The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post

Aganzir · 08-16-2009, 12:54 PM

Some time last spring I was IMing with Rune, who told me he and Kath had been thinking about a possible Finland get-together (that's how it started, really!). We hadn't really been planning anything, but none of us had anything against it, so it happened that Rune arrived on the 8th, skip spence on the 9th, and Kath on the 10th of August. Volo's family kindly let us borrow their house again, so we spent most of the time there. At times the main group (the aforementioned, plus Lommy, Greenie, Nogrod, Legate, Volo, and yours truly) was joined by dancing spawn and our friend Annina. Unfortunately we didn't manage to meet Annunfuiniel, who is also a Finn.

When I arrived at Nog's place last Saturday, Nog, Lommy, Green & Legate had already picked Rune up from the airport. I can't remember how exactly we spent that day, but I (and Annina) left around 1 am and the others saw us to the bus stop.

On Sunday Lom & Green took Rune to Seurasaari (Rune, Green, spawn), which is a small and pretty island with old Finnish houses and lots of tame squirrels. I was busy so I didn't come along but went straight to Nog's place later, where I met him and skippy. Soon the others arrived as well, bringing Volo and spawn with them. We played some Paper Telephone, wrote stories the same way, ate, and left for Volo's house. There we played Twister, which was lots of fun. The photo features Legate, Greenie, Volo, and Lommy. Nog and skippy slept in a bunk bed. It looked funny.

Kath arrived on Monday. Annina, Rune, Greenie and I went to pick her up, while Nog, Lommy, Legate, skip, and Volo were in another car, ready to head to Nog's family's summer cottage. We were half an hour late because we thought her plane would land later, but luckily she didn't have to wait for too long. And poor Kath had no time to get used to Finland when she was taken straight to the wilderness! Fortunately she wasn't too shocked. Even the weather was (mostly) good and the water in the lake was warm.

This year we hadn't planned any RPG, so we just spent our time doing whatever you can do at a summer cottage. We had a sauna, swam, played cards, rowed on the lake (skip, Nog & Annina), cooked (Nog, Agan, Kath, Volo, Lommy), wrote more stories, went to pick mushrooms and berries, made crepes, enjoyed small, moderate, or large amounts of alcohol (depending on the person), and talked, talked, and talked about topics such as politics, history, religion, the Downs, animal rights in Denmark, sauna clubs, and whether Rune is Ron Weasley or not. It was lots of fun.

We came back to Helsinki on Wednesday and went to eat in a small pub/restaurant (the (mostly) blonde side: Volo, Rune, Green, Annina. The dark side: Lommy, Legate, Kath, skip). Spawn came over to Volo's place as well, so I think we broke the previous record since there were ten of us (Volo, Green, Lommy, Legate, Agan, Kath, Nog, skip, Rune, spawn. Sorry for the bad quality, but it's impossible to get 10 Downers to stay still and smile at the camera at the same time. Here's a better one which also includes Annina). It was a fabulous evening. Kath taught us a cheerleading thing (can't remember what it was called. Volo is held up by Rune, Annina, skip, and Kath herself). Then we wrote more stories (the point was that everybody writes two lines, and the next writer can only see the latter line before writing her/his own two lines. In the photo: Rune, Nog, spawn, Kath, Green, Agan). There were some darn funny ones, and we might post one also here at some point. First we must find a family-friendly one, though.

One of the highlights was a real-life werewolf game with 11 players (almost as many as in the first BD WW). Of course we couldn't do much in-depth analysis or anything, but it was very interesting nonetheless, and I think we all agree that skip should start playing werewolf! For the record, three people in the photo (skip, Rune, Nog, Annina, Green, spawn) are werewolves. Can you guess who?

Poor spawn left around 4am, and we others went to sleep. Nog and skippy had to wake up terribly early since skip was going back home on Thursday, but we others could sleep a bit longer. A bit longer varied from 11am (Green) to 2.30pm (Volo). We didn't do very much that day - Lom & Green visited their home to get some more clothes, Kath, Rune & I went to grocery, and then we just played cards. In the evening we made food ourselves since our favourite cook Nogrod was in his choir rehearsal - pasta, a mushroom-blue cheese-onion sauce, and a bolognese sauce. At least the former was quite good, if I may say so myself.

Then we went out with spawn. We encountered some difficulties since Greenie is still underage and several bars don't let under 20-year-olds in anyway, but we found a nice enough place to sit for a couple of hours. But we left in a hurry because we wanted to catch a bus, and we had walked good 200 metres when we realised we had forgotten Volo! He had gone to the toilet, and although he was there for maybe a minute or two, when he came back the table that had previously been crowded was completely empty. Whoops.

