About buying stuff, Byron Bay and Wollongong

I think it is because of Mom that I managed to buy an extra mattress and balcony furniture within 6 hours last Saturday. She kind of got fed up to the situation of me sleeping on the sofa and her sleeping on my bed and us carrying back and forth the spare mattress that Marijke had kindly lent and eventually needed back as she had visitors also. Half way us carrying the mattress back to Marijke’s Mom said with extremely strong tone of voice: “this will NOT happened again and we WILL get you a spare bed THIS weekend”. With the emphasis on NOT, WILL and THIS I knew immediately that I had no options but to sort this out within 24 hours, or even sooner. So the first thing on Saturday morning we started to look for balcony furniture as she knew it was my first priority and finding one would take time and effort to browse around eBay (they sell a lot of new stuff in ebay here) and if I had the balcony stuff sorted out I would be more ready for the bed shopping too. For my big surprise I found an offer of 7 piece set with starting price of 699AUD (buy now price of 1500AUD) and bidding ending in 2.5 hours and decided to give it a try. I have never bought anything from eBay before and was super excited. I bid the starting price of 699 AUD an hour before the end (because I was so excited to know if there were other people interested of this piece also and opening the game is of course a way to find out) and started counting minutes and refreshing the page regularly. An hour is a long time, 60 minutes, 3600 seconds. Thousands of seconds. Not good for the immediately if not sooner girl. So I had breakfast and refreshed the page, I went to shower and refreshed the page, I dressed up and refreshed the page, I had more coffee and refreshed the page and the last 15 minutes I sat on my sofa sweating and refreshing the page. The end result? Nothing happened! I watched the seconds count down and got a “you have won this bid” note to my screen. That’s it? No fierce raise of bids and figuring out how far the competitors are willing to go? No panic? Just seconds vanishing one by one and a note on the screen? So I paid 699AUD for the set which is an extreeemely inexpensive price (especially during spring when the season is starting) and made few jumps and screams for being so happy. My Mom said I am a little “kukkuu” but agreed I made a good deal. Yay. After a visit to West End market and big mug of coffee it was time to face the reality with simple “now we will get you the bed, right?” It was more of an order than a question. That’s right Mom. Nose towards IKEA *sigh*. I didn’t feel more ready for getting a bed and felt hesitant making the decision and asked for a confirmation if she thinks I am making the right choice or not and she answered “it’s your bed, I cannot make a decision for you darling” which didn’t help me at all but made me feel worse (of course I knew that I was the one making the decision, but her being here kind of makes me want to share a bit of the “responsibility”…play less of an adult and still feel I am safe because she’s a mom and moms are the ones who take care of you). I stretched to make the decision and did lose my temper a bit for a stupid reason of her asking what kind of extra sheets I need.  My capacity to make any additional purchase decision was nil and I just wanted to “get outta here” and buying sheets felt like her asking me to figure out what do I want to do in life when I grow up. I DON’T KNOW. I really don’t know Mom. But we got the sheets, delivery for the mattress for next Monday and glögi and ginger bread too and I felt bad for being snappy with her. She meant good, I shouldn’t get upset about that. She’s visiting me at the other end of the world after all. And I have missed her.

Sunday was planned to be an adventure day and this time we headed to Byron Bay. I haven’t been to Byron before, have heard it is THE place to see/know/love if you happen to like laidback atmosphere, beautiful beaches, surfers and hippies of all sorts. Byron is approximately 160 km from Bris, so you need to kick-off early to make most out of it in a day. The very first impression is super relaxed and the people very homogeneous in their pursuit to be different. You see two types of girls; the ones with hot pants and loose top and the ones with maxi dress and thongs, hair on a loose pony tail, everyone having a tattoo or ten. Guys are surfers in their shorts and thongs, most likely without a shirt (which I generally dislike outside beach territory but secretly like as they are great to watch) and moustache of course for the sake of Movember (I think for the sake of Movember, I hope so). The traffic jam starts way before the Byron “city centre” and is slowly proceeding towards the beach and the light house…many people had bikes too, even saw a guy driving a bike with a surf board and still don’t get how he managed to do that (long arms???). With Mom we were in a tourist mode and decided to check the light house first. You get to the light house via lookout route, 700 meters of climbing up the stairs with a great view to the magnificent Pacific Ocean. It was cloudy when we arrived but the sun got out kind of without giving notice, so we managed to burn our skins a bit. Well, to be dead honest I did realize at some point that the sun is out there but was thinking that as we are only walking (and not laying in the beach as most of the people) it won’t catch us. Lessons learnt: sun will catch you even if you are walking. Check. The lighthouse was normal light house, but the view more than awesome and the ice cream cold enough to help you cool down after the climbing. On the way back down we went to check the beach and walk in the water. I also draw a bit of father’s day greetings in the sand, took a pic and send it over to .fi and saw at least three dolphins jumping next to the surfers nearby. Rest of the afternoon was extremely slow with a bit of late lunch and wine at Balcony (thanks Kaisa for the tip) and visits for few shops and heading back home half asleep. Back in Brissie I was dead tired, skin burned, nose too and called to dad to wish happy father’s day. He was touched by the pic, he’s super excited to come and visit me in few weeks. I am excited too!

