Year 2014 - autumn!

Hi!

So now it's time for the second part of this 2014 reminiscing thing I thought I'd do. In case you missed the first half, here's months January - June.

...So what happened in the autumn 2014?

July

July started with a trip to the vet. My cat died, and we buried him. I was very sad. I also spent a lot of time with my family members and best friends while I was still in Finland. I went to see my brother's first own flat, went strawberry picking with my sister and went to the Moominland with my best friends and goddaughter. Soon it was time to get back home to Scotland, but the weather was actually really lovely and warm so I got to go to the beach a couple of times before that! After that the rest of the month was just routine: working either early mornings or afternoons and getting home really late. 

These picture collages actually make my time in Finland look really long. It was actually less than two weeks, but it just happened to be the end of June and beginning of July and the most significant thing that happened to me in the summer.

August

August was actually pretty cool. I discovered my new favourite beer: Tsingtao 青島啤酒廠, a Chinese beer. There was also Aurora International Festival 2014 : a group of French folk dancers travelled from Toulouse to Aberdeen by bus (!) to perform their dances and to experience the Scottish culture. I went to a couple of their events and had a great time - they were such lovely people!

But the best thing in August was Manchester Pride Festival. It was such an amazing and well organised event! They had so many things going on and the whole Manchester Gay Village was accessible only with the festival wristband (which was really cheap considering all the events included in it!) which made it feel really safe as well. During a regular weekend, Manchester is fantastic compared to Aberdeen. Instead of one gay bar you get a whole street full of them plus a couple of extras but during the Pride Weekend it was just incredible! I spoke to one straight girl who had come to the festival just because she thought it would be a great event and she was so excited she said she would come back next year too. (So that's this year! Who wants to come with me?!) It was like one of these big all-weekend music festivals that I've been to before in my life but with all sorts of amazing extras. And really good performers. I'm so excited I saw Heather Peace, Foxes and Conchita Wurst. From front row. ... Aaahhh!  

Also, I sent my mum a postcard from Pride. That's something I thought I'd never do. Last time I went to a Pride Festival I had to lie to her and claim that I went somewhere else.

September

Carrying on with this theme of each months highlight being a trip somewhere: September was about Crete. I had never been to a beach holiday before. I had actually never travelled anywhere where it would be sunny or warm. My previous holiday destinations have ranged between Alaskan tundra, an uninhabited island in the middle of the North Sea, Germany in the winter etc. So I guess you can imagine my excitement? And perhaps understand that only 5% of the clothes I packed were actually even suitable for such weather conditions. It was so hot. What is that madness of not needing a jacket? Even in the evening? Mediterranean was such a beautiful and lovely place. I smothered myself with sun screen and enjoyed the sun and a few great cocktails. I was so pleased with the expensive sandals I had bought for this trip. I didn't want to wear anything else during this trip.

That trip was just so much more amazing than the new green coke – Coca-Cola Life –  that has 37% less white sugar because it has been replaced by Stevia sugar. But it was probably the most exciting thing in my life to happen in September besides the holiday. I mean, green coke. What is that?

October

October was wet. Very wet. And I was getting a bit tired. I went swimming, but it was pretty much the only excitement in my life. I felt a bit lonely as well. I was working only evenings anymore which I didn't really like – I preferred to have a mixture of late and early shifts. I wasn't really happy with how things were in my life. I started applying for new jobs and funding to go back to uni.

November

In November I got early shifts again and got to run to work with the bunnies before dawn! It made me feel so much better. I was also feeling really Christmassy since at work there had been all sorts of Christmas stuff going on for over a month already. So I put our Christmas tree up mid-November and listened to a lot of Christmas music. I also attended my work's Christmas party which was quite an experience... Before that I, however, had a sophisticated day trip to Fraserburgh's Lighthouse Museum which I would like to visit again, because we didn't actually have enough time to go and see the actual lighthouse.

