What i lerned today
So here I am in unsunny Lapland, having successfully negotiated the tricky getting-on-a-chartered flight and filtering out the noise of the children on the plane by watching Heroes on my laptop at high volume. Initial thoughts:
At this time of year in Lapland, there's no sun above the horizon at all during the day.
Successfully engaging with random Germans over dinner, which used to be in my job description, remains utterly alien to me.
Dressing like an astronaut gives one a false sense of confidence. This is however, tempered by the fact that you can pretend that you're walking on the moon the entire time.
Pretending to walk on the moon in front of a bunch of complete strangers may not always be desirable.
They eat a lot of reindeer round these parts. Reindeer is very healthy.
The same should never be said of salmon and potato gratin.
If you like looking at darkened silhouettes of freezing forests at night then Lapland is ideal.
No sign of any borealis, but your Sun did hit the minimum of its sunspot cycle in March this year.
No signs of any tauntauns either.
In Finland, no-ones cares if you carry a glass of red wine with you everywhere you go.
Thermal dungarees - where have you been my whole life?
No talk of the inevitable husky back-splatter yet. Will find out all about it manno-y-turdo tomorrow, I'm sure.
Five days of huskying commences tomorrow, staying at wooden cabins, chopping wood, running (to the nearest lake for) water, or electricity and spending evenings sitting in saunas drinking vodka and watching frozen digits drop off my body. If my dogs see me as the alpha male, then I'm wondering whether I should consummate with one of them, just to keep the illusion alive. Or try to devise a forward-splatter mechanism that doesn't involve frostbite. I think I know what I'll be dreaming of tonight.
At this time of year in Lapland, there's no sun above the horizon at all during the day.
Successfully engaging with random Germans over dinner, which used to be in my job description, remains utterly alien to me.
Dressing like an astronaut gives one a false sense of confidence. This is however, tempered by the fact that you can pretend that you're walking on the moon the entire time.
Pretending to walk on the moon in front of a bunch of complete strangers may not always be desirable.
They eat a lot of reindeer round these parts. Reindeer is very healthy.
The same should never be said of salmon and potato gratin.
If you like looking at darkened silhouettes of freezing forests at night then Lapland is ideal.
No sign of any borealis, but your Sun did hit the minimum of its sunspot cycle in March this year.
No signs of any tauntauns either.
In Finland, no-ones cares if you carry a glass of red wine with you everywhere you go.
Thermal dungarees - where have you been my whole life?
No talk of the inevitable husky back-splatter yet. Will find out all about it manno-y-turdo tomorrow, I'm sure.
Five days of huskying commences tomorrow, staying at wooden cabins, chopping wood, running (to the nearest lake for) water, or electricity and spending evenings sitting in saunas drinking vodka and watching frozen digits drop off my body. If my dogs see me as the alpha male, then I'm wondering whether I should consummate with one of them, just to keep the illusion alive. Or try to devise a forward-splatter mechanism that doesn't involve frostbite. I think I know what I'll be dreaming of tonight.