ten days
February 7th, 2010My friend has been visiting from England for the past ten days. She flew home today from Turku airport (which is the best airport in the world, but still goodbyes are hard). In ten days time we’ll see each other again though as I take DD to London for a museum-shopping extravangza for her 18th birthday and we’ll stay with C which will be great! We’ve had such a good time here … photos to follow (I hope) but here are some highlights:
- walking on the frozen sea in Naantali and seeing the winterwonderland of Moominland and a picnic (hot chocolate and warm sandwiches) at minus 22 C -brrr
- dinner with friends (salmon followed by blueberry pie) to celebrate two birthdays (both on the same day) – C’s and and another friend’s!
- trying out PS3 and a silly little big world game at a friend’s house- I laughed so much it hurt
- terry pratchett’s play NATION – shown on the big screen live from NT in London. Was marvellous! Milton the parrot was a great success!
- walking on the river in Turku with the dogs
- C’s very first sauna – she liked it so we went again another day!
- three day retreat in the cottage at the UMC youth camp in Jumi – the snow came up to my waist! Walked on the frozen lake and took a lot of photos. Cooked sausages on the open fire which was a lot of fun too!
- UMC mini conference (pastors meeting) where the bishop held an open meeting for all in our local church and injected hope and inspiration into many with his vision for how church could be! Great worship too.
- Inspire supper – so grateful to God for this group of friends and co-disciples!
- sledging on the local hill
- ice hockey match here in Turku (though TPS played appallingly for the first two periods and lost 5:2!)
The weather didn’t once get above zero (though one day it was only minus 1 which seemed like a heatwave) … and it’s snowed almost everyday. Up in Jumi I saw more snow fall in one 24 hour period than ever before. Luckily the neighbours have a snowplough or we’ll still be there. When we got there though we couldn’t drive up to the cottage and had to transport all our stuff by sledge and then go get wood from the storage under the big house. Getting there was a real adventure – the snow was so deep!
It’s hard to say what was the absolute best part of C’s visit – possibly Moominland (though it was bitterly cold) or the time with God and with each other up at Jumi … or then the late nights when we sat and talked and prayed … it’s all been so good.
This week I have a lot to do of course. Mostly proof reading and I also have to put the final touches to my thesis and get that sent off. Pressing send will be a relief. I’ve enjoyed working on this research but it really is time now to put it to bed!
It’s almost midnight here now so it’s also time to put me to bed.



