We decided to give ourselves some snow driving lessons and went out for our first driving experience in Helsinki. After the somewhat nervous experience the Honda has been aptly renamed The Snowmobile (as the wheels made more contact with snow and ice than with actual tar-mac). We drove from the South-African Embassy to our house in Marjaniemi, slipping and sliding our way along the motorway. We actually didn’t do too badly. It was Dirkie’s first time driving a left hand drive vehicle which was a bit awkward at first. When changing gears Dirkie kept on grabbing the door handle on the left instead of the gear shift lever on the right. The two most important lessons learned today are:
-
Keep
on the right hand side of the road and
- Watch the driver coming towards you from the opposite direction. If he has a stern Russian-like expression on his face or his eyes are as big as that of a night owl, you know that you are not on the right hand side of the road.
Our House
All the legal aspects of the lease agreement regarding our
house are finalised. We are very
relieved and can move in on 1 January 2013.
The photo below is of Alex doing some snow shovelling in the
driveway. A job which will become a daily
chore for Dirkie.
And now for some photos of our house and the surrounding
area!
This is the house from the front.
These two photos are of our backyard and the house from the
back.
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We took this photo to show you how deep the snow is in the
backyard. Hmm, lots and lots of snow to
build a nice big snow man!
We took a stroll down our jetty and then, lo and behold, we
went for a walk on the frozen inland sea water!
We were so chuffed with ourselves that we could walk on water without
falling in like Peter of the Twelve Disciples. See the two photos below.
The following pictures are of the beautiful inland sea and
islands that can be seen from our backyard.
The next photo is of the frozen water of the inland sea.
Now for the inside of the house. The house has 3 bedrooms, 2 studies, kitchen,
laundry, lounge area and dining room area.
Let’s start at the 2nd floor.
The kitchen.
The dining room area.
The two study rooms.
The main bedroom with unsuited bathroom.
This is the upper balcony.
Let’s now go down stairs to the lower level.
The steps.
The laundry.
The living room area with a fireplace.
Guest bedroom one.
Guest bedroom two.
The guest toilette.
This is the communal shower area, sauna and bath area of the
house.
We are now just waiting for our container with personal
belongings to arrive. The cargo ship is
currently near the coast of Senegal. See
the map below.
The Anglican Church
in Finland, Chaplaincy of St Nicholas
We attended our first Anglican Church service on Sunday at
the Mikael Agricola Church in Helsinki.
We had a very positive experience and were lovingly welcomed by Father
Thomas and the congregation. We have
shown you a photo of the Mikael Agricola Church before, but here it is again.
Festival of Nine
Lessons and Carols
What a lovely experience this was at the Helsinki
Cathedral! The service was filled with
beautiful singing by the Nicholas Singers and the English Vocal Consort of
Helsinki accompanied by the church organ.
The following photo is of Helsinki Cathedral in the evening with a giant
Christmas tree next to it.
This photo is of Senate Square taken from Helsinki Cathedral.
The following two photos are of the church organ and the façade.
That’s it for now!
May everybody have a lovely and peaceful Christmas! We already know what our presents are. Father Christmas brought each of us a Samsung
Galaxy SIII mobile phone, jummie!
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