You know those moments in our life where you wish you could go back and change the way things went. Usually it is a case of ''I wish I had done that'' or ''I wish I hadn't done that''. I had a double whammy today, both of these occurred in the same situation. I had a mad afternoon, running (or driving) all over town trying to organise my Tax details and get back to the office in time to get paid. Traffic was frustrating, pedestrians were frustrating and the bloody radio DJ's on 94.9, radio rock ought to be PUT DOWN! I was very relieved when it was all over. I managed to get my tax stuff sorted and my pay is going in today. I have worked for a month now and have not been paid yet because of all this social security crap so things have been pretty desperate of late. Thrilled to leave the office because I left the car behind and I was catching  a nice, cozy tram home with no traffic lights to worry about or arrogant drivers who are ''too cool'' to use indicators. When I got on the tram it was packed down the end so I began to walk up the isle a bit to get some space. As I walked I started to realise that a fight was occurring somewhere on on the tram. I couldn't see anything but I could hear a lot of yelling in language that I didn't understand but knew, wasn't Finnish. I looked for a long time for the action and eventually found it. It wasn't a fight at all it was some horrible lady yelling into her mobile phone at the top of her voice. Now I am going to stop here for a moment to defend myself. Before I continue I would like to say that i am not a racist person. Racism is one of my most hated things in this world and racist people make me feel ill. I don't hate people because of color or what language they speak... I just hate everyone. I'm not that picky really, if you have two arms two legs and evolved from a monkey at some point in time chances are I wont like you very much. So, anyway. This incredibly irritating woman was of Arabic appearance and the language sounded middle eastern to me but I am certainly no expert on that. She was sitting next to another fella who I also assumed to be Arabic. He was also talking on his mobile phone although he was at a reasonable volume level for someone sitting next to a lady screaming into a megaphone. This went on for ages. Eventually the fella ended his call and sat quietly while this witch of a woman continued her rantings. She obviously was not happy. She had a very short, sharp tone in her voice and was speaking so passionately that a puddle was beginning to form on the floor in front of her feet from all the spitting. I like languages where you get to spit while you talk. Dutch is top on my list of languages to learn just so I have an excuse to spit on people. Perhaps if I could learn to say ''sorry for spitting on you'' in Dutch I could get away with it. 15 minutes later I was rope able. I could have strangled that woman or twisted her next in a very sharp action to the right as you see in Ninja movies. I was giving her the most aggressive looks I possibly could but the horrible thing never looked my way. I thought then, perhaps if I could show her son or husband or whoever he was sitting next to her that I was clearly irritated then he would jab her in the ribs and tell her to tone it down a bit. So, I started giving this fella nasty looks and every time I caught his eye I would gesture my head towards her and send telepathic messages to him telling him to ''shut that woman up or I will have to''. I should also point out that I was clearly not the only irritated passenger and many daggerish looks were being sent her way. Every time I looked at this fella and gestured towards her looking very disgruntled he would just laugh. That irritated me even more and I soon realised that he was not going to help my cause any. I started devising a plan that would let her know how frustrating she was. I thought I would call Julia and when she answered I would yell at the top of my lungs, ''HI JULIA, JUST THOUGHT I WOULD RING YOU AND YELL FOR A WHILE IF YOU DONT MIND. STAY ON THE LINE WHILE I HURL ABUSE AT YOU AND THEN IN THREE MINUTES I WILL HANG UP, CALL KNUTTI AND YELL AT HIM FOR A BIT BEFORE RINGING YOU BACK AND YELLING AT YOU SOME MORE!'' I was so happy with this plan and I thought ''I'm gonna do it!'' Then that other pesky voice came into my head and said ''but what if you make an ass out of yourself and everyone on the tram then thinks your an asshole?'' I spent the following 10 minutes debating with myself if I should go through with it or not. Eventually something very thought provoking (for me anyway) happened. Just as I was giving this fella my BIGGEST gesture yet of ''seriously! I'm going to kill your wife!'' the lady yelled, even louder now ''SO!!!!'' or something like that, that's what it sounded like to me. A lady sitting behind the pair burst into hysterics which made her friend crack up laughing too. At the same moment the fella was grinning at me carelessly and the mix of big grins and the sound of laughter mad me start laughing out loud as well. This chain continued about 4 rows back until most of our carriage was laughing. The lady was still yelling away, totally oblivious to what was happening. At that moment the grinning (and now snickering man) said to the lady ''excuse me'' and she stood up and let him out of the seat. They both got off the tram but they got off the tram separately. Regret number 1. I felt terrible because I had been giving this bloke horrible looks and just about blamed him for the big mouth of the horrible wench sitting next to him. I had assumed that because both of them had a middle eastern appearance and were sitting side by side on a tram that they were somehow connected. Perhaps I was right in thinking that, after all I am in Helsinki so it wouldn't be totally bizarre if they were connected would it? Maybe two tourists or he moved here for work and she followed. On the other hand (the guilty one) maybe it was some what racist to assume that they were together, kind of like me saying ''O, all those middle eastern folk, they all hang out in groups of two or more you know. they never travel alone.''  I dont think I thought that but perhaps it was subconscious. Regret number 2. She had now gone and my opportunity to carry out my cunning and humiliating (to her) plan of attack was gone. Now in the realisation that everyone was in fact listening (like they had a choice) to her and probably would have gotten a good laugh out of my little routine. That opportunity may never come up again and I am a bit disappointed in myself for thinking about it for so long and letting the opportunity go.

