Outlandish

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...

Spring, what a wonderful excuse for shopping! The days in Estonia have already grown long and the Sun shines all the way to 7pm. Sun. Exactly, it has been seen multiple times in the past month and snow is only a bad memory (may it stay that way!). The bare trees still look a bit miserable but from the way my eyes are starting to itch I can tell there is pollen in the air, which means there is hope, even though the next few months will be challenging for us pollen allergics.  Spring makes me so happy every time. And the least you can do to celebrate such happiness is to look good. I never get out of the door if I'm not happy with what I see in the mirror but winter with the coldness and wetness made my choices clothing-wise very limited. I never wear the same shoes two days in a row but in winter I don't have a choice. So when spring comes and the streets are dry I take all joy out of my neglected shoe closet (yes, I have a closet full of shoes). With the shoes I...

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 ...

God I miss my family... This Sunday was Fathers' Day back at home. My mum cooked a fancy dinner and they had the dogs over again for the weekend. I was looking for a card to send to dad but I was told that there is no such thing as Fathers' Day here in Slovakia. At least I could walk to the city centre on Sunday without having to watch happy families celebrating their dads all around. Another lazy weekend. I used to hate them. I used to be stressed about what am I going to do during the weekend if I didn't have my plans clear by Wednesday. But when the weekend arrives and everybody's out of town and you're on your own and you just have to deal with it. Despite the stressing, down-shifting for weekends has never been a problem for me. Not here.  It's a sad thought for me that some people have to pay money in order to be taught  how to calm down, let go of all work pressures or other worries and just enjoy the moment. Mindfulness they call it and it...

Halloween I love! Even though in reality it's a very Christian time of the year when you should go to cemetery and light a candle for someone who has passed, but for me it's all about a world-scale costume party. And I loove costume parties! And at Halloween everybody makes an effort. This year I had a two-day Halloween, one in the office and one with friends on Saturday, and because I am a superficial person I couldn't wear the same outfit for two days in a row. As the Fun Team team leader I was responsible for organizing some Halloween happening in the office on Friday. So, the obvious option was a costume competition. Fun Team also took it upon itself to decorate the office in the Halloween's spirit. And we went all out! Even though we had to pay for all that stuff ourselves, it was more important to make the office presentable. We even had Halloween-appropriate music prepared, candy and cookies resembling various body parts and spider's web every...

Danube is a big river and it runs through several countries, including Slovakia and Austria. Ever since moving to Bratislava I've wanted to go on a cruise from here to Vienna or Budapest, but haven't found the time or the company to go with. So, now that my parents were coming to Vienna I decided to book a cruise as a late Mothers' Day gift. I booked the tickets beforehand since it is summer and Vienna is a popular tourist attraction. So, on Saturday we ordered a taxi to the harbour an hour before but didn't take into account the traffic. By the time we arrived to the ticket office I had already almost given up hope of catching the boat on time. Eventually we got to the counter where people were being told that the boat was already full-booked. When it was my turn the guy behind the counter was clearly prepared to sell me a don't-have. So, when I put the reservation paper in front of him his face made it clear that he was disappointed. It's "lovely...

My long-time dream has been to go see a classic ballet performance. And what would be a better place for it (after Russia maybe) than the Slovak National Ballet performing Swan Lake. I had proper clothing crisis before going there and I had about an hour after work to figure out my hair and what I could wear. Eventually I had to be very happy for the blazer I found in Zara earlier this year because it makes any outfit look good, with high heels obviously. What I really like about Slovakia is that Slovak people want to look good and they understand the unspoken dress codes in different events. For ballet people dress up. Maybe not in a ball gown but people had definitely put some effort in their outfits: men wearing suits and women cocktail dresses or office chic outfits. I approve! When in London we went to see the Phantom of the Opera I thought that the dress code would be similar to what I saw this Wednesday at the ballet. I can't describe how horrified and disappointed ...

Oh Turku, Turku, you beautiful, wonderful city. Even though it's been only couple of months since I was last in Finland it's good to be back again. Especially because the weather has been amazing! Spring is here... which only means that the second wave of winter, we call it after-winter, is only few days ahead.  I don't see any point in coming home for just a week so I'm staying for a month. I do appreciate having a job which I can do also from home! A month is quite enough time to see all my friends and family who I didn't have much time to see during the Christmas holidays. I came home because my mum turned 50 and she obviously had a big party.  The party was held in a beautiful wood-house area just outside the city centre in a theater. As is customary my parents had traveled to Estonia couple weeks before to buy alcoholic beverages and I had to go shopping for a dress (because I can't wear a dress that the people invited might have seen before...