Can Father Christmas ever arrive looking in need of a good feed and without his customary white beard. Yes, if you have Jeffo on your side. Things go wrong for him so many times times that he feels the need to splash the cash to get out of trouble. And we can say just about that here without putting him in the pig’s mire because his girlfriend Sarah (the one he sacrificed a skiing trip for to go on this whacky trip) is not on Facebook. The big worry for him is that his good mate Alfie Muiro, who only joined Facebook to follow this trip, is one of the biggest mouths in the north and could easily do so.
Today we all awoke in a pretty swish four-star hotel because our Aussie leader again couldn’t line us up with a campsite. And a blessing, too, because Finland is still mightily cold at this time of the year and none of us had any inclination to stay a second night in the camper - even with a hot-air heater.
Jeffo papered over the cracks again with a first-class breakfast to get us motivated for another day shoot. If his girl Sarah hasn’t got a clue just yet, we also had the choice of a sauna, swim, back massage, toe rub, facial and a wax. Everyone bypassed a wax except for Mike… His back is now as smooth as a baby’s bum!
On a serious note, Thursday showed us just how valuable dogs can be to people in need. Our charity on this trip is Dogs for the Disabled and we met Finn Anna Pasanen, an inspirational woman who has made every post a winner since she was paralysed in a car accident in 2003.
It was amazing to see how she relies on her 11-year-old labrador Nella and how she is an integral part of getting assistance dogs for those recuperating from spina injuries at the Vilidia unit in Helsinki.
To see how Nella aided Anna in her day-to-day life was touching and rammed home the importance of these dogs. Nella can open doors, push the number of a lift floor with her nose, is on hand to pick up anything that Anna drops, can help her take off her jumper and can also pull her up ramps.
Maybe Osa could have been trained to do the same thing - but God knows how many treats that would have taken.
Moving on, we still hadn’t found a place to stay that night and, I kid you not, we ran into more problems. The plan was to stay in Helsinki but, after eating there Jeffo had a bright idea. “Let’s get out of this joint and get a hotel closer to where we are going to film tomorrow,” he said.
The boys bought it so away we went towards Karjaa. And while we were not full of optimism, our hopes were faintly raised with his assertiveness.
We lobbed up at just before 11pm after being informed by a petrol station attendant that there would definitely be at least one hotel open but it was an all too familiar story. It was a ghost town, the only thing missing was tumbleweed in the main streets. The hotel looked vacant and no-one answered the call button. We drive for 10 minutes and finally spotted two girls in the street, who must have wondered what was in store when we pulled up in our colourful Wicked camper with the words ‘Assassins do it from behind’ embalmed on the back.
They told us the next best bet was heading 15 minutes away to a place called Ekenas. So we did, arriving there to find a similar scenario until two old-aged pensions (mot quite Jeffo’s age) were hailed down and pout us in the right direction. Fifty yards down the road we found somewhere and they cashed in on Jeffo’s desperation. “I thought I’d be out in the street tonight,” Jeffo told the receptionist.
“That will be 200 euros for two rooms, with extra for the dog,” she said. After another 10 minutes finding the room, four men were just about out for the count. The rooms weren’t flash and maybe it was a little ungrateful of us to accuse Jeffo of being ‘walked all over’ by a dozen women wearing stilettos.
“There’s always tomorrow, Jeffo,” James quipped. And with that we settled in. In hindsight it could have been worse!
Please make sure to Subscribe to this blog, as we will be updating our adventures along the way. And make sure to Like our Facebook page to see regular posts! www.facebook.com/4menandadog
Please visit www.dogsfortedisabled to see the charity that we are supporting. And if you would like to donate to the Dogs for the Disabled charity, then please visit www.justgiving.com/4menandadog
No comments:
Post a Comment