why are the english resistant to dressing for the WEATHER

[CodRestYeMerryGentelmen]

little thin jackets on in sub zero tepms
thin boots in rain
no rain coats
why why why

SSS - is the new head at the school a guy called John Garrard?

They used to have a man (never met him) but the woman I met I liked a great deal, took over this year I think

PMSL!

STollen, that just has to make quote of the week, how do you nominate??

But That is so true! I only met Fins ONCE in London, and that was back in 1991, I stayed in a hostel in Stockwell, on my first holiday to London.

There are plenty of Finnish people in my home town in the north of Norway. Why?
Because there is a need for health care workers, the salaries are higher, and you get 1 year maternity leave with paid 80% of salary. There is an influx of finnish nurses who come, work, get pregnant, have 1 year maternity leave, in which they manage to get pregnant again, so take NEW maternity leave a month after returning to work, and so it continues, when they have the amount of kids they need, they return home, knowing they have spent 4-5 getting 80% salary from the norwegian state for reproducing and staying home raising their kids. Clever.

sorry that should be 4-5 years

I know a Fin. Just the one. She is young, very pretty, intelligent and lovely.

And she only ever wears jeans and jumpers. No coat, nothing.

SSS - OK

Ok SSS - the guy I mentioned was here at DS's school and left to go to British School in Berlin. Maybe head of junior school. He was deputy head of primary here.

Am going out with a Fin tonight! Class mum's night out and one family are Finnish. Leaving next week to move back to Finland. She wears pink crocs sometimes - always makes me think of cod!

I know one Finn, locally, she's nice. I don't remember how she dresses.

Thing is, Finns speak a deeply weird language, and aren't descended from farmers like the rest of us, they're descended from herders (probably). It's all a little strange.

I'm started to feel annoyed that everyone except me knows 1 Finn.

Is he a nice guy Buda, do you like him? There was a male head here before but he wasn't well-liked from what I've heard. Can't remember his name.

Yep, the finnish language is quite unusual, it is part of the Finnish-Urgric (sp) group of languages, it is pretty unique in that it has more in common with Hungarian than Scandinavian Languages or Russian.

It is not even that related to the various Sami languages you have in the region, which is spoken by the nomadic ethnic groups that travel the great northern plaines of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia without any regards for borders as their land spreads across it all.

ANd is it Fin or Finn?

I love the Finns.
I went to a Europe-funded conference in Greece once and was having a miserable time because everybody kept going on at me about the Elgin Marbles (it wasn't my fault! I didn't bloody take them ok?) and there was a lovely gang of Finns there who I hung out with and got drunk and went for a walk at Delphi in the middle of the night

Been wondering why if they call their country Suomi we call it Finland and found the not all that clear explanation on Wikipedia:

"The name Finland (Suomi in Finnish) has uncertain origins but a strong candidate for a cognate is the proto-Baltic word *zeme meaning "land". According to an earlier theory the name was derived from suomaa (fen land) or suoniemi (fen cape)."

I don't really see how you get from zeme to Finland but never mind...

No, I guess they call their country Suomi in their language in the same way as Norway is Norge in Norwegian.

SSS - yes he was nice but I am not sure how good a teacher he was tbh.

On a totally different (well sort of) note - Finnish is the only European language with any similarity to Hungarian. And even the Finns struggle with Hungarian. The similarities are few and far between.

(Don't you just love threads like these? cod starts a thread in Style about dressing for the weather and we end up talking about schools in Germany, Fins we have known and language!!)

I don't wear a coat if i go out on a night, clubs get so hot and theres nowhere to put it except maybe the cloakroom but then you have to queue to get it back and look after a little ticket etc not good if you're drinking. During the day i'm a coat and scarf person. Don't know why people wouldn't want to wear them there are some gorgeous ones around.

ther are only 5 million finns
not many
and a lto live elsewhere

oh and YES they knwo how to drink

I don't feel the cold that much. I drive DH mad opening windows because it's 'stuffy'. Neither does my dad - he's also the kind to wander round the house opening windows in his shirt sleeves. And my eldest has inherited it. If I'm tired I get colder but usually I don't. So i can happily wear perfectly unsuitable clothing for the weather without a shiver.

I have plenty of sensible clothing but it's for when I go running or for long wet walks and most people on this board would be horrified if I wore it for the school run for example - walking boots, wellies, waterproof coat with map pocket, fleeces, running trousers, trainers... I could go on. I don't do really smart and warm.

kama beg to differ
shops HUGELY over heated so staff wear thin polyester suits and CUSTOmers wearing coats cos its winter swelter

Gawd yes! Shops are usually sauna heat in the winter....

I don't know a Finn but I do know an Icelander! She's got one of those funny surnames ending dottir and all! Does that count?