It's been a while...

Hi! Sorry, it's been ages since i last blogged. I've been really busy with work, my thesis and everything else (as usual). The thesis is progressing ok, hope to finish it by the end of this week actually!

Since i last wrote, i've been up to loads of stuff. A few weeks back I had the opportunity to spend yet another few days at our summer cottage. I had a really good time, reading, exercising and picking wild forrest mushrooms :) I also did a little DIY, restoring an old cupboard. You know, sanding down the old paint and painting it again. I really enjoyed it and i reckont it turned out quite well actually!

A few days after returning from the cottage my friend Riikka & I spent an evening on the grass outside the olympic stadion in Helsinki where Metallica was performing! They played loads of good old stuff and despite being left outside the stadion we had a great time...

Last weekend me and my BFF Erika headed to Hämeenlinna, which is a city about 1 hour from Helsinki, to a spa for a proper girly weekend with pampering, jacuzzi and massages. We arrived early on saturday and spent the day in the city centre, visiting the old fortress in the city. In the afternoon we went to the hotel/spa for massage and hours in the jacuzzi... Awww, it was just what I needed after 8 consecutive days at work...

Erika & me inside Hämeenlinna, the fortress



That's pretty much what I've been up too. My skydive is coming up in a bit over a week so am excited about that! Also found out that my fav band Kent is coming to Helsinki in november and managed to get some tickets, yay!!!

By now you probably know how much i love sunsets, so here's an other one from Hämeenlinna...

My KAr

Just a wee post to show you my lovely little car... So here she is - Poppy my Ford KA :)

A very relaxing weekend

I had the privilege to have 4 days off work, so on friday at 9pm after work i steered my tiny ford towards the eastern part of finland to our summer cottage. It was midnight before i arrived, but i was happy nevertheless :) Unfortunately the weather wasn't very agreeable over the four days, with some rain showers and thunder. However we got a few sunny spells & I tried to enjoy them to 100%. I spent most of my time relaxing, reading and just chillin and sleeping of course... We also bought 25kg of fresh strawberries so did a lot of eating as well lol... Here's some more pics that i snapped over the weekend...

Storm coluds over the lake before the sorm
Mist gathering over the fields a summer night in Ristiina

A sunset after the storm...

Now im back at the office again, waiting for the harry potter premiere that is tomorrow night (I know we're sooo far behind the rest of the world...) :o)

A very productive day

Hi! Just a short post to tell you what I've been doing today... Yesterday i went to bauhaus to get some bits and bobs for my bathroom but ended up buying new curtains for the living room as well. I spent the whole morning vacuuming and washing the floors before adding a new feature - the curtains - to the living room :) I am excited by the new look! All of you who knew what it used to look like, a lot better huh?

After an exhausting 6 hours of cleaning and decorating i then spent the evening hours on the sofa watching dvds and enjoying fresh strawberries :D

Out of town...

Today I spent a wonderful day with one of my oldest friends Jenny. She is studying medicine in Estonia atm so I don't get to see her that often... We both had a day off today so it was a perfect opportunity to meet and catch up :) I left helsinki in the morning and headed east towards the town of Porvoo. It's a lovely historical city about 40 minutes drive from Helsinki. We spent the morning shopping and strolling around the narrow streets in the old part of town.

Old boat sheds by the river in Porvoo

Jenny & I

After a few hours we started to feel hungry so we drove out to Haikko Mansion, a beautiful place located by the water with plenty of gardens and green lawns by the mansion house. We walked around for a while, catchin up on everything that has been happening since we last saw each other (that was nearly a year ago!). We then marched into the restaurant in the main building. The dining area was *really* fancy and posh and we were the only customers so it was slightly awkward but the food was really good!!!

Above:Haikko Manor , Below: me in the gardens

Jenny in the posh dining room in the manor house

I then drove Jenny home to Liljendal where she lives and I spent a few more hours before heading home to Helsinki. I stopped by Bauhaus to get a little stuff for my bathroom and the living room. I will have an other day off tomorrow. I will be spending that day cleaning the house & writing on my thesis, sounds exciting huh??