Finland's government passed the equal marriage law which was a good reason for a wee celebration and some bubbly wine! It went well with some fajitas and a good lesbian movie Better Than Chocolate. 

I also had another successful job interview! I decided not to take it though because I also got money to go back to university.

December

December was fabulous. I quit my job and flew to Finland where I spent the first three days sweating and having problems breathing because the houses were so warm and the air was so very dry. And then there was snow! And my brother had a new kitten! And I went on a Turku-Stockholm party cruise twice! And there was Christmas and I loved all the lovely Christmas trees and all the yummy food!

I also turned 25 in December which is a bit scary because it's a quarter of a century which makes me sound really old. Like should I be sensible and know what I'm doing in life? I know nothing. But it's OK. I had a small birthday outing on my actual birthday but it ended up being like a double date in a table reserved for 10 people in a restaurant. It was a bit embarrassing, but at least the most important people were there. So much for those friends who didn't show up. But Tiia offered me a birthday dinner in a fancy restaurant when I arrived in Finland and afterwards we went to see Turku Christmas market!

I also liked that silly white T-shirt. I took that picture when I first saw it before Christmas and bought it later in January sales. Now I can wear it and be creepy.

The end. 

Okay, life goes on, and 2015 looks fairly promising!

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..."

You better watch out, you better not cry,

"...he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake!"

Sorry. That was probably too creepy.

But basically I just wanted to tell you that I have a new Christmas CD!

This is the first Christmas I have a Christmas CD! Before I've always listened to death metal or Emilie Autumn's joyous songs such as this one:

But it's not a particularly Christmassy song.

But I'm very into Mindy Gledhill's music and when I discovered that she has a Christmas song CD, I felt that it was important for my Christmas spirit to order it all the way from California! It arrived this week and I've been listening to it everyday.

Oh look, I took a picture of it with my phone.

There are several classic Christmas songs and also a few of Mindy's own ones, including the song "Winter Moon" which the album is named after. 

The track list looks like this:

1. Santa Claus is coming to town

2. O Come All Ye Faithful

3. Christmas Waltz

4. Patapan / O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

5. Little Saint Nick

6. Toyland / White Christmas

7. Winter Moon

8. Little Soldier

9. The Christmas Song

10. Silent Night

This is my favourite Christmas music! 

Here, have a wee listen yourself:

This year I've actually been really early with Christmas. I resisted putting the Christmas tree up until 22nd November. I had then been dreaming of having a Christmas tree up for a couple of weeks.

Unfortunately that's almost all the decorating I got to do since we had forgotten to take some of our decorations down last year and they were already up. Has that ever happened to you?

But I'm so into Christmas this year! I haven't really even been excited about Christmas before, and this year I'm not even sure what I'm going to do for Christmas. But this year it hasn't been just about waiting for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This year it's been about all the songs and the smells and preparation. And the general good mood while waiting for Christmas.

What am I waiting for?

I'm waiting for some Finnish Christmas baked tasty things. Christmas stars (joulutorttu) and ginger bread biscuits (piparkakku). The links will take you to recipies in English. I haven't tried out this recipies but the pictures look accurate.

But yeah, mostly I just looking forward to eating good food and enjoying peacefulness. Candles and some good coffee. Maybe I'll even try to read a book.

O Sing, choirs of angels,

Sing in exultation,

Sing all that hear in heaven God's holy word!

Disgusting plastic

Wow,

I don't know what's happened to me but this Lyra is becoming an eco-Lyra. 

Maybe I've been working in a shop for too long and seen how much rubbish we produce and how many unnecessary things we try to sell to consumers. Or maybe I'm just getting increasingly disgusted with plastic. This plastic-disgust-thing has been going on for a few years now and I've tried to replace all of my plastic kitchen tools with silicone. It hasn't really happened yet apart from my spatula, stirring spoon and rolling pin though. I'm skint and always have been.

