Testing: Oral-B TriZone 500 for Buzzador friend

While in Bulgaria my friend asked me to test a tooth brush. I use electric tooth brush all the time (have for about 7 years) and I think it might be time for me to change to a new one. So when my friend who is a buzzador asked me if I would like to test a tooth brush I was all in on it. I could test a brush without even buying it. I like this. So what we did was that when we went to Bulgaria she would bring the tooth brush and we would share the electric bit and use our own brush part (dah). 

First thing that was different with my brush (which is Oral-B as well) and the TriZone was that the brush. My old brush is round and this new one reminded me of normal brush. Not much new in design, I know, as they have done this before in other models as well. Other thing that I noticed too to be different was that my nose didn't itch. Well maybe just little bit. But compared to the one I had at home, the itching was barely there. (I sometimes brush my teeth so that I pinch my nose.) So this was definately a good thing. Then one day we ran out the battery and it needed to be recharged. After having brushed my teeth I couldn't believe that the battery was empty as I didn't notice any lagging in the brushing. I don't know if this is due to the brush or have they changed the desing somehow. Well my brush is a bit old. 

If we had been able to recharge it in the toilet, I probably wouldn't have noticed how annoying the blinking light can be. Now it was next to my bed and when I woke in middle of the night the blinking was spooky. This was not a normal situation, so I am not putting it down as a negative but as a funny thing. But all in all, compared to my old one this new one wins hands down. I haven't yet tested other similar tooth brushes, so I can't say if this is the best out there, but it definately reminded me that it is a high time I buy a new electric tooth brush as mine starts to be rubbish.

Criminal Records

I am collecting my criminal records from the countries that I have lived in. So the story so far is this. A little over a month ago I sent my request to FBI. I chose to pay with my credit card and gave them the required information. In the mean while I was hunting down a bank that would give me a check in foreign currency (like USD would be nice). What my own banks told me was that they only do checks in euro. What other banks that I and my friends asked from said was that maybe, no, I don't know. So basically it was really hard to find a bank that said that yes we do create foreign currency checks. My boss tried to ask from his bank (they had created me few checks when I went to Florida) but they said that they didn't do those anymore. I knew that my brother had an account in a bank that did do them (but only for customers).

So I asked him if he could do it. He decided to check from another bank first (which is his primary bank and from where I received an answer maybe for clients). They informed that no problem, just come and visit a bank in person. (He sent a request via online bank.) First time he went, he went to the local bank at the town where he lives. The person there had no idea what he was talking about. Second time he went to a local bank near where he works (a bigger city near by). There he was able to sign some papers and all seemed good for go. Well they called him back about few details and he had to go back to sign some papers. They then promised to deliver the check to my local bank, and send me a txt when the check arrives (within a week).

In the meanwhile, I went to Bulgaria for a week! I took my credit card with me and some cash. I also had my phone with me. Both very important parts of this story ;)

When I was in Bulgaria and running low on cash, I decided to try to withdraw some cash. Well I wasn't too surprised when I was not able to do so. I thought that maybe this is because of the country that I am in. It had worked perfectly when I had used it the othertimes I was abroad. When I was abroad my friend had sent me few text messages that came to me on a loop. When I got home they stopped. We had arrived in the middle of the night. When I was sleeping in my bed I could bearly hear that I got few messages. In the morning that I looked at my phone I noticed that the messages that I had received at night were messages sent to me during the last couple of days. Not all of them had reached me while I was aborad. Funny thing few messages were from my friend that sent me the messages that were on a loop. 

The next morning just before I went to the store to buy some food (as my fridge was empty) my phone rang. It was my credit card company. They wanted to know if I had tried to pay anything to FBI as they saw this payment and thought of it as funny. So they stopped all transactions on my card aka froze my card in middle of my vacation abroad... They had tried to call me, but the phone hadn't connected it. I assured them that Yes it was really me, who had done the order. Yes I want FBI to have my money! Then I was told that now my card was unfrozen again and I would be able to use it again...

Next day I went to the local bank where the check should be sent to. I went to ask if there was anything for me as I had this creapy feeling that there might be. First she checked with my name and found nothing (weird as it was promised that I could picked it up with my name) and then I was asked to tell my brothers name and birthday. Luckily that was enough and she found the check! BTW, I told my brother about this as well and he said that the bank hadn't informed him either (dah you also inform the party who requested the check).

