RSSUneventful but memorable…
Aug 12
Last night, July 11, the host office invited us inpatriates into the all-hands meeting. I thought there were going to be other inpatriates as well but the 3 of us (Francis, Arvin and me) were the only asian inpatriates present. And the whole Finland FS that attended were less than 50. The future plans in the meeting were very positive, and I hope some of those trickles down to the Manila office so we can have some more opportunities to go back here.
After the meeting, and a delicious LTC sandwich, we walked to the docks for the cruise trip. The weather was slight bad because the rain shifted from a drizzle to a light downpour. The ‘cruise ship’ was not what I expected. It’s looks casts a rather dubious note on its sea-worthiness.
After a few minutes, we were off circling around the Helsinki bay area. There was a dining room at the bottom and we were seater beside the singers. They were singing some western song that I could not easily understand. We did not take pictures in the cabin because it might seem inappropriate. We opened the door to the bow of the boat but some requested that we close it because the wind were entering the cabin. I am the one directly positioned on the door but I am not complaining! ;D
After an hour we (the pinoys) went upstairs on the deck and Tomas (our host manager) gave us a running explanation of the “scenery”. It was cold upstairs (around +14 degrees) with 2km/s winds and a slight drizzle and the skies were dark and damp. We were able to get a couple of shots from our service phones.
As I have said, the trip was uneventful but memorable. Why memorable? Because beer and dairy products never went well with my stomach. I ended up with a severe loose bowel movement that I had to use a nearby portalet on the way home otherwise I was going to dirty my pants right there and then.
This is one story that is bound to appear in drinking bouts and kulitan moments. At least I saw the inside of a Finnish portalet. It was clean enough with adequate amenities, but then again I had to drop 50 cents just to get in. And the toilet seat was very cold. Brrrrr! Good thing I have an adequate supply of the ever-trusty polymagma. hehehe.
ciao!
[edit] You can view the pictures in this album. Nothing much as I was only able to take 3 pictures. 😀