Baking

I have friends coming over today, so I decided to do some baking. The ham pie looks more like pizza, but I did it with the pie recipe. Very yummy I must say... As you can see I already tasted few bites. Just because the pie wasn't quite square so I took some to make it look more square.

Ham Pie

The Cranberry pie with some red currant and few drops of lemon. It was two minutes two long, but I think it still looks okey. Now I am waiting for my friend to arrive so I am not starting the third pie that I have in my mind.

Cranberry Pie

Possibilities

I found out from our school forum that as a Master student I can apply to a student forum about environmental/climate issues in the arctic. I am not fully green person, but I would say that I know a bit more than totally non-green person. The forum would be held in November in Canada.... I think you might see where I am going with this. So I have now done my application letter (which according to my sister is ok). I think I might send it to my firend for a final check just in case. So that I would have a change to go :)

I don't know if I am qualified enough or not. But I intend to jump at this opportunity with everything I got. Oh, I didn't mention that the flights and accommodation would be provided by the school...

Moving process

Today I received a phone call from an unknown number. It was the possible new occupant that called me. We had nice little chat about this place and I promised to sent few pics of this place to her. We also talked that if she likes what she sees, she and her hubby might come to see this place on Friday. I also told her that I am very flexible with the moving dates, so that they can move in almost a week before my time expires. Well they would be moving from Oulu (about 500 km away) so it will be a bit hassle for them to move during the weekdays. Much easier to do during the weekend. I should be moving out about three weeks from now, so no extra trouble for me. That reminds me, I need to go to the post office to get the address change form. 

I also got my school book today. Finally! So now I can start studying for the class that I am having at the moment. On other note, I just heard from a school friend that the groups that we had chosen are no longer in use. They have devided us up automatically. The only problem is that they have used the old list. So there is at least one person in every group that no longer goes to school. Not really nice when some groups only have two persons. Really? I wonder who came up with that idea! The group that I am in, has three people in it. Luckily two of us are still in school.

I have also now put some of my stuff to FB fleamarket thingy. One sofa might be going soon. It is reserved till tomorrow, so fingers crossed that it will go. I tried to keep the prices really cheap, so that they would indeed go. So here goes for hoping. 

Still tossing a coin about renting a furnished or non-furnished appartment when I move. Well I need to decide the location first. I know I have been thinking about Toronto, but I think I might need to broaden my search. 

/my sister just called me about a school task, so I am helping her now. And also I have lost the thought of what I was about to write.

Waiting

Have I ever mentioned that waiting is not a virtue of mine. Now I have been waiting almost a month for a book. To be fair I have only waited for about 2,5 weeks for my friend to sent it. It should be on its way already. She sent two packets at the same time, so they should have arrived at the same time... Oh, well the first one arrived today. So if I get it tomorrow I will have 24 hours to read two chapters of it. And then gram up the rest of the book as soon as I have time.

Also I have sent the letter to Grenada about a month ago... Just little over month at the moment. It was an express letter, so it was supposed to be there already few weeks ago. So now I am waiting a reply from them. I haven't got any reply to three or four last emails that I sent out. Oh, well I just need to be a bit patient. I already have the two certificates that I need. After next month I should be able to print out that I have enough cash to travel. 

I already contacted CIMO about helping me with the visa. They can help me if I have a place where to do my thesis to. So next I will contact another person in that organization. Then I need to contact Allianssi as well. It would have been such a good luck if I would have been able to just apply to the IEC visa (through Stockholm). Now I am checking out other visa types that wouldn't cost me 500 euros extra. Or demand that I have travel insurance for whole year!

Waiting is humbug!

A year ago today

I was thinking about what to write, when I suddenly realized that a year has passed since my granny died. I didn't even remember it in the morning, nor while I was looking at the time around the time she died. It just hit me a moment ago. So I did a quick search on FB (bad me) to see if anyone else had noticed it. I do remember from last year that quite many had reported it there. So I just wanted to check if the others had posted anything today. Well, I didn't find any (I am not FB friends with my mother, so I don't know if she remember it or not). I am not surprised. I barely remembered myself. I just sent a message to my sis to ask if she remembered. //edit: My fb update has brought me new news about this. Others have remembered as well. I am glad.

To be honest my granny has been on my mind, and I have been thinking of this day. It just happens that usually this means that I will forget the exact date. Like remembering that my friends have B-day coming up, and then remember again that oh, it was yesterday. So anyway. A year ago today my granny died in her sleep in the hospital. She had not been consious for few days. It had been 1,5 weeks in the hospital and 0,5 weeks in the hospice. So she had been 2 weeks away from home. One could say that she almost died like she wanted.

At friends wedding

Last Saturday I went to Tampere to celebrate a friends wedding. They got married at this really wonderful place which was called Hatanpään Kartano (Hatanpää Mansion). It was really lovely place and despite the dark clouds, it didn't rain at all :) There were just few family members and alot of friends of the happy couple.

Hatanpään Kartano

Happy couple :)

I had my bag and shoes that I bought from Bulgaria. The shoes were really nice, expect when we had to stand in the grass and my heels didn't have any support. You could easily track my route anyway, as the sand "road" (whatever you call those where you walk in the park) didn't like to stay under my heels either.

My bag, that I brought from Bulgaria

Me and my friend ( we are old co-workers of the bride) went outside and took some pics of our own :) I am not putting my friends pic here, but she was pretty as a picture.

Me!

