Brian stew

I joined a boxing gym. Bought a 3 month membership, got the rest of this month free. Fucking finally! I've been feeling so bad about myself for not working out and eating unhealthy and just not taking care of myself like I used to. So Tuesday morning I got up a bit earlier and went for a little jog, popped in, had a quick look around and decided to start training there.

The owner is a middle aged Irish bloke with a really strong accent so I'm not quite a 100% sure what I've gotten myself into and what my membership actually includes. But the place seemed like a good place for getting the most out of the workout. It was old school, it was sweaty, it was rough. Not some girly fitness gym where women wear pretty things and smell like flowers. Saturday noon I went for my first ever ladies only boxing fitness class! It was so fun and so hard. Although I thought it'd be a lot harder on me since it's been about a month since I've really exercised but I came to realize that a few week break really isn't the end of the world when you've been working out actively before that, it doesn't just disappear in a few weeks time.

On Tuesday night the girls from the office got our pretty brains together and took part in a pub quiz. They had difficult questions about capital cities, mediocre questions about random shit and easy intros in the music round. There was only one song we weren't absolutely sure about so we randomly guessed it right! It sounded a lot like a boy band song so we picked Westlife. Then we randomly picked the word "love" for the song title. It actually was Westlife and the song was My Love! Good instincts.

Franco chillin'

Si of Violet Bones rockin'

On Thursday a bunch of us went to see Franco and the Dreadnought in Camden and on Saturday I went to see Violet Bones in Buffalo Bar, Islington. Franco gig was fun enough and the guy is very likable and I really enjoyed that night even though I'm not much into all that "guy and a guitar" sweetness. Then on Saturday the Violet Bones were soooooo good! And attractive. They could well be in my top-something list of my favorite bands, and probably will be eventually. First I need to hear more. I'm so glad I get to work with them. They had cassettes on sale at the merch table but I forgot to buy one. Yes, forgot. I don't know what happened, apparently my brian went "PRIII" and everything I was about to do was just suddenly gone. I remember walking towards the table and then got distracted and went home instead. I'll have to ask around if I can get one somewhere still. This is the video for their latest single "Chamicals".

On the weekend I finally got into the flow of some retail therapy. Saturday I went to King's mall and Sunday to Oxford street. I now have such pretty things in bright colours! There's still some stuff I didn't have time to look for but there's always next weekend! Now that I still have money I might as well put it to use and buy lasting things instead of spending it all on takeout indian food and everything else that's bad for me. I definitely need shoes. To go with my new pretty things. Which reminds me:

First week of the rest of my life

I'm here! It's lovely! The first two days we had +10°C and sunny weather but after that it's been around +4 and cloudy. Still a great improvement to the -20°C we had in Finland!

I landed at 9:15am on Thursday morning. I found my way to the flat quite easily - I took the tube: Piccadilly line to Green Park and then Jubilee line to Bermondsey station. The tricky part was getting my stuff with me. I had two big suitcases, a carry on bag and a purse. I had to macgyver the carry on on to the other suitcase using my scarf so I could push that around with one arm and then drag the other one along with the other. Ok, so now moving on flat surfaces was doable but then the subway train came and I had to somehow get these over the step on to the train. That turned out to be a little challenging as the other monstrosity was quite heavy and unbalanced with the carry on hanging on to it. People proved to be helpful enough and I wasn't left on the station struggling.

My flat is just a few minutes walk from the station. Satu, my flatmate, came to the station to lead me home. I put my stuff in my room and then stepped out for a little bit. I found a big shopping center close to here and went to wander around for a bit. Then I took a much needed nap in my comfy bed. I'm finding it surprisingly easy to adjust to sleeping on a single after so many years of having a king size bed.

On Friday I met another Finnish girl, Eve, to go vote on the presidential elections and then we sat down for a coffee at Hotel Chocolat in Covent Garden. I had a ham&cheese wrap. Wrapped in a chocolate thin pancake and it had cocoa nibs and weird stuff in it! I was quite scared of what it would be like but was very positively surprised! It was actually really good! Eve had to go meet her boyfriend for lunch and I started wandering around aimlessly on the streets on Covent Garden. I found some sort of market, a few streets with shops and then eventually stumbled upon Charing Cross station.

Topshop was quite a disappointment but one day I will get shoes from Aldo. And I'm making it a mission to get Irregular Choice shoes. I've been drooling over their website but haven't seen any of the styles I like in stores. This time I didn't buy anything. I headed back home and went to buy some food. Ended up only getting yoghurt, some berries and grapes and a little thing of coleslaw. I didn't think grocery shopping would end up being a problem but for some reason I just didn't know what to buy! Later I went to get Indian food since it is the national food around here. Had that with a bit of wine and watched TV. Crazy Friday night!

