But something's telling me to

Busy with people, but now few days alone. It feels good to sit in the dark and have the headphones on, listen to Dusky's Lost in you very loud and feel the evening. It's autumn, once again. I love how everything slows down, green colour is bursting into the shades of yellow, red, brown.

I also feel some kind of longing for... what?

Maybe the old days.

I hope that one day I can try riding again. I quit my lessons when I was young because I was too afraid to call to the stable and make a reservation to the next level riding class. The stupidest reason ever.

I've learned from my mistake and these days I'm not afraid of calling anyone.

Old days, new days. There's time to do things in the future, but future is always running ahead of you.

I started working again, time started flying. Broken bikes, repaired bikes. Nightmares about earthquakes in Helsinki. Music on the marketplace. Dear friends who take the best photos, worry about my bike, carry small people in their backs, ask the questions which should be asked.

42 days and I'll be on a plane heading to Korea and Japan.

Meow?

Cats and dogs. I like them both. Most people are either or, but I prefer both. My grandparents used to have borzois when I was young and when I was living with my mother, we had a cat called Edith. I really loved all those animals plus horses (I used to take riding lessons) plus cows (I used to take care of cows at our cottage's neighbour) plus giant otters :)

So Kassu came into our home for one week. At first the attitude was like this.

New places are always stressful, I know. But then it started to rain and Kassu felt like home immediately.

My first Couch Surfing guest got also his share of Kassu's friendliness. I joined CS recently and almost immediately got requests for surfing and of course I said yes. I'm always free for interesting chats about all kinds of things and that's exactly what we had! The next day he continued his trip to Outokumpu and Kassu was left heart broken.

Maybe someone could explain why animals like to bother you when you're using your laptop? You're trying to check your e-mails and suddenly there is a big furry object in front of you preventing your access to the keyboard. Like this.

Or this.

But we also had relaxing co-existing time :)

In the end, when it was time to go home, Kassu was feeling VEEEERY peaceful at this place. I guess the sofa was perfect for resting his tired bones.

Luckily this was also Kassu's state after I removed a tick from his neck. I'm so proud of myself, because 1) I had never removed a tick before and 2) I was brave enough to succeed with it! Ticks are the most disgusting and annoying insects we have in Finland. I hate them.

As all good times come to an end, it was also time for Kassu to go home. Thank you Tuula for borrowing the cat! The only thing I don't miss are the morning wakings at 4am, 5am, 6am and 7am, because Kassu insisted on sleeping on my stomach. That's not how it works Kassu!

Catsmas

Please meet Irmeli, the curious cat, who found a hole in the wall and crawled in there. Too bad the hole was full of sawdust. The story ends in the shower.

Irmeli also liked to play with all kinds of things, especially with the string of my camera. My mother got so excited because of Irmeli that she said she's dreaming about owning a cat one day. Thank you Helena and Aliisa for bringing Irmeli to Kuopio with you!

And then meet Urpo, the huge cat, which spends a lot of time outside although it's extremely cold. When he wants to come inside, he just jumps on the door handle to make a sound and we open the door. My brother's family bought Urpo from local animal shelter and he has been a big part of their life ever since.

So my catsmas was fine and this is how a christmas tree looks like when you watch it through a glögi mug...Interesting. I met my friends, visited all relatives and ate vegan ham as well as casseroles and pizza. And chocolate. The most memorable moment must have been when I played Iskelmä (Finnish schlagers) board game against my mother and her husband. It's like Trivial Pursuit but all questions are about iskelmä music. It was so absurd, but in a weird way it was fun as well. Except when we had to listen to the music. TORTURE! (luckily the clips were less than 15 seconds!)

I also spent some time in the trunk of my brother's car with lots of bags and the greatest suitcase I borrowed from my grandmother. Sometimes you need to travel in challenging surroundings to appreciate the pure comfortableness of a basic car, bus or train seat.

Tomorrow it's going to be the last day of work. Kind of sad, kind of happy :) It takes time to get used to the fact that I don't have to wait for the (too often late) bus number 202 in the cold ever (?) again. Last week I also experienced how it feels like to be in a cold, dark bus for half an hour. The bus broke down on the road and the driver wanted to save battery (although the fault had nothing to do with it) and so he turned out the lights and heating (and of course it was -20 celsius outside). So it was me and 9 other people sitting in the dark bus in total silence...And I was thinking "this is all so Finnish" :D

2 weeks -> Korea.