So now I had all the papers that I needed to sent the request to Grenada. I remembered that DHL had advertised their low low price of 30 euros and up. So I went to check the site... Oh but to my surprise to deliver the papers to Grenada it would cost me over 100 euros. I also checked TNT and UPS... All were too high for me. So I did something that I though I would never do. I went and check if our postal service would have something similar to the fast service. Well I found an express fast letter which had similar delivery times as the DHL, FedEx, TNT and UPS. The price was stagering 11 euros. 

As I had promised my sister that I would take my niece and nephew to their day care, she took me with her to see where the day cares were located. She then dropped me off to the post office just before 8 and went to work. To my surprise the post office did not open untill 9! So I walked to my school and hoped that I would be able to make the post office before 17 when the post is sent out for the day. I was there 20 minutes before the post would be picked up and there was line almost to the door! All I could do was to look at the watch and hope I would make it. After having informed what I want, and having layed all the necessary stickers the post lady ran to the man who was picking up the post and it made to this days delivery! 

So now all I need to do is the return mail...with my Criminal Records I hope!

Babysitting

Thursday evening I picked up my niece and nephew from day care. They would be staying with me for three nights and four days. For the evening I hadn't planned anything special. Just dinner and then off to bed. The next day we went to the park and walked around the lot. I let them lead the way so it was kind of looking for new places although I knew exactly where we were. They also played quite a lot with each other, so I could just watch over. In the evening I took my niece for her swimming lessons and took my nephew to the store.

Saturday morning we left for Lappeenranta and Sand Castle. Every summer they build a sand castle and have few rides there. This was so late in the summer that I wasn't sure if it was still up. Luckly when we arrived to Lappeenranta I saw the signs. It did look a bit beaten up in some places, but the kids did not notice it. They enjoyed the site quite well. They rode the rides at least 10 times and would have done so more, if I hadn't said it is enough for now. My dad joined me for the few hours that I was there. We also went to a park next to the harbor. 

In the harbor we ate lunch, before heading to the store to buy some candyday -candy. My nephew slept most of the way, while my niece watched a feature lenght movie. Before we head home, I did a really quick, quick stop and bought some ice cream. I had some trouble putting them to sleep, but luckily once we were all in bed most of us fell asleep quite fast...

During Sunday, we walked the little path that is next to my place. This time also I followed and let them lead where ever they wanted to take me. We saw cazillion killer snails in the woods! So be warned when you go out, you never know when you meet one. Also my garden is free from killer snails, because my niece and nephew cleaned it... I baked an apple pie with soda as lifter. Also it was lactose free pie. Otherwise it was very normal pie :) We were also able to go to the very near park before my brother and sister in law came by to pick them up.

I got a new back and sheets as a bday present from them. The bag has text Finland and the sheets have pic of the world. :)

Sunny Beach, Bulgaria vol III (more pics)

Two drinks

We found a place where the buy one get one free included non alcoholic drinks as well. Yay! Usually the waitress wanted to know if I had understood that the non alcoholic drinks are not covered in this promotion. Funny really...

Beach and Nessebar in the back

We went for a little walk.

Sunny sunny day

We actually walked about 5 hours.

Strawberry margarita

At Mecico restaurant

You'll never guess what I ate...

Remeber the next time you are at a restaurant ;)

Playing Skip-bo

Someone partied hard

B-day breakfast

Yummy

I am the one that glows aka very white

Swimming... or well diveing

My b-day present from my friend

Sunny Beach, Bulgaria vol II (pictures)

Photobomb

 The weather was sunny the whole trip (I am not counting the drizzle that lasted about two minutes...). We ate pretty much everyday in a restaurant. We ate almost everyday in different place. Only place where we went more than once was H.C. Andersen, just because we had the best waitress ever.

Burger

 Burger with fries. With sweet and sour sauce... a bit weird combo, but tasty non the less.

Karaoke

 Thursday night we went to listen to some Karaoke, which you probably remember from my earlier post. Free WiFi, wohoo!

flip flops

 My flip flops that I bought from there. Really nice looking and I would have taken these with me if they hadn't been in such a bad shape after the week. We really walked around there.

