WHITE TO BLACK

It just took another 1 and a half hour to Helenki-Vantaa Airport from my transit from Riga. I boarded a Focker 500 after stepping into snow for the first time. The feeling was quite unusual. Although I did not have the luxury of time to seep in the awesome-ness of the moment like the first time I saw the Sea, I know in my heart that in time I would come to know the Snow; his intricacies and relentless force in this region.

Han met me with my coat and gloves and with a bus ride, we were home. A small space framed by four stoic walls with a window that sheilded us from the elements. A thermometer sits quietly behind the glass, with her red mercurious belly rising and falling; as if breathing with the Air of Helsinki. It read -17 C on my arrival.

We had bought tulips and made our first dinner of vegetable casserole, chicken noodles and bread with cheese, all washed down with clear tap water. Afterwhich, with some errands abound - cleaning up, changing sheets and dishes, I set off to sleep in my first winter bed, snows in the park and a man on my side.

Silence fell. As it will for many days that came after...

AN ADVENTURE AFTER SO LONG...

I was out of ideas for my post title. So, I got to thinking of making 'An Adventure After So Long...' a serial of travelling posts. And to my surprise, my last adventure to Taiping 4 years ago coincided with my current trip to Finland. So, that's kinda funny and decided to make it a permanent feature on my blog.

2 January 2010, 12:02... a couple of minutes passed midnight, sitting next to cute chef, Parveen talking. About home, airplane rides and forgotten luggage. It was a nice chat especially for me because finally for the first time, he sounded Indian and gave an Ek-No.1 performance in homesick-worksick-disorientation syndrome. En core.

A quick shower later with a change of clothes (also known as wearing more layers in this case) and sock packing, I dashed out into the rain looking rather fresh... and wet. I took the 1 a.m. bus out to meet Monita and co. one last time before cramping into a taxi with my luggage to Terminal 1.

An hour or so later, I checked in while enquiring the weather in Riga, Latvia. Supposedly cold but couldn't get the exact temperature, so I pulled out my coat in hopes of not having to brace the chills without it.

My 4:50 flight was packed with Latvians and Russians. I was the only Chinese , I think. Taking off from Dubai was a relief, though looking out through the window I can see the World Islands taking shape amidst the reshaping of Dubai's financial world - I found a sadness which I can't describe for a city that I've come to call home for almost 2 years now. I defend it sometime although I do not know why. I am proud of it but yearns my real home and fairer lands to travel and write about.

I was jolted from my slumber by the shrieking baby's cry behind my seat every now and then. It was a blessing because otherwise I would have slept through the flight and missed all the mysterious golden amoebic city sprawls which was hauntingly beautiful, the jagged snow mountains that made me feel so small and vulnerable and a glorious orange wallpaper behind bleak gray clouds.

The last was my favorite. I call it Daylight Chasing. With the plane heading north-west in a generally westward direction, we are in fact leading ourselves into the Night and have the Sun chased us from behind.