Elke: Tobi and I went to Näinneula this arvo to have a coffee and look out over Tampere. 4 euros each is a bit steep for using the lift, but what the hell... Tampere looks a lot different than it did in summer when we were here with Piia and Mikael. Have a look at the photos.

Michael: It was a bit difficult getting up early today but we had to get ready to leave. We cleaned up and packed and then caught a taxi to the train station. On the train back Tobias went to the toilet to discover what must be the coldest toilet in the world. It was one of the old style train toilets with a flap at the bottom for you know what. It seems that the flap had frozen open and the toilet had filled up with snow.

After a few hours we were back in Tampere. It was refreshingly warm... around -20. Having stuffed ourselves with pizza on the way home, Trent decided to stay another night at our place rather than taking another 2-3 hour trip to Helsinki.

Michael: There are busses between Tahko and the nearby town Nilsiä but the timetable is pretty sparse so we caught a taxi instead. We had lunch and did some shopping. When we got back to Tahko it was -25 and there was a strong wind. It was bitterly cold as we crossed the frozen lake back to our cottage.

While we were out Trent went cross country skiing. As you've probably heard, cross country skiing is one of the most energetic forms of exercise. Trent's eye lashes started freezing together on the way back making it difficult to see.

In the evening we had some drinks and Elke and Trent (and Tobi ;-) had song recognition competition. I have a few thousand songs on my laptop and I would start playing a song, and usually after a few drum beats or opening lyrics either Elke or Trent had blurted out the correct song title and artist. This kept us amused for a while. All through the evening, fireworks were being launched by people everywhere in the area.

Around midnight, we popped the champagne and stepped outside briefly to check out the fireworks. After we came inside we had the first sauna of the year. Then we melted some tin and poured it in cold water. The shape it forms is supposed to tell your fortune for the year. There aren't any strict rules for interpreting your fortune (as far as I know) so we kind of had a look and figured it looked pretty good.

Michael: This morning we dropped Elina off at the child care facility and got picked up and taken to a small lake nearby. Our instructor showed us the basics of ice fishing. After Trent, Elke and Tobi had tried on just about every pair of boots they had, we headed out on the ice. First we drilled some holes and then we started jiggling our lures in the water. The ice was about 50cm thick so their was no real chance of it breaking, but it did make a weird cracking sound once which made us all panic for a second. The instructors assured us that it was fine. We all had ice knives in case the ice really did break. They are two spikes with handles that are connected by a rope. You hang them around your neck just in case. It was pretty cold at almost -30. Every time we raised the line out of the water, the moisture on the line froze and pretty soon our lines were covered in ice. After an hour we went into a little hut with a big fire to warm up. A little later we went out again, and Tobi got a bite and pulled out a 1.4kg rainbow trout. While the instructors went and smoked the fish, the rest of us kept trying for another catch but nobody even had a bite. We went and collected Elina from the child care and returned to enjoy the freshly smoked trout.

After lunch Elke, Trent and Tobi got set up to go snow shoe trekking. Their show shoes weren't quite the same as the tennis racquets I had imagined. Elina and I followed them out just to see the Siberian huskies. There were quite a lot of them and their most distinctive feature was their eyes. Some have amazing blue eyes, while others have brown eyes. There was at least one husky with one blue eye and one brown eye. He was so excited that he was jumping around so much that we couldn't get a good photo of his face.

Elina and I went inside while Elke, Trent and Tobi went trekking with their instructor. Elina and I spotted them climbing up one of the old ski runs, through the deep snow. From a distance it looked pretty much like regular walking, but after an hour and half they came back and assured me it was very strenuous. Elke fell over a few times and had a lot of trouble getting up because the snow was so soft and deep that her hands had nothing solid to grab onto.

Michael: This afternoon Tobi and I hired some skis and hit the slopes. It was the coldest weather that either of us have skied in. Around 1pm it was -28 so we stayed out for less than an hour. We returned to the cabin for some hot coffee. After a little while we went back out on the slopes for the last of the daylight and had a couple of sessions skiing under the spot lights. Interestingly it was easier skiing under the lights than during the overcast daylight. At one point we skied in almost complete darkness, with only the dim moonlit glow of the snow to guide us as we crossed from one run to the next. Eventually around 8pm we had had enough so we returned our skis. By then the temperature had dropped to -32. Time for another sauna...

