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!