Oh yes! We've taken the plunge and got ourselves a new computer. I've been using Kati's rubbish old laptop for long enough. The damn thing would piss me off every five minutes with one thing or another. And that was on a good day!

This new one is pretty sweet. It looks all flash with its widescreen and being all shiny and black. It's got 160GB HD and 3GB of RAM, plus that new Windows Vista. My first impression of the new Windows is that it looks nicer, but is perhaps harder to find your way around than XP. It also uses crazy amounts memory, hence the 3GB of RAM.

But the best thing? IT'S IN ENGLISH! I can understand my own computer at last! Now when an error message pops up I will be able to understand it. Seriously, Windows is not good in Finnish. Computer jargon can be hard enough to understand when it's in your own language!

So we'll be paying for the laptop for 11 months, and if we feel a little well off one month we can pay a little bit more to pay it all back faster.

New laptop, YAY!

This weekend we visted Kati's parents in Toholampi. There are two good things about that, one being that I get to drive again and the other being able to see Lare, the kitten. Although people have started to call him Lari now, which is easier to say. Remember that in Finnish it's not Lare, it's La-re, which doesn't exactly roll off the tounge too well.

( Pictures below! )

So we've taken a few pictures of our new home, and these are a selection of them!

( Pics this way )

So I'm writing this from our new apartment. We were able to get one of the keys on Friday afternoon, which was a relief as otherwise the office wouldn't be open again until Monday and that would mean no help with the move. The previous tenant moved out on Saturday, so late that evening Kati and myself carried a few of the lighter things over by hand as it's only about 150 metres or so from our old apartment. I also had to dismantle our bed ready for transport the next day as it's too big to fit through the doors.

We woke up early on Sunday and carried a few more things across by hand until Kati parents arrived. They were such a huge help it's almost impossible to describe. We loaded up their car with as much as we could each time, but it still took a good 8 trips to get everything moved. And I thought we hardly owned anything!

It was all going really well. Then after most of the stuff had been brought over, and just the heavy stuff remained, washing machine etc, Kati's mum started to clean the windows for us. See, how nice is that? :) Only slight problem, the lady that lived here before us had a dishwasher, which she of course took with her. Which would have been fine except she forgot to close off some pipe or other, so when Kati's mum poured the water down the sink, unknown to all of us, it didn't make it all the way down the pipes. Instead it was cascading through downstair's ceiling, right into one of their kitchen cupboards! Not the best start with our new neighbours! Thankfully the neighbours were good about it and knew it wasn't our fault. The flat's handymen came around really quickly and fixed the pipe, and so far we've seen no sign of a bill. Fingers crossed we never will!

One thing we find very annoying to live without these days, is the internet. Which is why we gave our ISP, Sonera, a good 6 weeks notice that we would be moving. They assured us that our internet would be ready and waiting for us by 6pm on the day of our move. Of course it wasn't. Bastards. So Kati rang them at 6pm, but of course all the people who could sort the problem had finished work by then, so all we could do was say we had a problem and hope they would fix it the next day. The next day comes and they ring us back. It turns out that Sonera had sent the internet connection to the wrong address. Whoops, they said. That happens now and again apparently. Not a huge problem you would think. I know from experience that you can get internet access in England almost instantly. In Finland that's not the case. Personally I think that's down to the laziness of the companies. Anyway, they guy on the phone said that he was working on the problem now, and that all being well, it should be solved very quickly. A little while late he rings back. Sorry, he says, but it's not going to be fixed until NEXT THURSDAY! That's a week and a day! What on Earth can they need to do that takes so long?! I was furious. I can still see no reason why, with 6 weeks notice, they couldn't get such a simple thing right. So we told Sonera where to stick their internet and how terrible their customer service is. (I'm still going to write a letter lol) The next day we went into the town to the Elise store, which is a direct rival to Sonera, and we got ourselves a new connection. This one is brilliant though. The modem is a USB stick, the same size as a memory stick, and it works using mobile phone technology, so you can use the internet anywhere you have a signal, which in Finland is anywhere but in a tunnel. It even works on the move, like when you're on a bus or train. And it's 1mb connection too, so it's not slow We could have gotten a bigger one, anything upto 5mb but this is only 20€ a month, and they said we could upgrade at anytime. Go Elise! And Sonera, you can just go to hell.

