Driving to Helsinki and back

Yesterday's 1300 km drive was one with a difference.

A very strange storm hit mid Finland and I was amazed to see trees just pushed down as if the palm of a hand was just striking them down.

A power downsurge they called it as cold air was drawn down and crushed the trees.

Driving down to Helsinki I was caught in an enormous thunderburst in mid Finland. Driving at just 30 kms per hour I got through that and reached a sun-bathed Helsinki at midday. I left Helinki at 16:00 hours and went to Tampere - beautiful sunshine.

I left Tampere at around 18:00 hours and it was just a perfect drive except I saw this destruction which had been caused by a storm possibly just an hour before I went through. Got home around midnight.

Sadly I was not carrying my camera.

Annikki was worried stiff as she knew that i would be driving through that area just about then. Phone contact did not exist.

These trips are getting to be more exciting.

Next week, we will make that trip together to meet a cousin and her husband in Helsinki, so it won't be a day trip.

Felled tree

(Also posted on my Seventh Heaven Blog.)

Have you ever thought how it must feel if one falls to the ground just like a felled tree?

Even during my boxing days, when Neelam Lakhaney (also a Mumbai Cathedralite 59er Savageite), half my size, was whipping me in the Heavy Weight category, I never fell to the ground.

Today, I was on my morning rounds on my scooter. I got home around noon. I got off the scooter, and as is my common practice, I turn around, take of my glasses, then remove my helmet, put on my glasses, hang the helmet over one of the rear view mirrors and then trot up the stairs, home.

Today was a bit different.

As I got off the bike and was wheeling around, it was as if my feet were stuck in a place while my body tipped over and crashed to the ground. My helmeted head thumped onto the cemented section, just a few centimetres away from a huge cement block.

I tried to figure out what had happened. As I twisted around, I saw that the bottom of my track suit had hooked into the metal stand on which the scooter is put to rest.

As I had tried to move away, one feet was pulled away from me and I crashed to the ground, straight as an axed tree.

As my head smashed into the ground, I was ever so grateful for the glass-fibre reinforced helmet which surrounded my head. I was badly bruised on one knee, while the other was just grazed. The palms of my hand were bruised, as was one elbow.

But my head was intact. Was I grateful for the plastic helmet!!

Felt good to have been a plastics technologist which subject and material have no doubt saved many lives in different environments!