Jetting Educated

Recently I took an 18 hour journey involving a bus, two planes and the tube to get from Lapland to London. The short season was complete and the reindeer that worked for us had gone on holiday! They've earned it! I'll miss the reindeer. They were gentle, shy and beautiful. Oh wait- the reality of 'holiday' is that they are being slaughtered and made in to reindeer burgers. Of course the children in Lapland were more than happy to hear that their furry friends were going on a cute vacation; as intended, they did not understand the euphemism. Meat industry aside, I was happy to be back in my Dad's house in Blighty. My new pal Holly and I were going to have a chilled night in after the long day travelling, before she headed back to a place (that I rarely go to as a good Southerner) called 'The North of England'. Needless to say that the weather in the UK was very mild compared to the Arctic circle. Joyfully there was no snow and the tem...

I can't help but noticing that its beginning to look a lot like Christmas . Towns throughout out the UK have had washed up celebs turning on the lights, festive adverts have been on TV for weeks and Christmas tat has been cropping up in shops as far back as September.   This part of Finland is just inside the Arctic Circle Not that I don't love that stuff- I do! But this year I have been working at a resort in Lapland, trying to have a bit of a different Christmas. The resort does its best to distance itself from the cheesy and provide a more down to earth winter holiday.  It does achieve this largely, but as I'm only here for 39 days I've been focusing first on trying to quickly get used to the strange wonderland before I have to leave it. Due to the harsh environment up inside the Arctic circle there are some things that you'll just have to start finding normal. The average temperature has been about minus eight centigrade (17 degrees Far...