London Trip Highlight: Meeting A Blogger Friend

One of the highlights of my London trip was having an awesome opportunity to meet a blogger friend that has been friends with me for more or less 7 years. Due to our diary-like blogs, we felt that we had known each other in some ways and when we met, it did feel like meeting an old friend and the bonus part was that we found out many more things we had in common. :-D We are both not good at finding directions (Nikki doesn't actually live in London), so we were glad to have Google Maps on our mobiles he he he he...We had fun being tourists in London for the day!

Prior to our meeting, we had decided roughly on the places we'd visit. First breakfast, then off to roam around the city and then lunch at Chinatown. Planning the meeting was fun, but experiencing the day itself was the most fun of all! :-D Here is what Nikki wrote about our meeting and I'll just have some bits to add here. 

We chose Balthazar at Covent Garden for breakfast. We had browsed through the online menu prior to our meeting, but still that day we had a little trouble to choose because we wanted to try so many things LOL!!! We ended up choosing the same dish: Scrambled Eggs and Cornish Crab. It was yummy! For drinks, we had water and coffee latte to wake us up a little.

Here's the beautiful Nikki at Balthazar.

And a pic of us together. 

And a pic of our food:

And because I'm a crazy Asian, I just had to take a pic of myself in the toilet HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHH...Ahem...actually, someone in Tripadvisor has advised us to go check out the toilet in Balthazar. I'm serious. So we did LOL!!!

Then we moved on to Covent Garden market, but it was still closed (we were a bit early), so we roamed around the area while waiting for the market to open. 
Here are some photos:

There's an explanation for the weird-looking horse statue behind me.

This is the huge lion statue in the same location:

While walking around the place, we also saw this gorgeous bakery and as we both loved cakes, we decided we'd go back to this bakery later on. 

This was the window display that stopped us on our tracks and made us drool. 

The thing was that we didn't write down the address or remember the bakery name or take a photo of it (this photo was taken after we had cakes there), so we had a bit of a fun time trying to find it again after we visited the Covent Garden market HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH...but we did find it again eventually. Here's the site for the bakery: BB Bakery.

Here are two pics of Covent Garden market. I found a T-shirt for myself and a belt for R2 (I was very tempted to buy other lovely stuff too from this market, but I had a budget to follow HA HA...). We also looked around at some shops there on the ground floor and saw a bit of a group of musicians performing their music. Another day when I went there again, there was an opera singer belting out her song (incredible strong lungs!). 

From there we went back to the lovely bakery and had different cakes. If I remember correctly, a package of tea and a cake cost £8.50. Again we had a hard time trying to decide which cake to choose as they all looked so gorgeous! I told Nikki it would be more fun to go there with a group of friends because then we could each choose a different type of cake/muffin and we could take turns trying different cakes/muffins he he...

Here are some photos of us and our cakes. My teapot is so pretty, isn't it?  

The whole place was so pretty that even the toilet was pretty! Yep, I must be weird because I keep taking photos of toilets ha ha ha ha...

After we filled our bellies with cakes, we continued our way towards Chinatown. On the way there we also saw some street performers. The guy below was in chains (the two young guys were helping him out by tying up the chains around his body) and then he had to escape within a certain amount of time. It looked painful, but of course he managed to escape he he...

And this guy in uniform actually posed for me when I took out my mobile and prepared to take a photo ha ha ha...Note: notice the sun? Yep, it came out for a little bit that day he he...

And we finally arrived at Chinatown! YAAAAAAAAAYYY!!!!! Here's the beginning of one end of Chinatown. Yep, so many people trying to take photos of themselves with the Chinatown gate. I bought some food and snacks to take home from one store that sold Asian food stuff and I promised myself I'd get back to Chinatown for more before I had to fly back to Finland he he...

It started raining when we were in Chinatown, but we were way too full to have a proper lunch, so we decided to rest our legs and just had some light dim sum. It was great to have lots of places to choose from and the one we chose was kinda quiet, so we could chit-chat and relax there. 

