Baking and helping

Today I helped my sister in law with some baking for my niece's birthday (which is held tomorrow). I also helped with cleaning and enternaining the kids. Tomorrow indeed is the bday party and I still need to gift wrap the gifts. I have quite a lot of gifts, as I have some from my mother and my sister's family. (Also the ones that come from me...)

Man I am so beat at the moment. Just thinking of going to bed (and it is only half past nine here). Oh, and I need to pack my bags as well. I heard that it should be a bit could up there, so I need to pack some warm clothes as well. So that I won't freeze like the last time. Well last time it was -30 so I couldn't help it. But this time I am used to the odd +5 and they promise -15 up there. It will be like -10 here too tomorrow. So warm clothes. I'm just going to sit here in front of my computer for five more minutes before I start... And maybe listen to some music or go to youtube...

Hmmm, what school stuff do I need to bring with me... So many questions and so little time.

//edit: Yay no need for gym tomorrow as my arms are already sore for carrying my niece and nephew upside down :)

//edit 2: Gifts wrapped. It took more time then I thought. Had to hunt down my tape. Five minute break, before starting to pack.

Petrol price

What can I say. OMG! It is so freaking expensive. I will need to fill up my tank couple of times, before I get to Tornio. I truly think that this time my trip would be cheaper if I would go by train. They are predicting that the price will go even higher for summer. So I think that I will start using the train a lot more. It wouldn't be such a problem if my car wouldn't use so much of it. If I could choose, I would choose a hybrid car. Even though during the winter, I probably wouldn't be able to use it. Fricking gas price... I remember when I started to drive (about 6 years ago) the price was  about 1,20. Now it is 1,70!!

I think I might need to do some calculations, wheather it would be cheaper not to own a car. It is so handy though. I like it that I don't have to pack my bags so that I will be able to carry them for miles and miles (or kms and kms as we say here, but I just like the sound of miles better)(I do give my vote to metric system! Now everyone join us!). Also I will be able to bring more stuff with me. Like now I have gifts from my brothers family to my sister. If I would be going by train I wouldn't be able to do so, as I would have too much stuff to carry. It wouldn't be a problem if I didn't have to change the train at least once.

School and stuff

Yesterday I had another lecture about international economics. It went a bit better this time (I actually took par in the discussion) even though sometimes I found out that the teacher had asked a question by the silence. So I didn't notice the question at all. We also changed a lecture date, so I have few weeks of no lecture, so I have time to do some reading.

I talked about my school with Bec who studies the brain. When she was doing her master's (she is now doing her PhD) she talked to me about the brain and what she was studying. So this was very normal for us to discuss about the school. So anyway, I told that I would like to know more about everything. She than asked me why didn't I choose psych to study. Which I did consider, but decided that it wasn't enough. With the internationalization we need to understand how humans behave so I get some psych lessons and more. I sure wish I would be able to download all the knowledge to my brain, or that I could remember everything that I have read.

Yesterday I learned (among other things) the difference between Interindustry trade and Intraindustry trade. I am sure some of the stuff I already knew, but I just didn't know it in english. It is so annoying to know things, but not to be able to explain them.

See I have made one before

The above pic is to prove that I have made the same handcraft work, as my granny, before. The above piece is the right side and the bottom piece is the under side of the table cloth. So basically they look the same. I might do some of it during the summer. I don't see that I will have much time before, as we are releasing an upgrade at work and that usually keeps us very busy for a while. Also the last tasks are to be done before summer (in school).

Which reminds me that I need to check how many days of vacation do I have. I think it is 2,5 * 12 aka 28 days aka (/6) 4,5 weeks. But I like to check it out, so there won't be any surprises. I will probably have two weeks in a row during the summer and then if I am able to save up enough, I might do a trip to Florida to see friends later this year/early next year. But yeah I need to save up those days. Also if I go to US, I would also love to go to Las Vegas and LA. I would also like to visit Canada one day. I think I might have to plan for a round trip... but two weeks is not much time :/

Oh yeah did I forget to mention, that I have a small case of travel fever. I might have to write a blog about my dream round trip soon, just so that I will get it out of my head. Also I think I need to play some Lotto, so that chance for me to ever doing the trip would be a bit higher than zero. *travel, travel, travel*

Just wanted to share some pics

Would you believe me if I said that I haven't bought these myself? I have been to both places, but not bought these. Well the I <3 NY was bought by friend when I asked her to buy one (and gave her the money for it)(she would have bought it for me anyway, but I had a long list of things I wanted). The Grenada mug was a farewell gift from our housekeeper in Grenada.