So, to the fella who was on tram number 10 to Keskusta today at around 4 and kept getting nasty looks from some shaggy Aussie fella who obviously hasn't had a hair cut in year.... I'm sorry, I wish I could have smiled back and shared the joke with you.

To the despicable woman on the phone who was far to arrogant and self involved to realise she was making an absolute ass out of herself and making everybody (most importantly ME!) very disgruntled... I hope the tram ran over your feet as it pulled away from the stop.

To all the other folk on the tram who laughed so hysterically , thanks for the smile!                  

Wow! It has been a long time since I have done one of these.

Well the rains back. We had our two weeks of summer, it got to 20 degrees and now we are back to 10 and miserable. Not to worry though, it has still been a good week and a bit and the sun is bound to come back at some stage and if it doesn't, I'm leaving to skate Europe in 1 month so i will find it. I gave notice at work today which felt very strange. It was so difficult and stressful to get the job and now I have given it up. I may return there in August when I come back though. I have been all over the place with work this week. I have had a the work car for two weeks now and have been driving everyday so I am feeling much more confident than I was and am back to loudly shouting obscenities in my car at people who irritate me on the road. One thing that has really been putting my knickers in a twist as of late is Mannerheimintie which is the main road I take to work each morning. It is so poorly laid out it makes me want to scream. I don't know if I have mentioned it before but the Finns love digging stuff up. Everywhere you look there are council workers digging up a park or a road. You cannot travel 1 kilometer without seeing some sort of roadworks yet no one really seems to know what is happening.... Until now. They are building traffic lights. I worked it out. They have started with Mannehheim and are working their way out of the city. Every 20 meters (less in some areas) is a set of traffic lights. Most are nothing but pedestrian crossings for people who are to damn lazy to walk the 20 meters to the next crossing. If you get a green light on Mannerheim you wont be able to move because the people in front have a red light. Finally their light goes green but then you realise that your light is red again. I said in a previous post that Finnish drivers seem very happy to break road rules and wont hesitate to run red lights. Now I know why. Without breaking road rules you wouldn't get anywhere in this city. I have been paying close attention to what purpose each set of lights holds and I could confidently say that each third set (at least) could be removed without causing any negative effects on traffic flow or pedestrian movements. I may run for minister of transport!
 
Last week some time, we visited a place called Hämeenlinna which is half way between Helsinki and Tampere. We went to skate a car racing track which has some pretty quick areas on it. Maybe around 60 or 70km/h. I still hadn't decided what board I was going to race this year so it was a good chance to play around with some different set ups. I still don't know. I think it will be a spur of the moment thing. We got to Hämeenlinna a bit earlier than expected so before the race track we headed to a National park which has a long run at a constant 50 to 60Km/h. The area used to be owned by a very wealthy Swedish man named Hugo Standertskjöld, back in the days when Finland was owned by Sweden. I think the area belonged to Hugo from 1844 to 1931 (Finnish independence was in 1917. I am not sure exactly how large the area is but lets just say... It was big. The fella built look out towers, gazebos, castle walls and all sorts. Seeing as this area was owned in those times it is like something out of a medi evil movie. So here is your next lesson in Finnish. To add possession to something in Finnish an N is added at the end. Danielin Auto is Daniel's car (if we wanted to say cars we would add a T to pluralise, so it would be Autot). So Hämeenlinna is actually two words. Häme is the place name and Linna means castle. When you add en to the end of Häme you get Häme's castle. How was that for a lesson.  The whole area is birch with lakes in the middle and seeing as the weather was so sunny and warm at the time it was one of the nicer areas I have seen in Finland so far. I got my first taste of Finnish mosquito's and I tell you those buggers are thirsty!  

