Year 2014 - spring!

Happy new year, guys!

... Okay, I admit that my plan was to do this post last month. But better late than never, eh?

I did a similar post last year and found it really therapeutic to say goodbye to the year 2013. So I think it's worth it to review what happened in my life in 2014 as well. Maybe it will remind me of my mistakes so that I can learn from then? And more importantly I can see what I've achieved last year so that I can be proud of it. And maybe after this it will be easier to focus on this year and the future.

This has potential to be a bit long, so I'm going to do this in two parts.

So what happened in spring 2014?

January

I welcomed the year 2014 in a small Finnish town with my friends. We stood on a muddy field with sparklers. I had bought myself a fancy new camera with objectives and everything for a Christmas present and had great intentions to learn to use it. 

We sailed to Stockholm with my friends and had a great day out in rainy and wintery Stockholm. When Reseda and Anna would sail back to Finland, Mayumi and I were supposed to catch an evening flight to London. But of course there were problems. We had locked our suitcases, passports and plane tickets into a locker at the ferry terminal. But we hadn't realised to check what time the ferry terminal would close and of course the place was empty and the doors were locked when we returned there to collect our luggage just before our train would leave to the airport. Fortunately, we managed to catch the security guard before he went home. It was his first day! Thankfully, he was lovely and helped us to get back into the building to get our stuff, and we made it back to UK in one piece.

Before travelling back up to Scotland I spent a couple of days in my favourite city, Oxford. I visited J.R.R. Tolkien's grave and just wandered around the familiar streets and felt nostalgic.

When we got back to Aberdeen, Mayumi and I decided to compare whether differently priced Jaffa cakes actually tasted any different. They did. The medium priced were the best ones.

February

In February the sun started shining and Aberdeen didn't seem quite as miserable anymore. I decided that I needed to do something with my life and to start living again. I started yoga. I applied for jobs. I got contact lenses. I travelled to a job interview in Glasgow — and for the first time in my life it was successful job interview! My favourite shop, Lush, was campaigning for equal love. We also had a lovely candlelit Valentine's double date night. Also, our flatmate's Japanese boyfriend was visiting and we organised a road trip to visit some Scottish castles.

March

In March, Satu and I visited Manchester, bought some Lush bath bombs and may have ended up having a bath wearing our party dresses after a wee exploration trip to Canal Street. 

I also went to another job interview, got offered another job and started working in Aberdeen. And that's how the era of riding buses began.

April

In April, I had a lot of early mornings which involved getting up at 3am and running out of the door to catch a my bus to work. Those mornings were made a lot better by our neighbourhood bunnies who ran down the street with me. I really loved living there! Working was exciting but commuting for 3 hours everyday was tiring and I started drinking a lot of coffee.

I had a wee holiday too! I travelled to London to go to #rosweglyn -event, to meet "role models for the next generation of gay girls", also known as, "One venue, a handful of YouTubers and 600 screaming lesbians". I was quite excited to go to this thing! I got to meet Kaelyn and Lucy, who I had been following for a long time! And it certainly didn't make it less exciting that two other lesbian youtuber couples: Wegan (Megan and Whitney) and The Roses (Rose and Rosie) were going to be there too. Because Youtube has become sort of like my best friend, I obviously have been watching their videos too. Unfortunately,  Rose ended up in hospital that morning and wasn't able to be there.

May

This was fairly work-orientated month. I took photos of animals I met on my way to work each morning. It was dark, so I'm sure you understand that my phone wasn't able to produce high-quality photos. But I was so happy about meeting these animals! In May, I also finally got paid and celebrated that by buying a new hand bag and eating some fancy Japanese-style food. I also moved to a new flat, and then back to the old flat because the new one sucked. I also got myself a pool and sauna membership to the new aquatics centre. It was so good for me to dip into a pool after a long day of work and then to relax in the sauna. It made such a difference! And afterwards I liked to go to the pub to get a glass of cheap champagne.

June

I enjoyed summer in my favourite neighbourhood and admired our local Pictish standing stones. Then I received some bad news from Finland and travelled to see my poorly cat. Jonna happened to be hosting a breastfeeding celebration party so I travelled to her village to spend time with her and my goddaughter and some friends. We also got a chance to explore my hometown's dangerous nightlife... The same night, there was someone trying to get into a nightclub with a scythe. I don't know why my mum thinks the rest of the world is dangerous, when this sort of thing happens when I visit home.

So that was the first half. Here's the second half.

Do you enjoy looking back to see what you have done last year? I think I've seen some apps on Facebook that do that for you without you needing to dig through your photo albums like I did for this post. Oh, and if you have written similar posts yourself, feel free to link them to me!

