It's cold outside!

Northern Europe has been suffering a cold snap, with the UK brought to a standstill by a few inches of snow and a bit of cold weather.

So that you can follow what's happening in Elk's Street, follow the link below to the Lappeenranta Airport website, where you can get up-to-date weather data.

Lappeenranta Airport

Finland is a bit of a funny place for weather; there is a temperature difference of nearly 50 degrees celsius between when Henry was born, -22 degrees celsius, and when Thomas was born, +24 degrees celsius.

And on the day Henry was born, the local hockey team SaiPa were playing Lukko. And on the day Thomas was born I had an ice-cream from the kiosk in the centre of town. It's funny how you can remember these details.

(And for those wondering what has happened to the blog, work is nightmarish at the moment, so I've little time. But maybe there'll be some more photos soon.)

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.