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Not being what you'd call a happy driver, it is with some trepidation that today I take up the gauntlet and drive us all into town. First, I clear last night's snow from the drive: three or four inches and still falling, animal tracks scattered all round the side of the house - reindeer, elk? Emma and Sean take up snow-boarding like natives and we go down the hill on groovy sleighs with a seat in front and runners in back; you scoot with one leg then hop up and you can steer pretty well into oncoming traffic.

The car is a big old Toyota with five seats and five doors, power steering and a warning bleep when you reverse. Strange, driving in these conditions, even with chains on the tyres; most of the roads are under several inches of snow on top of compacted ice, even in the city centre. Added to which it's left hand drive, you drive on the right and some of the driving laws are different to home. Good job they're polite...

We walk through the park at the centre of Oulu, snow falling hard; it's only a degree or two below zero, not cold enough for gloves. We throw huge ice balls into the river from a bridge and they fall right through, bobbing up again like dirty grey marshmallows. Apparently at some points during the winter you are allowed to drive the 10 kilometres across to Hailuoto island. Don't think we'll chance it; navigating the multi storey is stressful enough.

Oulu is a pleasant place, quite cosmopolitan, if having a Thai restaurant counts as cosmopolitan. We eat vast kebabs in a cafe and then walk through the snow to the car. Three: already dark. Home for hot chocolate. Really should read some Finnish writers. Reading Charles Jackson's "The Lost Weekend" instead.