From the bus stop we decided to walk the 30+ minutes it took to Volo's. Kath looked like she was cold, so the gentlemen Rune and Volo lent her their coats (in the pic: Volo, Lommy, Kath, Rune). It made her more comfortable - until we had to walk uphill.
Back at Volo's, we ate the delicious blueberry-raspberry pie Greenie had made earlier that day, and Volo dressed in leather pants and a pink t-shirt. Then we went to sleep since everybody (except for me) was tired.

Rune left on Friday. We saw him off to the airport and went back to Volo's just to find that his family had returned from their holiday a couple of days earlier than we had thought. So we packed up and went to stay the last days at Nog's instead. We watched Monty Python and played cards.

On Saturday we took Kath to the Suomenlinna sea fortress. We walked around and ate candy, and Greenie and I went to swim. The others thought the sea was too cold. We also visited our old haunts we've taken every Downer to see - the so-called Barrow-Downs (Volo, Annina, Kath, Legate, Lommy) and Dead Marshes (Agan, Legate, Lommy, Greenie, Kath, Volo, Annina). Then we found a couple of Downer-appropriate photographing sites: a hole in a wall and a gravestone look-a-like. Also, Kath stuck her head in a cannon.

Later at Nog's we entertained ourselves by watching the participants of the Helsinki City Marathon, who ran right past his balcony. From his flat it's about 1.5 km till the finishing line, so they were quite tired. Then we watched more Monty Python, and when we got tired of it, we went out to a park and introduced Kath to Mr Théodred, whose face has been painted black recently.

This morning everybody slept over, and we woke up half an hour before we were supposed to leave when Annina called me and told she was leaving home now. We managed to get to the airport in time, though, and said goodbye to Kath.

It was a lovely week with amazing people, and I miss them all already. They're so sweet and funny to spend time and talk with. Thanks so much for coming.

♥

(The photos included in this post have been taken with my, Volo's and Legate's cameras, so most of them are consecutively taken by us, but thanks to everyone who took pictures.)

