We are back in our cottage. Nice to be back for the last stage of our Finnish holiday. In a week or so I will be in Italy. Then London. So we are back in our Finnish home for a week.

I wrote a lot about me in these blogs. I also thought a lot about me during this trip. Had time with girls of course. I have been a good (and very generous in terms of money :-)) customer of Olga’s restaurant and shopping games. Red book for the girls. Did not think too much about work.

I thought about the last couple of summers.  2007: PhD defence, karonka, and 40th birthday on the same day, visit by my friends Paolo and Maurizio at the cottage, visit of my mother, only few days for us here in Hyväsalmi. 2008: short break before starting work in London with the nervous excitement of a new start and thoughts on our location or relocation to UK, ODI, challenge, work to do at the cottage. This years things are more settled. The mökki has now a well, the wooden roof has tar, the chimney has a hat, there is a nice wooden terrace and a nice laituri on the water.

We live in the Philippines and will be there for some time. I like my work. Katja likes hers. The girls seems happy with living there and the school and are also happy to be here. I will go back to Cremona after three and half years and look forward to see my nephew Antonio.

So time to enjoy these late summer or early autumn sunsets. Listen to the West wind. Look up in the trees for the tik-tik-tick noise of a woodpecker preparing his nest for the winter. Enjoy the cold air of the dark night on the skin after sauna and look at the stars which here are incredibly bright as there are no towns nearby.

Time to fill the lungs with clean air. Hold the breath for few seconds. Then let it go and be in the moment. The past and the future at a distance, as Tove Jansson once wrote.