passing through Lahti.
Which you probably won't be. Because it isn't near anywhere. Except St Petersburg. It's not too far from Russia and Stephen said everything felt much closer to Russia than to the rest of Europe.
But hey, I've been travelling too. I've been to Rotherham this week. Twice. And Barrow-in-Furness.
In case that Finnish story made you feel homesick for Britain, here's Amy's very comforting, very pretty garden in Barrow. (Click on it to enlarge the photo)
Amy was my mother's best friend from school and married her first cousin, and we've always been very close. She's eighty-four, like my mother, and, like my mother, remarkably fit and very resourceful.Her neighbour put an ugly concrete wall at the bottom of the garden, and she didn't like it. So she found two large mirrors from an old wardrobe and put them at the bottom of the garden, thus blocking out the concrete and reflecting the garden - if you look very carefully you can see the mirror at the bottom of the garden in this photo.
It looks great - - the only thing is, if you wander round the garden, from time to time you will notice a pair of disembodied legs doing the same thing. It can take a while to work out that they're your legs.
Travel, eh? Amazing the things you learn.
posted by Daphne at 5:51 pm
5 Comments:
"Kisse" is a Swedish pet name for a cat. The word for kiss is "puss."
I've always loved that.
I have been to Lahti and I am sorry to break this news to you Daphne but Musta Kissa is a well-known house of ill-repute often visited by Russian submariners. They are very good at holding their breath.
What a magical garden your friend has. I loved looking at the bigger photo. A neighbour of mine has mirrors all over all her fences - it makes the garden look much larger, rather like there are doors and windows into other gardens ... but you're right, the legs are weird!
Thanks, Ailbhe - that's interesting! Hence the cat picture on the logo.
YP - - any more of THAT kind of information and I'll tell Shirley, so there.
Katherine - yes, the mirrors idea is a good one. Apart from the legs bit.
HI Daphne
Just read about Stephen's visit to Lahti. Jennie was in Kontiolahti in 1994-5, which is probabaly near by.
Have been very remiss about adding to my blog lately. Too much time spent in the garden. I too have mirrors on my deck, which reflect the garden when people are eating breakfast. But as I dont have a B&B any more, no one eats breakfast out there.
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