You maybe read in my last blog post that I was going to order a bamboo toothbrush. Well, I did order it and can't wait for it to arrive. Apparently toothbrushes are a really big waste problem and can't be recycled and last in landfills for about a 1,000 years. I haven't researched this info, but in my plastic-disgust I believe it to be true enough to invest in an beautiful wooden toothbrush.

The picture will take you to their online store.

It wasn't even a big investment, because many plastic toothbrushes are even more expensive than these ones, and hopefully my teeth will appreciate this. My student budget has normally encouraged me to buy a £1 pack of 5 toothbrushes, but I guess it's okay to feel like I'm saving the planet while brushing my teeth.

Scotland also recently passed a law where all the shops have to charge 5p for every plastic bag and give that money to charity. I can't believe how many people have moaned about that law. They say that the plastic bags are not worth the money and that it's ridiculous to make people to save the plastic bags and that it will just allow stores to charge more for things. I think they are missing the point. I feel that it will encourage the stores to give more money to charity and to make people think about the environment by bringing their own reusable bags. The shop where I work is actually exempt from this law, so we don't charge for the bags but I can see the difference in my customers. So many people say 'no, thanks' when I ask them if they need a bag and they happily pack their purchases in their backpack or reusable shopping bag. It makes me so happy! Most of the time those plastic bags are so unnecessary, you only use it for a number of minutes and then you throw it in the bin.

Picture from Zero Waste Europe -website. Click to visit!

I prefer to carry my shopping home in a canvas bag anyway, because they fit my body better and are easier to carry. Maybe stronger people haven't had this problem, but I really appreciate my own bags. Of course people with cars don't have to carry their shopping very far anyway, so for them it's maybe even better that there is that 5p encouragement fee. Have you guys noticed a change in your behaviour after this fee was introduced?



I'm basically still discovering how I could reduce my ecological footprint. All of this is very new to me. I'll try and keep you posted about my experiences. 
I tried to make my own deodorant today. I'll tell you know how this experiment went once I have evaluated my smelliness levels.

P.S. My birthday and Christmas are approaching and if you're one of those few people who tend to buy me presents, here's some ideas for you! Maybe try and avoid small plastic things or synthetic sponges and stuff like that. These days I'm more into homemade things and "natural products".

For instance, Life Without Plastic -Website has many cool things that I wish I had. I mean, I don't want anyone to order this stuff from America, but please feel free to be inspired by these things!

If life is a bar room

Oh hi. Long time, no see!

I've disappeared for a while because I haven't really wanted to talk about my life publicly. But maybe it's time to try again.

Here's a song for you that somehow describes how I feel at the moment.

I'm not sure if I understand what these pretty Irish girls are singing about, but it's just beautiful and I feel that I can relate. Isn't that what music is about? It sounds beautiful and you feel that you can relate although you have no idea what any of it is about — right?

I would quote this song, but I'm not sure how to. But I feel the waiting and the floating.

I have no idea where I'm going with my life but I want to float and I don't want to lose the grip. I fear for the winter and the future health issues. And I've started to burn candles again.

I'm also trying to reach out to new people. I am hoping to find someone who wants to come and sit with me in a coffee shop when it snows. Although the snow is not compulsory. Considering my location it will probably just rain a lot, and I'm ready to accept that.

Non-disastrous family holidays?

Happy new year, bunnies!

I hope all of you had enjoyable holidays! My holidays this year were different. For me. For most people it's probably normal to spend Christmas at their childhood home and see lots of family members, but I hadn't done that for 3 years. And this time I brought someone with me! There was some great potential for holiday conflicts.

Is it too late to tell you about my Christmas? I mean it's so last year... But nevermind! Last Christmas was such a positive surprise for me that I'm going to tell you about it anyway. I didn't get the snow I was hoping to see but everything else went very well.

I've never spent a Christmas with a partner before. As much as I've enjoyed spending my Christmas Eves wrapping presents in a Harry Potter -like cupboard at the bottom of the stairs in my friend's house in Edinburgh, it felt more meaningful to light up candles to family graves and warm up afterwards in the sauna with Laura. She met all of my family members and I met hers. And to my great surprise, everyone was nice to each other. I still can't believe how well my family behaved and how nice and welcoming Laura's family was! Did I mention that her sister made me TARDIS earrings?

