Dumb Helsinki cycle paths #7

The BBC has good report looking at how Copenhagen has become the best city in the world for cyclists. There a third of people use a bike for getting to work, school or university. A third!? That's amazing isn't it? Less pollution, less noise, less traffic for those folk who do need to drive, less congestion on public transport, more exercise meaning less weight for the medical system to carry. Everyone's a winner.

So in Copenhagen they are extending the cycle path network and widening the actual lanes. Here in Helsinki some people seem also to be excited about the cycle paths/pavement that forms part of my route to work. They have decided it can be used as over-flow car parking for the fat, lazy, selfish and anti-social, and as it happens daily as the same place and has done summer, it appears the relevant authorities don't give a shit either.


So it's nice that us cyclists and pedestrians of Helsinki now know our place. That would be dodging traffic in the road.

Finns and fixed gears

Finns are really good at fads. When something becomes fashionable you have to go all out - adopt everything; the whole culture around that trend. When I first moved here, it was in-line skates - but you had to skate with full pads -knees, elbows, wrists, helmet. If you're a 15 year old suburban boy, you can't just listen to a bit of hiphop, you have to go for the whole wigga ensemble, right down the a coloured bandanna in the back pocket of your ridiculously overpriced baggy jeans. I've often wondered it that would get you shot in South Central, but more likely just heartily laughed at. And pole walkers - they need (along with dubiously coloured shell suits) special pole walking shoes, which somehow are different to trainers in ways I can't work out besides colour. And this year it's fixie riders. I went past a guy on fixie (up hill obviously) the other day with cards in his wheels and drainpipe jeans. Is there a fixie kit you can buy somewhere that provides everything you need to look like a cliché? Perhaps they just all follow the fashion tips from the fixed gear blog - which is of course based in Helsinki. I shouldn't be snide - it's excellent that bikes are cool and people are out riding - plus if I hadn't seen the fixie boys and girls all around this summer - this:



wouldn't be as delightfully funny. Nuff respect to MC Spandex.

Helsinki International Air Show

A few images that I managed to snap today at the Helsinki International Air Show and Malmi airport. I don't have a telephoto lens so these were mainly taken at 55 mm and then 'zoomed in' on iPhoto. Click on them to see bigger images.

Finnish army NH-90 Transport Helicopter. A big meaty helo, but the pilot could make it dance.

The Finnish Air Force's "Midnight Hawks" fly by Malmi Airport control tower

The Midnight Hawks.

And again...

And again. The Midnight Hawks were great, but who ever picked their display music that was blasted over the P.A. should be shot - some truly godawful Nightwish.

Condensation streams off the top of a Finnish Air Force F-18 as it blast into a fast climb. The F18 pilot had far superior music taste with Green Day being played in the back ground. But then you could hardly hear it anyway over the delicious scream of the afterburners.

Finnish airforce F-18 - the whole neighbourhood knew it was in town! Large numbers of people had ear protectors on or ear plugs in. I didn't think to bring any, but having grown up under an RAF and USAF low level flight training path, my ears are pretty used to it.

Not what you normally see over Helsinki: an F18 deploys chaff (update: note from the comments: this should probably be flares not chaff) and rolls out.

A second chaff deployment. Malmi must be becoming a really lousy neighbourhood if shoulder launched ground to air missiles are deemed likely! :-)

Dan Hannan - always backing a winner.

Americans should listen to Tory MEP Daniel Hannan because he clearly isn't a tit who has no idea of what he's talking about. Oh hang on...

Sea kayaking Mallorca

A few more pictures from Mallorca, this time from sea level but still featuring the imposing 300 mtr high north face of the Caval Bernat Ridge. I would be fascinated to hear if it has been climbed from the sea. I don't know enough Spanish to try googling this though.


We hired kayaks from Atemrausch in the lovely village resort of Cala Sant Vicenç. Atemrausch is a small company recently started by Caroline and Stephan that organises various outdoor activities and hires outdoor sports equipment.


Caroline guided us on our trip showing us some local points of interest and chatting generally about island life.


The hour and half trip cost €22 each which struck me as ridiculously good value considering we both got a kayak and guide in the form of Caroline for that. So if you are holidaying in Mallorca and want to try something different, go and visit them or check out their website if you are interested in kayaking, diving, snorkelling or just hiring a bike. They can organise kayak trips for you whether you are an absolute beginner or have some paddling experience. Caroline even took photos of us whilst we paddled and the email with them attached was waiting when we go home. It was a great touch - I wish them all the best in making a go of their business, especially in a year when tourism is down on the island due to the economy.


Caroline told me she had the day previously whilst out leading a trip bumped into the the German mega-star climber and adventurer Kurt Albert who was kayaking around Mallorca for his holiday.



This struck me as superb idea, and will be added to the long list of other improbable things I must try to do one day.

Torque nut testing

I went out climbing at Kauhala the other night with Diana. Climbing with D is great because it's possible she actually chunters on more than me when nervous and trying hard and, indeed, even when not. So that's saying something. And being Californian it of course comes out as a stream of consciousness in a Hunter S. Thompson-esque way. One moment she is berating the utter inadequacies of the American healthcare system as she has seen it first hand, then it is the superb "hmmm... I seem to be having nebulous commitment issues..." whilst sketching on incredibly thin holds some way above the bolt. I normally can't get much more existential than "oh... fuckerty fuck fuck".

No nebulous commitment issues now. D on Kaikenalku, 6a.

After some sport routes I knew I had to do something where I could try out the new Torque Nuts, so in the gathering gloom I donned a headtorch and set off up Don't Layback Crack.

Torque nuts ago-go

Some years ago this little route scalped Jody, trapping his foot for some time, leading to much panic and an eventual leader fall. I fared little better this time, and found out as I pulled over the top it had, amongst various other scratches and scrapes, bitten a chunk out of the inside of my right index finger on one of the jams which still hurts now, and the one of those pretty new torque nuts that I hadn't placed whilst climbing is now blotched with blood. I hope the UKC readers know I doing this for them! :-)

Britain is crap/great

Britain is crap because it has the Daily Mail and people who will pay for it. Britain is great because it has Ben Goldacre on national prime time radio:

And the blog he mentions, The Daily Mail Oncological Ontology Project, really does exists. So that's two reason for Britain being great against one for crap, so great beats crap on points. Hurrah!

Will unusual birds come home to roost?

According to YLE, the Finnish security police SUPO (Finland's only real intelligence agency and something of mix between MI5 and Special Branch in the UK context) has started following developments in Afghanistan for possible spin off effects on Finland.

Which leads to the rather bloody obvious question: what? They weren't before?!?!

The timing of this revelation may be totally coincidental, but it's hard not to wonder whether this has been sparked by the political ruckus that followed the comments of a friend of mine (and indeed the original co-founder of this blog), Charly, who suggested in op-ed piece in Helsingin Sanomat that Finland was now part of a war in Afghanistan.