Outlandish

Lately Estonia has been covered under a thick layer of depressing gray clouds day and night. Darkness arrives earlier every night and it is already really cold for October, it even snowed yesterday morning! Since there are only couple days a week when I am required to be in the office I have started taking a lot of home office to be able to sleep longer. And I also want to avoid going out into the coldness as far as I can. This means that my weekends have sort of stretched to three days long and all of those three days I just lie on the couch either staring at my laptop or TV... I can't remember when I have felt so useless and as if there is absolutely no point to my life anymore. Even if somebody asks me for a drink or whatever I take one look out of the window, see the depressing clouds and people walking with thick hoods drawn over their faces and I return to the sofa... But I am not yet completely defeated! There are still some things that brighten my days in addition...

I love having friends over. Whether for a weekend or just for one night, I love hosting and everything that comes with it. A big part of hosting are the preparations; cleaning, cooking, arranging. As a project manager this is a very natural state for me to be in, organizing. This weekend my best friend is coming over to relax and for a girly weekend. The only plan we have is a table booked for Saturday evening in Kaks Kokka and that there will be shopping. I always want people to feel as much at home as they can and it all starts with preparations. I always start from cleaning. Vacuum, wipe the dusts, do the dishes, change the sheets and clean the bathroom. Once upon a time I wondered what was the point of cleaning before a party because you will have to clean up the day after properly anyway. But the truth is that nobody would feel at home coming to a place where every surface is covered in dust and there are clothes hanging everywhere and dishes in the most imaginativ...

Women and sport, 2016 edition. This summer has been a real celebration for all sports, so the media coverage has been very large on the subject as well. Recently there has been an increasing amount of talk about whether women’s sport is neglected in a discriminating way in the media and I find this discussion very interesting especially because I do follow all kinds of sports. The moment that inspired me to write this was when I watched a program, where a group  of successful Finnish athletes gather in Florida, hosted by one of world’s best ice-hockey players, Teemu Selänne, to compete in light-minded sport activities and go through their careers one athlete per episode. These athletes were some of the most successful Finns… and all men except for one figure skater, Kiira Korpi. So I wrote this but didn't publish it... until I saw a picture on Facebook: a huge headline screaming how Michael Phelps won silver swimming 200 meters. And a teeny tiny headline somewhere inside...

There's been a lot of talk about digitalisation and how it will change the work life as we know it: robots will take over an even bigger portion of people's tasks in factories and manufacturing plants in all industries. That doesn't mean, though, that there would be less work for people. It just means that the nature of work changes, manual labour decreases and is replaced by surveillance tasks, administrative work moves online, etc. One change that is very much a reflection of the 21st century work culture and has been very well implemented in most companies where it has been possible is home office, working from home. I was introduced to this way of working in Slovakia working for one of the biggest IT companies in the world. And now I wouldn't accept a job if it didn't have the home office option included in the terms.   Especially in administrative jobs and executive positions where the only tool you need is a laptop and a phone home office is a...

Finnish Summer, the tragicomic phenomenon and a global laughing stock. It is something that we Finns have developed a very black sense of humour for because otherwise we couldn't cope. We "proudly" advertise this special phenomenon in the social media where it has lately gathered quite an audience all the way in China. You always know how it's going to be and still you are every year just as or even more disappointed as last year when it was colder in July than in December and when after nine months of waiting for the sunshine all you get is black clouds that spit on you constantly. And then comes Autumn with a little bit less rain, but rain nonetheless, and the deepening darkness.  BUT! This summer so far has been surprisingly gentle. May and June were very sunny and warm, I even managed to tan so much that after a dozen years I finally got my freckles back! Obviously it rained every now and then but not all day every day. In Tallinn June was even bett...

