Finnish Vappu in London

This coming Tuesday is May Day or Labour Day back in Finland and so a public holiday. Being one of the biggest yearly celebrations, May Day gathers together both student, labour and socialist organisations with traditions such as demonstrations, picnics and student happenings. But of course Vappu, like every other Finnish holiday, entitles people to get pissed ;)

So as we were unable to join Finnish celebrations in Helsinki this year a couple Finnish friends and I went to Hamstead Heath yesterday to participate a Finnish picnic organised by The Finnish Student Society of Great Britain and Young Finnish Professionals. The idea of picnic was nice indeed: beautiful weather, good food, sparkling wine and of course, lots of other Finns. And I think that was the thing I actually hadn't thought through. It's just so weird and random to be surrounded by people who actually speak the same language and have most likely grew up in same culture. You lose part of your privacy in that process; it's impossible to talk without everyone understanding you.

Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed the picnic and especially the champange (thanks Ville!) and after couple hours and couple glasses I was ready to carry on the evening in Finnish Vappu party in Holborn. Quick change of clothes and off we went! And oh boy, what a mistake that was! First of all, the place was pricey (a shot of Salmari, salted liquorice flavour vodka, cost 3 pounds) and packed with drunken Finns. Second, the music was terrible! I understand it was a Finnish party but still. Do you really have to play the worst Finnish songs ever? By the time I heard Kuuntelen Tomppaa by Paula Koivuniemi third time within couple hours I was convinced I was in hell. Well, just imagine the night club of a ferry between Helsinki and Stockholm, multiply it by ten and you get the picture...

So after this horrendous experience I have managed to kick out most of my home sickness and also started seriously wonder why on earth I'm ever willing to go back to Finland...Oh, and what it comes to the soundtrack of this post. Dare I even say it. Well, just check this link out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA5GkLM5C7M (sorry, was unable to make the link work so you just have to copy and paste). I think it will take several listenings of the new album of Arctic Monkeys to erase these Finn Hits from my mind and still there is a strong possibility that I have to rely on lobotomy to get rid off this trauma altogether.

The City of Manneken Pis

Just got back home from Brussels couple days ago. That city really rocks! Lots of parks, multicultural atmosphere, late drinking and all that chocolate :) Oh, and after spending last six months in London, I really appreciate the fact that I can walk almost everywhere...or take the tram. Trams always make me feel like home.

So I spent four days in Brussels visiting a friend (thanks Samuli for accommodating me:) and sightseeing the town. Took Eurostar train (yes, the one that goes under the Channel) from Waterloo to Brussels Midi and actually bumped into couple Finnish girls on the station. Why is that the Finns are everywhere nowadays?!? Well, anyway made my way to the city centre and managed to run into Manneken Pis while looking for a tourist information centre. After couple hours of sightseeing I was supposed to meet Samuli in EU district when it hit me: my Visa or Visa Electron wasn't working. So there I was in Brussels for a long weekend with 3 euros in my pocket!

Well, as you can guess, it happened to be Friday the 13th and I felt it all right. After having hysteric laughing attacks (never thought calls to bank could be that hilarious) at Samuli's place I decided to take a nap and wake up only after everything would be working again. And that actually worked. In the evening I was able to get some money out of the ATM and we decided to hit the town with a bunch of Samuli's flatmates (and I really mean a bunch - he's living in this warehouse with 15 other people!). Couple pints later we ended up in this random house party filled up with interns of European Union, not to mention the booze. So first my glass was filled up with Martini by Samuli's Italian flatmate and later this crazy Creek girl kept pouring Ouzo for me. And they say Brussels can't party!

After the wild Friday night and the day filled with shopping we decided to stay in on Saturday and watch a movie. Yay telly and satellite dish! So Sunday morning we were ready to take a train to the coast and hit the beach :) Weather was gorgeous like in every day I spent in Belgium: +26 degrees and sunny. From Oostende we carried on with coastal tram (which actually goes through whole coastline, 67 km) to De Haan. The beach was gorgeous though a bit crowded...And so was the train back to Brussels so we chose to get out of the train in last minute and have a frits while waiting for next one.

After the beach it was time for happy hour and pub quiz. We sucked so bad! But in our defense I have to say the questions were terrible. Who knows the motto of EU in Latin? Or which star signs represent fire in Western astrology? (Okey, we figured that one out: Sagittarius, Aries and Leo) But it was a great fun anyway. And so was Monday as well. I wandered around the town, chilled out in the parks and bought some souvenirs (yes, chocolate from Godiva). What a perfect way to spend my last day in Brussels :)

So I strongly recommend Brussels as one of the places to have serious fun. Never mind the Eurocrats and other men in suits. Appreciate the parks, delicious chocolate, funny comic strips and pubs and bars that never close...In varietate concordia!

PS. I've decided to add in the end of the each post a song/songs that I've been listening or heard in my mind while writing. So it's like a soundtrack :) I was listening Ayo's Joyful and especially a song called Life Is Real while writing this post. The previous post, Casual?, is associated with John Legend's Number One and Music with The Rakes' We Danced Together. Enjoy!

Casual?

Lately I have been preoccupied with a concept of casual or serial dating and people who prefer to do that. We all know the type: having several dates at the same time, unwilling/unable to stick with just one at the time. I would like to say that it's just another British thing but unfortunately it seems to be more like a global trend that I have never really understood. How on earth you people manage to do that, and more importantly, why do you wanna in a first place?

