Lapland - Levi

Having just had my first ever naked Sauna, the body is feeling fully refreshed. The spacious hotel room is equipped with the perfect bathroom - complete with a private sauna.
The first evening within the Arctic Circle is proving to be a very relaxing one. I'm sat in the bar being entertained by Dutch piss artist regailing tales about the northern lights and intrepid adventures on a snowmobile.
A cool crisp pint of Lapin Finish beer is close by my side. A very nice lager indeed!



A herd of reindeer are milling around outside, probably trying to find bits of lichen underneath the thick snow.
The Taxi driver from the airport was once again a bit of a legend. Not a surfer this time - but a snowmobile racer!
He happen to drop into the conversation that his biggest ever jump on a snowmobile was 43m! He is a little short of the world record of 184m, but neverless this is a ridiculous distance to fly through the air on a 250 kg chunk of metal!

So here in the deep freeze - lots of activities to keep the winter enthusiast very happy indeed. Some great skiing, incredible snowmobiling, Husky mushing, Ice fishing, great food, friendly people............and a winter paradise to explore! Good work if you can get it I suppose......

Only the bitterly cold temperatures, and some uncooth typical ignorant brits doing their best to contribute to noise pollution levels to complain about..

Peace out!

Finland

Just stepped out of a Taxi in Helsinki. The taxi driver was a total legend. He works when he needs to and lives the dream as much as his money can afford him to. A true believer of acquiring money to realise your dreams. He is off to Panama in a couple of weeks for 10 weeks of surfing on the pacific west coast.
Surely an ideal way to escape the bitter cold of the Finnish winter!
There is a reason that so many Fins love to indulge in the extreme.
Be it getting in a Sauna naked, then running down the garden having cut a hole in the frozen ice at the bottom of it, and jumping in, or engaging in some serious vodka drinking activities, or rallying through the barren icy roads in the wilderness.
This reason is primarily down to climate, and a culture that has been born from it. A land of extreme temperatures, has given rise to a nation of extreme people.
However despite this, alot of them seem as calm, measured - chilled like the frozen tundra that surrounds them.
Almost apparently devoid of stress. Perhaps in a country where the number of Saunas almost outnumber its 5.2 million population, there is something to be taken from the philiosophy of - a sauna a day will keep the doctor away.
That coupled with a couple of shots of Vodka!

Cheers......

2008 Is here

Our Blog took a bit of a nose dive after its initiation in Jan 2007, around the April mark.

Lets kick start its heart!

Here is an entry to salvage some continuity and help to aid communication between some friends who now lead ever more seperate lives, as each and everyone of us take on new challenges, assume unavoidable responsibilities, and move to far reaches that our globe has to offer.

One thing is for certain:

Some of us put higher and higher expectations on ourselves to achieve.

What perhaps we do not realise is that we have many great things around us that we take for granted.

Friendship and the free non materialistic things we have is something that is impossible to measure, and irreplaceable without.

Lets hope 2008 is the most successful year to date!

Happy NY y'all