Sneak preview

As you can see, we are finally having a bit of sunshine!
I take it as a good omen, since today is also the day our move really started. We got the keys, and went to check the place out without the running commentary of the estate agent.

And I've already told Himself I'm taking over this balcony. The little corner with a bit of light is so going to be my territory!
My mind is already flying into plans of barbeques and nursing the little rosebush back into health. But we're not quite there yet. So I better go and continue packing. I'm hoping to be off from work tomorrow, so that we'd get everything done...

We're both tired, but the general mood is good. Himself is cooking and singing, and I might just let out the little tune that is playing in my head as well... "Lovely day, lovely day..."

My week in pictures

I hope you understand why I've been pretty much out of bloggy-action in the past few days...

I found a dress to wear to the thingy on Monday.
My facial expression wasn't very ladylike, so I left the whole thing out.
Handy that...

The county organized a civic function in honour of the Blizzards, for their work in music and carrying the county's name around Ireland and abroad... (I was thinking aloud, and Himself's comment was: "Straight to Hell?") They got scrolls and pats on the back, we got free glasses of wine and some cheese on sticks. Hooray! And, of course, we got to witness a bit of history in the making.

And once we recovered from that, it was back to business. Mainly packing. The lady in the charity shop was very happy to see me arrive with the two bags above. I think I'm her new best friend... :D

Most of my life in seven boxes.
My drums look like a giant cake, stacked up like that... Mmmm, cake...
Sorry about that, packing makes me hungry. I better have some dinner, before I run into the corner and start nibbling the drumskins.
See you later! (The next time I might be writing from the new HQ)

I'm no Cinderella...

Got my eyes tested yesterday! And I'm getting glasses for reading and other similar activities. I'm not surprised, because I used to wear a pair before. I'm, in fact, quite happy.
They told me I could pick them up today, so I woke up extra early (9.20 am, my personal record lately...). And they told me they had to order something in and it would take a few days. Boohoo.

We visited Himself's parents yesterday and exchanged travel stories. I think I'm starting to learn how to deal with my mother-in-law-to-(hopefully)-be... Yippee! :)

I should start packing, since I have all this extra time in my hands... On the other hand I should really find a dress for tonight. What do you wear to a "civic function"? Argh... With my today's luck in all things glassy, I'll steer away from the glass slipper option anyway. Any other tips and suggestions will be welcomed!

Patter of little paws

I've been babysitting two quite hairy babies since Tuesday. Himself's parents are away, and our help was needed with the dogs. Today is the last day, and I don't want to leave the dogs!

The newer addition to the family just landed on their doorstep one day over two years ago and stayed. We all believe he must've been treated badly in his previous home. Poor fella is scared of lights, noises and isn't too fond of strangers either. For some reason he liked me straight away, and we've been great buddies ever since.

I started teaching him all the tricks in Finnish a little while ago, and he already knows that istu means "sit", maahan means "down" and he also shakes my hand when I say either Hei! (Hi!) or tassu (paw). I was talking to my dad and laughed, that the dog is the only person who understands me. In all fairness though, I sometimes use little bits of bread or other treats when teaching the dog, and Himself gets nothing (except for praise) when he learns a new word... So I can't really blame him.

Maybe I'll make some lasagne for the next teaching sesson.
Have to go and have breakfast. And talk to the doggies.
(Also have to pay the rent, try to get hold of the estate agent, sign the new contract and do another ten or so washes... But don't want to think about it. :) )

Under pressure

We decided to take the apartment on the quieter, more secure area.
(Somehow seeing broken windows while viewing a place isn't the kind of thing that makes you want to move.)

Himself is doing army-things at the moment, so it has been my job to organize everything. I've managed to get references from work and printed out a bank statement, got our passports copied and paid the deposit. I met up with the estate agent who deals with our current place, found out about getting back this deposit and called the electricity company about a strange bill and also moving our account to the new address.

