Coming up: a two-year escape to Brussels...

Oh man, only three blog entries this year! It's not like I haven't had anything to write about, the opposite actually; big and small escapes making it hard to find any time for blogging. 

Dolphin as seen in Naples beach, Florida. Oh, such a great thing to swim close to free dolphins playing wildly in the ocean.

I wanted to write about Myanmar before the big tourist groups enter the country or my recent trip to Washington and Florida;

Painting old chairs for kitchen.

I wanted to expand the content of my blog to interior design issues with the decoration boom I'm having in my new apartment;

The craziness of the amazing Shibuya crossing in Tokyo. What a wonderful and curious city!

I wanted to go through my thoughts about my encounter with the Japanese society; 

Andy Warhol exhibition in Sara Hildén art museum in Tampere was worth seeing -  especially for the photo I took of my parents with the Mao painting...

and I wanted to recommend cultural activities in Helsinki and elsewhere. 

Well, I wasn't able to follow my own guideline in blogging: keep it simple and short. If it's not simple and short, it's inexistent... 

Only two champagne glasses got broken during the housewarming party.

Less than a year ago, I bought this wonderful place in Käpylä (at least this is something I have written about) and in April we had a nice housewarming party with my flatmate. Now, six months later, I'm packing my stuff once again and embracing my new status as a landlady and Brussels resident :)

Enjoying the beginning of the hot summer in Café Esplanadi, Helsinki.

Brussels is calling. For the third time in my life, I'm moving to Brussels. As a consequence, October has been a month of goodbyes and little farewell parties. And today, on the day of departure, I need to wipe some tears.

The idea of leaving Helsinki after a gorgeous summer was a bit of a heartache but as the autumn is growing grey, the idea of being once again in the centre of Europe and living a bit of a cosmopolite life is increasingly appealing. Brussels may not be the coolest city in Europe - for sure, it is not - but it has some good qualities that I will enjoy greatly (hopefully, I will manage to write about them later). And those major disadvantages, like poor public transportation and awful biking opportunities, well, I guess I just need to learn to live with them. 

Autumn is now getting colder and darker, but I managed to enjoy some sunny autumn days in the forest - now, good to go...

Moving, especially moving to another country, can be an excellent place for making other changes in life as well. I'm thinking of new hobbies (argentine tango, painting, salsa?), more time for reading good novels and non-fiction (I still have that Piketty unread), and completely vegan diet (with some mussels, obviously). However, I also hope that I will find a good ashtanga yoga shala in Brussels. Yoga has truly been beneficial for my inner peace, clear mind and good physical health, therefore I would love to keep on practicing with good teachers. 

Getting my yoga mat from our yoga shala here was quite sad. It's been such an important place for me for the past two years. But what I have also recently realized is that I can be happy anywhere if I choose to do so.

Frog buddha in Florida... Don't take life too seriously, I think he says.

Becoming a "bobo"

It all happened very quickly. A dispute with my neighbours due to stepping on the still-a-bit-wet wax on the stairs, being annoyed, upset and desperate, questioning my relationship to Eira ("do I really belong here if my neighbours are so unfriendly..."), and finally taking the whole thing as a Sign.

The waxing scandal happened on a Wednesday and on the following Sunday I went to see an apartment that I then bought a couple of weeks later. Tadaa, surprise (at least for myself)!

And here I am writing this blog in my new kitchen in Käpylä. An action lady I am. An indebted action lady to be more correct. Were there signs or not that I should move from Eira, I now have twenty years to pay my mortgage. I take it as a sign of a deep serious turn in life. Hopefully it doesn't mean that I will be stuck here for the rest of my life. Although, I'm in the first floor that suits disabled elderly people perfectly... 

So, in less than one month, I transformed from an elitist Eira dweller to a bohemian bourgeois ("bobo") of Käpylä. So far there are no regrets, but I'm sure that in some time I will miss the sea and the beautiful neighbourhood of Eira - the most beautiful in Helsinki after all. 

On the day I was moving, I went for a morning coffee in Viiskulma's Brooklyn Café and said to the American waiter that they should open another branch in Käpylä. The guy replied that there might not be so many cafés in Käpylä (are there any?), but I would have nature close by. I guess he's the only person who could say something positive about me moving from Eira to Käpylä (well, he hadn't seen my charming place in Eira), except for my parents who are thrilled.

Hitherto, it has been quite impossible to get to know my new neighbourhood (or the surrounding nature for that matter) because the days are so dark and I've been immensely busy reading interior design magazines, painting the walls and trying to fit all my stuff here. One thing is for sure, I do not need any Christmas gifts, there's nothing material I can possibly need.

Except that...

Reading all those interior design magazines and moving around my furniture in the new living room, I feel that my stuff doesn't fit the atmosphere of the 1940s apartment. Hmm, I guess this blog will turn into a design blog for a moment or - as you can guess from the pace I post anything here - not!

And as for the fact of being adult: I luckily recruited an old friend from Florence to be my flatmate. Two bright PhD ladies, it will be cool! But before that, one month of holidays in Asia. One week to go, and a zen master will be writing here shortly... Shanti!