Evacuation

Henry's school has had to evacuate!

The school has been struggling for years with poor indoor air quality, and despite various repairs, things have not improved. This autumn, serious mould problems were found and the town decided that the school would have to be evacuated while more thorough analysis and renovations were done.

The schoolchildren have now decamped to a small village of cabins around the school playing field.

Below some photos.

Henry and Thomas on the new school yard.

The boys approaching the row of cabins which includes Henry's classroom.

Henry at the entrance to the classrooms for classes 3M and 4M.

Inside the 'new' classroom.

It is not known how long the teaching will be in the cabins. They have been rented for one year, with an option for a further year.

The whole school system in Lappeenranta is in flux with many plans. The local polytechnic, in its latest incarnation as Saimaa University of Applied Sciences, is to move to be adjacent to Lappeenranta University of Technology (the latter is a university, the former a college in disguise); Armila school is supposed to move to the premises vacated by the polytechnic, which become a school centre, together with Peltola school; and the fate of Henry's school, Alakylän koulu, depends on how much it costs to fix the school - either things continue as before, or the whole school moves to the big school centre, or the music classes move to the school centre and the other pupils continue in the bits of the school that are not dangerous to pupils' health. The above is based on my reading of the local newspaper, Etelä-Saimaa, but what will really happen and how much this will all cost nobody knows.

New Style

Elk's Street Chairman of the Board has decided that a new style is needed, so; "hey-ho, hey-ho, it's off to the hairdresser's we go."

The results can be seen below.

New-style chairman from the front.


New-style chairman from the side.

Henry, not to be outdone, decided that since Mummy's new image was on view, he could try his outfit for his visit to the mayor's Finnish Independence Day celebrations.

The result can be seen below.

A smart-looking Henry as will be seen at the Indepedence Day reception.

These abrupt changes of image leave the Elk's Street blog author with a dilemma; how to change his appearance to keep up - bald and beard, or pony tail and moustache?

The Entertainer

'The Entertainer' by Scott Joplin, as played by Henry at the pupils' concert of the music school.

Music maestro, please!

Fathers' Day

It was recently Fathers' Day, which the little boys duly celebrated. Thomas gave a card which looked like a flower on the outside...

... and stomach on the inside.


He also made a wall plaque of a sauna.



While Thomas looked after the spirit, Henry looked after the body; he served coffee and some Chocolate Mint Top biscuits he had made.



For other cooks out there, here is the recipe:

Chocolate Mint Tops

Ingredients:

• 200g margarine or butter
• 1 dl sugar
• 1 dl potato starch or corn starch
• 4 dl flour

Glaze:

• 100g chocolate
• 3-4 drops peppermint oil

Oven temperature:

• 175 degrees celsius

Instructions:

• Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Stir in the starch and flour.
• Roll into small balls and place on a greased baking sheet or on baking paper.
• Make a small indentation in each ball.
• Bake for around 10 minutes.
• Cool on the baking sheet.
• Melt the chocolate in a water bath and stir in the peppermint oil.
• Fill in the indentation with mint chocolate.
• Leave to set.

Source: Sju Sorters Kakor (Swedish Cakes and Cookies)
English translation: Melody Favish
Publisher: ICA bokförlag, Västerås, Sweden, 2005, p 87

Camping

Henry recently joined the scouts, the 'Lappee Blues' troop.

Maybe the end of October was not the best time for his first camp, it was rather cold - daytime highs around zero degrees, nightime lows between -3 and -10.

The intrepid adventurer about to set off for the forests of Humaljärvi.

So, what was in the rucksack?

• sleeping bag and mattress
• scout neckerchief
• knife, fork, spoon and mess tin
• towel, soap and toothbrush
• matches
• sheath knife
• torch
• rubber boots
• spare clothes (long underwear, hat, gloves, socks, fleece, balaclava)
• water bottle
• snacks
  
• personal medicine

And on the boy?

• socks
• long johns
• long-sleeved T-shirt
• rugby shirt
• trousers
• overtrousers
• coat
• gloves
• hat
• boots
  

Meanwhile Thomas was at home practising his horn. He even had time to watch the SaiPa hockey game, where the local boys lost - the seventh loss on the trot - and dropped to the wooden spoon position in the table.

Horn practice with Mummy

Getting the right note

This camping is a rather tiring business. Below is Henry shortly after he got back.

"ZZZZzzzzzzzz...."

Renovations

Elk's Street is doing its bit to resuscitate the world economy. In addition to H-M's shopping, we are getting the entrance to the so-called 'inside garage' fixed.

This work was necessary because the support walls were slowly leaning more and more, and because water was getting into the cellar. Needless to say, this relatively small renovation is costing an arm and a leg.

Below some photos of progress so far.

The old entrance to the 'inside garage'.


The concrete mixer on the yard.


Pumping the concrete over the house...


... into the wall mould.


Renovation nearing completion.

Snow

The first snows arrived a little early this year and caught many people out, including the blue anemone below.

Congratulations!

Elk's Street would like to send MAMMOTH congratulations to the boys' Auntie Kwan for completing her studies and graduating from UUM.

Kwan boleh!

(Photo: Finnish mammoth)

Autumn

A plate of lingonberries to wish you a very happy autumn.