Lin wrote about banks gone bad; my experience with the electricity place was nearly as horrible. I found the bill, dialed the number. Instead of a person, I got hold of a machine.
"Please enter your account number". Ok, that was handy enough.
"Your account number is xxxxxxx." Thanks, I know. "Please dial 1, if this is correct."
At this point I'm getting worried, that my credit is about to go, so I'm delighted to hear the machine tell me: "I will connect you to someone who will help you" , which, of course, they don't do.

I had to go through thousands of options and press one so many times, that the number on the button faded a little. And when I was about to explode, the machine very politely tells me:
"You are being connected. Please note that this call may be recorded for customer service training purposes." Customer service? Really?

Firstly, I listened to the machine 99% of the call's duration. I don't concider that customer service.
And secondly, I think it has nothing to do with customer service training. I think the mention of recording is there to stop people like me saying things they might regret, in their rage caused by "Please push one if you ever want to get the chance to talk to one of our real, live employees".

Had to get that out of my system. This is why I usually make Himself do these things.
Next time no excuse is going to work.
I can just imagine the conversation:

Himself: "But I have to make sure these people can swim before we bring them to the lake!"
Me: "They'll be grand, just call the damn agent!"

Ok, so maybe I just have to deal with the next two weeks by myself.
Thankfully I don't think there's any more phone calls to be made. The rest I can manage. :)

Finally, maybe, hopefully

A while ago I wrote about wanting to move, and I think the time has finally come.
We've been looking at ads for flats for a few days, and viewed two of them over the weekend. They were both two-bedroom places, and both lovely. But I think we've made a decision.
And I think the place is pretty much ours; all we have to do now is to get the chance to ask a few questions and sign the rental agreement.

...And talk to our current landlord/agency. Not looking forward to that, but it has to be done.

I hope everything goes well, I'm just so excited about the thought of having more space. Obstacle courses are fun, but the novelty wears off if you have to complete one every time you want to plug in your computer or simply go and sit down on an armchair.

I'm trying not to get too excited though, since my experiences with agencies haven't been the best in here. But I woke up this morning from a dream about lovely apartments and my brain was in an overdrive staright away... "What do I need to do first when we move? Clean up the balconies... oh, I'd love to plant some parsley...have to figure out where to put the drums..."

I'm hopeless.
We'll see how it goes. And I'll try to keep my head firmly focused on todays meal, finding dry socks (it was raining the whole day yesterday = about a hundred sock-changes) and going to work.

Milan, part 3 (The food, finally! :) )

Simply: The food was amazing!
I thought I'd had good pizza and pasta before, but I was wrong.


We found this nice little place called The Kitchen. And went there twice. The service was good, food was out of this world and quite inexpensive.

The picture isn't the best, because I was too hungry to concentrate on photography, but that's my new favourite thing; Pizza Rucola. It'll definitely be part of my last meal, when the time comes!

I get a little hungry just thinking about it, so let's move on...







Himself's calzone. He looked pretty happy eating it, so I'll assume it was nice as well.

It might be a while until we have pizza in Ireland. The problem is, that we're not allowed to have wood-burning ovens here. So even a good pizza is always missing that little something.

The pastas were lovely as well. The whole trip really inspired me with cooking. All the fresh ingredients, the simplicity of the dishes and the tastes...
Himself is now fighting a one-man-battle against badly cooked pasta, trying to figure out the best times, temperatures and that extra little bit of love that are needed for the perfect texture.



The ice cream was everywhere. You could be sure to find a ice cream shop in any street and the selection was just mind-boggling; The usual chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, banana, and then everything from tiramisu to green apple and pineapple.

And man, do they like their ice cream! It seemed to be mostly grown-ups who were enjoying these treats, and the shops stayed open until late.

So a nice cone of your fave flavours is a must. :)









And finally: The Bread.

Yes, I am one of those freaky people, who absolutely adore bread.
Little slices of pizzabase for starters, with rucola and cherrytomatoes, dosed with olive oil.
Gorgeous, chewy sourbread to eat with the pastas and use for mopping up the sauce...

Give me any bread, I'll eat it. :)

So now you understand why I had to take a picture of this little display.