Laura and I stayed at my mum's place over the Christmas. On Christmas Eve we had dinner at my grandparents, and then visited graveyards. In the evening, we went and had dessert at my grandparents' friends' house. My brother wasn't pleased about all these activities, because he was very keen on opening the presents. But we did get home before midnight to open them! On Christmas morning, my best Loimaa-friend, Anna, and I went to church. I tried to take Laura with me but, she told me that if I wanted her not to be grumpy for the rest of the day, I'd better let her sleep. But later that day, Laura and I went to Anna's and and a little Christmas celebration with her. 

On Boxing Day it was time to dine with my Dad's family at my grandad's. After that Laura and I drove to Hyvinkää to her sister's place, so that we all would be ready to go and visit her grandparents on 27th. With all of these scary family meetings, and introducing Laura to my grandparents, I had completely forgotten to be nervous about meeting her grandparents. But I was welcomed in with lots of hugs! And I found my godfather's meat boutique's products in their fridge. It wasn't really what I expected to find there, considering that we were 200 kilometres from the boutique. But again, we ate more good Finnish Christmas food, and got an opportunity to use their wood-heated sauna.

But Christmas is not the only thing to celebrate in December. My mum turned 50 on New Year's Eve and we had the biggest Birthday-Hogmanay party that we've ever had. And my friend Tiia graduated as a occupational therapist which of course was a great reason for a party. First she came and celebrated with just Laura and me in Loimaa's vibrant nightlife, and between Christmas and Hogmanay she had a party at her place in Turku.

I am so happy that I got a chance to spend so time with my best Finnish friends. And there were many opportunities to enjoy saunas! And to drink coffee. Sauna, Finnish coffee and my cat are the three things I miss the most when I'm in Scotland.

It was such a relaxing holiday. I thought that meeting so many family members would be stressful, but somehow hardly any of it was. The things were about to get a bit steamy when my mum got stressed out about our packing. I can understand that it maybe looked disastrous with two hardly closing suitcases, and a couple of over-filled backpacks and handbags. Especially when my only shoes broke and I had to buy new ones on our departure day. But instead of a huge fight, we managed to escape and went to drink some coffee with my friend Jonna and my goddaughter. We came up with great plans to go and see Moomins next summer!

This holiday was exactly what I needed. Especially when we had some mini-holidays on the way back. When it's cheaper to travel via Stockholm and Oxford, it's always a great idea to stop and enjoy those places as well. Stockholm was cute and Oxford was the best as always. I hadn't been to Oxford for 5½ years, but it was still just as wonderful as I remembered it! But I'll tell you more about our return journey and the adventures we faced in another post.

Is there something you would like me to write more about? 

Christmas Adventure

Happy Christmas everyone! ♡

I made it home for Christmas this year! It wasn't quite as easy as it might sound to you. Surprisingly, we didn't have any problems with any of our three flights. Instead the domestic travel caused more problems.

Christmas tree at Aberdeen Airport.

After arriving in Finland, I spent a couple of days in Helsinki with a friend while Laura was visiting her family Hyvinkää. After that the great journey to Loimaa started. And I have to say that this was not the first time, I've travelled from Helsinki to Loimaa by train. It should be fairly straight forward: just change trains in Toijala and you won't accidentally end up in Tampere. What could possibly go wrong?

Well here's a little map I drew you using Google Maps, so that it's easier to follow my story.

Green line is our train route and the red arrow is a little taxi "short cut".

