Madness

On the 13th of December I finally got my birthday (which was in October) present from Ollie, I got to see Madness live! We drove to Birmingham to see them as they were performing in the LG Arena.

The concert was great. Extremely packed in the front row but that's what you'd expect. Ok, the intensity surprised me a bit. We stayed the night in this lovely B&B nearby in Bickenhill. Our next door neighbour was a horse! A horse!!! I was very excited about that. I would show you some photos if I hadn't broken my phone. Again.

I have such bad luck with phones. This one had some moisture get inside it on a rainy day, I dried it and it worked perfectly - until a couple weeks ago, when the screen just died. It looks like it's not coming back to life. Sigh.

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The Christmas is coming! It's that time of the year when everyone wants to annoy their neighbours as much as they can by putting as much Christmas decorations and lights on their house as they can. I've got to say the migraine-triggering flashing bright lights first just amused me. Now I wonder how anyone can stand looking at their own house just flashing away, day and night, causing epileptic seizures to the passers-by.

Yes, there is such thing as too much decorations ;P

Now I've got the complaining out of the way, I can't wait for my first Christmas abroad! Christmas crackers, presents on the 25th instead of the Christmas Eve, turkey, no Santa Claus, mince pies...

I'm excited like a kid on Christmas. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Wild Boys

Today was very exciting for me, I got to go riding with Ollie's amazing six-year-old horse called Clive. He just looks like a Clive, doesn't he. HP and him warmed up being extremely naughty and running around like feral ponies where they weren't supposed to.

Clive's a good boy

I even jumped a bit, haven't been on a horse for three months, haven't rode properly for six months... It went alright I think. Didn't fall.

Aaaand the Christmas decorations are up. It's not too early! Ssh!

Joulumarkkinat

Yesterday Ollie and I went to visit the Finnish Christmas Fair in Rotherhithe, London.

It was a bit of a rainy day and of course we didn't take an umbrella with us. The result was soggy socks. Luckily the Finnish Church had warming glögi. Mmm, it tastes like Christmas. 

I had to buy some to take home with me. Chocolate was the main reason for our visit so I got half a kilo of it. It's worth every pound I spent and every pound I'm going to gain around the waist for stuffing myself with it. Oh well, I've got a gym membership now so hopefully it's not going to be that bad.

The Finnish Christmas Fair itself was lovely, it was held indoors which was a bit better than what the Scandinavian Christmas Fair had, they were in outdoors stalls. There was lots of Finnish food and stuff to buy and eat. I had a Finnish-style sausage and mash with ketchup, mustard and rye bread, Ollie had reindeer stew with mash and rye bread. I heard it was 'alright'. It was alright.

Two different people thought Ollie looked Finnish which I found extremely amusing. I made him try some salted liquorice (or salmiakki, pronounced like salmi-yuck-i) which, as every Finn knows, is always hilarious. You're not allowed to spit it!

Look at this bad boy. I can't go to London without visiting Fortnum & Mason. Yummy tea.

Halloween and Bonfire Night

As a Finn I had never participated in either of these 

Thanks to American TV I had a pretty good idea of what Halloween was going to be and the trick or treating part was like our Easter (but obviously late at night instead of running around the streets in the morning thinking that the early bird catches the worm and the biggest amount of chocolate).

I would say the scariest part of the night was the house that was guarded by six cats having a nap on the doorstep.

Ollie took me to watch a bonfire and some fireworks. It was a bit like our Midsummer, except that it didn't rain, The temperature was pretty much the same. Cold.

...and Family

In October it was my turn to visit Finland.

Wave! Waaaave!

I spent about five days in Finland. It was nice to go back home and see my friends and family, I had missed them. I had especially missed my tortoise, it was good to see that he's alive and healthy, he still loves tomatoes and is the king of the house.

These photos were taken by and in the middle of River Kymi. Those rocks are for some reason one of my favourite places in the world. Luckily the water level was quite low so me and Viivi could hop our way to the middle of the river safely.

Photos by Viivi, my personal paparazzi

Funland, Winland, Ginland. The many ways to mistype Finland. Rakkaalla lapsella on monta nimeä, a dear child has many names.

Friends...

Sorry for not writing for such a long time. I've been... busy.

That was a lie.

Actually I forgot I even have a blog.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway.

My best friend Viivi came over to visit me all the way from Finland. We went to Cambridge and did stuff. I think this was in September or something.

Cool as a cucumber.

Horses!

Anyone who knows me at all probably knows that I love horses. The first time I went horse riding was when I was about five or six years old thanks to my Mum. Since then riding has been my favourite pastime and I even had a horse at one point, you know, because it's more fun than just burning all of your money. As an au pair that has been put to a hold although I have been in the saddle once thanks to Ollie and his lovely horse HP.

That doesn't mean I'm completely cut off from the horse world, quite the opposite. Here horses are everywhere!

help I've lost my jockey

The nearby racecourse is a very exotic place for a Finn.

I've been to the Huntingdon Racecourse once with Sarah, we got absolutely soaked and couldn't sadly stay until the pony races. It's only less than a ten minutes walk away.

It's not all horse racing here, they also have the tweed kind of horse riding and the normal disciplines like eventing. Sometimes these two overlap and what you get is Burghley Horse Trials, where the crowd wears the tweed and the apparently quite suicidal riders trust their horses to carry them over these massive scary jumps.

surely you must be mad to be do eventing

Ollie and his mum took me there and it was amazing. He also took me to Weird Great Yarmouth but we don't talk about that.

Differences Between Finland And England

I just realised yesterday it's been four months in England already. Four months! That's a long time. That's a third of a year. That's enough time to get a culture shock.

