Moving To Finland

Here you see a man unwrapping a metal barrel that was packed full of tools.  Why wrap a barrel in paper? Nobody knows.  Then take a gander at how some of our furniture arrived. Obvious water damage to this china cabinet and a sideboard. Was the barrel deemed more fragile than the furniture? Perhaps the insurance adjuster will have the answer. Fragile, there’s a word.  Watching the US struggle to deal with the corona virus I feel compelled to compare health care and working conditions. US worker gets sick, limited number of “sick days” so goes to work. Finnish worker gets sick, stays home.  If home for a certain amount of days will need a doctor’s note, no penalty for being sick. US kid gets sick (this is where it gets good) 1. Let the 6 year old stay home alone and go to jail for neglect. 2. Let the kid go to school and hope they don’t get sent home right away so you can work part of a day. 3. Keep the kid home, stay home with them using either a personal ...

First bit of excitement is the anticipated arrival of our “junk” on Wednesday, tomorrow, 10am! It will be a mess to sort through as my wonderfully numbered boxes were all opened and repacked but at least it will all be here.  Larry’s car will remain in Helsinki, mine expected on the 27th and my cousin has offered us a ride to the city to pick them up!  Yaaaaahooooo! Then the above.  Our first junk mail.  Candy’s on sale Friday and Saturday, you can see that on the bottom right hand corner or the top paper. Closet got a bit more organized. Needed that done before the rest of our clothes get here. And some before pictures of the inside of the house. Living room and foyer. Kitchen Bedrooms.

Woke up in our new home for the first time this morning.  Moving stuff has not yet arrived so we went to a flea market a couple of days ago and picked up things like forks, knives, spoons, coffee maker, frying pan, just stuff we figured we’d need.  Plates?  Did either of us think about plates?  How about a saucepan?  Seems it’s off to the flea market we go again today. And matches!  Had to turn the oven on to light up a piece of paper to light the wood stove! Tune in later for more “old farts fuckups”!

Started Wednesday off with a visit to the tax office.  We’d been there on Monday but gave up waiting for our number to be called when it looked as if we’d be there for over two hours.  This morning we set out early, got there 1/2 hour before the doors opened.  Sitting on the steps inside waiting for the door to open talking to the woman who’d gotten there 10 minutes before us, nice woman, easy wait. We were number two and got right in. Our reason for the visit was to get some mysterious numbers that are needed to pay a tax which would then allow us to somehow finalize the purchase of the house we bought.  This sound confusing to you?  Me too!  Turns out the tax office is responsible for issuing what we in the States call Social Security numbers. One must have this number in order to pay the tax.  I have a number from when I lived here before, Larry does not. Turns out I can pay the tax but only half as he must pay his half. Fair is fair! My guess, an...

This morning we woke up and headed for the tax office in Pori. Ya see we have to get some sort of tax number to complete the registration of our purchase of the house. Not a clue what all this is about, just doing what the realtor says to do.  GPS screws up a bit and sends us two blocks away but some very nice women point us in the right direction. Once in the office we look around and find no chairs, a few folks standing and not a smile in the place.  Get my number and settle in to wait. We are number 319.  Looking up I see that there is 276 and 608 on the board.  Either way 319 doesn’t bode well for a walk in the park. An hour later, after having watch things progress slowly and not very surely we left. Figured a sunny day in the park was worth more than a sunny day at the tax office. We will return, we have a plan. Sophie absolutely loves this place and her new longer than snot lead lets her run ahead and then stay and sniff while we walk on, then run to ca...

This morning we hit the road at 8am headed for the big city of Tampere.  Sun was coming up, folks were going to work and we were moaning about having to drive there again, it’s about a 1.5 hour drive. Why again?  I goofed or they did but most likely me. Ya see, I made the appointment and picked what I thought was a family appointment.  Turned out it was just for me, would have had to scheduled two back to back if it were for both of us.  Oh well, at least today the sun was out which makes a body feel much better about life in general. Got to the office with 15 minutes to spare. They have security. Kinda strange set up.  Door into the room is locked. Fells comes out and asks if you have an appointment and your name.  Then, just almost like the airport you empty your pockets, take off your coat and belt, toss the handbag in the bucket thingy and everything gets scanned. But, by the time they are doing this you’ve already gotten into the waiting...