Gifts from friends

I think I mentioned earlier that I have some granny's handwork that are unfinished. Here is one of them. I heard that it has a mistake in it, so I have to first fix the mistake and then finish it. I also need to find the design for it. I think I already found it, but just can't remember where I put it. It's been a long time since I have done anything like this, but I am sure that I will remember how to do it when I start it.

Unfinished work by my granny

Y'all know when you boy something and say "it had my name on it!" Well...

 

They had my name on it!

Here comes the Spring!

I had to take some pics as the sun is shining! They had said that the spring will come soon this year, but still it feels like after few days of sun we get snow. So not fair! I will be going up north to my niece's Bday soon and my brother in law is going to change the tiers of my car if the weather is good. So fingers crossed that we will have warm weather during Easter.

Sun is shining and NO snow coming down!

There still are some snow on the ground but at least the roads are clean from the snow.

My friend visited her family in Australia and did a small trip to New Zealand. She rememberd me and my quorky taste for forign candy. I like to taste candy from different countries. I have noticed that I prefer more salty things and choclate. If they are together, even better. Yammy! I do have to confess that not all candy made it to the pic... I had to sample some already. Most I am going to save up, so I need to find a place where to put them. (Out of sight, out of mind)

I received a packet from my friend, who travelled to Australia and New Zealand. :))

I haven't yet found a permanent place for these (pic below). I think I will need to visit Florida again to find out if they have something like these as well. It would be so cool to have old maps of places that I have lived in. As I have lived in so many places in Finland, a map of old Finland would be nice (with the lost areas).

My two maps that I bought from Grenada! I think I need to go to Florida again to find similar thing from there as well.

Not a family coat of arms! This is a Coat of arms of historical province of Karelia in Finland aka my roots. (This is my granny's)

This is also my granny's. Unfortunately I do not know the history behind this. I know what the pic represents, but not how we got it.

To do!

Time for a to do list! Yay!

1. Buy the wrapping paper! (I have already forgot to do that twice...)
2. Save up for Bulgaria trip (on going)
3. Save up for trip to Brighton (just decided. Need to visit a friend before she goes traveling)
4. Renew passport (about 4 months untill it goes old)
5. Write a letter and  wrap up a gift for friend in Brighton (about a month to go)
6. Buy train tickets to Turku (or check the price for bus)
7. Inform granny's neighbor that you are coming during Easter
8. Pack your bag for trip to Tornio (this probably should be number one...)
9. Take you laptop to repare place (oh, well what harm can few more months do...)

Babysitting

The bear

The story of the bear will be written tomorrow... or within an hour. I am so sleepy now... zzz

So I was babysitting my niece and nephew yesterday. All went well as usual. I did the bear thing, where the (hand puppet) bear is the child and my niece and nephew are the parents/doctors/etc.  The best part is that they don't see me at all :) They just talk to the bear. Well if I have to correct them (stop them from doing something that is not allowed) I will put the bear behind my back so that they will listen to me.

So anyway yesterday my niece wanted to listen to some Hevisaurus (/metal/rock music for children) and I made the bear do some moshing (just shaking the head part). My niece just loved it and giggled like a little girl that she is :)

I did take a video about what I did, and I was planning on putting it here, but my phone didn't like the idea. Also I again forgot that I need to tilt my phone when taking pics... When will I remember!

Economics

Oh man, I didn't even know how much I had forgotten about economics untill the first class... The basic terms were familiar, but I wasn't able to explain them at all. Also when I studied the economics last time, it was in finnish and not in english. So it was good that we recapped some as I didn't know all the words.

