Best. Birthday. EVER!

Waking up on my 30th birthday was like any other day, except for my bestfriend singing a little happy birthday tune with a crusty morning voice, and getting a whole choir singing as loud as they could in the hotel's restaurant after presenting me with their wonderful gifts. I got some beautiful gifts from the trip in Swarowski store on friday, and to my big surprise a Kamin Clock that I've been wanting for about two years! My family had managed to keep the surprise from me, and it's one of the best presents I've ever gotten! I was SO happy! After the breakfast we went to Charles de Gaulle - Etoile to take the RER A and head on to Disneyland - the place I wanted to celebrate my 30th birthday! I'm a child at heart, and will always be, so there's no other place that fits me better for a celebration! After a n hour or so of travelling time from Paris we were finally in Disneyland and me jumping around like a crazy gummibear as usual when blinded by the glorious pink and shining Disney-colours! I had a fabolous plan; to run to the Big Thunder Mountain to get a fastpass, since it's the ride with the longest line in my experience - sometimes up to two hours! However, when we got there, we sort of lost our interesst when we saw people being "rescued" out of the train stuck on the very top of the mountain...oh well. Big Thunder Mountain was closed for the day, so on to the closest ride: Phantom Manor. The line always goes fast for this ride, and it's in the shade, so quite nice actually. When I lived in Paris a few years ago, I had a yearpass in Disneyland and visited quite often, and because of this I don't have that need to rush around to get to take as many rides as possible - I've taken them all. And being seven people together it automatically moves a bit slower as usual. However, we got to see the coolest rides, except Big Thunder Mountain, and to our dissapointment Captain EO, which is a 3D shortfilm written and produced by George Lucas and Directed by Francis Ford Coppola with Michael Jackson in the lead. It was closed, and it seems like it's not gonna come back in Disneyland Paris unortunately. Eventhough it had been a lot of promotion around the parks 20th anniversary, it wasn't many things that showed it at all except a new parade that would be celebrating just that. Also this time, there weren't many characters visible in the park. Eventhough both things were a bit dissapointing, we eagerly went to see the parade around 19.00 and got a really good place that we fought many tall and short people to keep. However, about 10 minutes before the parade would start, rain came pouring down, along with thunder and lightning intense enough that I was sure it was gonna strike the Cinderella castle! We stood crammed up with I-can't-wait-until-the-rain-stop-before-I-smoke-in-your-face french people for about half an hour, but we were still happy. People were going home, the rain would stop, and we were soon heading to the Blue Lagoon to eat dinner. On the way to the Blue Lagoon which is the restaurant located inside Pirates of the Caribbean, we passed the castle. After the storm it looked beautiful with lighting that looked surreal and magical. Ever since I took the Pirates of the Caribbean ride when I was 10, I've wanted to eat at Blue Lagoon. I looked at the menu on the internet and decided that most people would like it, and booked a table for us a week before my birthday, since it's one of those restaurants that are almost impossible to get in to. I also ordered a birthday cake since that was an option. The restaurant in itself has an absolute beautiful setting, it seems magical and very inviting. The lighting and sound hidden effects makes you feel as if you're in the world of mystery and pirates - but safe from the pirates. The service and food was mediocre though...our waiter messed up a lot of things to the point that all of a sudden we had 4 different waiters going back and forth giving us our main meals before our starters and even the wrong food and so on. However, our original but messy waiter was nice and I felt sorry for him, and I'd like to think that he had a bad day. In the end a very vikingy full figured lady took over it all, and things were back on track. The steaks were brilliant I heard, but otherwise the food was so-so, the vegetables were horrible and the top layer of my rice was hard. I had the Surf and Turf and the lobster was good though. In the end I got the cake that I ordered. It was fun - many people from the staff came with it singing "Happy birthday" and it tasted reeeeeally good. I did hope that it would have my name and age on it though, since the lady I booked it from spesifically asked for it, and I would have felt a bit more that it was especially for me. I think the came might have been meant for children, but hey - you don't celebrate in Disneyland so you can pretend to be an adult 30 year old do you? All in all it was a GREAT celebration, one I will never forget, and we were lucky to get the rain so that we almost had the whole park to ourselves when the grand finale of the day started - the fireworks celebrating Disneyland Paris' 20th anniversary!

First day in Paris.

Friday was our first whole day in Paris, and also the day that my littlebrother Henrik, my aunt and Mammy and dad as well as my best friend Ann-Iren would come to celebrate my birthday with me. We booked out of our hotel by Cadet to move on to the one that the whole gang would stay at closer to Champs Elysees, and after a sweaty and a bit complicated trip with the metro, we arrived at Hotel Imperiale near Porte Maillot. As we waited for the first arrival; my aunt, we went to the cafe next door from the hotel and relaxed for a bit. After she came there we decided to have lunch at a seafood restaurant just nearby while waiting for the rest. It was a really great place with delicious food, and we got some time to chat abit and catch up quietly. The rest of the gang soon joined us, and the day pretty much went for eating and shopping a bit on Champs Elysees. We went to the Swarowzki store there and found some lovely things that I wished for my birthday, and some cool clothes also. Arc de Triomphe is a sight of grandeur , nomatter how many times you've seen it before. We were trying to get in to dad's favourite restaurant "Entrecote" for dinner, but it was too much of a line, so we settled with Leon; a classic restaurant specialized in mussels. They are always good there, and this time a tried a new variation with rochefort cheese. Simo, however though tartare sounded interessting and got pretty dissapointed when he was presented with a dish of raw meat, a raw egg and salt and pepper. Lucky for him I ate so many fries that half of my bucket of mussles we for him. Our room in the hotel was really nice I thought. The only thing I was dissapointed in was that we had gotten a shower while others had gotten a bathtub, and I prefer that, so we managed to change to another room for the next day.