I have never been able to be interested in more than one person at a time. Neither would I have the time or energy to do that. Well, that's if you wanna do something else as well like working, studying, going out with your friends and having a good time. But most importantly, I've never seen the point of doing it. It cannot be that you need to figure out your feelings towards certain person, cos I can't see how seeing other people would help you to see yourself and your emotions clearer. Okey, there might be one exception in this: the actual feelings might not hit you until you have seen him/her with someone else. But otherwise, is it really too much to ask that you give your attention to one person at a time?

Right, now some of you might be thinking about pulling out the seriousness card and ask that if it's nothing serious why shouldn't you fool around. Well, I think it has nothing to do with the seriousness or deepness of the relationship but everything to do with respecting that other person and giving him/her the time that it takes to get to know them and what is that you want from him/her. It might take two hours or two months but still. That cannot be too much to ask, right?

There is yet another thing I still haven't figured out. I just dunno whether it is just the way certain people are or is it the whole society as it is. What I mean is if the society and the whole concept of consuming everything is changing people's behaviour and dating habits and thus making them consume other people as well. For me people seems to reluctant to close any doors or miss any opportunities and they see other people as disposable as the shirt they just bought from Topshop.

So, to go back to what I asked earlier whether there really is a point in serial dating. In my opinion, if you wanna date more than one person at a time and therefore actively look for others to replace him/her that really means that you don't wanna be with that certain person in the first place. And thus I cannot find any reason to carry on seeing that person. Am I making any sense?

Music

My dear friend Riikka inspired me to write something about my musical experiences while staying here in London. If you compare my gig experiences here to those I have had in Helsinki you will see that I have been much more active here than ever in Finland. I might have even developed a totally new me - back in Finland I would have never go to the gig on my own. Well, here I usually don't have a choice. If I want to see my favorite artists performing at one of the oh so many London's venues, I mostly have to do it alone. Cos the fact is that either any of my friends aren't interested or they have something else to do.

When it comes to live music and gigs, London is the paradise and the hell at the same time. Most of the performers around the world pop in here on their tour and there are so many active British acts appearing on stage as well. So much is going on all the time so if it wasn't for Time Out London I would be completely clueless. But as you might have guessed already, where there is supply, there is also demand. So, if you really wanna see something, you better have the tickets in your hands before anyone else have even heard about the band or their touring in London. Couple examples: Arcade Fire at Brixton Academy - four fucking gigs!!! (Do I really need to say anything more...Okey, I might have been in Ghana when the tix went on sale) and Arctic Monkeys - well, I always have such a great fun in Dublin, so why not travel there to see the Monkeys...

Okey, I know I can't go on blaming everyone else all the time and I must admit that sometimes it has been all my fault. Like that time I was on my way to Brixton to see Gotan Project and read from the paper on the tube that at that same moment Antony and the Johnsons were other side of the city performing in Barbican. Damn! And the fact that Gotan Project sucked on live doesn't make me any less resentful. And I just noticed that I'm going to miss Antony's gig in Helsinki, too. Well, maybe I'll caught them in Cork then. You never know...Right, one more before I'll finally move on those ones I've actually experienced. Beirut. At Koko, Camden. On June 26th. When I'll be far away from London. The weirdest band ever - they even play accordion! - but so worth seeing.

Very well, now moving on the part you all must have been waiting for: the gigs I've actually experienced. The very first band I ever saw in London was Blah Blah Blah at The Old Queen's Head on October 12th. You might wonder how on earth I ever pumped into this punk/nu-jazz/pop group of three Londoners. Well, that is a quite embarrassing story indeed. I might have mixed them up with Yeah Yeah Yeahs - but who can keep up with all these bands (I have pumped into yet another one lately: Die!Die!Die! What's up with that?!?) ...Anyway, the guys were great and I hope to caught them up again before my time in London is up:)

The next gig took place in November and that is the infamous Gotan Project which we already went through. So...next! And now we are in fact leaving the gorgeous capital behind and take a day trip to beautiful lady on the sea, Brighton - where I spent some of the weirdest four weeks in my teenage life, like all of you very well know. The band was Ojos De Brujo, one of Barcelona's finest and the venue Corn Exchange (Where do they get the names from? I might have to dedicate a whole post for the names of venues in Britain!). The gig was brilliant (you can read more about it from the post London By The Sea), except this tiny thing: teenagers. Whose idea was to let them in??? I'm sorry, if you dunno how to behave on a gig, stay home. Really! I'm not interested in your new jeans or boyfriend. I've come to listen the band. Do you even realise you're on a gig?!? (Oh, got a bit carried away there, sorry! I must be such a wanker on my mid-age;)

The gig after Ojos De Brujo must have been Badly Drawn Boy in mid February at Shepherd Bush Empire (here we go again...) with Miia. Yes, you understood correctly. For the first time in my gig history since the very first one I actually had a date and not just with anyone but with my dear dear friend from Finland. Oh, the sweetness of the feeling when you can truly share the experience with someone else. It always make the gig even more special. Like the one I enjoyed in The Boom Boom Room in Dublin with bands like White Magic, Goodtime John and Adrian Crowley (my fave) in the beginning of March. And that's exactly what I did also last Saturday. The Rakes at Brixton Academy with Suvi (thanks girl for inviting me:) and Sam, a semi-weird Chinese we met at the venue. Brilliant band and I so love the singer. What a dancer! But since when it has come acceptable to play only an hour including encore? That's hardly worth the money...

And that will bring us to the present day which has not been full of exciting gigs so we need to carry on to look into upcoming acts. Well, I have already mentioned my date with Arctic Monkeys at Malahide Castle, Dublin but in the near future I will most certainly enjoy Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues on live at Forum. I have heard she has give up drinking and sought help for her depression so the gig should be enjoyable. So, really looking forward to that...