So far so good, we have one smal task and one big task that we need to do. So now I need to start gather information for the smaller task. We are doing most of the work as a group which is good imo. I am not sure how I am going to use what I learn here with the company. (We were told that we should try to use our own workplace as an example as much as possible)(there are few that are unemployed, who are going to use the case company as an example.)

Still have kind of the feeling that what the hell I am studying this for, as there are so many other things that I would like to study as well. I really wish that all the knowledge could be just downloaded to our brain. It would make the study process so much easier.

My new toy

I bought myself a new toy that I had been wanting to buy for quite some time. As I have lend some money to my aunt, this was not in my budget per say. But it was on "sale" (the price was the same as in TV, but I wouldn't have to pay any postage as I picked it up from the store) kind of. 

New toy <3

I already tested it, and noticed that it is a cool toy (sorry for the pun). I can't wait till I start cleaning (and not just testing)! I might do some testing along the way though... So, I am not a germ-a-phobe (however it is spelled) but I do like things to be steamy clean. I would love if someone else would do the cleaning for me, as I am lazy as hell, but with this I will be able to make myself feel a bit better!

Also the freezer in the back is my granny's freezer. I can't remember if I have shared pics of my place or not (probably not), but it is where one of my bookcases used to be. I had to change the bookcase next to my desk (so that there wouldn't be yet another plug in my extended socket). Also I haven't yet bought a place for my dvd's so they are in my granny's dresser which I got at the same time as the freezer. The dresser is a good place to hide the dvd's but it is not very good place to keep them.

This I noticed when my friend was over and we watched few movies. First to choose the movie, we had to go through all the dvd's by taking them out of the dresser and then putting them back. Compare this to a shelf where you can just check the movies by eyeing them over. Also if I want to see something and I have to find it, I might opt out and just go to youtube. Much easier to find something to watch there. I also have many dozens of new (granny's) books which I can read instead of watching a movie. (My stuff is what I have bought and other stuff is X's stuff where X is the person from whom I received the said object)(not counting mugs and other small stuff.)

Someone is at the door!

OMG! (sorry for the pun) There were some Mormons (guys) at my door. I was feeling so lucky that no-one had been at my door yet. (You know selling, etc.) I had seen mormons before in Turku (two girls) and hadn't thought much of it. Never before has they been behind my door. Usually it has been the jehovas who go door to door. Also other things that was funny was that these guys weren't local. They did speak Finnish, but with an accent. Nope, I didn't ask where they were from, nor did I ask them in. It is a bit chilly, so I was feeling a bit bad for not asking them in but I didn't want them to spend too much time in my place. Maybe if it actually would have been below 0*C I would have asked them in, but it was over (it's 3 C).

I was already hoping (fearing) that someone would come by surprise, but no. Oh, well I have more time to clean (which I probably won't actually do). Just keeping it not gluttered downstairs and keeping the stuff in the closet upstairs. Very good plan, to hide all my extra stuff. Now that I only would have the energy to take all the extra stuff from downstairs to upstairs... (so nope not taking anything upstairs.)

Just thinking that how upset should I be that I can get more text out of me when there has been total straingers at my door than about my friend visiting me...

Long time no see!

My friend came over who I had not seen for almost 1,5 years! We were really surprised when we calculated that when was the last time we had met. We did not see each other at all last year! We had made plans to see, and I was supposed to visit her during a weekend in the fall. I didn't because my granny's funeral was in that weekend.

So I was glad to see her. We went "shopping" (it was Sunday, so most of the places were closed) and then went to eat at Santa Fe. Then we came back at my place and watched few movies. Now I was supposed to write a bit better post about having a friend over who I haven't seen for a long long time, but, well you know... :))

Where has the time gone?

Wow time just flies by! It feels like just yesteday I was thinking what to write to my task for school. And now it is already Friday! Damn... Didn't even notice for the days go by. Luckily it is weekend coming up. I will be doing some cleaning and then on Sundya a friend of mine is coming over. Then on Monday another friend is coming over for shopping :)

It is so much easier to keep track of time when you have friends over. Also it helps that I need to remember to be in class every Wednesday :)) Oh, I almost forgot. I also send the school task to my boss to see  what I have been up to in school. He liked what I had gathered so far. We might even use the plan that I had made. Yay!

