Wigan vs Warrington

it was never gonna be simple to win the league....

And another thing.......

to add to Alex's post about the Finnish conspiracy may I also say, in an attempt to make everyone wild with jealousy, take a long look at the photograph of the beach. Nicer than Blackpool?

So, for all those who thought it amusing that we would be moving to one of the coldest countries that they could think of- ha!- for now at least. We are laughing at the moment, as we have the beach to go with the sun and the heat and the relaxation but I promise you can all laugh back at us again in winter when we will be freezing our lihapiirakka's off (meat doughnuts).

Oh yes- you heard me right- MEAT DOUGHNUTS. They are a Finnish delicacy but instead of being stuffed with jam, they are stuffed with meat and onion. As a Wiganner, and a Leither, we would be lying if we didn't admit that we were, at first, mildly offended by the mistreatment of what can only be described as the Finnish atttempt at a pie. However, we are becoming quite accustomed to them and will insisit that all Wiganners who come to visit must sample them. (despite the minging picture)

Didnt Expect This (Finnish Conspiracy)

On the day of the world cup final we decide to...... go visit the beach in the city of Helsinki????????

The weather has been completely unexpected; I reckon it has not rained for no more than 30 hours since I arrived on the 1st May. Its been too hot to stay indoors and we thought we'd go to the beach 5 mins walk from the city centre. We weren't expecting much thinking at the back of our minds that there's no way it could be a patch on Tenerife or some such popular package Holiday destination.

Well we were pleasantly surprised to say the least, didn't expect to see this in the capital of Finland at all. I'm beginning to wonder if it ever actually snows here and if there is some sort of conspiracy on the Finnish tourists boards part ensuring that the rest of the see's it as a cold, dark and snowy while in fact it is warm, bright and sunny because that certainly is the case.

Worrying Costs

The amount i'm paying to transfer funds overseas is ridiculous, I mean its terrifying, although not I'm not as terrified about it as she is about this rollercoaster.

Couriers from Hell

After receiving our goods from the Excess Baggage Company we can only describe the state of some of our goods as broken...

Queen blows her Vuvuzela at Wimbledon

The Queen blows her Vuvuzela during Andy Murray match at Wimbledon

Get the full story HERE

Our Stuff is Arriving

Yay,

19 of our 20 boxes given to the courier will arrive tomorrow. 1 of the boxes is currently lost, don't trust Excess Baggage Company with your stuff is the moral here.

August Bank Hol Disaster

Turns out we're not going to be able to make this prestigious and traditional bank holiday weekend bonanza.

Beth put a message on FB explaining this, basically we left it too late to book flights with all the distractions of the move, for this we are deeply apologetic. On the other hand we found some reasonably priced flights for a week in September. Mon 6th to Sun 12th, I'll try and sort something out for this period. Any Ideas let me know here or on FB.

If you have been affected by the issue raised in this post, a support line has been made available.

The ENGLAND Football Team

Well some people complain about the amount of foreign players in English football, but I say the England football team are a prime example of why these exotic imports are so important. Put quite simply, English football would be dull, flat and uninspiring without them, just look at that Algeria match if your not convinced.

For those of you that wish to waste 94mins of your life, check out the ITV
stream at http://live.itv.com/

Football.....football......football

Okay so I have discovered that, even though we now live in a country that aren't even participating in the World Cup, there is still football morning, noon and night (well noon, noon and night) everywhere you turn. It's actually started to affect my position as a girl and brainwash me. I found myself this afternoon watching the USA v Slovenia match, on my own, and actually showing an interest. I felt that this was not a good thing for me and I needed to do something about it. So.........I went shopping. Phew! For a moment there I thought I could feel the testosterone taking a hold- but don't worry ladies I shook it off and did what any sensible girl would do- I bought some pretty little table lamps.

1/2 Time England v Algeria

This isn't the way it is supposed to happen. They looked afraid to play early on.

England are very good at changing the quality of their game to match that of their opponents. But I think someone should remind them not to do it when playing lesser teams.

This better not be a 0-0 draw.

Never go Curtain Shopping

Curtain shopping should be used to make MI5 agents more resilient under pressure.

Mitchell

Hi all,

So I have had a not very glamorous birthday, however it has been good. We have picked up the bed and are now partially functional in that room too- once our stuff arrives it will look better.

