So, I've been busy enjoying our brief holiday 'coz R2 has his summer holiday only now. He has a 3-week holiday. Saturday I had work in the morning, so we decided not to go to my in-laws. Instead, we went there on Sunday afternoon 'coz we were also planning to stay at the cabin there. We played cards until almost midnight and I lost every single game. Doh...:-((( Then we went to the cabin to have some burgers and sausages (roasting them in the fireplace) and then we went to sauna. By the time we went to sauna, we were already TOO sleepy HA HA HA HA...It made me feel "aged" somehow - I mean, I remember when I was in High School, I could sleep only 4-5 hours three nights in a row and still I didn't feel like a zombie he he he...
So we didn't stay long in the sauna and we ended up going to bed at around 2.30 am. Every time I go to the cabin, I'm reminded of how blessed I am to be able to enjoy complete silence - there are only sounds of birds or dogs barking in the distance, no traffic sounds, no TV, no computers...just the two of us and some music from the radio. Oh, no electricity as well - just some candles that made everything feel so romantic ha ha ha...ahem...
To cut the story short, we woke up SUPER late on Monday. We went back to my in-laws' place...oh yeah, almost forgot...on Sunday when we arrived there, I gave her the poster and she LOVED it!!! Esp. 'coz she had never seen all the pictures that I put there HA HA HA HA HA...so she spent time looking at each photo. ;-D Here's a pic of the poster before we brought it to my in-laws - I had R2 pose for me to let you know how big it is (R2 is about 176-177 cm and the poster ix 50X70 cm):
We had lunch there and then MIL and I went out to pick some blackcurrants while R2 went to cut some wood (we brought home about 1.5 litres of blackcurrants YAY!!!). Then it started raining, so we had to go back inside. We drank coffee and played cards again - this time I managed to win 2 games out of 3. YIIIHAAAAAAAAAA!!!! ;-D And what did we see while playing cards? RAINBOW!!!
We went back home pretty late on Monday, so we didn't have too much time for anything 'coz we had to prepare ourselves to go to Rovaniemi the next day. When we arrived home, I found out that my handbag was broken (one of the straps came off) - so it was about time to buy a new one. Went to Rovaniemi yesterday and found a suitable handbag on a discount. Here is a pic of my old bag (bought it at a special price of €8 about 3 years ago):
And here's the pic of the new bag (original price €25, discounted price €15):
Notice the long horizontal zipper there? It goes through the whole bag, so if I need to make the bag bigger, I can unzip it. KEWLLL!!!!
We went to different stores and found some things to buy, such as bed sheets, pillow cases, and even one mattress. I bought a Finnish novel that I had been wanting to buy, though I've got a crazy story about it. When we went to that one bookstore, I saw the English version of the novel (it's been translated into many languages 'coz it's such a famous novel in Finnish) and the translated novel costs only €13. I was tempted to buy it due to the price and the fact that it'd be easy for me to read it through. BUT then again I wanted to know if I could read the whole book in Finnish, so I found the Finnish version, but the price is €27. Crazy, isn't it? But I did decide to buy the Finnish one after all with determination that someday I HAVE to read it 'coz it's such an expensive investment he he...If you're curious, here's the English version of the book (you can click on the book to go straight to the amazon page):
Unfortunately we didn't find any place where we could fix the camera, but it was our fault. We should've browsed through the internet first to find it 'coz after we got back home, R2 browsed the internet and found one. That means we'll have to go back to Rovaniemi someday (well, we had actually thought of going there again) - preferably while he's still having his holiday, though I hve to check my schedule first. My working hours will be busier this month 'coz one coworker will soon stop working there - I think maybe she's been accepted in a university or something like that (dunno for sure). So we'll see when we have time to go to Rovaniemi again.
We also went to a Chinese restaurant to buy some takeaway dinner - I ordered some duck, whereas R2 ordered some chicken. Too bad the duck meat has strange texture, though overall the food tastes OK, but I've tasted better duck meat (even the frozen duck meat from Lidl tastes BETTER than that - I mean texture-wise). Oh well...at least now I know that I'll NEVER buy duck from there again. Once we bought lunch buffet there and everything tasted GREAT, so it's just the duck that's the problem.
OK, now I need to blog-hop a little and then exercise (haven't done any exercise for about 5 days or so). Tomorrow and Friday I've got work to do. For those who want to see the pot of flowers I got from a customer at work, here goes:
Haven't been feeling too well. Not too bad, either...but just a little bit weird. Autumn is coming for sure and flu bugs are everywhere. I asked hubby to coin my back just now and it feels GREAT!!!
Update on my parents' health: Mom seems to be OK now, though she has to be careful with what she eats. Dad went to the lab again for a second check-up and this time my bro took him to an internist instead of a GP. The lab results were all fine (no more protein leaking in the urine, glucose level is OK, blood pressure is OK), BUT the internist said that his left lung's capacity has down gone down to 31% only and his right lung is swollen, so he's on medication and he's told NOT to get too tired.
