I Was Just Walking Around in the Sun...

The summer is finally arriving in Finland. Or maybe its just the spring, I cant tell. Either way the sun was shining beautifully yesterday. So after work I met with Mira for pizza and then we went for ice cream along the river. We went for a soft-ice/99 flake style ice cream this time. Except of course they don't have flakes here :( BUT they did have a choice between vanilla, chocolate, or a mix of the two! Magic. So we sat along the river for a while until the sun went behind some bushes. In search of more sun, we went higher. Towards the observatory hill. We found a second spot, but once again the sun moved behind some trees, so we continued yet higher until we were practically at the top of the hill. Success. Anyway, I'm not sure whether it was the prolonged sun exposure, the high altitude, or a sugar rush, but I was in such a bizzare mood. It was the best afternoon I've had in a while. It made me feel young again, in the days when you could just chill out with friends without a care in the world and forget about the passing of time.

I have some pictures and a song to share with you. In my crazy state I ended up singing a random selection of songs to the increasingly concerned Mira. This being one of them...





I should mention that Mira had never heard of Adam and the Ants before. Anyway, I also have some lovely photos. They're just of the sunshine, but still...

BBQ tonight! Although its partly a farewell party for my housemate who is leaving early tomorrow morning. There have been a few goodbyes this week. It makes me sad. Mostly because it reminds me that it will be my turn before long :(

Last Weekemd

So, its been an interesting few days. We didn’t have the bank holiday weekend like you lucky souls at home (although we had a bank holiday Thursday so cant complain too much I guess). But my weekend has been made up of films, food, and cheerleading.

The film society (I’m guessing) hosted another film festival this weekend, where I saw an interesting Norwegian documentary on the acidification of the ocean, and how co2 emissions are threatening the future of all marine life. Heavy stuff, but enlightening. I also saw a few shorts, some good, some bad, some indifferent. It was all free though, so why not eh? I then went to my boyfriends where he was determined to show me Rocky. He is convinced its not just about boxing. And ok, it isn’t entirely, but is still a bit :p But yeah, it was actually alright, better than I expected. So that was the film section of the weekend. I should mention also, that in return for showing me Rocky, I am introducing him to a wealth of British comedy – Black Books, Fawlty Towers, Michael McIntyre, Frankie Boyle… The list goes on.

Next for the food. I have made Yorkshire pudding for unsuspecting Finns twice this week. The first time was more successful than the second, but both were edible :) I’ve also had mince meat soup and meat balls and potato wedges cooked for me. Its nice to have proper meals for a change. I should get more into cooking. Its not that hard. But supernoodles or beans on toast is just so much easier :) And sandwiches, never underestimate the beauty of a good sandwich :)

Then the cheerleading. Well, yes, my boyfriends sister was competing, and he was official photographer, so I went along with him. It was actually quite entertaining. There’s a lot of different skills involved. Dancing, co-ordination, trust and impressive acrobatics. And with the right music, its pretty cool to watch. I agree that Waldo’s People makes for a good song to cheerlead to, but I must have heard it more than 5 times within an hour! Oh, and 30seconds or so of a remix of Fairytale, which was odd.

But overall an enjoyable weekend. Although the thunderstorm on Saturday wanst so nice. I mean, I was indoors at the time, but inside a wooden hourse… Wooden houses somehow seem like a major fire hazard when surrounded by bolts of lightening… The weather is glorious now though, and I’m thinking of wondering around for a while after work with my camera and taking a few pictures to share with you all.

And I promise I will finish the Russia diarys sometime soon. I took way to many pictures, but have finally sorted through the best and the rest, so should have those started up again by the weekend…

All This Time You Have Had It In You

This is a pretty little ditty thats been on the radio at work a fair bit. Its called All This Time, by Maria Mena. She's from Norway apparently. I think her voice would really irritate me if I heard it too much, but for the context of this song, I think it fits perfectly.