I have also been lucky enough to become the owner of an ironing board and the cutest little hoover you ever did see (with the exception of Henry of course). We have decided to call him Mitchell.

We ventured into Helsinki last night for a meal and a few drinks to celebrate my birthday. The resturaunt was lovely and the food was really reallt nice. Will have to take any visitors there when you all come to visit.

Ta ta for now- we are just off to meet Alex's Mum and Dad from the airport- our first visitors- very exciting stuff. xxx

150 Finns brawl in an amusement park

This news story made me laugh, The average age was reported to be between 10 and 20! There were no serious injuries or arrests. Turns out that it kicked off over some kids queue jumping.

Click here to view the news article

Beth has landed.....

After an hour delay at Manchester Airport, then the longest, most boring 2 and a half hours of a flight we landed.......and then were stuck in the plane for another half an hour while they manually attached the steps due to the failure of 'amazing' technology.

My loss is Alex's gain as he had plenty time for a couple of beers while he waited for me at arrivals. He then whisked me off for some food, where we also got free jelly teddies (and for those who know me really well- yes I did stick them on my head!) before we headed to Kamppi to catch the bus to Keijumäki (Fairy Hill).

Alex has been quite stressed about this part of my arrival as I hadn't seen the flat before and I was arriving in the dark (with no electricity) onto a building site (as renovations are not finished) into the empty flat, apart from the sofa bed. All's well that end's well though. The flat is a winner and I love the sofa. Well done Al!

I feel at this point however I should mention our awful wallpaper on one of the walls. I took an immediate offense to it on Wednesday and was still mildly disturbed by it on Thursday, making the decision to redecorate. After all the flat pack etc I have reconsidered and have decided it will have to grow on me.

So after a long day and a good night's sleep we head to Ikea to spend a small fortune on flat pack.

The following days have been mostly spent cleaning, assembling furniture, washing clothes, visiting the bank, immigration office (3 hour queue) and the supermarket.

I ventured out yesterday alone......how brave (given that I keep getting lost even on our housing complex!) I even managed to have some banter with a Finnish guy- he spoke Finnish and I laughed in what seemed to be all the right places. Not a clue what all that was about but I seem to have made a friend!

We have met quite a few people in the same building as we are and they all seem really nice and friendly.

I have yet to unpack, as you can see from the open suitcase in the middle of the room on Alex's pics. I will get round to that tomorrow- I promise.

Here are some more photos of the views from the balcony of our new gaff- we even had the pleasure of some hot air balloons today.

"The sofa episode" and Beth's arrival

Not posted since I initially opened the blog because its been manic trying to get everything sorted out and my internet connections have been sporadic.

I moved into an apartment on the 1st June, there was no electric and all I had was the sofa bed that Sakari and myself carried up the 6 flights of spiral staircase! After which I realized I had locked the front door key in the flat. We (or Sakari rather) found the Estonian building supervisor (oh yeah I forgot to mention the building is literally a building site until the end of June) who eventually let us back in. By this time the van rental was 30 mins overdue, thankfully no extra charge due to the laid back approach of the Finns.

Later that same day the physical and mental exhaustion of the sofa episode led to a lapse of common sense and concentration resulting in leaving my wallet somewhere between Hesburger (Helsinki's solution to McDonalds) and University. Still not found it, thankfully not too much of a disaster, only lost my unused credit cards and English bank cards.

Beth arrived 1 hour late on the 2nd, still no Electricity...

IKEA supermarket sweep on the 3rd, thanks to Sakari again for his efforts with the van rental.

Estonian worker wakes us up with news of Electricity, "You now have electricity....it's free") He then proceeded to swing his hammer at the mains switch because he couldn't reach... nutter.

4th June : Erect furniture

5th June : Erect furniture

6th June : Wash day (clothes not myself, thats next month) and stock fridge.

The Night Before the last English Breakfast

So, the night before the last full English breakfast for some time!!, and at the same time the conference hotel provides a harsh introduction to the inflated mark-up of fermented goods that is sure to greet us once we're settled.

As of the 25th, the apartment (North of Tapiola) is available, hopefully the University will soon sort out the paperwork so that we can get the keys, thankfully our landlord is very understanding.

In other news, saw Sir George Martin today, (you know, the guy behind the Beatles), looked very normal, probably prefers not to be at these type of events understandably.

I wait in eager anticipation of the breakfast, gonna hit it hard.