O.K Santa, all I want for Christmas is...

300km today 500km yesterday

I just noticed that when there is more than one blog update from the same place you can't see it unless you click on the date at the top of the screen. I reckon its difficult but you lot proberly find it easy, just thought I'd tell ya'll in case you have missed something.......sorrry for all the mistakes too, this is the first chance I've really had to read back through all the entries....ANYHOW....

So I left Helsinki with a brand new very overpriced set of Metzeler Enduro 3's (remember, if you don't know what something is Google it!) to try my luck on the cold Finnish roads. Didn't have to go far to see some snow besdie the road outside of Helsinki. Of course the Finn's wouldsay "Thats NOT snow" but for the Australians reading, trustme, it was snow! It was actually a nice day with clear blue sky, but a fair bit of wind which means that on a bike with no fairing orwindsheild like the DR you have to hold on pretty fn tight! It is sorta hard wok really, I alternate between holding on with my hands to holding on with my knees, but it still wears you out pretty quick when you have the fitness level of a World Dart Championship contender. Plus it was about as cold as its been so far so I made about 500km to get me just south of Oulu and stayed in a Motelii (think B&B) there.

Woke up, turned on the TV to see the starting grid of the Australian MotoGP, doesn't get much betterthan that! Watched the opening laps, ran downstairs to have breakfast and ran back to see the last 8 laaps. Stoked. Go Stoner. Got dressed properly for the days ride, unlike yestrday, more than likely the reason I was cold! For the loers of voyourism amoungst you that inolves - On the top half.... Skins, then thermals, then T-shirt, then Windstopper fleece and on the top the DriRider Rallycross jacket with removable waterproof and thermal layers zipped in! The on the bottem (getting excited yet?) - K-Mart boxershorts, long thermals, extra long Fox socks, Quicksilver jeans from a seconds shop in Torquey that have holes in the pockets causing a few lost Euro in Helsinki and all covered with the Dririder Rallycross pants that have a massive burn hold in the left leg from trying to pick up a dropped DR on a riverbed in Mongolia (there's STILL so many stories to tell..).

So once I was dressed up for the occasion I was only just cold on the road to Rovaniemi, instead of hypathermic. I was almost going to skip ROVANIEMI (I'e been here before beleive it or not!) but the oportunanty to get a photo of me and the DR inside the artis circle (a few kms north of here) was just too good to pass up. Then I can really bore you all s***less with stories of "remeber that time I rode a motorbike into the artic circle" when I get home.... There's also the Santa Claus Village tourist trap up there somewhere that I missed the bus to on my last visit so I'mthinking I might ask Santa fo a new bike while I'm here....