Year: 2025
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Are you closer to Ireland or Scotland?
A throwaway comment in a WhatsApp group lead me to a deep dive into geodata encoding and drawing a big old line all the way across England (and a little way across Wales!). It's nerdsnipe time!
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A chat with 19-year-old me
Giles Turnbull's written a wonderful piece, imagining a conversation with his 19-year-old self. I wonder what I'd say to myself at 19 if I bumped into him?
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Send Me a Postcard!
Sure, you could leave a comment or drop me an email or say hi on Mastodon... but wouldn't it be cooler if you could send a physical postcard in response to a blog post? Let's find out together.
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The Signal and the Noise is still excellent
13 years ago I reviewed The Signal and the Noise by Pagan Wanderer Lu. Despite being knocked down at least one peg, it still stands among my top ten concept albums ever, and it's now available for free so you should go and listen to it.
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Ten Pointless Facts About Me
A 'ten questions about yourself' quiz is circulating the blogosphere, and I figured I'd join in (and wear four different hats, in the process).
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Found GCAJJP3 Kohtauspaikat - Virtual Reward 4.0
The younger child and I nipped across for a photo while we waited for our tram to come.
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Found GC1JAWP Sibelius Monument
QEF while my family examined the sculpture. What a great spot for a cache, and so well-maintained. FP awarded. TFTC!
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Found GC1JA6P Töölön kirjasto
Very easy find for the kids and I after a delightful visit to the Tram Museum. We went to the coordinates and instantly saw the cache! SL, TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK.
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Found GC8925F SkyWheel Helsinki
A quick photo before the family and I took a ride on the wheel!
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Found GC76AG3 Hauta - Tomb
Found after an embarrassingly long hunt! After reading the hint I quickly spotted the correct hiding spot, but said to myself "no, it surely can't be there" and moved on. Only on my third time walking past it did I think to actually try it, and sure enough, there it was! SL, TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK!
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Found GC6TJ54 63# Levin kierros aka CITOn muistopurkki
Third of three finds on this, my final morning here before my flight to Helsinki. Taking a brisk walk/slow jog up to Hotel Levi Panorama, but first, a QEF. TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK!
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Found GC6RW31 1# Levin kierros
The second of three caches hunted on this, the final morning of my brief stay in Lapland. Found on the second host I tried. Greetings from Oxfordshire, UK. TFTC!
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Found GCBBVQN Magic of Lapland
It's the final morning of my short visit to Sirkka. Having 90 minutes until I need to set off for the airport, I decided to come out for a quick geocaching expedition first. This was the first cache on my list, and I was so glad to choose it. A truly beautiful and well-maintained cache in a wonderful spot. FP awarded. TFTC!
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Second "surprising Finnish confectionary" is Vihreät Kuulat Jaffa Cakes. I ran vihreät kuulat through a translation tool and apparently it means "green balls", which doesn't tell me much.
Knowing it was neither lime nor apple (which were also available in the supermarket I visited) I had to try them, but I couldn't place the flavour. They were tasty, though. We finished eating them before I looked it up.
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A box of Vihreät Kuulat Jaffa Cakes. The cross-section cutaway shows a green jelly within the biscuit, and alongside are pictures of spherical green jellies.
Turns out it's pear flavour, which apparently I have a blind spot for (back in 2013 at an "eat mystery food in the dark" restaurant I failed to identify that I was eating poached pears for dessert).
Now I need to be on the lookout for actual green balls.
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Buying a bag of Haribo in Finland, I shouldn't have been surprised (given the country's love of salmiakki) that the black ones were liquorice flavoured.
And yet somehow, when I chucked a handful onto my mouth, I was.
(Not in a bad way. But definitely in a surprised way.)
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A bag of Haribo ClickMix, opened, held on a white hand.