A Year In Europe
 
I think this is the longest I have been between posts but I didn't really want to bore you with the ins and outs of my days. I have been working as usual and skating as much as I can. We have had about 3 weeks now of really good weather, not a drop of rain and it is reminding me a bit of home. Julia and I have also started bouldering which is like indoor rock climbing but on smaller but more difficult walls. Im enjoying it a lot and have been going twice a week. 

Last Thursday and Friday I went to a small town named Hauho with my boss Johan. He has bought a forest property there and needed some help removing tree's and bushes to clear an entrance road to where he plans to build his cottage. It was a really nice area although a bit brisk in the mornings this time of year. The town of Hauho is quite small and neighbours a lake which is enormous. The guest house I spent the night in was built around the 1760's so it was the oldest building I have ever slept in by a long shot. It was next door to an old, medieval church. I didn't get to go in the church but it was stunning from outside. Thursday was a 12 hour work day and Friday was 9 hours so it was a fairly exhausting trip but worth it none the less. I saw a wood pecker and an area where Moose had been lying and breaking tree branches off for there young. We were also infested with Moose fly which (usually) cling on to the hair of Moose and drink their blood. They hang about in the tree's and wait for a warm body to wander past and land on. Fortunately the do not drink blood from humans but none the less they are still very unpleasant to have crawling on you.

The weekend before that Julia, Joska and I spent a Saturday and Sunday in Turku skating with some of the locals. Turku is a couple of hours from Helsinki and I hadn't been yet so though i should do it while I had the weekend free. It was a nice enough trip and as well as the skating Joska and I got some pubs squeezed in with Janne Kaksi and on the Sunday morning we headed off to the local castle/forte with julia. Unfortunately Joska and I were beyond hung over and Julia insisted on reading pages of information out in every room which of course echoed greatly both in the big hollow room and through my big hollow head.

Slightly less than a month and I will be heading back home to Australia so Im (slightly) busy trying to work out where Im going to live and what i'm going to do when I get back. I have a few open options so I just have to choose the best one I suppose. 

There is a new video up on the video page. It is the second race of the Euro tour, Almatrieb. The third should be up by the end of the week so check back at some stag