Refrain, gain

I have absolutely nothing to write about. It´s probably because the last week has been lacking intelligent challenges (expect for new boardgames) and filled with telly and aimless wandering around the house. Another good reason for disliking holidays: there´s nowhere to go and nothing to do.

Before holidays, though, I was struggling with gift issues. Not because I was unable to decide what to get but whether I should buy stuff at all. I read someone´s writing about anti-materialism and it got me thinking. Of course I´ve been aware of the idea before. It´s true that nowadays people buy stuff mostly because we are used to it and encouraged to do that. If we all just stopped pleasure shopping it would be considered normal, right? Bad things would happen to the economy though.

I wondered what are my very own reasons for shopping. Is it the culture or that ancient instinct of a hunter-gatherer? As for christmas pressies, I think I just genuinely wanted to be nice to my folks after my few-months' absence. However, for many years I´ve been deliberately refusing to browse in shops: a pass-time shared by millions of westen women. It´s not normal, okey, if you don´t NEED anything!

Giving up unimportant shopping (or shopping as recreation) is like giving up fatty foods after having a stroke. Well, it´s not really. (But if you shop hard enough you´ll go bankrupt.) Let´s take another example. It´s like becoming a vegetarian. You know you´re doing the right thing. You might sometimes feel tempted to pop in to a sale and maybe you even fall. But at the back of your head you always know that refraining is not only good for yourself but also good in bigger scale.

Which leads me to a more current topic: chocolate! I have placed a bet on a Chocolate-Free January instead of "Tipaton Tammikuu" which is less relevant in my case. Me and my little sister will stay clear of Karl Fazer and friends for a month. The fallen one will bake a cake for the winner. 

The bottom line in this random writing seems to be that some kind of refraining can be a good mental practise. And usually something good comes out of it.

Breaking news (with an icicle)

United Kingdom is a country known for its rainy, mild weather. I personally find the constant greyness absolutely depressing. They also say that the weather is unpredictable which is actually false. It'll rain for certain every time of the year!

That's why it's with growing amusement I've been watching poor Brits face this exceptionally cold and snowy weather. In Wales the temperature even plunged 17 degrees below zero whereas in Manchester things were pretty okey with mere -5 or so. We saw some serious snowing during about a week in the end of last month. It hailed as well and roads were covered with, if not thick layer of snow, so called black ice. Train and bus services were delayed or cancelled and people got stuck on the roads and airports.

The most amusing bit is yet to come! (I don't see anything funny about sleeping in a cold car because it broke down. Although you fellow-Finns might think to yourself why that kind of thing even happened in the first place!)

Delays in public transport caused tardiness and people complained. I asked myself if somebody has that great a job? Number of schools were closed because of "the freezing weather" but of course mine was open all along. I read a story in the paper where a teacher said that they sent pupils home around noon because of the weather. But if they've already made it to school what's the point sending them back home?  I suppose heavy snowing is so shocking for kids that they're better off at home.

I don't envy car owners either. Car can be rather a curse than a blessing. It's such a pain to boil the kettle and go out pour water over the windscreen. And wipers! Dear god, they're completely useless in removing frost!

It's utterly stirring for a Finn to see how people simply aren't use to the cold or the white matter. For the whole duration of the "chaos" I felt weirdly fresh and brisk and enjoyed my cuppa tea and mittens more than ever. Some people seemed to actually get quite excited about. I smiled at students playing with the snow. Teenage girls were "soooo embarrassed" when falling over in their UGG-boots and leopard-leggins. (Please, notice me, am I not cute just like Bambi?)

The funniest thing is that media, and people, too, see "extreme" cold and snow as a large-scale nature disaster. The word "chaos" is seen in papers more often than comma and people are urged to "tell their stories and send their pictures" on the snowy hell. I'm sure the media is not exaggerating. What I don't understand is why people have to try to go to out in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, dear Brits. I'm not trying to make you look like whining wimps. I think you've been very brave. Keep stocking up that bread and milk!

P.S. The police got nearly hundred reports on kids throwing snowballs. I guess you always need someone to blame.

Riding solo

Taking a bus daily, I've been confronted by brand new social situations. Usually I take my bike which is obviously very lonely and independent transportation where the only social aspect is to trying to dodge pedestrians and other cyclists in a non-threatening way.