Okay, when I was still considering which train I should buy my ticket to, a friend invited me for coffee in Vantaa. It's on the way, great! ... So I went to see him in Vantaa. I had an hour. Unfortunately, I spent half of it in a forest with a coffee machine and a huge broken suitcase. I had a coffee machine, because my friend had lent it to me so that we could use it at my mum's 50th birthday party and my friend Tiia's graduation party. And something unfortunate had happened to my 25 kg suitcase and it only had one tiny little wheel left. And no, I didn't mean to end up in a forest, but instead of taking the tunnel that lead to the parking lot where my friend was waiting for me, I had taken the tunnel to a forest. So instead of an hour's calm coffee drinking we ended up downing a 4-minute speed coffee from a kiosk while standing at the station.

After I safely back on train, I nicely placed all of my luggage on the shelves I can barely reach and found a good spot for my suitcase to stand up. The train was fairly full but I had found good seats for me and Laura, who was meant to get on at Hyvinkää. She got on put her stuff away and take-away pizza out of her suitcase.

Dinnertime!!!

Oh, but that would be way too straightforward wouldn't it? Soon we realised that everyone else was getting off, and we were just sitting there eating pizza. Well, of course we were sitting in the only coach that was going to be left behind at Riihimäki and that we had approximately 1-minute to get all of our stuff and to run to one of the coaches that would carry on with the rest of the train. Laura lost a bottle of Fanta in the process. It was tragic.

After finding new seats and the train was moving again, we thought that we could just sit on the train and eat. Finally. We were very happy about this and I was telling Laura about my forest adventure and she was talking about meeting her family.

Then I asked Laura when exactly we would need to change trains again. And at the same time the conductor walked in saying:

"Tickets from Toijala?"

Oh, yes, of course we had just driven past our stop while chatting. Fortunately, there was a nice couple on the train who were getting off at the next stop at Viiala and they helped us phone a taxi. Fortunately there was some extra time, and we arrived back in Toijala 5 minutes before our train arrived there. But hey, let's look at the positive side! We didn't have to stand in freezing rain waiting for the train - instead we got to see Viiala.

Back in Toijala!

I think it's quite funny how many things we managed to fail during this 2-hour journey... But in the end we made it home for Christmas!

But was it a white Christmas? Well... It was raining, but because we are ninjas at getting lost and then finding things, we found a little pile of snow!

How was your Christmas?

It's almost Christmas!

Today I woke up. (Well yeah, that alone is quite an achievement for me...)

And I realised that there's only a couple of days left until I'll be trying to fly to Snowland for Christmas. And I have't even eaten all the chocolates in my advent calendar! Also, the snow is not guaranteed. Thank you global warming. But I wish there will be snow!

I have spent the three most recent Christmases in Scotland. But this year it's time to do some crazy flying around Europe and sleeping at airports to get to the Finnish Christmas Wonderland.

Finland, the land of trees and snow.

I have bad experience of flights being delayed, cancelled, diverted and whatever other things could happen to them. So I never really expect to get where I am trying to fly. You can read about it more in my post "About unexpected situations!". From past experience I am flying via Scandinavia, because they are more prepared for snow and will not close the airports like the rest of the Europe tends to do. And when I say Scandinavia, I really mean Scandinavia. First we're flying from Aberdeen to Stavanger, Norway. From there we fly to Copenhagen, Denmark. And from Denmark we fly to Helsinki!

Helsinki Cathedral. Or the "Church of Doom" as the Finns like to call it.

I quite look forward to spending Christmas in Finland this year. I'm taking Laura with me and we'll see where we end up spending it. We've been invited to three different households on Christmas Eve. Fortunately all of them are in the same town.

But Christmas in Finland is fun! Teletubbies even made an episode of it.

That's exactly what it used to be like in my childhood! I'm not sure what I'm going to wear this Christmas, now when I don't have an elf costume.

Loimaa, the little town in Proper Finland where we're going to spend Christmas, is not that bad either. As long as there is Christmas food, Christmas tree and my cat. It might even be enjoyable. It's a small town - most of which is agricultural field or forest. It's name basically means "countryside". The greatest landmark is the grain elevator - the huge building for storing the crops. They even put fancy lights on it.

Loimaa! Photo by 16valve at taloforum.fi.

