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Minus five along the coast here in Helsinki, we're knee-deep in a foot or more of overnight snow deluging the city. It's beautiful out there. Everything's frozen solid and the light reflections off the snow last night were truly cosmic. Even though the skies are pitch black above the clouds, the undersides are bathed in reflected light that illuminates the frozen bay and seeps into your home in majestic beauty. I love this time of year; Finland actually has distinct seasons, and when they turn you can really see it and feel it. This snow will likely be the permanent base for this year's entire season: it's better when it freezes solid this early, it gives the fresh falls something to freeze and compact onto. The light factor is definitely the most important thing though: no snow means the city is very dark, which can be wonderful too, but this is a Nordic country and winter is a profitable season for tourism for the more adventurous types who aren't interested in eating fish and chips and drinking Watney's Red Barrel on some Spanish resort that never quits playing techno music all day and night.

Two nights back we had a spectacular sunset in bright orange and red that told us autumn is over.



Next morning we had a few inches of snow covering everything; but throughout yesterday and into last night more than fourteen inches fell over several hours. So knee-deep is the order of the day off-road. But the roads, tracks, and pavements are all clear of the white stuff and everything's running on time. So imagine fourteen inches of snow in Dublin? Schools? Closed. Public transport? Shut down. Hospital services? For those close to death only. Shops and services? Bleak at best. Rushes on toilet paper? Likely. Tins of tomatoes? None available. Beans? Zero. Fresh bread? Bake it yourself. Make a point of doing your shopping in the city centre. Many Irish businesses across the Irish capital are on their knees.

So do the right thing, you lazy bastards.
 
Minus five along the coast here in Helsinki, we're knee-deep in a foot or more of overnight snow deluging the city. It's beautiful out there. Everything's frozen solid and the light reflections off the snow last night were truly cosmic. Even though the skies are pitch black above the clouds, the undersides are bathed in reflected light that illuminates the frozen bay and seeps into your home in majestic beauty. I love this time of year; Finland actually has distinct seasons, and when they turn you can really see it and feel it. This snow will likely be the permanent base for this year's entire season: it's better when it freezes solid this early, it gives the fresh falls something to freeze and compact onto. The light factor is definitely the most important thing though: no snow means the city is very dark, which can be wonderful too, but this is a Nordic country and winter is a profitable season for tourism for the more adventurous types who aren't interested in eating fish and chips and drinking Watney's Red Barrel on some Spanish resort that never quits playing techno music all day and night.

Two nights back we had a spectacular sunset in bright orange and red that told us autumn is over.



Next morning we had a few inches of snow covering everything; but throughout yesterday and into last night more than fourteen inches fell over several hours. So knee-deep is the order of the day off-road. But the roads, tracks, and pavements are all clear of the white stuff and everything's running on time. So imagine fourteen inches of snow in Dublin? Schools? Closed. Public transport? Shut down. Hospital services? For those close to death only. Shops and services? Bleak at best. Rushes on toilet paper? Likely. Tins of tomatoes? None available. Beans? Zero. Fresh bread? Bake it yourself. Make a point of doing your shopping in the city centre. Many Irish businesses across the Irish capital are on their knees.

So do the right thing, you lazy bastards.

Piet Mondrian had an amazing effect on architectural design. I always notice it wherever it occurs. There's a painting called 'Evening on the Gein' which was in an exhibition in London at the National Gallery where they had lined up a load of Mondrian's paintings in date order. I think Evening on the Gein was his last landscape. It is a painting of a mill beside a pool of water. In the reflection on the water the scene was of the mill of course and the sky above the mill which you couldn't actually see when you looked at the top half of the painting where the mill actually was. The next painting along was just a profound change of direction to the abstracts with no frame to the canvas.

One of those weird moments where you are looking at a creative work and you suddenly see the workings of the artist's mind. He never painted another landscape but from there on it was always the abstracts without frames hinting at something outside of the frame.

I like to think Evening on the Gein was where Mondrian found his inspiration for the work that made him famous. Addressing what was outside the frame.
 
Minus twelve and beautiful sunshine in Helsinki as Finland's Helsinki/Vantaa wins top prize in the world's most beautiful airports. And it truly is, I've been in and out of the place dozens of times over the years and it manages to offer travelers a really stress-free atmosphere of ease, efficiency, and simplicity. It's a big airport and full of culinary choices but you always know exactly where you are and where you're going to next, such is the lay-out and ease of access to everything you might need when traveling out or returning home.

