from the land of the ice and snow
The intrepid W+K team journeyed this week to Kammi in Lapland for a two day planning session. This involved an exhilarating snowmobile safari through the snowy forest, a trip across the Russian border and an evening at Zone bar in Ruka, a place where handrails like the ones you find for the use of standing passengers on a bus have been fixed to the ceiling to give the exuberant young patrons something to hang onto for support while dancing on the tables…
…which they did pretty much continuously. Except when we were hogging the karaoke.
The snowmobiling was totally brilliant.
"So, if in the forest you are set upon by wolves…"
We were warned not to shut off our engines if we went off the track on
our snowmobiles as there had been packs of wolves in the area recently
killing reindeer. Our guide claimed to have fought off a wolf recently
with his knife. He seemed serious but it can be hard to tell…
Chesters and Davidson not paying proper attention to snowmobile safety briefing.
W+K founder Dan Wieden looked a little apprehensive about the snowmobiling expedition.
But we achieved our target of zero fatalities.
We also got naked (yes, yes, completely naked) in the smoke sauna and lashed our sweating selves with twigs and leaves (Tony was particularly enthusiastic about thoroughly scourging himself) before running out into the snow for a plunge in the frozen lake, a hole having been broken in the surface of the ice to admit our quivering bodies. The quite excruciating coldness of the snow on your bare feet on the run/slip/hop between sauna and lake made the freezing black lake water seem almost not so bad. Someone described the immersion as feeling like ‘having your skin pierced by a thousand tiny needles’. Which didn’t necessarily sound like something to look forward to. But it was certainly an invigorating experience that left us all feeling much refreshed.
We stayed in beautiful log cabins, constructed from massive tree trunks and extremely cosy inside.
Planning Director Kevin Chesters kept us entertained throughout the trip and particularly when he took over the mic and performed a "comedy" monologue that lasted the entire duration of a half hour bus ride.
He was assisted by prompts from Nic Owen: ‘Tell us about your granny and the Germans! Tell us about your geography teacher! Tell us about you first date with Mrs Chesters!’ (For the record, this last anecdote involved a romantic dinner at Subway. Knowing that she was French, Kev though a baguette would be just the thing. Kev being tall and Mrs C being not, the rumour is that she doesn’t yet know of his baldness.)
Apart from the sauna, the snowmobiles, the karaoke, the comedy and the evil liquorice-flavoured liqueurs, it was all just work, work, work.
Finnish festive greetings from Nic and Ben:
…and also from Matt: