I doubt anyone had heard of Turku before this week but all of a sudden we're front page news... and all because Lord & Lady Beckham have descended on the city! His Lordship apparently tripped on his royal robes and hurt his ankle... he was immediately flown to the top sports injury specialist - Dr Squirrel - right here in sunny, snowy Finland for career saving surgery - although he'll still miss the Word Cup - Shame, I hear you cry - or not! Her royal skinniness followed the next day, both were mobbed by literally a dozen fans and a couple of photographers as they arrived at the private hospital in the city centre, The Bee!
Apologies at this point to my good friend Megan for pinching this information from her fabulous blog....
The finnish for Bee is Mehiläinen. Mehiläinen is a private hospital company named after the bee that brought Lemminkäinen back to life. Lemminkäinen is a character in the Kalevala - the Finnish Epic. Here is the Kalevala quote from the Mehiläinen web site:
The wise raven that flew onto the scene opined that Lemminkäinen could not be brought back to life, but the mother gathered up the pieces, gave blood transfusions, set the bones, stitched the wounds, performed organ transplantations, and managed to rebuild his frame, but could not make him talk or bring him back to life. But then Lemminkäinen's mother managed to persuade Mehiläinen (the Bee), the king of the forest flowers, to fetch nectar and mead from various herbs to serve as an ointment. This helped the son to recover, to battle the storms of life again.
The wise raven that flew onto the scene opined that Lemminkäinen could not be brought back to life, but the mother gathered up the pieces, gave blood transfusions, set the bones, stitched the wounds, performed organ transplantations, and managed to rebuild his frame, but could not make him talk or bring him back to life. But then Lemminkäinen's mother managed to persuade Mehiläinen (the Bee), the king of the forest flowers, to fetch nectar and mead from various herbs to serve as an ointment. This helped the son to recover, to battle the storms of life again.
How cool is that?
So, Lord Beckham will shuffling around, learning to walk on his newly repaired heel. I think the Mouse could teach him a thing or two - yesterday 16th March at 1635 he took his first steps! YEAH! The Mouse walks! At 11 months, 1 week, 4 days & 3 hours old, he beat the Monkey by about 7 weeks but he did have more incentive - keeping up with her!
And here is the latest weather update: the temperature rose into positive figures for a brief and hope-raising few days and then it started snowing again.... The snow had melted for long enough to reveal three of my plant pots on the terrace have actually cracked! At least they now look pretty again under the big fluffy snow flakes.... Despite the longer, brighter days and the pretty snow, people are starting to get fed up of the winter... I suspect that last week's glimpse of the possibility of spring raised hopes before the snow dashed them again. The children of course, still LOVE playing in the snow... I've been poorly - my lungs are still not really recovered, so I haven't been out & about so much so I think I'm still liking the weather - It looks so nice through the triple glazing!
And more blog news updates:
- The bridge still hasn't fallen down - a film company have asked to blow it up for the next movie about Vares (a private detective/action hero type, written by a Turkulainen)
- I haven't been on a bus since the rude lady incident
Last Sunday we took a jolly family trip to Helsinki. The International English Speaking Association of Finland (IESAF) were having a St Patrick's Day Family Fun Day to kick of a week of St Patrick's Day events at Molly Malones. Molly's is an Irish pub in the centre of Helsinki, it's very popular with the expat community. It was a great party with Irish Dancing, a clown making balloon animals, facepainting and best of all - LIVE IRISH MUSIC! I didn't realise how much I missed the Diddly Diddly til I heard it. In the crowd I spotted an Oulu Irish Music Festival T-Shirt and got chatting to it's wearer. He works at the Irish Embassy and knows the Festival Director. So, I have to add that to my "things to do" list for later in the year. Dear Alapca, how about coming over here for that?
The Irish Dancers at the party ran a dance lesson for the children; Monkey had such good fun dancing the dance of her ancestors (;D). She was named after her Irish Great Great Grandmother, you know.... Monkey O'Brien! tee hee. Mouse was dancing too - bobbing up & down, strengthening his legs for yesterdays adventure.
Enough for now - I really should try to do short & often blogs, shouldn't I?
p.s. the surgeon's name really IS Dr Squirrel... Dr Sakari Orava!
p.s. the surgeon's name really IS Dr Squirrel... Dr Sakari Orava!
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