The nature area on the main floor for departures is a beautiful piece of inspired work that relaxes the usually chaotic experience of flying and offers a sanctuary to remind you that nature is near. It's all around you actually, as the airport is situated around thirty minutes from Central Station by several modes of transport including regular circular bus routes, dedicated buses, high speed metro, and a train service nearby connected by shuttle. The layout offers you massive windows to view the main departure runway and behind it the forests that stretch as far as the eye can see, balancing the indoor forest with the outdoor forest.



So not only are we the happiest nation on the planet, we're also leading the charge for the world's highest standards in just about everything we do.


This is why I love Finnish life and am happy to possess a Finnish passport as a non-Finnish permanent resident.

Also hot off the presses: the world's largest cruise ship, The Icon Of The Seas left Turku shipyard in south-western Finland a couple of days ago to its first port of call in southern Spain to begin its life cruising the oceans and seas of the planet. This ship truly is a wonder of modern engineering. Check the video to see how sea travel is changing fast and new Finnish design standards push the limits of comfort and expectation.



See how Finland's national happiness inspires the striving for ever higher, better standards?

And see the fucked-up chaotic mess you sad bastards live with in Ireland? The filth. The trash? The smell of piss everywhere. The tents lining the streets in the endless grey misery of never-ending rain and cold? The stabbings? The junkies all over your main thoroughfare? We do things differently up here, and it's the main reason we enjoy the quality of life we do. Why Irish people emigrating always seem to choose either America or Australia as their first choices is beyond me. America's fucked. Utterly. The illusion doesn't stand up to scrutiny any more. I wouldn't pay to holiday there, let alone spend any more time than I absolutely have to. It pleases me that the Finnish language presents such an obstacle to Paddy and Biddy that I'll never have to meet another Irish grifter up here. Were Paddy ever to infect this last and final frontier with his bollocks, I'd be sad to see standards sliding so low. But thankfully the language makes this an impossible destination for the Irish.

Australia? A massive fucking desert with a few cities and towns scattered here and there peopled by some extraordinarily racist white-skinned bastards from all over the planet. A bit like America slamming its doors shut to immigrants, Australia's even worse. Who the fuck wants to live in unbearable heat all day every for eleven months of the year anyway? Fuck that. It takes like twenty-seven hours to get there. The main natural wonder is a massive big rock right in the middle of it. Sounds appealing, right? Drive for nine or ten hours through the scrubs, only to arrive at this giant lump of rock?

That's it? A rock?

Poor auld Ireland - always Paddy last, always with the excuses, always raining and always full of yaps who think it's the best little country in the world.

To do business?

Or to malinger in until death?
 
Love the airport. Really don't like cruise ships. I'd just feel trapped. In a floating hotel. Probably with Americans. Don't care how lovely a cruise ship will be. I'm not going on one. It would just feel like a neon floating prison to me.
 
I mentioned it only because it's currently the world's largest cruise liner, built in Turku, south-west Finland, the old capital city.

Nearer to home is another shipyard in Helsinki called Nosturi which also set a massive world record-breaking cargo ship off on her maiden sailing a few days ago and what makes it even cooler is that lots of heavy metal bands do their Finnish shows there. The setting is pretty fucking awesome when it's all lit up and has pyros flaming and banging - but the sound would take your head off. Heavy metal heaven. True Finnish steel. Sisu.

Independence Day fell on Wednesday, a national bank holiday in the snow.

The city was festooned with flags and street parties. Today is Jean Sibelius' birthday: another flag hanging day. They go up at dawn (the janitors fly them) and they come down again just before sunset. Also, there's a big party happening today at Oodi, the national library and multi-media centre down beside the national gallery, national theatre, and central station. Amazing piece of architecture:



Today it's snowing much heavier: we've been under the white stuff here in southern Finland since late November. They had minus thirty-eight in northern Finland earlier this week. The library above is currently buried in snow. The unusual curved design of the roof overhang makes it look like a mountain, not a building. It's an amazing hub of endless activity. You can use it for anything you like, the list of options is just way too long to count. But for example, you can record a song with a band, make a video while it's being mixed, design and sew together a costume, learn about stage make-up, do some karate or jujitsu, learn a new language, learn to play an instrument, host an international conference, make 3D objects at no coast, bring your domestic items and have them fixed for free, sit back and watch it all go by over lunch or supper, take a nap in the front window, cobble your old boots, refit your old clothes, and anything else you can imagine - all free of charge: just reserve a place and book a space and it's all yours.

I don't use it half as much as I should, but the last five years since it opened have whizzed by.

Some more shots of Oodi:

 
This chap, PlunkettsGhost - from Arsefield's.

Plays the big tough guy on the blogs, hasn't a fucking clue what's going on:

'Anyone being labeled by the Ghoul as far right or racist has every interest in exposing his hypocrisy'.

