Spent the night at the Stansted airport, arrived to Dublin early yesterday morning. Lots of walking, a photo exhibition (Witness to War), streets, parks.. an afternoon hockey game at a pub with Kirsi & a few others. Cider in pitches. Fun. I love this country so so so.

All taken with cellphone, so quality a bit so and so. Well, anyway!

From Poets of the Fall:

Unfortunately we are forced to cancel at least Thursday’s gig on MS Isabella. Marko has inflammation of the larynx + high fever, which in practice means he has no voice at all.

Fri & Sat are still open, but at the moment it doesn’t look too good. Our deepest apologies, we were really looking forward to these gigs. We hope we can play on the sea at a later date! Stay tuned.

Aww. We girls were actually excited to spend 3 days on a boat, although in normal circumstances it would be a nightmare. But, you know. When you love someone / a group of someones..

Picture taken at Klubi / Tampere last Thursday. More coming up soon at their photo gallery.

..got ~1000 photos of the bands we went to see. And still missed a couple of happenings taking place on stage.

What an awesome trip, once again. I love my girls. I love my boys. I love sitting in the car, singing out loud; sleeping in Omppu, spending a hangover day at a spa, dodging drunken people who are about to push me over with my camera. I love life on weekends like this.

Tomorrow, Tavastia. And while waiting for the live photos of Phoenix Effect and Poets of the Fall, I give you a hooded crow. What an awesome character.

Added a few tags. This needed them all!

What’s this? I suddenly feel like writing about my life! So, stuff follows.

Today is the first day of the tour. We’re gonna be driving like mad(wo)men on the Finnish highways and smaller roads just to see our boys (Poets of the Fall, Phoenix Effect) play for – how many-eth year? We used to have our own blog for the journeys and experiences, but we got lazy with it, and then totally forgot it ever was. Maybe we could do SOMETHING about that this year, huh, girls?

Some crappy cellphone photos can be found in my MMS blog. It’s kinda like watching our trips live, except the frame rate is really slow. And if I’m having too much fun (read: too much alcohol) I just might forget I even have a cellphone. Or a camera. Or fingers with which to operate those two.

Hey, awesome. Satu just called, she’s bought us 3 liters of quality red wine. This trip is going to be so LEGEN- …wait for it…. -DARY!!!

If you’ve never heard of Poets of the Fall and hence, have no idea why we’ve been spending thousands and thousands and thousands of kilometers in Satu’s Morphmobile (as we call it), flying to other countries, taking shady trains and routes and subways, spending dozens of nights in dozens of crappy hotels, then please. Feel free to experience some of that love here.

Better get packing. I’m the one who’s always late, but I’ve made a decision to be more careful with that. Too bad I made that decision five years ago and nothing’s changed. Oh well. They’re used to it.

Tah tah for now.

So. I flew home from Sweden/Denmark tonight, but it actually took two take-offs from the Copenhagen airport to finally get to Helsinki. They had problems with something electrical equipment the pilots use to do their job (no idea what, “nothing serious”), and we had to turn back after 30 mins of flying. At the Copenhagen airport they even had firetrucks waiting for us – normal procedure, said the captain. Still, pretty exciting!

The funniest moment was when, after telling us something is wrong, the captain’s announcement started bzzz’ing and breaking off. The Finns burst into loud laughter and I couldn’t help but giggle too – says something about this nation. We’re not afraid to die as long as it’s funny!!

The week in Lund was peaceful, lovely, relaxing, fun – I also got to see Grand Avenue twice, which was a huge cherry on top of everything! On Thursday night me and Miikka (aka CK) met the band and some fun people backstage and continued to a small pub nearby. We got hammered, played at least 20 Beatles songs from the jukebox and some MC Hammer.. I also have a video clip on my cellphone with a lot of darkness, laughter, loud rattling noises and a few flashing streetlights. The video includes a shopping cart and some pain, too. Might not make it public anytime soon, although it is hilarious.