Take a look at the pile of fries on that plate, and the size of the burger!  I did my best but half the fries did not get eaten.  The portions in some places are huge! Normally folks here eat their big meal at lunch, something smaller when they arrive home from work. Many choices for places to eat from 10:30 to about 1:30 but after that seems like burger and pizza joints are it. As we haven’t got our own kitchen we’ve adopted the hot lunch out idea and have a sandwich around 6pm with a slice of pulla a bit later. We have found a very nice place just a mile from where we are staying. Buffet on weekdays and you can order from the menu on weekends but only after 1pm and they will allow Sophie to come in with us. That’s another whole can of worms, ain’t no service dog thing here.  We try now and then to stroll into places, some watch us like hawks while other places a person runs up to tell us that dogs aren’t allowed.  I understand, so many of the dogs we’ve ...

In a foreign country things are different, you know, foreign, this includes driving. We have a little Fiat Punta that has been perfectly fine even without third gear. It has taken us many miles and doesn’t use much gas so we have been traveling around getting used to a different way of doing things. Very few STOP signs in Finland, mostly just circles and Finnish drivers move fast.  We seem to be the holdup at most intersections as we try to decide which way we were supposed to go and if we are allowed to go there. The bike/pedestrian lanes are so large we have almost driven on them a time or two.  Luckily we normally head out after rush hour and are back to the bnb before folks get out of work.  We’ve not been caught making quick u-turns at the bike paths. There are also what Larry calls road mountains to slow you down around schools and busy intersections. These speed bumps will wear out your shocks in a minute if you hit them at high speeds.  There is alway...

If you’ve been following these posts you know there’s been an “issue” with the banks, we’re not talking about that today.  Today we went to Rauma. Rauma is the place my mom was born and raised and were she and I moved when we moved to Finland.  Went to visit the cemetery today and walked around the old part of town some. I was freezing so we cut our walk short.  The streets in the old part of town are narrow and the buildings beautiful.  Summer will be a better time for more pictures. Walking over a bridge I noticed these padlocks on the bridge rail. Had no idea what that was but it seems to be a declaration of eternal love. Larry was a happy camper when we found McDonalds.  He has been very brave about eating stuff when he has no idea what it is (we have no kitchen to cook in so we eat one meal out everyday and sandwiches the rest of the time) I do my best to translate but sometimes he gets “gravy with some kind of meat” or “chicken and potato...

Anyone still afraid of “one world order” can stop now. Pictures at the end from our trip to Pori but the story is long. The bank in Finland.  Have been transferring $ for a while now, just when we had it and the exchange rate was good. Had it all figured out to transfer the limit allowed each month. That would get enough here to purchase the house. Ha!  Came back to the bnb after running errands all day to an email saying the bank had refused the latest transfer.  Back to the bank to figure it out but (drumroll) nobody knows what happened. The bank has no record of it ever happening. We go through all of the info and perhaps it was the change of address that fouled things up.  Hold your breath, it gets better. The bank in Tennessee.  Thought that as the other method had a limit I’d pull a crapload out at one time.  Called the bank. Ohhhhhh  Yeah, I know you’ve never done this before.  Gave all the numbers and letters I had for codes and acco...

Had to run into the bank today and as the sun was shining we roamed around town and took some pictures. The little map in the bottom right hand corner has a red dot and that’s where this map thing is. And here are the pictures from around that place. We went across a walking bridge, the one we almost drove on last week. The bridge was built in the 1800s, if I find out some history I will share.  Views from the bridge And lastly, it is safe to say the water in Kokemäki River is higher than usual.

First picture is the first morning at 9:30. Second, this morning at 8. Days are getting longer.  On the schedule today is a trip to Kokemäki. Plan is to walk all over and find stores and cool places. There will be pictures.

Was asked to tell what we packed to take along to Finland.  Biggest items were our cars. The next in size would be some furniture, mostly sentimental items, bed from Larry’s grandmother and her china cabinet and side board with mirror. My furniture consists of a desk, clock and tea card my dad made. Photo albums, books, dishes, bedding, paintings, pictures, tools, garden tiller, Christmas decorations, canning equipment and who knows what other small items.  Some felt stupid to take but we had a container to fill so what the heck!