As the season enters the dark period, most people in Finland also turn gloomy and bitchy like I’ve often noted. To get my share of it out of my system, here are some of my pet peeves of the season. Thanks to this outlet, I can then get back to one of my favorite hobbies of being happy in the middle of all the chronically sullen folks. Even if the primary goal fails and the joy and smile aren’t contagious, few things confuse & annoy the unhappy people more than seeing happy people 
Oh it’s just a small shower … of three weeks!
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This photo here resembles something I really hate, especially when it lasts. Unless you can tell, it’s a photo of a cloudy, misty, drizzly, dark day in Finland.
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You see, in Finland the climate is strange when it comes to rain. Let’s say it needs to rain 20mm. In any country with a normal climate, this is accomplished with a relatively short period of rain, maybe over a few hours or even one heavy, short shower. After that things return to normal and sunny.
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But no, not in Finland. In Finland the same amount of rain must come down over a two-week continuous drizzle. Ugh.
The ashtray that never quits burning
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Smoking is, IMO, gross. Anyhow, if you must smoke for some incomprehensible reason, it’s good to use an ashtray and not dump the butts on the ground. It’s also nice that ashtrays have been designed so that whenever you put a burning cigarette end there, it’s automatically extinguished.
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In theory, that is. Too often these ash receptacles are like the one on the right here – burning quite happily and pouring out more smoke than any smoker could. The smoke smells disgusting and most likely consists of 99,9% of carcinogens. How difficult can it be to make these things work?
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Oh, and to the smokers who have to draw last panicky smokes two seconds before boarding a bus or entering a meeting or whatever and you think you don’t smell? FYI: you stink. Please at least breathe normal, unpolluted air for a few times first.
Outta my way!
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It’s a fact of life in cities that people are in a hurry. It doesn’t matter whether the hurry is real or imaginary, it’s movement that counts. And when you’re walking somewhere briskly, generally feeling good and slaloming past the slow people, the last thing you want to see in front of you is a) a person standing on the wrong side of an escalator, blocking the way, b) some idiot getting in your face trying to beg money for an organization or sell something or stick a free newspaper in your hand or c) cars stopped in the middle of the crosswalk.
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And then we have the trains, trams and subways. Considering Finns use public transportation relatively much at least in Helsinki, they’re relatively idiotic in their behavior in doing that. More often than not nobody gives a damn about the people that need to get out of the train/tram/subway before trying to cram themselves in it. It’d be so easy to stand aside, let the people flow out and then walk in but no, they have to stand in front of the doors so that people who get out are forced to resort to mild violence just to get out. And why? Just so that everyone can cram in at the first possible second so that nobody steals their fictitiously reserved seat – the one where they don’t have to sit next to or opposite to anyway. Whatever they can humanly do to avoid, good grief, exchanging a look or, worse, a word or a touch with a stranger!
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Of course they conveniently forget that by blocking the exit, they are in fact begging to not only be touched but be elbowed or shoved by strangers.
I have to say the last one about the public transport, it’s almost everywhere in the world not just in Finland. Somehow people think that they are more important that they should get in first before the others get out. hmm.. self-centered?
It was much better at least in Boston. And Milan. And Rome. And Paris. Let’s see, and even Stockholm. And in other countries you can get them to move by saying “excuse me” – if you say “anteeksi” in Finland, people will stare at you like “what has he been smoking?”
But yeah, to some extent I suppose it’s an international issue..
At least in London people trying to get in give way to the ones getting out of the tube, no matter how busy or crowded it is. And ‘please excuse me’ never fails – unlike in Helsinki.
But with stupid tourists standing in the middle of the street, people raising money for the homeless and those freebie newspaper distributors it’s the same.
And what comes to smoking… well, the sidewalks, errr sorry, *pavements*, are smokier than ever before because people can’t smoke in the pubs (which is good) but have to come outside to smoke (which is bad), so passing a pub/ café is agony and so is trying to have your cup of coffee at one of the tables outside as they are monopolized by smokers. Can’t wait for the “winter” to get here.
ah, yes…those never-seize-to-BURN AND SMOKE cigarette-butt receptacles of shining steel and latest technical innovation!
for me, a smoker, i.e. a smelly idiot, they are a huge disappointment. HUGE.
i also share your frustration with the people trying to get you to donate money to some organization or other, who station themselves so as to prevent the most people possible from getting on with their business… my god! just thinking of them will raise the level of adrenalin (epinephrine!) in your blood-stream..
right.
from whine of the week to more pleasant matters, the wine or the week:
Picàie Carganega-Riesling.
an excellent white from cecilia beretta, veneto, italy. a part of the carganega grapes have been dried before maceration, and the riesling adds acidity and structure to the blend.
higly recommended. alkon tilausvalikoimassa.