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:

Show me your dirty face

Dust. There's lots of dust in this town. I have to vacuum my room once a week here because house dust just piles up so quickly. In Finland that miracle happened maybe once in three, I'm a very lazy housekeeper. The pollution is also visible in my cotton pads when I wipe my face clean every night and mornings. I've always thought of air pollution as something invisible (apart from obviously car fumes from passing cars) that only quietly affects things like health and whatnot but I've come to find that it is also very real physically too. I'm curious to see if I can also feel it the next time I visit Finland.

I can not, for the life of me, get a stupid bank account opened! They don't seem to know what they want from me since every time I've tried, they've needed different documents. Passport seems to be the only thing they all agree on. They also always want proof of address but don't quite know what they can accept for that.

This week was quite uneventful. 10-18 at the office and then home to watch tv. Which is awesome! I definitely prefer working to going to school as I can - with a clear conscience - just bum around doing whatever when I'm not working. With school there's always some essay that needs to be written or a project proposal that needs editing and researching and stuff. Now my free time is actually my free time! No nagging sense of guilt about assignments.

On Wednesday one of my coworker's band had a gig and we all went to support him. Check them out here. And here's a video just in case you're too lazy to navigate to a different site.

Saturday night I went to a local pub with two Finnish girls who also have just started their internships here. It's nice to meet other people who are new to the city and compare notes on how we feel about it ;) I had a -10% food voucher but forgot to use it so I'll have to go back in a couple of weeks. Tuesday nights they seem to have a pub quiz, that could be fun.

I'm a farm girl now

My first week of interning for The Animal Farm has gone so quickly! People at the office are nice and chill, but professional of course. The atmosphere is relaxed but the environment stimulates hard work. Really an ideal place to gain work experience as the first step into the harsh music industry world. She says after one week.

So far I have: googled a lot, browsed Twitter a lot, listened to boring bands a lot to find few good ones, sent emails a lot and laughed a lot.

On Friday we went to Kensington Roof Gardens where one of the bands the company works with - Athletes in Paris - were playing. Dress code: "No effort, no entry" so I put on a skirt and heels - my new Irregular Choices. It was a super posh place, and very very beautiful. I'd imagine it'll be amazing in the summer! As the name indicates, it is a garden on a rooftop. They'd built a sort of tent around it tho so we weren't exactly outside the whole night - only about half outside. The gig was very enjoyable, they're such a fun band and a bunch of nice guys. And I really like their music too. Drinks were expensive. I paid over £10 for a GT and £8,45 for a glass of wine!

Athletes In Paris

Other great things have happened this week too: We got a new dishwasher to replace the old broken one! We couldn't use it at first, though, because it couldn't be plugged in. But we didn't have to endure that for too long as the plumbers showed up to rescue us from the mountains of dirty dishes the very next day! A dishwasher really does make life a little bit simpler.

Fun fact: There's a pretty respected rehearsal studio in the building complex and lots of famous people use it. I've heard exciting stories of celebrity spotting around there! And then I got to witness some of it myself; Little Mix came into the café to get lunch one day.

Don't blink!

Today I went tot the Doctor Who Experience. I got to step inside the TARDIS, be held hostage by the Daleks and travel through time and space a little bit. 3D weeping angels can be quite intimidating and I have to admit that I was a little creeped out by the Daleks, especially when they spoke.

Daleks through the ages. EXTERMINATE!

After the official bit we got to wander around a display area where they had, for example, every Doctor's and Companion's clothes, all main monsters, different models of the sonic screwdriver and other gadgets, couple of TARDIS interiors through the ages and a "Walk like a monster" rehearsal area (exactly what it says on the tin) with instructional videos. There was also a Dalek voice recorder that converted whatever you said in the microphone into a Dalek voice. And a "Design a monster" competition. Too bad I'm not much of an artist.

Outside

Inside (it's bigger!)

And of course, exit through the gift shop. There was millions of different Doctor Who themed knickknacks on offer. Most of it seemed to be targeted to school boys, lunch boxes and pencil cases and notebooks etc.

All of this for just £20! It's gonna be in town for a couple of weeks and then they're moving all of it to Cardiff, Wales.

