Life is better at sea

I grew up in an island, called Suomenlinna sea fortress. It's a beautiful place, good place to grow up. There's approx. 900 people living there and there's a elementary school there as well. I studied the first 6 grades there, and the school had 73 students. It's still there but I reckon they have fewer student's nowadays. Among them my 11 year old sister and 9 year old brother.

Suomenlinna is in the heart of Helsinki, it takes 15 mins by boat to get there from the CBD, and especially for tourists it's the place to go. There's heaps of museums and the architecture is beautiful. So much history in one place. My father and 3 of my siblings still live there.

Maybe that's why I always gravitate towards the sea. Something about oceans make me calm and I feel like home. My apartment in Helsinki is also located by the beach and here in Australia I always wanna go by the ocean.

People in Helsinki have cruising and boats close to their hearts. It's easy and fun and part of most peoples lives. I used to take a day cruise to Estonia at least 6 times a year. Cruises to Sweden are a weekend trip but I've done that too for multiple times. Luckiest people also have their own boats and going to an nearby island by the boat and make a barbeque is one of the best part of Finnish summer.

On this Monday, I had a work Christmas party. It was on a massive party boat that took off from the Sydney harbor. I have to admit I didn't expect it to be as good as it was. The theme was white, and everything was decorated white and everyone was wearing white. Except me. I was close though. I didn't want to stand out but I really don't have anything white in my wardrobe. I have a T-shirt and a basic top but I can't wear those to a party this exclusive.

There was a burger buffet, Taco buffet and a Buddha bowl buffet. Since I'm always hungry, free food do I need to say more? Also trays and trays of wine, sparkling wine, ciders and beers.
Despite free drinks, I had 3 drinks. I need a reason to drink.

The day turned out to be beautiful and it was actually hot on the boat. Good music and happy people.
I've worked with this current restaurant chain for 3 weeks, so I reckon the party would've been even better with a good friend.

Compared to previous work Christmas parties the cruise was absolutely amazing.

Sea you later. Ha ha.

Busy, busy, busy

You know the feeling when you feel like your doing absolutely nothing but actually you are doing everything?

I've been doing nothing for the last 2 weeks. And by nothing I mean everything. I've been working my ass off at the gym and working 6 days a week at work. I've been trying to fit my photo shoots somewhere in there as well, while keeping the house clean and eating right. Why is doing nothing so exhausting? Also I don't have a car, so everything takes double time. If I'm going to the gym in the morning, I need to reserve 2,5 hrs even if I'm doing a 1 hr workout. Usually when i'm going to work I need to leave an hour early cause the next bus would be late and by car it would be a 10 min trip. Everybody gets what I'm saying here?

Oh yeah, I'm going to Bali in less than 2 weeks and haven't even had time to think about that. Maybe tomorrow, when it's my first day off this week.

Last weekend I had a friend over, she lives in manly so she decided to spend the night. I haven't seen her in 8 months but I literally had 10 hours with her, since I was working Friday and Sunday and she was working Saturday morning and only got here 4 PM. It was really good seeing her though. I really needed some girl time.

I've been feeling really home sick lately, after all I've been here for a year already. Today's my baby nieces naming party. I wish I could be there. I spoke to my sister on the phone today, and she promised to send me heaps of pictures. I can't believe my sister had a baby almost 4 months ago and I still haven't seen her. I've got a lot of pictures and I must say shes got her mommas beauty.

And all the above is a reason why I got myself a present. It's been ages since I last had an advent calendar, but this year I got the Nyx lippie countdown- calendar. I'm a bit obsessed with lipsticks and I can't wait it to be December! I mean just look at it.

Like I said, few good photo shoots coming next week. Stay tuned, it's going to be awesome.🔜🔜

A fresh start

Like I've written before, I started things here wrong. Okay, maybe not wrong but differently than I planned. I mean I just expected everything to be great and all my problems solved just to learn that it doesn't work that way. And it took me a while to realize that.

Now, after a long 11 months, I finally feel like I'm going in the right direction and doing things the way I intended in the first place. I feel like I've got a fresh start. Another year ahead of me, with no regional work and limitations. I've got heaps of working experience and I'm braver than ever. I've got many positive things to be happy and thankful about, for example;

1. I live in a nice house, where I can be happy and myself.
2. I'm working in a nice environment with less hours.
3. I don't have to stress over long hours and two different jobs and no sleep.
4. My training is going better than ever.
5. I'm going on a holiday soon, somewhere I've never been before and I get to see my brother!
6. Planning on moving to another city in January.
7. I've got a trip planned to go visit Finland next summer! ( winter here, so confusing)
8. Summer is here!

I've been thinking about Christmas too.. Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas here, so I'm just going to have another year here without it and It's fine. My sister Tanja just wrote to me yesterday that she hopes that we could all spend the holidays together. It would be amazing. I invited her here, but will see if it's even possible. Tickets must be ridiculously expensive around holidays.

I have a road trip planned with my best friend around Christmas. It's the perfect getaway. We'll see who's head is going to explode first driving across Australia for 4-5 days in a row. Literally across Australia. And I will be driving at least third of the way. Can't wait. It'll be amazing, just another way to explore all the amazing places!

Now, as soon as the rain is going to stop, I'll switch into my bikinis and go for a swim.

Peace& Love yall

Sun, a friend or foe?

Based on a true story;

I'm sure everyone's familiar with the term heat stroke or heat exhaustion. I'm going to explain it anyway. Heat exhaustion is a heat-related illness that can occur after you've been exposed to high temperatures, and it often is accompanied by dehydration. There are two types of heat exhaustion:

• Salt depletion. Signs include nausea and vomiting, muscle cramps, and dizziness.
• Water depletion. Signs include excessive thirst, weakness, headache, and loss of consciousness.

I had all that and much more. So even though I'm from one of the coldest countries in Europe, I'll never learn not to stay in the sun for too long. Like I've said before, I feel like I'm going to run out of sun and I can't waste it. So I thought it was a smart idea to go to the beach for the whole day on Saturday, go out Saturday night and back to the beach on Sunday for the whole day. Nope. 

@Huskinson

@Bondi

@Coogee

@st.Kilda

I love beaches, what can I say?

I felt nauseous after the beach and decided to go by the pool anyway to enjoy the sun a little bit more. Of course without a hat and not too much water either. I've never been a good water drinker. And few hours later I started throwing up. And that lasted for about 6 hours I think. What a wonderful day. 

I should know better, same thing happened in the beginning of the year as well, except that time I was throwing up for almost 2 days in a row and I hadn't been drinking in the day before. That time my master plan was to spent the whole day out in a music festival without a hat and the next day at the beach without swimming or cooling down other ways. Just laying there, on the Australian sun.

I swear this time I'll learn. I'll promise to swim and drink a bottle of water between every hour. I'll wear a hat. I'll never wan't to experience that again.

A hint for non Aussies; Learn from my mistake!

I'm such a Finn.

pinjaelisa