Snow-shoes for shitsus

Snow makes things bright and pretty. That wasn't my initial reaction stumbling out of the building, but a good cup of coffee tends to bring me round. I really must remember to take pictures of the exquisite Café Delicato next week, it's a bit like a very homely family sitting room crossed with a café, with some art-gallery genes spliced in for good measure (not to mention ambience). Quite a good place to work out the cobwebs on a Sunday morning.

Last night we helped Rosalinde move into her new apartment. At least, the others helped. I mostly spent over an hour stumbling about in the cold trying to find it, and arrived when most things were moved. A lousy sense of direction can give you hypothermia at this time of the year.

The temperature is holding below twenty. Conditions like this are hard on dogs and dog owners - Fido still needs to be taken on his constitutional stroll about the block, but padding on ice isn't so fun for either party. Maybe Gatochy Corp. could start selling snow-shoes for shitsus.

I spent the last few days concerned at international press reports that Russia had warned it might cut power exports to Finland by a third due to domestic demand. Not so much concerned that I might freeze, but that my computer wouldn't function. I think I've crossed some kind of threshold. Anyway, there wasn't any mention in the Finnish press till yesterday. Despite the fact that Finland gets 30% of it's power from Russia, and yesterday power demand was 300MW higher than the previous national record, they're totally unperturbed - they have not one, but two coal-fired plants on the outskirts of Helsinki ready for just such a scenario. So wonderfully, typically Finnish.