Anyway, moan over with. I'm gonna go take some pictures of the new place now that everything is looking good, then I can upload them somewhere. We're quite pleased with it :)

So I didn't do quite so bad in that large Finnish test as I thought I did as I still got a 4+. I also found out on Friday that I've made it to the next level course which starts in August. Around 80 people applied and only 16 made it, so that's something to be thankful for! Also, Michael, Larisa and Raticha will also be going to my course, so there'll be some familiar faces there. The only problem is that it's not in the same school I'm in now, it's in one a lot further away. So far that I may not be able to go there by bike and we'll need to take the bus instead.

It's the last week of school this week, but there's another test tomorrow. Go figure! After this week I'll get almost a six week break. I'll be like being 14 again having summer holidays! I'm ready for a little break though as I've been at school every week day since early January and when I worked for Tesco I had almost 6 weeks of holiday per year, so back then I could take a week off every couple of months!

It's just been the mid-summer here celebration in Finland. It's just one big piss up really. We went to Kati's parents place and BBQed and drank a fair bit. It didn't feel like mid-summer though, not with all the rain. BBQing in the rain is interesting!

We're moving to the new flat really soon, hopefully this coming weekend, or early next week. It all depends on when ever the person currently living there gets the hell out and hands the keys back so we can pick them up. Hopefully we'll be able to get some help as without a car, carrying all the furniture, washing machine, TV, freezer, bed etc, as well as all the misc boxes is gonna be one hell of a job for two people on foot!

So I had a large Finnish test today and I don't think I did too well at all. The first part was a listening exam which wasn't too bad, but they lady did say two words I'd never heard before which makes it difficult to spell them. The second half of the listening part was just writing down the numbers you heard, so that was pretty easy. Then the first couple of pages of the test were quite simple, it was only towards the end that it got bad. There was a whole section about weather, but we only did weather for ONE DAY in class and it was with a different teacher who was filling in for our usual one. I thought that was a little unfair. I know a little bit of weather stuff. I know how to say it's raining or snowing or foggy but that's about all I could remember. Then after that there was a really large piece of text which had six missing words from it and I had to fill in the right word in the right place with the right degree of change to it (if it needed it.) But the text was really difficult to understand. Everybody was moaning about it afterwards. Everyone had trouble with that part. If you need to place a word somewhere in a sentence but you've never seen half the words in that sentence before - well that's almost an impossible task. So, I don't expect to get such a good mark in this one. And this is the test that will have a big say in what course I'll be on after the summer break.

Maybe I didn't do as badly as I feel I did, and if everyone else did rubbish too, than I guess it won't matter too much.

Some good news though, Kati's got a place to do work experience over the summer, so we'll be able to get a little bit of money, enough to survive at least. Hopefully. She's been trying to get a summer job all over the place, but in a town like Jyväskylä which has like a million students, getting a summer job is not an easy thing to do!

I'll be getting almost 6 weeks off during the summer. It'll be like being a kid again! I won't be sitting on my arse doing nothing all summer though. I have plans to learn many, many, many new words. And Finnish words aren't the easiest things to memorize. Take two of the latest words I'm trying to learn 'täydellinen' which means 'perfect,' and 'vilkuttaa' which means 'to wave.'

I got some sad news yesterday from my mum. David, the father of my English friends Simon and Paul, died on Sunday night. He'd been suffering from cancer for a long time and had several invasive operations over the last two years, but it in the end it claimed him. Apparently they were all with him when it happened. David was a really funny man. He always had a million jokes to tell, most of them very dirty! All of Paul and Simon's friends liked him. He was generous too, always willing to buy someone a beer, and he cooked a mean BBQ every summer for the twin's birthdays. Even after the first huge operation to attempt to remove most of the cancer, he still found a way to joke about it. And if there's one thing I knew about him, it was that he really loved his family. Being so far away now, it's hard to know what I should do. I sent a short text but I guess the phone is turned off as it's shown as being 'pending.' We also sent a card today.

