Archive for August, 2010

Paying your weight?

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

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Air Asia has an excellent web-booking system. For instance, you choose weather you like to eat or not and how much luggage you need. The price for additional kilos is not excessive, contrary to the IATA penalty, which used to be something like 1% of a regular ticket per kilo.

The more weight you carry, the more fuel is needed aboard the plane and, at least theoretically, the less cargo can be carried, resulting in less revenue for the airline.

However, if this is the real reason for limiting weight, I think the airlines should go all the way. Let’s say that the average passenger weighs 80 kilos. Then enters the over-weight 130 kilo flyer with his bagage, loading the plane at the same charge with 55 kilos more of weight.

Someone might argue that charging the heavy passenger a higher fee would be discriminating, but I think it is the other way around: as the practice is today, it is the lighter person who is getting the foul treatment.


image source: doctor2008.wordpress.com

So why don’t we fight for a system with a total maximum weight limit, passenger plus luggage, of, say 80 kilos included in the price for a regular ticket? For any excess you pay more, but you don’t get credit for weighing less. About one dollar per kilo would be fair, or the fee could even be progressive.

Problem with this idea is that women, on average weigh less than men, and having cheaper tickets based on sex would probably be unacceptable.

But what the heck, women carry more luggage than men anyway – let them keep on doing this.

Lindblom Tunes

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

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My grandfathers grandfather was Carl August Lindblom, one of the best known musicians in middle Sweden between 1850 and 1880. His son Malkus Lindblom emigrated to Finland in 1880, which is why most of my relatives, myself included happen to live in Finland.

A couple of weeks ago we organised a gathering in Rejmyre, which was Malkus’s last place of residence in Sweden before his emigration. One of the high lights of the gathering was a performance by four Swedish traditional musicians, who played music by Carl August and told us stories about him. The piece on the following video is the finishing number of the concert: March number 31 by Carl August Lindblom. The musicians are Arne Blomberg, Margareta Höglund, Brita Ehlert and Kurt Ehlert. The event took place in the church of Rejmyre.

Best album of all times?

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

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There is (again) a poll: name the world’s best music album of all times. My vote goes to the album “Forever Changes” from 1967, by the group Love. Actually Love was an Arthur Lee vehicle. He was the leader and main song writer. The band had several good albums but Forever Changes is brilliant. I first bought it on vinyl in England in 1968 and later in the 90’s as a CD. Unfortunately it is seldom played on the radio and I guess it is one of the most over looked albums of all times.

Finalist dies in Sauna contest

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

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In an attempt to educate and amuse my cruising friends all over the world I sometimes write posts about Finnish events. A couple of weeks ago I wrote my first bit about bizarre Finnish sporting contests, and I didn’t even mention the obvious one: who can withstand a hot sauna the longest.

Yesterday, the annual World Sauna Championships in Finland ended with the death of one of the finalists, a Russian. The other finalist, a Finn who has won the last 5 World Championships , was taken to hospital after collapsing.


The Russian on the left, the Finn on the right.

All competitors need to sign in to the competition with a doctor’s certificate. At the start the temperature is 110C. Then half a litre of water is poured on the stove every 30 seconds, last man in the sauna is champion.


(Source: news.bbc.co.uk)

The championships have been held in Heinola (138km north of Helsinki) since 1999. This year they had over 130 participants from 15 countries. According to the organisers there will be no more championships in the future – this was the last time. However, I do not believe that the sauna championships are over. The Finns are unable to resist this kind of events and the sauna is almost a national symbol.

Until somebody starts the World Sauna Championships again, we have to make do with other crazy “sports”, why not try the sitting naked on an ant’s nest?

23,000 lightnings

Friday, August 6th, 2010

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The tropical weather in Finland this summer is astonishing. After my previous log post we were hit by a second storm. The first one was called Asta and a few days later arrived Veera. And a third one is predicted to hit the republic in a couple of days.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute reports that there was 23,000 cloud-to-earth lightnings during the Veera-storm. They have some kind of lightning detector network for counting. This number of lightnings is not unique, but extremely rare.

During the past 19 years we have been cruising almost all over the tropics aboard Scorpio. Avoiding certain areas when they are potentially exposed to tropical storms, hurricanes, cyclones, taifuns etc. has been our main guide-line when planning our routes. Look at the photo above, it is of a camper field in Pirkanmaa, Finland, where 50 of 100 camper wagons were completely destroyed. The destruction is quite similar to what we have been used to see in photos from marinas in places like like the Caribbean and Florida after a hurricane has passed. In Florida, however, people should know from experience that those disasters occur every now and then. The folks in the forests of Finland were taken by complete surprise – this was unthinkable.


