Hi Suzanne & DKF

Glad to find your site up and running. Had to deliver to Utsjoki last week, first time in ages because been doing the Sodankylä run. Made good time from Helsinki so I turned off at Ivalo to see you. I saw your place is empty, so went onto J’s for the news and saw his business has shut up. Also the bar shop and gaz pump. It was a real shock and there wasn’t nobody around to ask anything. So what’s been going on? Things were looking so good when I was last there...

Hello V

Good to hear from you! We’ve been sending Christmas cards to the last address you gave us (below) but you may have moved on by now.

Yes, you will have noticed a lot of changes, if you have not visited since we last saw you. As is ever the case, it depends upon your point of view and time frame whether you consider the changes are good or bad, but they happened quite suddenly because of the speed of the knock-on effect in a small community..

I can give you J’s address. He has moved out of the area but he’s not so far away, still on Highway 4.

We let our premises go some time ago now, although that was nothing to do with what was happening locally. When I heard about the UK referendum on Europe I knew intuitively which way the vote would go and did not want to be committing to property until I had some more hard facts to work with, because one thing is for sure, once we leave EU the logistics of being in Lapland will be very different.

I visit as often as possible, trying hard to avoid looking English! Nobody anticipated the interim chaos brought about by the referendum, which has very real practical consequences. I would not embarrass myself by expecting anyone to do business with us in these circumstances.

Tara Singh who was a notable teacher in my youth used to say that the wise man ‘expects things to be none other than they are’. I agree with this but I think we have to add to it to get rid of the passivity. Expect things to be none other than they are and look for the opportunity.

J has done this all this life because Lapland calls no shots, and can only respond – or not - to what is happening in the wider world. He’s become very good at responding! I think you will understand the situation better when you read about his project on line. It is very impressive: state of the art eco tourism.

For DKF-K the situation recommended the idea of moving the teaching locations around, which enables us to take the teaching to places which more students can access more easily, I expect we will stay with this arrangement. In this way we reduce the collective amount of time and expense involved in travel – and we get to see a bit more of the world. This feels right now; plaques and fascias and fixed bases do not…