Electricity
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Dry, mild
Nordic News
- Thread starter Mowl
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Mowl
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Babes or fat slags?
Electricity
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Mowl
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The new cross-town tram line is due to open shortly between Pasila and Kalasatama. As part of the design, every bus and tram stop and shelter will have a greenery box up on top to boost pollination and give the bees some extra options. It's a great idea, I think.
We also have a new fleet of ultra-modern trams which will be utilized on the new line, they're currently being used to train in new staff.
The very old trams are tough to maintain, but we still have a few dozen of them, all in good working order.
The Beer Tram is doing a roaring trade this year with the early heatwaves bringing more people out to party.
I've tried imagining a beer tram in Dublin, how about you?
Can you imagine how Paddy and Bridie would react?
We also have a new fleet of ultra-modern trams which will be utilized on the new line, they're currently being used to train in new staff.
The very old trams are tough to maintain, but we still have a few dozen of them, all in good working order.
The Beer Tram is doing a roaring trade this year with the early heatwaves bringing more people out to party.
I've tried imagining a beer tram in Dublin, how about you?
Can you imagine how Paddy and Bridie would react?
Mowl
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Two views of the Sibelius monument in Helsinki:
As seen from twenty meters away.
And here, from beneath:
I have hours and hours of old 8mm films I shot during a variety of seasons I spent here in the 1990s. I rode the trams around the city and kept my camera ready for every passing sight which I'd film and then later edit and transfer to regular VHS video with some nice over-dubbed music for my Mam to listen to while she watched her son laugh at the minus forty weather while playing the tubes of the monument with a pair of drumsticks from underneath, trying to recreate the Finnish national anthem.
I shot some footage of the retired ladies and gents who attend a very old public sauna on a small island just offshore at Kaivopuisto during the depths of winter. There's a wooden bridge across to the island but I didn't use it. Instead I walked out onto the frozen bay and shot the shoreline and architecture from half a kilometer out to sea. When I made my way back to land, I passed the island with the sauna and the ice-hole cut into rock-solid ice floes with a ladder attached which is used by the oldies: they take sauna first, then walk out of the steam and along the bridge and then take the ladder down into the ice-hole and do a few laps.
I shot the film for her to see because she has arthritis, just like the oldies on film. Her reaction to watching them take the ladder down into the minus forty degree water was a gas. She watched wide-eyed as they walked along the bridge, all bent over and wrinkly and slow. Then they hop into the hole, do a few quick laps (an ice hole is usually around four/five sq meters) and climb back out again on the ladder and take their towel to make their way back to the sauna. Except now they weren't all bent over and gnarly. They were light on their feet, full of laughter, and helping each other along the way. From 95 degrees plus in the sauna to minus forty in the water, the shift is quite something. But the results speak for themselves.
There's a reason why Finland's the world's happiest country.
As seen from twenty meters away.
And here, from beneath:
I have hours and hours of old 8mm films I shot during a variety of seasons I spent here in the 1990s. I rode the trams around the city and kept my camera ready for every passing sight which I'd film and then later edit and transfer to regular VHS video with some nice over-dubbed music for my Mam to listen to while she watched her son laugh at the minus forty weather while playing the tubes of the monument with a pair of drumsticks from underneath, trying to recreate the Finnish national anthem.
I shot some footage of the retired ladies and gents who attend a very old public sauna on a small island just offshore at Kaivopuisto during the depths of winter. There's a wooden bridge across to the island but I didn't use it. Instead I walked out onto the frozen bay and shot the shoreline and architecture from half a kilometer out to sea. When I made my way back to land, I passed the island with the sauna and the ice-hole cut into rock-solid ice floes with a ladder attached which is used by the oldies: they take sauna first, then walk out of the steam and along the bridge and then take the ladder down into the ice-hole and do a few laps.
I shot the film for her to see because she has arthritis, just like the oldies on film. Her reaction to watching them take the ladder down into the minus forty degree water was a gas. She watched wide-eyed as they walked along the bridge, all bent over and wrinkly and slow. Then they hop into the hole, do a few quick laps (an ice hole is usually around four/five sq meters) and climb back out again on the ladder and take their towel to make their way back to the sauna. Except now they weren't all bent over and gnarly. They were light on their feet, full of laughter, and helping each other along the way. From 95 degrees plus in the sauna to minus forty in the water, the shift is quite something. But the results speak for themselves.
There's a reason why Finland's the world's happiest country.
Electricity
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Mowl
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Mowl'stappen, I have a question for you about the FW:
The FW?
Quit your flerfing and explain yourself.
Yes, that's happened many times.