Milan, part 2

On the next day we walked to the main cathedral, Il Duomo.
I didn't have my long-sleeved shirt with me, so we ended up walking around it and admiring the beautiful buildingwork.
The pictures really don't do it justice, it really is an amazing place.

Il Duomo

We had some lunch and went to the Natural History Museum, which we had spotted earlier. Spent a good while looking at stuffed animals, sea-creatures and dinosaur bones. And it was only 1,50 with a student card.

Natural History Museum

On Sunday we armed ourselves with lots of clothes and took a different route towards the Cathedral.
This time we actually got in, had a look around and saw a bit of mass. Even I was nearly moved to tears.

We ended up in a pretty square, but thought it was just another square. Then we turned our heads, noticed a building on our right and I focused my eyes on a poster that said something about opera. Our thoughts got confirmation when two Italian ladies asked Himself to take a picture of them in front of.... La Scala!

We were delighted to see a sign saying "Theatre Museum". And in we went.
It was filled with deathmasks, paintings, stage jewellery and all sorts of interesting bits and bobs.
My favourites were a portrait of Pavlova and Pavarotti's stage costume from the eighties.

La Scala

Himself had noticed a place called Forza on the map, so we decided to try and find it. We knew it was a castle, but didn't quite know what to expect. We fortified ourselves with a doughnut from a street-vendor's stall and soon saw the main tower in the distance.
We had had quite enough of museums for the day, so we just walked into the inner yard of the castle and walked around it. Then we copied the locals and chilled out sitting on the grass for a while, watching the lizzards which were the castle's only occupants these days. Them, and cats. (Lin: One of the cats instantly reminded me of Hobbes. But don't tell that to him, or he'll want a castle built around his kitty-basket as well...)

Forza

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Yesterday I spent four hours at work cleaning fridges. Oh, to be a lizzard in Forza...

Milano, part 1

I have to do this in parts, partly because trying to put up more than four pictures at a time would be too much for my modem, partly because there was so much to see, I have to go to work soon and won't have time to write about it now. But I'm back and it's all back to normal. I was working yesterday, working in the other place this morning and going again.
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Everything went smoothly. Himself's dad drove us to the airport in the morning. We thought we were going to be late, when we saw the line of people in front of us, but were just fine in the end. The flight was in Milan early, we got a bus to the centre as soon as we got out of the airport and the sun was shining even though it wasn't even noon. Lovely.

Himself posing in front of the Central Station

We nearly strained our necks during the journey, looking at all the buildings. We got our first display of Italian hospitality as soon as we hopped of the bus; this fella helping people with their luggage stopped what he was doing and guided us all the way to the tourist information. He even greeted us by name when he passed us later on. I was delighted, because Italians pronounce my name the same way we do in Finnish. (Irish people just can't do it, so I don't hear my name "right" that often, it really was a treat)

The entrance hall to the Central Station

Ok, so there's a lot of pictures of the station. But it's a good example of the architecture in the city: Huge, impressive and beautiful. And a handy landmark, because you can see it from most streets.

We headed to the info point, got a map and made our way to the hostel. The receptionist was really nice, and let us book in early. Hotel Arno is the name of the place, in case you're ever going to Milan and are happy with "cheap and cheerful" accommodation. (Try to arrive during the day, if you want a really warm welcome; The night porter was a bit on the dry side...)

This is the ceiling above the platforms

We changed our clothes, slipped on some flipflops and went exploring. We didn't get too far on the first day, just walked around and took in the views and got familiar with our surroundings.

A "little" statue on top of the station

I have to go and get ready for work, but I'll continue this in a while.

3...,2...,1... GO!

So I found my bag today. I also had to wake up early and meet with the evil people in the welfare office. And go to my workplace to drop off forms. And make dinner, charge batteries, work and pack.

And none of this dampens my mood because I'm SO EXCITED!!! Even my computer was in a good mood today, and decided to work while I printed out our boarding passes. Well, after the fifth try. But it did. It's a miracle! Good old computer must be happy to have a few days off. Probably planning a party with Himself's laptop and too preoccupied to annoy me. Either way; Happy days!

