If there's one thing Finland has in abundance, its snow. And blondes. One can never prepare oneself to the unlimited amount of either here. Its a sea of white and all shades of yellow (even though Heidi says blonde and yellow are different colours). I am in a constant state of bewilderment, confusion and stress. Bewilderment because of the sheer amount of snow. Everything outside is covered with it. Trees, cars, people who walk slowly. The Sherlock in me has deduced that it'll be a white Christmas.
Confusion because now I'm getting my limited French muddled up with my limited Finnish. At the cashier, I used Bonjour instead of Moi, Merci for kittos and please for..well...please. Finnish doesn't have a word for please, you see. It makes you jump to the conclusion that they're not so big on unnecessary politeness. In reality, its just that they're not so big on talking to strangers so they keep the chats to a minimum. They are though, quite subtle about telling you to be well mannered. When I burped at our host, Sussana's home, she told me to whistle. When I asked why, she said - 'its to let others know that you're not just any pig. You're a circus pig!' I laughed on the outside but felt like a 3 year old being told off. Perhaps now's the time I should tell her that her nickname 'Sussu' in Hindi means Piss.
Why am I stressed? Because I am scared to lose my wife in the blonde blurryness inside malls. Its like when Alex 'the lion' couldn't pick out his best buddy Marty 'the zebra' amongst the zeal of Zebras in Madagascar 2 (I googled that! Zeal of Zebras. How many of you knew that? You see, my blogs are educational so spread the word). Now, I am not implying that all blondes including my wife are Zebras even though that's exactly what it may seem like. They don't all look alike. Some even have great personalities. Likewise for blondes.
On the topic of kids movies, I think Miro's alter ego is Mowgli from The Jungle Book because he really hates any form of clothing. Winter is his worst nightmare. He's in his element without any form of textiles on his body and his lion roar is something to behold. Its the same roar he uses for bears mind you so I need to test his swinging on trees technique to confirm this theory.
On the topic of bears, I bought a pair of excellent waterproof winter boots. I felt like the British adventurer Bear Grylls in them. Until Heidi told me that the salesgirl had sold me the women size. Even a female version of Bear Grylls would be more macho than me so I'm keeping them. Remind me to post a picture next time. Meanwhile, here's one I took with Santa in his best Santa beard.