Hki 18

New Amsterdan Redux

Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building

Greetings, dear Readers!
This Autumn Yours Truly partook in a quick trip to New Amsterdam. An esteamed colleague from the Finnish Single Malt Society happens to work for the "Phinn-Aero" carrier, so through him we were able to get ourselves affordable tickets for the crossing. And through my connexions in N.A., we were able to lodge for free in the Brooklyn-Borough.

Our gracious host, Signore Forte, Esq. at his residence

I tried to meet a few of my old friends & colleagues, but also show the most important bits to Mr. von Lapp, Esq, along the way. We wondered the city far and wide, stopping for lunch with friends, and doing some (window)shopping along the way.

Vertical Downtown

Plenty of tall buildings to photograph

Two ladies from Europe, Ms. Essi & Ms. Tuula

A former colleague Ms. Ciao-Ping, with a random Mormon Missionary

The weather was nice, sunny the whole time, but chilly enough to make gloves almost a necessity. As it was getting near the All Hallow's Eve, some funny things were seen around town:

Bulls on Parade, Wall Street

Various Halloween necessities

Mr. von Lapp & a poster of the very funny comedienne Ms. Tina Fey

Naturally we visited some of my favourite commercial watering-holes & restaurants, while also, unfortunately, did not have enough time for some others...

The Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien. The only thing missing was some Grey Poupon for the Hamburgers.

Mr. von Lapp & Ms. Keens, my favourite purveyor of quality Single Malt Whiskies

This time we only spent three whole days in the City, but it is most certainly worth another, more leisurely visit, later on. Thank you again for the host, friends and colleagues for a great time. Untill we meet again, don't know where, don't know when...!

Yours Truly etc,
Paddlewick, Esq. / Society New World Correspondent

Äidin synttärit

Onneksi olkoon :)
Viime viikonlopulla juhlitiin äidin 70v-synttäreitä mukavan talvisella Tahkolla! Oli kystä, kyllä, talvipelejä, kukkia ja euroviisuja. Ohessa parhaita paloja:

Pulleahko kurre tykkäsi talista

Kukkia ja kakkua

Sisarukset kippistää

Lisää kippistämistä

Kiitos kaikille paikalla olleille hauskasta viikonlopusta omastakin puolestani! :)

Julmahuvihahmo

;D

AluPoni

After a few months of slowly gathering parts, grinding down the alu frame etc, my new bike is finally ready to roll:

In the beginning it probably looked something
like this. Ebu bought it in Oz around 2000

And now it looks more like this. I completely
overhauled the drivetrain, to make it a single-
gear all-weather drive (not a fixie, but a
free-wheeled single)

The said single-speed, 42/16 drivetrain

The Surly flip-flop hub. Which means I can
'flop' the hub over so that the fixie cog you can
see behind the spokes will become the back
cog, making the drive-train a fixie. It's OK,
I know how to handle one, and this one's got
two brakes, anyway

The front chainwheel and the chain are
specifically for single-gear use. Multi-speed
chainwheels have asymmetrical teeth for
lifting and lowering the chains, but here
there was no need for none of that.

I happened to have some bling laying about,
so I pimped my ride with some bad-ass
skulls

And here's the bike with all the bells, blinks
and fenders, ready for some year-round action.
C'mon, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

ready, set, aim!

A mutual friend of Wille and I is a member of the shooting club just around the corner (literally). So come W's birthday, I got him an introductory session at the range. And got me one too. And Travis Bickle here, well he wasn't too hard to convince.
We got 1-hr introduction, incl. basics of shooting & safety, and then shooting at the range. We fired about 25 shots on basic .22s. Some of them apparently had more malfunctions than others. I consistantly kept shooting too low and too left. Joonas was a bit more scattered, but we both got some in the black. Wille was the best shot, but then again, he was the only mf with some army background. He was damn slow too ;) And it wasn't a competition, so no-one was counting, heh...
Overall it was fun, and we're thinking of going again before xmas :)

Cheers!

Gribbage

Erik playing gribbage at Casa M, late July. Thought I'd put this one here, since the ebu is rarely caught on the films. Some quality port was consumed while playing :) Unfortunately there is no good porto australiensis produced down under; at least that's what he has often complained about! Better stick with the Old World stuff! (now that the Irish Whiskey Tour is done, one of my future treks will be touring the Port region of Portugal)

Cheers!
mb

Solstice in East

This year it was time to head out to Nuppola again.

Suomi-Eesti dinner preparations under way
(not to forget the french contribution)

Ulle prepares fresh muikku on an in-situ,
self-made grill

Mid-summer dinner feast in the
clearing made earlier that day

Wille lights the bonfire with his flaming rod

That nice glow...

fire. pretty. it burn.
.
.
.

Tour de Näsijärvi

Last weekend it was time to put the metal to the pedal, for a little ride in the Pirkanmaa region. The weather and the scenery were really nice; all in all a good ride!

The start was in Tampere, where we run into this really old-skool fixie. Would've been nice to try it, but unfortunately I lacked the proper moustacche!