Why do people send cards when someone dies? Are you supposed to display them like bithday or Christmas cards? It doesn't make any sense to me. But what else could I do? Maybe that's why people send cards, because there's nothing you can ever really do to help.

OK, so there's gonna be a mini-wave in celebration of me, because I got the results back from my last Finnish test and I kicked ass again :D I got another 5, which is the highest score you could get. The total test was out of 60 and I got 58, beating my friend Michael by 1 point, giving me the highest score in the class. It's a nice feeling to be doing well at something, doesn't happen often lol.

Kati's parents visited us yesterday and they brought us some garden chairs and a table. I'm really looking forward to using them on the balcony in a month. I was alone with her parents for about half an hour before Kati got home, so I had to talk in Finnish as they don't really speak English. Her mum can speak a little bit but her dad can only really say 'good morning' lol. So that was interesting, but it went ok.

We're going to try reinstalling Windows on the laptop today. Hopefully that will cure the problems we've been having with it. Fingers crossed then.

So I've been meaning to write this for about a week now, but we'll be moving soon! The flat that we have now, although I really like it, is just getting a little bit too small for us. The new one is in the same area, on the same road infact, less than 2 minutes walk away. What can I say, Ristonmaa is a really good area! The new one is about 10sqm bigger, but it feels even bigger due to the way it's all layed out. The kitchen, living room and bathroom are all obviously larger, and the bedroom is either the same size or a tiny bit bigger. Unlike this place though, all the rooms are seperate from each other. I went there expecting not to like it but I was really surpised by it. The walls look like they need a fresh coat of paint but the place we'll be renting it from said they'll supply us with all the paint and brushes etc for free if we do the work. It might even be fun!

The new flat is in a two story building and we'll be living upstairs so we'll need to say goodbye to our little garden. But the balcony is quite large and offers privacy from the next door neighbours, so I'll probably sit outside more in the summer than I would otherwise. And with our wireless net connection I can sit on the balcony and surf the net at the same time lol.

So some of you may know that last October or there abouts, I bought a bike for going to the shops and general riding around the lake fun. Only it didn't have any gears or proper brakes, just that strange 'pedal backwards' crap that slows you down gently. Not much good if you flying downhill towards a lake and need to slow down quickly! Anyway, this week my bus card ran out, and it costs 48€ a month. So, to save money we decided that we could both cycle everyday to save some money. Only I didn't really fancy doing that with my old bike, so we went to a local 2nd hand bike store and the were able to do a straight swap for a bike with both gears and brakes. Yay.

Of course I'm not used to all this riding everyday and my legs are all sore. I'm hoping I'll quickly get fitter because if I don't I won't be able to walk next week lol. But it's a nice ride to and from school. I have to go right to the lake shore for most of it. Yesterday there was a even a biggish boat on the lake. It's funny to see water after so many months of solid ice!

I've got a poker game tonight with some friends. I think it'll cost about 2 or 3€ or to enter and then the winner takes it all at the end. Maybe I'll get lucky this time and win!

We've been in Toholampi this weekend visiting Kati's parents. One of their cats has just recently had a kitten called Lare. Pronounced La-re(cuz it's Finnish.) It's just about the cutest cat in the whole world, and the cutest thing I've seen since Lucy was only a couple of months old! Anyway, here's some pictures:

( Under the cut )

So it's been another interesting weekend! Thursday was the 1st of May, and that's a public holiday here in Finland. The day before is always a huge piss up exercise, and I've never seen the town so full of people in all the time I've lived here! Students everywhere in the parks drinking beer and wine etc.

Me and Kati went to a couple of bars but spent most of the night in Hemmingways because you could get a bottle of sparkling wine for about 12€, which is damn cheap for Finland. So we got nicely drunk.

On the Friday, Kati's sisters Heli and Suvi popped to Jyväskylä to do a bit of shopping and they brought with them a huge TV. See, Kati's parents upgraded to a rather large flat screen and we got their "old" TV. It's really sweet too, silver plastic instead of black (so posh lol) and it's the first widescreen TV I've ever owned. We rented a DVD to watch on it and it looked pretty good, once we figured the sound options out anyway. Firstly I had to change the language from Swedish to English since neither me or Kati speak Swedish.