That's what you get when you let your heart win

I was coming home on Wednesday after 9 and the sky looked like this. Beautiful, beautiful sky and black shapes of buildings and trees. Tomorrow it's going to be August and it's so nice, dark but warm evenings and stars and a crispy bite of what's about to come. October moon and rusty skies, like Chicane puts it...(seeds of autumn in my mind)

This week was enjoyable, laughing and removing books at work, not-so-early-mornings thanks to Tuula and the best strawberries ever! Yesterday morning while waiting for the bus I bought one container of organic strawberries from the market place and talked with the sales person, he said their farm is not big and they're only going to sell berries there until the end of this week. So today I called to Juha and he went to the centre to buy more red sweets for me. The taste is just HEAVENLY! And after eating these, I really know how real strawberries should taste like. Not bitter, not watery, just yummy.

I watched Sam Mendes film "Revolutionary road" today and oh, the mixed feelings! The movie was excellent story about a marriage in the 50's, life so stuck on gender roles and expectations. But I felt both angry and sorry for the couple, who tried so hard to leave the "normal" life behind just to realise it's easier said and planned than done. I'm just happy the society is not like that anymore...Older people so often long for the "good old times, when everything was simple", but what if simple too often means lack of choice?

Now time for tea, thinking of the old times (when Hyeyeon was here, all the nights we danced, drank wine, played card games in our commune, watched eclipse of the moon, talked, talked, talked, did the things we now smile at...) and the music, how it brings back the feelings of those times.

"You know when you feel it
You know when it hits you
There's no mistaking when you fall
You don't anticipate it
And you can't calculate it
It just comes crashing through your walls

You lose all sense of reason
You have no sense of danger
It's like you're living in a dream.
It lets you float through crowds and
Makes you smile at strangers
It's just the greatest state of being..."

(Oceanlab - Sky falls down)

Early morning's bright sunshine it seems a bit different today...

I love flowers. I bought these yellow tulips yesterday, because I'm starting to feel like spring. It looks so ugly outside, snow is melting, dog shit is smelling, roads are bare and icy...but I like the changing of seasons, although spring is my least favourite time of the year. Change is always good?

We had friends at our place overnight and now it feels a bit empty. It's Sunday evening again and tomorrow is another morning when I need to wake up at 6 o'clock. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but still it feels too early. I've had headache for 2 days now, too much stress before I get to know my place at the library. I'm trying to read books about being a boss and I find them kind of sad...Those books emphasize the fact that bosses shouldn't be friends with employees and I think it's very weird. But after this year I'll be able to say what kind of boss I am and if it's something I should do in the future or not.




I'm such a child -> I still love to walk over the icy parts on the road. Sometimes I get my shoes wet, sometimes not. The sound of breaking ice is just beautiful, kind of hollow, and all the sounds vary a lot. Maybe it's time to start to use rubber boots again :D

I have Spotify. Too bad they don't have enough good dance music, all other favourites can be found from there though :) Dinka, Kent, Moloko, Laika...Sub-Urban Tribe's First spring day! It suddenly came into my mind and this song is still so awesome!

That's all today. I'll sit on the sofa, drink tea and knit before going to sleep. Hope to see sun tomorrow as well as nice customers, friendly faces and cute army boys :D (my bus always stops in Kontioranta! Too bad I'm already so old and they're so young...)

PS. Ski jumping is over! What I'm going to do in the weekends now? And I should start calling to my brother more often because I can't see him on TV ;)

Kuopio.

These are my photos of Kuopio. First from the church, then some from the museums and in the end we visited Kuopio's market hall.






(I took this photo because this trilobite looks exactly like Babylon 5's shadow ships!!!)

Koli and bye bye Yuki

Yesterday I went to Koli with my friends, because Yuki had never been there and it was her last day in Joensuu. The views were oh, so amazing! There was plenty of snow and the trees were completely white. We took the ice road there and because we had one Japanese looking girl with us, we could stop in the middle of the lake and act like tourists. Ice roads are very scary in my opinion, but this one was safe and when I saw other cars on the ice too, I knew that we're not going to sink either! So we jumped in joy! (featuring Yuki, Monika, Juha)




The day in Koli was also full of climbing, sliding and to our wonder we found something that we thought doesn't belong to Finnish nature...Pikachu! It was just sitting on a branch and of course we had to take a photo. We also saw more Pikachu's when we climbed up to Ukkokoli and there was also one Pikachu hiding under a tree with it's squirrel friend called Risu.



And today I had to say goodbye to Yuki. Last night we stayed up until 1 o'clock, just made Japanese food, played card games and went to sauna in a dim candlelight. I hope she got nice memories from Finland :) I feel like crying when I write this. Bye bye Yuki! (I'll write about work and Saturday's party later)