Hommat hanskassa ja hanskat hukassa

"One always ends up feeling ashamed" kuullostaa enemmän jonkun englantilaisen herrasmiehen kevyeltä filosofiselta pohdiskelulta, kun syvän synnyinhäpeän pinnan hipaisulta.

"One always gets to be ashamed" ?

"Can't help but always feel ashamed" ?

"Must I always feel ashamed?" ?

"Shameful, as always"

"Shameful, as usual."

So naturally the writing style is very clear and simple, and I don't mind it, every once in a while it's nice and relaxing to read something that doesn't specifically intend to drown a reader in confusing nuance and a constant barrage of overwhelming detail. It's a simple, straightforward story, set in the year 1615, about a 14-year-old basque boy who gets hired onto a whaling ship, and the whole story is told from his perspective.

I'm halfway through it now, and at this point of the story the whaling ship of the story has reached Iceland, and the sailors are weirded out by the local turf houses. Someone voices disbelief that these people would really live underground, like some kind of gnomes, and asks whether these folk are even christian. Someone else, who has actually been this far north before, affirms that they are - of a sort, at least. They are some sort of lutherans. And underground-dwelling heretics or not, they're pretty reliable people to work with.

Considering that the book is written in finnish, for finnish children, who are also lutheran by vast majority, the deeply catholic basque sailors' views of Icelanders are obviously not intended or illustrated as the objective truth. People who are otherwise good, intelligent and well-meaning can be completely ignorant about people whose like they have never met or even heard of before.

and i said “for the most part. we do have a basement.” i got an eye crinkle laugh out of that!

These very beautifully plated sand treats presented beside our home's sand box. Look at that. They've got leaves as garnish and all.