We stayed.

Guess what?

We decided to stay here with the bunnies and all the happiness. It's far from some places, but sometimes far away is good. We have our own things that are close to us. There's a river, a 24-hour supermarket, fantastic foresty jogging route and a little park with a Pictish standing stone. This is our home.

It's been quite a busy week moving back and forth. I really recommend to everyone to move away or to pretend to move away if you ever feel unhappy. It really makes you appreciate your life at your current place more. Unless you actually feel happy about moving  – then you should probably just move.

But I've never been this happy before in the Bunnyland. I mean, I've been really happy living here, but I feel that I've never appreciated this place quite this much. We had some friends over for dinner on Friday, and we showed them around our house, our surroundings and even took them for a magical shopping trip to our local supermarket. It was lovely to see that they were as excited about this place as we are. They even said that they understand why we want to live this far from the university.

I'm also really excited about summer! I even managed to dry some laundry outside at the weekend. I've also been looking at garden furniture recently. It would be nice to sit and eat outside.

Laundry and dinner party weren't the only things that happened this weekend. We also went to a Moulin Rouge themed ball on Saturday. It was kind of a one-year-together celebration for us. And also a good excuse to dress up.

My home ♥

Hello!

I hope you're all doing amazing and enjoying the summer weather I've heard so much about. Apparently it's been about 30°C in Finland. It's about 9°C here and raining. That corresponds to my mood perfectly.

I've been sad recently.

We moved. I don't really feel at home at the new place. It smells funny and just doesn't feel right. It's bad. It was supposed to be everything we wanted. It's right next to university so it's perfect for Laura. And it's not even at the beach side that I dislike so much because I hate the monster seagulls and the stupid street where all the lorries drive like crazy. It's close to my bus stop so that I can get to work easily. It has a bath and our room is big enough to fit most of our stuff and our desks.

But I just don't like it and I don't know why. I miss my home. The old place. I'm there now. We still have it for a couple of weeks. This was my home. The best home I've ever had. All the bunnies and happiness are here. I'm not sure if there's anything at the new place.

But I guess while I'm weeping over the old place, I'd show you what it looks like.

Welcome to my home tour! This is the corridor. Front door on the left and the cupboard door on the right. It was a good place to hang jackets. The corridor also had the best mirror so that's where I put my make up on.

Laura wanted to have a bus ticker on the corridor wall. Instead of stealing one from our bus stop, she made one herself. She updates it sometimes with new features, the newest one being the weather. Check out a typical Scottish weather. First it's sunny, and soon it's pouring. You always have to be prepared for everything. But now I can actually know whether I need an umbrella immediately when I leave the house without needing to open the door. Or the curtains. 

I'll skip the bathroom this time, because I already showed it to you in candlelight.

This is our bedroom. You might think that you can't see all of it in this picture, but actually, this is pretty much all of it. There is a small wardrobe facing the bed, but you can see the other one on the left of the bed and the chest of drawers that you can almost open on the right. That's it, no more room for anything else but the bed. You can also see that I was feeling very interior designerish one day, and bought this bedsheets, and the matching cushion. I'm also starting to like London. One day I will tell you about all the things I have discovered I like about London.

This is our living room. It's where we do our living. It never looks this clean. Normally it's covered in laptops, sweetie wrappers and unopened letters.

This is where we watch TV. Except it's not a real TV. It's a computer screen, but we like to pretend that it's a TV. Sometimes we play Play Station games too. Also, we can never find those coasters underneath all the stuff we normally keep on the coffee table.

I also really like that shelf-thingie. I burn candles there although my safety causous mother told me not to. It's also a perfect place to keep my wine and champagne glasses. It makes me feel like a fancy sophisticated person.

Oh, and look at the kitchen!

We had a guest around once who said it was small. I never invited him over again. I don't find it small. And if I'm awake at day-time the window lets a lot of sunlight in, and it's fantastic. the cooker is very good and efficient and the washing machine works well, and there's even space for a small coffee maker. And you can fit three people in as long as all the people in there are happy to be in there. There's also a microwave and a bunny, but I already showed you them in my "decoration tips" post.

I'm really going to miss this place.

Bye bye, bunnies.  ♥

Even the fish keep swimming.

Hi!

Did you notice how silent it has been on my blog recently? There has of course been a good reason for it. 

I've started a new job. It has been very exciting. I'm so happy that I have a job now! But it has also been hard, and I've cried and I've been tired. During my work days, it's pretty much the only thing I do. I wake up, get ready, go to work, come home, eat and sleep.

