I’m watching The Big Bang Theory and listening to MC Hammer

So volcanos blow up, airplanes don’t fly, the winter is the whitest in years and the summer seems to become the coldest for balance. There are reasons why to update and why not to update. I’ve had plenty of the last category in the past few months. Believe me, I was sorry before this silent period even started, but now I’m planning to be back in the game. So I’m unpausing the blog and I feel like playing through the few months quickly for you.

Honestly the last few months have had more minor notes than major. But right now, I’m getting flashes of the sunny side. Taking steps forward, the sun can’t stay behind the clouds forever. (I’m still waiting for the Finnish summer to show me something else than it’s back side though.)

I found a job that I adore so far. I look forward to going in the office and seeing what the days bring. Every day new possibilities and chances turn out! Along these changes comes another one, I’ve moved back to the area where I grew up. The calming surroundings have given me such a boost!

Now it’s all ahead: summer, possible travelling, new challenges, rock festivals, picnics, bike trips, friends visiting, couchsurfing, new appartment, decorating, sitting on the balcony and reading,

Yötä, päivää ja työtä Aurinkorannikolla

Lore saapui eilen ja tänään matka kohti suurta valloitusta – Portugalia voi alkaa. Suunnitelmaa ei ole ja se on hyvä. Auto saadaan puoliviideltä tänään (keskiviikkona) ja kaupan sekä luultavasti Gibraltarin kautta suuntaa auton peltinen nokka kohti rajaa. Lore on luvannut ajaa koko matkan. Minä en voisikaan ajaa, kun ajokortti vietiin tosiaan tässä yksi kohtalokas perjantai.

En jaksa odottaa! Kaikki mitä olen Lissabonista lukenut, on ollut vain positiivista ja taianomaista. Lehteen lupasinkin samankaltaisen jutun, kuin rustailin Barcelonasta :)

Olen ollut varsin stressissä tässä viimehetkinä. Anna, ainut palkattu toimittaja, lähti lomalle ja minulle siirrettiin hänen vastuunsa. Tätä samaa porskutan sitten elokuussakin. Saa nähdä miten kuuppa kestää vai kestääkö ollenkaan. Sirkka-täti totesi yksi kantaan, että minulla on stressiä, kun ravasin taas lääkärissä. Onneksi äiti ja isi tulee ihan kohta (14 päivää) ja sitten alkaa myös loma (15 päivää). Sitten saattaa jääkaapissa olla ruokaakin!

Muita tärkeitä faktoja täältä flamencokoputtajien maasta:

• Olen addiktoitunut jääteehen, joka on tällaisella helteellä aivan parasta janojuomaa!

• Elektro saa minut tanssimaan holtittomasti tai itkemään hallitsemattomasti.

Annan läksiäisissä oli aiheena 80-luku. Did we bring it or did we bring it? I think we brought it!

Elektro auttaa. Se on sopivan nousujohteista, että tulee joko hullu tanssikohtaus tai hallitsematon itku. Molemmat helpottaa. Ainakin hetkellisesti.

Picture update,

I have a problem with time and memory at the moment. Sparetime goes by fast and is pleasant. And when I do have time to sit in front of the computer and write here, I have no image in my head of what to write. Sometimes I can’t even remember what there would be to tell of yesterday. SO.. as a solution, pictures!

The life in Spain. Steve and his finnish car.

One of the chiringuitos in Fuengirola beach.

One of those days at the office..

Koski härän palleja! ;)

Their first night here :)

Lotta and I shaved Steve near the beach. People were looking at us either curious or jealous. The next day the assistant told me she saw us: "Aw, it looked so tender"

Marika and a finnish cider.

Liverpool vs. Arsenal

Steve and Nikki watching the game

Up the hill in Los Pacos.

What do you do when it's just a little before 6am... and you don

You go and see the sunrise. Aurinko halasi maailmaa.

Gray wallet and some cloride

I don’t really have much to report. I’m working and sleeping.. and being confused. It’s a 24/7 job to be me these days. Job as in there’s obvious bad sides in it as well.

So let’s do it random then:

I worked late hours last week. So I got half a day off on Friday. I slept a good part of it at the beach but then Steve took me to this huuuuge shopping center called La Cañana in Marbella. I have never been in such a big one. I have a new favourite store now as well: Blanco. LOOOVELY. So much colour that my wallet went very grey.

