Back from Holiday Again (part 2)

We were halfway between two large towns. I use the word "large" in a comparative sense, of course... to the south of us, around 50 kms away was Kuopio famous for being a port on the lake waterway system and a location for ski-ing and to the north, about the same distance, was Iisalmi.

First trip was into Kuopio and first stop the observation tower located on a hill overlooking a large ski-jump.

Luckily, there is a lift that takes you up the tower to the obligatory cafe and observation areas, one inside and the other outside - but carrying a warning that the wind might be strong. And they were not kidding! 

About as tall as Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower, on top of a hill and with nothing higher until you reach the Urals to the east and probably the Rockies to the West, I can confirm it was windy. Enough to blow you over. We went back to the inside viewing area, so you'll excuse the next couple of pictures being taken through the glass.

View from the tower, looking vaguely north. Our cottage is more or less on the horizon towards the left of the view

Looking over the town of Kuopio and the lakes

Next stop - let's investigate the possibility of a lake steamer trip. Out of luck as it is Monday and Monday is maintenance day... But that means a couple of boats are tied up, ready to be photographed. Bonus!

Hopefully we'll get a boat trip later in the week. Next, we head north to Iisalmi, where the only location of interest seems to be a brewery museum. That was worth a visit we thought...

Amongst the many exhibits in the brewery museum is this 1920s Ford model T based delivery truck

...and outside is this large brewing vat that has been adopted into some form of sculpture

So, now having gone south and north, logically the next trip took us east to a resort of Tahko. While a ski resort in summer doesn't sound too promising, we'd read that the ski lift operated during the summer to allow the opportunity to walk along the summit and enjoy the views. Well, despite earlier comments about heatwaves, it was absolutely pee'ing down with rain and cold. That just left a trip to the west.

Which took us to the highest waterfall in Finland, Korkeakoski, accessed via the small town of Maaninka. Another "blink and you'll miss it" town, but home to an interesting wooden Lutheran church.  There will be a couple more of these later in the trip.

We later discovered that the churches are built huge so that they could accommodate the entire population of the surrounding area on market days. With wood being the most common building material, fire is a continual risk and as a consequence, most churches have the bell tower built separately to avoid the risk of the bells falling.

The waterfall is the sort where the water tumbles over a steep rocky incline into a wide gorge, so the only option is to descend via a wooden staircase that has been provided for the old and doddery like us. It is about 300 steps top to bottom. And then back up again! Unfortunately, it is a hot spot for mosquitoes. An Finnish mozzies are vicious little beasts!

Ann puts her Girl Guide experience to good use

One of the things about being this far north is that it doesn't get dark at night. Although not strictly far enough north to be in the Land of the Midnight Sun, the darkest it gets is approaching dusk in the UK, as the next picture shows:

For those of us living at more southerly latitudes, it is hard to believe that this is about as dark as it gets. The sun has just dropped below the horizon and will reappear in about 2 hours

And, at last, the promised boat trip! Just a 90 minute trip from Kuopio on board "Koski" as seen earlier. When you consider how much of the country is actually water, it becomes obvious that using the water was the obvious way to travel.

Looking back over Kuopio as we head out across the lake.

Passing a private island with a nice house and summer house / sauna down by the lake.

With our week at the cottage now over, the next leg of our trip took us to Savonlinna in the south east of the country. Savonlinna was once the border between Russia and Sweden and so is home to a very large castle that now hosts an annual Opera Festival (which we missed) and is a nice touristy town. For us, it was a return visit. When we were living in Finland, we had read about a boat festival being held one weekend in Savonlinna and so thought we'd make a visit, completely forgetting to take account of the scale of the map. It's around 250 miles each way from Helsinki and in 1981, not only were there no motorways of any substance, there weren't many dual carriageways. We got there just in time to turn around and head back, so this time we put a little more planning into the trip.

Back from Holiday Again (part 1)

My regular reader will recall me writing back in October last year about booking a holiday in Finland. we're now back from just over two weeks in that glorious and under-rated country, so it is time to update the blog...