Michael: This morning we got up early and finished packing our stuff. We caught a train from Tampere to Siilinjärvi which is just north of Kuopio which is about 300km north east of Tampere. When we arrived a Tahko shuttle service (otherwise known as a taxi) was waiting for us. It took about half an hour to get to the Tahko ski resort. After trying our key in a few different doors we found our cabin. It was -27 outside and a bit cool inside so we lit the fire (and set off the smoke alarm). We decided to scope out the area. There is a rather large lake which is frozen. It is used as a car park from December to March. They also use it as a landing strip for small planes. To make the ice thicker than normal, they drill thousands of holes so that the water overflows and freezes. We went to the only shop in Tahko and bought some basic supplies. We bought a toboggan for Elina and a bunch of birch leaves for the sauna. The idea is that you hit yourself with the bunch of leaves and it increases your blood circulation. It was the first time we have done it since we have lived in Finland. I think it was a good experience for everyone.

Michael: This afternoon Tobias arrived in Finland for the first time. He lives in Frankfurt, Germany and wasn't accustomed to the kinds of low temperatures we have here. When Elke picked Tobi up it was about -17 and they decided to walk home from the bus station (which is a couple of km away). We had dinner at a Viking restaurant called Harald's. They serve lot's of 'traditional' viking food like wild boar and reindeer. You can even buy meat on a sword if you are really keen.

Michael: The day started with rice porridge. Every year we have rice porridge with a blanched almond hidden somewhere. Finding the almond brings good luck. Elke was the lucky one this year. In the afternoon, Trent and I went for a walk around the lake to the jetty. Of course, we could have walked directly across it because it has been frozen for a while and the ice is quite thick, but there is now a fair bit of snow on the ice so it is easier to walk around it. It was interesting seeing the jetty, without any boats sticking out over the ice and snow. It was dark around 4pm and as we walked home through streets lit by candles in ice lanterns and fairy lights.

Michael: It's Christmas eve. Elina opened the last door of her Advent Calendar and devoured the last of the chocolates this morning. Today, Santa visits all the good kids and gives them special presents. Over the last few weeks, Elina has been getting more and more excited about Christmas and every time she saw Santa in a shopping center or on TV, she'd scream out "Santa... chocky!". The excitement was getting really intense.

In the afternoon we had a sauna. It was kind of cold outside, but Trent and I decided to let off some steam. This is where things started going downhill. There is something that I have always been curious about. It's one of those things that seems like a good idea before you do it, but then you find out the hard way that it's not. Well, Elke brought out some warm water (actually it wasn't that warm but we'll get to that later). Trent had the camera ready. With great courage (or is that stupidity?) I leaned forward, extended my tongue and let it touch the metal pole on the balcony. Within, what must have been less than 20 milliseconds, my tongue was firmly attached to the pole. Trent snapped a photo, as I avoided snapping off my tongue. I started pouring the rapidly cooling water over it. It kind of worked, but next time (if there ever is a next time) I will make sure the water is warmer than luke warm. Anyway, I ended up leaving a bit of my tongue skin on the pole that should defrost in spring. We do have a photo of my tongue, but rather than disgusting you with the gory details, I'll leave it to your imagination.

Now back to the main theme of Christmas Eve... Elina left some apples on the balcony so that Santa's reindeer would have something to snack on.

Due to the afternoon's stupidity, my tongue ended up kind of sensitive to say the least. And it took another beating when I forgot about it and spread some hot mustard on my Christmas ham. Except for that, dinner was great. We had a mostly traditional Finnish Christmas dinner... some smoked ham, mustard herring, smoked salmon, salted salmon, peruna laatikko (baked potato casserole), beetroot, carrot and potato salad, prawn and prawn and egg cake and Christmas rye bread.

At some point during dinner Elina ventured excitedly into the living room and discovered that Santa had dropped by and delivered the presents. They were all around the base of the tree. Sure enough the reindeer had eaten the apples and Santa even dropped his hat on the way out. Elina got stuck into unwrapping her presents in her typically careful manner. She must have been good this year and got a bunch of fun toys and other cool presents.

Later in the evening, Krista, Sauli, Marja, Nicholas from across the road, and a friend of theirs from the Netherlands dropped by.

Michael: This evening Trent arrived. He's staying for Christmas and will come up to Tahko with us for a few days.

Michael: This morning Elina and I decided to go and get a Christmas tree. We took the bus into the city and bought a tree from a guy selling them outside Stockmann (a large department store in the center of the town). It was a bit of a challenge was getting it home on the bus. Luckily it was wrapped up in a mesh so it was only about 60cm across. Eventually we got it home and unwrapped it. While we were out, Elke had rearranged the furniture in the living room to make space for the tree. I stood it in a bucket of water for a couple of hours like the guy said. Elke was poking around behind the tree and knocked it over. Ten litres of water goes a long way so there was a mad frenzy as we tried to absorb all the water before it did any damage. By this time the tree was looking nice and refreshed, so rather than risking another bucket disaster, we figured we may as well put it in the tree stand. That was when we discovered that the trunk was about twice the diameter of the hole in the stand. Out with the saw, and after more than half an hour of hacking we managed to fit it into the stand. We all helped decorate the tree. After all that effort it actually looked pretty good.