Purple dim sum, anyone? Unfortunately for some reason they've put on some purplish light on top of the tables, so the dim sum looks like this, but it was just the perfect portion for the both of us. :-D 

After dim sum we headed to the tube to go to our separate ways. It was certainly a day to remember! I have very fond memories of this meeting and I hope it's not going to be our last. Either way, though, I'm thankful that blogging brought us together. I'm looking forward to meeting Nikki again, wherever it may be. :-D Thanks SO MUCH for taking time to meet me in London, Nikki!!!!! 

3BT: Random Days

1. A mistake in reading turned into a funny episode at work. 

What was supposed to be "täytetty pasta" (stuffed pasta), I accidentally read "täytetty paska" (stuffed shit). I was reading it way too quickly, but it made me (and other people) laugh he he...

2. Playing Town of Salem in FB, invited by hubby and laughing out loud when playing it together. One time he managed to kill me and trick me. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

3. Waiting for another book to come (another one from my wishlist), courtesy of Bookdepository again, because they offered me another great deal, so naturally I couldn't resist he he he he...What I love about the site is that I don't have to pay for postage and they always deliver pretty fast. Plus they give me (free) cute bookmarks. :-D



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4. I believe I've married a genius. He has made me laugh many times over even when he's not trying. And he always has the ability to calm me down in ways that I had never seen anyone do. If I thought I picked the right guy to marry over 8 years ago, I had no idea just how right my choice was! Oh, and it was a privilege to be able to tell him all this face-to-face. :-D

5. Being alive still and being able to spend time with hubby.

6. Buying Father's Day's cake on a discount because I went to the store an hour before it was closed down the day before Father's Day and claiming the cake to be our anniversary cake (our anniversary was 6 days before Father's Day in Finland and because the both of us have no fathers left, I changed the cake's title HA HA HA HA HA HA...).



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7. Ordering a bike bag online and then realizing that one zipper was broken and that it was much too small for my taste, so I reported it and got my refund pretty quickly. It was nice doing business with that site.

8. Ordering another bike bag from another site and it finally came right before the old bag broke down. It's a little bit smaller than the old one, but much better than the small one with the broken zipper.

9. Deciding to make my own Christmas cards this year (something out of character for me because I'm not a handicraft lover) and finding some great deals on craft packages to make them. Oh, and it's finally Winter Wonderland here! The temperature went up a while back, making all the snow melt away and now we have fresh snow all over. YEAAAAAHHHHHHH! :-D


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3BT: Random Days

1. Finding the earring that has been lost for a long time. Apparently it had fallen down while we were in sauna ha ha...


2. Ordering a winter jacket online because the ones they had in the stores in this little village were either twice as expensive or didn't have a two-way zipper and finding out that the size fit perfectly, so I didn't have to return it. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSS!!!!

3. Me: "Honey, you look good!"
R2: "You look better!"

AWWWWWW moment of the day! :-D 


4. Me: "So how's the cake? I managed to mix up some of the ingredients the wrong way, so it didn't turn out the way it was supposed to be, but it's still tasty, right?"
R2: "Yep."
Me: "Of course. Guess how many egg yolks I used for it!"
R2: "Sixteen."
Me: "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! That's correct!"

R2 started laughing like a maniac and he even had to stop eating (his shoulders were shaking and had trouble breathing).

Me: "That was just a wild guess, wasn't it?"
R2: (in between laughing) "Yep."
Me: "DOOOHHHHH!!!!" 


5. Warm rice, squid, and sambal terasi (Indo chili sauce). VERY YUMMY!!!!!

6. The sun has finally been shining for the past two afternoons (yes, it was cloudy for half a day).

7. A very warm (albeit cloudy) February and it's been above zero for days. The snow is melting rapidly everywhere. Will spring come sooner? It does seem like it. Very strange but I don't mind it at all he he...it's all the better if the snow melts so fast without refreezing again.

8. A customer of mine gave me some meat out of the blue. Yep, meat! :-D BLESS that person! 

9. Having a dishwasher (the previous owners of the house had installed it). Even though we don't use it regularly, but every now and then when I just don't feel like washing the dishes by hand, the machine is there to help me. :-D 
 

Rome Tidbits

Before I forgot, let me just write down some tidbits about our trip to Rome.

