Christmas in Finland

So, time for a traditional Christmas in Finland. Well, except that this year there was to be no snow unfortunately (as you can see in the photos), so not sure you can really call it very typically Finnish...
But we had a very nice time in spite of that; got some nice pressies, got myself stuffed with loads of food and met up with friends & family.

After the christmas festivities I spent a couple of days walking around Helsinki - not doing much since all the shops were closed. I did have time to meet up with some old friends for a couple of beers though, of course ;-)

Christmas shopping in Nice

Last weekend before Christmas...
Friday night we went to see "Laitakaupungin valot" by mr. Aki Kaurismäki, which was quite an interesting experience. Before the viewing we were treated to a half-hour lecture about Finnish cinema (I learnt a lot - I recognised about 2 of the directors mentioned!), followed by deep analysis and debate about the film (which I was forced to contribute to, since people had somehow spotted I was Finnish??).
On Saturday it was time to get all those last-minute xmas presents then (which in my case would be all the Christmas presents pretty much)...
On Sunday we did quite a long walk along the coast to Villefranche-sur-mer, very nice indeed. We even spotted some people swimming in the sea (well, I suppose swimming in the sea in December in this part of the world is kind of like swimming in Finland in June... :-)

On the left, the view from Cap de Nice towards the harbour.



Above and to the left, Villefrance-sur-Mer.

Mathilde in Nice!

So, finally, time for Mathilde to leave the misty British isles for the fresh pastures of the south of France. I must say the adjustment has not been very difficult for either of us (as much as we liked England...).
The weekend was spent buying things for the flat mostly. Not an entirely straightforward business, as it turned out. Having chosen some furniture for less than 300 euros, we were told the delivery would cost about 100 euro! This was not acceptable to our salesman (well, not to us either!) so he decided to champion our cause and managed to talk his manager into giving us free deliver. Interesting experience indeed...



On Sunday we decided to go for a walk to Italy. Not all the way from Nice admittedly - we did take the train to Menton (which is near the Italian border) and walked from there. Very nice, sunny (I think I actually got mild sunstroke!) and warm (had to strip down to my t-shirt!). We ended up in a small and very pretty village called Mortola.

Last weekend in Guildford

Last weekend in Guildford (also for Mathilde)? Well, at least the last one in 2006... Since Isabelle was organising a traditional Christmas meal (you know, with the overcooked turkey 'n all...), I really didn't have much of a choice, did I? (she can be quite insistent ;-)
On Friday Mathilde and her flat mates had organised a kind of Christmas party at their "Tormead pad", which rapidly degenerated into karaoke madness (even I made some sounds which I suppose could be interpreted as singing!).
On the Saturday it was time for the meal, which we had in the Jolly Farmer between Guildford and Woking, was actually very nice. Very good to see the old mates again as well, including Isabelle, Philippe (visiting all the way from Toulouse), Sinhung and so forth.