This week has been very random. Mostly because I had a biz trip to a new site location and was expecting the delivery of the furniture but the company let me only know the date (Wednesday) but not the time and I was supposed to fly to Sydney on Wed afternoon and was afraid I will miss the delivery and they will leave the stuff on the street and someone steals it. I did send them an email asking for time confirmation or if they could even give me a 30 minutes heads-up but they never got back to me (and the company does not have phone number which of course made me a bit suspicious doubting if I will ever get what I paid for) so I needed to be on stand-by all Wednesday, which I hate more than anything, feeling a bit nausea too as my stomach doesn’t want me to be on stand-by either. During my lunch break I got a call “Hi, it’s Blaa Blaa Blaa, we are here at your door delivering the furniture”. A “Ouh, great, I am not there, I am in the CBD having lunch”. *crap* So I ran back home (15 minutes, luckily I didn’t wear high heels that day), carried the furniture up (wearing a silky dress, not a good combination with the dusty packages), run again to catch a bus and was only 4 minutes late from a meeting starting at 2.30. Pheeeeew. That was close. I heard it is very common in Australia for the carries not to tell you the time of delivery or even if they do it’s totally fine to be 2-3 hours late. I do see a market here, market for those who think they have better things to do than sit at home and wait for the doorbell to ring. Time is part of the “no worries” concept here and I find myself struggling with it. They try to get away with everything with the “no worries”. Well, waiting worries me like hell, as does unpredictability and not sticking with plans. Mur. And this event was the main reason why I feel my week has been random. Me control freak? Not at all.

So Wednesday afternoon I left to the airport feeling extremely relieved for having the furniture delivered and counting hours to get back home again to unpack and put it in place. I was travelling with my colleague Bec (the one who’s a star in football and super positive and bubbly) and enjoyed the Quantas platinum lounge service as the traffic jam to airport was less than we expected and she’s a platinum member. We arrived to rainy Sydney at 8pm, rented a car and drove to Wollongong…well she was driving, I was responsible for being the map (mistake, big mistake) and got lost only twice with total 4 turns we had to make from Sydney to Gong. The Novotel Hotel was super nice compared to the motels in Moranbah and Dysart, it actually had a big lounge, restaurant, several function rooms and hundreds of very drunken teens celebrating something. OMG the flashy dresses shaky steps with 14cm high heels and flirting with the boys. I felt very old in my business casual dress and ballerinas. The night was too short and the next day busy with workshopping from 7.30 to 4.30 and then driving back to Sydney airport and taking flight back to Brissie. It was a pity we didn’t have any free time as Wollongong has a very nice beach. The mine sites nearby have exceptionally low personnel turnover, I asked why and was told “because of the lifestyle”. In Wollongong you are an hour away from Sydney and can live in a proper city with beautiful beach and good surfing opportunities and still make shitload of money. And what do Moranbah and Dysart have? Nothing. Just the money. Anyways I hurried back home and the moment I stepped inside I dropped my carry-on luggage to the hallway and ran to balcony and attacked to unpack the furniture. In 45 minutes I had them in place, in 1 hour I had also take-away sushi and wine in place, in 1 hour and 5 minutes my quality of living had officially reached the next level: Welcome summer heat, welcome long evenings on the balcony, welcome friends. Good life.

Soon I am expecting Marijke to come and test my new balcony in terms of pre-party before the Accenture End of Year event in La ruche. The End of Year party is kind of Christmas party here with free drinks and food and people dressing up. I am excited to see how the Brisbane office behaves…you know, does they have the “Go on be a Tiger” attitude like Helsinki office has in the main events. I will definitely wear a short skirt and high heels according to the Soul theme and hope to keep “mopo” in order and behave as it is the first office wide party here. Ok, now I better go and figure out what to wear…decision decisions.

Pusss,

//Ansku

PS: After I get this post published….RAI RAI RAI!  

About failed bed hunting, Mom, amazing Emma and Life

Starting to write this blog I had to think twice what has happened lately. With the first try I freaked out that nothing has happened and my life is all boring adult stuff with work and grocery shopping. With second try I started to count the people I have met and the wines I’ve tasted and felt normal again, my life isn’t boring here yet.  Yet. Well, it is following some kind of routines from Monday to Sunday with less fuss and surprises than in the beginning but it still isn’t boring. I am not an adult. So starting from a good routine of Friday night being reserved for project drinks, I decided to go for a glass, enjoyed the bar and the company and was told by Marijke to be quite tipsy already at 8pm when she arrived. It happens. We were at Stanford Hotel inner court next to Moo Moo that is supposed to be the best steak restaurant in town (got to our list of course). It was a nice bar, lots of space and live music. Most of the people leave from the Friday drinks quite early, luckily I am not one of those people and continued to Exchange hotel in a group of five. Exchange was the second bar I visited after my arrival to Australia, during my second evening and meeting Marijke for the first time. My memories from Exchange were sweeter than the reality last Friday. Ummmmm, I am most likely 10 year older than average Exchange visitor, my hemline is average 40cm longer, and I am average 10 drinks behind. I have no share in the game, and I think I didn’t have a share 4 month earlier but was just so messed up and jet lagging that I didn’t realize it. Taxi > Bed > Sweet dreams > no alarm. Sweet. Friday, check.

Saturday was all about bed hunting and world saving with dear M and good wine. So after getting up amazingly early on Saturday without any sign of hangover and having 2 cups of coffee and salty salmon bagel at Dandelion and Driftwood I was well prepared to spend the rest of the day in various furniture stores looking for a bed. I think I need a bed, at least a spare one for my quests but I could also be in a need for a new “master bed” to suit my tricky back better. My back complains a bit these days and I am not really sure if it is the running or the mattress or combination of both or something else. So for few weeks I have been playing with the idea of getting a new bed, swinging between cheap quest bed and super expensive quality bed depending on the day and mood and maybe coming to a conclusion that I am not mentally  and emotionally ready to buy a new bed. Too many “maybe” and “might” and “idea” factors and too little drive to get really something done....I think it shouldn’t be this tricky but realizing it is. Somehow buying a bed feels like the biggest decision of my life at the moment, well it pretty much is one, but shouldn’t I now be eligible enough to make the call as I have ended here by myself too? Or is the amount of decisions one can make in a year constant? And is a year a calendar year, or the FY I’ve been used to during the past 3.5 years?  And does a huge life changing decision eat out your capacity to decide what to have for dinner or whether to buy a new bed or not (certainly feels like it)? Meaning the Balance in the universe thingy? But anyways while looking for the right bed I got more inspired about pillows, laundry bags, outdoor furniture, book shelves, lamps, cups, mirrors and pictures, and with pillows meaning the decoration pillows and not the ones you sleep with, which could be a sign of not-being-ready. Pillows and laundry bags are more innocent, they do not consume your energy. So basically I don’t have a point here, I didn’t get a bed or pillows or anything else to my home but ended up to Marijke’s cosy balcony having a good girl talk with a bottle of red wine. The warm evenings are perfect for spending long nights at a balcony, in Bris balcony is your living room...it’s where the life happens. Bed is secondary. So I should get the balcony furniture first?

