Outlandish

It's December so I am "allowed" to spread open my suitcase and start filling it with shoes and clothes for the Christmas holidays in Finland. Three weeks is a relatively long time for having only one suitcase but this time the biggest challenge is that I should fill it with things that I can leave home when I fly back after Christmas. There's no point to drag, for example, summer clothes and shoes from here to Tallinn when I won't be needing them for at least six months. 1st of December is also the holy day when everyone gets to finally open the first doors on their Advent calendars. I remember how difficult it was as a child to wait for December to dawn on when we knew in which closet the calendars were standing and waiting. I also remember one time when the first of December came and it turned out that my brother had already emptied the entire calendar of all chocolates. Why he had then closed the doors again and left the empty calendar in the close...

I don't think I'm quite right in the head because I keep putting myself  voluntarily into situation that are far from my comfort zone. This time especially I found myself close to the limit. Last time I made the big mistake of drinking too much on Friday. This time I knew better... But I apparently still had one shot too many. I blame the altitude, it fucked up my body because normally I wouldn't have been so hungover on Saturday morning! (Comparison: Turku approx. 10m above sea level, Bratislava 140m above sea level, Zuberec (where our cottage was) much higher.) Not so bad though that a proper portion of scrambled eggs, bacon and a bucket of coffee wouldn't fix! The weather for Saturday was forecasted to be bad. Rain and a lot of clouds. So I comforted myself by thinking that we would take it easy. And we did find a route that was supposed to take approximately three hours and which would take us to some mountain lakes. So, we got our gear together a...

I've been struggling big time these past couple days, I must admit. The plane crash in the Alps has totally thrown me. I can't concentrate on work, or anything else for that matter, I am just in shock for what has happened and what the poor families of everyone on board are going through. What makes this case so much worse, in my opinion, is that it seems that it was intentional. Not a fault in technology but a decision made by a person in charge. Flying is a great way to travel: you can cover huge distances in no time whatsoever. But in my life I've encountered so many setbacks when it comes to flying that I've lost faith in it almost completely. I don't trust that I will get to the other side in one piece. Biggest reason for my fear so far has been the fact that when it comes to machines in the air, it only takes one tiny loose part and the thing comes down with fatal consequences. Still, I recognize that statistically it is a safe way to travel.  Human e...

Wasn't it Bridget Jones who said that ones one part of your life is going right another part of it falls spectacularly into pieces. I have realized this to be very true multiple times in my relatively short life. But I have also realized that no matter how bad things are life has a way of working out just fine in the end.  Me moving here has been one of the happiest things that has happened to me for yeeeears. Things have been coming my way and the latest "big win" was me getting a flat of my own in the centre really close to work with a very reasonable price. But this Monday was a bit of a reality check. Without going too much into detail global businesses are ever changing and moving operations around with the speed of light. When signing a contract here I knew there were certain risks involved working for such a huge company, but I never could've imagined that in just three months I would have to worry about whether I will still have a job after Christmas or n...

As I've said before I love seeing new places, meeting new people and learning about new cultures. But that requires moving from place A to place B, also known as traveling. And that I have learned to hate. I say learned because it really was like that to me: too many big travel disasters in too short a time and I am forever traumatized. Having been stuck in separate airports in the UK because of the worst snow storm in Europe in decades, because of a volcano having a little stomach ache causing the European airspace to be closed down for a week, because of too many clouds in the sky (in England, REALLY?!?!?), and also having been present in the only occasion ever when a bus between Rauma and Turku broke down and caused me to be two hours late from work (just to name a few) actually is bloody ridiculous, funny even. Just not so much to me...    The experience of being stuck during the 2010 snow storm just before Christmas actually still brings tears to my eyes. It...