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Showing posts from 2010

Smoking in Finland

I have come to the conclusion that Finns have a great affinity with smoke.  I suppose it must be to do with the vast amount of wood that there is in the country with over two thirds of the land covered by forests. They are beautiful forests too with a mixture of various pines, larches and the ubiquitous silver birch.  Along with the forests and scattered liberally across the landscape, are more than 100,000 lakes. The land is not high but is undulating, sloping to the southwest where the lakes become inlets of the Baltic sea and the forest covered hills become peninsulas and islands that drift into the Gulf of Bothnia. The archipelago around Turku is made up of hundreds and hundreds of rocky islets each with a summer cottage. We have been privileged to stay at Soili and Matti's summer cottage in the hinterland on one of the many lakes and in a few weeks we will have a couple of nights in a summer cottage in the islands off Turku.  Along with this is the wonderful Finnish hospital

Out of Africa

Well that is a fairly predictable title for this post as we are now out of Africa and back in the UK after having been there for four weeks. We had two and a half weeks in Uganda and ten days on Kenya. This was Linda's debut to Africa so each experience was new and surprizing.  Africa is challenging at every level. It is a riot of colour, rich in earthy tones and hues of green. After rain it is awash with mud and when the sun comes out, within hours it is chokingly dusty. We got stuck in the mud at times and walked to a church in a slum in Nairobi and got so covered in mud that on arrival we had our feet washed which took us to a whole new level of being humbled by people's kindness. The dust filled our lungs and added to the cocktail of bronchitis and in Linda's case a growing association with asthma. Africa is challenging in that everything takes extra effort. Getting into bed at night inside mosquito nets requires a lot more thought and planning. As soon as I got int

American Pie

For the last month we have been enjoying a huge slice of American pie. Two days in Oceanside close to San Diego, a week near Nashville, Tennessee, two weeks in Virginia and a week in North Carolina. What a joy it has been!  So much good ol' southern hospitality, so much genuine warmth and so much fun.  We have explored Civil War battlefields; Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, the first place settled in 1607. We have seen the USS Reagan in San Diego harbour, the worlds biggest aircraft carrier; been to CBN, the huge centre of Pat Robinson's Christian Broadcasting Network; walked in snow in Tennessee; shopped for designer shirts in a thrift store (what bargains I found); watched woodpeckers in the Smokey Mountains near Pigeon Forge. The list goes on and on. We have met many people who are passionate about their country. It has been such a joy to stay in homes of people who have just poured out their hearts in caring and affection. We love the America we have visited and the

Thoughts arising from an affogato.

For some time I have fancied myself as an expert on the delights of affogatos, well, affogati to be technically correct. An affogato is delightful Italian beverage made by taking a scoop of very rich, preferably homemade, vanilla ice cream placing it in a white coffee cup and then slowly pouring a perfectly prepared espresso, with a creamy froth, all over the ice cream. The Italian word affogato literally means drowned. The end result is a delectable taste experience that personally gives me a huge amount of pleasure. Here in Taupo a cafe has opened up called Kaffee Eis that features, along with a very good selection of antipodean coffee offerings such as flat whites, short blacks and long blacks, classic Italian drinks such as cappuccino and of course affogato. The added bonus is the ice cream counter which specialises in a selection of really good homemade ice cream.  Well the combination has proved a winner. They do a roaring trade not least from the Galpins when we are in Taupo.