The Ghoul? I doubt that handle's going to stick.

You lack imagination, Kid.

Not to mention purpose.

'The Ghoul lives far from the problems the rest of us left behind now have to deal with it'.

That's precisely correct: I left that kip behind because (a) I had the balls to see it for what it is and dump it accordingly. And (b) that I have what it takes to make it elsewhere on my own terms and for my own reasons. Idiots like you who stick around for your daily whipping deserve exactly what you get: fuck all. Nothing. Not even self respect.

So enjoy it down there in the u-bend of a public toilet that is dear auld Ireland, a failed nation in every respect. If you haven't the courage to simply accept that your dreams will never come true but you stick around anyway, then fuck all is exactly your reward. Me? I want it all, and I know how to get it, which is why I'm laughing and carefree - while you spend your days whining about how terrible Ireland is, but as soon as The Mowl chimes in in agreement, you all circle your sad little one-wheeled wagons to try to change the narrative - that you all suddenly love Ireland and she's great even with the broken economy and shite weather, your daily whipping by the state - which is run by people you didn't even get to vote for!

When was your last election, by the way?

'He slings his shite from his homogenous, ivory, snow covered tower, feigning moral superiority while staying well clear of the actual source of the issues'.

Again, 100% accurate: my delightful and snow-covered ivory tower. I love it up here while you hate it down there. I get my giggles from throwing you saps a bone every now and again. Life in the world's happiest country is simply divine. Today the snow is light, as is my workload: but the rewards are awesome. Imagine living in a country that actually respects you? Can you do that? No? See? That's where you're to blame. You can see the problem but you refuse to face it.

My moral superiority (like my superior intellect) is exactly what galls you the most. You can't figure out how a kid from the ghetto outsmarted the Irish system (and you) and made it pay for me to leave and start again in another country and culture of my choice. And I am extremely happy with my choice of location. I knew long before I moved up here permanently that Finland was on the cusp of something remarkable, so I got in while the options were favourable. Now I live like a king. I do what I like when I like and I still get paid. The saddest thing there is that you know perfectly well that if time and tide were on your side, you'd do the same. But you lack one crucial factor: big enough balls to stake your claim. That's why you are where you are - and I am where I am.

You're stuck on that crappy little island. Forever. You'll never know any other kind of life than the misery you endure today, so off you go - form a circle of your Arsefield's wagons and get all the lads on the gay bar site behind you to send me your rage and loathing. We all know what it really is though: jealousy, envy, fear, admiration, and a whole heap of wonder at how you yaps are one day raging against Ireland and all her criminality against her own people, and the next trying to frame Finland as something she's not. What you haven't even clocked though is that I LOVE it when y'all talk Suomi down. It acts as a barrier to keep you Irish losers far away from my haven of pretty girls and easy money. Call it anything you like. The Frozen Wasteland. Whatever: but be sure to do it often enough to keep your kind the fuck out of here.

I love how easy you fools are to wind up.

I can't stop laughing at how much of yours and Declan's time I get to waste for y'all! All I have to do is keep tapping you on the shoulder with '...and another thing about that poxy little kip of a country' and off you all go! Fuck Finland! Sanna Marin - aaaaaaahhh! The Soldiers Of Odin, wha'hey! Naked people in saunas! Heaps of fresh snow! Haven't a clue what they're saying in that weird language! Pray that Finland goes the way Sweden did. But your wishes won't come true. We know how to man our borders and enforce the wishes of the Finnish people. It's exactly the reason we're the world's happiest country. Get used to it.

'His slander must not go unanswered...'

And yet it does - even by the rule of the site owner you dance for all day. I slander him for what he is: a fat little loser who spoofs his way through life while idiots like you and your entire Arsefield's crew lick his scrawny old balls for him. That's so sad, man. So very fucking sad. Declan knows he'll never forgive me for exposing him and his lies, but then again he and I have one thing in common: we're both smart enough to know the truth when we see it. And he hates me for what I gave you: the reality of his miserable little life scrounging off his wife while telling you how he's a serious 'tour guide' and man of means who 'tour guides' multi-millionaires and the wives of billionaires around Southie. And you complete fucking saps are dumb and bovine enough to believe him?

Mate - you're some fucking tulip.

He's taking you for a ride, a very bumpy ride in the back of his van.

Oh, how it makes me laugh.

A millionaire van driver - from Ballinspittle?

Pahahahaaaaaaaaaaa!

'The Ghoul claims to hate 'racists'.

No - The Mowl hates IRISH racists.

Small point, but important nonetheless.

'But he is effervescent about the benefits of the non-diverse civilization he has fled to'.