Firstly, you have to decide how you're going to flag down your bus. Do you strech your arm out to its full length for a couple of seconds and then let it fall down in controlled manner? Do you keep signaling untill the bus starts blinking, or like old ladies do, untill the bus has stopped for certain. There are people who signal with a merely noticeable arm movement as if they didn't want anyone else to see that someone flagged down the bus. There is the brisk aggressive type of bus riders who signal while running to the stop or point at the bus with the index finger. There is the Queen type who raise their arm and wiggle their hand as if greeting a crowd.

Also the seat you choose defines you as a bus rider. Besides families and the elderly, front seats are occupied by lazy and drunk people aswell as people who are travelling only a short distance. At the back there are kids listening to music. Students go upstairs without exception.

Usually people learn the right behaviour on the buses easily but rush hour, for instance, makes things more tricky. It might be hard to get off the bus and, also, you have to start making your way towards the door well in time before your stop. Pressing STOP at wrong time may cause embarrassement and frustration. Even if you don't actually want to get off the bus there might be someone else that does. And there's no way knowing it unless you ask everyone. So just get off the bus and pay for your mistake by walking!

You can't avoind ignorant or rude people on the bus. It's called public transport and that's why there are all kinds of people on the bus. What to do when no one offers a seat to and old lady and you're sitting in the far back? When taking a seat next to someone, do you a) just sit on their bag, b) ask for the seat or c) apologise? Or maybe you just stand. Sometimes a seat is broken or the upper deck is full and no one says anything.People tend to mind their own business.

So, what kind of bus rider are you?

Literature and food - what else do you need?

I recently read an intriguing book "Kafka on the shore" by a Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The back cover was full of praises: Spellbinding! Magical! I wanted to add my own view: I didn't get it!

It was an amazing book, a proper page-turner. But there were a few things that didn't make sense to me or that I couldn't connect with the rest of the plot. I did get it in major parts. It was confusing in a differend way than the movie about Facebook... The whole book was a symbol, a riddle, and as the author himself says, you ought to read it several times in order to fully understand it.

Most impressed I was by the usage of tiny details in the narrative and how the author could create such believable characters of diffrend ages and natures. The funniest thing was a young truck truck driver hooking up with the other "main character", a retarded old man... And it was completely natural. I do recommend reading it also culturewise. The Japanese seem to like eating eel and jam sandwiches. And everyone wears nice brand clothes.

I'm sticking with Asia now and starting to read Memoirs of a Geisha.

And talking of Asia, we had lunch in a Chinese restaurant yesterday. Cheap buffet always appeals to me and a cute logo with a panda doesn't hurt either. The place was nearly empty which is usually a bad sign. And the buffet was far from being really Chinese. They had their usual Szechuan chicken and the likes alongside with CHIPS and SUSHI and some gross fritters. Onion rigns barely had onion inside. There even was ketchup and mayo to satisfy English barbars. (Not offense to the English. You know what I meant.)

I thought it's sad that Chinese restaurants are rarely authentic. But the place was truly rubbish aswell. Also, Chinese waiters (in other countires than China I imagine) make me feel akward because they're so artificially welcoming and friendly all the time.

There's something mysterious about the East indeed...

About being less great than usually

Do you ever have that feeling that the impression you've given on yourself is completely distorted? Deep inside you know for sure you're smart, funny and charming and your close friends would agree. But it's easy to turn into a complete differend person, say, at work where you're not always at ease or on top of things especially if you're in a foreign country...

When I started working in my current job I thought it's going to be easy. Firstly, I got experiencein this field and secondly, I'm a girl. I know it might be a sexistic thing to say but guys are always a bit easier on girls and my boss is a guy. Later I figured it doesn't help much if you're as unlucky as I've been.

All along I've been testing my boss' s patience by not understanding what he says in incredible speed and a broad northern dialect. It makes me look quite daft to react with a few seconds' delay to orders given to me. I've also done two major blunders. Both of them were accidents and merely caused by my will to be a good worker.

It must've been the second week when I broke the key. I was locking a vending machine after topping it up and found it hard to close the door properly. I took the key out and pushed the door briskly. As I started to give the lock another try I noticed the key had snapped broken. The missing piece was nowhere to be seen and I thought it must be inside the lock. I had no idea how it all happened.

Naturally my boss wasn't very happy but he only gave me one bad look. I emptied the vender with heavy heart.

