The Dark Side of Mökki-life

No Finnish summer vacation would be complete without spending time at a mökki (summer cottage), and indeed sharing pictures on social media.

Mökkis are invariably lovely photogenic wooden buildings, set in the woods and close to a lake, a river or the sea. They are places to relax, go to [the] sauna, swim, barbecue food, drink beer, and enjoy life with friends and family.

But there is a dark side to this idyllic summer setting…

Random Top 10 List of Finland 2014 World Rankings

As 2014 draws to a close, I have to admit that it hasn't really been a great year for this blog (just one post so far!?!).  You know, excuses, excuses...

To be honest, it hasn't be a great year for Finland either, particularly on the economic front. But 'tis the time to be jolly and positive, so I thought I would share some good Finnish news from the past year.

Something Better for Eurovision

Recently, Finland selected the song that will represent the country in this year's annual celebration of kitsch and bland that is the Eurovision Song Contest. 

“Something Better” by Softengine is somewhat predictable and inoffensive, though not unpleasant. However, it does stand out for its frankly puzzling English lyrics.

The Finnish Festive Spirit

There are some things I feel that, as a foreigner, I will never quite understand about Finland and the Finns.

One of those is the Finnish Christmas spirit.

Exclusive: Finnish Teen-Idol Robin is Deaf!

Ppntori

Today, I join the very select group of bloggers who are able to break some news ahead of the mainstream media. Oh yes.

For today, I can exclusively reveal that the Finnish teen-idol Robin is in fact deaf. I don't mean tone-deaf, I mean really deaf; as in can't hear at all.

Guest Post: KT Goes to Helsinki

The very first time I went to Helsinki, many years ago, it was for a business trip, in the middle of winter. It was very cold and very bleak, which led me to put Helsinki on my "been there, don't need to go there again, ever" list of cities. Little did I know...

Anyhow, my second guest blogger (the first was Santa) had an altogether different experience of travelling on business to the Finnish capital.

Dedicated to Kone

One of Finland's largest company specialises in lifts, escalators, and moving-walkways. The company is called rather brilliantly Kone, meaning quite simply "machine" or "engine". Not even "machines" or "engines", just "machine" or "engine" in the singular form.

As it happens, I am rather fond of kone. Not so much the company, but the word itself.

Just When I Thought I Had Mastered Finnish Declensions

Let's face it, if learning Finnish was graded like judo, I would still be a white belt. This despite years of training with an excellent sensei.

However, there are some areas of the language where I think I might be awarded a yellow or even green belt. One of these is case declensions, or the fine Art of wrestling nouns into admitting what they've been up to. Yet, despite my amazing skills, I can still be surprised by the ability of Finnish nouns to fight back.

Mini-Post: Pointing the Finger at Meerkats

Apparently, the Finnish word for "meerkat" is "nelisormimangusti", or "four-fingered mongoose".

Well, well, well... I didn't know that meerkats were part of the mongoose family (to be fair, I have not spent much time considering the subject before now); nor was I aware that meerkats had just 4 fingers (toes actually) on each foot, whereas most other mongoose species have 5 toes it seems. Fascinating. Somewhat.

I might not be getting anywhere fast with the Finnish language, but I sure am making a great deal of progress in zoology.