Two Weeks

Taking a break from work and enjoying some salsa 

First of all, to those of you who read the blog regularly, sorry it's been so long since the last post. I only realised today that two weeks has already flown by since the last one. Still, at least there has been a nice picture of the Somero sun to look at.

The reason for the gap is that I have spent most of the last fortnight in England. I am in the middle of a job that will come to most of us at some point in our lives and that no-one looks forward to. I have been clearing out my parents house in Darlington. This of course would be quite emotional whatever the circumstances, but when you live in a different country from the house in question it is even more complicated, especially when there are no brothers or sisters around to share the task.

This is only a fraction of it....

Luckily I have had help from my friends (Samuli last week and Annya this week), both of whom flew over from Finland just to help me, and to whom I will be eternally grateful.

Anyone who has ever had to do this job will know what it is like. You are surrounded by all sorts of memories. There is rubbish to clear out, decisions to make and tears to be cried. I have been throwing out empty envelopes one minute and crying over an ancient photo of me sitting in my fathers lap the next. Some bags have been full of nothing but empty sweet wrappers - and others have contained letters written in 1934. My parents threw NOTHING away, EVER -so I can tell you there has been a lot to go through.



Annya remembering what a "99" tastes like

To be honest, I have dreaded this job for years. I knew it would come eventually, and I always thought it would be overwhelmingly hard. As it is, once this is all over, I will look back at this time with fond memories. It has been (and still is) a lot of work, but there have been several high points in the last two weeks as well.

Once again, I have been surrounded by friends old and new, just when I needed them the most. In addition I have had the chance to catch up with my salsa friends from Darlington and all over the north east. I've also taken the opportunity to enjoy all the foods that I miss when I am in Finland...baked potatoes, chips (from the chip shop), a cooked English breakfast and sun blushed tomatoes from Sainsburys. As well as mountains of cake.



View of the Swale river in Richmond

This fortnight has taught me several things, not least of which is that often things are not nearly as hard as you fear they might be. And even when they are, if you have friends, dancing and cake in your life, then anything is possible. And I mean anything. Wishing you all a wonderful week.

Look What I Found...

It's been one of the strangest winters in Finnish history. Even though there was a bit of snow and temperatures at one point went below minus twenty, any Finnish person will tell you that that's not enough to constitute a winter. We seemed to jump straight from autumn to spring with Christmas and a few cold weeks in between.

The sun in Somero this evening

Normally, by mid March, I am desperate for the snow to disappear and spring to arrive, but every year until now I have still had to wait for almost another two months.

This year though, everything is different. The ground has been visible for weeks, there is no snow anywhere in the south of Finland and temperatures today were plus seven. (Tropical for a Finnish March).

The birds have started coming back from their winters in the sun - and it really feels as though spring is in the air.

Not only that, but this evening the sun looked amazing, bigger than I think I have ever seen it.

It's been an unusual day in other ways too. This morning I found myself in the slightly surreal situation of giving a dance performance with my good friend Turo. Nothing obviously strange about that...except that it was at eleven in the morning and in the library. The last time I was in the library it was to read stories to toddlers in English. Today I was in the same place demonstrating the joys of dance.

Life never fails to be full of surprises. It can be exceedingly tough at times, but there are also days when the sun shines in March and you can suddenly find yourself dancing in the library...and surely those are the moments that are worth holding on to. Let's hope there are some more delicious surprises waiting round the corner. Have a sunny week wherever you are.

The Magic of Dance

Markku and Johaan Saari from Somero

Today in Kaarina I went to watch the Finnish fusku and slow dance championships which turned out to be more fun than I had anticipated. The event was organised by the Sekahaku dance club from the Turku area, and as always there was a very friendly atmosphere.  
Although Finns have a reputation of being difficult to get to know and sometimes hard to talk to, I have always found that at dance events you can talk to pretty much anybody and will almost always get a friendly response.

There was only one couple from Somero competing, my friend Markku Saari, along with his daughter Johanna. As I write this, I still don't know what their final placing was, but I will update this as soon as I find out.

Like many others, I spent the first half of the competition listening to the music and wishing that I was on the dance floor.

But when it came to the interval, the dance floor was open to everyone.  I enjoyed the salsa (and bachata) which (surprisingly) was played...but then it turned to tango.



Three members of the very relaxed and friendly audience :)

I have almost zero experience of tango, and in a country which is obsessed with this dance, my first instinct was to run, especially as more than two hundred people were watching and I had no idea what to do. But I wasn't going to get out of it that easily. My partner was a tango expert.

"Just follow me" he said calmly.
"But I have no idea what to do, and there are 200 people watching us," I whispered loudly into his ear, feeling the panic starting to escalate.

"Like I said, just follow me," he said. So I did.  And it is a long time since I can remember having so much fun. I forgot everyone around us, forgot my own feeling of inadequacy and stopped worrying about feeling stupid. I just trusted that my partner was going to make this work and that I wouldn't be the first person that day to fall over.

And we tangoed...me for almost the first time ever, and all thanks to a partner whom I trusted and who knew how to lead. Of course I have promised to get my revenge somehow...but the truth is I have not stopped smiling since.

And that, of course, is the beauty of dance. No matter where you are or what is going on in your life....if you are someone who really feels the power of music in your soul, when you dance all your troubles and sadnesses will go away.

So thank you Sekahaku for another successful dance event and to my tango partner for creating the unexpected high point of my week. Wishing you all a happy Sunday ...