It was May 1981 when I first visited Finland. I had taken a job with an industrial company called "Nokia" who at the time no-one outside of the Nordic countries had ever heard of. This was long before their moment of fame with the mobile phone. In fact, Nokia only got into the phone business by purchasing another Finnish company called "Mobira". I was shipped out to Helsinki for 3 weeks for induction training and later that same year, Ann and I spent the best part of 3 months there on an assignment. We said that one day we'd go back for a holiday and having been scorched last year in the deserts of the south western USA, we thought somewhere a little cooler might be a good idea. With between 20 and 22 hours of sun, although the Finnish summer is quite short it warms up quickly and with great timing, we went during a heatwave, although we did experience some cool evenings and wet days but then we were as far north as Iceland.

We decided on a week in a rented cottage in the middle of Finland followed by a slow meander back to Helsinki for a further 4 days calling in at the small town of Savonlinna on the way.

Despite my extreme dislike of flying, there isn't really an alternative now that all the ferry routes from the UK to Scandinavia have been withdrawn. Having flown well over a million miles during my working life, it isn't that I am frightened of flying, more that I dislike airports and all the hanging around. And this is despite usually being able to find a deal and upgrading to sit at the front of the plane...

The flight is around 3 hours duration and with a two hour time difference, it takes half a day to get there. Having collected our rental car, it was a little way north to the town of Jarvenpaa for the first night. The car was interesting - the first time I have ever driven a hybrid and the lack of engine noise when you "start" is quite disconcerting. 

Next morning, the journey north started, but not before a visit to a local landmark - the home of probably the only Finn that most people will be able to name - Jean Sibelius. Those who have ever watched "The Sky at Night" or the old "This Week" programmes on the telly will be familiar with his music even if you hadn't previously realised it.

The main building, chez Sibelius

...and the summer house in the garden containing the sauna

Having ticked this off the list, we pointed the car northwards along this route with a couple of stops along the way.

Our cottage fully met expectations. Rather than being a sterile holiday let, it is the owner's summer cottage that he lets out when not using it and comes with an encouraging note to use it as though it were your own home and just to replace anything that you use while staying there.

The main cottage building. The upper floor has two large bedrooms, but a low roof so we just used the downstairs room

Not just a barbecue, but a wooden gazebo with barbecue, hotplate, smoker and a couple of other cooking things like a wok burner and paella cooker. The building in the background is one of the log stores.

Even summer cottages need a "summer house", so here was ours, overlooking the lake. A simple sitting room and a wood fired sauna.

The sitting room in the summer house

And the sauna. We managed around 75 Celsius, but declined the opportunity of a dip in the lake to cool off

The view over the lake from the summer house. We even had our own private beach!

Next instalment: Our week being tourists around Kuopio.

The Joy of Being an Author!

It is hard to describe the feeling of joy when a package of the latest book to be published arrives with the post. Today, the new Triumph & Standard Cars 1945 to 1984 - A Pictorial History published by Veloce arrived in the post and I have to say that I'm pleased with the result.

It is still showing as being published on 3rd May, at least according to Amazon, or it can be purchased directly from Veloce, or indeed, from any bookseller of your choice. The published price is £14.99. If you have a look at the book on the Amazon site, you can have a sneak preview of the content.

If anyone would like a signed copy, I'd be very pleased to oblige, either signing your copy that you have purchased elsewhere, or supplying you with a copy, properly inscribed, at the published price including postage to the UK, but you'll need to let me know in advance if you'd like a copy as I don't keep more than a small number in stock. Even the author doesn't get "sale or return"! Simplest way is to email me - click here to email - with your order and payment by PayPal and I'll bung a signed copy in the post to you. Overseas will be available as well, but you'll need to contact me so that I can calculate the postage.

As I'm going to the Triumph 2000 / 2500 / 2.5 Register National Rally this year, I'll have a few copies with me, or you can collect your pre-ordered copy from me there. I might have a few copies of "Triumph 2000 - Defining the Sporting Saloon" with me and possibly "Triumph TR - From Beginning to End" - but pre-order to be sure.