Michael: I know the few of you who still check back occasionally to see if anything has happened to us over here in Finland are probably sick of seeing "Kipi kipi!..." as the last update.

The 12th of September was the last time I wrote something for MEE Journal. Ironically it was called "Have I forgotten something?" believe it or not, I actually forgot to upload it to the public site... I guess that is telling you something.

Anyway a lot has happened in the last couple of months so here is a brief summary off the top of my head...

• My cousin Sari got married to Jason in the Blue Mountains near Sydney... unfortunately we couldn't be there but we heard that it was really nice.
• My cousin Petra got married to Stefan and we went to the wedding... it was great.
• Elke started studying Finnish for 4.5 hours per day 5 days a week. Hän oppii nopeasti :-)
• Trent has visited Tampere a few times.
• Ann and Ian (our aussie friends from Helsinki) visited
• Mark and Adelina visited
• We visited Piia, Mikael, Emilia, Pasi, Britta and Trent in Helsinki last weekend.
• It was Pa's birthday on Wednesday.
• It was Mum's birthday on Saturday.

Michael: Unless I have forgotten about someone, I think I am the most absent minded person I know. About a year ago, I turned up at work and everyone was talking about how cool the Aurora Borealis (northern lights) was the night before. Of course we had been totally unaware of the magnificent spectacle that was going on outside as we sat on our sofa, admiring the glow of the TV.

So when Nigel emailed me yesterday afternoon to say that the clear weather and high solar activity meant that it was likely that the aurora might be visible in Tampere, I was naturally enthusiastic after missing out last time.

Coming back to my absent mindedness, I stepped out the door from work and promptly added the useful info about the aurora to the endless list of other useful info that would be instantly forgotten. I arrived home, admired the glow of TV as I watched some of the coverage of the September 11 anniversary and went to sleep early.

The next morning I woke up checked my phone which had an SMS from Nigel which had arrived about half an hour after I had fallen asleep. "Aurora starting in the east..."

Michael: Elina has a new friend called Maria. Today we went for a nice walk in the Arboretum and got some delicious ice creams in the coffee shop. Along the way Elina picked up a new Finnish phrase "Kipi kipi!", which translates to "Go, go!" or "Run, run!". Elina grasped onto this new phrase with amazing enthusiasm. We spent the rest of the afternoon following a trail of dust as she raced along the paths screaming "Kipi kipi! Kipi kipi!" (of course with the occasional "Oh dear!").

Here are some photos of the kids in action.

Michael: Elina and I visited Moomilaakso (Moomi valley) which is in the same building as the Tampere Main Library. Elina loves Moomis! They look a little like hippos but they are not. They were created by the Finnish author Tove Jansson. In case you aren't already familiar with the Moomi characters you can take a look at this Flash presentation at the Moomiworld site.

Later we ate dinner at a Viking restaurant in Tampere called Harald's. Harald Blåtand was the King of Denmark about a thousand years ago who reportedly united Denmark and Norway and brought Christianity to Scandinavia. Blåtand translates to Bluetooth, which was apparently a reference to his dark complexion rather than stained teeth from years of consuming plentiful supplies of irresistible Scandinavian blueberries. His name was adopted by a wireless technolgy for connecting mobile phones and other devices.

Anyway, dinner was good. We shared the evening with Nigel, an English guy who moved to Tampere from London about three months ago. Nigel was very fond of some Finnish specialities like tervasnapsi (tar schnapps) and tervajäätelö (tar icecream). To simulate the taste you have a couple of options. You could go out onto the street, get down on all fours and start licking the road. Alternatively, the easier and arguably more hygienic way is to just imagine the taste of smoked salmon, without the taste of the salmon. That is really what it tastes like. It's quite refreshing actually.

Elina amused herself and countless other diners by running around trying to be cute with seemingly limitless energy. Eventually she found the the limit and we headed home.

Here are some photos from today.

Michael: Believe it or not, we have now been in Finland for one full year!

Michael: This morning we set off on the kind of pilgrimage that would make Homer Simpson proud. We climbed to the top of the world highest gravel ridge which is just a couple of kilometers to the west of the Tampere city center. It was formed in the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. There is an observation tower which overlooks the center of Tampere and the two lakes and numerous islands on either side. (You can read more about the Pyynikki ridge here.) The reason that Homer Simpson would be impressed, and even envious, is that the café at the base of the Pyynikki observation tower has the reputation of making the 'best donuts in the world', at least according to the Tampere city guidebook for tourists. Now that has to be one of the most ambitious claims around; the kind you don't usually make without reason, so we were naturally excited at the prospect. With great anticipation we sampled these highly acclaimed donuts and reached the unanimous opinion was that they were in fact, without a doubt, the best donuts that one can find in a café at the base of an observation tower, on the highest gravel ridge between two lakes in a small country in the northern reaches of the worlds second smallest continent. At least I don't think we could claim too much more than that. They're not bad at all, but we were a little disappointed after such a huge build up.

