Village merchant of Tuuri, Mr. Keskinen, launched a new type of ad campaign, which even I just honoured by participating. The key idea is that on buying booze for slightly more than a tenner (the baby Koskenkorva) at the off-license connected to the village shop, you'll get a discount of a couple of euros against the receipt to make purchases in Mr. Keskinen's shop.

This is naturally something the controllers at the National Product Control Agency for Welfare and Health jump at like a sweet-tooth at a chocolate factory! You should get it that what this boils down to is advertising spirits even if the national retail monopoly has nothing to do with it. Of course, it is all explained by the midsummer festival, the time of year when just about the whole lot from southern Finland speeds past the village shop to do their annual falling-off-the-boat drill. It goes without saying that Keskinen pulled out but the ad was out already. Brilliant!

Then we have this go-slow idea by the Finnish Transport and Logistics union, which is another kettle of fish all together. Let's circulate a text message among the lorry drivers: FOLKS, WE'LL TAKE IT SLOWLY THIS TIME in other words on Friday the Midsummer Eve the lorry drivers intend to speed down the highways at 20km per hour so as to keep the speed demons at bay. Luckily I will go by train. This campaign has drawn a lot of attention even in the circles of the State providing the union a chair at the negotiating table for downward adjustment of the Diesel tax. The price of petrol has taken a pretty drastic upward turn. It all came down to nothing, of course, but making it to the headlines is something as such, I guess.