The good thing is that he's NOT stressed about it. He even said to my family, "Look, all the other results are good, though." However, my bro and wife are worried that my Mom might worry too much about Dad and that might cause her blood pressure to peak again...so I still need your prayers for my parents, THANK YOU!!!
Another piece of bad news is that my camera's flash isn't functioning. When we go to Rovaniemi sometime soon, we're going to try to find a place where I can get it fixed. I browsed online and someone said that we only need to replace something, but it's better if the pros do it. So we'll see about that!
Now on some good news...my poster has arrived and I think next time I'll know better, 'coz a little bit of two of the pics are cut off, but other than that I'm pretty pleased about it. However, I think next time I should use Photoshop or something like that to maximize the color contrast - 'coz it's not printed as a photo, so it seems to me that the better the color contrast is, the better the end result would be. We're going to take it soon to my in-laws' place, so we'll see how my MIL likes it. ;-D
Today I got a VERY nice surprise. You see, the other day I was thinking of buying a pot of flowers from my workplace, but I restrained myself from doing so due to my shopping budget. Today when I worked at the cashier, a customer said, "I've got a surprise for you." I was scanning the pot of flowers (the type that I had wanted to buy for myself: Celosia Caracas) and then he said that it was for me, "for my good service" - that's what he said.
I was SO touched (still am)!!! It was really thoughtful of him to do that and said that ON purpose. I TRULY appreciate it. He really makes me feel encouraged to know that at least in his eyes, my service is good enough.
Do you ever feel like someone just sapped away all the words out of your mouth? Or in a blogger's case, your brain? I don't know why but it feels that way lately...maybe 'coz I've been trying to do something else that requires another part of my brain and that's been exhausting, though FUNat the same time.
So you probably wonder what I've been doing, eh? Well, I've been trying to create a collage of summer photos for my in-laws. At first I was thinking whether it would be best to print it out on canvas or as a poster, but after asking for ideas from some friends and asking R2's opinion, last night I sent the picture through an online photo service in Finland and ordered a BIG poster (70X50 cm) along with the frame - 'coz it's hard to find big frames here in this small village. I'm going to give it to my in-laws as a gift for their new apartment.
I just want them to have some summery photos in their new place and I also included a picture of their house there just in case they miss it. (Yeah, they've paid for the new apartment and they'll probably move there before winter comes) The photo should arrive within 10 days, so we'll see.
It's really tiring to create a collage 'coz I had never done it before - so after HOURS of hard work, when we tried uploading it to the site's online uploading system, turned out the size wasn't right...ARRRRGGGHHHH...so I had to redo it...after redoing it, the height of my collage was still a little bit over the required size, so this time R2 came to the rescue 'coz by that time, I was already too frustrated to do anymore editing work ha ha ha ha ha...
What made the process so long was that there were hundreds of pictures to choose from...ugh...it was tough just to decide which ones to be included in the collage...then arranging the pictures and resizing them also took time he he he he...by now you've probably felt bored reading all these details and you just want to see the result, eh? HA HA HA HA HA...
OK, here goesss...the result of half a day's work (at least it took that long):
I had to add the last row of photos at the bottom due to my stupid mistake (creating the wrong photo size in the first place). I know this collage looks really "crowded", but we hope that if we print it LARGE, it won't look too crowded anymore and they can see the details in the smaller pictures. I'll let you know when the framed poster arrives, OK?
Now I have some movies to watch he he he he...yep, I still don't have to work today, so I'm gonna relax. It's been COLD during the nights these days (below 5'C), so autumn is definitely in motion. I'll blog-hop later on...
Can't wait for this evening when my BIL comes with his girlfriend to have our Wii game night ho ho ho ho ho...and this time if we play tennis, I don't have to play TWO characters on my own against both my BIL and hubby HUE HE HE HE HE HE HE...
Anyway, Mother's Day is coming soon (May 10th) and I've ordered a big poster of my in-laws' lovely pic. Remember the pic of them hugging each other that I posted here? Well, yesterday I picked it up at the PO. I tried finding the suitable frame for it, but no luck yet, 'coz the poster is about 50 times 35 cm. I added a few more pics on the right side of it (on a smaller scale of course). Hope my in-laws love the poster he he he...
Yesterday after work it was such great weather. Sunny at around 10-15'C (depending whether you're under shade or the sun). So I decided to ride my bike to the farther store to find the frame. I LOVED biking on a long stretch of road where there were no other bikers or pedestrians HO HO HO HO HO...I feel SO safe riding my bike here.
When I went back home, I was already in sweat, so I decided to shower. It was actually getting so hot that we had to open all the windows and the balcony door, 'coz the sun was shining straight into our kitchen and living room. LOVE this place!!! :-D So bright and sunny!!!
OK, now I think I'm gonna go read some Finnish after blog-hopping a bit. Today I have this thought in mind: "You're to allow yourself enough time to grieve before you can let go and move on. If you don't allow yourself to grieve, then it's going to come spiraling down."
Now song of the day...one of my fave songs of all time: "In Dreams" by John Waite. Here are my fave lines:
Where are you is where I'll be That's all that really matters to me The world out there can kiss my ass But as long as I've got you I'm free...free...