Eurovision Final - My Final Thoughts

Apologies for the disappearance again. I didn’t want to write about anything else until I’d done the compulsory eurovision post, but just wasn’t feeling that inspired. I have to say, it wasn’t the best night (for a mixture of reasons) but even despite beginning to be a bit excited before the show, I still wasn’t blown away by any of the song. Greece grew on me upon a second hearing, but was too early on to be remembered when it came to voting. Ukraine was still shockingly psychotic (I felt the whole thing was designed by someone who couldn’t decided between different ideas, so just ended up doing everything). Iceland, Estonia and Romania were still my favourites by the end of the show. But for the first time in a long time, I didn’t bother to vote. I thought Iceland was nice, and it was my favourite, but I just didn’t want to it to win for some reason. And I think we all knew back in March who was going to win anyway, so I just didn’t see the point. Am pleased that the UK did so well, although I don’t believe that we deserved it actually. And am very sad that Finland ended up bottom. I wonder if Signmark would have done any better? Probably not. As for the actual show, I liked Dima’s bit at the beginning, although I was cringing when he got his coat stuck. Poor guy. That could have ended badly. The walls were a bit strange, but ok. The interval act was all a bit strange for me though. All that spinning was making me dizzy. I think I preferred the interval acts of the semi’s. All in all, I went home feeling that it was a fairly predictable outcome, no major surprises, no major highlights either really. So, time to get excited about Oslo 2010 perhaps?

Поздравляю!

It may not seem it, but yesturday was a landmark for this little blog. Yes, it has indeed been a whole year since I started writing about my random experiences in life. Along with my not so random ones! So I just wanted to say a quick thanks to all who stop by and read, comment on, and generally enjoy this blog. I've had a lot of fun this year, and its been great to be able to chronicle it for myself and to be able to share it with my friends new and old.

Right, enough of the cheese, lets have a song. As its eurovision tonight, lets have a Dima Bilan song. And what song is more suitable than this?

Eurovision 2009; Semi-Final 2

Time for some proper comments on Thursday's semi, before the big night tonight :)

I wasn't so bothered about Thursdays final, and the only songs I was really keen to hear were Estonia's and The Netherlands. Of course, I was curious to see how the favourite, Norway, would do, and there were a few other songs of worth, but I guess without Finland it just didn't seem such a big deal...

Anyway, here are my thoughts;

• I missed the opening act completely, and half of Croatia, but have a thing against Croatia in esc anyway, so didnt mind
• We had a few problems with the signal being bad when stood in certain parts of the room, particularly where my host was preparing food. Ultimately food took priority over the rubbish that was the first few songs...
• As Poland came on I remembered that I had heard maybe 30 pleasing seconds of the song and so we settled to watch. It was quite moving and was making me sad, so maybe it wasn't so bad that the computer then decided to freeze and we missed most of it.
• By the time we rebooted we were half-way through Norway too. However that was the end of our technical issues
• I actually don't remember much of the others. I thought Greece was good from what I heard of it, but was a little distracted at the time :) Hungary was a disaster. They should have kept it simple. He was too out of breath, and the outfits were shockingly bad... Lithuania was actually ok, given their bad track record for the past few years. Azerbaijan was a nice highlight as well. And Denmark was pedestrian but pleasant enough.
• Anyway, then it was my favourites both tucked on the end. Estonia was classy, dramatic, and all in all very very good I thought. Shame I couldnt work out what she was singing. And Estonian and Finnish can't be that similar because the subtitles looked nothing like what she was singing. The Netherlands was just so much fun! Ok, it was incredibly cheese layden and perhaps having 3 middle-aged men and 3 vuluptous backing singers isnt going to be able to compete with, say Greece, but the singing was good, the dancing was naff, and the overall impression was that they were having fun which made me happy. I knew they wouldn't get through though. They are like us, part of no voting block, falling between the lines. A real shame. Eurovision is taking itself too seriously lately, and that was a throw-back to the good old days :)
• So then it was time to compile a list. Again a mix of what I wanted and what I thought would go through; Croatia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Azerbaijan, Greece, Lithuania, Estonia, Netherlands and Serbia just to make up numbers.
• The interval act was hit-and-miss for me this time. It started a bit boring, but got better. As Rachel said, it was much like what we had seen at the Russian Winter Festival. Ah, that was a good day :) Anyway, I'm am so looking forward to the interval acts tonight. I'm so excited!