1.  R2 was planning on walking everywhere, but after the first day we realized that it would be impossible to do so while still wanting to visit as many place as possible, so we bought 3-day tourist tickets that allowed us to use the metro or buses without any limit. I bought the tickets from a newspaper stand seller. Here's a pic of our tickets:

2. Here's a pic of R2 in the metro station:

On the last day of using the metro, there was a pickpocket. We were already inside one of the metros when in one stop, a group of young women came inside followed by two teenage girls. The two teenage girls ran inside and ran as quickly outside, then I heard the young woman standing next to me scream something in Italian while grabbing for her wallet inside her bag. Her purse zipper was open, but thankfully her wallet was chained into the inside of her bag, so the teenage pickpocket couldn't get anything. In fact, while trying to get out of the metro ASAP, the end of her jacket got caught in between the doors, so the doors opened up again and she ran out along with her friend.

After that the young woman told her friends about what had just happened animatedly in Italian and even though I don't know the language, I know what she was talking about 'coz she pulled out her wallet and I noticed that there was a chain connecting the wallet with her bag (she was standing right next to me, after all). Well, glad to know that her wallet was safe! :-D

3. Indonesians would probably laugh upon seeing this photo. "Galak" chocolate bar LOL!!! Galak is an Indonesian word. It can be translated roughly into "fierce or hot-blooded" he he he he he...

4. On Tuesday April 2nd we had a plan on which places to visit, but alas we got caught up in the middle of a heavy rain which even turned into a hail at one point. We had a small umbrella with us, but it wasn't enough to cover our legs. We got wet up to our knees and our sneakers were wet, as well, so we had to go back to the hotel to dry ourselves. We tried drying out sneakers using the hotel's hairdryer LOL LOL!!! We used the time to relax and rest our feet he he he he he he...

A funny thing happened during the heavy rain/hail. We were at the side of the road and an umbrella seller came to offer us another umbrella (a bigger one). We said no a few times, but then when the hail started and R2 was afraid that the umbrella we had would have holes in it, the seller came by again to offer the big umbrella and yes, we did buy a bigger umbrella at a high price due to the situation HA HA HA HA HA HA...And of course we didn't bother bringing it back, so we just left it at the hotel (we brought back the small umbrella, though!). 

After we got back to the hotel, I was laughing so much 'coz I told R2 that the umbrella seller may have been telling himself, "Ha, those two stubborn tourists disregarded my first few attempts to sell them a bigger umbrella, but after a while they finally gave up. Silly tourists!" LOL LOL!!!

Wanna know what happened after the rain? Here goes:

And this is the picture we took before the heavy rain - notice the sidewalks? 

5. When we had lunch at a restaurant, we were served two slices of cake for free afterwards and I LOVED it! I didn't ask what it was, though, but I found out about it on my own when we were in a souvenir shop selling chocolate and foodstuff. This is the cake that we had and I just had to bring back a big bag of it 'coz I can't stop myself. (side note: I browsed online and found out that this Colomba cake is a traditional Easter cake).

Even though it was rather inconvenient to bring something like that 'coz I couldn't put it inside the backpack (too big) or the luggage ('coz it could get crushed), I'm SO happy to find a store that sold them at a 50% discount. In fact, all the Easter eggs and cakes were sold there at a 50% discount LOL!!! 

OK, I have a test coming up (theory test) next Monday in Finnish, so I've gotta get back on reading up the materials. I wrote this post to have a break from studying he he he he he...I'll write more about our Rome trip later.

6th Wedding Anniversary Cabin Trip

Yep, just got back from the cabin again. R2 took two days off 'coz I've been getting work during the weekend so it's kinda hard to go there then. Didn't take too many pics, but I did take some ha ha...but first of all, here are a few pics of the cakes I bought. Yep, the first one I bought a few days before our anniversary already LOL!!! Couldn't stop myself 'coz it looked SO delicious (and it was!!!).

The second one I bought for all of us (it was a frozen one), so I brought it along to MIL's place. Luckily BIL and SIL also came over that day, so we shared the cake with them, too. Otherwise we'd have been eating too much cake HA HA HA HA HA HA...

We arrived in Kelujärvi at around 5.30 pm yesterday and it was SO dark already. Mind you that the area had no electricity (the path towards the cabin near the lake, I mean). Usually we had a flashlight with us, but this time each of us had a head light (the one with the rubber band that we could put on our forehead) hi hi hi...I bought it a few hours before we left at a nearby store. It was only €3 (it included the batteries already!). Pretty cheap!!! And it was nicer to walk in the dark without having to carry a flashlight in your hand ha ha ha...

