Rattling cars* and tractors

23rd March 2012
Friday
Round about midnight

After my first night here, I had to find a way to turn off the air extractor above the oven. Its constant droning kept me awake. It has fan speed settings of 1 to 4 but no zero setting. The only way to turn it off is by switching off the whole circuit in the trip box which I do every night after hanging up towels at the front and hallway doors.

That's fine, except the next night the sound of the fridge dominated the night's silence and so the following day I emptied and disconnected it.

I would have to keep my food in the kindergarten downstairs. Anyway, at least by doing this I am saving electricity and I don't feel so bad about using the sauna.

...

Before leaving England for Kauhava, I had looked at a map and had felt a snarl develop on my upper lip when I saw a runway on the northern fringes of the town. This wasn't out of town; it literally ran into the town almost making up part of the road network.

I like it quiet and I wasn't looking forward to coming to one of the most remote places on earth only to find myself in the middle of modern human civilisation.

I needn't have worried on that front. The runway is used by the airforce for training purposes and is not in use at night. Except I'm not sure how they define night in the summer when the sun barely dips below the horizon.

The aeroplanes and their manoeuvres are impressive and the base is a source of pride in South Ostrobothnia. The airforce has been here for over 80 years and apparently they put on an impressive spectacle for the midsummer festival.

...

I am trying to sleep but for the first time I am aware of the sound of traffic despite the two sets of double glazing on the windows. I lift my blind and look out the window. A white Ford Orion and a red Volvo 740 burble along the road outside. It's Friday night and they have probably been driving around looking for a fight or some fun. Maybe both.

I have seen these two cars in town. They both have exhaust pipes the size of dustbins and at the weekends prowl up and down the main shopping street. They are not always together and usually have no passengers. They get to the end of the street where the petrol station is and turn in. They stamp on the throttle, do a quick wheel spin, apply some anti-lock and hope that someone is watching. The music system is turned up to max but from outside all you can hear is a booming and a rattling as the door fixtures and linings are shaken.

They join the main road where there is a procession of teenagers driving their micro-cars and tractors. You only need to be 15 to drive these in Finland but they are limited to 45km/h and have a large red and orange triangle on the back to denote this. Kids drive these to school in the winter and ride small capacity motorbikes in the summer.

The micro-cars are pretty cool actually but being a Landy fan I quite fancy the tractors. Except these ones are a bit too luxurious for my liking. They have glass enclosed cabins and although they are single-seaters, the kids manage to cramp in three or four friends around the cabin with their knees up.

*Ordinary Boys, happy being nothing ... Happy going nowhere, just around here in their rattling cars Morrisey, The ordinary boys