I have a bad case of travel fever at the moment. If I read about some one talking about a far away place, I want to go there. I know that we are going to Bulgaria again this year, but it is so far away (time wise) and I just can't wait. Also I need to remember to renew my passport. I still have 4,5 months left in it, so there is still some time, but knowing me I might forget it if I don't do it in time.

Travel, travel, travel... I need to fiqure out a need for companies so that they would hire me to travel for them...

Still panicking!

Man I wish my ideas would come more easily to the paper. I can see what I need to write. I know what I want to write. So why, oh why, won't my hands write it! Sometimes I get a good vibe going and am about to get to the point when I notice that I actually have no idea what I am writing about.... Yay me!

Well I am not too worried. This is just the first class so I assume that I will become better at this after a while. It is just so funny how all our teachers are like you are not doing your bachelor's degree anymore. You are now academical students! Also I would really like to know where the hell do I find a job for me with this education?

It's just that all the openings that I have been looking at lately are  more or less not for me. Even with this new degree (after 2,5 years)(keeping fingers crossed) I am not able to find anything. And don't let me start with the Thesis... Argh! *goes to look for paper pack*

"Nice"

I just found a really cool organization Kiva. It unites people who want to help with people in need. Basically it works so that you give an micro loan to a person applying to one. The loan is $25 dollars, and the applyee would need to wait for the asked amount to come through before getting it. Then they will repay the loan back to the people who lent the money.  Hmm I think I am not explaining it very well, so go and see it yourself!

(I found out about this by following Penn Jillette in Twitter)

About you know who 2

I probably have written with that topic more than twice, but hey who cares. Last night I came to the conclusion that my mojo (or lack of) was caused by my mothers visit. Well that's not quite the truth, as I already figured that out earlier. What I mean is that she was all normal, while I was expecting her to be "normal" ("normal" means her usual self and not normal like rest of the world normal). She was all nice and talked about her plans. She also gave me money for picking her and my aunt up from the airport and driving her back there. I was happy to take the money as gas is freakishly expensive. Especially when your car takes about 9 liters per 100 km. I also sold her my luggage (which I had only used twice so it was almost brand new). Now here we come to the root of all evil.

Because she gave me money I was all nice and... and... well with the lack of a better word a small child who feels that her parent really does like her. Which is not normal! In our case I have been the "mother" for longer than I care to remember. Well not over the last few years as we haven't been in contact for... I don't know for how long. So anyway, last night I noticed that I had felt bad for thinking so harshly of my own mother for so long. That she is a good person who tries to do her best with the cards she has been given. I also had some other really nice things to say about her, which I am not going to write here...

So anyway I was all feeling bad and tried to fall asleep. I thought of writing a blog about how I felt and why, how wrong have I been (or have I). Then I dreamed of all the times she had hit me or my sister and how we didn't always know why. Or how she would rather let me and my sister live by ourselves in a town where we hated to be, than let us live with our dad (luckily she had brains enough to let us move out)(well it was her idea...)(really it was. I was just repeating "three more years" in my head when I heard the good news)(well when I heard the good news it was "four more years"). Also few other things went past my mind which I am not going to write here...

So I thought screw my inept feelings! I have no need to feel bad for taking money from my mother and have bad thoughts of her. When ever I turn to normal happy (functional) social human being, then I can forgive her. But until that happens I don't need or have to.

/end rant

Now if you are thinking that am I okay: yes I am. I just use this blog to rant about things and then I forget them. If I am feeling down I listen to music or watch whose line on YouTube. If those don't help, then my subconscious will take care of it when I am asleep.

School panic

Yeah, you guessed it right. I am writing my task for school (due date tomorrow). I could have (and should have) done it sooner, but I really didn't have any idea how to start it. Still don't. Now the problem is not with the task. I know what the end result will be, but I am not so good with the start, middle and academic writing. So I am trying to bind what is in my head to the slides and articles provided. Too bad I can't add a pretty picture (as it is not considered academic :/ ) to gain more points.

