About bed warmers, coffee & culture and moving in

I survived my Saturday morning. Didn’t have that much of a hangover, woke up around 8am and managed to squeeze all my stuff to a suitcase which was a small miracle as I have done some shopping already. I had stayed 16 nights in a hotel and was very happy to move to Kaija’s for the last 3 nights. I paid for my stay, got a compliment of “looking so much younger than 31, how is that possible?” and replied that this is possible just because I come from a country where I am deep frozen and in darkness half of the year which prevents us Finns from aging. The receptionist said it was a funny joke and asked if it really is that cold in Finland. Well, it is not that cold but still my all time record of not wearing woolen socks in Finland is 21 days in  a row (record from last July-August period when it was extremely hot in Finland. Hot in so many ways) and that 21 days is a serious problem for a girl who hates coldness, so I ended up to this side of the world to warm up. She laughed and welcomed me to Australia to beat that record. Thanks, I hope I will.

With Brisbane winter I haven’t got pretty far with new record as nights are fairly cold here. Or not cold as in very low temperature but cold as the air is quite humid, inside too, which makes it more freezing. This is a déjà vu from San Francisco, by temperature you are supposed to feel warm but surprised by the lack of insulation. So I am still freezing during nights and wearing layers and woolen socks and it feels so very wrong after a massive life change and over 15000km distance to my loved ones. This night temperature is not part of the plan, can I make a reclamation for someone? Being very solutions oriented girl (from issues to outcomes) and knowing the importance of quick wins I came to a conclusion of needing a bed warmer. Yes, located in Brisbane West End/South Brisbane there is a position open for a hottie to do the job. Not asking much, one is enough if it works J Spread the word. Kaija took this seriously and on Saturday when I moved to their place she said that the first thing we need to do is to put up my bed. I kind of didn’t understand what’s there to do as I only need to put on the sheets. Anyways 5 minutes after I had dragged my suitcases to “my room” she comes carrying an extra mattress, very thin one. An electric mattress that  actually warms up. Winking her eye she said that as my Aussie Mom she needs to promote these “safe options” first before letting her precious adopted daughter fall for an living  one. We both were laughing out loud when putting the mattress on place, I so did not see this coming, I so didn’t mean this type of a hottie! Kaija says they are very popular here during winter time. Seriously, you put it on about 30 minutes before going to bed and it warms up the mattress and the blanket. After 4 nights experimental study I must say that it really works and it’s so much more convenient to go to bed without needing to dress up in layers and feeling very warm. Still, this wasn’t exactly what I was looking for and the position for the hottie is still open. Having both obviously leads to a situation called Win-Win. And to clarify, the heated mattress is counted as doping in beating the 21 days record, living male heaters are allowed. Rules are rules.

On Saturday I got a tempting offer to have the best coffee in the city and visited a place called Dandelion & Driftwood.  A very small coffee house, in the middle of nowhere in terms of a city girl,  a place that takes a lot of effort to stray by accident. I was told this place has been in the news lately for their excellent coffee selection and packed with people since.  For a reason. The menu was very impressive, it explained in detail all the different coffee making methods and for each method there were different coffee qualities as recommendation. When we got our coffees they came with a little name tag stating a lot of trivia about that particular quality, like farm, region, altitude, process and owner and top jury descriptions…very similar with presenting wines. My first cup was closest to filtered coffee and quality from Honduras Pino de Oro, Cup of Excellence Lot #3, 2010. It was supposed have strawberry bubblegumish kind of taste. I got no strawberry or bubblegum but was just fascinated about the passion the place and waitresses had towards coffee. My second try was closest to our “pannukahvi” (a Finn needs to taste filtered and non-filtered of course) of Ethiopian quality and it tasted very bitter. Like the Keilaniemi glass palace Juhlamokka that has been standing in the pan for way too long. Anyways the place was so cozy and genuine that I definitely want to go there again, a Saturday breakfast would be a perfect next occasion. After proper caffeine dose we headed to The Powerhouse. It’s located in New Farm near the river and the first impression was like Kaapelitehdas in Helsinki. This place has been a power station earlier (hence the name) and is now renovated to be a venue for different cultural events like live music, dance, theater, exhibitions etc. There was also a nice looking restaurant and a terrace with a great view. We were lucky as in 15 minutes after our arrival there was a live Jazz show starting so we decided to stay, took a glass of wine and sat down for the show. I was sooooo happy to have seen these places. This is the type of stuff I am looking for, Ansku likes.

Monday night was my Ikea night. Left early from work as Kaija had promised to take me there. After 45 minutes drive from Brisbane I saw a big blue box with yellow Ikea brand and started smiling. Kind of pathetic, huh? But seriously when a brand like Ikea makes you feel homey you know you are very far from home. Down under anyone from Northern Europe feels like a cousin. Anyways I needed to get a bed and a sofa and some sort of a table. A starter pack to move in with. Sofa was easy. I wanted a big, white sofa- chaise lounge combination…sofa that is the heart of the home and allows you to pass out in multiple positions. White isn’t the safest color with my track record of spilling wine, but hey, you gotta take risks in life. Check.  Bed was our next stop. All the queen size bases were sold out so I got only the mattress with very cranky customer service. I was in a very sensitive state of mind the bad service kind of got me. With my mom’s rule of 5 euro for every F-word I spent a lot more than the total in the receipt. Being totally pissed off  Kaija advised me to move in first and think about the rest only later. So done with all the big stuff we started collecting miscellaneous items from hangers to ironing boards to glasses to pans to sheets to bathroom carpets (I know, I am complaining about the darn fitted carpets and still buying some more, but a soft carpet to step on to after a shower is a must). For the final I got a vase as I thought it would be great to have fresh flowers on the first day in my new home. Only 5 minutes before closing we were ready. Sitting in the car, totally exhausted I opened the bag of Salt Sill candies I had just bought. Never ever in my life has a candy tasted so good. It wasn’t even real Salmiakki but I was in heaven. Little things can make your day here.

Yesterday, Tuesday July 19th was the big day. My homelessness ended officially. I took the day off from work as I am still missing the Accenture purpose of life and thought that it is a valid reason to be out of office. We packed Kaija’s car with all my stuff (which was actually quite a lot) and left towards bottle shop. Yes, first things first. I thought I shouldn’t step into my new apartment without a sufficient “base reserve” of good wines and got 5 bottles of red, white and sparkling. Picked up also some housekeeping equipment and after that I was all set and ready to move in. Got the keys, carried all my stuff up,  took few pics, filled in the dish washer to wash the tableware and took my little teddy bear and pic of little people and placed those on a shelf. Felt surreal. We went sitting on the balcony and I asked Kaija am I supposed to feel like I am at home now? She said “No, it comes with time. But now you’ve made the big move and you can start building your life here”. *Breathe*

Later in the afternoon I received the delivery from Ikea. My new Finnish (!!) friend Kalle had kindly promised to come and help with the assembly and Kaija&Ross brought few moving boxes I had sent over from Helsinki. It felt good to have people in. I think I would’ve been quite miserable  being here all alone the first evening. All in all I would’ve been a lot less lucky without these people. Now I had company, friends, helping hands, good wine and Scandinavian Music Group to lead the way. After we got the sofa in one piece we all sat down to eat Kaija’s  Janssonin Kiusaus (a.k.a Jason’s temptation ;) a very traditional Finnish dish) and pulla and toasted for my new home. Surreal again. But there it was, the base for my new life here in Brisbane.  I went to bed with mixed feelings. Happy to be in my own place that is supposed to feel like home someday. Lonely as it didn’t feel like home and I realized I’m so very alone. Content thanks to Kaija’s good food. Thankful for the good people around me helping me out. Alert for listening the home noise I am supposed to get used to. Warm because of the heated mattress. Tired for the emotionally exhausting days behind. Sad for not being able to share all this with my nearest and dearest. Proud for being a brave girl and doing all this by myself. I send few SMS back home, successfully fight against tears that were on the way and turned off the lights. It was my first night.

It’s quite interesting to see how this home thingy changed my mindset here. Living in a hotel keeps you in a holiday mode, now I have one corner stone set and need to start building my everyday life around it. Slowly it sinks in that this place will eventually be my Aussie safe haven and at some point I need to be fully present here. I am not fully present yet, I am here, my body is here, but my mind/soul is still on the way. Maybe somewhere near Singapore? This experience is somehow similar to my 30 hour transit period from Helsinki to Brisbane. All the effort, uncertainty, emotions, excitement and stress narrows down to the moment of “this is it” …moment that in reality feels more of a big void than something you’ve been waiting and wanting a lot. I guess too much has been happening in short time for my little brains…and am slightly slipping from the wisdom of one potato at a time. Anyways, today I met my boss, got very interesting task to do at work, got my fridge (no more warm white wine), saw a cockroach in my kitchen, witnessed cockroach getting killed in my kitchen (so thankful for not being alone at that moment) and had dinner @ nearby Indian restaurant. I think it would be good for my little brain not to think too much at times. Back to the basics: my stomach is full and the cockroach is dead.

Good night, sleep tight…

//Ansku

PS: This is the first post published from my “home”. I am sitting on my brand new white comfy sofa, feeling good after excellent dinner @ Punjabi Palace, wearing woolen socks and drinking mint tea from Ego mugs. Little things can make your day here.