And then Mom. My mom arrived last Sunday, early around 7am. I left to the airport super excited. Excited to see a loved one, excited to hug a loved one and excited to see if she has changed a lot or gotten older. I took a Finnish flag with me, just to stand out from the crowd and after some 15 minutes of waiting I got to wave the flag. There she was, my mom, looking extremely fresh and happy and of course tears in her eyes as soon as she saw me. I cried too, no doubt, and it felt so good to hug her. Welcome to Brisbane Mom, welcome to Australia. This was the feeling I counted on when leaving Finland and saying “see you instead”, the sweet reunion. You believe when you see it, hope to have many more. For my relief she didn’t look a day older, she had new glasses and very her style black and white tunica and black sneakers. Same perfume too. Mom as I know her, familiar. We were back home already 7.30am and I felt more tired than she did after waking up 5.30am. “So, should we go out for a brekkie and then to explore the city?” Mom, you have travelled some 24 hours with hardly any sleep, you should be extremely tired and trying to sneak for a proper nap (I headed straight to bed from Airport and slept for some good 5 hours and woke up to Kaija calling from the reception and saying we were supposed to meet an hour ago. Oho). But no, my mom didn’t want to sleep or stay inside, she wanted to go out and DO STUFF *Superwoman* So we went to have brekkie at Gunshop coffee, ate outside, walked up and down Boundary Street and she kept saying it felt so unreal to be in Brisbane right now. It was unreal for me too. She will be here for a month and I think my cupboards will never be that organised and shiny as they are now as she has a tendency to clean. In addition to the cleaning service (no, my home isn’t messy...but sure there is some room for improvement and wiping) I get scrambled eggs and rye bread for breakfast and proper food for dinner too. During the days I am of course at work, so she has time to enjoy Brisbane, clean and hang out with Kaija. When I come home I spot another cleaned area and fridge filled with proper food. Heh, for the first time my fridge looks more like a fridge than a wine cooler, even my brother’s wife would be proud! Currently here in Brisbane there is an advertisement campaign going on about being prepared for natural disaster and having 3 days reserve for food and water to manage well and I realized I have a reserve for a damn good world saving weekend (includes wine and chocolate), but not much food as such. It takes a mom to change that and if you are prepared nothing happens, right? I am spoiled. My mom loves life here, Brisbane is friendly to all sorts of people and helpful too. We don’t have much plans, she wants to just enjoy and be. So most likely we’ll go to Moreton Island for a weekend, Kaija will take her to a road trip and rest of the time we go by the ear. It is also awesome she gets to meet my people and see what life here is all about. I believe it makes it easier for her to go back home...realize that my life has its flow and have more context to it. When she is home I can say I have spent a long evening again at Marijke’s. She knows the place and her. When I say I had brekkie at Gunshop she can imagine the big toast poached eggs and rocket salad. When I say I went for a run to the river side she knows the route and asks if there were other people running too as the riverside is a bit scary in the evening without any lights. All in all she has started to build a map now. We have still 3.5 weeks to go, hope all goes well.

Wednesday was a big night in terms of Maslow Hierarchy level 2, getting my hair cut updated. As I told, the last time at Fuckenheim for Hair was pretty traumatic and I was not at all satisfied for the quality of the cut I got and I decided to give another salon a try and got a recommendation from Marijke to call for Emma at AKA togninis. Her hair looks pretty, mine could look pretty too. Once again I went inside with mixed feelings, please do not *uck up my hair. Long story short (3h 15 minutes long story, jep I sat there for 205 minutes!!), Emma is amazing!! She looked at my hair and said the cut is all *ucked up. She said it has no shape and no volume either. She said it’s been cut with 1990’s style. She said the highlights are way too thin. She said it will take some 2 cuts to do the damage control and she has a plan for my next style (I indicated that I am pretty done with the fringe and asked her to come up with something). She also wants to be BIG in the business one day and participate to Milan and New York fashion weeks. She’s amazing and will make the dream. So 205 minutes later I was back in the game again and all smile and wanted to give her a hug. I didn’t, but reserved next appointment and thanked her for saving my day. All smile, situation calls for drinks. So I got drinks to an empty stomach and ended up being tipsy at 9pm and blaming for the big excitement and good looking damage control. Cheers for Emma. Lime rooftop is nice too.

Then few words about life. Life happens. I have realized it lately. During the past 4 months four of my good friends have became parents for the first time. Two of my friends have separated from their long time partner. One is considering a divorce. Two of my friends have fallen in love madly and ended up with a broken heart. Few are struggling with the busy life of working parents and small kids.  Some are waiting for the news if they get to keep a job or not. New jobs. Big things. Life changing things. Being this far you see things from a distance, literally and figuratively. I am excluded from the “noise” and just get the facts as they are, the emails, messages, Skype calls from Finland with get-to-the-point approach. I get the end result but not the processing part and it feels weird, as I am the type of person that has a need to “be there”, I’ve been used to being there. I feel I should be able to be in two places at the same time knowing it is impossible. I know every upside has a down side but I’m still fighting against. And maybe there is a bit of fear too, fear of missing something crucial and fundamental, like life would happen outside my territory? I should learn to be “grounded”. So what I try to do is to shape up my Skype and email routines to be more in touch. Even short calls or messages, just catch up and hear the latest news. To know where people stand between the big announcements and news, be part of the processing. And please do the same (many of you do already, thanks) to know what’s happening with my life…the stuff outside this blog, there is a lot of that too. A lot that isn’t public.

