I sit in my room

4th March 2012
Sunday

This is my third Sunday in Finland. I have had two weeks with the kids at the kindergarten and I started to break the ice with a few of them towards the end of the second week.

On Friday night after my sauna, I am rubbing my legs when I come across a painful lump on my shin. Ah, yes. Little Samuli had jabbed me in the shin with a plastic shovel after a snowball fight the day before. Up until now, the snow has been too cold to form a ball, but with a thaw starting to take hold, we are able to make balls really easily. The sound of the snow changes underfoot and the kids immediately know by this that they can now throw balls of snow at each other. And at me. I retaliate, a little too enthusiastically and get Samuli with a ball right in the face. Oh, dear. He's all right though and he picks his moment for revenge. A day later he jabs me in the shin.

...

Annika, who is the one in charge at Kinderi, introduces me to her fiance and on Saturday, Massive Marcos takes me to the local school's gym. Annika is in the kindergarten from 7.30 in the morning and does an evening shift at the local Lidl supermarket three or four times a week. I try to flatter Marcos by saying she is a great gal and that I wish I had one like that (not that I do - I don't want to fall into that trap again). Marcos replies with a gruffness close to Schwarzenegger, "You will get it."

...

I sit in my room looking out the window. It's 6.00pm and the sun has been blindingly low for the last hour. It's just reached the horizon but it will be another hour until dusk.

After a couple of text messages this morning from Noriko, we agree to turn on our computers so that we can Skype and I can speak to the kids.

We argue. As usual.

I see her in profile, her cheek. She is beautiful.

Katie was right all those years ago; of the three black angels, Nori would be the one to blossom. But like a rose, this has been accompanied by thorns.

The opportunity to talk to the kids has passed.

...

The sun is slow and stays low all day. But the days are getting longer.

A red car scuttles along the black ribbon of a road laid out across the stark white landscape of South Ostrobothnia. Pohojanma.

It's March but the snow came late this year. Although we have had a couple of days of thaw, the snow will stay with us for a while yet.