Celebrations

December is the time for various celebrations. Below are a few photos of some of December's events.

Thomas (centre) giving his scout's promise.

A certain well-known gentlemen, being ably assisted by Henry.

Lilli, eagerly viewing proceedings.

H-M, also paying close attention.

The horn is in the background because the tradition is that people have to sing to Father Christmas. The boys were keen on the idea, so Thomas played a few carols on his horn, and we sang a Christmas song, accompanied by Henry on guitar.


Christmas meal.

Lilli and Tiina tucking in.

And thanks go to H-M, who was the head chef, with Tiina the sommelier.

St. Petersburg

At the beginning of December, it was time for the next trip to St. Petersburg. This time, the focus was on culture - attendance at a KHL game was on the itinerary.

The usual suspects cheerfully set off on the Allegro train. Sesse managed not to lose her ticket and the only excitement was caused by Peter being singled out for extra thorough checking at the border - the only person in the whole carriage. Yippee!

We stayed at the usual hotel, Hotel Dostoyevsky, and the trip began with shopping for art supplies for H-M. Then it was time to head off for dinner, which Tiina had decreed would be in the fine restaurant, Stroganoff Steak House. The food was excellent. I enjoyed the Baikal omul, well, at least until I found out it was a somewhat endangered species, and the local sausages, and the others enjoyed the signature stroganoff (the adults) and the less-signature burgers (children). After dinner, we met up for a quick chat with Viktoria.

The breakfast at the hotel is really nothing to write home about and the ladies decided they wanted something rather better. So, we went off on a search, ending up at the Jazz Bar 48 Chairs, where the ladies had their breakfast and the boys a cup of coffeee (Peter) and orange juice (Thomas and Henry).

Sesse with her tea, but waiting for her omelette.

Interior of the jazz bar.

Suitably fortified, we went on our way into a rainy city, with Sesse, as usual, being an excellent guide. We were in Russia at the time of the parliamentary elections, as can be seen by the hoarding promoting the United Russia party. United Russia is the ruling party and did less well than anticipated. My feeling is that the people were upset with too many manifestations of the arrogance of power, in particular the decision to change the time, meaning that in St. Petersburg it doesn't get light until nearly eleven in the morning.

Electoral poster on Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg's main thoroughfare.

The weather was not too friendly, but nothing to stop intrepid tourist like us.

Rainy St. Petersburg.


Rainy St. Petersburg (Singer Building on Nevesky Prospekt).

After a bout of sightseeing, it was time for a trolley bus ride, followed by lunch at a Japanese-Italian restaurant, Yakitoriya, where Thomas was a little disappointed with his portion, but Tiina and Henry were much happier with theirs.

Thomas eyeing his rather meagre lunch.

Henry and Tiina looking much more content.

Poor Thomas needed a snack immediately after eating his meal! Henry was very helpful and used his Russian skills to get him a meat pie (pirozhki). Thomas certainly does not need to slim!

Then it was off to the ice-hockey stadium to see the KHL game, CKA Saint Peterburg vs Spartak Moscow. The place was rocking, the hockey was good, and a fun time was had by all - except maybe the supporters of Spartak, as their team took a bit of a hiding.

Henry with his fan 'tattoo'.

Tiina and Henry

Building up the atmosphere.

Changeover.

A post-game snack - blinis at a Teremok kiosk.

The next morning it was an early start and the train back to Finland.

Of course, no report of a trip to St. Petersburg is complete without the obligatory photo of a church.

St. Isaac's Cathedral at night.

Andy Warhol

"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."

This autumn, it was Elk's Street's humble scribe's turn for ephemeral celebrity - as the photo below shows.




The award was given at a formal student dinner, which involved certain rituals, most of which come from the German university tradition, and at which I surprised everyone by holding the acceptance speech in Finnish.

Listening to some of the other speeches, I became more and more astonished at being singled out. With age, my classroom style is becoming more and more old-fashioned - I don't use electronic learning environments ('virtual learning' is just that - not quite the real thing), I don't use electronic feedback, I'm tardy with giving grades, and I hardly get round to being bothered to use the blackboard any more.

Mind you, Socrates didn't use much technology either - perhaps because he played football!

Thomas also had his moment in the spotlight. He was invited to the mayor's Independence Day reception. As with the Finnish President's Independence Day Ball, the event begins with shaking of hands - for a taste of this click here.

Thomas was maybe not quite as well-dressed as those in the video but he was still quite smart, as shown by the photos below.







How did the teaching story end? By the management in its wisdom transferring me to duties where I spend most of my time staring at a computer screen and very little time in the classroom. Hurray for managers.... not!

St Petersburg

With the exception of H-M, who feels uncomfortable in Russia, Elk's Street is now in possession of multi-entry visas for the Russian Federation. Living so close to the border, it is a pretty poor do that it took so long for us to get organised, although the eye-watering cost of the visas is a reasonable excuse.

So, visas in hand, we were ready for a trip to Russia's second-largest city.

After a good breakfast a snack at Cafe Aleksandra, the happy travellers set off to Vainikkala to catch the Allegro to St. Petersburg, a journey of a couple of hours. Sesse was on this trip as our guide and interpreter.

Thomas the packhorse.