Enric is coming for a visit on Friday but before that there’s a two day trip to come. I’m going to the hot springs of Alhama de Granada. I got days free and a nice note from the chief editor when I suggested it as a travel story to the next newspaper :)

I called my parents just because one particular day in the past few weeks. After talking my mom for a moment, I can once again say how much I appreciate her calm being. However, the next day it just hit my brilliant mind. They are growing old.
Let me explain. After I came back to Italy, many things changed in the big family and in my nuclear family. One thing that happened during my stay away was that my parents grew more together and started growing old. I remember being annoyed from their ridiculous honeymoon period in the autumn and jealous of not getting the same attention I got before. Sometimes I think they didn’t even notice it.. but now I think it’s just a natural part. Children are growing old and leaving the nest. They get prepared for growing old together. They prepare to bare only each other :)
I tell their story to so many friends as a prime example of something I adore and respect.

To even more pleasant things: Nigel came back. I thought he might’ve commited suicide in the pool, but actually just the day after I washed my floor with cloride, he came back. Clever little fella was probably in my curtains all this time. Now he’s just going up and down there.

Htssshiiiuuuuu, tsirp tsirp said the spring

I’ve been so tired this first week. I caught cold already in Barcelona for walking in wet shoes (it rained mostly) around the city. Ironicly it was raining in the Costa del Sol also the whole week, so tadaa – flu. Well, at least it’s sunshine now and the birds are going crazy outside. (A video from my balcony) It really is like spring in the scale of Finland and it makes me have spring in my boobies so to say.

I have really little time to really explore the area. Unlike in Italy, I have 8 hours obligatory work per day. So the rest of it goes now to just being tired. I want to get rid of this flu so I’ll have something else to do. Maybe energy to go somewhere in the evenings.

Last weekend tho I had some time. Saturday I went through the feria area where they have second-hand market every week. I need to find a bike. The distances in the city are long and bus lines work only if you travel during the day. There’s no train nor bus running after midnight. In the market there was only one of those small kick-bikes which are no use with grocery bags. The assistent at work told me I could put up a small ad on the paper to find a proper bike.

Then I went to the Parque Miramar to do some serious shopping. Money well spent to some new clothes and accessories. There are still sales going on and according to the english lady, I talked with at the bus stop, they’ll go on two more weeks. Wehee! I love shopping in mediterranean. So much more colour! Now I have another pink, green and purple shirt, two new scarfs and a cute necklace. And the best part of it. I spent less than 50€ for all of it. This was worth waiting for (I didn’t do any shopping for myself during the autumn).

In the evening I went out with blondie from my work, an american couchsurfer I got to know earlier that day and his flatmate. The american guy, Ben as well as his flatmate Natalie are here for a program which brings native english speakers to teach here. They’ve been here for about 4½ months so they know already some places. We did some barhopping and then ended up to a club which to me seemed more like an empty office with a bar in one corner. I left early as the flu kicked in and apparently it was good as far as blondie told me the next morning.

It is actually a little boring to live alone as there’s soo many stories now that do not exist. Watching back my blog about Italy, I mostly wrote about my flatmates. Poor things ;) However, I’ve noticed that my italian and the year in Italy all together helps me here a lot. I understand many things much easier as the prework for it is done already. Going to supermarket is much easier, the language and not understand what’s going on around me, is much more handleable. I don’t get so anxious. The only thing that really lacks for feeling at home are family and friends.

Work is fine and dandy. Today I started on a piece about ecotravelling. It’s really interesting tho it does make me feel quite bad about my ways of travelling. Time is money just doesn’t really fit into the idea of ecotravel, sadly. I also am going to do a story about the carnival in Barcelona and some other thing about the city which is still unknown. The carnival story tho is not published until next year, so careful thinking for it needs to be done. Today I booked my flights for the trip. 19th to 22nd I’ll be back in the beloved city of design. Lot’s of partying… krhm… work to do :)

Randoms:
- I like the assistant who works with the numbers (bills and such). I can always go and ask for advice. Today she gave me her number and said I could call her anytime if I needed something.
- Telkkarista tulee Reinikaista :D Ihanaa ihanaa!

OBS OBS HUOM HUOM!

Osoite jota olen teille jaellut on huono. Sana huono kuvaa sitä oivasti tässä tapauksessa. Nimeomaan sanalla huono. Minä en saa postilootan avainta välitysfirmalta. He laskuttavat postin vastaanottopalvelusta toimistollaan 8€/kk, joten sain luvan kääntää postini työpaikan osoitteeseen. Pyytäkää taas osoite jos sen haluatte. Yritän lähettää uuden ainakin niille, jotka ovat sitä jo aiemmin kysyneet.

Quickie,

I’m alive and arrived. Work is boring at the moment. Apparently there’s too many interns booked and noone knows why. One man has apparently quit.. who I was most in contact with. Interesting.