But what! I didn't realise it was almost flying time already! I better get on with doing laundry and packing. I can't really do laundry without emptying my suitcase that I currently use as a laundry basket. And I can't pack anything because I am almost out of clean clothes. And if I start doing things with it I could just start piling Christmas presents in it already. Tomorrow I'm also going to meet a friend I haven't seen since first year, do the rest of the Christmas shopping and then go to our Japanese society's Christmas meal! Where having hot pot. I'm so bad at eating hot pot, but thankfully there will be skillful people there to help me.

Icy Tampere.

Can you feel the Christmas approaching?

Christmas wishes?

December is a fabulous month of gift giving because almost everyone I know has a birthday then. At least that's how it feels like at the moment. That includes me as well. And then there's of course Christmas. So everyone needs to come up with a wishlist or otherwise they will get ugly and bulky things they don't need as presents.

My parents have been asking me what I would like for Christmas. I assume birthday wishes are supposed to be included in the same list, because December is joulukuu in Finnish - "Christmas Moon". The time it takes the moon - kuu - to go round the Earth is approximately a month. And once this "Death Month" - marraskuu - is over it will be time for Christmas - joulu !

So I've tried really hard to think of things I would like to receive this December. Unfortunately, I've developed a bad habit of buying all the things I would like myself. I mean, I already bought candles and a Pikachu costume, what else would I want?!

Perfect for any occasion.

I'm not really a difficult person to buy presents to. I like many things! Presents make me really happy, especially if they are useful. Things that I don't like are toffee, stupid decorative things with no real purpose apart from being in the way, and mugs. For some reason mugs are everyone's favourite thing to give. I understand this, I've given several mugs as a present, too! But I just moved to a new house and there's a shelf full of my mugs. There's 13 mugs! One of them is Laura's but all the remaining 12 are mine. And I've only bought one of them myself, the rest have been presents. If I had known this, I maybe could have left that one mug in the shop. But it came with a coaster, and I only own 3 of them. I like square ones that are not slidy and pile up nicely. So please, no more mugs, I don't have enough coasters for all of them. I also have many candles, but only one tiny plate to burn them on!

But because I felt I needed to come up with that wish list for my family, I tried to think of things that I need. It was so much easier when I was five and I was just given a toy catalogue to circle things in. 

Anyway, these are the things that would make my life nicer and easier:

Swimming costume that fits. I went swimming today and it was a real struggle to get my swimming costume on. I may have got bigger. Or maybe my current one shrank. In either case, I think I need a new swimming costume that fits. And because I like to be difficult I would like it to be a swimsuit, because I feel funny wearing a bikini at the swimming pool. Bikinis are for pool parties and the beach. Neither of which I very rarely go to. And to make this issue even more difficult I would like it to come with an integral bra support system. In my size. They are rare and expensive finds.

(Photo from Freyalingerie.com)

A pleasant alarm clock. It's one of the most difficult things to wake me up. I can sleep through fire alarms. And without setting an alarm, I might never wake up. I have several alarm clocks, but all of them are mean. I would like a pleasant, happy one. One that would tell me that there's a nice world out there and that if I woke up, I would get to be a part of it. 

(Photo from Suurikellokauppa.fi)

Compact system camera. I love taking pictures of nice things in my life. So that I can look at them in the future and remember what my friends used to look like and where I used to live and what places I've seen. My current camera is a 6 years old digital camera, and the picture quality is not quite as high as I would like it to be. It's impossible to take nice pictures with it inside, and I really would like a better one. 

(Photo from Verkkokauppa.com)

Chopsticks. I would like to learn to eat faster and more sophisticatedly with chopsticks. It could be made possible by having something to practise with. 

(Photo from Keittiovaline.fi)

Medicine organiser. As I mentioned earlier this month, I take a lot of dietary supplements these days and would really like something to put them in when I go travelling. I hopefully will also get some medication that works if NHS figures out what's wrong with me. That's my hope for the next year. 

