Helsinki Rugby Club looks to attract new players with free courses in November.

As the embers of the latest Rugby World Cup begin to cool and the superlatives regarding New Zealand’s triumph start to dry up, it is becoming clear that this most intricate and physical of sports has a real feel-good factor surrounding it. The world cup has also provided people with the perfect opportunity to drag up the usual stories regarding Finland’s lowly world ranking position, but the truth of the matter is that rugby in this country is thriving.

The Enneagram of Personality seeks to create better understanding of both the individual and the surrounding group.

OVER the years, have I been romantic and imaginative, or pragmatic and down to earth? Hmm, good question. I stop to think for a moment, and finally settle on the answer that my instinct had immediately selected: romantic and imaginative. Actually, maybe I should check with my wife and see exactly just how she feels I fare in the romance department. I make a note to purchase some flowers and continue reading.

It’s a long way from Hawaii to Helsinki, but this summer someone managed to link the two with what looks like a surfboard pushed by the rider from a standing position with a pole. This at least turned my head as he shot past me in Hakaniemi. Jukka Vallisto’s skateboard came closer to turning my ankle when I encountered him at twilight near Arabianranta.

A relatively recent convert to skateboards, Vallisto has found a rewarding way to shorten his commuting time by using an adapted longboard, propelled by a single two-metre pole for “land paddling”. Like his distant single-pole skiing forebears, he uses the pole for extra propulsion, for occasional emergency braking and (so far unrequired) as defence against attacks from outraged trick-skateboarders. “It adds variety and more upper body effort compared with constant kicking with a regular longboard,” he explains.

The disheartening showing of Finland’s national football team belies many positive aspects the season threw up.

Despite excellent performances in Europe, a disastrous showing by the national team in the European Championship qualifiers, the expulsion of a club and a rise in domestic crowds, the Finnish football season is drawing to a rather mundane conclusion. With a handful of fixtures remaining, Helsinki club HJK have already won the league and minnows RoPS are ten points adrift at the bottom, having won just three of their 28 games thus far.

The district of Kallio, traditionally a working-class area, is now hip and very international.

Tricia Cleland Silva, 29, has lived and worked in Helsinki for five years. She has lived in Kallio for 2.5 years. She is originally from Ottawa, Canada. She is finishing her PhD in management and organisation at Hanken School of Economics. She is married and has a 5-month-old baby.

REGULARLY labelled the “bad boy of the theatre scene’ and “enfant terrible among South African directors”, Brett Bailey continues to be recognised as one of South Africa’s most innovative and provocative directors.

With his new two-part live exhibition Exhibit A – Dr Fischer’s Cabinet of Curiosities / Found Objects at Kiasma, Bailey references the history of Germany in South-West Africa and its current immigration policy.

COMMENCING Sunday 2 October, Helsinki’s oldest traditional event, the Baltic Herring Fair makes itself comfortable for a week of festivities at Helsinki’s Market Square. Having been held at the start of October since 1743, fishermen from all along the South Coast of Finland arrive at the nation’s capital to sell their various products.

FANCY a spot of outer-space psychedelia accompanied by a swag of monolithic, monumental riffs? Well, lucky for you, because the Italian outfit UFOmammut is returning to these shores, bringing fellow Italians MoRkObOt along with them for the ride for a gig at Korjaamo Culture Factory on Saturday 24 September.

MAKING your debut in a big-budget Hollywood film is no mean feat, but for singer Josh Groban a small role in the recent release Crazy, Stupid, Love pales in comparison with the more than 24 million albums that he has sold throughout his career.

Receiving his big break in 1998, Groban performed a duet with Céline Dion for the Grammy Awards, filling in for Andrea Bocelli during rehearsal. From here, things snowballed for the young singer, culminating in his current position as one of the most successful singer-songwriters of the modern era.

In case you can’t afford a plane ticket somewhere warm, Salon Rojo Tropical offers a quick getaway.

As the temperature keeps its steady decline and evenings start creeping in earlier than the day before, you may find yourself in need of a break somewhere completely different, even tropical. But let’s not get excited: that would quickly empty your savings account. A much cheaper option would be to stay in Helsinki and find something that will warm you up. Instead of having a cup of spiked hot chocolate, you may as well try out Helsinki’s newest Latin nightclub.