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The snow castle and the moomins

The alarm goes off and I wake up with a start.  The light switch is above my head, I look over the way to where Sergey Tselebrovskiy my room mate is sleeping and say “Lights on.”  The light goes on and Sergey announces “Ghood Mhorning in his thick Russian accent which I am glad to say is beginning to have a hint of Yorkshire now and again.

Sergey Tselebrovskiy

On the first morning that we shared the room Sergey then rolled out of bed and proceeded to undertake some sort of exercise ritual right before my eyes, surprising enough to me as it is usually myself that is doing this, but not as soon as I have woken up.  Astonished I watched on in disbelief through my groggy eyes whilst Sergey began to roll his fingers, then wrists, shoulders, waist, knees ankles with unanticipated agility liveliness.  Not to be outdone I quickly joined in and found myself doing squats, 10 press ups and leg raises.  Since that first morning we have for the last two weeks performed this morning ritual together to wake up our ever more ailing bodies in the morning.  It is like performing the children song “Heads, Knees and toes,” even more so as Sergey is learning English and we say the name of the body part that we are exercising:  “Fingers, hands, elbows, shoulders, waist, knees, ankles,” again the squats the press ups and the leg raises.  All of this is of course done in true style as we are dressed only in our underpants. I feel if tickets were available we would have a very nice sideline.

Uldis Zarins making Wolverine

Uldis Zarins making Wolverine, photograph by sandis

For two weeks now we have been making the hotel and I think it has all come together rather nicely.  I was a little perturbed by our schedule and all of what we had to do in the beginning, but it is a credit to the boys, the girl Sue McGrew, and the planning of Jukka Likealickalot that everything has gone very smoothly.  The theme this year was comics and we have had some fun recreating boyhood heroes even if Uldis from Latvia had pretty much never heard of any of them:  Who is this Joker person?   I have been able to play with my moonwalker or Polygon jib again which is a delight as I’ve been able to enjoy the fresh air and views from it which is a sharp contrast to spending all my time in a freezer as in England.  I must say though, I’m not sure the blizzards, driving wind and extreme temperatures are quite necessary, also, why the jib has to sway and occasionally stop leaving me stranded in the air I do not know.

Jamie carving the moomin with the moonwalker, photograph by Jukka

So we will finish shortly and I will prepare myself for the biggest challenge of all which is getting through the mens sauna party on the opening night alive; the Finnish like to drink.  Last year I was so thoroughly intoxicated that I almost fell asleep in the snow on the way home which is a sure way to meet your maker.  Luckily the chap that had spiked my drink with consent was there to wake me up.  How fortunate I am to have such good friends to take care of me.

Jamie

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