(Photo from Hauskakauppa.fi)

These five things are something that I really wish I would get.

This Christmas wishlist thing is something that is going around in many blogs, so I did it too, in case it would help me think of something I would like to get so that I would stop getting asked about it.

But it's done now, so can I now tell you how I feel about Christmas gift giving?

Mostly I find gift giving as a stressful obligation. You do it to show people that you wish to keep them in your life. Because in the future they are supposed to return a gift to you. I feel that Christmas is too materialistic with the whole compulsory gift giving. It's not the thing I care about in Christmas. At Christmas I would like time to sit in peace with people I love and have some time to think about how wonderful life is while holding a warm cup of mulled wine. That's really all I want for Christmas. This moment would also be made even more wonderful with snow, fire, Christmas music, church, candles and joulutortut.

Have you written your Christmas wishlist yet?

It's snow time!

Dear blog,

I think the winter has arrived. It snowed last week!

View from our home street!

I am quite amused by the fact that we had our first snow before my family in Finland did! It's all gone now but the winter atmosphere is still here. I've been burning so many candles (that my girlfriend is worried that soon I will have no money left)! But I feel that the candles are making me feel less stressed out about this whole Christmas thing. Especially Christmas shopping, because surely I can just give candles to everyone. Candles are lovely.

A little Laura-elf hiding behind the tree.

We also erected our Christmas tree! It's new, cute and we bought it at 2am in our local supermarket. It's plastic and lacks that sensational pine tree scent, but I've solved the problem by buying pine tree scented candles. It's like having a real tree.

And since, I've now told you about the snow we had, it's a good time to tell you that Katja from Little Snow-blog gave me 11 questions challenge. I've done this challenge once before and told 11 facts about me, and answered Jonna's questions in this post, but now I'm going to answer Katja's 11 questions.

Jonna's Challenge

This blog post will be very different from my other posts. I will take part in a blog challenge where I have to answer some questions and also come up with some questions. I've seen these challenges in other people's blogs, but I've never been challenged before. This time my friend Jonna challenged me though! I will tell you more about her and how we met in a separate friend post that I will write at some point in the future. Thank you for the challenge, Jonna!

The Challenge

• tell 11 things about themselves
• answer the 11 questions asked
• ask 11 new questions
• challenge some bloggers

Sometimes we end up singing karaoke together.

Fireworks

So, the year 2012 is history and 2013 is here. I witnessed the arrival of the year 2013 in London, at the bank of Thames, watching fireworks shot from the London Eye.

But I am not going to talk about fireworks as such. But fireworks are a happy thing, that's probably why so many people go and see them. Although, in London, the Italian girl standing in the crowd next to me and my friend really wasn't happy. She probably didn't enjoy the crowd and was wearing silly shoes. But the other people next to as who were drinking champagne seemed very happy. Maybe life should involve more champagne and less ending up places where we don't want to be.

In 2013, I would like to be happy. The last time was really happy, was around the last New Year, when I was in Wales. But to be honest, 2012 was pretty rubbish. Mostly because I was unable to really enjoy anything. A lot of exciting things did happen: I graduated, went to Alaska, travelled around Scotland and started a new degree. But I wasn't able to feel excited about anything the way I know I used to be excited about things. I would like to be as happy as little kids when they run around and laugh. Just because I am not a child anymore, doesn't mean I am not allowed to feel sincerely happy and merry.

After the autumn term at university, half of which I was unable to concentrate on neither studying or social life, all I really needed was a break. I had had enough health problems, and I needed to find a way to enjoy life again. I started my holiday by pretty much (without really meaning to) sleeping through Christmas. I had been so tired without realising it. I had been on medication that made me extremely tired and I had been really stressed about whether I would be able to hand in my assignments. Sleep was definitely something I needed.

