Home Again for Christmas

And you're worried about a bit of ice on the windows?

After the complicated day that was yesterday, we managed to survive the extra night at Stansted and have finally made it back home to Somero. Hurray!

It was a long journey, but it wasn't all bad to be honest. Having left the car at the airport for the last ten days, I was fully prepared to have to dig it out from under the snow (I had even bought a spade for this purpose in advance). However, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared... except that I had quite brilliantly managed to leave the window open the whole time (great move Jody), which meant there was 15 cm of snow both on the car bonnet but also on the car seat itself. Excellent.

On the plus side though, despite the temperature being minus twelve, the car started first time.  As a result I now hate my Renault a little less than I did all the times it refused to start in the past. I might even try and be friends with it again.

In most things I am a real Finn at heart. However, having been brought up in the UK, I can't help the fact that Christmas preparations in our house usually begin early. Most years our tree is up by the first week in December. This year though, with all the complications and challebges we have faced, we have not really had a chance to get things sorted out for Christmas. Not helped by the fact that we couldn't get home yesterday as planned.  Determined not to be beaten though, the first step when arriving in Somero was to call in at the friendly guy on Turuntie who sells Christmas trees every year.  Somehow we managed to cram it into a car still full of luggage. I'm still not sure how this happened, but we made it home in one piece and we now have a Christmas tree in our front room. Better late than never.



 And I needn't have wasted any time worrying about the lack of decorations, because the best view was right in front of me, and much better than tinsel or Christmas lights.

When we left Darlington it was grey and dark and pouring with rain (ie a normal day in the UK).

We arrived in Somero this afternoon to be greeted by white roof tops and a beautiful sunset with the church steeple silhouetted in the background. Who needs tinsel when you've got that? To my mind, this is how Christmas is supposed to look. Some people only ever get to see views like this on postcards, but for those of us living here, it is right outside the front door. I feel so lucky to call Somero my home.

Happy Christmas to all of you. I hope you are having a good Christmas Eve. We're looking forward to the sauna this evening, and then my guess is that Santa's little helper will spend most of the night ahead wrapping presents, because of course being an English family, Father Christmas will (hopefully) visit us overnight... if any of the children have been good enough.  It really is great to be back home.

Ryanair - Europe's Biggest Rip Off?

You have been warned

We left Darlington at 1am this morning and drove through the night to Stansted airport for our flight to Tampere. Minttu slept all the way, but Saskia and I were both tired and very much looking forward to getting home to Finland. But then of course things rarely go exactly as you expect them to. Ryanair will always be Ryanair. The "Low Cost" airline that would charge you for breathing if it was legal.

In fact, while I am on the subject of Ryanair, let me write here what I know everyone else who has experienced Ryanair is thinking.

Ryanair calls itself a "Low Cost" airline. The truth though is that most fares are far from this by the time you have actually booked your ticket. Ryanair go out of their way to take as much money as possible from you from start to finish. I am sure they employ people for exactlty this purpose.