(Click on chart for a blow up)

On the chart above you can see the path of the two storms, Asta and Veera. Asta hit from the southeast and passed very close to our summer place (between Mikkeli and Imatra on the map), but we didn’t have any problems. Just a few days later Veera-storm entered from the southwest and crossed the country in a northeasterly direction.

It is interesting that the traffic on our web site trippled after my previous blog. Apparently these climate issues are fascinating.


On 3rd August, when my previous post was published we had 3 times the normal traffic on this site.

Tropical Finland – a bear market?

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

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Sometimes when abroad we hear stories of polar bears roaming the streets in Finland. There’s no truth in these tales of course, but the winters can be very cold indeed. Last winter’s lowest temperature was below -40C (-40F). This is why we prefer to spend our winters in the tropics, where we have been accustomed to temperatures around 40C (104F) – a difference of 80C (176F)! The lowest temperature we had any night aboard Scorpio in South East Asia was 29C (84.2F).

This summer, the weather has been extraordinary warm and dry in Finland. Because of the low humidity we have found it very pleasant although some people complain that it has been too hot. Maybe our blood has thinned after more than a decade in the tropics.

Our summer place is located in Puumala, which was on average the warmest spot in the country in July, with several days of highest-recorded temperatures, around 33C (91.4F). An all time high of 37.2C (99F) was recorded in Liperi not far away (as a comparison, the all time low -51.5C (-60.7F) was recorded in northern Finland in 1999). We found 27C in the water, which is almost the same as in Thailand were we last went swimming from the yacht.


(Source:Lehtikuva)

Also the tropical storms seem to be heading this way now. A week ago a violent windstorm, blowing up to 30m/s (almost 60 knots), produced by a band of fast-moving thunderstorms, crossed the country causing devastating damages, chopping thousands of hectares of forest, that crushed houses and cars and broke power-lines, leaving tens of thousands of homes without electricity, water and phone connections.


Canis lupus lupus

It isn’t just the weather that has been exotic. The wildlife has been exiting too. There has been several cases with wolf packs killing dozens of sheep even in densely populated areas in southwestern Finland. In the north and along the Russian border there has been several sightings of bears, although not polar bears.


Ursus arctos arctos

Yesterday radio programs were interrupted by an announcement from the police: People in and around Rovaniemi, the largest city in northern Finland, were warned that a bear had been sighted and folks were advised to stay inside.

The bear is ever present in Finland, however, and in many ways. The Russian Bear is a national personification for Russia, used in cartoons and articles at least since the 17th century, usually in a less flattering context – often implying that Russia is “big, brutal and clumsy”.


The Russian bear threatening Georgia,
(source: www.rendevouswiththedestiny.blogspot.com)


A cartoon, illustrating the world around 1900.
(Remember to click on it for a blow up)

And indeed, Finland has several hundred years of unhappy experiences with her big neighbour.

Finland itself, in it’s coat of arms, is illustrated as a lion defending the West against the East. The right fore-paw is replaced with an armoured hand brandishing a (western, straight) sword, while trampling on an (oriental, crescent shaped) saber with the hind-paws.

During this long hot summer we have been refreshing ourselves with larger quantities than usual of my favourite beverage, beer. One of the most popular beers is called Karhu, which is Finnish for bear. This fact brings us back to the polar bear, or actually the Polar Beer, which we found in an unlikely place, namely Venezuela – a rather tropical country as well.


(Source: www.popartuk.com)

The beer market for the thirsty in southern Finland has long been Tallin in Estonia, only a couple of hour’s ferry ride away. With Estonia’s entry in the European Union and increase of their economy the difference in prices is decreasing, but is still substantial if you are buying quantities. It is common to go there to stock up with beer and booze ahead of weddings and other big parties.

The word Bear Market, of course, has little to do with the mammal or with beer, and is usually used to describe a general decline in the stock market over a period of time.


A perfect description of a lurking bear market
(Source: www.cityunslicker.blogspot.com)


Graphic of two bear markets
(Remember: click for a blow up)

Let’s hope that the most recent bear market, that started in late 2007 is now behind us. The beer market is doing well, however.