It was toasty warm in the apartment when we woke and it didn't look so bad when we looked out the window either. Sure there was a bit of snow on the trees and the branches were moving a bit in the wind, but then we looked at the thermometer. Minus 25c!! David double checked the temperature on the weather site and discovered that yes, it was -25c, but with the wind the Real Feel temperature was body numbing -32c. We would be putting on an extra layer today before ...

It had only been a few days since arriving back in Kemi, to Maria's mums, but there was a need to get flights booked back to New Zealand. One of the conditions of David’s Long Term Leave was that he must be available for work at ASB on the 26th of January – a little over 2 weeks away. It wasn’t that the task of booking flights was being deliberately put off; it was more to do with having no internet access over the last couple of weeks while we...

The repaired airbed worked a treat last night and by the time we woke in the morning it was still fully inflated. It was David's birthday, but it wasn’t going to be a big deal. Just a lazy day that started off with coffee and porridge before writing some more of the blog. Slowly but surely, it’s getting back up to date. We went out for lunch with the family at a nice pizza place, Puistopaviljonki, where we have been before. We both kept to a Lappish ...

Our bed in Kemi was a big air mattress in the living room. When we say big, we mean big. It was a proper double bed size and about 50cm high, the air went in using the inbuilt electrically operated pump so it actually felt like a proper bed. That was until about 3am though, when we woke with the feeling that we were in a water bed. It had lost a lot of air during the previous 3 hours, we were sagging down and when one of us moved, the other one got bounced aroun...

Maria had booked herself in for a haircut this morning. It had been about a year since the last time it was cut and she wanted it tidied up by a professional. David had offered many times throughout the year to do it, but Maria declined every time. David was surprised when Maria returned because instead of having all her hair cut off in the style she had a year ago, it was still longer but just neatly trimmed and blow dried. Whenever we are in Rovaniemi, David...