The food was wonderful! Sorry but I did not take picture of it. The salad or the appetizers options were vast (for those who don't understand Finnish, it is the first part). I would almost say that the salad table was enough. I didn't eat that much from the main course just because I was so full.

What a menu

At our dinner table there also were disposable cameras with what we could take pictures of the celebration. The idea behind them was that the couple would developer one camera per month during the first year of the marriage. I do have to say that I was able to get my hands on two different cameras, which means there will be lots of pics by me :) Well not that many pics, I just took few pics and gave the camera forward (as there was only one camera per table and there were six of us in the table).

One camera for every month of the first year of marriage 

The first dance was danced under a chandelier.

Chandelier

The gifts

Both the mother and sister of the bride gave speach where they gave small gifts to the happy couple. The mothers gifts were from my friends past and mainly just for her. The sister also gave to the groom gifts. As I sat behind them for these speaches I was not able to take good pics. I do think that one part for my pics not been very good is that my camera is getting really old :/

Oh, lucky me

Yes as I have mentioned earlier the school has started. So I am really busy with studying and moving. Of course I was not in time to buy one school book, so I haven't had the chance yet to start reading it. It is just the first course of the season. When I look at my timetable at the moment, I do not see enough time for studying :/ So need to remember not to book anything for the fall anymore. 

Also I have just a week ago come back from the north and I haven't had the money to fill up the tank. I have been waiting for the payday to come, so I can fill it. Also I have a friends wedding tomorrow in Tampere, so I need to spend some to get there. Oh, well there seems to be some trouble with my employers bank. The paycheck has been sent out, according to the data, but no money had arrived to any of us. 

I have now informed the land lord that I will be moving out. (The office was open only three hours per day in the morning so it was a bit of a hassle to get it done.) So during next Monday between 8:00-16:00 someone will come and visit me to check that this place is still livable. Great, I just have been emptying my bookshelves so that I can but them on Facebook flea market. So now I need to put some of the stuff back, and start again after Monday. (Just because I want this place to look clean while the inspector is here.)

About the book I mentioned earlier, I ordered it to my friends place (as it was sold mainly in UK and US) and my friend sends it to me. So as a thank you I have gathered her a packet. I told her I would send it today, but that didn't happen either. Well I could sent it and use my credit card, but I rather not. As I can't be sure that the paycheck will be in my account Monday, so I rather save the little I have to last as long as I can.

First school task done

I tried to start early as I knew I did not understad the task very well. I haven't yet received my school book for the first class, but I hope I will receive it soon as I know that my friend has received it already. So I am waiting near my mail box for any mail. I need to start to organize my school stuff as they still are just a big pile of paper. I have been throughing this out (because of the move) but I am not yet ready to part my ways with my school stuff. This is going to be a small post again, as this has been hanging here for few days already.

Vacation and relaxation

All and all I had nice vacation. I was not able to let go of work thinking, and I got stressed about that. So basically I was not relaxed when I started to work again. Still it feels very tiresome to open my computer and to start working. I intend to keep working for this company at least untill I come back from Canada. I intended to write more about the vacation and relaxation but having kept this blog open for two hours now, I decided just to make a quick post and not write anything specific.

Work wear

This is today's work wear for me. The shoes have 13 cm heal. So far have not used these outside as it has been raining. Maybe one sunny day.
I add this to my blog as well so that all of you that are not my fb friends can see this too :)

School et al

Last week I spent in Tornio with my sister's family. The main reason why I went there was because my school started. Like 6 months ago the teachers laid down their demands for us. I hope that this time they will be following through with them. One other surprise was that there was about 10 people less than when we started. Not even the teachers knew if they had dropped out or what. I think that people should not go to school if they are not going to stick with the program. There might be others who desperately want to start this, but were not chosen (but are in line if someone drops out in the beginning). 

One thing that I find most terrifying is that we are to write more academic. (Yeah, I was not that successful at it last semester.) We already got a list what words not to use... Like, think, you, kind of, sort of... Also we should drop these in our spoken presentations as well. So I need to stop and think a bit more of what I am going to say. I am pretty sure I will not get a good grade from this course.

One annoying thin: The teachers were not able to do or follow a timetable! How hard can it be? We the students followed the instructions that we were given. For example we had a company visit. Based on the first glance to the timetable we were not supposed to go anywhere. The teachers told us later that we would actually be going to the company that was located 20 km north from school. Also we were told an hour before the exact time when we were supposed to be there. No directions what so ever was given, we found out about it ourselves. The students were the first to arrive, then the organizing teachers. Other teachers were last to arrive, they were also 15 minutes late...

We also got some pressure on our Master's Thesis. I still do not know where I would do it to. I know that I would like it to be something to do with improving processes (working together or actual process of doing something). But it doesn't help me when I need to have a company to do it to. I have few ideas from friends, which I might need to follow through. The only problem is that if I am in Canada, I might not be able to do them. So I might have to move home earlier than I had planned. Also my move is probably going to be a bit later (in the end of January) due to the contact days.

I took and fetched my niece and nephew from day care to help my sister and brother in law. This meant that they were able to work a bit more on those days. Unfortunately my niece got migraine and had to spent few home days. Luckily her granny and grandad were able to help. The problem with my niece is that when she gets migraine she will throw up (to help with the pain). 

Hmmm, have I forgotten anything? Oh, yeah on Friday I baked few pies for my sister to take to her workplace. As she will be quitting in few weeks she will need to take a farewell something. Some have taken cakes and some pies. So as I do pies best, I did some for her. They are now in the freezer, so no extra furriness ;)