(Sent: Sat, January 10, 2004 7:21 am)

Hi all, sorry for the delay in the update. I am now in Finland, living in Helsinki with Pauliina. There has been days of lots of snow and days where it was dry. The snow on the ground melts fast when it stops snowing and the city now is looking quite snowless (this is relative to how it normally looks at this time of year of course where there are piles of snow everywhere... from my Australian experience I still see heaps of snow everywhere on the ground).

Tomorrow we fly out to Lapland to go snowboarding, look at the Northern Lights and have some fun on Snowmobiles and other such adventures. It should be lots of fun.

Temperatures here are always below zero, but it is quite comfortable walking around outside while it is above -5. I have just bought myself a warm coat (something I was sorely missing) so I am looking forward to wearing it - oh and mum, don´t worry as it was on special.

I have been for a sleigh ride at warp speeds behind a impatient horse, and have driven for over 200kms along an icy slippery road at highway speeds right into the night during a snow storm. The thing about driving at night here is that all the road markers get covered with snow and you cannot tell where the road is. Very exciting stuff.

If you have sent me text messages to my mobile phone then be assured that I have received them, it is just that I have run out of credit and cannot reply any more. Sorry.

Take care. Be good.

Rob.