Because it was so dark already, I didn't take any pics. The lake was already completely frozen, though I didn't dare walk on it yet 'coz the river water downtown Sodankylä is still running like normal (only parts of the surface is covered with thin ice). But that helped us a lot in getting some water for the sauna, 'coz R2 didn't have to dig too long to get the water hi hi hi...It was a glorious starry night, though. The sky was very clear and the stars were twinkling happily up there.

We went to bed early 'coz R2 was too tired already and I woke up at 6 am due to my screaming bladder. Had to get up and go to the outdoor toilet. R2 woke up as well to burn more firewood 'coz the cabin started getting cool already, then we went back to sleep HA HA HA...At around 9 am the sunlight woke me up. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO bright outside and just lovely (around -8'C). Thankful that we got a chance to enjoy the sun, 'coz at around 12.30 pm it went cloudy again and the sun was already hiding behind the clouds.

OK, here are some pics...enjoy!!!

This is the frozen lake. Don't the funny-looking small piles of snow on the surface of the lake remind you of a meringue pie topping? (click on the pic to see a bigger version)

Plenty of birds were eating and chirping happily outside the cabin. Had to fix the colourings of the pic below 'coz I took the pic against the sun (there was no other way I could take the pic):

Ice crystals. Marvellous under the sun!
 

More ice crystal pic. This one below is from the car window:

Another one. This one is formed on the car door:

Here's the original photo:

Playing with my shadow HA HA HA...

Had to fix the colourings of the pic below 'coz I took the pic against the sun (there was no other way I could take the pic):

A one-winged angel? :-D

Web of...deceit? LOL!!!

OK, that's all for now. Take care, people!!!!

Heviz #2

OK, let's carry on with the holiday pics again, shall we? 

In Heviz we went to Aiyara Thai Massage 'coz we're both crazy about massages.We went there twice actually ha ha...the first time we tried the traditional Thai massage without really knowing what it was like (the other times we had massages, we had only tried oil massages and Balinese massage as well as deep tissue massage), so we were in for a little surprise when we found out what it was like. They really worked on your sore spots using their arms as well as gravity and their feet, as well. However, afterwards we felt REALLY relaxed and there were no more sore spots whatsoever, even on the soles of our feet.

The second time around, we tried oil massage and it was nice and relaxing, but I think that they are better at traditional Thai massages because we've had better oil massages. Still it was worth it, though he he...The best part of Aiyara Thai Massage was that the owners spoke English very well. In fact, the guy who works there was VERY friendly without being nosy, so it was really a pleasure to talk to him. :-D 

Anyway, here are some pics of the Centrum in Heviz. 

Below is the stage for bands 'coz of the upcoming St. Stephen's Day. The two "towers" on the far right are the entrance to Heviz Thermal Lake. On the left side of the pic is the bus stop.

Wine and food stalls outside Heviz Thermal Lake. Unfortunately right after St. Stephen's Day was over, they were all gone. :-(

Some pics of downtown Heviz:

We went to that cafe to eat some cakes (actually I bought some cakes, R2 had coffee and ice-cream) he he he...The cakes are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!! :-D

Here are two pics of me on two different occasions, eating two different types of cakes ha ha...And yeah, we sat on the exact same table 'coz R2 insisted on it HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

And here's R2 with his HUGE kiwi ice-cream. Unfortunately I don't remember anymore how much they cost, but I don't recall them being too expensive, though he he...so they must be decently priced. :-D

And we tried Kürtőskalács or "Chimney Cake" or "Stove Cake" for the first time in Heviz. Turned out it was more expensive than the ones sold in Keszthely. The one in Heviz costs 600 HUF (€ 2,2) whereas the one in Keszthely costs 450 HUF (€ 1,7).

Here's a pic of us resting and enjoying the shade near Heviz Thermal Lake. The lake is surrounded by some shady parks. 

Last pic of the day...some cute looking bottles sold in a souvenir shop in Heviz. There are SO many more souvenir shops in Heviz compared to downtown Keszthely. Each of us found a pair of rather cheap jeans there in Heviz, so if you want to go shopping, then Heviz is a good place to start. :-D