I lived for eighteen months in Poland in communist times and soon got used to the fact that the local Polish staff in the office used to take any opportunity to celebrate anything (like name days) that gave them an excuse to go to the cake shop (yes, there were expensive cake shops in communist Warsaw) and buy a cake to bring to work. They also were careful to inform us that when it was our own name days (and of course birthdays) that they expected us to do likewise.

Now of course I live in Finland and there they celebrate officially (with the same kind of heavily creamy cake every time - ordered from the official supplier) with a rather more formal do when someone turns 50 or 60 (or leaves) and that's about it.

Well my first ever full book (on a computing subject) has just been published and I've just received my own copy of it so I thought this would give me the chance to buy some (cheaper but better than that official one) cakes and invite some old and new colleagues for coffee (bring your own) and cakes to "celebrate" that event.

Maybe it was the word "celebrate" that was wrong, but my wife (my key arbitrar in Finnish behaviour) soon put me off that idea. "You can't do that. People will think you are boasting. We Finns don't like people who show off".

So that idea was off but I'd earlier had the idea of having the same cakes (and coffee) when I reach 40 years in the computer industry (yes, it's possible even though computers were a bit bigger and just a triffle more expensive in those days) in November, so I asked her about that.

"Oh, that would be OK. You could have a copy of the book with you then."

So THEN it's OK, but not if the coffee/cakes are because I made the effort to write the darn thing.

Sometimes I don't understand the people here. (Quite often if the truth be told).