I've also been to wander around Camden Town. I believe I only saw a small fraction of it. There was so much stuff! So many little shops and market booths and people and everything. I've been so overwhelmed that I've forgot to take any pictures! Next post will be nicer to look at, I promise. I've also had time to go to Regent street and Oxford street for some shopping. I haven't bought much, which surprises me. I find myself being stupidly cautious and cheap when it comes to shopping. My most prized purchase has to be a pair of Abigail's Party shoes by Irregular Choice. I've been drooling over their website for months and now I finally have a store near by! I might go crazy and end up buying everything they sell.

My darlings!

Satu's family have a box over at The Valley where Charlton Athletic are based and she invited me to a football game. It was great! Such a modest start with all the football enthusiasm; food, champagne, it was nice and warm in there with a great view over the field. And they tied at the last minute!

I could get used to this.

The flat is nice and even tho my room is quite smallish I have a lot of storage space here. I haven't quite emptied my suitcases yet but I think I can find a place for everything. The flat gets a bit drafty and chilly at times but mostly it's warm enough. And at least my blanket is working. The single windows will take some time to get used to; I can hear the street outside my window like there's no wall at all! I've been sleeping with ear plugs on and waking up multiple time a night for some reason.

I better get my nutrition in order as my skin is letting me know I've been eating too much bread and other bad foods for me. I've also somehow ended up having alcohol every night I've been here. If not at some pub then at home with dinner.

Taking care of business

These are the practical thingies that I need to do before I board the plane.This listing is more for me to remember and maybe you to check through if you're thinking about interning abroad. For the rest of you this post might not be very interesting to read.

Paperwork: There's the Practical Training Agreement, Training Agreement and Quality Commitment for Erasmus student placements, (rest are quite freely translated) another Erasmus training agreement, scholarship application for practical training completed abroad, certificate of semester abroad, proof of summer studies for KELA (the government office that gives me money for being in school) and another form for KELA letting them know I'll be spending a semester abroad. That's seven documents that I need to write and fill out before the end of the year at the very latest. I'm going to try to get them ready in a month so there's enough time for them to be processed.

Apartment (FIN): I was battling between terminating my lease and moving out completely and leasing my room furnished for 6 months to ensure I have a place to come back to if I need it. I decided to move out. At the end of December I'll be moving to my parent's house for a few weeks before taking off to London town. Before that I'll need to go through all my belongings, treasures and trinkets and haul most of it to a second hand shop, give away to friends or strangers or throw out. Things need to be get rid of. And that's a bigger job than you'd imagine. Going through my clothes alone will take longer than life. And I also need to decide what to do with all my furniture. Most of them are giveaways anyway so I can pass them on or leave them here if roomies need them but things such as my bed and some shelves that I'd like to keep will need a temporary home.

Apartment (UK): I'll need a roof over my head in my new location. I hear it rains a lot and four walls and a ceiling would probably do the best job at keeping me dry. I'll need to buy an umbrella too. I've been browsing gumtree and posted an ad on finn-guild's forum (Finnish-British organization) but it seems that I probably won't find a place for January until December. The ones that are being advertised now are free from the end of this month or from the beginning of November.

Shopping: I don't need too much (just somebody to loooove), only some bigger things like a new laptop. Well, want would be more accurate as this one is still working. But I want a smaller and lighter one that'd be easier to carry around. This one is also starting to slow down a bit but that could probably be fixed by installing Windows 7 on it. I don't care, I want a new one and it will be cuter. I'm also considering getting a smart phone to make it easier to document and organize my life. I used to think I'd never miss having one if I never get used to it but now it's just been one too many times that I've had to curse having a regular phone. If any of you have any suggestions for either, I'll be happy to hear them! I have one restriction for the phone though; it can't be sim-locked as I won't be using it with my Finnish plan. And the umbrella I already mentioned.

Bills and Memberships: Electricity and Internet bills need to be switched to my roomie's name. I also need to terminate my gym membership. I hope all goes smoothly as the Internet plan and my gym membership are fixed-term contracts.

Insurances: I'll need a travel insurance, obviously. Also getting a European Health Insurance Card could be a good idea even though travel insurance also covers health issues. The European blah blah is anyway free of charge so might as well. I'll need to look more into all of this with someone who actually understands something about insurances.

Plane tickets: Pretty obvious. I'm not in a rush with these since there's always cheap flights going to London. Also depends on when I'll have a place to go to. I'll try to rent from mid-Jan. so I'd have a couple of weeks to ride on the tube before I start work. It's a bit bigger a city than what I'm used to so getting around might be a bit more complicated and needs to be rehearsed before I have any actual responsibilites. I'll also need to find out how much luggage those cheap flights allow me to carry and how much extra bags cost.

NI number and other shit: I haven't yet had time to find out about all these British social security things, if I need them or not and if I should get it done even if I don't absolutely need it. I'll find this out soonish. I anyway can't really do anything about it until I'm in the country.


Now I'm going to call it a night and stard reading 100 facts about pandas. Or Book of General Ignorance. Listening to 75 boy band songs everyone should listen to before they die.