FLASHBACK #21: Sausages At Midnight

Summer 2002 was swiftly coming to an end. By August, the evenings had already started to get darker while, strangely, the nights got warmer. We spent as many weekends as we could relaxing at the Summer Cottage. The traditional values of Bree's parents became apparent - with work to be done around the cottage, they stopped mid-morning and mid-afternoon for coffee and cake and everyone nearby was expected to attend. Cake? Sure!

The best time was when the sauna was started up in the evenings. Historical evidence shows that Finns were among the first to build wooden saunas more than 2,000 years ago. Today, the sauna is still as popular as ever and the procedure is rather simple: you drink some beer or cider, go into the sauna to sweat a bit, jump into the lake to cool down and wash off the sweat, drink some more beer or cider, go back into the sauna to sweat some more, jump back in the lake etc... You basically repeat this for as long as you want and it is very relaxing indeed.

One evening, Bree's parents went to bed early. It's difficult to explain how wonderful the Finnish Summer is. The evenings in August never get totally dark and, one evening around midnight, we grilled some sausages. I remember us sitting on the deck, eating our boiling-hot sausages while a thin line on the horizon showed what remained of the sunlight. It is funny how small, simple things can turn into lasting memories.

Although it had never been discussed, it seemed that Bree's parents accepted us as a couple. I wasn't the first boyfriend to be introduced to his parents so they knew of their son's sexual orientation. As a conservative family, however, it was just something that wasn't discussed. Part of me felt a little bit uncomfortable that his sexuality hadn't been acknowledge, but without the ability to communicate in Finnish, I certainly wasn't going to discuss the issue.