And then the votes were announced. The commentators weren't so vocal tonight, so got to hear how annoyingly naff the actual presnters were. Oh dear oh dear. But yes, charming in a way I guess... I got 7 out of 10, which isn't bad, but I'm dissappointed I won't get to hear Poland properly, and 'The Toppers waz robbed', to quote Rachel.

Roll on tonight!!!

Maybe The Answer Is Just This Simple Song

Seriously, how did this not qualify? They were fun and fabulous!

Eurovision 2009; Semi-Final 1

So, I guess its about time I put in my 2 cents from last nights semi. I wasn't at all excited a couple of days ago, and even last night I still wasn't that bothered. But today I've managed to have fairly long conversations with my colleague about it. So apparently I've been sucked in...

So here are my general thoughts, written down earlier this morning while waiting for the rest of my antibody purification fractions to elute ;)

• Missed most of the opening, but it seemed nice enough
• Presenters were talked over by the Finnish commentators for the most part, but it seems I didn't miss much. Although I would have liked to hear more from the lovely lad in the green room, haha.
• I liked the postcards. It was a strange but original idea I guess. Oh, I should mention I also love the general logo this year.
  
• And I liked the one-word Russian lessons - although why were they in the Latin alphabet?
  
• The interval act was actually pretty good. Brought back memories of the Russian Winter Festival back in London 2008 :) Oh, and the pink tank side of stage was fabulous!
• As for the songs, my favourites going into the show were; Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Romania (in order). Was hoping to hear a few more nice surprises, since I haven't listened to most of the songs beforehand this year. Can't say I was blown away by any of them though.
• I text Rach after the performances with my predictions (a mix of ones I wanted to go through, and the ones I wanted since I couldn't be bothered to write out 2 lists. Consequently it ended up as 11 rather than 10). Anyway, this is it: Belarus, Sweden, Andorra, Switzerland, Turkey, Israel, Iceland, FYR Macedonia, Romania, Finland & Malta.
  
• I was disappointed that Switzerland didnt get through, but it was always going to be one of those songs that either did really well or crashed and burned.
• Thought Finland was one of those songs as well, so was glad to see it has qualified. The Finnish commentator was also pretty happy, especially since Sweden was announced first.
• Talking of Sweden, wasn't much impressed with it. I mean, the vocals were much better than expected given the rehearsals. However I felt the staging was all wrong, the lighting was bad, and the back singers were waaaay too loud. Just goes to show that what works at MF doesn't always work at ESC.
  

And thats about all I had time for before my fractions were done. But I think it pretty much sums it up. Am looking ahead to the next semi, and am really starting to look forward to the final. Just have to find somewhere to watch it. Hoping there will be a bar somewhere that I can go to. Especially now Finland is through :)

Russia Diary, Part 1 - Moscow

My journey to Russia was to begin at 2pm from Turku (just 2 hours after a visit from my lecturer from Surrey to assess my work here). We got a coach to Helsinki, where we would get the night train direct to Moscow. We had a rather small, but comfortable enough cabin, where we whiled away the hour till morning. I guess it was about 10 hours of so. I lost track. Luckily our attendant spoke some English but there were no problems at the boarder anyway. So we arrived in Moscow in one piece, ready for the busy day ahead.

First we left our luggage in the station, changed some money, and were shown the toilets (if thats what you can call them, I passed thanks). Then our tour guide shepherded us onto a coach where we fought the morning traffic to get out of the city and see some sights. The first place we went was a bit strange. Some building where officials made the decision to abandon Moscow to Napoleon and his army back when. If I were a history buff, I might have been interested, but in reality it was just a small house. After that we went to the War Museum/Memorial, where there was lots of symbolism, according to the tour guide. I believe of course, but there was also a strong icy wind in a big open space, brrrr. Anyway, it was quite imposing, here's a picture...


After that we headed back toward the centre where we attempted to get onto the red square before having a tour of the kremlin. As it happens, it was all closed off for rehearsals of the victory day parade (happening tomorrow in fact). We still got to look at the fantastic church though (from the outside at least). St basil's I think it's called.