Harder To Breathe

I don't know why, but I really like this song. Well I know I like Maroon 5 so that is partly the reason, but the lyrics are not the most... what's the word... cheery. Oh and yes I just heard it from the radio, and now I have to youtube it to hear it again (and again and again).

//edit: another song that I really love at the moment is coldplay and rihanna's Princess of China <3

Maroon 5 - Harder To Breathe

How dare you say that my behavior is unacceptable
So condescending unnecessarily critical
I have the tendency of getting very physical
So watch your step cause if I do you'll need a miracle

You drain me dry and make me wonder why I'm even here
This Double Vision I was seeing is finally clear
You want to stay but you know very well I want you gone
Not fit to fuckin' [CD cover says: "funkin'"] tread the ground that I'm walking on

When it gets cold outside and you got nobody to love
You'll understand what I mean when I say
There's no way we're gonna give up
And like a little girl cries in the face of a monster that lives in her dreams
Is there anyone out there cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe
Is there anyone out there cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe

What you are doing is screwing things up inside my head
You should know better you never listened to a word I said
Clutching your pillow and writhing in a naked sweat
Hoping somebody someday will do you like I did

When it gets cold outside and you got nobody to love
You'll understand what I mean when I say
There's no way we're gonna give up
And like a little girl cries in the face of a monster that lives in her dreams
Is there anyone out there cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe
Is there anyone out there cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe

Does it kill
Does it burn
Is it painful to learn
That it's me that has all the control

Does it thrill
Does it sting
When you feel what I bring
And you wish that you had me to hold

When it gets cold outside and you got nobody to love
You'll understand what I mean when I say
There's no way we're gonna give up
And like a little girl cries in the face of a monster that lives in her dreams
Is there anyone out there cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe
Is there anyone out there cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe
is there anyone out there cuz its gettin harder and harder to breathe
(lyrics found here)

Babysitting

I am babysitting my nephew and niece. My nephew said that I should use red instead of black nail polish. The reason why it should be red is because it is my niece's favourite color. So I asked why can't I use a color that I like. They figured out that my left hand should have black nails and right hand red nails. Don't ask me how they came to this conclusion. Now they are both asleep so I can update my blog.

I also now know when I am having my summer vacation. Or at least part of it. Which reminds me that I need to check how many days of vacation do I have. I know already who is going to substitute me so I don't have to worry about it.

Man, I have been watching too much wliia on YouTube but I can't help it. It just cheers me up. I simply love it. Now my phone is doing something I don't like, so better to stop.

//had to edit it a bit as it looked really funny.

KONY2012

I shall put this here too. First to know what the hell the "KONY2012" means you should watch this youtube video. I copied this description from the youtube video description thingy: "KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice."

I am all for stopping bad people, but I am not in for getting rich while doing so.

So the otherside of the story can be read here. You'll need to scroll down to the post "We got trouble" to read the main post. As mr Oyston says, he is not alone with his thoughts. (He has linked others in his post, so I am not going to do so here.)

What I want with this, is that people will use their own brains and not just do things because they are told to do so. Also it it good to know all the sides of the story. Who knows what the world will look like a year from now.

//end rant, shall continue working.

Friends coming over!

Yay, in a week or so I have couple of friends coming over! I have also received promises from few others that they would come over as well. This means that I have to clean my home... Well I would do that normally as well, but this time I need to make sure that all the rooms are clean. I might not usually clean the guest room as I don't use it. So I usually clean it before someone comes over.

But yay I have things to do! My mom is going to spend the night next sunday-monday night. Week from that I will have a friend from Vantaa and Mäntsälä coming over. Friends from Tampere and Koria haven't yet set the date, but they should come within few months.

This friday I'll be babysitting my niece and nephew. I also need to do a work thingy by Friday, so I think I will be a busy bee tomorrow!

Oh, and now that I remember, I had few really wierd dreams where I was told off because I didn't have any coco. All I could say was that I did have it... So today I had to check that I did have coco (powder).