Later we explored some of the other sights Tampere has to offer and retired once again for a beer at the Plevna brewery. We then had lunch in a typically tacky American diner and were amazed at one item on the menu... the tower burger. It had more than a kilogram of meat and cost 30€ (which for you Aussies is about $50). We tucked into our relatively modest, but still huge, hamburgers which of course left us feeling bloated and ready to sit around watching videos.

So that's what we did. We watched Charlie's Angels and Memento. Memento has to be one of the best films I've seen for a long time. It is one of those films where you spend most of the movie in confusion but in the end you are left with a great feeling of satisfaction. It's highly recommended...

Elina: This morning I awoke to some croaky singing by mamma and däddä. Then I slid out of bed and stumbled straight for the presents that were stacked on our coffee table. Thanks to everyone who sent their wishes and gifts for my second birthday! I really appreciate all the toys, books, clothes, cards and stuff you sent.

Michael: It's quite hard to imagine that it has really been two years since the little bundle of joy we affectionately know as "The Squish" joined us. She's come such a long way in a what seems like a short time to us but from her perspective it's taken a whole lifetime. We are really proud of her. She is walking and talking and doing all the 'normal' things that two year olds do, but to us she is the most amazing person we know. She has brought so much enjoyment to our lives and at least she seems to be enjoying herself too. She still misses her family and friends in Australia and Helsinki and often mentions your names. Fortunately Elina is getting along really well with her new friends in Tampere and she's picking up Finnish really quickly now.

This evening Trent arrived from Helsinki. He's staying at our place for the weekend.

Here are some more photos from Elina's second birthday and Trent's visit to Tampere.

Elina: Today was one of those days I'd rather forget. Mamma took me to see the health nurse. She was really nice until she gave me two HUUUUUGE needles, one in each leg. Man that hurt! I got her back with an eardrum piercing screach... that'll teach her. Anyway if anyone is wondering about my latest stats, here they are: 91cm and just a smidge under 13kg.

Michael: This afternoon on her way home from kindy Elina picked up one of those cute little pine cones. The kind she often picks up and puts in her pocket along with all the little rocks she finds. "Pine cone! Pine cone!" she repeated enthusiatically. Well it looked like a pine cone. After all it was long and brown just like a pine cone. The thing is, it really didn't smell like a pine cone and I'm glad she didn't taste it because it appears that our little Elina needs some more education on the subtle, but very important differences between pine cones and dog poo.

Elina: This morning mamma dropped me off at Kindy for my first full day. Things didn't start that well. While mamma was talking to the lady, I slipped and fell off the bench and landed on my chin. Man that hurt! I WÄÄÄÄÄÄd and I WÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄd and mamma hugged me. I used to think it hurt when I fell over and grazed my knees on gravel. That's nothing compared to this... Anyway after a while it was ok and I joined my friends for some porridge. What a busy day... So many toys and friends to play with.

Michael: We took Emilia and Elina to the Arboretum so they could feed the ducks and run around pulling out all the nice flowers. They loved it! Even maybe more than the amusement park. But since we had paid for Sunday too we thought we better go back for some more amusement... Tornado style! You can check out the Särkänniemi Tornado in the roller coaster database. It's one of those inverted roller coasters where the seats hang from the track. The track is 700m and it goes at a maximum speed of 75km/h, which doesn't sound too fast in theory. I can assure you that it is plenty fast enough. The front row is the only way to go, as Elke found out on her first ride when Piia made a mad dash for the front row.

Of course in the ambitious world of roller coasters the Tornado is a relatively lame ride compared to the crazy ones we discovered in the roller coaster databasee record holders section. Check these out:

• The fastest ride
• The longest ride
• The fastest and highest wooden ride

Elina: Emilia came to visit us today! We had lunch and then went to the amusement park called Särkänniemi. They had lots of cool rides like a carosel with horseys on it, a turtle train, little cars, a little pirate ship (try saying that while holding your tongue). There was even an animal park and a Dolphinarium. I love dolphins. The splish and splash and jump and walk (you have to see it to believe it). They even played with a ball and kicked it into the crowd. Emilia couldn't get enough of the jumping castle. She loves jumping. I think she's gonna be a circus clown or one of those acrobats one day... now that would be cool!

Mamma, däddä, Mikael and Piia went on a ride called the Tornado. I beats me why anyone would want to wäääää just for fun but there were long queues of people lining up to get scared senseless as they hang on for dear life.