The following week I attacked another machine. I had been trained to use the till somewhat but I found it a bit complicated because you're not able to cancel anything you press. Once I was charging for a jacket potato and pressed the wrong key. In my mind my following actions made perfect sense but somehow I managed to mess up and the till went "beeeep" and even my older co-worker didn't know what was wrong.

She called the boss. (Whenever she calls the boss it feels like asking the Queen to come out of the palace and open a tin for you.) He was not happy but luckily it didn't take long to sort the till out. I felt like an idiot who brakes everything she touches.

All kinds of small things have happened after that. I mixed up twenty pounds with forty pounds. I've been told twice to put less chicken in a wrap. I've been trying to make myself invisible.

By the way, my boss is leaving and a new one's starting after half-term. And I will have the chance to be smart, funny and charming again.

 

3D

Long time no see.

I'm back to the third reality. In case you wonder, the first one is home and the second is random places all over the world(?). This third dimension is very special for a few reasons. It feels like a second home even though I never really got fond of it. Things are always quite differend here jobwise and moneywise... It's Manchester of course!

The first month I spent in a proper ghetto as it's called by anyone who doesn't live there. Or lives there but doesn't really want to. The area has the highest number of blacks and Caribbeans in the whole city. It's also habitated by few white people, mostly unemployed living on benefits. Junkies, weedheads and the likes. Didn't really feel good about living there. Every time I got off the buss with a bunch of rastas I felt annoyed. I didn't go out in night time either.

Now I live close to where I lived back in the day. There's plenty of students in the neighbourhood, it's safe and buses are frequent. No temperamental black ladies yelling in the street. It's peaceful and one of the biggest parks in Manchester is right behind our house. I feel strange though when I'm surrounded by students every morning on the bus. I know I'm one of them but then again I'm not. I don't get off at uni. I go to work.

In the third reality is sometimes hard to remember who you are because there's barely anything that reminds of home. That's why it's important to come to town, write nonsense and listen to Kolmas Nainen on the library computer...!


-k

Because age is just a number

Yes. I turned 21. What´s that supposed to mean?

(That´s my birthday cake. I made it all by myself. See, I´m pretty savvy for my years...)

Maybe I was supposed to have done certain things by this age. I´m supposed to be grown-up, stabilized, in a relationship, studying hard, paying my bills and flossing every day. Maybe I expected to have found myself and my way by this time. In primary school I thought high school kids are practically adults. In high school I thought university is when all the fun starts and I finally understand life.

Untill now, age always had a meaning. In school it means certain level. It´s pretty cool to turn 10 because then you´ll have two figures in your age. In upper level age crudely indicates your status and you can´t wait to be 15 and on the final year. And then you start waiting for turning 18... Then follows the "pointless age" 19 because it´s in the middle of two important age limits. When you finally turn 20 you can buy any alcohol. And that´s about it really. There´s also the age limit of 21 to certain bars but when you´re 21 you don´t want to go to that kind of old-folk-places...

So now I´m just 21 and it means nothing. I guess I´m just waiting for my life to happen. One day I´ll be grown-up and ready and know everything and have no further questions about life.

But. I´ve come to understand that I´ll never be there. Because in this petty age of 21 I´m already there. I´ve always been there. Or maybe that´s what it means. Enough of waiting, now is time to stop staring at the number!

About sprouting

It´s time again. Time to inhale fresh april air and exhale all the sorrow and dust of the gone winter. Time to look ahead, renew and start all over again. It´s the time of bittersweet and tingling yearn for summer. Atleast for students and the like.

I´ve always liked spring more than summer but I never really could explain it. Untill my English teacher commented on my spring-related essay and said: "Yes, spring is definitely nicer ´cause everything is still ahead." 

That´s an aspect I hadn´t really thought of before. But that´s not necessarily the whole story. First of all, spring is full of fun holidays like Easter (good memories from childhood, without any religious traits), my birthday and 1st of May the last one being my favourite holiday. Spring is when you make adventurous plans for summer and daydream about beach life, deep green forests, new acquintances, bbq-parties and not to mention finnish "nightless nights" and its magic. 

There´s so much pressure in terms of Finnish summer. Everyone waits for it so desperately it might end up being a disappointment when spring on the contrary is only slightly warm and makes people smile cautiously after a long long reign of snow. As if you saw the sun for the first time of your life, every year. It´s a rebirth, a reward or a blessing.

