FLASHBACK #59: My First Jackolantern

I had never made one before. But when I saw a pumpkin in the supermarket with a guide on how to cut it into a Jackolantern, I had to give it a try!

Five minutes after starting, I paused in realisation of what a messy exercise it was turning out to be. I spooned out what felt like tons of pumpkin flesh and took every ounce of care to card out the eyes, nose and mouth.

When I was done, Bree placed a candle inside and as the wick accepted the match, the single flame created the most awesome glow. It was a masterpiece, my Halloween masterpiece.

I was so proud of my effort that, since we had been invited to a friends house for a Halloween get-together, the pumpkin would be my contribution to the party! Everyone was in awe and, as the creator, I basked in the attention. I'm not an attention-seeker, you know!

FLASHBACK #58: Revelations in Rauma

Rauma is a small seaside town on the west coast of Finland with a population of 37,000 people. For two weeks in October, 2004, I attended some in-house training funded by the company I was working for. For three days, I needed to visit Rauma.

During the first week of my training, which was in Helsinki, I met the Lady In Red, who I would describe as bubbly, soft and classy. She won me over with her elegant ways and her tendency to brush things away with a casual whatever! Looking back, I do not know how I would have got through those training days without her; her entertaining ways were a welcome distraction from the endless dull hours of industry-related theory. I was like who cares while she would roll her eyes and drawl whatever!

While we were in Rauma, we got to know eachother really well. One evening, a traditional sauna was organised; split into groups of men and women, we went to the sauna together and I personally ran along the jetty just outside the sauna building before jumping into the ice-cold water that runs through an inlet just north of Rauma. Over dinner, the Lady In Red and I got chatting. After receiving a series of text messages on my mobile phone, the Lady In Red suggested that I had a girlfriend, to which I nodded.

From that moment on, she wouldn't change the subject. What is she like? Is she pretty? Is she Finnish? Do you speak English at home? How long have you been together? What does she do? It's funny how interested girls are when they know there's another girl (or man in this case, unbeknownst to the Lady In Red) sniffing around. The food and drink flowed and I suggested I show her the name of the person I was dating from the contact list in my mobile phone. Yes, she said, I think you should! I hesitated, but she insisted.

Slowly, I turned the phone towards here. She saw Bree's real name and realised that it was a man's name. She said this must be wrong. I check the phone, shook my head from side. No, it's the right one, I said. Her eyebrows arched and I really didn't know what she was going to say or do. There we were, around a table of thirty or so colleagues working for the same company and there was me on tenterhooks wondering what she was going to say.

She smiled, rubbed my arm and we continued with our dinner. Later on, the music got faster, we danced together and even visited a local bar with our colleagues. The questions were never ending, but I remember that we when we got back to the hotel that night, we were giggling endlessly as we ate supper together.

Afterwards, in my hotel room, she asked me 101 questions about Bree. She remained a very good friend and a source of sanity during the rocky times that would come in 2005.