Also, while speaking to her mum on the phone, Kati asked if we could have their old BBQ, but her mum said it was too damaged and had burned through. But she later gave the sisters some money to buy us a new BBQ! And that's also pretty cool. We used it for the first time today, BBQing some pork steaks, bacon, sausages and pineapple. It was all rather yummy.

Kati's parents have been really good to us since I moved here. I look forward to the day when I can speak enough Finnish to talk to them properly.

Also, on Saturday night I played poker with the guys again, but this time there was only five of us and we played for a 'random prize.' Everyone has to buy something for a couple of euros and the winner takes the lot at the end of the night. One guy brought dog food lol.

So I had quite the weekend, probably the best I've had in a while. On Friday night Kati and I met up with the people from the Finguild in the centre and had a few drinks. After some of them left early we spent a bit of time talking with this lady called Anne. Pronounced 'An-ne.' Gotta have that gap there. She's an English teacher at a high school, and she asked me if I'd be interested in coming to talk to her class sometime about England, as she has one group of students that apparently work really hard and deserve a 'treat.' What the hell kinda treat I am remains to be seen lol. But at sometime in the future I should be doing that, and Anne said the school might even be able to pay me a little.

On Saturday night I went to a friends house to play in a poker tournament. It was the first time I'd ever played poker. I was supposed to go there by bus but I managed to miss it and needed to walk there instead. It wouldn't normally take so long but because I didn't know the way I had to follow the bus map in order to not get lost lol.

The night itself was really good. Plenty of beer and laughs and I got to meet some new people as well. The game was only a 5€ buy in with the last man standing taking the pot. I managed to get to the final four players, so I was pretty pleased with that. Michael, who was hosting the party was the first to crash out after he went all in as he thought Antti was bluffing when he wasn't!

In the end I left around midnight and managed to only get lost for a few minutes on the way home after trying to go the quicker way. Next time it should take just under half an hour.

We've had some lovely weather here over the last week. Except for today of course, as it's been raining. Tomorrow it's expected to hit 18C. Almost all the ice from the Jyväsjärvi lake has all gone, with only a tiny bit remaining in certain areas. Spring really is here! Although last time I said that it snowed for 5 straight days, so who can be sure.

And yesterday we did something really 'married.' We went to a garden centre lol.

We've been on the phone to the British Embassy in Helsinki again and they've lightened things up a bit for us. They say the person who has to countersign the form doesn't have to have known me for 2 years since I've only lived her 8 months. Phew. So there's this guy we know who lives in Jyväskylä. He's called Graham strangely enough! He's a Brit as well and he's also a teacher and he said he'd sign the form for me. We know him through the Finguild (I think that's what it's called) which is a British/Finnish charity for Brits living in Finland and Finns living in the UK. He's a nice bloke.

So that's one less worry out the way anyway!

I had a huge Finnish test on Friday and I got the results back yesterday. I did pretty well. They mark you out of 5 over here. It starts at 1, which is usually still a pass, then it goes to 1+ then 1 1/2 then 2 then 2+ to 2 1/2 etc all they way up to 5, and I scored a 4 1/2, yay me!

Thanks to Liza for this cool new icon. I'm not sure how to stick a link in this thing otherwise I would. :S

Why is it such a job to just renew a passport? I would have thought my old passport along with a new photo would be enough, but nooooooooo now I need to get a Finnish person who's not related to me and who is a 'professional' to countersign the damn things Oh, and they should have known me for 2 years, even though I've lived here 7 months.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

So I've decided to start posting on LJ again. I just need to get some new whatsit thingies. Those square things. Icons?

So yeah, I'm a married man now. I expected to feel different some how, but I don't at all really. It just feels like a natural step, rather than a big one. But I guess in a way, moving to Finland is a far bigger change than getting married!

( Read more... )

So, thought I'd write something here for a change since my real website won't be up for quite sometime. Apparently we HAVE web space soméwhere, but trying to find it is a bit of a nightmare!