• During the booking process, Ryanair sneakily try and con you into buying insurance (that you don't need) by asking you to pick your country of residence, without it being clear that they are actually selling you insurance at this point. The "travel without insurance" option is well hidden in the list and you have to know it is there in order to avoid being charged. A lot of people end up buying insurance that they never wanted in the first place.
• Ryanair require you to print your own boarding cards, but if for some reason you are not able to do this, you are then charged 60 euros per person at check in. Why?  Not because Ryanair can't print your boarding cards themselves, but because this is another easy way to make money out of people.
• Most airlines give you a travel allowance, but Ryanair charge extra for every bag you check in. Beware though!You can choose to pay for a 15kg or 20 kg bag... but if you choose 15kg and then your bag is heavier, you are not allowed to upgrade at the airport. Why?  Because Ryanair know that people often underestimate the weight of their bags, and they thought this would be another fun way to make money out of people.
• It gets better though. If you do have excess baggage, Ryanair will charge you 20 pounds per kilo for it. Apart from cocaine or solid gold, how many items can you think of that cost that much per kilo to buy? Unless you have a bag full of gold bullion, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see who is being conned here. 
• When buying tickets,  if you book with Ryanair over the phone, you are charged for a premium rate phone service, even though you are buying a product from them. They advise you strongly to book over the net. OK. But then they still charge you an "on-line booking fee" even for doing this.  Why?  Because it is another way for Ryanair to make money out of you.
• For those travelling with young children, almost every other airline allows you to travel with a buggy and a car seat free of charge. Do Ryanair?  No. Ten euros per car seat in each direction. Why?....well you can guess the general theme here.
• And what about the flight itself? Well don't even get me started. It is like being a tourist in the middle of a Tunisian market place, only ten times worse. "Now we're selling scratchcards...why not treat yourself to a panini? Why don't you buy our latest calendar?" (who in their right mind wants a Ryanair calendar?) "Why don't you buy a tiny can of coke for the knock-down price of two euros?" (Only around ten euros a litre, considerably more than a bottle of good Bordeaux).  The relentless selling does not stop until you are literally taking your first step onto the stairs and thanking God that the flight is over. Ryanair will probably cotton on to this soon and start selling people prayer mats as they are walking down the aircraft stairs.
• Then of course there are the seats...uncomfortable, plastic, ugly, and no basket to store anything in, because that would be just too helpful to passengers.  

Please Minttu...don't apply for the Ryanair position. Please

There is much more of course. This is only half the Ryanair story, but I would need a whole book for the rest. I am thinking of starting a therapy group for those of you who have been similarly traumatised by the shambolic enterprise that calls itself an airline.

Anyway - having got through check-in (eventually), we were then stopped at security.  Hurray. They took so long almost arresting Saskia for daring to possess nail varnish (which was clearly a worldwide security threat) that we missed our flight. Yes, we missed it. And no, we were not shopping at the time, it really was the nail varnish. So here we are. Stuck at Stansted for another night, hopeful that we can get back tomorrow. (Last month Ryanair cancelled the flight completely along with sixteen others, due to one whole centimetre of snow having fallen.  This time they have only have charged us 220 pounds to transfer onto tomorrow's flight). I have tried hard to look for the positives in this story, and they have been quite hard to identify.  But there is one. It has given me the opportunity to say what I really think of Ryanair. Feel better after that.

I wish you all a lovely evening, and hope very  much that we are safely back in Somero tomorrow evening.

Moral of this story?  Use any airline in the entire world.... except one. I will leave you to guess which one I mean.

Happy Birthday Saskia!

Saskia on her 18th birthday

Saskia's 18th birthday today, and almost impossible to believe that she has finally reached adulthood!  What a scary thought....

She tells me that it doesn't really feel any different yet though. I asked her what she was hoping for over the next year. Top of her list (like mine) is that we find a new family home in Somero.  We have all been grateful to have the flat we are living in at the moment, but we are also looking forward to putting down our family roots once more in our own house as soon as we find the right one.

As Saskia is expecting a baby in March she is obviously hopeful that everything goes well with the baby, and is looking forward to being a new Mum. I still haven't quite got my head round the thought of being a grandmother, but I guess I'll have to start getting used to it pretty soon. Saskia is also thinking about starting up her studies again in the autumn so there are a lot of projects set for 2013.

She also made the comment "It's cool that the world didn't end." Quite.

As I write these words it is now just past eleven o'clock at night in the UK. In just over an hour we have to start our journey home, as the plane leaves from Stansted at 6.40 in the morning, and we have a four hour drive to the airport from here.  My Dad had tears in his eyes when I left him this evening and it felt very hard to leave. I am of course praying that I will see him again, but I am comforted in any event by the knowledge that I have said everything important I wanted to say even if I don't.

So, as a family we have a lot to look forward to over the coming months. Right now though, I am simply looking forward to our journey back to Finland being over and being safely back in Somero. Then it will be straight out to the shops toget the food in for Christmas. You'll know it's me if you see me because I'll be the one looking exhausted. Wishing you all a happy weekend....