(Photo courtesy of Sepe)

More Fishing

The school year has started and everyone is busy. For the adults, the shenanigans at work have taken unbelievable proportions - the management seem hell-bent on destroying any semblance of academic rigour and professionalism. Luckily, life for the children is calmer, with school, music, circus club, and in Henry's case, fishing.

Below a couple of photos of his latest trip.

Fishing with a fishing rod.


The catch: Two perch

And many thanks to Mr Wu and Ms Liu for taking Henry out, and for taking the photos.

Summer Cottage

As mentioned in an earlier post, in celebration of the chairman's birthday Elk's Street arranged for a short stay at a summer cottage - a very Finnish pastime. Traditionally, summer cottages are quite spartan and a place where Finns go to relax from the stresses of modern life. In our case, we had a 'luxury' cottage with all the comforts of home - in fact, it was in much better shape than Elk's Street's normal home.

We were very lucky to have excellent weather and the holiday was a great success.

Somehow Elk's Street hasn't quite grasped the concept of travelling light.

After setting off relatively early, Elk's Street stopped for lunch at Kenkävero, a former vicarage that has been developed as a handicrafts centre and restaurant. There is also a small museum about the marttaliitto.

Kenkävero - the garden with the vicarage in the background.

After a leisurely lunch we continued to Anttolan Wellness Village, the site of our cottage.

View from the cottage.

With a lake on one side, forests on the other side, and a restaurant close enough to be able to walk there for breakfast, Elk's Street was able to enjoy luxury eco-tourism.

Keen blueberyy pickers.


Thomas with some freshly-picked blueberries.

Of course we didn't live off blueberries (and raspberries) alone, as we had fisherman Henry with us.

The boys fishing off the end of the jetty. (When unsupervised they had to wear life-jackets as neither of them swim very proficiently.)


Henry with some of his catch. (Two bream, a fish only suitable for making fish stock.)


Grillmaster Henry hard at work.

Not far from where we were staying was the Anttolan Hovi Manor House, a restaurant and site of the HoviArt modern art exhibition. While we didn't get to check out the restaurant, it had peculiar opening hours, we did get to see a little of the art.

A cow made from car parts.

The main reason for our trip was H-M's birthday - a so-called 'round' birthday - and the great event was celebrated with a special birthday dinner.

For the foodies among you, the menu was:

Starter: Thin vegetable soup with beetroot ravioli
Main course: Warm-smoked rainbow trout with stewed mushrooms
Dessert: Classic baked ice-cream

Elk's Street at table.

Henry helping to serve the spruce-tip champagne.

Warm-smoked rainbow trout with stewed mushrooms.

Classic baked ice-cream.


Henry, who enjoyed the 'pudding'.


The birthday girl

On the final evening we were treated to the beautiful sight of a summer moon rising over the lake.

Summer moon.

Although our stay at the cottage had ended, as The Cat in the Hat says:

"But that is not all!
Oh, no.
That is not all..."

There was still more fun to be had and on the way back home we stopped off in Visulahti theme park.

Thomas in a paddle boat.

The highlight for Henry was getting to drive a go-kart.

Before the race.

In the heat of the competition.


It's all over.

After so much excitement there is not much to look forward to, except in one week's time - the start of the new school year!

Aroma coffee

The dark day has arrived when the excellent Indonesian coffee from the Koffiefabriek Aroma, Bandung has run out.

The wrapper says:

Wilt U heerlijke Koffie drinken?
Maoe minoem Koffie selamanja enak?

And the answer must be:

Then get coffee from Koffiefabriek Aroma.

Unfortunately no-one seems to import the coffee into Europe, so there's nothing for it but to start saving up for another trip to the far East.

The final, empty packet of Aroma coffee.

And it seems that I'm not the only fan, click here for a slideshow of how the coffee is made.

Summer Update

The summer is rapidly passing by and here a brief post on what has been happening in Elk's Street.

Some may remember that Thomas had a birthday recently. Of course, he had to have a birthday party. We had the usual Elk's Street birthday entertainment; spinning the bottle, blindfolded gift search, the fishing game, and pass-the-parcel. Not to mention a celebratory meal with chocolate cake, strawberry juice, popcorn, maize crisps, pasties, and not forgetting the obligatory, healthy vegetables.

The little boys neatly lined up, in order tallest to shortest, to decide turns at the games.


The fishing game.

The fishing game was done by taping large-ish paper clips to small gifts and then making a fishing rod by tying four Geomag magnets to a line attached to a stick. And no peeping allowed!

Fishing has been the theme of the summer as Henry has become a keen fisherman. The largest fish he has caught, so far, has been a 40cm bream. He has also caught quite a few perch, which is a tasty fish.

When Henry has not been fishing, he has been baking. Below some evidence.

The cook with a loaf of bread.

The cook with a tray of 'thick ears' (korvapuusti in Finnish, cinnamon rolls in English).

This summer Elk's Street had a visit from H-M's former colleague, and friend, Lisa. Despite some health problems, Lisa managed to make it over from Ontario, Canada.

Enid, Lisa and H-M.


Lisa looking at home on the M/S El Faro.

Elk's Street has also managed a couple of trips to Päihäniemi to check out the blueberry situation, and to relax on the beach.

Lilli checking how the blueberries are ripening.

Tiina relaxing in the sunshine.


The little boys in Lake Saimaa.

And that's the story so far. Coming up, one of the highlights of the summer - going to a summer cottage to feed the mosquitoes.