Fled to? I left Urrland in the previous century, long before your flop-doomed Celtic Tiger economy under Bertie fucking Aherne took off. Then crashed. Why? Because I could see what was happening and I knew long before any of you fools that if I didn't make my move now, then I'd probably sink into obscurity like you lot have. Crying men. In large groups. Sipping from cheap tins of Dutch beer lamenting the loss of dear old Ireland. Hating that working class scruff from Ballyer pointing at you and laughing into your faces.

Finland is very diverse, actually: we have lots of Swedish-Finnish people, whole enclaves in fact. We have lots of wealthy Russians who'd rather live on this side of the border given it's only a six hour train ride to St Petersburg. We have very few Irish, thankfully. Last count I checked was at an Irish embassy supper when Simon Coveney came to give us a lecture about Finnish/Irish business relations. Our ambassador said that the total number of Irish passport holders in Suomi was one hundred and thirty-four. I was one of them. That was a few years back so I'd imagine the numbers haven't danced too much and that the language alone is enough to put the bejeezus up most of them. Factor in the winters and less again are interested in making a move.

Paddy and Bridie are where they are because they allowed themselves to be stomped on.

You, my sad friend - are Paddy and Bridie. Two losers.

Who'll never get to enjoy life.

'And he wouldn't have it any other way'.

Again, 100% correct. I deserve a quality of life superior to yours for my efforts and sacrifices. I demand that society gives me what I deserve: a warm and comfortable life in a wonderful and proud country of amazing people who relish their history and culture and who work on it to protect it and nurture it. My input is highly valued, not just by its nature, but by my being both an Irish immigrant and a self-employed and funded businessman of two decades and more. I'm also an honorary ambassador of Irish culture as well as a knowledgeable individual who knows Finland's history and culture as well as - of not better - than my own.

So yeah: I wouldn't have it any other way.

'He has no interest in being proximate to the diversity he claims to love'.

Diversity? What diversity? Fuck diversity - this is Finland. A unique culture in every respect. Not at all even remotely similiar to any other EU member state. What diversity do you think we need beyond what we have today? You KNOW that what we have is what you want - so why not just come out and say it? 'Ireland's fucked. We should have paid more attention to what Finland was doing while we sank deeper into the quicksand' except it's too late now, isn't it? Finland and Urrland have lots in common, but you twats are too dumb to see any of it, so I won't bother informing you of the simple facts that where apparent to me twenty-five years ago and guided my hand into emigration from Urrland to here. Just in the nick of time to catch the waves that helped me avoid the penury placed on yours and your kid's meagre existences.

'That would hurt his lifestyle' .

Yes, it would. My lifestyle is unique: every friend and relative who ever came up to visit me me always left in shock and awe at how beautiful, how enchanting, and how entirely positive their experience was. They wanted to come back - every time. The summers offer one type of experience: blazing heat and midnight sun. The winters another: snow and ice, big furry boots, red cheeks and pearly white teeth smiling back at you everywhere you go. Or rather, everywhere I go. You go nowhere apart from the dole office and the back garden shed to cry and weep at the waste you made of your life by not standing up and walking out while you still could.

But it takes big balls to uproot yourself and wander, so nobody is disappointed by you - you did your best, it just wasn't enough.

It never is - that's what Urrland is though: mutton dressed as lamb. Idiots at the steering wheel nearing the cliff's edge while you lemmings line up for the big hop. Your kids are getting stabbed - you blog about it. Your culture is disappearing fast, you blog about it. Events take place and pass without a stir. You blog about it. Life's passing you all by, you all blog about it. Arsefield's is run by a spoofing plastic culchie bum from Ballinspittle. You blog on his site and follow his rules: all the way from America and into your own homes.

I blog about how fucking dumb you cunts are: then I laugh about it.

I love this game - mainly because I invented it myself.

You?

You get exactly what you deserve, my friends: nothing.

Fuck all.

Just the rain and cold, the damp and the misery. The disappearance of Dubliners from their own city. The leaking of your best and brightest to other countries who know how to value us. The filth and trash that surrounds you. The alcoholism and drug addiction. The homeless soulless knackers stumbling up and down your biggest national thoroughfare all day and night. The needles and the drops of blood. The stink of piss everywhere. The burnt silver foils and blood-stained tissues. The empty cheap beer cans rolling around in the wind and rain. The lack of any sense of pride in anything. Hating your neighbour as he hates you. Hating the incoming hordes but hating your own even more when we're pointing it out to you from a safe distance. From up here on your northern horizons I can see the bind you're all in: you think because you get to suffer the worst of what Urrland can do seem to think that only you have the right to take aim at it.

Sadly - you're wrong there too.