I went for another skate last night with all the crew including some fellas from Turku. The guys found an awesome spot which is built for go carts but after closing it becomes a downhill skating track with 15 hairpin corners. Smooth surface, nice area not to far away, quiet with no pedestrians or cars to worry about. It started raining almost as soon as we arrived so we only got a couple of fry runs in before riding in the rain. We were there for about 4 hours and got home at about 1 in the AM. Will be back to that spot for sure, best spot in Finland so far.

On Monday I am heading to Stockholm, Sweden for  day. It is only a fleeting visit but I am looking forward to it none the less. I have wanted to visit Sweden for a long time. Julia, Pirkko (Julia's mum) and I will take the ferry over from Helsinki on Monday which is an all night trip. We arrive on Tuesday morning and head out again that night to be back and fresh for work on Wednesday... Or so the plan goes anyway. The ferry has bars, clubs, pubs, and all sorts of great stuff. Very excited! 

I have just become a Finn! I have just received the letter telling me I have a social security number and am now entitled to benefits. Very excited about that, it now means I can also come and go as I please for as long or as little time as I want! It was such a difficult process and to be told in a letter, just like that, is an unexpected surprise (wrap your head around that!)

We also just picked up a new bed which I am super excited about  since I have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for the past 4 months. Tonight is going to be an awesome night of sleep at a normal height on a normal surface.

Next week is my Birthday and I will be 23 years old. It seems like only a year ago when I last had a birthday... I had planned on heading to Koli National park for the weekend to check out the hill in the National park and see the area but if the weather stays like this I think I will skip it.

I have this great new program called Google Analytics. It tells me all sorts of things. How many people are coming to the site, how long they stay and what pages they visit. What country and place they are town they are in, how they found the site and whether or not they are regular visitors or just passers by. Averagely this Blog is getting 60 hits per day which is pretty cool and my maximum reached is 100. Once person has even been reading all the way from Congo, Africa. Cool!

Another new video! 2 in one week, I'm on fire. This one is of our weekend on Suomenlinna and is by far the most pompous and dramatic video to date. Never the less, you get the idea and get to listen to a great song while your at it. Find the link on the video page. Enjoy.

Very excited for the new addition of Free Style Revolution magazine which came out today. A whole bunch of stuff covering downhill skating and yours truly. Roller Derby, kite and wind surfing. Its all there. Check it out at HERE.

Enjoy.

Ok, so we have a new video up which you can get the link to on the video blog page as always. There is also a new photo link up which is of course, on the photo links page. I forgot to mention it in yesterdays entry but we also visited the Russian Orthodox church on Sunday which is right by the market place. I have not been to a staggering amount of churches but of the few I have visited, this one was pretty special!

Weebly has recently added a stats feature which means I can now see how many people are visiting and reading and how many are regular. This week the biggest day my blog has had was 76 views. Roughly 40 of them are regular viewers. Like I said earlier, if your reading, let me know that your out there by leaving a comment. It would be nice to know who is visiting.

 

So after spending an hour and a half writing this last night, Weebly decided to do some work on their website resulting in me losing all of my work. Very irritating!! So, before I was rudely interrupted, I was saying....

It has been a long weekend. I nice one but a long one. Thursday was a public holiday which, as an Australian, is my favorite kind of day. I headed to a new skating spot with Janne Yks and Kaks. It was out in a place called Kirknäs which you will hear about later. We spent a few hours in the sun skating before heading back to Helsinki to meet more people at Stadium. As soon as we arrived it began to rain (classic) so we all went our separate ways after a quick bite at Hesburger or as I like to call it.... Tomuchnastymayoinyourburger.

On Friday I worked for half of the day. Once again at the temple. The sun was shining again and it was well over 20 degrees which is the warmest I have been in Finland. In the afternoon I caught up with Pauli and K-nude at Leppävaara for another skate. We got kicked out of our first spot pretty quickly by an angry old git. He took a special dislike to me since I didn't speak Finnish. Normally I wouldn't pay much attention to a babbling old man, especially when I have no idea what he is on about but we all thought that we would like to skate that spot again one day so maybe it was best to move on and come back another day. We went from there to a park with an S bend in the middle of it, finishing with a very tight 180 degree corner. We hung around for hours and by the end of it Sami, Juha and Janne yksi had all turned up. When we finally decided to pack it in, Pauli, K-nude, Yks and I all headed to Koff park which is next to my place to meet with Julia and Make. Finland in the sun is something else. During the day and afternoon the parks are filled with people soaking up the warmth like they will never feel it again (which is not totally unlikely in Finland). Sunbathers, book readers, artists and young couples fill every spot under every tree as soon as the light comes out. It is how I imagined Europe being and reminds me of Bill Brysons book, ''Neither here, nor there'' (read it if you get a chance!). Unfortunately this is all ruined as it gets later (on weekends at least). As people drink more beer, things get rowdier. Fights break out often and the police always seem to arrive just 5 minutes after the victim is left bleeding on the ground and the culprits have left. The thing that stands out to me most in Finland now that people are outside and enjoying the sun is the disgusting amount of rubbish in every street and every park. Cigarette butts are everywhere throughout Helsinki and I know they are in every city but not like this. Parks are filled with paper, food wrappers, bottles, cans, plastics and rotting food. For those who do wish to do the right thing, they are faced with bins that lack both size and numbers to even come close to being useful in such a populated area. It is such a shame that what seems such a nice place, now filled with budding plants, growing grass, singing birds and warm sun can be tarnished by such a disgusting lack of respect by what seems to be the majority of people.

