Well..where do I start to describe New Years Eve?

Lets try this route….
Hanna and I got to our friends house in Klaukkala around 6:30pm and started to look for a space to park her car and I told her to park off the side of the road (not thinking that the snow has covered what is usually there – a ditch) and as soon as the front and and rear passenger tires cleared the road they both fell in the ditch and now the car was stuck. Luckily our friends Timo and Teemu with Salla and Tiina + Tuuli watching us from inside the house we managed to drag out old “PEPE” out of the ditch. and we managed to park the car in front of the house with no other problems. It was around midnight when all of us were celebrating the coming of the New Year when I noticed the tempature guage outside and it read a smooth -27*c (or about -16*f). This is far the coldest I have felt outside so far…and its only January…

In the morning we all woke up, some with hangovers and some with out any.. (took some magical pills before I went to sleep..he he he he) had a wonderful late brunch and decided to get an early jump on getting home before the sun goes down as it was said that it was going to be much colder on New Years Day than the previous day. Went outside to get the car started and would not start. 6 1/2 hours later with battery cables and pushing the car into the garage to keep warm, no luck. “PEPE” would not start for anything. Frozen fingers and toes later, we decided to borrow our friends car for the eveing and go home and see what happens in the afternoon the next day to see if keeping the car warm enough to “thaw out” it may just be able to start and make it back to Lauttasaari. It was a very long New Years Day and one i wont forget for awhile.

The next day (today) Hanna and I went to “pray to the warm gods” and let our car start. We got to our friends home and chit chatted quickly with her as we did not want to intrude anymore than we had already and she had mentioned that it was -30*c this morning there, so we are very lucky that we got the car into the garage the other day. After about 35 mins or so with the heater fans on the engine compartment, I got her started as we were about to leave the car for the weekend and come back on Sunday as the garage has a one day a week (sunday) heating schedule that the floor of the garage heats up and warms the entire space very warm (+15*c) and that would be our best shot in getting the car started. But to my amazement, and little determination I had left, I got the car started and we have now made it home. We can safely enjoy the weekend nice and warm in our bed without having to get up and dress for “Alaska” as it must be much warmer there than here…for sure. =)

Lets see what other interesting things come our way for 2003, as we have started out on an interesting path. Hopefully a path that only has a few bumps on the road. ;-)

…more to come soon…