I Don't Ask For Anything More Than What I Already Have

I’ve visited the Belém, the famous and historical district of Lisbon plenty of times but never entered the monuments which the tourists line up for hours. Here are some shots from the Monument of Discovery and the Jerónimos Monastery. 

Part Deux: Another round of shots taken by me all over Helsinki. Obsessed with the waterfront, blackandwhite (they always look better, don’t they?) and flowers or any kind of hay. Got caught up by the storm, sunshine, following the duck and the lovely colours of autumn. And yes, filters used. One of these days I’ll get better at this and have courage to post my pics without them.

Had an exhausting but oh so worth every step-day at Sintra yesterday! No wonder it’s one of the top destinations of the entire Portugal! 

Bologna part II 

Tallinn in black and white..

Last fall. Home.

Eurovision 2019 - Different genres

It's time to talk about Eurovision! The lists have been shaping during the entire spring and I'm ready to talk! Let's do the different genres first. Even though characterized as a pop song contest which it still is Eurovision holds a large range of influences of other genres as well. I always find sending something else than pure pop to Eurovision as a bold move and nevertheless how well they do they develope the event and give courage to those to think outside of the box!

(in alphabetical order) 

AUSTRALIA / Kate Miller-Heidke / Zero Gravity - Opera /Pop

FINLAND / Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman / Look away - Dance / Pop

HUNGARY / Joci Pápai / Az én apám - Folk/ pop

ICELAND / Hatari / Hatriö mun sigra - techno/rock

ITALY / Mahmood / Soldi - R&B/pop

POLAND / Tulia / Fire of Love (Pali sie) - Folk / choir

PORTUGAL Conan Osiris / Telemóveis - Genreless / mix of everything

Where only I remain

I’m afraid I haven’t got anything special to tell you, just some very ordinary things of my life.

But let’s start with some new stuff:  I’ve started to study French here! It’s rather expensive since it’s almost like having  private lessons. There’s me and this another lady from Toronto. My teacher is an young québecoise, super nice girl. The primary focus is on the ability of having a conversation and understanding but there’s some grammar stuff as well. Two hours a week, every Wednesday night until the beginning of January.

(Canadian squirrel - Tim Horton's is somewhat a canadian version of Starbucks)

At work, all good. So far there’s been all kinds of events, from big corporate events of Microsoft and Red Cross for example to private concerts, weddings as well as art exhibition openings. The work is somewhat physically demanding since the decoration or furnishings have to be differently placed for every event. Small details count. At the events there’s isn’t much anything else to do than just make sure that everything goes as planned, smoothly and nicely. Adaptation to the changes is important. Often I’m helping out the catering staff with the dishes or serving food/drinks or whatever I can do.

I feel so empty at the moment cause this entire fall, I’ve been waiting for several releases to come out. First it was the new album “Terra” of this brilliant Finnish singer Jenni Vartiainen, followed by “Bridget Jones: Mad about the boy” book, new Céline Dion album and last but not definitely the least the compilation album of my favourite (in case no one has noticed) artist Laura Pausini. What now?!?

(Terra album by Jenni Vartiainen: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjfVme5npco)

Cannot be without saying a few words about Bridget Jones thou.. I finished  the third BJ a.k.a “the bible of a single gal” book by Helen Fielding. Brilliantly written. I recommend it to all “Jonesy” fans out there. I was very skeptic about it first cause I knew that it won’t be the same now with Mark “I like you just as you are” Darcy being dead. But the old Bridget is still very much there. Her old struggles with being a single and how to get a boyfriend (and keep him) as well as her new problems like coping with the everyday life of being a widowed single mom and how to use twitter made me laugh as much as they made me cry too.     

At the flat we’ve been having this teeny tiny plumbing problem during these few days. Started on Saturday, apparently some pipes started leaking and yeah, having water all over,  that was sort of a problem. But my landlord had the plumber to come and fix it on the very next day. Even though it was Sunday.

The quick action of my landlord made me think how I really got lucky with this room and flat. From what I’ve heard and seen, I so appreaciate that I have a washing machines that work, front doors that you can get locked and that I have a proper wall all the way to the ceiling. Lucky me. Even though all that stuff that has gone wrong in the past, may have not been so funny then but they sure are now!

Also, haven’t got pictures yet to prove this one to you but the whole city of Mtl is covered with Christmas decorations. And they’re seriously big, colourful and all sorts of things, especially in centre-ville. My neighbour has had Christmas lights ever since October I think.. Even the wall of our back yard is decorated.  And exactly year ago in November I felt so bad for having a Christmas tree (or actually two) and my flat decorated for the season. Cause it was “too early”.  Yeah right.   

About the famous Canadian winter, I’ve been so warned about. So far I’ve seen snow in Mtl only once. It was on last Saturday. And it’s all gone by now. But it’s getting colder so I’m hopeful that we’ll get some proper snow soon. I’m into it just for the looks, the trees are naked and it’s so dark without it. The temperatures ain't that bad but the wind (and this city is always windy) makes it feel so much colder. Hrrr.. Looking forward to those days of -20C. But I hope that the Canadian winter is nothing that the Finnish version hasn’t trained me for over the years.

(This is I hope it will look like) :)

Typical Lisboa!