Tuesday’s guest blogger: Risto Pakarinen

Henrik's gone. Hiking, he said, but who knows. Maybe he’s run off with his kid, out to build their shoebox house somewhere. Or, maybe those are one and the same.

Either way, I’ll be your Henrik for the day. It’s a challenge.

Wearing somebody else’s hat may look easy at the outset but there are so many things you don’t know until you actually do it. For example, the size. Will the hat fit? What if it doesn’t? Is it a one size fit all model, or can you adjust it? If you can’t adjust it, can you still wear it, even if it's uncomfortable. Maybe the hat’s too small and that gives you a headache. Maybe it’s too big and you can't see anything.

Let’s suppose that the hat fits my head, which by the way, is probably just a regular sized head, in accordance with all relevant EU regulations, as I am sure is Henrik’s. Henrik’s might be a bit smaller than mine, he is, after all, out there building a house out of a shoebox.

Unless – unless – he wears really big shoes. Note to self: check out Henrik’s shoe size the next time you see him.

But I digress.

Even if the hat fits, it may be the opposite of my style. That’s fine, because I am after all, simply filling in for him, but what if Henrik's hat looks ugly on me? (Of course, for me, personally, the question is, “do I look ugly underneath his hat?” but not now). What if people look at the guy wearing a cool hat, and walk away thinking, “now, that was a weird dude ... what’s up with the hat?” Then, the next time they see Henrik, with his good old hat, they’d think, “hey, is that the same weirdo we saw last week? It must be, I never forget a hat.”

But you know, sometimes you just have to take the plunge, and jump off the deep end. You have to just get in there, and grab the hat, and try it on for size (and style, like I mentioned) and see where it gets you.

Be bold.

I will now remove Henrik’s hat from my head.