Which is why I'm laughing, goading, and pointing at you, and you know you can't defend any of it.

Because you rolled over; you played dead, you refused to stand up for yourself while you still could.

Now you're too old, too broken, too cowardly, and too worthless to even consider getting up and out of there - with only death to look forward to.

It sucks, doesn't it?

 
Damn, but it's cold outside. Today, we're down to minus twenty-two here by the coast but temperatures up north into Lapland are hovering around the minus forty average with no let-up from the strong gales blowing the snow in every direction. Fifteen more centimeters fell last night, and around 1900 last evening saw horrendously strong winds that'd cut through you for a short cut: I made the error of wearing jogging pants to the supermarket.

Not very wise at all.

Any exposed skin gets frozen instantly, especially the lips and mouth. Ice forms on your eyelids and on your beard too if you have one.

Lots more of this coming for days yet, but a white winter is still the most beautiful season.

We have a problem with the thermostats for the entire block and it hasn't been below twenty-nine degrees inside our apartments for several weeks by now. Some tenants are complaining that it's too hot to sleep. I told them to cop the fuck on and open a window, stop complaining about the indoor heat when it's minus fucking thirty outside. But that's Finns for you: a problem is still a problem even if it has benefits.



So yesterday I was playing my bodhrán. I had to wet the skin several times to get it malleable enough to play across half an octave. After an hour or so of practice exercises I put it back on the wall and forgot about it as I was cooking. Fast forward a few hours and I'm sitting at the table writing. A loud bang followed by a clatter across the floor makes me jump with the fright. I turned around and the bodhrán's now on the floor, a big tear in the skin and a crack in the shell. I was wondering how the fuck I managed to put it back onto its hook on the wall improperly that it fell off again hours later.

Then I clocked it: the skin on the drum was wet when I hung it up after playing it. The high temperature indoors dried the skin out very quickly causing it to (a) split the skin right on the bearing edge, which in turn caused the frame to hop a little - but enough to drop it off its hook. Now I have a six inch tear in my favourite bodhrán which I've had for decades.

Pzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....
 
I called by the market hall to grab some fresh fish from my man there.



It was closed down for three years and a new steel framed wooden mobile market (built like lego in the middle of the square in a few weeks to house around sixty stalls temporarily) which has since been taken down again and moved elsewhere where it'll be rebuilt as needed. The new interior of the Hakaniemi Market Hall is awesome. It looks the same as ever outside but it was stripped completely and everything was replaced. My man wrapped me two nice fat fillets of salmon.

On the house, mind you.
 

Siskonpeti: 'Lumoava noitametsä' (The Enchanting Forest Witches)



'Noitien hyvä päivä, hyvästi selvä päivä..' (good witches by day, but goodbye clear day..')
 
Someone decided to build themselves an igloo out on the bay nearby.



Fishermen often bring along a small stand-up type tent with a stool to sit on when they go fishing out on the ice floes. They can sit inside and fish through a hole they drill in the ice and some bring along battery-driven thermal clothing to stay warm. Real men just sit over the hole, barely moving unless a fishy bites. Back in the distance you can just about see the waterfall at the very end of the River Vantaa, which carries most of the melted snow back out to sea via the bay I'm standing on.

The city has been discussing the idea of pulling down the waterfall walls and letting the water levels reach nominal heights seeing as there's a fork in the river only two hundred meters further up the river. But at this time of the year it looks absolutely stunning:



It's in a constant state of flux as some chunks of ice crack and break and others form in its wake. It all piles up as the water beneath flows out towards the sea to the south, but the huge chunks of ice get stuck beneath the waterfall, sometimes causing freezing water to over flow, hence the notion of removing the old power generating station waterfall at the heart of what was, until recently, the original Helsinki town and Finnish capital city.

Further up north they're having a time of it too:



We're up to plus two today after weeks of minus degrees variously at minus fifteen average with severe drops down to minus twenty-eight last week. The snow will melt somewhat today, but overnight will freeze into place leaving sharp edges and black ice everywhere. The streets are being gritted twice a day for the last month: once at 0500 then again at 1500 for busy traffic post-work.

This has been one of the nicest early winter seasons so far, and it looks set to stay white all over for the foreseeable future.

Big boots weather for sure:

 
To my ear Finnish when sung sounds a bit like Turkish.

Yes, that's been said by many others. South Korean is another language often compared to Finnish, but the most local is Hungarian, which apparently has a similiar grammatical structure to Finnish. Finnish language utilizes the letters of the alphabet in alternate ways: a V is read as a W, a J is read as a Y, a Y is read sometimes as a Y - but not in all circumstances. We also use the umlaut, but that's a whole other kettle of snow. Reading Finnish is kept simple enough as it reads phonetically, every letter in the word you're reading has a function, as in: there are no silent letters as there are in English.

