Posts Tagged ‘molkky’

July means the annual Finnish summer picnic in Leeds. Last year was Venla’s first and this year she was armed with new skills, including walking and talking.

Both Elina and I failed to do particularly well in the molkky tournament, but better in the welly throwing, with us both coming second in our respective gender competitions.

I’m pretty sure we won the wife carrying by default when I was the only person physically able to lift their partner.

And, of course, we filled out boots with Karelian pasties.

Summer means time for the Finns in Leeds to get together and enjoy the shade. We were lucky with the weather again this year, enjoying a sunny day throughout.

It was Venla’s first Finnish picnic. Though she is otherwise a bit of a veteran of them already.

This year’s event was a little sparsely attended. There were six of us in total. This had the advantage of massively improving my odds in the wife carrying competition, but, alas, Elina opted out.

Other results were mixed: I picked up gold in the welly throwing competition, but my mölkky performance was mediocre. I came last in the first game, before picking up a second place in the second game. Like last year, I was pipped by Martin.

In July we went to Temple Newsam for the annual Finnish picnic. The rain almost held off: it started raining at one point. However, the advantage of having plenty of Finnish men around is that you can jut pick up the wooden picnic table and move it under a tree.

I tried some of the sandwich cake, again. It was still a sandwich cake.

I picked up a silver medal in the mölkky tournament (there was no actual medal). It was very disappointing as the front-runner, Martin, missed his final shot and I threw for the win, but went over and had to start again. Still, Jessica Ennis-Hill only managed silver as well, so to be on her level doesn’t seem too bad.

Last month we went to a Finn Guild event at Roundhay Park to take part in a mölkky championship. Mölkky is a game that combines darts and skittles. You have a wooden block and have to use it to knok over other wooden blocks to reach a certain score. Our team, Thar She Blows, was named after the £1 team t-shirts one of our members kindly provided. We ended up winning bronze.