It's all relative

One more blog post even after it has been all over for some time now.

It has been intriguing to realise how quickly one acclimatises back to cold weather. Now that we are finally entering spring, it's nothing short of awesome to bask in the +5 C temperatures with sun caressing the pale skin (still wrapped in layers of clothing) after long, dark winter. It actually feels nice and for a lack of a better description: warm!

It's all relative -part comes from the fact that my colleagues back in Singapore reacted to my spring happiness by notifying that it has been particularly cold week over there this week with only +25 degrees.

Furthermore another absolutely cool (not cool as cold but as truly wonderful) aspect of spring time is the days that start to extend from both ends. Sun rises already at 6.38 AM and sets at 6.21 PM here in Helsinki. We are getting about 5 minutes extension each day now. It's funny how one does not get used to this even after living for decades in Finland. It feels always such a surprise to have more and more hours of sunlight in a day. It's only such a short while ago when I went to work while it was dark and returned home when it was dark again.

First plants surfacing in Kamppi

Iced Volvo

Could you guess who happens to be the lucky owner of the car in front? And whether that person has a client meeting starting in 30 mins.

No, I don't still miss Finnish winter and the related shoveling. In fact I am off to do some wreck diving off the coast of Bali just now.

For the record, I have since these times invested into a warm parking garage and improved my quality of life immensely. 

AC acclimatization

I have made an observation that the fancier a venue (be it a hotel, shopping mall or taxi) the colder they have set their air conditioning. I have to wonder if that is some kind of intentional demonstration of level of luxury. I am writing this blog entry from a conference venue in a hotel on Orchard road and my fingertips are turning white because it is horribly cold inside.

People with glasses have to deal with the situation here where glasses get foggy when going from indoors to outdoors. This is exactly the other way around back in Finland during winter. In Finland it can be always warm and cozy inside the buildings throughout the year. It is actually pretty strange how some of the coldest conditions I have ever had to survive have been indoors in countries like Singapore, Japan and Italy.

One would imagine that as a Finn I would have centuries of adapting to cold weather built into my very DNA. That may be the case, but Finns have also centuries of practical experience on building efficient central heating systems and proper insulation for their homes, offices and venues. Every winter there will be cold weather hitting Tokyo and cool air creeping through their paper thin (sometimes literally) doors and windows. Then again Singaporeans just want to create the winter conditions on their own.

Sweaty conditions

To commemorate this day, on which there was the first snow fall for this winter season in Finland (!), I would like to comment on some of the more long-lasting effects of the inherent temperature difference of the two countries. People are often asking me on how am I coping with the hot weather.

To begin with, people seem to adjust to hot weather differently from person to person. I am willing to bet that there is some hot weather gene controlling individual's capability on handling the temperature changes. I have been making an empirical observations on people around me (family members, colleagues, friends, people visiting us -- mostly people who do not originate from Singapore) and I am ready to make a hypotheses that from this study group about 50% of people embrace hot weather without any issues -- some actually seem to be enjoying it -- and then there is other half to whom hot weather seems to be more of an unbearable burden (with obviously a number of individuals to various degrees in between these two extreme cases).

Luckily I have seemingly been born with Resistance to Fire +20 (using terminology from role playing games). This particular perk seems to have negative correlation with sweating skills. People who sweat extensively are understandably more ticked off by the hot weather conditions than those who don't. Case in point being my two sons: the younger one can be found bathing in sweat while sitting passively on a couch watching Moomin show on YouTube, whereas the older one hardly breaks a sweat even after running wildly around and fighting invisible zombies with karate moves.

There is also clearly an element of adjustment over time. I would like to share a couple of somewhat scary findings from thorough self examination: is it really this quickly that a person from particularly cold corner of the world starts to acclimatize to so very different thermometer readings?

Observation #1: I was leaving work just the other day while wearing my typical work attire: long sleeved shirt and trousers -- it is a relief that a suit with a tie & jacket (AKA standard consultant coveralls) is not generally expected as everyday dressing code. Even though the sun was out, I realized that it didn't feel particularly hot outside. My feeling was justifiable as it was mere 32 degrees.

Observation #2: This year has surely been Year of a Water Snake since it has been raining more than normally even during the drier months between the monsoons. It is not once that I have felt it has been way too cold outside to go for a swim on a cloudy day. Understandably 30+ degree weather raises goose bumps.  (On a totally unrelated note I have noticed an uncontrollable urge to vacate the pool immediately if it starts to rain. I wonder why is that. To prevent myself from getting wet?)