Time for an update

Hello everyone! It's been a while, i've been pretty busy thus no updates until today. Where should i start? Well, im back from canada, missing all you guys there! Feels like i've finally beaten the jetlag... I was back in the early hours of june 2nd. I was absolutetly exhausted after all the travelling and it felt good to be back sleeping in my own bed :) I was back at work on saturday and it was good to see all my friends at work after 2 months!

Last friday I packed my bags again to travel over to Frederikshavn in Denmark for the cheerleading europeian championships. My cousin Carita, Anna-Liisa & her daughter Karoliina, Satu her daughter Emma and I flew over to Copenhagen in Sweden early in the morning. From there we took the ferry over to Denmark to a small town called Frederikshavn. It was an idyllic maritime town, packed with cheerleaders from all over europe! We stayed a bit outside the city centre in a hostel. The day we arrived was sunny and warm so we strolled around the town. On saturday we did some shopping until it started to pour down so we returned to our hostel and had a quiet evening chatting and playig cards. A funny thing with the town was that shops closed 17.30 during weekdays and 13.30 or 14.00 during saturday. On sunday the shops were all closed. The pedestrian area was filled with people during the days but the minute the shops closed everyone disappeared and the city centre went absolutely dead - not a single person in sight except for maybe a few visiting cheerleaders! Sunday was the day of the cheerleading competition so we headed down to Arena Nord, the place where the competition would take place. It was a very exciting competition with so many good cheer teams from around europe. Finland took 13 medals and our cheer squad, HAC, won 2 medals. Our junior cheer mixed team, HAC Extreme, won a gold medal and our junior all femal team, HAC Jr Elite, won a silver medal! Congrats to them!!!

Enthusiastic supporters

Carita & I supporting HAC

HAC's all female seniors HAC Elite who finished 4th

On Monday morning we headed back to Gothenburg for our flight back to Helsinki. We spent a few hours in downtown Gothenburg and did some more shopping. Around 4pm we got a call from Satu, who had gone to the airport earlier, telling us that our flight to helsinki had been cancelled... We cabbed to the airport hoping we could get transferred onto an earlier flight. Unfortunately that wasn't a possibility so we had to fly back to Denmark, to Copenhagen, in order to catch a flight back to Helsinki. We arrived home around 1.30am on tuesday very tired and exhausted after all the flying back and fort and all the waiting at the different airports.

So now I'm back at home again. Have a day off so am trying to catch up with my laundry and all other household chores that I haven't done for ages. I also saw some of my old friends yesterday for my friend Anu's birthday yesterday. we had a nice picnic at a beach here in helsinki. Below is a pic of me & jenny on the beach.

On the road...

I'm actually writing from Heathrow airport - London. I should not be here now but due to my flight from Halifax being delayed I am indeed on British soil. I'm absolutely knackerd, I didn't get any sleep on the plane here and now I'm supposed to sit here and wait for the next flight to take me to Copenhagen so that an even later one can take me home to my native Finland. It didn't start that well today... I was supposed to take a 19:30 aiport shuttle from Halifax city centre to the airport. Me and some other people stood there and waited but there was no shuttle. We then found out the shuttle bus had a flat tire and woudn't be able to take us out to the airport. Well me + 3 other travellers shared a cab to the airport and it was actually cheaper than taking the shuttle.

When all of the passangers were seated in the plane it was annouced that the plane would need more fuel and the take off would be delayed. So we took off about 45 minutes late and arrived in london about 1 hour 45 min's late. Thanks to the dealy I missed my connection via Copenhagen to Helsinki so I'm sitting here at Heathrow trying to do something else apart from shopping. And I must say: the security procedures here are just silly! I stood in line for about an hour so that I could get to the security check... Aaargh! Well my internet time is up in a minute so gotta go. More updates when I'm home...