Saturday was a big day. We organised another skate session at the Kirknäs (spot from Friday) spot. Julia and I headed out there at about midday with Make. When we arrived no one was there yet so we decided to go for a bit of a drive. Finland still has a compulsory military service for men. Make had completed his years service 6 or 7 years ago and had served at a base in Kirknäs. We headed in that direction to see what we could see of the base. All we really saw was a boom gate in the middle of a Birch wood forest being guarded by a young fella in Camo gear and a bright yellow reflector vest. Make had suggested we try and talk our way past the guard but then thought that perhaps my hair was a bit shaggy to convince the guard that I was a visiting general from the land down under. The area was fantastic though. One of, if not the nicest place I have seen in Finland yet. With the army gate it was like something out of a computer war game. Endless forest with dirt tracks. Random military outposts dotted along the way and a shimmering blue river winding itself between the highest areas. This is how I imagined Europe! When we got back to the skating spot people were beginning to arrive. The weather was perfect, even hotter than the day before. People brought bbq's with them and all up about 20 skaters rocked up which was a fantastic effort. Everyone skated hard and we were all knackered by the end of the day. That evening Julia and I went back to Koff park. We hung out and played Hacky Sack for a couple hours before going back home and going to bed.

On Sunday it was decided that we would have a relaxing day that involved nothing that could cause either Julia or I to lose any skin from our elbows or knees. Once again the sun was out and it was roughly 20 degrees. We decided Suomenlinna would be just the place to be. Suomenlinna is a fortress just off the coast of Main Helsinki. To get there you need to take a 15 minute ferry trip which runs on the same ticketing system as Helsinki's public transport. Construction began on the fortress in 1748 and it has since survived 3 wars and two revolutions. It is now registered on the world heritage list and is an absolute maze waiting to be explored. The fortress is actually spread amongst a group of small islands that are all situated very close to one another. Each is connected by a bridge so it is possible to visit them all. Once you step off the ferry it is like being in a completely different country. Dirt roads run through small, old wooden cottages. Everything is surrounded by high brick walls with moss growing in every crack and crevice. The church doubles as a lighthouse which is a pretty rare thing in the world. There is a submarine that you can walk about inside for 2€ though maybe crawling is a better description. Spending time in a submarine is a good way to make your life seem utterly fantastic and if you live in a Helsinki, studio apartment, a great way to make your home feel like a mansion. We spent the day exploring the hidden tunnels inside the fortress walls (most of which are pitch black, rocky and wet), playing Hackey Sack, eating ice cream and wandering between the islands. We also visited a wartime museum filled with old guns, tanks, cars, uniforms and all sorts. I thought it interesting that the Finnish military forces use to use a blue swastika as their emblem until 1944 when the war ended for the Finns with a peace treaty signing with Russia. I suppose by then the symbol had lost most of its appeal and pizazz for obvious reasons. If you want to know more about Suomenlinna you can check it out at www.suomenlinna.fi . If you click the English flag in the top right corner you can read the site in English... Go figure. I think I might add a Finnish flag to the top right of my website and when you click on it it would translate everything into Japanese, for no reason other than making me laugh!

Monday was work as usual. Nothing special. Cutting down birch trees and pines.

Today I only worked half a day and then headed to the police office to try and finalise my residency in Finland. It is all being processed now and soon I shall have a social security number of my own. I also got a tax number which means I can now give 35% of my money to the Finnish Government. It's great to feel a part of a team.

I am beginning to feel more at home now. I am making friends now that summer is coming and we are able to skate. I am meeting more people every session we have. I have a routine now that I am working and I am finding it much easier to get from place to place and do things like the shopping on my own. I am now signed up for 3 races too which is something more to work towards. So far I'm racing Norway in June and Germany and France in July. Still a couple more to sign up for so the work is certainly wanted.

