NORMAL LIFE: Ski-Jumping / My Show On Ice!

What a weekend we just had, making the most out of the last of winter. That just sounded ridiculous, didn't it, 'making the most out of winter'?! Well, it's what they do here. On Saturday, after visiting the 'family' in Lahti, we went to the local Ski Jumping centre at 5pm to watch a ski-jumping contest.

Wow! I have never seen ski-jumping before and it's amazing how that tiny person launches himself from such a height, somehow managing to touch down safely. After the contest - I didn't really pay attention to the results, although it was an international contest - was a magnificent fireworks display, one of the best I have ever seen, 100km north of Helsinki. Ironic, isn't it?

We got home very late that evening, but Saturday was followed by another day of activity. This time, we headed to Tuusulan Järvi (Tuusula Lake), 40kms north of Helsinki, near the town of Järvenpää. What were we doing in this very unremarkable place? Well, Bree had bought me ice skates for Christmas and I had only used them once so, he declared, 'we're going skating'. But it wasn't just any ordinary skating. It was a gruelling, wind-battering 17km skate on the frozen lake itself. Yes, on the lake.

The first half of the journey which took some 90 minutes was quite pleasant - the surface was very smooth and well cleared of snow. Shortly after starting the 'southern loop', Bree went flying face down onto the ice in quite a nasty fall. The surface was awful, full of holes, but the experience more than made up for it. After returning to the 'northern loop', my feet started to ache; these were new ice skates, you see, and the last four kilometres were sheer torture. When we got back to base, I demanded coffee and a chocolate bar. I was knackered. Proud of myself, but well and truly knackerred!