Greetings from Winter Wonderland

A modest 60 degree difference in temperature provided a warm welcome when coming over to Finland for Christmas celebrations. I didn't bother packing in any Winter clothes when relocating thus the weather felt a bit chilly in a tee shirt.
Similar warm sign of coming home was delivered By a Finnish flight attendant on board the Finnair flight. He accidentally poured apple Juice on my arm and sweater. The only apology offered was a muffled "Oops".
Despite the cold weather or perhaps due to it, the scenery looked absolutely wonderful! Snow covered all the trees like sugar frosting.

Approving nod

The nerd in me really appreciates the fact that SG government has rolled out free fast Internet access all over the city in major public places. Then again in a country this size it's relatively easy to ensure total 4G coverage as well. Anyhoo, free wlan is truly a measure of civilization.

Bona Fide tour guide

During my recent visit to one of the most popular Hawker Centers I was appointed a FourSquare Badge commemorating my journey to become a street credible tour guide for the folks who have already visited me and the ones who are still to come over. 

Nothing brings out the Christmas spirit like bagpipes

Yet another quite surreal experience. Today afternoon the whole department went out for a nice Christmas lunch. Starting with the fact that the whole concept of Christmas and Winter feel so much out of place over here under constant sun shine and 30+ degree weather. So there were we in a globally dispersed crowd eating happily excellent Silver Fish Fried Rice (the actual fish and not the wingless insect by the same name, hopefully!) and black pepper onion beef, when in comes a 3 man Asian boy band in kilts who are obviously playing bagpipes to celebrate the season. Even though to my unacquired hearing (you can't really say that, can you?) all the bagpipe songs sound exactly the same, I was actually able to distinguish that they were playing a medley of the original Christmas classics like Jingle Bells. How wintery (yet another made up word for you) is that?

In a hole in the ground there lived a...

One has to wonder what is really the point in relocating to eastern time zones, if not to have ultimate bragging rights on seeing all the big movies good 6 hours before they are released in Finland? However laws of karma apparently doesn't treat well cheaters like me. The Hobbit is being released one day ahead in Europe compared to Asia. I need to try to settle for some minor boasting like seeing the movie not only in HFR 3D, but in Imax , which has still not landed in Finland. That and the sheer hilarious scene of numbers of asian interpretations of Gandalf around me.

Happy 95th Birthday Finland

To celebrate Finnish Independence Day here at the office I just shared the following post from my facebook wall with my global colleagues. Now they have a better understanding what I have to put up with when it´s constantly over 30+ degrees outside. Oh, poor me.

+15 °C, Spanish wear caps, gloves and winter coats, Finns are sunbathing.
+10 °C, French desperately try to get their central heating on. Finns plant flowers.
+5 °C, Italian cars won't start. Finns drive with convertibles.
0 °C, Pure water freezes. Water in river Vantaa thickens a bit.
−5 °C, First people are found frozen in California. Finnish midsummer festival ends.
−10 °C, Scottish turn the heat on in their houses. Finns start to use long-sleeve shirts.
−20 °C, Swedes stay indoors. Finns are having last barbecue before winter.
−30 °C, Half of the Greek people have frozen to death. Finns start to dry their laundry indoors.
−50 °C, Polar bears evacuate North Pole. Finnish army starts it's winter training.
−70 °C, Siberian people are moving to Moscow. Finns are furious since the Koskenkorva booze can't be stored outdoors anymore.
−273 °C, Absolute zero. Finns admit that it is quite cold outside.
−300 °C, Hell freezes over. Finland wins the football World Cup.