First ice

Icy reeds at Vartiokylänlahti

Vartiokylänlahti

Sunday was Finnish Father’s Day, and we spent the afternoon with Eve’s family at her parents’ place in Rastila. On the way there we walked around Vartiokylänlahti, and I took these photos of the season’s first ice forming among the sheltered reed beds. They’re forecasting the first snow in the next few days, so winter is really arriving.

RoboRally
Originally uploaded by Greygriffin.

Last Tuesday we had another board games evening, this time at Michael Webster’s. One game we played was Robo Rally, a great favourite of mine. There are reports that a new version will be coming out next spring – something to look forward to!

Last weekend I attended Helcon III , a board games event in Helsinki.

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Helcon

We were playing in Asukastalo Ankkuri , a youth centre in the Herttoniemi district of Helsinki. The facilities were ideal, with plenty of room for the 40 or so board game players who attended from all over Finland.

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Elfenland

I finally got a chance to play Elfenland , which I bought when I first got interested in board games. I’ve only ever played it two-player with Eve, but with five players it was a lot more fun. Other games I played were:

• Geschenkt!, a simple but fun abstract card game
• Spank the Monkey
• Carcassonne, a classic tile-laying board game
• Einfach Genial, Knizia’s new abstract board game, which was very good
• St. Petersburg
• Pyramiden des Jaguar, a rather asbtract two-player game I didn’t enjoy very much
• Niagara, a very enjoyable board game of trying to collect jewels by canoe without being washed over the waterfall
• Lost Valley, a fairly nice exploration game

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Table full of board games

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Shelf full of board games

Helcon is a very friendly event – people bring their own games and leave them on the shelves and tables at the sides for others to freely borrow and play. Most games are informal – when people arrive or finish a game, they start wandering around and choosing the next game to play. Once some have agreed on a game, they look around for other free people to join them, so it’s easy to join a new game. I played with lots of different people – if only I could remember their names!

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Carcassonne winner

As well as the informal playing, a few tournaments were run, including Carcassonne and a tournament of randomly-selected two-player games. Luckily for me the Carcassonne tournament was played in a light and friendly spirit, and somehow I ended up winning!

Helcon was great fun – if you’re interested in board games, I can strongly recommend attending next year’s. I’ll be there!

Keskiviiko
Originally uploaded by Greygriffin.

Years ago, a group of us used to meet regularly on Wednesdays at William K in Annankatu. Mike made a Yahoo group for reminders; unfortunately he spelt the Finnish name wrong,and hence we have Keskiviiko.

Now Mike’s back in Finland after some time in Geneva, and we’ve started to meet again. Only this time it’s probably just the first Wednesday of the month, and we’re meeting just round the corner from William K. in Black Door.

Present yesterday were Nathalie, me, Mike and Michael. Hopefully more of the old regulars will drop by in the future.

Halloween
Originally uploaded by Greygriffin.

I saw a pumpkin in our local supermarket today, and couldn’t resist buying it to make a Halloween lantern. I’m rather satisfied with the results – not bad for my first try!

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Board games evening in our living room

Another board games evening, this time at our place. There were sixteen of us this time, so we split into three games, two on the big dining table and one around the coffee table. The games played this time were:

• Spank the Monkey, which lasted very long
• Citadels, an old favourite which we hadn’t played in a long time
• Karibik, one Scott bought in Essen
• The Gardens of Alhambra, again from Essen
• Funkenschlag, this lasted over 2 hours!
• Geschenkt ist noch zu teuer”, a short game with a long name
• Da Vinci Code, another short game
• Der Ausreisser, “Race Leader”, another short game

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Spank the monkey

Stu, Michael, Eve & Markus playing Spank the Monkey. This game is often over very quickly, but this time it just went on and on. Then I dynamited the missile, returning the game to the start, and Michael won very quickly.

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Karibik

Anne, Séverine, Mari & Markku playing Karibik. A rather pretty game. Was it any good?

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Funkenschlag (Power Grid)

Scott, Iris & Michael playing Funkenschlag. This was the game that lasted over two hours…

New card games
Originally uploaded by Greygriffin.

On Saturday I bought some new card games. I’ve been waiting for Reiner Knizia’s new Circus Flohcati for a while now, and Safe Haven finally announced on their site lautapelit.fi that they had it. While I was there, Eve noticed that they had Spank the Monkey, which we enjoyed so much a few weeks ago, so of course we had to buy that too. And then somehow I found myself buying Katzenjammer Blues, which I vaguely remembered reading a good review of. To cap it all, Eve & I bought a couple of the latest Magic prepared decks, which we’ll play in a pub some evening soon.

And I wonder why it’s so hard to save up for things…

Yesterday I cooked this year’s Christmas puddings – a little later than I’d intended, but they should still be fine by Christmas.

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Christmas pudding mix

Here are all the ingredients mixed together; they are: sultanas, currants, raisins, mixed peel, glacé cherries, chopped almonds, ground almonds, eggs, breadcrumbs, lemon peel & juice, orange peel & juice, mixed spice, cinnamon, brandy and stout. I use a recipe from Good Housekeeping Beginner’s Cookbook by Rosemary Wadey, which I’ve relied on since I bought it as a university student in 1984.

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Christmas puddings steaming

You have to steam the puddings for 7-8 hours. If, like me, you don’t have a proper steamer, you can suspend them with string in boiling water.

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Finished Christmas puddings

And here’s the result. Now just store it in a cool, dark place until Christmas…

Helsinki tram at Ruoholahti
Originally uploaded by David Price.

This morning, for a change, I came to work by tram. I walked from Hakaniemi round Tokoinranta, through the Linnunlaulu villas and round the top of Töölönlahti, then caught the number 8 tram outside the Opera house and rode it through Töölö to Ruoholahti. Much more interesting than the metro, but it did take 45 minutes rather than the metro’s 10.

Carlos & Antti at Antti’s recording studio.