Angel Moment at Helsinki Vantaa

Sorry I don't have a photo for this post, but I still wanted to share this little story. I wrote a few lines last week about those "angel moments" that sometimes come our way without us even realising it. http://www.atowncalledsomero.blogspot.com/2012/02/you-might-be-angel.html and I am fairly sure that another one happened today....

This afternoon I had to visit Helsinki Vantaa Airport, and as I was standing in the arrivals hall, there was a group of people standing around all wearing yellow jackets - who obviously all worked for the same company. One of them, an English woman with a clipboard, was talking to a Finnish colleague of hers in a very loud voice. Of course the conversation was nothing to do with me, but I couldn't help hearing parts of it, because of the way the woman was talking.

She stood in the middle of the hall, in front of everyone, obviously trying to embarrass her colleague about a business issue. She was talking to him as though he was a young child - with a tone that was condescending, patronising and arrogant.  Whatever her problem was (something to do with a PR tour in Finland for Landrovers), in her own mind she was right - her colleague was wrong - and she wanted the whole world to know it.

Throughout the whole episode the man remained calm and gracious and polite.  I have no idea how he maintained his self-control. Personally I would have been tempted to slap her, but if this man was irritated inside, he showed no sign of it whatsoever. ( I need to learn his technique for keeping calm under pressure). When it was over, the woman, now very proud of herself, strutted around the hall like a cockerel, and the man returned to stand where he had been before, next to where I was.

The man was a complete stranger to me, but I felt I could not let the moment pass without saying something. I told him that I had no idea what the issue had been, nor was it any of my business, but that I admired his composure and patience and that no-one deserved to be spoken to like that. He smiled (his name was Tomi) and said that he was grateful for that, because sometimes he felt as though he were living in some kind of surreal bubble where he was the only person that seemed to think that this woman's behaviour was out of the ordinary. I assured him that I was a completely objective bystander, and he was not.

We only spoke for five minutes, but even in those few moments we agreed that we were both at a stage where we were wondering how exactly we had ended up where we were - and we laughed at the absurdity of life.  Very soon after this we both had to leave, but just before I left, he said "Thanks for saying what you did... I thought I was going crazy and it's almost like an angel appeared to reassure me that I wasn't."

I'm certainly no angel (my family would confirm that) but perhaps this was another angel moment like the one that happened to me a few days ago.  In any event, if Tomi should ever read this... you are not going mad....the woman was nuts and you have remarkable self-control. I wish I had half of your patience.

Like I said the other day, we never know when those angel moments might occur, but I am pretty sure I got a glimpse of one today :)

Tomorrow I will tell you about my Somero piepo moment. It tasted like cement and my face was not pretty.  You have been warned....