The child that is born on the Sabbath day

It's my birthday today. My Dad told me that the day I was born was very hot and that he and my elder sister visited my mother and newly-born me at the hospital by bike. I was born on a Sunday, and according to that English nursery rhyme I ought to be 'bonny and bright and good'. Which of course is true.



When my sister left Tampere for the summer, she was concerned that I might sink to the level of watching Smack Down on tv and drinking beer (well, I'm not certain that she mentioned beer). I haven't done that, but I've entered a jolly bachelor's life so far as to watch football on the net: Portugal played Turkey last night and I was disappointed in the outcome. Italy will play tomorrow and I will be glued on to the sofa. Maybe I'll even get some beer.

A week ago I went swimming in a lake for the first time this year. In Finland, we call that first out-door swim 'throwing off your wintercoat'. I threw mine in the lake Näsijärvi in Tampere, and the waters received it with cold arms. By the lake is a public sauna, which you can enter for the fee of 4.5 euros. If you walk quickly enough, you can retain some of the sauna's hotness in you before plunging into the waters - a wise precaution in the early summer!