Actually, Ismo here explains it better:



He was talking on a recent show about silent letters being frequently used in the English language. He says - quite correctly, that Finnish has no 'silent letters' in the alphabet. Only 'out loud' letters. And that English people are trying to test the patience of new learners of the language by using words constructed with silent letters such as debt. Debt? What's the B for? Is death too dark a term for debt? To be 'in death' rather than debt?

Finns find English rather funny though, as you might have guessed.

The longest word in the Finnish language is 'lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas'. It describes the studied profession of a junior engineer specializing in airplane wing construction/energy consumption and how its' design is connected directly to fuel consumption at various flying speeds. It also indicates that the young person is studying the subject at military school. But regardless, there are no silent letters in it, unfortunately for you. The positive aspect is that it reads more or less exactly as it's spelled.

Give it a shot, say it out loud and try not to sound like you have special needs.
 
A bit more Ismo to start your day.

He was voted 'world's funniest comedian' a few years back. He appeared at a private event I performed at with The Senators Of Helsinki a few years ago. I almost fell over laughing at his antics. He's even funnier in Finnish though, not that any of you might ever get around to it.

D for debt, it's rather subtle:

 
Only in Helsinki.

Yesterday evening, the pub tram went off the rails while sauntering through the city full of passengers. It took an hour to get it back on track so many other services were delayed while the work went on. Passengers aboard had to finish their drinks quickly to get off, but the pub driver gave them tickets as they left so they could re-board and have one on the house.

You can't say the Finns aren't gracious.



It happened outside Vanha Ylioppilastalon, the main student's building in the heart of the capital right outside Stockmann, Finland's premier department store and gallery. Trams occasionally slide off the rails and it's generally easy to put them back on track but they need to use industrial quality machinery to lift it back into place. When it happens downtown, it takes time to get the rescue squad out, so traffic is affected somewhat. Driving your car around in the city is frowned upon; city centre has several options from trams, buses, the metro, taxis, scooters, bikes, etc. Pedestrians have the right of way all over the city. Drivers who bang into pedestrians usually get it in the neck, they're heavily discouraged to bring their cars into the centre of town.

Commercial public parking is expensive, so that alone reduces the numbers.

Fines and penalties ain't cheap either, so you're better off just hopping on and off the various options available, weather permitting. We have zero scooters on the streets this winter and there's a push to ban them altogether before winter's end. Nasty little pests, those scooters. Kids whizzing along the pavements, dumping them anywhere they like. Skateboarders hanging off the back of them doesn't help either. I hope they ban the fucking things, they're nothing but a hazard anyway.

Minus nine outside with a minimal breeze and very little snowfall.

This year's been a deluge so far, several inches a night every night and we're dropping down to minus eighteen by Tuesday.

Most visitors can't handle it, but I love it.

Especially on the pub tram when heading between bars and clubs.

 
Finnish presidential election day is here and I've just passed my vote. There is/was a sizeable crowd attending at the local päiväkoti and it took an average of around ten minutes queuing to cast our votes. I spent the ten minutes in the queue talking with my neighbours and another hour outside with them watching a pantomime stage-show by the local school kids. It'll be around 1800/2000 (GMT+2) when the final numbers are being announced. I'll be sorry to see Sauli Niinistö retire after two terms of six years. He was an excellent President: a man of gravitas, wisdom, and experience who put a traditional face to the traditional Finnish stoicism that begets sisu itself: blank and devoid of emotion. Impossible to read. Last time we met in person was at a signing of Paul Auster's '4, 3, 2, 1' at the Suomalainen Kirjakauppan academic outlet in 2017. Sauli conducted a two hour interview for the assembled crowd which was several times the expected numbers with people spilling out onto the street listening through a briskly-erected PA system. But the pair of them put on a hell of a show and kept the audience happy until the interview was done and the book-signing began.



