The Summer of 2013

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17.8.2013 Kirjoittanut haittokoski

GOOD EVENING Dear Friends on Planet Earth. Here are the results of the Finnish jury. Summer of 2013, douze points.

Earlier this year, I sort of promised I would be posting in English every now and then. Haven’t really kept my word, sorry about that. So this is like a letter to my non-Finnish friends. Everybody else is of course most welcome to read this as well.

It’s been a good summer (and the summer, sadly enough, is almost over in Finland). I’ll sum up briefly.

HIGHLIGHTS:

WE SPENT a few days in England / Lincolnshire + London end of June/ early July. A remarkable rendez-vous with my old friend Phil and his wonderful family. Hadn’t met Phil in more than 20 years.

And we hadn’t changed a bit.

The infants learned about gravity in Lincolnshire: Isaac Newton’s Home Museum. The famous apple tree, you know.

Apple tree. We brought our own apples. Mr. Offspring played some football. Then he ate it.

X X X

HELSINKI CUP. Football tournament in July. 19,000 kids from all over the world but mainly from Finland of course. Splendid weather, good sportsmanship and sportswomanship (does the word exist?), great atmosphere.

Helsinki Cup. Next to the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki.

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THE GRAND LIBERTY TOUR. We roamed South-Western Finland for a few days in July with my friend Marko and, in the end, another friend, Leena, joined us. Kerouac would envy us. The road trip was absurd and hilarious. We had the weirdest conversations. It took us 7 hours to drive from Pori to Helsinki (the distance is something like 240 km).

Somewhere in South-West Finland.

With Marko and Leena on our road to nowhere.

X X X

ROOTS. Spent a few days up north in Haapajärvi where my parents / grandparents etc. come from. The junior Aittokoski fraction had a blast — they even considered digging potatoes exciting. I went for a long run and almost stepped on a fat snake. (Adder, poisonous but usually not deathly) I mistook the snake for a root of a big tree. Running back the same path, I carried a 500 gram stone just in case, but Monsieur Le Snake (or Madame, I don’t know) was gone.

My great-grandfather Matti. I’m from a family of hipsters.

My grandparents’ (and my grandfather’s grandparents’, and so on until back in the 18th century) storage house in Haapajärvi, Finland.

A Finnish moped, the renowned Pappa-Tunturi, from the 60s. Belongs to my uncle.

In July, for a while, we had a small lake to ourselves.

X X X

LE DEPLACEMENT. We moved a couple of weeks ago. Nothing dramatic, same area nearby Helsinki. I won’t publish any photos of our house here because this is the so-called internet and I’ve been told a lot of people have access to it. Would feel a bit tacky. Besides, I don’t want to bore the NSA guys with too many open-source pictures.

THE SHIP OF FOOLS. I managed to stick to my deadline (May 31). After that, there’s been some rewriting and a lot of editing and proof-reading, plus, of course, the layout. I’m really proud of the book. I feel tempted to publish the cover here but that would be untimely. The Ship will come out any time soon, and I’m of course nervous about its reception. I’ve been trying to promote the book like a maniac — and now reaping some results. A radio station got in touch this week, they want to have me in for a chat!

”The Ship of Fools. A Voyage in a World Gone Awry.”

X X X

WRITER’S BLOC. In June, spent 4 days with fellow writers from various countries at LIWRE. (Lahti International Writers’ Reunion). Got to know a lot of new fascinating people. Not to be forgotten: midnight football match Finland vs. Rest of the World. Finland won, and I scored my first goal since 1983.

With Italian author Davide Enia in Lahti. Nota bene: Pinocchio effect on Davide’s t-shirt.

X X X

BACK IN BUSINESS. It’s good to be back at work. Started 3 weeks ago. A lot has changed. Not surprisingly, also the Finnish newspaper business is in turmoil. But I take a relaxed view. I’m enjoying the job itself and the company of sharp-witted hacks. Plus I’m eager to get stuff done. For the next 2-3 months I’ll be substituting as dep. foreign editor, however. Will hopefully have time to write myself as well.

Anyway, I shall finish my report here and wish you Gute Nacht or Good Morning or whichever language and time of the day you prefer. As they almost used to say in Hill Street Blues: “Let’s be cheerful out there.”

Herr Gartenzwerg, my garden gnome.