heinäkuu 2019 – Nokisuu

Going again

20.7.201920.7.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

Tomorrow I’m going away for two weeks again, this time to our summer cottage in Central Finland. Actually it’s not ’our’ cottage but my late Mom’s and now my brother’s but he is kind and lets me and the boys and the cat stay there couple of weeks every summer.

I’ve almost always during my 48 years been at the cottage some days or weeks except when I was studying and had to be at work but then I spent some weekends there with my parents. These days it’s a kind of net-break too because the Net only works on one place on the grounds if you hold your phone in a Lionking pose and also on the lake side which is about 200 metres from the cottage.

Two summers ago we only stayed for a week with youngest one there since it was the most horrible and rainy summer and it rained all week and you really can’t do much when it rains, just sit in the cottage and hope it goes away. We were also both miserable because it was the first summer without my mom and eldest son was at the army and middlest son was in Lapland hiking.

Last summer was better, me and youngest went to cottage first with the cat and eldest son came later with middlest one and his girlfriend and it was nice until they left to grocery shop some days later and trying to avoid a truck eldest son took the car too far onto the shoulder and the car broke, it went really badly on the other side and the motor broke and so on. They were lucky to walk out of the car but it was a Volvo so they got off just with a scare. Luckily the old Volvo was so old we had already discussed about buying a new car (a Volvo) and so we had to. It was a bit of a puzzle to get us all back to city in time for the school but my hubby and my brother helped and it was all right.

I hope this time everything goes well and we’ll have a nice warm two weeks off line. Here are some pics for you. The buddha was my sister-in-law’s idea and I find it oddly comforting, my mom was first a bit taken aback but later agreed with me. On the second pic you can spot the cottage and then there is the sauna and finally the lake which I really love. We only have a small pier where you can go swimming and we have a rowing boat but it’s usually upside-down unless my eldest goes fishing with hook and line. I like to meditate there and watch the clouds and small fish.

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Finally

15.7.201915.7.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

I’m at home again, have been since Friday morning. Hubby came to pick us from the airport at 1am even thou he had to go to work early in the morning. He is so sweet. Now I’ve been loading my batteries over the weekend and finished two books, an introvert after too much peopling so I decided to write something here too.

On Sunday morning we, me and youngest son and my friend Heidi, found ourselves in London. I almost lost Heidi when we changed underground trains in Green Park as the train left before she managed to get on board. So she took the next one to Southwark (luckily the only possibility) and I spotted her sitting in the car and called her from the door. There was only one man so I didn’t quite die on embarrasment. After we had stored our bags to the hotel (LSE Bankside, a dormitory for LSE students with very cheap accommodation during Uni holidays) we took ourselves to the British Library. On our way there we popped by Forbidden planet, mine and youngest son’s fave shop, and then we walked to the BL via Russell Square which did good after all the sitting on the plane.

At the British Library we met Heidi’s daughter Mira who lives in London. She had got a bit cold and was sneezing all the time. Inside we saw the ’Treasures of British Library’ exhibition which had beautiful old manuscripts (poor monks in their cold cloisters) and also Beatles lyrics and so on, very interesting even on youngest one’s mind.

From there we went to the hotel to see if our room was ready (it was) and then we had some dinner and went to bed.

On Monday we visited the Science museum with youngest one, Heidi went to visit Mira for the whole day. When we were back on the street we noticed the Natural history museum’s ads and went in to see their exhibition of volcanoes and earthquakes, it was interesting but a video of the tsunami in Japan at 2011 reminded me too much of the Thailand tsunami on 2004 where my cousin lost his family and I just tried not to cry. Afterwards we realized we had been there over five hours, made a quick tour to Covent Garden where we watched a man ride a uni-cycle and jongleur with knives, he was very good. Then we had dinner and went back to the hotel.

On Tuesday we visited the National Gallery and especially the impressionists. Oh yes, the Monet paintings were wonderful and I recognized Turner’s art because of the RA-film.. so one can learn things watching good movies.

After that I went with Jimi to Science museum because he wanted to change a gyroscope he bought since it was keeping a noise it shouldn’t have. Heidi was going to Mira’s again. When we finally got out of the Science museum I called Heidi and she said she was going to Mira’s later since Mira was so feverish she was trying to sleep so we agreed to meet at Harrods. My phone died after I had sent a message to Heidi that we were going to the pet supplies (what a joke!) and finally we met Heidi there. As I had anticipated my phone to run low on batteries I had the charger with me and so we spent about an hour in a corridor in Harrods. Then we walked a bit around Knightbridge and went to eat fish and chips to a pub and then Heidi left to Mira’s and we went home.