I didn't have the worst culture shock ever, but I definitely suffered some symptoms of it, like mild homesickness and turning into the most Finnish person ever. I could live on rye bread and Fazer chocolate. Ok, I kind of do already (sidenote to family: SEND ME CHOCOLATE k thanks bai x).

Culture shock is about living in a place different to where you're from and not adapting to the little differences as well as you'd hope. So I thought I'd list some differences between Finland and England that have confused, amused or slightly annoyed me. Usually all three at the same time, I'm trying not to offend anyone but I probably will.

1. The Weather
It's better in England. It's October, it's raining, and oh yes, it's better. 

2. The Doors
They open the wrong way! I still get confused whether I should push or pull. Yes I understand them opening inward in terraced houses, otherwise we'd be slamming someone in the face every time we leave the house but in a one square metre public restroom stall? Why

3. The Food
Binge and starve vs basically grazing. What do you mean you don't have a meal between the dinner and bedtime? Before coming to England I didn't even realise how crazy about dairy we Finns are. As a lactose intolerant I'm strongly in favour of the English way (but I do miss that chocolate oh it's so good hint hint mum, chocolate). I would have tea, crumpets and Nutella over rye bread every day of the week. 
The bread slices are bigger in England. They have boiled vegetables instead of cold salad. Everything is not coated with salt. Weird.

4. The People
So so lovely and friendly. And there are so many of them, people everywhere. Sorry about being so quiet all the time, but you see we don't even have a word for 'small talk' or 'uncomfortable silence' in the whole Finnish language.

5. The Shopping
Obviously a lot better here, I don't have to order everything online anymore! Except the food, you can get food online, delivered to your doorstep! I know! Shut up and take my money!! One thing that has baffled me is the amount of card shops, like places selling birthday cards and that kind of stuff. I think there's three card shops in Huntingdon plus some other places to buy cards e.g. Sainsbury's and WHSmith. I can only assume English people send a lot of cards. 

+ Tweed
Special mention to tweed. People actually wear it! Amazing. 

Despite sometimes having long rants about the weird things this country and its people do (don't get me started on the technology or spiders) I've loved every single minute of my four months in England. I'm just a moany sort of person.

Sorry about being such a lazy blogger! I've got some travel posts coming up, I'll probably do a compilation post or something. Lots of photos then and I'll show you all the amazing places I've seen. 

Southwold

A couple of weeks ago we went to Southwold. It's a seaside town in Suffolk and an absolutely gorgeous part of the country.

Oh how I love the sea

I'm reading 1984 at the moment so this George Orwell mural was an interesting one.

Of course it wouldn't be a bank holiday weekend without some dark clouds pouring rain all over us. Luckily we were just leaving when it started and got to enjoy many hours of glorious sunshine. What a beautiful town.

Ireland

"As I went down to Galway town to seek for recreation..."

Warning: A long blog post ahead. Lots of photos.

I'd always wanted to see Ireland and the Galway Races happened to be on, so I thought why not. I flew to Dublin on the 28. of July and I had a couple of hours wandering around in Dublin before taking the train to Galway.

I took a stroll in Phoenix Park. It was beautiful there. The sun's still shining at this point, making me a little bit too optimistic about the weather of the following week...

From Dublin I got to Galway late in the evening. I went straight to bed.

"...their feet they hardly touched the ground, the speed was so amazing..."

On Wednesday it was time to go exploring the city a bit, I wandered around the Latin Quarter before taking a bus to Ballybrit Racecourse to see the horses! The atmosphere there was great, the weather not always that much as you can see from the photo. It was enjoyable anyway and the sun did get out at times.

Thursday was the Ladies' Day, which was the busiest day of the festival. All the girls had their hats, dresses and very high heels on and boys all suited and booted, I loved it. Too bad there wasn't enough room for heels in my backpack, I had to go dressed considerably more casually than most people there. I did wear a dress, but I did also wear a jumper over it as it was so cold! How the Irish girls manage to not freeze to death in those pretty little dresses I have no idea. The city was lively that night.

I liked to stay by the parade ring, it was fantastic to see all the horses and jockeys from such a close distance! 

River Corrib was just outside my hostel. I love rivers and the sea, can you tell from my holiday photos? I always tend to find the water and just stay beside it. The sea air made me feel like home in Kotka, it felt amazing.

Is it stormy or is it calm? The causeway to Mutton Island. Windy.

Friday morning I went walking around Claddagh, Salthill and of course along the Promenade. There was people actually swimming in the sea, it was +16 degrees... Brrrhh. Irish people, I am impressed. This comes from a Finn. 

On Friday I didn't go to the races, instead I met an another au pair girl Maike, currently working just outside Galway. We went shopping and she showed me around the city. 

We had the nicest cup of tea ever in this cute little tea shop called Cupán Tae (that's "a cup of tea" in Irish Gaelic, I think). It was called Dreamy Creamy Galway Tea and if you're ever in Galway, go try it. It's delicious. I had to buy some to take back to England and it's so good. I dread the day I've drank all of it, and by the rate I'm drinking it that day will be soon. It was brilliant. A definite highlight of my trip. Moving on...

Saturday was the last day in Galway for me, so I had to make the most of it. So, on a bus to the racecourse I went, of course. I tried gambling a bit, and this pony here was mine. Marty's Magic. The donkey came second, can you believe it?! In the next race I tried again only to watch my horse cross the finish line fourth. 

As the trend wasn't looking too favourable for my money, I quit.

Can you see the horses? Pouring down in Galway

I got absolutely soaked. It was worth it.

On Sunday I took the first train to Dublin, stayed there for a couple of hours again and then flew back home. Before that I went to the beach early in the morning and said goodbye to Galway Bay. Galway is a gorgeous city and I'd definitely love to go back!

Slán go fóill, Gaillimh