I feel like coming alive again. I polish my boots, wash winter clothes and pack them away, go through my stuff and sell anything I don´t need, go to hairdresser´s, renew my diet... The nature starts another new cycle and I don´t want to be left behind. First we bud, then we bloom and finally fade more or less gracefully. 

So plant your seeds.

I have no right to cry

Why is it so hard to argue without crying? Why do I always have a headache? Why am I so frightened of the future? Why do I have nightmares? Why do I feel so annoyed when I hear people laughing? Sighhhhh.... but then again...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78XrI_2bPVA&playnext_from=TL&videos=GRnOrvtSwQA

Sickly positive

What does it take for a good day? Any day can be good if you only decide so. The nausea before my French presentation got a whole new dimension when I started turning it into an opportunity for self-developement. I had spent the previous night and the whole morning trying to convince myself that it´s no biggie. It can go well or bad. But for the love of god, don´t let it affect your positive spirits!

That´s when I remembered a story about believing in yourself. The bottom line was that if you think you´re going to succeed, you´re right. And if you think you´re gonna fail, you´re right again! (Sometimes even this ain´t enough but that´s a differend story...) 

I had to channel all my energy in absorbing positivity and good vibes from all around. People are actually really nice. The sun shines damn bright today. My hair is looks and smells good. The Easter holiday starts tomorrow...

The presentation went well after all. Actually it went great! Or that is what I think due to all that revolting positivity... But the best thing is that it doesn´t matter. Even if it went crappily I wouldn´t let it get me down.

Here´s the rest of my day for essential parts.

Think colours, people ! It was a perfect weather for my favourite yellow wellies. Don´t they just cheer you up instantly?

Frying gorgeous vegetables and herbes after a long day with no lunch. For dessert some beeaauutiful chocolate with caramelized almonds...

Yayyy, my favourite chore ever! Put your make-up pens in a freezer overnight and sharpen them. Makes me feel life is worth living after all... ;) This positivity is exhausting.

Veggie-eating saints and sinful carnivores ?

I know I´ve written about this before but...

 

As a vegetarian (or "lacto-ovo-pescatarian" to be specific...) I come across with the weirdest attitudes and questions. I don´t know why everyone seems to get so sensitive when it comes to dietary habits. I never meet people who say e.g. that they admire me or wish they could do the same. Most people simply ask me the Question Why with a suspicious look on their face.

Don´t get me wrong: I don´t mind talking about it. It´s just pointless because I know that nothing I say back is new to anyone. It has to do with ethics and ecology. And health aswell. For me vegetarianism is mostly an ethical choice but it´s also a mere habit. And that´s what seems to be too hard to understand! People who follow the usual diet, meat being an important part of it, tend to talk to me like I was a member of a religious sect...

"What if you ate meat, like accidentally? For how long are you going to be a vegetarian? Could you eat organic chicken?? Don´t you ever feel like eating, say, a sausage???" Behind all these questions there seems to be the idea of meat being something unreplaceable and precious. And that vegetarians are unconformists, hippies and surely part of some underground culture. Luckily it´s becoming more and more popular and even a middle-aged man can be a vegetarian without the stigma of a tree-hugger. It´s also a well-known fact that a balanced diet doesn´t require meat.

I´m not worried about my image though. What bothers me more is the false idea carnivores have about my conceptions of them! "Those ignorant meat-eaters! I´m so much better than them!" Cause it really isn´t so. It might be hard to believe but I don´t care what other people do. I know people have differend priorities, tastes, lifestyles... People eat meat because they like it, they always have and everyone does it anyway. I´d say that very few people would change the content of their fridge just for the sake of the Earth. The change should always start from the person himself and his values. Who am I to convert anyone? I don´t even want to though I do it secretly by making good veggie foods to friends and family...

I could say the same thing to carnivores: who are you to convert me back to your side? There´s no reason to feel I´m threatening you with my "nobility" because I don´t think any less of you. I´m not a nun either and if I sometime become a carnivore again I´m not a "failure". It´s not like stop being a good person. An ethical choice can also be not to gossip about other people...!

I have enough facts to know that this is a good way. I don´t suffer. I don´t feel like eating meat even if it was organic. I like vegetarian food and it´s a part of my lifestyle just like writing lists or having a tea in the morning.