On Wednesday we walked to Postman’s Park which is located near St. Paul’s Cathedral. I’ve wanted to visit it for years, I saw pics of it the net some time ago and now I finally got to see it and it was just lovely. From there we took a underground train to Baker Street. Oh yes, the famous detective himself. There was a bit of a queue but finally we got into the small house and it was lovely. The shop was just as lovely.. Then we had coffee and took a bus to Oxford Circus where we met Mira who was better. We did some shopping and walked to the Forbidden Planet where I bought some books and Jimi got three Funko figures. Well, actually two are his and I got Bucky ❤ Heidi and Mira left to have something to eat as Mira was feeling not so good. We took our shopping home and rested a bit and then went for dinner to restaurant Zizzi at Southbank. Oh boy the food was so good! and they were really busy too but very nice staff. Back at the hotel I tried to pack my suitcase and then Heidi came with Mira, who had gotten a huge migraine and fell asleep on Heidi’s bed. Heidi did some shopping and in a bit after Mira woke up she was feeling much better and Heidi walked her to a bus and her boyfriend was at the other end of the bus route to get her home.

On Thursday we checked out and left our luggage to the hotel to wait and went for a walk. First we visited Tate Modern and took the lift to 10th floor and also browsed the 4th floor free exhibition. I have always walked through the Tate Modern’s ground floor because it has good shops. This time I found just a fridge magnet. We walked to the Blackfriars bridge and had coffee and watched a pair of swans and enjoyed the sun. Then we got our luggagge from the hotel and walked to the Waterloo station, did some window shopping there too and took a train to Heathrow where we were in really good time. We did some shopping, had dinner and I and Heidi found ourselves in Cath Kidston sale and bought handbags for both of us.

Our flight was a bit late but we managed to get home nicely, hubby drove us home via Heidi’s so she got home too with ease.

Nice trip and I love London.

Back home

4.7.20194.7.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

We’ve been back home almost a week now. I was quite jet-lagged on the weekend but the days just flow by while I’m doing something close to nothing (Prince said it so well).

On Tuesday we had youngest son’s health check with a nurse as he’s beginning the middle grades on August and the official health check is done now, next one will be with a doctor and a nurse at 8th grade. Since it’s the middle of summer and the closest place was closed we got eldest son to drive us to the nearby suburb Tikkurila where we were supposed to be (the bus ride takes forever).

The nurse was really nice and health check was quick. Youngest one (=Jimi) is having his growth-spurt now and he is about 4 cm’s shorter than I am so I’ll soon be shortest in our family. Feels funny, he is only 13. All the boys and hubby have the same shoe size now but I wonder if youngest one will become tallest since it looks like his shoes size is still growing.

From Tikkurila we took a train to meet my friend Heidi at her flat in Oulunkylä. Since the train goes over the city border the train fare is a bit bigger and I had thought I had enough money on my public transport card and to my horror when I tried to pay with it at the train it said there’s not enough to cover the fare. I had especially taken care to upload more money to Jimi’s card but forgotten my own and so when the inspector lady came to check our card I was almost crying since the fee is 80€ and I really have better use for them. I told the lady that I was under the impression I had enough for the fare and I guess she saw my stress since as soon as we were over the border she said ”You can now buy the ticket” and when I asked what about the inspection fee she just shook her head. I was so grateful that I almost cried again. There are angels amongst us.

Soon we were at Heidi’s and Jimi played with her two cats while we talked a while. We (me and Jimi) are going to London with Heidi on Sunday, her eldest daughter lives there and we thought to go meet her again 🙂

Later we took a bus from Oulunkylä to Itäkeskus shopping center since Jimi needed something and I wanted to change money for the trip and Heidi was going to her younger daughter so it was easier for all of us to go there. I had installed the traffic card app on my phone while we were at Heidi’s so I got a mobile ticket for the bus. It wasn’t easy but it was better than nothing.

We met Heidi again yesterday as we went to movies with her and my other good friend Kristiina. We are all Marvel fans so we went to see the new Spiderman : Far from home. It was really good, I liked it a lot. I like Tom Holland as Spidey, I never quite liked the earlier Spideys as much. This one reminded me a bit of the animated Spider-Verse which was awesome.

I’m still pretty tired and I’m so glad I still have weeks left of my summer vacay unlike hubby who went to work already on Monday. I was going to the pharmacy today but at 3pm I realized that I’d been just sitting here reading Stucky fics and listening to music all day and didn’t bother. Tomorrow’s another day.

And I’m a bad mother: only after I had bought the plane tickets to London I realized why the date (Sunday) was so familiar.. Middlest son turns 18 on Sunday. YAY. I told him to think about something I’d buy him from London but he hasn’t said anything yet.