And?
Fuck no - I'm a guest in this country, but I'm also highly respected in my community because of the help and assistance my neighbours know they can rely on. A few days back, I went to Anja's apartment (she's around her mid-eighties) to replace her kitchen bulbs and hang a fresh shower curtain for her. Took me five minutes, but she made some coffee and we ended up talking for hours. She's really curious about Ireland and always wanted to visit.
I advised her that this wasn't a very good idea at the moment, as Ireland (and Dublin in particular) has very few Irish people out and about while the immigrants have taken over parts of Dublin city centre. I told her she could be mugged, robbed, beaten up, ripped off, set alight, gouged out, possibly even cannibalized by the savages in and around Moore St and the main thoroughfare.
That young Irish men of fighting age (like yourself) are letting this happen: they won't lift a finger to put a stop to the current mess in the capital city so nobody is really safe when there's around 14,000 Irish homeless people along with several tens of thousands more refugees and immigrants in general unable to fend for themselves without a roof over their heads. Strange foreign men Ireland knows nothing about.
In fact, Anja was shocked at everything I said, and when she a expressed a doubt I simply showed her on her computer some images of the Dublin riots and pages full of shots like this one:
...and these ones:
See?
Would you report that person to the police for hate speech?
Are you being serious, Jimmy?
Fuck no, they'd laugh me out the door.
Finns speak very directly, they don't stand on ceremony and if you try to bullshit them they'll call you on it pronto. It's very refreshing to be around people as honest as these, hence my happiness occasionally overwhelming me. But it's a cute complaint to have - being maybe a tad too happy for Paddy and Biddy to relate to.
I'm not Finnish, never said I was - but Finnish resident?
Yeps - for life, there's no way I'd even consider returning to your crappy shit-fest of a broke-backed country, not even for all the money in the Irish national debt.
Where did Ireland come in the last OECD nominations for happiest country/best quality of life stakes?
Paddy last, is it.
Electricity
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The Frozen Wasteland
You must be freezing out there on your two by four "balcony" (I hope you're wearing your thermals)
Yeah, so, why do you always break up sentences that you're replying to (you're about to give the And anyway)..
- I'm a guest in this country, but I'm also highly respected in my community because of the help and assistance my neighbours know they can rely on. A few days back, I went to Anja's apartment (she's around her mid-eighties) to replace her kitchen bulbs and hang a fresh shower curtain for her. Took me five minutes, but she made some coffee and we ended up talking for hours. She's really curious about Ireland and always wanted to visit.
I advised her that this wasn't a very good idea at the moment, as Ireland (and Dublin in particular) has very few Irish people out and about while the immigrants have taken over parts of Dublin city centre. I told her she could be mugged, robbed, beaten up, ripped off, set alight, gouged out, possibly even cannibalized by the savages in and around Moore St and the main thoroughfare.
That young Irish men of fighting age (like yourself) are letting this happen: they won't life a finger to put a stop (or even a gauge) to the current mess in the capital city so nobody is really safe when there's around 14,000 Irish homeless people along with several tens of thousands more refugees and immigrants in general unable to fend for themselves without a roof over their heads.
In fact, Anja was shocked at everything I said, and when she a expressed a doubt I simply showed her on her computer some images of the Dublin riots and pages full of shots like this one:
...and these ones:
See?
Are you being serious, Jimmy?
Fuck no, they'd laugh me out the door.
Finns speak very directly, they don't stand on ceremony and if you try to bullshit them they'll call you on it pronto. It's very refreshing to be around people as honest as these, hence my happiness occasionally overwhelming me. But it's a cute complaint to have - being maybe a tad too happy for Paddy and Biddy to relate to.
I'm not Finnish, never said I was - but Finnish resident?
Yeps - for life, there's no way I'd even consider returning to your crappy shit-fest of a broke-backed country, not even for all the money in the Irish national debt.
Where did Ireland come in the last OECD nominations for happiest country/best quality of life stakes?
Paddy last, is it.
Mowl
Member
Aha! Yes, the bane of all your nightmares: 'that fucker Mowl has it all going on - I'm agonna git him.....'
Twenty-three and blue skies, a very mild breeze and lots of birds in the air.
The smell of the salt water gets stronger every day as the sediments in the estuary are cleared by the melted snows of the previous winter.
It's not always, Jimmy - only on special occasions and Finnish flag days.
Look - do you hear me moaning about your flerf/leftist/larp bullshit?
I have precisely zero to learn from you about the English language or how to use it.
Team?
It's A team, right?
Ah, you're all sleepy and drunk.
How sweet is that.
