A recount of recent events... Enjoy.
Friday December 23rd saw me setting off for a week long stay in England. My host for the week: the lovely Miss Anna Lansdown. After flying into Heathrow I jumped on a bus headed for Cambridge. I was met by Anna and Dario. The three of us drove from Cambridge to Peterborough where, on arrival at Dario's I was met by a cup of tea and Marmite on Bagel.
Anna had planned a week full of activities.On Saturday morning Malin (my ex-housemate/ good friend in Stockholm) also flew into London to join in festivities for the week.
Below are pictures from Day One in London.
First stop: Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum...
That's me with John Travolta. Not as many people were hovering around him compared with Zac Effron or Robert Pattinson- I felt sorry for him.
The latest edition to the collection: Mr Colin Firth.
Here are two legendary musicians and possibly the most legendary musical group, ever...
This was a most disturbing sight- completely unexpected- completely unrealistic. My vote for 'the wax figure to go' if ever they deem it neccessary to cull the collection...
The London Underground...
And above ground...
A nodd to a wonderful friend...
Buckingham Palace
Amazing what you can pick up with a good zoom...
On Sunday morning Anna treated Mailn and I to a traditional English Breakfast...
We attended the Orton congregation meeting in Peterborough. It is a really wonderful congregation, a very cute, cosy Kingdom Hall- we met some lovely brothers and sisters.
Myself, Malin and Anna
On Monday we joined forces with (wonderful couple) Jay& Claudia for a walk in Bourne Woods. The air was fresh and the trees were... woody.
Tuesday saw Anna, Dario, Tim, Malin and I venturing back into London to see Big Ben, the River Thames, London Eye, Tower Bridge etc...
How could we resist?
From Police Officers to Bethel (sorry, had no idea of an appropriate segue to use).
Here is a giant printing press and machinery plus some retro posters from conventions gone by...
Camden Town
On Wednesday morning Mailn and I joined forces with Tim and J for a spot of early morning street witnessing in Peterborugh, followed by some door to door work. We stopped for lunch at a nice little English tea house. Here are some pictures of the the Peterborough Cathedral we walked by (it's pretty giant).
These photos were taken on Wednesday night when Miss Anna cooked for a few "young'ns" from Peterborough area and it's Surrounds...
Who wore (Anna's new) headband better?
How can one visit England without sampling the best of British cuisine- Fish and Chips. It was Malin's first ever experience. These were purchased for a very reasonable £4 per serving from "Sheddy's" a small Fish and Chip store in Spalding which spans five generations.
Malin on her way back to Stockholm...
Peterborough Square
Kingom Hall, Spalding. Attended this meeting on my last night in England. Lovely congregation.
A gigantic "Thankyou very much" to Anna for her amazing hospitality over the week in England. She is certainly a fine host- kept us well-hydrated with numerous cups of tea, well-fed with her culinary expertise, well-travelled with her extraordinary taxi-driving skills and well-entertained with the myriads of activities she planned
Thanks also to Dario: "King of Colums" (budget, less-cool version of Tetris)
And finally Tim-berland for his amusing company throughout the week.
I arrived in Helsinki, Finland late on Friday evening. I was met by Heikki (my mum's cousin) and his wife Susanna. Up until that point there had not been a lot of snow in Finland (quite unusual for this time of the year) but to my surprise and delight on Saturday morning a small amount of snow had fallen over night. This was the view from the top of a small hill nearby Heikki and Susanna's house...
On Saturday my Great Aunty Eila hosted an afternoon tea for my many and distant relatives and I. Here is a picture of the banquet of Finnish food she and the relatives prepared.
Note the cup of tea without coffee poured- that would be mine (much to the dismay of my relatives- countrymen and women from the 'highest consuming coffee per capita' country in the world).
For the interest of family back home, these are some of our Finnish relatives (Risto& Merja, Jorma (sporting a mullet, awesome), Heikki & Helena (twins), Heidi, Susanna & Eila)
This is a picture of my (other) Great Aunty Iris, Herbert (so cute) and me whom I visited later than afternoon...
Saturday night marked New Years Eve. If you were not already aware of the fact- Finns are crazy.
Six o'clock PM marks the (official) countdown to the New Year. Fireworks become legal and are able to be set off anywhere by anyone. You should have seen the sky whilst driving home that evening- there were fire works going off left, right and centre.
At about 20mins to midnight, Susanna, Heikki and I took a walk outside. There was a posse on every street corner and fireworks shooting up into the sky. Adults and children, oldies drinking champagne from plastic champagne glasses... all the while it's about -2dgrees Celsius outside.
It's incredible how close everyone stands to the fireworks. A couple right by us set off a few rounds as midnight approached.
The noise was absolutely deafening. Here are some photos of the fireworks that exploded just a few metres from us...
Here are a few photographs from the Vantaa English Congregation Kingdom Hall in Vantaa (just outside Helsinki) that Susanna and I attended.
Helsinki by night
Above: Helsinki Cathedral, Senate Square
Above: Presidential Palace- (The Finnish President is a Ranga FYI).
Above: "Rubix Express" currently set up in Senate Square. The inspiration for this light sculpture comes from a clip of a six year old boy in China who was filmed solving the cube in just 37seconds. The feat is repeated as the giant Rubiks Cube slowly rotates (accompanied by electro- experimental music). 125, 000 regular Rubiks Cubes can fit into this giant sized cube.
This is Helsinki Stadium that hosted the 1952 Olympics.
Susanna and I snuck a brief look at the Sporting Museum that is housed there. Here are three photos of (possible) interest.
1. Gilded Shoe belonging to Finland's most successful runner Paavo Nurmi. He won nine gold medals in three Olympic Games.
2. Mika Häkkinen's driving suit from his firts Grand Prix win in 1997
3. Medal collection belonging to Matti Nykänen, the most successful ski jumper of all time.
On Monday thick snow started falling at around 12pm and continued to fall until 8pm. Compare the photo I took of the Paavo Nurmi statue on Sunday night and again on Monday night
This is 'Pisa' the leaning snowman that Susann and I made on Monday night. By Tuesday afternoon he had developed a decent lean, but still carried the strong character and good looks he was created with about 15hrs previously.
Here are a few brief pictures from Bethel, Finland. We enjoyed a really wonderful tour of the facilities by Melina (10yrs at Bethel) and enjoyed a wonderful meal also thanks to Jukka- an older brother who has been serving at Bethel these last 30 years.
Below: Kingdom Halls in Finland
The Photo Drama of Creation slides...
An old advertisement promoting the Photo Drama of Creation/ CT Russell's visit
An old printing press
Thankyou very much to Susanna and Heikki for their incredible hospitality- for the constant flow of food, morning walks with Susanna and the toasty warm sauna...
It was a wonderful two weeks away, but is great to be home (Stockhom).
I've slipped back into routine and am looking forward to an exciting year ahead in full-time service.
I've received some beautiful photos from the summer you are all enjoyingback home in Oz- can't wait to sink my teeth into it in twelve months time.
Until my next update, be safe.
Love, hugs and snowflakes...
No comments:
Post a Comment