Observation #3: Quite early on I stopped using air con at nights. Mild night time temperature of 28 degrees feels cool enough to sleep well -- as opposed to having air con freezing your feet or head.

Admittedly there has been at least one recorded moment of frustration with me suffering from the exceptionally warm weather. While picking up my son from school I was standing on the school yard way too early at pretty much during the warmest time of the day and this given day happened to be particularly hot one. It tends to get royally hot and humid if it hasn't rained at least a bit in the past few days. I begged for an approval to whine a little from a friend of mine in Finland with whom I was chatting to pass the time. For some unknown reason that approval was never provided.

Never ending dog days

People already in ancient Mesopotamia (bear with me, this is actually going somewhere) associated hot weather in the summer to the rise of the star Sirus, which is the brightest star in Canis Major (Large Dog) constellation. The term "Dog Days" was used at least by the ancient Greek and later by Romans (diēs caniculārēs) to refer to the particularly sultry or humid, warm days at around end of July and August.

In medieval Germany this time of the summer coincidentally was also at the same time when farmers were burning forests and woodlands in order to create fields for crops. This slash-and-burn technique provided name for this season and it became known as Rodenmonat. Now, the Danish in turn took this phrase and translated it not with the original meaning, but by the sound of it. In Denmark this season was known as råddenmåned or rotten month!

Finally when the term landed in Finland in the middle of 1600th century it was called mätäkuu (or more specifically mätekw as per Mikael Agricola, who is considered to be the de facto founder of written Finnish, had documented it into the first ever calendar in being published in Finnish language). Now the concept of rotting and decay was integral part of the term.

Interestingly, it was apparently the label itself which started living its own life in Finland and people of old times began associating things like how easily food goes bad or how wounds do not heal so quickly during this particular time of the year. Similarly there are various folklore driven beliefs associated with dogs in the parts of the world where the term Dog Days is being used.

But furthermore, it is seemingly not only folklore, as lately there was a study being conducted in a Finnish hospital, where surgeons reviewed total of 50 000 patients. It turned out that there was indeed a statistical significance in the bigger amount of infected wounds with patients during mätäkuu than any other time of the year. There was an increase in the number of bacteria, but also one probable reason was the more lighter clothing being worn during Summer and thus more likely it is to attain skin scratches and wounds.

The reason why I am relating this long winding introduction is that just recently I have ended up with two minor surface wounds on the top of my left foot or instep. The root cause was yet another pesky mosquito going after my succulent Finnish blood again and me scratching the surface of the skin while sleeping. There was no dengue this time (I am actually now immune to one particular serotype of dengue for the rest of my life, but then again would be likely to have more serious disease if I was ever contaminated by any of the remaining three other serotypes), but both of these wounds got infected quite annoyingly.

Luckily both wounds are finally getting better, but even though the last day of August is now upon us, mätäkuu is likely to continue all year around here in Singapore.


PS: Now that we are dwelling in the global etymology of words, there is a curious notion that while Dog Days is not being used in Finland, the phrase "Cat Days" in Finnish actually refers to special time of luxury and relaxation. With quick googling and wikipeding (!?) I was not able to find any similar term in other languages.

PS2: In order to give credit, where credit is due, this more academic blog entry owes much to aforementioned Wikipedia. I am so heavy Wikipedia user in both at work and at free time, that I have started to show them my support by donating. It keeps amazing me that much of the accumulated body of knowledge from entire human history is being provided free of charge and being available practically anywhere at any time. Additionally I used couple of additional Finnish articles as a source of information.

PS3: My son just realized that it is unlikely coincidence that the character Sirius Black in Harry Potter series can transform himself into a dog of all the other possible animals that a well trained Animagus can morph him- or herself into.

Partly cloudy spring day

I know I am making an obvious comparison here, but I get asked a lot how's the weather in Finland at this time of the year. Is there still snow on the ground? At least they are seemingly enjoying some sun finally. The weather in Finland can be really nice in the Spring time. Personally I really like Spring, because dark and gloomy Winter is starting to melt away and there starts to be a promise of Summer in the air.

Over here it is mostly that year starts with Summer, then continues into Summer, after which the real Summer is finally here, after Summer is over it is once again Summer and eventually by the time when we get visited by Santa Claus it is Summer.