Never on Sundays.
Never.
Electricity
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Below zero?
Haha, yeah I forgot
You're now in - The Thaw. The brief period that follows the Dirty Slush season
Mowl
Member
Your green-eyed and rabid jealousy of my life and location are duly noted.
But I'll tell you what: in the spirit of decency, I can recommend a fairly cheap hostel over in Alppila that does a private room for around €35 per night with a free coffee in the morning. It has access via tram and bus stops outside, is one floor above Alepa - the cheap supermarket, and withing the city tram system. From your front door, the city is yours via the tram systems.
The beer tram uses any and every line to go to where the sunshine is, where the waves are, where whatever you want to see or do can be found.
You might find ordering a beer a bit awkward, considering Finland recognizes a pint glass - but not a full pint - 75dl - leaving a gap up top of your beer glass. They sell half and three quarter liter glasses and they're numbered according to alcohol content: a number three is fairly weak, number two has more flavour to it, and a number is the strongest and most expensive variation.
There are loads of food options - including McDonald's and Taco Bell.
But so stew or coddle - you'll have to swing by my gaff if you want real Irish style nosh.
Bring a whole slab if you like - everyone else does.
Is Finland as sports-obsessed as countries such as Ireland, England and America? In Ireland if you're not into GAA, soccer and rugby you're seen as some kind of social pariah. Same thing if you quit drinking and don't go to the pub.
One thing I like about the Japanese is that they don't treat sports as if it were some religion...or the be-all and end-all of one's existence. You can be a grown man and enjoy video games etc. In most Western countries you're seen as some kind of pussy if you don't follow xyz sports club with an almost religious fanaticism.
One thing I like about the Japanese is that they don't treat sports as if it were some religion...or the be-all and end-all of one's existence. You can be a grown man and enjoy video games etc. In most Western countries you're seen as some kind of pussy if you don't follow xyz sports club with an almost religious fanaticism.
Mowl
Member
Not really, but then again nature of Finnish 'sports' are viewed kind of differently: ice hockey is very big, but only in winter (obviously) and as you know, there are many world class Finnish rally drivers. This is borne out of the condition of roads way up north into the wilds. Dirt tracks mostly, but they use them every day for business etc. Then they drive out for supper, have some drinks, then rally the car home again along the dirt tracks.
In short, staying active matters, and if fast cars are your thing in Finland, then so long as you're off the main roads you won't meet too many people, let alone coppers. Finnish 'fun' sports include the wife-carrying competition, the world air guitar championships, the world sauna championship (lots of dead Russians thinking they 'hard') the mobile phone throwing competition, mud soccer (about half to three quarters of a meter deep - men's teams and women's teams) the wood chopping championships, and loads of other eccentric sports they invented - because they had to.
Like playing The Mowl in Dublin: the game is borne of necessity. DCC gave us nothing but brick houses and we had to campaign hard to keep the green of Markievicz Park for cricket and football. So back then we invented games based on what we had to hand.
Classic old photo taken in the Liberties way back in time.
Being surrounded by the massive industrial estates that almost entirely surround Dublin 10, stealing crisps and peanuts from the King's Crisps factory was a handy earner for me. I considered it a tax for all the foul air that emanated from their factories. I stole them, then stored them, then sold them in the yard at half price. I needed sticks, heads, bits and pieces and the money had to be got from somewhere.
I was never caught either - I always had a plan.
The Asian couple who just took over the pub here on my block threw a big fuck-off barbecue out on the square for all the tenants to enjoy the food, music, drinks, and sunshine. I don't use the pub myself, far too close to home and I know everyone and they know me. So no thanks, I enjoy my privacy.
That said, pubs aren't high on my agenda either and unless there's a jazz quartet or something DJ going, then I wouldn't be bothered. In the Nordic tradition, meeting up at a friend's place before going out is a massive money saver: have your major drinks at home, take a small one in your pocket and when you get to the club/venue, and you only need one or two drinks to pass the time without breaking the bank.
Japanese television shows are mental: like the games without frontiers period.
I'm watching the games on telly the last few days - we get two live games a night (no pay per view) and at least two more highlights.
Japanese people find humiliation funny, and I asked Yoko about that. She said that the childish games we see adults playing on TV are supposed to be motivational rather than embarrassing, but like the Finns, the Japanese have a very dark sense of humour and will lampoon themselves before you do.
But of all the games - I still love the idea of playing the Mowl.
Nobody does it anymore but if went into a pub in Ballyer and said the word allowed, then the craic begins immediately.
They'll also mention my real name.
