Summer time & good wine!

My trial by fire is over for a moment and it's time to relax and enjoy the Finnish summer! The palm of my right hand is still swollen from the crash on the Xtrem in Slovakia so I have a doctor's order to take it easy now which I don't mind at all ;) This weekend Finland is going crazy with the traditional midnight sun party! Big festivals all over the country, big bonfires will be lit up at midnight by thousands of lakes and the party will go on from Friday night until Sunday. Well, my life has been hectic enough lately and my party will be sitting in a boat on a lake fishing and having sauna, eating good and just relaxing and enjoyin good weather. It means hopefully more than +20C during the day and not lower than +10C at night! I mean it is Finland after all and after the heat of the Southern Europe it feels like somebody turns the air conditioning on full power when the sun is setting... well, in South of Finland it sets for few hours only but it doesn't get dark.

The photo above is made at our home after the GP of Italy and we wanted to celebrate the victory with one of the special red wine bottles my friend Alfredo Ciresa (the owner of HM Honda Italy) gave me last time we met. It was before the Italian GP in Introbio, north of Italy where the HM is located. Alfredo invited us for a dinner and after we had eaten good he selected some of the best Italian red wines for me to take back in Finland! Alfredo knows me pretty well. I am an athlete who has to make some sacrifices in life to reach the top of the world but I know how to enjoy life as well!

After my tour de force in Eastern Europe we decided to uncork another wine from Alfredo's selection. This time it was a Merlot from the lake Garda in Northern Italy and it was gooood! Right now I am at the summer cottage of my wife's brother and we have had already some hours on board our fishing boat in a swimsuit... Yes, it was like an Indian summer today! We got sunburns! Imagine! I got sunburns in Finland after I have been in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland and Slovakia!! Hope this weather will a last over the weekend!!