Our Parents Aren't in Cork at present. Part 1

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR READERS.

Our Parents have been globetrotting AGAIN! On December 20th, we left Cork and flew to Helsinki via Dublin. Spent very short night in Cumulus Hotel getting up at 3.30a.m. irish time to fly on to Kuopio and see for ourselves how life in a northern land is.

Had a wonderful time thanks to the care that toco and Mrs toco took of us.

Highlights were:-

Surprise visit from Father Christmas on Christmas Eve. Came by Honda Civic. Reindeers and sleighs being in short supply this year.
(Pilot on airplane had announced that there was an exclusion zone within 500 miles of artic circle- Santa had flying rights).

Spending lots if time with our granddaughters, visiting the Christmas show at the Byvvakotti(Nursery school), playing all sorts of games, making gingerbread biscuits, going for walks on ice (our father did a lot of involuntary skating) helping them at the local playground, talking to No. 2 in English and being delighted when she replied.

For our Father, the chance to play 5 organs in 11/2 hours in the Sibelius Academy.
The visit to Jyvaskyla and meeting his summer recital organ in a WARM church. He nearly got locked in when toco went to get a pizza for their lunch.

The wonderful and very different Christmas fare. Mrs toco and toco went to a lot of trouble for us.

We enjoyed the traditional saturday night sauna, followed by the even more traditional bottle of beer.....

Just seeing their lovely house and garden with the special features, baking oven that heated the whole house, the workshop, all toco's shelving, views of the woods from the windows.

Me shopping with Mrs toco and getting disorientated in the supermarket. Had two goes at finding her!

Going on Sunday to the Cathedral service and then seeing the 'Potato Masher' at the top of the hill and the ski slope and ski jump in use from the bottom.

Going to the family service on Christmas Eve and singing hymns in Finnish. Talking to another Finnish girl who had an English mil who refused to go to church because she wouldn't understand what was going on. I said that part of the interest for me was to try and follow and recognise bits of the service.

Our Father went to Church with toco on Stephen's Day and sang 17 hymns in Finnish. toco was in the choir.

Our six days in Finland flew by and we reluctantly left on 27th early in the morning. Flew to Helsinki and had the day reminding ourselves of our trip there in 1997. Did a little shopping, walked to the Winter Garden via the Rock Church, went back and had lunch in Stockman and then caught the bus back to the airport and flew late afternoon to Oslo.