I know, that for most of the living population it's normal to go to work and live a demanding life and never to have any freetime. But for a lot of people it's harder. I really hope that I will be successful in my new job, and don't end up quitting it because of stress or unhappiness or fatigue. So far in life I've learned that some things are just not worth it. Life is short, and if something is constantly making me unhappy, I'm not going to stick with it for any longer than necessary. I could always move to Thailand and start a beach cafe for tourists instead. Or to try something else.

No really, I am being serious! Once upon a time, I was going through a break-down thanks to uni stress and went travelling for a week. I then posted pictures of my trip on Facebook and got comments from an almost-stranger saying that I need to stop being so lazy and going travelling using my parents money, and instead I just need to get a job like everyone else. That person had no idea what I was going through. He didn't know that I didn't spend a penny of my parents money on my breathing break. He didn't know that I had sent hundreds of applications and not landed a job. And he didn't know how to be happy.

I want to learn how to be happy. I want to work somewhere where I enjoy working. I want to earn money and spend it on things that make me happy. I want to travel and see the world.  And I really hope that the job I have now will be one that I will enjoy.

We're also looking for a new flat closer to my work, and hopefully also closer to university, where Laura studies. At the moment it takes me 1½ hours to get to work, and I have to take two buses, which don't have a great on-time record. They've also occasionally just broken down, when I'm trying to go somewhere. So if we would find a good flat somewhere where I can just take one bus to work, I think I could live a lot more stress-free life.

I'm also dreaming of having a bath. That's probably the only thing I miss in our current flat. I love all the bunnies, central heating, living room, kitchen big enough to cook in, backyard, patio and shed... Maybe I'll do a post showing our current flat before we move out. And if we don't find a good flat at a good location, we will probably have to get a car.

How has your life been recently? Feeling the spring yet?

Eggs for Everyone!

Happy Palm Sunday Everyone!

One more week to wait before it's time to eat those chocolate eggs. I've now spent quite sometime wondering which egg I want. But it's a big decision so I thought I'd share my ponderings with you guys.

Also, if you're really into good photo quality, this post is not for you. There's no way I'd take my big camera on a shopping trip. We don't have a car, we carry all of our groceries home. With our little hands. We eat a lot. There's no space to carry a big camera. Phone is ok.

Asda has been the best place for chocolate eggs so far. They have a whole aisle full of them.

Small eggs, medium eggs, large eggs, giant eggs — they have it all!

It makes me happy when chocolate eggs make me smile. In fact, this whole aisle made me very happy!

These Thorntons eggs look pretty tasty. And definitely weird enough.

Baileys and Guinness eggs are of course also available. I'm intrigued.

Kinder Eggs have their own large versions too.

And of course the giant egg section had some serious chocolate eggs. I was so excited that I just couldn't hold my phone still.

But Lindt was the best one! Look at all the bunnies!

And they have carrots too!

And soft toys!

I can't believe Laura didn't let me have that one. I'm so gutted.

Then I went to Tesco, and they actually have giant Lindt carrots!!

Thorntorns bunnies and chicks are pretty awesome too. Can you understand why choosing the best egg is so difficult?

And, because this egg thing is probably completely... well,  foreign to Finnish people, I thought I might show you that all the chocolates have their own version.

There's Galaxy and Mars. Amusingly next to each other.

Then there's Malteasers' MaltEasters and Cadbury's Caramel and Minieggs giant eggs.

And Mars' friend collection egg with Snickers and Twix. And Wispa and Twirl eggs.

So many to choose from.

What are your chocolate thoughs this Easter?

Love confessions

Oh look, it's December!

It's time to open our advent calendars! Mine is a Hello Kitty one. Yesterday I was telling my girlfriend about my nightmares and about how I probably would get nightmares if I ever had to enter a house of someone who is obsessed with Hello Kitty. Then I was trying to light candles, dropped the burning match and nearly set the carpet and my leopard patterned blanket on fire. In the end it was all okay, except my finger that now has a Hello Kitty plaster on it. Don't play with matches or this might happen to you.

To celebrate the start of this crazy party month, I thought it would be time for some self-examining "...and that's who I am" picture therapy. For me. But you can do this too if you haven't already!  In the meantime you're just welcome to learn more about my secrets.

This time I'm going to tell you about things I love. Except I find love as a very strong word and almost never use it. It makes me sound too passionate. And I'm not a passionate person! Or maybe I am, but just don't want to show people that I am? To be honest, I'm just overly worried about people finding out what things I really like or even love. Because then they'll know how to hurt me most. And it will leave me in a really vulnerable position. By telling people that I generally like many things but nothing in general will leave them in a lot less clueless position and then they can just mock me about things I don't really care about! But then only those, who I will tell my secrets to, will really know anything about me. But maybe it's time to change that.

