Not only a Northern Song

We had a party organized by our customer. They used to be best parties I have attended. This time it wasn't that magical a mystery tour.

The recreation event was held near Teisko, which is a large area covering the Northern part of Tampere. The cottage located near a lake (Näsijärvi would be my guess) with a specialty of 'savusauna' (rökbastu, smoke sauna) and a hole in the ice.

When I drove there with Amig-J, we saw a car rolled upside down. There were policemen all around and the traffic was slowing down. Out of curiosity, Amig-J grabbed his mobile and found out immediately details about the crash that had happened some 30 minutes ago. Now isn't that IT in action or what?

As usual, we were the first ones to arrive. Finally two bus loads of people got there and the games could begin. We were divided into several groups and we had some sport and intelligence tasks to solve. As a liner note or something, I wonder how many would have solved that first-class math task I posted recently..?

It wasn't easy to put together the devil's fist (pirunnyrkki, how to assemble it here), a six-piece puzzle. It was a bit embarrassing for me not to be able to do it, because I used to have one... well, 30 years ago. I had no clue whatsoever how to construct that puzzle. Some groups were more succesful than us - but luckily not all.

Then we had a combined ski and kick sledge competition. Both instruments were custom-made for tandem use. I didn't want to lead, so I took the last position on 5-person skis. When we moved to the start line, I couldn't tell when the first one stopped moving. That's why I fell on my knee, my head on a female colleague's arse. In spite of seemingly funny incident I really hurt my knee. It's still sore. Well, we lost that one too.

I was delighted to hear that men got to start having sauna. It was totally unheard of. I was the first to go there. In Finland, I'm a lousy sauna bather. In Sweden, I was the king, LOL! Well, the same applies to drinking. I had plans to swim in the air hole, but after watering my legs in the halfway I returned. I had failed in my mission. Miserably.

Drinks were not to run out in that party. I kicked myself slightly for taking the car with me, but then again the way back home was fast and cheap. And there was no hangover the day after. My Swedish colleagues should have seen it: this is how it looks like when people drink a lot. Both men and women. Well, I'm not saying you should follow bad example. I think that only one Swedish person in our team in Kista could have been qualified in the Finnish group. My friend S., you know who you are! That's not a finest merit you can get, but still.

I got tired of drunken people singing karaoke (a lot of ABBA there) out of tune. There was no other type of entertainment left for the evening, so I decided I might as well leave. I had promised to drive Amig-J home. He was having way too much fun to leave, so I left him there. The bus would come to fetch the crowd later.

This was probably my last party at the customer's. Free alcohol has ceased to attract me a long time ago. Even if there's cider and wine available. Maybe I feel too comfortable at home to stay out at nights. And, yes, I feel too old for these parties anyway. I have much more fun when I'm sober - but not among drunken people...