I'm waiting for Himself to come home from the end-of-year concert thingy. And then we're off to the capital. And later on in the morning into the airport. Meeting up with JC's mate and possibly having a breakfast date before the flights.

I didn't pack much, but I have my camera. So I'll be busy taking pictures for the next few days.
I'll see you on Tuesday! :)

Can't wait....

My internet connection is giving me a headache.
Now I don't seem to be able to comment on blogs with pop-up comment boxes. My modem looks at me, gives me an evil grin and goes on holidays. Disconnecting, re-connecting, shouting and crying have all been tried, and all the methods have failed. Blaah.
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I had my first day in my second job yesterday. I got a call, happened to be off and went in. Worked for a few hours; Did the shopping, cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom. It was great, the time flew and she asked me to come in again next week. And I got a big hug as I was leaving. :)
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We went to Longford yesterday. JC's friend is over from England, and we got invited for a little spin. Had the worst indian in my life, but got to add a new town into my map. Great! :)
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Last but not least:
I'm getting so excited about going to Milan!!!
I actually find it hard to get to sleep, because I keep thinking about the architecture and the food. Mainly the food... :D

There's so much to do... I haven't even decided what I'm going to pack and I need to find something to pack it into. I still have tomorrow, so no stress.
It's going to be our first proper trip together. We've been to Finland twice, but that doesn't count because it's my homeplace. And we were in England once, but Himself has been in there so many times it wasn't really exciting for him. This is going to be the first time in Italy for both of us.

I wish it was Friday already!

Superstating

Have you seen P.S. I love you? I (unfortunately) have.
I loved the book, read it in two languages, about 50 times and cried a little bit every time.
We went to the cinema (a good while ago now) and Himself packed his pockets full of tissues (for me, not him).
In we went and--- NOT ONE TEAR!
Instead I felt cheated; The movie didn't have much to do with the book. The location had been changed, the characters were as deep as a puddle on the pavement and your man couldn't do an Irish accent (and him being Scottish and all...)
The thing I found really funny, though, was the way they showed Ireland as countryside, green hills and not a town in sight. I was actually expecting a leprechaun to pop up and do a jig.
Anyway. There was a pub in the movie called Whelan's. And of course the moviemakers decided to relocate it to the sticks.
The pub is alive and well, but is actually in the middle of Dublin. Which is a city. So no sheep grazing outside the main entrance or old men in wellies sipping their pints of Guinness.

Ok, this does have a point.
Saturday was my first time in Whelan's.
I usually try to stay out of Dublin, as the place stresses me out and makes me extremely grumpy. And I wasn't supposed to go this time either, nope. I was planning to stay comfily in my hometown, and go see The Aftermath singlelaunch. I even had my nice invite and everything. But it wasn't meant to be.
So I gave my ticket to my bosses kids and off we went, me and the other Laura.

This was the support band, Hogan. Absolutely brilliant band, great energy and Mark is turning into one of my favourite frontmen in the country. He reminds me an awful lot of Dave of the Dave's radio fame. Hmmm... Anyway, extra points from the drummer, who is just something else. (Himself hates his hat, but agrees on the skills department)

And here's Superstate again. The engagement of the bassplayer was the main topic of conversations that night.

And here's Himself, who was the guitar tech on the night, sang backing vocals and played keyboards on a few songs. What can't he do?

It was sooooo good to get home on Sunday and have a proper cup of tea. It might be a good while until I try hanging out in the capital again....

Oh yeah, the boy can play...

Guess who was playing in the pub next door last night?

Do you recognize the fella on the left?
...If you don't, not to worry.

Himself picked me up from work last night
and told me JC (The gentleman in a very stripy shirt) had a little job for me.
He had somehow managed to get hold of John Illsley, and got him to play
last night's gig with him and Greg.
Before last night name Illsley wouldn't had said anything to me,
now I know he is the former bassplayer of Dire Straits.
You learn something new every day. :)

Himself got to play a song as well.
Sultans of Swing, indeed.

One of the more interesting nights...