Crispy

Helsingin Sanomat warns of a freezy week on its way, but the -15 or so degrees quickly look like children's play compared to the -30 degrees forecast for Riga next weekend (Source: BBC Weather, which I've found reliable until now). So anyone heading there, like we are tomorrow - pack those mittens! And for that matter, just about anything warm you can find - suddenly my bag seems too small. Taking out my ancient gran-daddies from the closet reminds me of traumatising mornings at school when I used to walk at seven thirty carrying a ridiculous stick through windy weather and darkness, the ice gnawing at my bones, to an ice rink to play.... ice hockey. This is something I used to hate more than anything, and it's a relief nobody is expecting me to dash my way into glory on ice in -30 degrees this time. For a picture of these long underpants, certainly one of the most perplexingly stunning garments which probably files under "Never display in public", see below!

Yesterday, my iPod didn't start, and I tried resetting it like it tells me in the instructions. When this didn't work, I took it to the Apple service centre and, after realising that it really did not reset, they took it in and told me they'd call me when they knew what the problem was. As it happened, they called me almost right away and I went to pick it up today, but before I could put it in my pocket and go on my way, the different assistants working there told me they would charge me a service fee of 25 euro, to which my reaction was something like that time I wrote about when I found goat's cheese four weeks old in my full kitchen garbage.

Of course I told them my warranty was still valid, but they explained that their standard fee for resetting an iPod was 25 euro, to which I replied that that's exactly what I tried to do myself but it didn't work and that they should have told me I would be charged such an outrageous sum BEFORE allowing them to even touch it. What started as what I thought was a misunderstanding quickly turned into a battle of the minds, and I consider myself having earned a small victory, because I calmly announced that I would not be taking the iPod with me in that case, and that I wanted to talk to the assistant I had brought the machine to yesterday and ask him why he didn't say anything about 25 euro. I'm going there again tomorrow morning to speak with that person, and if I have to pay I have to pay, but seeing the faces of the assistants as they were trying to figure out whether I was a total lunatic or not was almost worth it. You'll probably hear about the outcome first here at D'sH.

Some of you might have noticed (if you're not one of the many people who I was eager to tell straight away) that I installed a counter in my blog, so now I can keep track of how many people come here every day. Obviously we are talking mainly about friends and relatives, but today, someone from the Netherlands and someone from Switzerland visited this site. Welcome!

I'm urging everyone to check out Sanna's blog, deliciously titled "Ars Vivendi ad lib. in HK" (can someone tell me what it means?) - you'll find the link in my sidebar. She's barely been a day in Hong Kong and has already managed to see quite a lot, and you can read all about it in her blog, from trying to find breakfast in the busy downtown streets to the top lessons she has learned until now on her "trip" (including how to handle a room-key in hotels). Even non-German speakers should take a go, because the blog is entirely in English.

When I return from Riga or, who knows, maybe even before, you can read all about our adventures, from livin' the good life in downtown Tampere (translates into hanging out at Tampere railway station before the Ryanair bus picks us up) to battling Latvian blizzards in the Old Town. Now it's back to my wardrobe. I hope those were the only gran-daddies in there....

PS. And yes, there are still loads of these monkey pictures.