Later this year, the next title "Triumph 1300 to Dolomite Sprint" will be published and the latest book, "Guy Motors: Buses and Coaches" has recently gone to the publisher for typesetting. So, that is five books finished. What shall I do next?

It's Been a Little Quiet of Late

Another month has gone by and no blog updates - I'm falling into bad habits again!

Actually, I have a few excuses. The prepared artwork for the Standard & Triumph Pictorial History book came back for checking and a final edit. It's the first book I've done for Veloce and have to say I'm pleased with the results. You can pre-order from Amazon, or if you'd like a signed copy, you can purchase directly from me.

I've also been seriously hard at work on the next book - the master work on the bus and coaches built by Guy Motors. This has turned into something of an "Opus Magna". I've been chasing down a large number of images, sorting out which I want to use, writing captions and seeking copyright clearance where they aren't my own images, or those of friends that I've been given to use. In a previous "life", I'm sure I could recite sections of the Bail Act in my sleep and now I'm beginning to thing that the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act is bedtime reading. But nearly there, so this one should be ready to go off to the publisher in early summer ahead of schedule.

As part of this last little mission, I took a trip to the wilds of the West Midlands a week or so ago. First stop, the Aston Manor Road Transport Museum, now in Aldridge in Staffordshire where they have a selection of Guy vehicles and a comprehensive archive. Really helpful people too, I have to say. This was followed b a trip to the City Archive in Wolverhampton who hold a huge photo and drawing archive of material from the Guy factory. It's surprising how exciting it can be looking at a 1926 blueprint for a Guy BTX trolleybus chassis!

One of the Guy buses in the museum at Aldridge

Again exceptionally helpful people for whom nothing was too much trouble. I've found three council archives to be exceptionally helpful - Newcastle City, Leicestershire and Wolverhampton. 

I've also found one, quite local to home who has been less than helpful... Not quite obstructive, but a little like the Neil Innes song "Jobsworth": 

Jobsworth, Jobsworth. More than me Jobs Worth

Rain or Snow, don't want to know

Whatever you want, the answer's no!!

But back on the transport and photography theme. Having been a "good boy", I was permitted a day out on the Swanage Railway as part of a photography charter group. I've put the pictures on Facebook, but here's a few of them repeated here for those who don't "do" Facebook:

If you have enjoyed looking at these pictures and others in this blog, they are available in higher quality and resolution at my gallery http://kevinwarrington.zenfolio.com/ where you can purchase prints, artwork and gift items.

Quick Trip to Gaydon

Interesting Prototypes

With the new book on the Triumph Dolomite range getting close to being ready to send to the publisher, I realised that I was missing decent pictures of two designs that had been considered as replacements for the late 70s and early 80s. I knew that the prototypes existed in the reserve collection at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, so after a quick enquiry, arrangements were made to visit and photograph for the book. Because books are considered commercial ventures and many people think that authors make a lot of money from books (you can be assured that we don't!), you can't just turn up, take some pictures and slope off with the pictures you need. Well, I suppose you could but only once. And the fact that I turn up with a rather large professional camera, a selection of lenses, a large tripod and a flash that will light half the country is a bit of a giveaway.

You'll need to wait and buy the book to see the planned replacements for the Dolomite, but while I was there, a few others caught my eye. First was this design study for a new Alvis, builder of posh coupes for the rich and discerning as well as small tanks and armoured vehicles. Rover bought Alvis and pretty quickly shut down the car production, but not after first creating this possible new model with heavy influence from the Rover P6 below the glass line and earlier Alvis cars above:

Elsewhere in the museum and currently in the main display area, there is a "concept" design by Harris Mann that was built to showcase the capabilities of Pressed Steel who became part of the BMC empire during the 1960s. As part of the concept, there was an idea floating about to build a new mid engined MG sports car that would be based on one of the new BMC engines (E series) and a Maxi gearbox - but hopefully not with the cable operated gear change and hydrolastic suspension. Nothing came of the design for many years, but when the MG-F did eventually come to market, it was mid engined and used sub-assemblies derived from the Metro with a variation on Dr Moulton's hydraulic suspension systems. Some of the thoughts from this prototype went into the competitive project that ran alongside the design that produced the TR7, also designed by Harris Mann:

Then we move onto replacements for the Triumph Snag. Sorry. I mean "Triumph Stag". A brilliant concept of a car that really could have stolen some of the market from Mercedes' SL range had it not been for the well known early build quality and engine reliability problems.
Design number 1 took an extended TR8 and combined some design features from the Rover SD1 to come up with the Triumph Lynx as a 2+2 fastback. If you look past the huge bumpers and the poorly designed tailgate that probably would have been re-engineered to open to bumper level for production, This is one that I think might have been a success, but it fell apart when Michael Edwardes was appointed Chairman and his first action was to close the plant at Speke where industrial relations were to say the least "poor" and where all the TR7s and TR8s were being built. TR production eventually moved to Coventry, but by then there was no money left to finish the design and no space to build it anyway:

A final last gasp effort to replace the Stag came with "project Broadside", another hybrid TR8 / SD1 with even more Mercedes SL influence. This one really does look like an early development exercise as nothing really lines up. There was also a plan to create a coupe version of this as well. I've only seen pictures of the coupe and all I will say is thank goodness they never built one!

Moving downstairs, the Jaguar Heritage Collection can be found. This looked like an interesting development - a coupe version of the S-type retro design from the late 90s / early 2000s. Now, this could have been quite tempting had it made it to market. It has the look of an XK150 to me. The grey car alongside is a similar experiment, which didn't appeal to me at all, having the rear appearance of a Renault Megane. You remember -  the one with the big bum?

A Few Interesting Models

Jaguar Heritage contains a number of interesting pre-war cars from when the business was known as SS-Cars. Obviously, after 1945 they needed a new name when production resumed and the name Jaguar was chosen. SS-Cars had a long history - Originally the Swallow Sidecar Company, expansion brought new ventures in fitting more sporting bodies to mundane cars like Austin 7s and eventually building their own rather exotic cars. the mechanical bits were supplied by the Standard Motor Company (hence my interest) and it is reputed that SS was derived from Swallow Standard. 

In the background to the lower 1932 SS1, you can see a Swallow body fitted to what I think is an Austin 7.

The collection has a selection of "firsts" and "lasts" off the production line, including the final car to carry a Triumph badge. OK so, we know it is really a Honda, which is why I said the final car to carry a Triumph BADGE. But then the Acclaim did sell in huge numbers and was one of very few models that made any money for Leyland (or whatever they called themselves at the time).

And finally, we end with another Rover. This time a P6B dating from the early 1970s. This is one of two cars. It is either the last one off the line, and if so is owned by HM The Queen, or it is a former Government Car Service Ministerial car. both are in the collection and I forgot to check the registration! And before someone comments that royal cars don't have registrations, if they are owned personally by the Royal Family, they do - it is just the "official" cars that don't.

If it is the Ministerial car, it is still interesting because it will be the Prime Minister's car. Originally supplied for Harold Wilson when he was PM, it was then used by James "Sunny Jim" Callaghan and finally by Margaret Thatcher who declined a new car and continued with the Rover. It was probably more reliable than an XJ-6, but the smell of pipe smoke may have lingered.

On odd occasions, Ann would come home from work in one of these when she was working in Whitehall (I can't say exactly where or what she did of course unless you have signed the Official Secrets Act and probably not even then, even though it was now more than 30 years ago). The deal was that she was required to work late one night a week and her team didn't leave until all the work was completed. If it was passed a specified time, transport home would be provided. If spare Ministerial cars were available, it was cheaper to provide one of these than to pay for a mini-cab. It got the neighbours' curtains twitching when she pulled up complete with liveried chauffeur...

I told you I was ill!

Eventually, these words appeared on Spike Milligan's memorial.

This morning, I have been to see the Doctor to receive the diagnosis of something that has been bothering me for a while. It's one of those things that has been creeping up for a long time and slowly the symptoms have been getting more serious.  Being a proper man, I have of course, been in complete denial.