Notable runners in this election include Olli Rehn, the very man the ECB sent over to poor broken down Ireland to examine your books on behalf of the EU back in the grim late noughties, just as things began to crumble and the scale of the oncoming problems began to show. He saw immediately the extent of the rot and chicanery behind and beneath Ireland's economic woes and soon after advised the Finnish government to refuse to hand out any Finnish money to help Ireland throw even more of other people's cash into the black hole that is the Irish national debt. This refusal to contribute to Ireland's problems indirectly led to the formation of a newer right wing party 'Perussuomalaiset' - also known as The True Finns. Many ordinary Finns were outraged at the idea of 'helping' Ireland with Finnish tax euros. They saw it for what it was: a shower of fucking chancers with the begging bowl in hand, not even the least bit embarrassed at their profligacy and recklessness. The True Finns rode that wave and it eventually put them into coalition. Meanwhile, Ireland's debt currently stands at €223 billion (at the end of 2023) with the pandemic having added another €13 billion. The annual cost of interest payments alone on Ireland's national debt equates to about €650 per gobshite/per year living in the country, all of whom rolled over when the de(b)t was shoved onto their shoulders. The poor fools will still be paying that AND having to watch their own kids pay the same - for a problem they didn't cause, for the rest of their natural lives. And another few generations after. Poor bastards. Big de(b)ts.



It truly was a hell of a time. Most Finns thought Ireland was some sort of open air mental institution when they read about what was actually going on over the decades since Ireland joined the EEC. By the time that evolved into the EU and Finland and Ireland became cousins of a sort, Ireland had given away most of its natural resources: fishing rights, forestry, the oil and gas fields, minerals, etc - then allowing the banks to write their own rules, and throwing unheard of wages and expenses among even the lowest rungs of the political bent. Massive payments to top civil servants and their masses of staff were laughed at by the naturally wiser and more conservative Finns, and rightly so. Ireland is still paying some of the highest wages to politicians than anywhere else in the world, and still can't deliver clean drinking water to its culchies. It still uses a Victorian era underground water grid that's leaking in so many places more water is lost than is delivered. They even tried to make the gobshites pay for it four times over in a bizarre sequence of exponential taxes and VAT rates. Yet Ireland's roads, her hospitals, her schools, are all considered unusually and ridiculously primitive by the far more progressive education-driven Finns. When Finland had a recession back in 1992, the Finns decided to take what little cash they had left and plowed the whole lot of it into education. Ireland threw hers into a black hole, and is still doing so with not even the interest rates on the debt being met annually. It took Finland less than ten years to clear the debts of that recession, while miserable old Ireland will still be paying down its debts for decades yet. Ireland's current president is a poet. He used to live in an apartment underneath our old studio behind the old tax offices along Lower Mount Street. Try not to let the homeless people's tents upset your tummy, eh.



Mr Higgins never once complained about the noise. On the contrary, he was full of positivity and encouragement. As was his Missus.

I like Olli. He doesn't mince his words. Or his intentions. He has a shared quality with Sauli Niinistö in that neither of them suffer fools gladly; so much so that when Putin and Trump met at the Finnish Presidential Palace a couple of years back, Sauli took his dog Lennu for a walk over to a nearby outdoor bar where he was photographed casually drinking a beer and reading the newspaper with the presidential dog at his feet. He returned in time for the final farewells and handshakes, then went to bed. He refused to speak to the media but the entire country laughed at his brazen disrespect for both buffoons.

Pekka Haavisto is another contender, he might match Niinistö in terms of age and experience, but not popularity. Alexander Stubb of the National Coalition is another contender but I doubt he'll make it. Jussi Halla-aho is representing the True Finns party, but isn't the most popular of the runners: I doubt he'll gain enough traction but there is a perceptible shift to the right over the last few years - so maybe the LOLdiers Of Odin might stop drinking for an hour and use their vote. Stranger things, etc.



Notable female runners include Jutta Urpilainen (SDP), Li Andersson (Independent), and Sari Essayah (Christian Democrats).

Updates as the day goes on.
 
So it's down to just Alexander Stubb vs Pekka Haavisto after a surprising result last night.

February 11th will be the decider.
 
Here Mowl.. funniest thing I ever saw was the caper that FG and FF pulled when the IMF/Troika office closed in Dublin and Rehn and co left to go home. FFG were placing stuff in the papers like 'The Troika are gone', with the implied subtext that the debt had also disappeared with them.

It was fantastic to see the general mutterage of 'well that's that over with'. I can't believe at times what FFG get away with in Ireland but then I doubt they can believe it either. It was even on the political forums- 'The Troika are gone' as if all that inconvenience had disappeared.

By the way the average Joe in Ireland is still paying the USC which was the emergency tax brought in in the crisis of 2007-2009, still paying the Quinn Levy, still haven't realised that pretty much the largest bill for abuse redress is coming out of their tax, and don't appear to have copped on as yet that the Mica blocks scandal is another 'bail-in' while the people who profited from the sale of Mica filled building blocks for years sneak away into the shadows.

What a bunch of stupid c*nts in fairness.

Oh well. At least thee and me are paying none of it :) The ballsy people, the people who get up early in the morning. To be honest I don't blame FFG for fleecing the f*ck out of such a docile and bovine and well trained herd. What a tax-farm...

