North by North-East
A week ago N and I took the Thursday and Friday off from work and spent a lovely long weekend in Finland. N went to see his friends again, and I visited a former co-worker, M, and her family.
Thanks to the flight being late and Finland two hours ahead of Britain, we didn’t arrive until close to midnight, and were very grateful for N’s friend picking us up from the airport. We were lucky with the weather, though. Just the previous week the temperature had been around -20C and the whole time we were in Finland it hovered around -5C.
We had some very late dinner at his place and went to bed. The next morning the boys drove me to the station and I took a train to where M lived. This was the first time I met her fiancé and four-month-old daughter. I am known for not liking children, and I was more than a little apprehensive of staying under the same room with a baby, but she turned out to be mostly quiet and happy little girl. Okay, Sunday morning I did wake up to her crying a few times but, as a whole, it was a lot less painful that I expected.
I had to suffer through some talk of the birth and related issues, but M has known me for a few years and was kind enough to keep it brief. Plus I imagine she has plenty of other people she's had the chance to rehash things with.
There’s a big mall next to where M lives, which we went to check out on Saturday. I ended up buying clothes for €250… M laughed at me and asked who the hell comes from London to shop at some rural mall. It was great fun to just be for a while. We cooked, watched home improvement shows, went to sauna, she dyed my eyebrows… Very basic stuff I’d missed doing with a friend.
Early Sunday evening I took a train back to the big city and saw what the boys had been up to. N’s friend, who lives there, is a part of the local hacklab scene, so a lot of their weekend activities tend to revolve around building something or other. This time it was a wooden replica of the logo N had designed for his website of miscellaneous projects.
The picture has been carved into a wooden slat using a some sort of specialised machine and then painted. It has all sorts of geeky symbolism, plus an accidental Captain America reference.
A great weekend all round, and for the first time in a long while I didn't about work once.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.
Thanks to the flight being late and Finland two hours ahead of Britain, we didn’t arrive until close to midnight, and were very grateful for N’s friend picking us up from the airport. We were lucky with the weather, though. Just the previous week the temperature had been around -20C and the whole time we were in Finland it hovered around -5C.
We had some very late dinner at his place and went to bed. The next morning the boys drove me to the station and I took a train to where M lived. This was the first time I met her fiancé and four-month-old daughter. I am known for not liking children, and I was more than a little apprehensive of staying under the same room with a baby, but she turned out to be mostly quiet and happy little girl. Okay, Sunday morning I did wake up to her crying a few times but, as a whole, it was a lot less painful that I expected.
I had to suffer through some talk of the birth and related issues, but M has known me for a few years and was kind enough to keep it brief. Plus I imagine she has plenty of other people she's had the chance to rehash things with.
There’s a big mall next to where M lives, which we went to check out on Saturday. I ended up buying clothes for €250… M laughed at me and asked who the hell comes from London to shop at some rural mall. It was great fun to just be for a while. We cooked, watched home improvement shows, went to sauna, she dyed my eyebrows… Very basic stuff I’d missed doing with a friend.
Early Sunday evening I took a train back to the big city and saw what the boys had been up to. N’s friend, who lives there, is a part of the local hacklab scene, so a lot of their weekend activities tend to revolve around building something or other. This time it was a wooden replica of the logo N had designed for his website of miscellaneous projects.
The picture has been carved into a wooden slat using a some sort of specialised machine and then painted. It has all sorts of geeky symbolism, plus an accidental Captain America reference.
A great weekend all round, and for the first time in a long while I didn't about work once.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.