"En Puhu Suomea"

...... basically this means "I don't speak Finnish".

Hahahaha... you probably would say that I am so "takk-hann" to find this out eventhough we have NOT confirmed our move. This is the thing about being an expat wife.... whenever a posting is ending, and there are many different country possibilities, you tend to spend time researching on those places. And I mean LOTS of time. And many times, a lot of those time spent will be somewhat WASTED. I remember when there was a time when Tokyo was a possibility. I spend hours (and I mean really tens of hours, if not hundreds!) on the net checking out of the various housing options on the outskirts of Tokyo, English pre-schools etc etc. And the outcome? Bangkok became our posting!

This time may be the same. I may spend hours and hours finding out about living in Helsinki, and at the end... we may NOT move there. To date, I have to say that I did spend tens of hours on the net already. Remember the Dream House that I posted a few days ago? That took many hours.... cause I started to google in English, which didn't come up with many results. Most of the English sites were all advertising for holiday homes. I had to resort to a Finnish site, which means I need to learn a few Finnish words to input into the Finnish Search Engine.... basically Assunot = Housing.
Well, as I said... That house was what I would love to have but will have to see what's our housing allowance and also the location. Although H said that he wouldn't mind topping up on the housing, we'll still have to consider how much is too much, right? He asked "car or house?".
I am not exactly a car person...so I would definitely go for house.
Originally, we had sort of decided that we will get a Volvo XC90 for me... then he said "we'll go for smaller cars then!". I was thinking maybe a small to mid-size Toyota or Ford.

A couple of days later, whilst surfing the net, I saw that second-hand Ford Fiestas were going for 4000 Euros. Told H so... and he said "NO lah! No need Ford Fiestas". You know what?
His version of smaller cars mean Toyota Harrier or Ford Escape. That's not exactly small, is it??? Yeah. Yeah. We also spent quite a lot of time searching for cars on the Finnish website.... which again, may be a waste of time.

Yes. All this uncertainties of NOT knowing whether we are going or staying is driving me nuts. Walnuts. Hazelnuts. Pecan nuts, and all sorts of nuts. Majorly stressing me out. I find that I am clenching my jaw with more intensity.... needing to wear my mouthguard even during my short naps. I supposed I am more anxious about our next posting this time round because S1 will be starting the first of his iGCSE year in August 2011, and we just can't take things likely.

I remember years ago..... I used to harp on H about 'the next posting', and all the uncertainties..... until he got quite fed-up one time and said "I can go and be a taxi driver. I go and drive around, and when my shift is over, I come back at the set time. That's the certainty you want, is it??". Really let him chuei-cheong! And then with years, I learned to relax and just take every posting possibility with a pinch of salt until it is finalised and confirmed.... Afterall, boys were in still quite young then. For a while, the profession of Taxi Driver was not brought up.

UNTIL now!!! Schools. Schools. Schools. Need to know in advance to put in application forms... and NO. Can't just simply apply cause it costs 3000 Euros per child just to put in the application forms. And International Schools are so full these days... EVERYWHERE. What if there are no spaces? PENGSAN lah. So you can imagine my anxiety... which would mean my constant badgering of H on this matter. So one fine day, he said "it's time for you to call your friend, N. Tell her I will drive one of her taxis. Better still. Tell her you will drive one too. Two of us on the job will be better. Oh yeah. Tell her that I want to drive the Mercedes...think I will look better in it than the Toyotas." GILA hubby, I have... (Yes. I know the lady whose family owns and runs the biggest Taxi company here... If you have been to Jakarta, I am sure you would know which company I am referring to)

Oh well. Will update here on what is happening to us!
And btw, the weather at Helsinki today is -13 deg C. Warmer than the last time I checked... which was -18 deg C, but feels like -22 deg C due to wind chill!!!
Oh yah. My GILA boys... we were at the supermarket just now and one of the freezer had -20 deg C on its digital display, and they commented "let's put our heads into the freezer...to train ourselves for -20 deg C!". HAHAHHAHAHAHAH