Well, I'm off to bed now. Keep your eyes on the video and photo pages. I will try to upload new stuff tomorrow. For now if your interested there is another link to the photo page of photographer extraordinaire Aatos who was out taking happy snaps with us on Saturday at Kirknäs. I also have a whole bunch from suomenlinna coming but like I said... Bed time now.

Ok, so I'm starting to think maybe these posts aren't the best place to post up photos since they appear quite small on the site and cant be enlarged. I will still put a few up on appropriate blog posts but if you want to see more then check the NEW photo links page for a link to photo bucket.

... That's the song I'm listening to and I don't know what to title this so that will do. Tomorrow is a public holiday, very stoked on that. Work is good and I'm enjoying it but it is equivalent to 8 hours of Gym per day and I am freakin' knackered! I'm still at the temple but it is my last week there. I am working in down town Helsinki next week in some private gardens. It will be nice to see some gardens in Helsinki because all I have seen is apartment blocks so far. Still driving a lot and feeling much better about it now. I can get to the temple in Espoo from Helsinki now along Keha yks (ring 1) which is like a free way. I am pretty happy on the right hand side of the road and changing gears with the right hand now. The work car I am driving at the moment is the biggest piece of crap though so I am still being pretty cautious which I suppose is good. One thing I have noticed whilst driving in Finland... Finns have no regard for the road rules. It is not that they are bad drivers, in fact they all seem like quite good drivers. It's just that they don't follow the rules. It seems like they are more common sense type drivers. For instance... if your sitting at a red light and you can see that nothing is coming, go. If the speed limit is 60, drive at 75 and if the cops pull you over they will say ''well you were only doing 15 clicks over the limit so your good to go on since the limit is 20ks (I think it was 20) over the speed limit before we can do anything. 

Last week on Thursday, I caught up with some fellas after work for a skate. I had found a rad spot near the train station so I met them there. it was a good turn out with maybe 7 or 8 crew. It's great to skate here and see how people ride in different areas on different terrains. After my spot we headed to a park with an awesome S bend and a super tight right handed corner. Me and a couple of other fellas were riding in a nice tight pack and trying to cut each others inside lines. We were there for hours and only left when the sun went down. Lots of crashes and funny moments. Lots of spooked dogs too.

I missed VPK again. It's the third week in a row now. I have been pretty wrecked after work and have been getting home about 15 minutes before it starts. If I am working in the center next week the hopefully I will be able to make it then. I am a fully signed up member now as of last week.

Julia and I have been planning our trip to Norway which is coming up at the end of June. www.ekstremsportveko.com is an annual event held in Voss (just out of Bergen), Norway. It is a week long event crammed full of extreme, gnarly, chaotic happening. Base jumping, white water rafting, rock climbing and sky diving. Absailing, snow boarding, hang gliding, kite boarding and of course no extreme sport festival would be complete without downhill skateboarding! I'm super excited to ride this hill. it is incredibly scenic at the top of a huge Norwegian mountain. It crosses a bridge and passes an amazing water fall. A super fast and super technical run with 3 or 4 switchbacks. Leeso and Jacko (two of Australia's best riders) will be over  for it too and it is always great to ride with them. Julia and I have signed up as volunteers which means we get a free festival pass and free food. Can't go wrong! Norway is one of the most expensive countries in the world (the GDP/person is 50,000 per year as opposed to the rest of the western world which sits at 35,000) so any budget help that comes along needs to be snapped up real fast. We will be flying to Oslo and then hopping on the train to Voss from there. I have been sussing out other local runs in the area and I think it is going to be an EPIC week of riding.

I have attached some photos of the Mormon temple I have been working at. I thought I may as well as it is quite a nice place. I have been trying to work out how to put a ''counter'' on this page but I don't think that Weebly supports the application so I am going to run an experiment. If you read this could you do me a favour and and leave something in the comments box so I can get an idea of how many people are actually visiting.

Cheers!

(All skating photos taken by ©Aatos

I have just entered a video competition where I could win a new skateboard. Only you can help me win! By visiting my video blog page and clicking on the ''Vendetta'' link. By viewing my video you are helping, but by clicking the green thumb and ''liking'' it you are helping even more. Enjoy!

Found this on top of a yogurt pot. It made me mad. It has nothing to do with Australia. None of the ingredients are Aussie and our Kangaroos certainly don't look like that! The whole idea of a Cowroo is silly and unrealistic. Where would it keep it's young? Anywho, roo. It tasted good...