Old Church in Nessebar

 Friday: We went to old Nessebar, to see the sites and do some more shopping.

Very old church

 The first line that you can see is the part where the "floor" used to be. They could build a church, but it couldn't be higher than a man on a horse. So they had to build small churches. Well you can have the ceiling low, and build downwards...

Another old chucrh

View from the otherside of the Nessebar

Nessebar

Photobomming again

No climing!

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Another day, another restaurant.

First and only pizza that I ate

View from H.C. Andersen

The bag that I bought

 Yes we did have time to go to the beach as well :)

Yummy mayones

The top pool

Happy Birthday

My cards. I also got two txt messages wishing happy bday. Also I got one packet but more about it later. Most of my bday wishes came via Facebook. I also got four face to face wishes and I was sang to in finnish and english.

/edit: I just received another card today. Well it was just a note saying happy bday and a spoon from my granny's empty appartment. Well it was supposed to be empty, but the spoon was left behind.

Sunny Beach, Bulgaria vol I

We flew to Sunny Beach Tuesday night. So there wasn't very much roaming around, but more lets go to bed right away. To our surprise, there was no A/C in our room despite what the travel agency had promised in their website. Luckily the other two had a bit better luck and they did have A/C, but alas you had to pay to use it. (This was not disclosed in the travel agency's website.) One other thing that surprised us was all the notes all over that forbid of doing something (noise, taking food from breakfast, etc) with fine from 50 up levas.

View from our balcony

This is the picture of main street (left to right). This was next to our hotel and in left from our balcony. The view to the front was not that appetizing, so I decided to show this. You couldn't see the sea from our balcony... well you could see if you leaned out.

View from other group members balcony

Our rooms were luckily in the same floor, so we could easily visit other group members (from now on ogm). They had much better view in sense that they saw the sea. Unfortunately the sun shined there from the early morning, so the room was much hotter than ours. Also the unfinished building wasn't much to look at... (so our view was waaaay better :P)

My new boots

I think it was the very first day that I made the finding of a life time! I found my new boots. I still have to wear them at home as the zipper doesn't quite close. But the sales lady said that they will adapt, I will just need to wear them a bit. And no, I do not think she was trying to tick me. No way! I love these boots. They WILL fit.

Weee, no we did not go!

My salad in a huge bowl

In the first day we went to eat at H.C. Anderson (we got a discount through our travel agency). I ate a salad with chicken (it was called something like athlets salad or something like that). It was very yummy. Only problem was that it was in a huge bowl! I have now idea what the idea was behind that!

And some potate somethings.

I also took some potate wedgies as I was really hungry and doubtful that a salad would fell me full. Not to worry, the salad would have been engouhg for me. Although these were really really good potatos.

second night sunset

The color was actually more pink, but my camera turned the picture more to the orange. Oh well the picture still is fabulous if you ask me :)

Catamaran cruize

In our second day there, we went for a catamaran cruize. This was my b-day present from our travel group. Unfortunately I had printed out the receipt for this and paid the trip as well (to one of our groups members). Non the less it is the thought that counts. (The bought be dinner later, when I told about this miss hap)

Really clear and warm water

We went near a cliff where there was clear water and some medusas. There we could snorkle or just swim. I tried to move so that if I heard someone pointing out a medusa I swam to another direction. Luckily no-one got stung. There was a light lunch after the swimming and drink as much as you can drink. One thing that surprised me was, that they used real cutlery and reusable cups. I mean there was someone washing them the whole trip. Last time I was in similar trip, there were plastic cups...

Photobomb

Also you know who is back! He has been resting a while, and came out from his hybernation to practice for next years adventures!

Taking some sun

Doubble decker

These were real red London busses, that took as to and from the cruize.

Flowers at flower street

You will never guess where the Flower Street got its name... This was about in the middle of Sunny Beach. It connected the main road and the beach road.

Fish Spa

Then we tried something new. I had never tried this before. I recommend this to all. At first it will feel really tickly and weird but then you get used to it. One thing that you need to remember, is that if you have blisters, don't go. The fish can eat the blister away and then it can be a bit painful. But otherwise it is very wonderful. Oh, and if you are wondering, the fish eat the dead skin.