08-16-2009, 12:54 PM	#629
Aganzir Woman of Secret Shadow Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: in hollow halls beneath the fells Posts: 4,511	So... Some time last spring I was IMing with Rune, who told me he and Kath had been thinking about a possible Finland get-together (that's how it started, really!). We hadn't really been planning anything, but none of us had anything against it, so it happened that Rune arrived on the 8th, skip spence on the 9th, and Kath on the 10th of August. Volo's family kindly let us borrow their house again, so we spent most of the time there. At times the main group (the aforementioned, plus Lommy, Greenie, Nogrod, Legate, Volo, and yours truly) was joined by dancing spawn and our friend Annina. Unfortunately we didn't manage to meet Annunfuiniel, who is also a Finn. When I arrived at Nog's place last Saturday, Nog, Lommy, Green & Legate had already picked Rune up from the airport. I can't remember how exactly we spent that day, but I (and Annina) left around 1 am and the others saw us to the bus stop. On Sunday Lom & Green took Rune to Seurasaari (Rune, Green, spawn), which is a small and pretty island with old Finnish houses and lots of tame squirrels. I was busy so I didn't come along but went straight to Nog's place later, where I met him and skippy. Soon the others arrived as well, bringing Volo and spawn with them. We played some Paper Telephone, wrote stories the same way, ate, and left for Volo's house. There we played Twister, which was lots of fun. The photo features Legate, Greenie, Volo, and Lommy. Nog and skippy slept in a bunk bed. It looked funny. Kath arrived on Monday. Annina, Rune, Greenie and I went to pick her up, while Nog, Lommy, Legate, skip, and Volo were in another car, ready to head to Nog's family's summer cottage. We were half an hour late because we thought her plane would land later, but luckily she didn't have to wait for too long. And poor Kath had no time to get used to Finland when she was taken straight to the wilderness! Fortunately she wasn't too shocked. Even the weather was (mostly) good and the water in the lake was warm. This year we hadn't planned any RPG, so we just spent our time doing whatever you can do at a summer cottage. We had a sauna, swam, played cards, rowed on the lake (skip, Nog & Annina), cooked (Nog, Agan, Kath, Volo, Lommy), wrote more stories, went to pick mushrooms and berries, made crepes, enjoyed small, moderate, or large amounts of alcohol (depending on the person), and talked, talked, and talked about topics such as politics, history, religion, the Downs, animal rights in Denmark, sauna clubs, and whether Rune is Ron Weasley or not. It was lots of fun. We came back to Helsinki on Wednesday and went to eat in a small pub/restaurant (the (mostly) blonde side: Volo, Rune, Green, Annina. The dark side: Lommy, Legate, Kath, skip). Spawn came over to Volo's place as well, so I think we broke the previous record since there were ten of us (Volo, Green, Lommy, Legate, Agan, Kath, Nog, skip, Rune, spawn. Sorry for the bad quality, but it's impossible to get 10 Downers to stay still and smile at the camera at the same time. Here's a better one which also includes Annina). It was a fabulous evening. Kath taught us a cheerleading thing (can't remember what it was called. Volo is held up by Rune, Annina, skip, and Kath herself). Then we wrote more stories (the point was that everybody writes two lines, and the next writer can only see the latter line before writing her/his own two lines. In the photo: Rune, Nog, spawn, Kath, Green, Agan). There were some darn funny ones, and we might post one also here at some point. First we must find a family-friendly one, though. One of the highlights was a real-life werewolf game with 11 players (almost as many as in the first BD WW). Of course we couldn't do much in-depth analysis or anything, but it was very interesting nonetheless, and I think we all agree that skip should start playing werewolf! For the record, three people in the photo (skip, Rune, Nog, Annina, Green, spawn) are werewolves. Can you guess who? Poor spawn left around 4am, and we others went to sleep. Nog and skippy had to wake up terribly early since skip was going back home on Thursday, but we others could sleep a bit longer. A bit longer varied from 11am (Green) to 2.30pm (Volo). We didn't do very much that day - Lom & Green visited their home to get some more clothes, Kath, Rune & I went to grocery, and then we just played cards. In the evening we made food ourselves since our favourite cook Nogrod was in his choir rehearsal - pasta, a mushroom-blue cheese-onion sauce, and a bolognese sauce. At least the former was quite good, if I may say so myself. Then we went out with spawn. We encountered some difficulties since Greenie is still underage and several bars don't let under 20-year-olds in anyway, but we found a nice enough place to sit for a couple of hours. But we left in a hurry because we wanted to catch a bus, and we had walked good 200 metres when we realised we had forgotten Volo! He had gone to the toilet, and although he was there for maybe a minute or two, when he came back the table that had previously been crowded was completely empty. Whoops. From the bus stop we decided to walk the 30+ minutes it took to Volo's. Kath looked like she was cold, so the gentlemen Rune and Volo lent her their coats (in the pic: Volo, Lommy, Kath, Rune). It made her more comfortable - until we had to walk uphill. Back at Volo's, we ate the delicious blueberry-raspberry pie Greenie had made earlier that day, and Volo dressed in leather pants and a pink t-shirt. Then we went to sleep since everybody (except for me) was tired. Rune left on Friday. We saw him off to the airport and went back to Volo's just to find that his family had returned from their holiday a couple of days earlier than we had thought. So we packed up and went to stay the last days at Nog's instead. We watched Monty Python and played cards. On Saturday we took Kath to the Suomenlinna sea fortress. We walked around and ate candy, and Greenie and I went to swim. The others thought the sea was too cold. We also visited our old haunts we've taken every Downer to see - the so-called Barrow-Downs (Volo, Annina, Kath, Legate, Lommy) and Dead Marshes (Agan, Legate, Lommy, Greenie, Kath, Volo, Annina). Then we found a couple of Downer-appropriate photographing sites: a hole in a wall and a gravestone look-a-like. Also, Kath stuck her head in a cannon. Later at Nog's we entertained ourselves by watching the participants of the Helsinki City Marathon, who ran right past his balcony. From his flat it's about 1.5 km till the finishing line, so they were quite tired. Then we watched more Monty Python, and when we got tired of it, we went out to a park and introduced Kath to Mr Théodred, whose face has been painted black recently. This morning everybody slept over, and we woke up half an hour before we were supposed to leave when Annina called me and told she was leaving home now. We managed to get to the airport in time, though, and said goodbye to Kath. It was a lovely week with amazing people, and I miss them all already. They're so sweet and funny to spend time and talk with. Thanks so much for coming. ♥ (The photos included in this post have been taken with my, Volo's and Legate's cameras, so most of them are consecutively taken by us, but thanks to everyone who took pictures.) __________________ He bit me, and I was not gentle. Last edited by Aganzir; 08-16-2009 at 12:59 PM.