The atmosphere is strange. There’s tanned scandinavians EVERYWHERE and I mean that. You can see who the tan fits ;) Even if it’s winter here… the skins of tanned finns seems red. Hehe.

I’m at work so will cut with more rant. I’m fine and tired. The appartment is nice but cold. Weather is rainy. Getting internet turned out to be much more difficult than first thought.. tomorrow or Thursday evening I’ll try to update a bit more.

Lots of hugs :)

Oh and follow the “in short” thing. I can update it with my phone, so it’ll help me to keep you posted.

Päivityksiä / Updates

Aloitin nyt tuon ohjeita-sivun, joka löytyy siis näiden blogitekstien yläpuolelta. Sieltä pitäisi nyt löytyä tietoa kommentoinnista ja muuten sivun toiminnoista. Jos tulee ongelmia, niin kysykää, joohan? :) Autatte varmasti kysymyksillä muitakin ja saan tehtyä mahdollisimman kattavat ohjeet!

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Remember the great great possibility that google offers for you to understand my rants in finnish: http://translate.google.com

Bilingual message / Kaksikielinen viesti

Tämä on kaksikielinen viesti. I will write in english a bit lower in this entry, so please scroll down.

Minulla on ollut pieni kriisi blogin kirjoittamisen suhteen. Pidän todella bloggaamisesta. Pidän sen antamasta mahdollisuudesta vuorovaikutukseen ja miten voin antaa ajatusten tulvia johonkin. Yleisesti blogiin voi itse tehdä säännöt. Kukaan ei sano miten kirjoittaa, mistä kirjoittaa ja milloin kirjoittaa. Päätät itse. Mutta julma tosiasia on kuitenkin se, että blogin on oltava looginen, jotta lukijat eivät tylsistyisi siihen. Loogisuutta on oltava niin tekstissä kuin siinä kuinka usein bloggaa. Epäloogisuus ei käy päinsä, jos haluaa vuorovaikutusta.

Minun viimeisin ongelmani on ollut logiikka (heh). Mietin, josko aloittaisin blogin kirjoittamisen Espanjan ajaltani vai en. Sain kommentteja tyyliin “ai taas uusi blogi”, mutta myös “musta tulee sitten vakituinen lukija”. Mietin jo, että mitäs minä noista välitän. Voin kirjoittaa asioista joista pidän eniten ihmisille joista pidän eniten. Siinä on paljon logiikkaa, vaikka verkosta löytyy monen monta erilaista blogia, jotka olen aikanaan aloittanut moneen eritarkoitukseen.

Tämä blogi on siis ensisijaisesti aloitettu Espanjaa varten. Koska kuitenkin kirjoitin jo kerran ulkomailta yhtä blogia, haluan tällä kertaa tietää enemmän – mistä te haluatte lukea. Pääkohderyhmäni on kuitenkin ihmiset, jotka tulevat tänne säännöllisesti ja niin paljon kuin tiedän heistä, he ovat pääasiassa perhettä ja ystäviä. Vastatkaa siis seuraaviin kolmeen lyhyeen ja yksinkertaiseen kyselyyn, että tiedän teistä enemmän. Paina molempien kyselyjen lopusta löytyviä “Vote”-painikkeita. Joskus sinun syöttämäsi tulokset eivät näy heti, koska ohjelma on hieman hidas päivittämään, mutta ne ovat kuitenkin tulleet perille!

Ensimmäinen

Toinen

Kolmas

KIITOS!

I’ve had some kind of crisis over blogging. I absolutely love to blog. I like the possibility for interaction and how you get to flood all the thoughts from your mind somewhere. You can make the rules where no-one tells you how to write, what to write about and when to write. You decide. But the cruel fact is that if you want it to be interactive, people get bored if you’re not logical. That goes with text and how often you update.

So my ultimate problem is logic. I was thinking whether to start a blog on my time in Spain or not. I was already getting comments like “oh yet another blog” as well as “I will be a regular reader then”. I was thinking already what do I care really. I get to write about things I like the most and to people that I love the most. There’s a lot of logic, even if out of all the blogs that I have or have ever had out there in the web, it is hard to find it. But they were always written by me.

This blog is primarily done for blogging about Spain but as I did do a blog from abroad once already, this time I want upgrade it and to know more about – what you want to read. My primary target group are people that come here regularly and as far as I know, that’s family and friends. So, please answer these 3 very short and simple polls to let me know what interests you. Press the “Vote” button after every poll. Sometimes the data you put doesn’t show immidiately but don’t worry, it is just a little slow to update.

First

Second

Third

THANK YOU!