Cycled to work today. It took a wee bit less than an hour, although that included a stop in Malmi to pump up my tyres which were too soft and to take a layer off as I was too hot. I think I should be aiming for about 45 minutes. I only recently got my old mountain bike to Helsinki courtesy of my parents and Duo airlines. It has been 'winterised' with studded tyres and mud/slush flaps, which I must say both worked exceedingly well.

I was going to start riding last week, but never quite got around to it - mainly down to simple lazyness - but now I have, perhaps it will be start of a new healthier me. Of course within 100 mtrs of leaving home it started to hail which fortunately turned into just snow, making my first bike commute bracing if nothing else. Lessons learnt: more insulation on legs, less on body for maximum comfort levels.

Last weekend I went for two days climbing around Valkeala, and area about 200 kms north-east of Helsinki. A jolly enjoyable weekend, and my first attempts at using our new digital camera. One photo I have posted on UKclimbing already, although they have not checked and published it yet - I will link it once they have.