Waiting at Vainikala station.
(From left to right: Henry, Thomas, Tiina, Sesse.)

Note that Sesse has her train ticket, which she conveniently mislaid when the guard arrived for the ticket inspection. But, as the Aussies say, "no worries, mate." Somehow, Sesse managed to travel both ways without showing a valid ticket.

Three generations of Russian train at Finljandski station.
(Apologies for the poor photo quality, these photos were all taken by mobile phone.)

From the station, we set off, with Sesse in the lead, to the metro and our hotel, Hotel Dostoevsky. The hotel is very conveniently located and not ludicrously priced. Having a supermarket in the basement under the hotel certainly makes shopping for souvenirs to take home very easy, although Peter, not being the world's most enthusiastic shopper, only bought a 2.5kg jar of pears.

The entertainment for the first evening was a trip to the St Petersburg State Circus. Russia has a very long circus tradition and the performers were very talented, although there were perhaps a few too many animal acts for my taste. And I felt rather sad for the bears.

Henry tucking into his starter at the Korova Bar.

Sesse's starter was a more sensible size.
(Although I don't think anyone went to the circus hungry.)

The next day, after a hotel breakfast, it was on our feet and off; first stop - the St. Petersburg Ice Palace, to get tickets for our next trip, to see a KHL game - St. Petersburg SKA vs Spartak Moscow. Having completed the serious business of the day, we had the rest of day for sight-seeing, so it was back into the town centre and Nevsky Prospekt.

After refreshments in Cafe Singer, upstairs in the Dom Knigi shop, we decided that the weather was too wet and a change of plan was needed. So the afternoon was spent on a minibus sightseeing tour - a nice way to spend a rainy day, although the Russian commentary by the guide (non-stop for nearly 2 hours) was a bit beyond my Russian vocabulary of about five words.

View from Cafe Singer, Nevsky Prospekt

After a rest in the hotel, it was off to meet Tiina's former colleague, Viktoria for dinner, at Da Albertone, located, perhaps rather inaptly for Elk's Street, on Millionaires Street. The food was very good, and even Thomas approved.

The next morning there was time for a short walk, some shopping, a quick visit to Teremok, and then it was back to the train station and back to Finland.


No post about a trip to St. Petersburg is complete without...

... the obligatory photo of a church.

What's in a name?

Finland is a country where nicknames are rife, and Elk's Street has its fair share. Depending on the situation, one might find; Mamitsu, Papitsu, Henkka, Tomppa, Tinna Tanna Topsis, Huomi, and more.

The logic behind some of the names is pretty clear but that behind others more obscure. Mr Fox? Paddington?

Below, some help with encryption.

H-M

Paddington

Or should that be the other way around?


On the subject of names, while doing some cleaning I came across a list of names; the shortlist, should the boys have been girls.

For your enjoyment, and in no particular order, it is given below.

• Laura
  
• Emma
• Christina
• Helena
• Sandra
• Sylvia
• Susanna
• Anne/Anna
• Paula
• Nina

End of Summer

In the final week of the summer holiday the boys, without H-M, went for a couple of days' city living in Helsinki.

As usual, Tiina was our host and chairperson of the entertainment committee. One item on the programme was a visit to the town of Lohja to visit the limestone mines and the Tytyri mine museum. Elk's Street highly recommend this guided tour. The group is first taken down to the mine by minibus before walking through part of mine with a guide, who explains the history and workings of the limestone quarry. It was most emjoyable, and industrial history is always most interesting.

A hard-hatted group waiting to set off on the tour (Henry, Tiina, Thomas, Peter).

Thomas finding looking like an egg rather amusing.

In addition to the mines, Lohja has a coffee shop serving rather good cakes and pastries.

The next morning, Tiina took the little boys off to the amusement part, Linnanmäki, while your correspondent, who is no fan of amusement parks and fairground rides, went off to the Bank of Finland Museum. This small museum has free entry and is quite interesting, although one should probably have some knowledge of Finnish history to be able to enjoy it to the full. Having been in Finland for over 20 years now (How did that happen?) I recalled quite a few of the financial events described; the devaluation of the Finnish markka (No, I haven't forgiven Esko Aho, Iiro Viinanen, Ulf Sundqvist and company.), the old banknotes (including a huge one I only saw when there was a bank strike and we were paid in cash) and the introduction of the Euro.

The weather was very nice, so after my dose of education, and a coffee and a bun, I took a stroll around downtown Helsinki. As the photos below show, Finland is not as bleak as one might imagine. Well, at least in summer.

The dome of Helsinki Cathedral in late summer sunshine.


The Relandersgrund lightship, now a café-restaurant.


Some pleasure boats, with the ice-breakers peaceably waiting for winter in the background.


A Helsink tram passing through Katajanokka.


The dome of Uspenski Cathedral.


The President's Palace.

The trip was soon over and it was back to Elk's Street, and school, work and, all too soon, the rainy days of autumn.


Below, the summer holidays going 'up, up, and away.'

Fishing

As many Elk's Street followers may know, Henry is a keen fisherman. This summer's catch was not so good but a couple of nice fish were snared. And one 'biggie' got away by breaking the line.

Below a picture of Henry with a handsome fish he caught, a pike:

(Photo courtesy of Matias)