Someone has to do it.
 
Here Mowl.. funniest thing I ever saw was the caper that FG and FF pulled when the IMF/Troika office closed in Dublin and Rehn and co left to go home. FFG were placing stuff in the papers like 'The Troika are gone', with the implied subtext that the debt had also disappeared with them.

It's so fucking easy to pull the wool over Paddy's eyes.

In fact - I'm convinced he prefers things that way: the less he knows what's going on, the less he has to worry about.

It was fantastic to see the general mutterage of 'well that's that over with'. I can't believe at times what FFG get away with in Ireland but then I doubt they can believe it either. It was even on the political forums- 'The Troika are gone' as if all that inconvenience had disappeared.

I think Ireland's still an infant nation.

She isn't even smart enough to follow an example she stands some chance of imitating. She looks to Washington, Frankfurt, Brussels, even Westminster, but definitely NOT Finland: a country with whom she shares so many things. Of course the one thing that isn't shared is Ireland's sneaky, corrupt, triple-faced bullshit way of treating her citizens like sheep. Which they seem to relate quite positively to.

I quit attending the St Patrick's Day jolly at the ambassadorial residence because it was always so disgusting and embarrassing to see gang-loads of Paddy's drink their weight in free Guinness and then burst into song, all the while assembling around each other like they were about to create a scrum. The token clowns they send up to Finland for the free bash usually join in.

I'll avoid it this year too, unless they directly invite me by name.

Of course, by now they're well aware of my dual passports.

To them I'm some kind of traitor.

By the way the average Joe in Ireland is still paying the USC which was the emergency tax brought in in the crisis of 2007-2009, still paying the Quinn Levy, still haven't realised that pretty much the largest bill for abuse redress is coming out of their tax, and don't appear to have copped on as yet that the Mica blocks scandal is another 'bail-in' while the people who profited from the sale of Mica filled building blocks for years sneak away into the shadows.

Val 'Valhamic' Martin simply adores Quinn. Always harping on about what a great fella he is. Jobs for the boys, the occasional grushie, the hotel and the pub, his culchie mentality tinged with that good old fashioned loathing of urban folk, and a pair of wellingtons on with his suit pants tucked neatly inside.

It's been two whole years by now since Val dropped his vice grips into his own gob while under the tractor fixing a leak. He took out his two front teeth, both of which he saved under his pillow - likely expecting Sean Quinn to arrive like Santa Claus in the dead of night to take the two yellow teeth away and leave a coupon for one hundred litres of free diesel in their place.

Remember the way Ian Paisley had that strange whistling thing when he spoke?

Val has that now, a direct result of him knocking his own front teeth out.

It's hard not to laugh: for all his heavy-handed and blustering attitude, he's sounds even more like a clown than he ever did.

What a bunch of stupid c*nts in fairness.

And the reason for my dual nationality.

Oh well. At least thee and me are paying none of it :)

I got out in 1998, but I kept my business going officially until 2007 when I de-listed it, from that point forward I had no registration in Ireland but still flew back and forth because I was paid in cash. I handed in what looked like the original invoice type I did before, but it wasn't a registered company anymore.

I'm fucked if I'm paying even a dime into Ireland's black hole economy.

I'm from Ballyfermot, taxes are for the stupid people, not I.

The ballsy people, the people who get up early in the morning.

I'd imagine that fat fuck Brendan O'Connor ('Who's in the house? Jesus in the house') is getting paid even more now that Tubridy's been cast out.

Mad the way Paddy barely remembers the name Dee Forbes?

What's she sick with anyway?

The truth?

To be honest I don't blame FFG for fleecing the f*ck out of such a docile and bovine and well trained herd. What a tax-farm...

Fooling Paddy is very easy. He's like the two pints man in the pub when Enda Kenny strode in to buy a round for the party members. With Paddy's tax euro. To get what you want out of Paddy, all you need do is wave around a pint of Guinness in your left hand while picking his pockets with the right. Paddy's too focused on whether you're going to spill that precious Guinness that he's oblivious to everything else. Captivated, his pockets turned out and his shoes gone missing.

One of the most surprising things about how the curtains were reefed down on that whole Fianna Fail v Fine Gael (we're different parties you know) fiasco of Paddy finally clocking that he was being played was that he simply accepted that too. Oh, says he, but sure at least we have the vote.

These days I listen to the Six/One News mostly for the laughs.

It's funnier than any Irish comedians currently treading the boards.

Someone has to do it.

And someone has to pay for it.

But so long as there's enough left after paying down all the taxes for Paddy to buy a few pints, he's grand.

Twas always thus.

Twill always be so.
 
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