By the New Year I had a bit more energy and spent a couple of days wandering around London with one of my best friends. We had cheap chicken burgers for breakfast every morning and Chinese take away and pizza for dinner. We exploited our Oyster card by travelling around London on the underground, overground and buses. I bought police box shaped salt and pepper shakers at midnight. I tasted some bubble tea in Chinatown. It was like a non-milky milkshake with some slimy balls in it.

Today I had some red curry in a Glaswegian Thai restaurant. I like spicy food and would like to be able  to eat it. I also bought lipstick. I would like to be able to be brave enough to wear make-up more. I want to believe that if I do more things that I find fascinating, exciting and generally enjoyable, I will get more out of life. Although the massive joylessness of 2012 was partly or mostly due to other reasons, such as, depression, synthetic hormones, worries, generic health problems and loneliness, I would like to think that there are ways I can improve things this year.

I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen in my life this year. I am not sure if I am ready. But I feel better than I have felt for about a year. And that is a good sign.

Here is a music video about how even if you feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind, you can still find the spark in you and open the door that leads you on the perfect road.

Yes, I do love Katy Perry and refer to her as my "favourite hottie" when I am really tired and have drank too much Irn Bru, but still the message of this song is pretty amazing. It gives me hope.

Happy morning, world!

I am up because I have completely messed up my sleeping rhythms, and it's actually an evening to me.

But being up now, I can see everyone else get up. And it makes me wonder why everyone is always so grumpy in the morning. Are people not meant to be happy because it's a new day and anything could happen? They get to have a cup of tea or coffee or a glass of juice and eat their favourite breakfast. Today they could meet the most interesting person or the most exciting opportunities could come up. For sure something funny will happen and there will always be something to be happy about.

But people don't seem to understand this. Is it because they have run out of milk for their tea, coffee or cereal? Or because they didn't get to sleep enough last night? Or because it's winter and the sun didn't rise before they had to get up? Or because they are so tired of getting up everyday to do the same things? They get up every day and go to school or work, getting stuck in the traffic, coming home, watching TV, going to bed and doing the same thing again tomorrow?

Okay, those who know me know that I am the worst person at getting up, or actually waking up in general. And I will not speak after I've just woken up. My mornings are quiet. But I'm happy. I've woken up. I can do things. I know there was a dead insect floating in my tea cup this morning. But the whole world is out there and there are things to see.

I hope you're not too tired this morning and that you would be happily eating your breakfast. I hope you'd be able to enjoy these last days of November before it's December. These are the last days of this year! The trees are getting bolder, and people are putting Christmas lights up. And it's dark and cold which is exactly why we need friends, candles, hot water bottles and woolly things. I hope you all have enough of those.

Have a happy day!

Less than a month left

Hello people!

As you can see, I changed my blog background, isn't it magical? Seriously, let me know if it's too bright, too dark or in some other way irritating.

Okay, and to the topic, I have less than a month left. After that I can get my life back, move into a closet and feel like a Harry Potter. But before that I have to write 10,000 words about how amazing Greenland is. I hate writing posts relating to my dissertation, but it is the biggest thing I've have to do in my life so far. If I will ever end up having a baby, I would probably blog about that too. But because a dissertation is a lot less exciting than a baby, I will try and not blog too much about it. But today it felt important to tell you that I have less than a month to go before the deadline because it is due 16th December. I wish I had more time and more motivation. I look forward to having it handed in. I hope I will get it handed in.

And yes, now when I have updated you with all that, never ever ask me how it is going. I will tell you if I feel like talking about it. But you will be happy to hear that, (unfortunately to me, for now) there are many more delightful topics to talk about. For instance, some of my recent favourite topics are: burlesque, candy floss, hot water bottles, pokémons, transgenderism, chocolate, lingerie, my belated surprise birthday party that you will organise, cats, awesome food, Doctor Who, Finland's presidential election, vodka, ironing, vitamins I should take, pretty people, your wedding, and the day when it's not normal for me to be awake at 3:30 in the morning. What are yours?

Happy second half of November to you, enjoy hot chocolate or large cups of tea and good luck with whatever you're struggling in your life right now!