News from Finland

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Norden reports that Finland's new passport has a digital facial photo and a data chip with personal information and fingerprints.

Many people are irritated by people who talk loud on cell phones in public places, according to a recent poll. They are fed up listening to personal or confidential conversations or coarse language. Most of the "abusers" are young people under age 24 and students. Well, we have the same problem over here.

[Kaj Granlund Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Kaj Granlund]

I wish it was just young people. Then I could understand it. But I once had to sit in the train from Helsinki and listen to a woman between 40-45 calling all her friends telling what she had done in Helsinki to which shops she had been what she had bought. She did that for 2,5 hours. I didn't want to know what she had bought or which kind of coffee she had been drinking ( and not repeated time after time). And nearly every call she ended with "see you tomorrow" and the last one: "I'm soon getting out of the train where are you waiting with the car!"

[Gwenda Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Gwenda]

We get it in England too - it is a world-wide nuisance it seems. However, on a recent train trip to London from our home town, there was one "quiet" carriage reserved for people who did not want to listen to other people's mobile phone conversations. We are going to try to book that one next time we travel!!

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Cell phones

Not only do they talk loud, they talk while driving. One young woman was so busy yakking on her cell phone that she didn't see that I had stopped my car and she ran into the back of me. Luckily my car is a Buick and the only damage was a scratched bumper, but her little Nissan crumpled up like a tissue and had to be hauled to the junk yard. No one was hurt, thank goodness.

[Gwenda Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Gwenda]

Are Buick cars built to last then June? Just curious, as my maiden name was Buick. We always thought, as children, that we were related to the car manufacturer people, but once I started tracing my family tree on that side I learned otherwise. Isn't it illegal to talk on phones while driving in the US? It is here, but unfortunately, the odd person (very odd!!) still does it.

[Ayla Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Ayla]

Hi Gwenda,

I'm in London and I wish there were the odd few who still use their mobiles whilst driving, sadly every other person here on the roads has one hand up to their ear with their phone and the other on the steering wheel. So much for on the spot fines. Some even turn corners and go around roundabouts while yakking on them. I never see anyone get caught out.

[Karen Norwillo Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Karen Norwillo]

Gwenda,
My husband and I have been driving Buicks for years. Very good car. I had my previous one for many years. The dealer kept asking me to trade it for a new one. When I finally did after 6 years, one of the staff at the dealership bought it. I've had my '92 Century with no problems, knock wood.
Karen

[Gwenda Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Gwenda]

Hi again Karen - just replied to another post from you. Glad to hear the Buicks are still going strong - just wish that it meant a bit of the profits would come my way, but never mind. Did you know that the person who originally started the Buick car company was a David Dunbar Buick, from Arbroath, Scotland (where my Buicks hail from)? No relation, except perhaps very very distantly, as I said before.

[Gwenda Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Gwenda]

Hi Ayla

Yes, it is a problem, I agree. Fines don't seem to deter them though, do they? Another thing that annoys me re mobile phones is when I am rushing around a supermarket trying to do the weekly shop and there are numerous people on their mobiles, either asking, in a very loud voice, their partners/husbands/whatever for advice on what to buy, or asking where they are in the supermarket (for Heavens sake folks just keep searching the aisles for your lost husband like I do!! Sometimes I wish I hadn't actually found him - only kidding). Sorry, I have been wanting to say that for ages. Happy now

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Buick

My car is a 2002 Buick LeSabre Limited with all the bells and whistles and it still runs like new. My brother-in-law was a GM engineer and he can buy new cars at a discount. He bought mine and had heated seats added - I live in Florida and get kidded a lot about that. But the seats are leather and during the winter on a cool morning, those heated seats are worth it. Everyone in my family drove Buicks and we lived in Flint where Buicks were originally built.