A cooking-kind of post

Don´t worry. This blog is not turning into a cooking blog but I still want to share my recent passion for cupcakes. It´s one of those simple pleasures in life and making them is really easy. My favourite part of the process is ofcourse decorating. Even in my former job I most enjoyed drawing lines on cheesecakes with raspberry sauce. But when I really set my creativity free and made differend decorations on every cake, boss sourly returned me back to the line...

This is the outcome of past two weeks. And there´s more to come because I finally bought that beautiful recipe book I´ve been yearning for atleast two years. Don´t ask me why I didn´t buy it before. It´s Gorgeous cakes by Annie Bell and next I´m going to try every recipe in the book..!

All started on a weekend home. With my sister I made chocolate-orange cupcakes with a wrong icing... We were out of normal icing sugar so we had to use the strawberry-one. No evidence from that session I´m afraid!

These cupcakes à la pear and chocolate (recipe from Marie´s blog which is in Finnish) I made at my place. I did improvise a lot and made an icing with the same principle as in orange cupcakes; meaning cream cheese, melted chocolate, whipped cream and icing sugar. These cuties were slightly dry but delicious altogether...

Next I wanted to make cupcakes without eggs because an allergic friend of my was coming over. A suitable recipe was found in Krisse´s blog. I modified this too and made it more chocolatey and added some coffee aswell. I used the same icing for this because they´re not cupcakes without it! The texture was quite heavy but don´t you just love those chocolate hearts!

This next one I made merely because I had to get rid of left-over icing I had in the fridge. It tasted so good that I thought it would make a good dough... So without any recipe I added water, flour, sugar, melted butter and baking powder. The result was way better I expected with random mesures and ingredients...! They´re not pretty but oh how soft and sweet they were!

Let´s see what I come up with for Easter...

Sad, mad, glad

Sometime I feel really useless and stupid. Usually it also makes me feel embarrassed. It can be triggered by a mere unsuccesful homework or a frown from someone. I don´t like carrying those unnecessary feelings in me but it´s also very hard to get rid of them. I tend to exaggerate things. I´m a misfit, a dummie or a hopeless case who everyone just laughs at.

In the afternoon I was thinking of ways to cheer myself up. I tried simply refusing to feel sad. It didn´t work. A massive café au lait did the trick but the affect didn´t last for long. I tried shopping therapy. I found a cotton shirt of my dreams but in wrong colour. It was on -70% discount but still not worth it because of the baby blue colour. And my favourite fragrance ever is still crazy expensive.

As the afternoon turned into early evening I cycled back home. The sunset was awfully beautiful and I regretted for not having a camera with me. 

After all, I got my joy of life back little by little during the evening. A good pasta and gym might have had something to do with it. And there was a little black cat in the car park lurking me.

I guess feelings are to be felt.

People talking

I had a good day. It didn´t go as I planned but it was good altogether. I do feel a bit bad for not going to work even if I could have. Lost funds for my next trip!

The phenomenan of the day was Finnish people talking to each other. Mutual extreme experiences seem to provoke spontaneous concersations with strangers. I attended university´s ice swimming which took place at an actual ice swimming club. There we sat in the sauna among the members, mostly older people. They were eager to talk about their experiences and it was really nice to be there and share the warmth, the cold and the feel of blood rushing in veins. How could you keep your mouth shut after such an amazing experience!

The same atmosphere continued on my way back home through a massive snow storm. I was trying my best to ride my bike on a street covered with ankle-deep snow. I passed by two ladies and both of them  adressed me commenting on the weather/snow. Weather always seems to be a valid topic for casual conversations. People realize that those silent figures walking down the streets are living and breathing things who experience the same wethaer. We´re all in the same shit: in waist-high snow!

So my conclusion is that Finns need provoking experinces, good or bad, in order to feel like communicating with people. A terrorist attack, a snow storm, parachute jumping, a demonstration in the street, a new president...

Next time something annoying happens I will think about this factor...

Inspiration on a sunny day

It was so meant to be ! That I didn´t end up in a club last night. Because I just hate that feeling when you wake up hungover and notice how nice weather it is outside. You could´ve gone out for a long walk but instead you gotta stay on the couch.

I wish I had had skis and sunglasses. It felt like spring. Yellow tulips (inside in a vase), sun shine and dripping icicles.

A couple of movie recommendations:

The Notebook. A proper tearjerker and a chickflick but an interesting story. There´s not much unpredictable in the movie but I like the way the story builds up. 