After that we walked around the outside of the kremlin walls before getting to go inside, where we had a different and very informative guide to show us around. Within the Kremlin there are some interesting buildings (including the presidential offices) but most notable is the church square, with four different churches. In one, all the tsars of Russia were christened, in another all were, erm, crowned?, and the other all buried. Ok, so my knowledge of Russian history/politics/society is pretty bad. But my love for Sergey Lazarev surely makes up for that? Anyway, these churches were really beautiful. Especially inside, where unlike in Finland where the Lutheran style means hardly any decoration, nearly every inch of the insides of these churches had been covered in biblical paintings. Quite a sight. Unfortunately photography was banned, so you'll have to make do with a picture of the outside...


After that I went with a friend to meet with her Russian friend who then took us to Gum (rym), the world-famous (apparently) shopping centre right next to the red square. Actually, it was one of the poshest shopping centre's I have ever been in. They had a beautiful fountain in the middle, which at the time was decorated with blossom trees.


Then she took us to a church nearby with a strange history. It had been built, and then had its downfall predicted by a nun, then had its downfall, was turned into a swimming pool, and then that was destroyed, and finally the country donated money to have it rebuilt as a church. Maybe its sad past was the reason for such tight security to enter, or is common to pass through a metal detector and have a bag search on the way into every church in Russia? By the way, I could be wrong about parts of the history, but I think thats what the guide said... It was something like that anyway...


After that we walked along Arbat, another famous street, or something, where we had some nice chocolate cake thingys, I saw a sketch of Filip Kirkorov, and we had a picture with a man/woman dressed in a cow costume. He/she was dressed like that because they were advertising the Muu Muu cafe that we had just eaten in. Very nice.

Erm, then it was back to the Kremlin to meet with the tour guide again. This time we were doing a tour of the metro. Which I thought sounded a bit silly. I mean, no one gives guided tours of the London Underground. But then the London underground isn't decorated like this...


Finally, after the metro tour, we headed up to Sparrows Hill (or Stalin's hill, before it was renamed). From here there was a great view of the Moscow skyline all lit up.


Unfortunately that was all we had time for before having to head back to spend a second night on a train. Next stop, St Petersburg.

Roots? Like Beetroot?

This week saw the release of Antti Tuisku's latest single for radio airplay. I don't listen to Finnsih radio much, but I found it on trusty youtube. Can't say that I'm immediately in love with it, but I like enough that I will be listening to it a lot in the coming weeks, and I think its a grower, so will be in love with it in no time I expect. I guess its just that he has taken a break for a year or so, and I was expecting something big to signal his return. Am excited to hear the album though, which better be being released before I leave. Anyway, here it is. It's called Juuret, which means roots. Thats all I know.

Hyvää Vappua

May the 1st in Finland is a national holiday looked forward to by many Finns. Many have even told me they prefer it to Christmas. Then again, their Christmas doesnt seem as much fun :p

But yes, May 1st, or Vappu, is a 2 day celebration of... well I'm not sure actually. But its important for students. If you graduate from a Finnish 'high school' then you get a funny white hat that looks like part of a navy uniform. They have a little gold emblem, which is different for each region. But essentially they all look the same. On April 31st the celebrations begin. Well actually, some people start ealier in the week, and various societies at the university hold gatherings with drinks and traditional Vappu snacks. My celebrations started with the annual speach made by the head of the utu (university of turku) students union. This is held on the hill by the art museum, just north of the kauppatori. And there's were many many many people. There was some music and a choir before the speach, after which the students can then put on their caps. Although mainly a student celebration, many adults and all ages were there to listen to the speach and take part in the tradition. Have a look at some of my pictures to get an idea of the atmosphere...
After that we walked down to the river where there is a statue of ... someone. Every year she gets 'cleaned' by some of the dentist students before getting her cap. To be honest this was a bit lame. In helsinki the statue is a fountain so the cleaning is well, real. But anyway. After that everyone goes off to private parties, and the town is overtaken by drunken Finns.

The next day, actual Vappu, there is a mass picnic held on Vartiovuorimaki (something like that). Its the observatory hill, one of my favourite places in Turku, and something I believe I have written about quite a few times. Well, the place was strewn with sleeping hungover Finns, picnic blankets, mini BBQ's, and there was also a stage with more bands and a DJ and more speaches. Oh, and there was also free ice cream and free fanta :) Again, pictures say more than words...