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.

This is home?

I've found a living space. It's right next to where my job is, fits neatly into my budget and seems like a nice flat. The room is smallish but there's a living room and a nice kitchen. The main thing is that I don't need to stress about finding a flat anymore. I was quite prepared to spend my first few days in London running around for viewings and hoping to stumble upon something nice. Now I can focus on exploring the city, getting all other things in order and maybe (definitely) some shopping. I will live here.

Last week I found 1,500€! Well, re-discovered more like. I had completely forgot all about the grant I get from my uni for completing part of my studies abroad! That was probably the highlight of my week. I had spent the last couple of days before my discovery calculating my budget for the spring and thinking fondly about buying a new laptop, yet not convinced I could afford one at this point. Now I have that new laptop and did some new calculations. I should be fine. More than. With McCartney (my new MacBook Air) this spring will be amazing!

I applied for a credit card despite always swearing I will never get one as I can be kinda reckless with money. The bank lady had me convinced with proposing a scenario that my Visa Electron gets lost/stolen/broken or just simply doesn't work and that it would be sensible to have a back up card and a little buffer money with it for unexpected expenses. So now I have a proper adult Visa. And a worry that I'll go crazy with it.

I also registered for the London Groupon to get new deals emailed to me. I have yet to buy one but some of them have seemed incredible. One day I will take them up on some spa day/massage/facial/beauty pampering offer.

Oh, and I'm jobless as of last Sunday! I finished my last shift on Sunday morning and now I have two weeks of nothing before I hop on that plane! I shall go to the gym, relax, go for walks outside, write an essay, and quietly sip wine in front of the tv on weekends. And sort all my stuff out and pack. I'm really not looking forward to that. As much as I love having stuff I also hate it. Life would be much simpler with fewer possessions.

A few days of Christmas

Happy Holidays everyone!

I managed to haul much crap that are my material possessions over to my parent's house in Saarijärvi (a quiet 10,000 people town in central Finland) earlier this week. Now I'm staying here until I hop on that plane and soar over to London. Time to relax, take a breather, go on quiet walks in the nature (if no snow appears) and watch actual TV. (And be bored.)

We (mom & dad & I) had a very traditional Finnish Christmas. When I was younger I thought Christmas was pointless; it was just another day spent at home without the option to go out and see friends because they're all stuck at home too with their families. Oh, have I grown since then! It took me moving away from home to live on my own to learn to appreciate this holiday. It also helped when I started liking Christmas food. Sure, I've liked ham but didn't care too much for the casserole dishes (carrot, potato and swede). Now I was craving Christmas dinner for weeks! In addition to the food mentioned before we also had smoked salmon, cold smoked salmon tartare, rainbow trout roe and herring rolls. And the best gravy in the world! Made from the pig fat from the ham. Simple but oh so damn lovely! And of course the lovely Finnish Christmas bread - "joululimppu". Store bought, obviously, although that url will take you to a recipe. Only things we prepared ourselves were the potato casserole, herring rolls, cold smoked salmon tartare, smoked salmon, ham (which set the smoke alarm off, twice. No fire brigade was needed so no biggie!) and the gravy. And mom made mustard like every year. It's soooo good with the ham!

Omnomnomnom!

Not to mention gingerbread cookies, crackers and grapes with a cheese platter for "dessert" accompanied by Scandinavian mulled wine. Blue cheese is pretty much the only thing gingerbread is good with (apart from an android phone). I'm a cheese lover, have been since I was a little kid. My taste has since evolved but there were signs that I'd grow up to like cheesy things.

And repeat on Christmas Day! It'll take a few weeks to slim back down to my usual size...

Presents were pretty much absent this year. Dad tranferred some money to my account and I got them a DVD. I also got one gift in the mail from Maria, it turned out to be a tube scarf she knitted herself. Thank you! My one present was placed next to a plastic flower that almost looks like a poinsettia! There's really no room for an actual christmas tree here.

Everyone have a sparkling New Year's Eve! I'll be spending the night at work feeding the hungry drunken folk. I have 28 days until take-off and only 6 more shifts at work!