So, got to Finland fine, been here over a week now. It's all going quite well. Our little flat looks more and more like a home every day. We just need a few things first, like a couple of bedside tables and such.

But here's the big news. Mark September 14th in your diary, because that's when Kati and I are getting married!

Tagged by Liza Marie


I wish I was a different ethnicity.
I have (had) an eating disorder.
I'm short.
I'm tall.
I think I’m really attractive.
I prefer winter over summer.
I'm a geek.
I’m a shopaholic.
I’m reasonably intelligent.
I’m attracted to girls.
I’m attracted to boys.
I like British accents.
I smoke regularly.
I drink regularly.
I smoke(ed) socially.
I drink socially.
I get drunk easily.
I do drugs.
I will never date a bad kisser.
I’ve lied to avoid kissing them again.
I brush my hair at least 50 times a night.
I’m religious.
I’m not religious but have morals.
I’m impulsive.
I’m hardworking.
I liked "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind"
“She’s All That” is one of my favourite movies.
I'm good at history
I speak more than two languages.
I enjoy taking pictures.
I like spending money on myself.
I like spending money on others.
I have a regular income.
I earn money on a job-by-job basis.
I pay my own bills.
I rely on my parents for money.
I can cook.
I enjoy cleaning.
Tidyness is a must in my life.
I like clutter.
My idea of good music is Britney Spears.
I have heard of Blonde Redhead.
I enjoy Blonde Redhead.
I'm fashion-conscious.
I have good taste.
People tell me I have good taste.
I excel (occasionally) academically.
I've told I've yet to fulfill my potential.
I’m good at sports.
I'm good at certain sports.
I couldn't do sports to save my life.
I’m creative.
I’m artistically inclined.
I wanna be an artist when I grow up.
I wanna be an engineer when I grow up.
I eat when I'm upset.
I cannot adapt to change.
I’m interested in politics.
I have shoplifted.
I download MP3s.
I've done underage drinking.
I've gone underage clubbing.
I can dance reasonably well.
I can dance extremely well.
I dance like a cardboard gorilla.
I can sing.
I can sing like someone stepped on my foot.
I can swim.
I enjoy surveys.
I enjoy surveys when I'm bored.
I keep a journal.
My teachers don't like me.
I enjoy controversy.
I can be a bitch/bastard.
I have a thing for bad boys/girls.
I have tattoos.
I’ve been in a nudist colony.
I’m not sure if I want to have children.
I’m not sure if I’ll get married.
I know who I will marry.
I'm interesting.
I’m a good liar.
People enjoy talking to me.
I annoy people from time to time.
I'm a born leader.
I’m a born leader but shouldn’t lead.
I enjoy felching.
I have a foot fetish.
I have a shoe fetish.
I watch "Sex and the City"
I don't think Sarah Jessica Parker is pretty.
I wanna be J.Lo.
I cut myself.
I've cut myself.
I hate people who pretend to be suicidal.
I hate popular people.
I think cheerleading is a sport.
I'm photogenic.
I live in Chucks.
I think graffiti is art.
I have dated a criminal.
I have been cheated on.
I have cheated on someone.
I have a temper.
I like playgrounds.
I dance in the rain.
I’m obsessed with Shakespeare.
I have tanlines.
My favourite color is pink.
My favourite color is black.
I would classify myself as emo.
I'm musically inclined.
I like listening to music.
I like music-blasting cars.
Thongs are comfortable.
I like flip-flops.
I know what monogamy is...
...and I believe in it..
I wanna be a social worker when I grow up.
I have/had sibling/s.
My sibling/s annoy me.
I think "South Park" is funny.
I believe in LOVE.
I want to make a difference.

(Click here to post your own answers for this meme.)

✓ I miss somebody right now.	✓ I don't watch much TV these days.	✓ I own lots of books.
✓ I wear glasses or contact lenses.	✓ I love to play video games.	✓ I've tried marijuana.
✓ I've watched porn movies.	× I have been the psycho-ex in a past relationship.	✓ I believe honesty is usually the best policy.
✓ I curse sometimes.	× I have changed a lot mentally over the last year.	× I carry my knife/razor everywhere with me.

( it goes on... )