Finally my trainee period of 4 months has ended and I am officially a Project Manager. A title I’ve been aiming for ever since I entered University. Why I aimed for that particularly? Because a project is a completely open concept, it can be anything and there are usually many of them at the same time, which means it’s a perfect job for me, because I don’t want every day to be the same and, most importantly, I want to be in charge :D And since I am now officially an employee I am entitled to use the holidays that have gathered up so far. And what would be a better way to waste my one week’s worth of holidays than fly to Central Europe to see some of my favourite people and places! But before that I am traveling first to Turku to see friends and family, since there’s no need for me to be in the office when I can work from wherever. Ok, I might have organized things so that I wouldn’t have to be in the office in June and scheduled all new trainees to arrive in J...

I hate rainy days. They're so grey and dark and moody. Outside air feels colder than it would if it wasn't raining. And if you accidentally forget your umbrella home in the morning and get soaked on your way home from work you also freeze to the core. But I do also love rainy days. I can't think of many things that make home more cozier than a  hard-core rain  outside while you are warm inside  surrounded by pillows and drowning in your bathrobe . A cup of tea and a movie feel like a little bit of luxury then.  Rainy days do affect me a little, I always feel much more tired when it's dark and gloomy but when you're trapped inside you also get things done that you might not do if there was an option to be outside. Maybe finally grab that book from the shelf you've been meaning to read but haven't quite found the time for it or catch up with the TV series that everybody's talking about. I also like to use this time when going outside...

It's here! It's finally here! Life, also known as Spring and everything that comes with it! Ooh my god, a month I endured the winter up here and it almost broke me... again. But now my life can properly start here! The thick winter jacket has been hid away and replaced by leather jacket, a definite sign that there's no going back. Even if temperature goes below zero again I can't take back the winter jacket now!  The horrid awful black, flat  winter boots have been thrown to the very back of my shoe closet where I can't even accidentally clap my eyes on them. Instead I am able, finally, to wear a different pair of high heels  every day! A right that snow and ice stripped me of.  I don't have to wear trousers every day any more, I can cope with skirts and shorts (paired up with tights obviously), which means that I have a wider range of clothes also that I can wear. Winter really takes all the fun and creativity out of d...

We are hiring more Finnish people to the office and I’ve been responsible for doing the interviews. My favourite question is “describe yourself with three adjectives” because it totally throws Finns, every time. They go all quiet and their brain is working like crazy to come up with something and usually people say that if I had asked for negatives, it would have been easier for them. At first it made me laugh because it’s such a stereotype but so true as well. But after the third person struggled with this questions  I grew more worried than cheery. It can’t be right that people don’t appreciate themselves enough for three little words. It made me think about self-esteem and what it requires. Especially in today’s media-centric world girls and women are given the impression that they aren’t good enough until they are starving 24/7 or muscly enough to resemble a man, but also in that case they are almost required to have an eating disorder. But not just media, also cult...

International women's day! Still in the 21st century, even though we in Nordic countries don't put much stock on it, it is a very important day, in my opinion. In my several travels I have realized how much work we still have to do even in Europe to reach equality between sexes. In Southern and Eastern European countries women are still too often seen as baby dispensers and as someones whose only purpose in life is to make a man happy. Also in Western countries this can be seen unfortunately much and it's not necessarily a man's fault that a woman is in such a repressed position in a relationship. Eventually we have to take charge of how people around us perceive us and not let them determine that for us. In Finland I have followed how we have slipped backwards worth several decades in just a year or two when it comes to attitudes towards women. Internet has given men an easy and faceless way to attack unknown women who dare to think differently from thems...

Along the years I've had many homes around Europe, but four of them I still consider as a home to go back to long after moving away: Turku (obviously), Brighton, Aberdeen and Bratislava. So, how can someone who has moved abroad multiple times always forget how expensive it is?! Well, here I am in my awesome new home counting whether I can afford to eat at all for the next three weeks or should I just not buy a vacuum cleaner and live surrounded by dust and stuff...   Even if I have to go on a hard core fast I have to say I'm bloody happy to have this flat! Before I've always stayed in furnished flats because I didn't plan to stay long. But usually in furnished rental flats the furniture is far from nice, so this time I opted for an empty flat so that I could see whether I have any taste for home decor at all.  People tend to spend a lot of time figuring out the furniture in their new apartment one piece at a time. I had a week to figure out the decor ...