On Friday night I hopped on a train to go to Copenhagen (again! I crossed the border 6 times within the week) to see the band play in Albertslund. CK went home that morning, so I had to make it a solo adventure. And what an adventure it was, indeed. I got lost in the damn suburbian hellhole of a mall and missed several songs. Oh well, at least I got a few photos and a chance to say hi and bye to the guys afterwards. Totally worth the trouble. They are such amazing people, polite and fun, making sure a random foreign girl doesn’t get lost in the city and whatnot. I wish they get the attention and good things they deserve.

Again, makes me want to believe in karma and people getting what they deserve.

It was so nice to spend time with Aija. Really really nice. We haven’t been able to spend a lot of time together lately (her moving to Sweden might have something to do about it) and now we got a whole week – minus my fangirl action – and although we didn’t do anything that special, it was the best week. Watched a lot of good movies & series, made some christmas decorations and amigurumi for their home, took Siru the dog to long walks to a nearby pond, ate good veggie food and enjoyed life.

Aija might’ve not enjoyed ALL the time with me, since I was pretty violent during nights while sharing the double bed with her. One night I had a dream someone was trying to stab & kill me, so I kicked the killer real hard in the stomach. Well, it worked, I didn’t get stabbed since I woke up to Aija’s whining and cursing. I’d kicked her instead. I would’ve laughed at the situation, but I realized instantly it wasn’t a light touch of a foot that hit her.. embarrasing but, you have to admit, a bit funny.

Well, it’s almost 4am and I’m starting to feel a bit cross-eyed (as we say in Finnish, isn’t it the same in English too huh?).. might have to leave the photo editing until tomorrow.

If you have Spotify, please listen to my current favourite track from Grand Avenue: These Days. I love the whole album “Place to Fall“, but this song’s been playing in my head since yesterday.

And a couple of photos – Grand music and flying Einari. Hope you like ‘em.

On the road again.. My flight leaves in a few hours and I still got some shopping & a lot of packing to do. But here I am, sitting in front of the computer, wearing a towel around my hair. Oh well.

I’m testing some new layouts, and so far nothing has been The Right One for me. I got so bored of the old one! This one still has a stupid “read more” button even if there isn’t more to read, but I’ll take a look at the code a bit later. Right now I really don’t have time for that, right?!

Anyway, I’m going to Sweden for a week, Lund to be exact. Gonna spend an evening or two in Denmark, since a favourite band of mine, the excellent Grand Avenue is playing in Copenhagen and nearby! Wooo! It’s been a year and a half since I saw them in Los Angeles.

Maybe it’ll feel like I was back in California when they start playing? Well, a girl can always hope.

The trip was awesome. I kept a diary while I was there, mostly about foxes. That was unexpected. It’s like a wannabe-animal behaviourist’s journal full of random notes and thoughts. Might publish it someday, if I’m not too embarrased to.

Got a fun job yesterday, via someone I’ve known in the blog world for years. Finally met face to face, that was fun! It seems she’s going through some rough times, though. Don’t like that. I want to believe in karma, such karma that it only punishes bad people, not the nice & good ones.

Already had two cups of coffee. Am I allowed to have a third?

Outside of Dublin (farmlife with monkeys, ostriches, dogs, horses etc. etc.) or outside of Glasgow (a bit more action, saving & taking care of and then releasing injured Scottish wild animals like foxes, hawks, owls, seals)?

I just can’t decide!

So, I finally did it. I booked flights to Dublin and I’m leaving in less than four weeks. I have no idea where I’m going, yet, but I have a few options open. Anyway, it’s going to be something to do with animals and volunteer work. I’m gonna stay on a farm or an animal center for 3-4 weeks, find out what it’s like, then maybe go back at some point to stay even longer.

This is something I’ve been dreaming about for my whole life! Doing it now! And I couldn’t be more excited. What I don’t get is the fact it’s taken me years to actually make the decision and leave – now that the flight is booked, it feels like the easiest thing in the world. I might end up going from farm to farm, seeing the world, meeting new people for the rest of my life! Who knows.

Oh yeah, wait. I still have a fiance and a dog in Finland. Well, I’ll just have to balance these two things!

The black paintings I posted earlier – I just sold the other one a few days ago. The butterfly picture is still here and ready for a new loving home! I’m planning to do two bigger ones (100 x 50cm) soon, so keep posted!