The Painted Veil. A story of a couple who get married quickly for rational reasons. They move to China, the woman starts a relationship with another man andddd..... Not going to reveal more but it´s about love, forgiveness and humanity.

I find it hard to say if a movie was good or bad. Are they those movies you want to see again? Because once you´ve seen the movie the next time will be differend... Obviously because you know what´ll happen! And I get moved so easily. Even a movie with crappy shooting or acting will get away with it the story touches me.

Anyway, it´s another Monday tomorrow. It´ll be a good week though: Italian party, ice swimming and my good ole mates will come for a visit!

May the good vibes be with you.

Traffic days

One day I rode my bike in a snowy narrow street. I passed by a blind man with a cane. I passed him too close because I saw him jump surprised. I felt bad immediately.

I often feel bad while cycling about the town. Especially now in winter when the snow is EVERYWHERE and makes moving around trickier. There are people who have to step aside when I drive by. There are people who block my way and I don´t have a bell to let them know I´m right behind them. And I feel too Finnish to give them a polite shout "Excuse me!" Sometimes I´m about to drive over someone who appears behind the corner. It also gets me down when car drivers arrogantly ignore bikers: they don´t bother using the blink or giving way even if I´m goin straight on and they´re turning.

I´ve often complained how bikers don´t have any means to communicate with car drivers. I think I´m going to start carrying snowballs with me and throwing them at anyone who´s misbehaving.

I would enjoy this weather a lot more if I didn´t have to cycle back and forth. I´d rather ride a horse... When the oil really runs out and people have to give up cars that wouldn´t even look too silly! Can´t wait...hahah.

This blog entry was pretty loose so I just add a nice picture in the end to make your day. Enjoy the beauty of this serene cat surrounded by mid-winter melancholy...

 

Muksu in her characteristic coolness

A Finn likes boogie

I´m back! What a hectic start of the year! I´ve been working like a horse (or that´s how I feel!) and running back and forth with the fresh exchange students who come from all over the world. All my "children" are now settled down, safe and sound, and I get to sit down and exhale.

I´ve been thinking a lot about international differencies and stuff. It even was my topic for discussion in the Swedish dialoggroup. Though it does annoy me a little than Finnish stereotypes are still alive and kicking even if it´s already 2010! Most preconseptions I´ve heard about Finns are the same as they´ve propably always been: we are quiet and drink a lot.

Sigh.

Everyone can form their own opinions about the accuracy of this cliché. I don´t think the drinking part is ever going to change but atleast I hope Finns turn out to be more social and talkative than people expect. I could imagine that with the globalization and the growth in travelling even we Finns have learned the importancy of casual chatting. We´re not a nation living in the woods anymore.

Though there is also another side in this story. I´ve heard people saying that they actually like the Finnish coolness and charisma. We say what we mean. We don´t buzz around and go on about nonsense; instead we take concrete actions. What we might want to improve is chilling out, feeling some pride of ourselves and have a more open attitude towards strangers.

I´ve changed quite a bit as a person because of couchsurfing. It makes you become "a citizen of the world", widen your horizons and really get rid of stereotypes. Just pick the best qualities from differend nationalities and become a better person. If you STILL don´t know what I´m talking of, visit the site www.couchsurfing.com.

I had a great house warming party yesterday after which we went to Fontana Night Fever club night. Oh man, I´ve never heard September being played in a club without my request! Ha ha ha...

Talking of music. If you´re interested in relatively new/unknown Finnish music, here are some tips. Anssi 8000 and Maria Stereo are an interesting artist couple who play garage rock. Then there is Manna who I actually met on a flight from London to Helsinki. She sings pop in a very beautiful voice.

Other than Finnish music, I´m quite into The Fray´s song called Heartless. The music video is amazing. I also like Paloma Faith´s New York and her bird tattoo..!

Enjoy the winter, people. There´s something magical about its beauty and stillness.

Swell...

Yesss!!!

The minute I received my salary, I booked a ticket to The Swell Season´s gig in Helsinki on the 20th of February! That´s my newly found favourite folk-rock band and if you´ve seen the movie Once you know who I´m talking about. (I haven´t seen the movie yet btw.) Check out their website and listen to their songs. Their music is really soulfull. And if someone wants to join me on the gig, lemme know !!

Oh, and have a good and eventfull new year!