Thank You, Finland

I’m back home in the frozen wastes of the UK. I’m missing Finland already, and only in part because the weather is so much better there.

The main point of this post is to say Thank You! once again to Finnish fandom for being so friendly and hospitable, and for running such fun conventions. That goes double for Otto and Paula, who once again proved to be fabulous hosts, and this year also to Jukka and Eemeli for taking the time to show me around their proposed Worldcon facilities.

This year, however, I get to give special thanks to everyone. At the end of Åcon I was presented with a Certificate of Adoption into Finnish Fandom. It is beautifully illustrated by Jukka Halme Petri Hiltunen. I don’t have a picture as yet because it has to go off to Jyväskylä to be signed by Irma Hirsjärvi, my official adoptive mother. (Otto is the adoptive father). I should be able to take it home from Finncon in July, and will post a picture then.

See what I mean. They are lovely people.

So I guess I am now fannishly a Finn. Which probably means that I’ll be expected to be on convention committees. 😉

7 thoughts on “Thank You, Finland

  1. I’ve been known to dabble in pickshure- business in them Olden Days, but this glorious piece of fannish mastery was drawn by none other that that illustrious illustrator hisself, Petri Hiltunen. I may have had something to do with the general idea for the pic, but it is all Petri’s artwork.

    Or should I write my comments in Finnish in the future? 🙂

    1. Ah, sorry, I was mis-informed (or mis-understood). Petri is indeed a master of illustration.

      I was wondering when I was going to get told I need to learn Finnish… 😉

        1. I don’t know where you get “easier than Finnish” (for English speakers, I assume?), but of course the sad fact is that both Finnish and Estonian sound to each other like archaic versions of the other language, and are pretty well cross-unintelligible apart from some common words.

          If interested, a English-speaking friend has found this free training system useful in learning Finnish.

    1. Yes Mum! 🙂

      Sorry about the lack of a Mother’s Day card. I didn’t get the certificate until it was too late.

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