Would you like to hear confessions about my feelings?

Snails and bunnies

Hey!

So, moving house happened. Life's looking a lot brighter now! About a week ago we packed our bags and moved to our new place. Instead of broken glass on the street and seagulls screaming outside that we had at the old place, we now see snails on the road outside our house and there are bunnies jumping around in our backyard.

Our fellow resident.

Moving house was really exciting. Unfortunately all of our stuff did not fit into a suitcase. We did a few trips with bags and suitcases, but last weekend I hired a van, so that we could move rest of our stuff. I miss driving. I would like to be able to drive more. Then I might get better at it and stop worrying about it so much. But having a car made moving a lot easier than shifting all of our stuff on a public transport. I'm not an expert house-mover, and I actually kind of hate moving. But it's probably because I have more stuff than I would like to. But I own too many things that I don't want to throw away. Having my own museum would be useful. All the things, I don't actively want to have in my life could go there. Like weird presents and old school books that might come in handy one day.

Waiting for a bus to take us home.

But now when the move is almost done, I like knowing exactly what I have. Some things have gone missing, but I've found things that I didn't know I had. I didn't know I had 10 toothbrushes or chopsticks! Okay, the chopsticks look kind of disposable and I have probably nicked them from a Chinese restaurant when I ended up using a fork and decided that I should really practise using chopsticks at home before I end up in an Asian restaurant the next time. I have since then realised that you can just stab the food with one stick and use the other to pretend that you are eating with them sophisticatedly.

Eating cereal is a lot easier than eating Asian food.

Since moving to the new place, a thought has occurred to me. I realised that some of my headaches and migraines might be caused by my sight. I went to see an optician, and my sight hasn't actually changed too much, but enough to get new glasses. So now I'm going to get new glasses too! My girlfriend thinks they look too hipster. But she's going to get glasses I won't like, so it's all even. That's what relationships are about - compromises and making sure all the feelings are mutual.

I have also been wondering about how I don't know when to come out to people. When should I and when shouldn't I? Does anyone know? Because I am really not sure. 

Is it appropriate to tell strangers that I have a girlfriend? For instance, when an optician asks about my week, is it acceptable to talk about putting furniture together with my girlfriend? For some reason, I feel that she might not want to hear about it – that she might see it as something too private. But if it was a boyfriend I was putting furniture together with, I maybe would not feel that it would be too much information to the poor optician. But why should homosexuality be more private than heterosexuality? And what about when she's just assumed to be my friend? When, for instance, a waiter asks me about “my friend's order”, should I tell them that she's actually my girlfriend? Or would that be rude? Should I just settle for people assuming that I'm out with a friend? I mean, girlfriend is still a friend, right? 

This is probably something that is not only a problem same-sex couples have. – Or at least I hope that people don't assume anymore that when a boy and a girl are seen together that they are automatically a couple. But what do you think?

Did you just delete me on Facebook?

Well, okay, you probably didn't because this is my blog. And presumably, if you had just deleted me, then you probably wouldn't like me very much. And I don't understand why someone who doesn't even like me would want to read my blog. I would understand if I wrote about something other than my life. But because I mostly really just write about things in my life, the only reason why someone who disliked me would read my blog would be to look for some satisfaction about their life by comparing it to mine. But it would be a lot easier to do that on Facebook.

I'm glad I made sure that you're not the person who deleted me on Facebook. But isn't it annoying when you realise that someone did? Especially when you don't know who. You just know that there's someone who decided that you're not important for them and that they don't even want to know you anymore. It's possibly even more annoying than seeing that your ex-facebook-friend who you were just about to message has deleted you. It's like that, but with the added mystery.

It's sad when someone does not want to be your friend, but in that case it's just easier for me that they deleted themselves from my friend list. It saves my facebook cleaning time and I will have more time to hang out with people who want to be my friends.

This is my Bunny of Internet Connectivity.

Last month I had a chance to spend quality time with some of my favourite real life friends and I feel so happy about it! Those were the happiest moments I've lived for the past year! In this time of internet connectivity, I think I might write a blog post about those moments at some point.

Chocolate at Brown Sugar Cafe, Ballater.

In other technology news, I also bought my very first smart phone! It's pink and has internet. I'm not very good at using it yet, but I like it. It keeps me connected with my friends. On Saturday I used it to take a photo of chocolate I was about to eat so I that I could upload it on Facebook for everyone to see. I may have become one of those people. I'm okay with it. I was adviced to try and be more social. Everyone needs to start somewhere and social media seemed like a good place for that.