In my previous entry I wrote that “I was slow again”, which is actually not really true. I’m not a slow person, at all, but when I typed that I was making a mental reference to one instance where I came late into the picture. I can’t seem to find it anywhere on this blog, even though I was sure I had written about it.

Anyway. This is what happened.

Back in the summer of 1998, I was fresh off the boat in Sweden, having moved to Stockholm and started at my new job on April Fool’s Day. I was definitely a true blue-and-white Finn, and most probably my Finnishness peaked at Xmas that year. That was the Xmas when I went from store to store to store to the Finnish Church in Stockholm, looking for plum jam, or marmalade, so I could bake my traditional Finnish Xmas pastries.

Back then, when I woke up, I reached for the remote control and turned on the Finnish channel on my TV. (No kids, no Jessica, obviously.)

And back then, in late summer 1998, having spent two weeks at a cottage in the Swedish countryside, alone, when none of my buddies showed up – and if I sound bitter about it, even after eleven years, it’s because I am – I returned to my desk across the street from the Royal Castle with an idea.

A slogan.

A marketing slogan for Finland, no less.

Ready?

“Finland – always an hour ahead”.

It’s pure genius, because it’s true. Thanks to the time difference, you see, Finland is always an hour ahead of Sweden.

But an idea is nothing if you don’t act on it. And I’m nothing if not somebody who acts on his ideas. So, I looked up the email address to the Finnish Tourism Bureau in Stockholm, fired off an email to them, explained my idea – which is, really, self explanatory, but still – and told them that they could use it free of charge if they liked it.

For President and Country, you see.

I could already see the posters, the hats, the license plate holders.

A few days later, I got a reply from the Bureau. They thanked me for the email, and complimented me on my genius idea. They liked it. A lot!

“In fact, it was such a great idea that we used it ten years ago. We’d be happy to send you an umbrella with a slogan on it, if you’d like.”

I did. It rained a lot that summer. And it was my genius idea.