Arriving in Paris.

I came home from Paris last night. The internet has been pretty impossible to use there, due to connection trouble as well as too little time for it. So I had to wait with updating my blog and showing you some pictures. Simo and I arrived in Paris on thursday afternoon, one day before the rest of my crew, and lived at a hotel near Metro Cadet not too far from our old neighbourhood of Montmartre. We decided to take a stroll there and relaxed at a familiar cafe before going up to Place du Tertre where all the "artists" hang out and taking in the big view of Paris from the church Sacre Ceour. When we got hungry, we went to a pizza restaurant that we used to go to all the time living there. I think they have the best pizza in Paris! They also have really cool paintings of italian scenery on the walls. I had a 4 cheeses pizza that was absolute perfection. After a nice meal, and a long and relaxing walk from Montmartre to Cadet, we decided to go for an icehockey-hunt. Since Finland was playing that day we were sue to find some sports bar around Opera, and went looking for any irish or english looking pub. We didn't find any. In the end we found a place that were showing tennis on big screens and asked politely if they could change the channel to icehockey. They first looked at us like "what in the world is icehockey?!" , but granted our wishes. Naturally, we were the only ones watching, except some danish people of course, and we had a really nice evening, especially since Finland won the game.

I love Paris in the springtime...

Going to Paris for the long weekend! Will try to update a bit here, but if not, see you next week!

An occasion for my dress.

Last weekend Simo and I went to the wedding of my friend and colleague Lena and it was a beautiful wedding. The church they had chosen is one of my favourite churches in Helsinki, and the party was at an interessting house with very old fashioned and dark decor. Not only was the food sublime as her brother is a chef, but we had great company in my OTHER colleague adn her boyfriend. And I also got to break in my absolute favourite dress that I own!

Why fear it when you can wear it?

As some of you might know, my 30's are getting closer by the minute. And there's no denying that my eyesight is getting worse as we speak. However, I am getting more and more used to my glasses, eventhough I don't use them daily. I am supposed to use them lightly from time to time, and usually when I feel extra tired or have headaches for a period of time I wear them for a few days and it seems to help. "Getting older" is less scary the older I get. Why fear it when you can wear it?

Cool Runnings!

Oh! I COMPLETELY forgot about this film yesterday when talking about the 90's 'cause this was probably one of my absolute favourites around 93-94! Cool Runnings! And I also found my 90's shame. "Hey you don't be silly" by Def Dames Dope, was a song that me and my friend used to dance to all the time, and even perform to our parents with! We would sign as loud as we could, wear crazy costumes and dance to this song, as happy as we could ever be. And as innocent. Thank God. 'Cause listen to the lyrics.

Since the 90's are back...

I'd like to share MY early 90's with you! Yes, I was alive and kickin' back then, and had a pretty colourful time. I thought I had a good clothing style, I wanted to be black, and Michael Jackson had just tought me how to put on make-up. Yes, those were the days! This is the 90's for me: First of all it is "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" starring Will Smith. I taped ecery single episode on VHS (yes thats' 10 casettes I believe) and watched them over and over. I still love this show, and it's Will Smith at his best that's for sure. Also, Carton's dance became legend: Ofcourse I can't forget Michael Jackson's "Black or White" which infact made me a fan for life. I remember actually seeing the clip of him singing in the torch of the Statue of Liberty for the first time, and the next day I had bought my first poster. Ofcourse a lifechanging film: A film that I absolutely LOVED as a child, and still do: I absolutely LOVED Janet Jackson in the 90's. She was definately my beauty rolemodel as I thought and still believe that she is one of the most beautiful women that has ever lived. Don't agree? Look at this video. My first album EVER was Salt 'n' Pepa's "Very Necessary", and I wanted a braided hairdo like Pepa. I even went to the local hairdresser school to get one, but alas, it went terribly wrong... Thank God I didn't understand the lyrics at the time.

Model Expo 2012.

This weekend has been has been on of the busiest in a looong time, as it was the biggest troop for the Nordic Garrison/Nordic Base in Finland. It's the yearly Model Expo, which is the one we all wait for and work hard for. And there HAD been hard work - that's for sure, 'cause not only did we have a brand new Boba Fett, but we had a new Jar Jar Binks! And as far as I know, he is the ONLY fully Rebel Legion approved Jar Jar Binks IN THE WORLD! He looked great, and the kids loved him! And that's what it's all about isn't it? We're doing this to see the kids' faces. Like I mentioned, we had a new Boba Fett as well, which was amazing. The trooper who had the costume, had gotten the poses nailed down also, and was stalking his bounty around the stand. For some reason, the Fett's are always popular - it's not difficult to see who has the FETT-ish for Fetts! My costume was also new and especially for this troop as it was sort of Episode 1 themed because of the 3D release. I proudly wore my Padme's handmaiden Tatooine costume, the first costume that I've made completely all by myself. It was really fun to show it off. It's been a really awesome troop, and I can't believe it's a year until next Model Expo! Looking forward to it already! There are many much more interessting photos than these out there, but these were the ones I had from my camera. I will post some more when I have them.

Spring cookies.

This is what spring is all about: letting baked goods cool in the window sill.