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G
Gerry
Guest
Theys good lott the deers inn Fnlands. Goods four th shootin
Mowl
Member
Good for eating too, if that's your taste.
I've tried venison in many different ways, it's tough and chewy, strong in aftertaste but goes down really well with a decent red wine.
You need a license to shoot deer up here, if you're caught poaching, you'll be slapped with a massive cash fine.
In fact you need a license to shoot any wild creature, even the ones that attack you - like bears and wolves.
That's why it's called 'The Wilds'.
I've tried venison in many different ways, it's tough and chewy, strong in aftertaste but goes down really well with a decent red wine.
You need a license to shoot deer up here, if you're caught poaching, you'll be slapped with a massive cash fine.
In fact you need a license to shoot any wild creature, even the ones that attack you - like bears and wolves.
That's why it's called 'The Wilds'.
Electricity
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Belgian man is interviewed on RT claiming “Immigrants can assimilate well” & become Swedish…
Mowl
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On one tour back in the 90's we played in a little Swedish town called Trollhattan, which is also the scene for the annual Swedish Hell's Angels and Nazi League lads to get together and show off their tattoos and fat bikes. They came to the gig, drank their beer, clapped for every song, and later sent a round of drinks for us. Some of the other musicians were seeing Scandinavian life for the first time, and remarked how agreeable and welcoming these bikers were.
Back then you'd see some darker skin in the bigger cities but none at all in the midland towns.
On the weekend they did their big parade skidding and roaring their engines, and the worst they did was to pour a bottle of washing up liquid into the fountain in the middle of the main street. They spent a lot of money on food, drinks, decent hotels, and gas for their engines. The locals said it was an annual thing and they'd never had any problems with the bikers, the only messy stuff they saw was what the bikers did to each other. Silly childish stuff like stealing one bloke's boots and placing them on the top of the fountain and he had to search high and low for them. Another guy had the keys to his bike taken and he had to try to remember which bars they were in last night as his keys were now on a shelf in the gent's toilets.
Fnar fnar.
No knives, no blood, no guns, no coppers rustling up a scene, no puke or piss, and no violence of any kind - only cross-gang game playing.
These days I wouldn't play there if you tripled my money.
Back then you'd see some darker skin in the bigger cities but none at all in the midland towns.
On the weekend they did their big parade skidding and roaring their engines, and the worst they did was to pour a bottle of washing up liquid into the fountain in the middle of the main street. They spent a lot of money on food, drinks, decent hotels, and gas for their engines. The locals said it was an annual thing and they'd never had any problems with the bikers, the only messy stuff they saw was what the bikers did to each other. Silly childish stuff like stealing one bloke's boots and placing them on the top of the fountain and he had to search high and low for them. Another guy had the keys to his bike taken and he had to try to remember which bars they were in last night as his keys were now on a shelf in the gent's toilets.
Fnar fnar.
No knives, no blood, no guns, no coppers rustling up a scene, no puke or piss, and no violence of any kind - only cross-gang game playing.
These days I wouldn't play there if you tripled my money.
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One of
roc_abilly's favs..
t.me
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Antifa Public Watch ( Anti-Antifa )
FAR LEFT HOPE NOT HATE RECOGNISED as a facilitator of information for Far Left Extremists Antifa & other violent organisations in Sweden. The Swedish Defence Research also state they received funds from Jewish left wing billionaire George Soros. Full Story -...
t.me
Mowl
Member
Sweltering heat in Helsinki today.
We're sitting pretty at thirty degrees (that's Celsius, Jambo) and not a cloud in the blue skies.
I have a sauna booked from 1800/1900 - but it feels like I'm already in it with this heat.
Had to get up in the night to catch and crush a few mosquitoes, otherwise I get lousy infections that swell up like golf balls. Then close the windows and doors to stop them coming back in, sleeping in ridiculous heat. So I bought some repellents earlier: a spray for the face and hands and incense-type burners that smell awful but they clear the room of any flying bugs. Burn it for half an hour and they either find a way out or drop dead.
I hate mosquito season.
We're sitting pretty at thirty degrees (that's Celsius, Jambo) and not a cloud in the blue skies.
I have a sauna booked from 1800/1900 - but it feels like I'm already in it with this heat.
Had to get up in the night to catch and crush a few mosquitoes, otherwise I get lousy infections that swell up like golf balls. Then close the windows and doors to stop them coming back in, sleeping in ridiculous heat. So I bought some repellents earlier: a spray for the face and hands and incense-type burners that smell awful but they clear the room of any flying bugs. Burn it for half an hour and they either find a way out or drop dead.
I hate mosquito season.