Back in April, I was hauled in for the usual health check that happens every time your age ends in a zero. Lots of blood taken for testing, height, weight, lung function, heart function, blood pressure. Usual advice to loose some weight (OK, lets be honest, lots of weight!) and improve diet. Since I already eat a healthy diet with plenty of  fish, fruit and fresh fruit and veggies and don't really like red meat other than game, improving the diet is difficult.

The blood tests came back with some concerns and was called back for further testing. The nurse explained that my white cell count was high and needed to be "monitored". Was I feeling unwell in any other respects? As it happened, I've had this niggling ache in my major joints (shoulders, elbows, hips, knees) and what can only be described as "sore bones" for a while and could it be related? At which point everything got a little more intense. A third test just before we went on holiday to the US and a further test when we returned.

Then a phone consultation where I was told that it was still high, but it specifically was not any of the "dread" diseases - high white cell count, sore bones and painful joints if you check it out on Google hinted it could be Leukaemia, which will explain why I was wandering around all summer looking worried!

Eventually, I give in to the inevitable and visit the Doctor, who based on the symptoms, suggests something called "Polymyalgia Rheumatica". Or PMR for short. More blood tests.

The blood tests were inconclusive, so the next test is a week's treatment with a massive dose of steroids to see if it makes a difference. Which it did! Followed by a week off the treatment to see if the symptoms returned. And they did...

So that's it. Proof conclusive, resulting now on a long term course of treatment with steroids for about 18 months, plus additional drugs to deal with the side effects.

So what is it? It's one of those auto-immune "syndromes" where the immune system decides to set about destroying the large muscle groups that control the shoulders, arms, hips and legs. It also causes extreme tiredness and insomnia at the same time, mood changes (what, me?) along with a general feeling of being "unwell" and loss of strength in the muscles.

The steroids have some seriously unpleasant side effects as well, but I can put up with those to sort the main problem. Obviously, I can no longer partake in competitive sport as I will fail any doping test. So just as well I've never taken part in any organised sports, isn't it? There's a risk of increasing weight, although I shall deal with that, and (quite frightening) severe mood changes and the risk of suicidal thoughts.

And probably the most significant, suppression of the immune system so I need to keep clear of anyone with colds, flu, sniffles and other minor ailments. So if you should sneeze and I run a mile, you will know why!

Not Quite so SMART Meters

We had an offer from our energy supplier to install new smart meters at our house. The only real advantage it offers us is that I no longer need to wander outside every month to take the meter readings.

We had arranged a date for a couple of weeks ago, but the work couldn't be done as both meters are outside and it was raining on the day arranged. So, rearranged for this afternoon.

The fitter called earlier in the morning and said he could start immediately if it was convenient. As he was in Eastleigh at the time, "immediately" was about 20 minutes later. When he arrived, he explained fully what needed to be done and the approximate time that it would take and got to work first on the electric meter. While he was at it, he updated all the cabling and tidied up the cable routing. That was easy.

Gas meters are a bit more involved, but it took less than 20 minutes, including the Gas Safe tests and purging the air from the system. Now all he needed to do was commission the system by getting the meters to talk to each other and to the meter network. And this was where the problems started. The meters didn't want to talk to each other. It might have been because the meters were on opposite sides of the house, but he thought this very unlikely, more likely a defective communications module on the gas meter as the electric meter had connected to the network. So, having conferred with the Grid Company, they requested that he install another gas meter.

So out with the meter he'd just installed and in with another from the van stock. Repeat the Gas Safe tests and purge the system.

More communications problems, it seems.

Another phone call and he reports that, with regret, he has been told to remove both new meters and reinstall the old meters. Electric off again for 20 minutes and re-run the Gas Safe tests and purging of the system.

He was a little(?) unimpressed with the people at the Grid. It turns out that their network is weak in this area and that a signal booster is required for Smart meters to work! The people at the Grid control centre are well aware of the problem, but don't think it important to communicate this to the companies that they contract to do the installations.  So we are back where we started.

At least the fitter would get an early finish on a Friday with his other three jobs for the day being rescheduled. Well, it turns out not to be that simple as he is the area supervisor and is needed to help another fitter with a problem installation. Quite how he managed to remains smiling all day is a miracle!