Love,

//Ansku

PS: Shhh, posting from work as my computer got stuck last night just before publishing. Don’t tell anyone. Thanks. And have a great weekend too!

About Melbourne, Melbourne, Melbourne and St Charles Simulator at Coolum

Oh dear, so much has happened during the past two weeks that I don’t know where to start. Well, I love Melbourne. I want to live in Melbourne one day. Love with capital L. Love at first sight love. Ah, missed this. Melbourne is very different from Brisbane, it has more culture, soul and edge, and it’s somehow more European, more exciting and diverse, more like a proper BIG City. Comparing to Melbourne Brisbane feels like the cousin from the country side, not that exciting or sophisticated and with sub-urban label (with no offence to cousins at country side). Anyways, my main reason for visiting Brisbane was of course the wedding of dear friends, a nice Thursday evening cocktail party with zero of the typical wedding formalities like must have games and speeches etc. Ceremony was simple and short and the bride and groom a beautiful couple very much in love with each other. The venue was a fancy old restaurant with superb service that didn’t let my glass empty even for once. Early in the evening I made a promise to have a glass of water “in between” drinks, but the “in between” did not happen and so didn’t the water drinking. I think it was around mid-night I threw my shoes away to feel more comfortable at the dance floor, danced like there was no tomorrow and around 1.30am left the venue bare-foot and took a taxi back to my hotel. I had sore feet from the dancing and sore hair from the drinking, managed to remove my make-up though. Friday morning was not good. The sun of Melbourne and the inner sun of Ansku did not shine…luckily it rained (as it very often does) and I didn’t need to get up early and start exploring the city. I got up around 11am, got out around 1pm, walked in the rain without umbrella looking pretty miserable, got a chicken salad and Bloody Mary (jep) for lunch around 3pm, got enough of being awake and headed back to the hotel for a nap around 5pm. Afterwards thinking I feel slightly ashamed. I was in Melbourne after all.

But I did manage to explore a lot of Melbourne after I survived the dread of day after. To start with, the restaurant and bar scene is great. No, it’s awesome. It is a pity than one can have only one dinner per day and only few drinks in an evening as there are hundreds of places to explore. Dinner wise my absolute favourite was Cookie, recommended by a colleague, tested on Saturday night and by far the best wine-dining experience in Australia, somehow very similar to Farang in Helsinki but lot less of the Asian atmosphere but more cartoon and fairytale style instead. The food was delicious Asian Fusion meant to be shared and price more than reasonable. I considered it to be cheap.  Finally I can believe that Australians do know how to run a restaurant!! Second best dinner was Il Bacaro, a cosy high profile Italian. The problem with Italian is that it rarely is surprising…good, but not mind-blowing. Like the restaurants in Brissie. Or maybe I am just too high maintenance? I got bunch of other recommendations too but as said didn’t have enough evenings to test more. My absolutely favourite Bar was The Melbourne Supper Club at Spring Street. You need to know what you are looking for and where to look for or you miss it. Luckily I was accompanied with Sami who has a very good nose for excellent bars and we found the entrance after walking pass twice. The atmosphere reminded me of few bars in Barcelona, cosy rooftop, great drinks, men smoking cigars and drinking whiskey and women drinking fancy cocktails. I got a fancy cocktail too, or two actually… Melbourne Supper Club is on THE list.

Melbourne is also about excellent shopping. I got a tip from a colleague to head to Chapel Street at Windsor and to start the shopping tour with brunch at YellowBird, order at least one Bloody Mary and only after that make a move to explore the shops around. I did exactly as told, enjoyed a big fat toast with a spicy Bloody Mary, didn’t even mind the rain (is it morning drinks that help people in Melbourne deal with the sucky rain?) and had no problems in spending way more money than planned, but bought strictly quality stuff that can be used both in business and party mode. I did most of my shopping with T. L Wood, an Australian designer with very “my style” collection. She had a good eye on what would suit me, a lot of the stuff did, and I left with a big bag saying I will be back. This is also something I had missed since leaving Finland, finding a brand or a boutique to be loyal to. Chapel Street is like Boundary but a lot bigger and better. It has loads of local designer shops, big international brands too, restaurants, coffee houses, variety of people and good buzz. One cannot get a hold of Chapel Street with one try, it leaves you hungry for more. The only shopping I did outside Chapel was Haigh’s dark chocolate scorched almonds, another “must try” tip from a colleague who loves chocolate even more than I do. Haigh’s had line-up every time I passed the store, the chocolate might help dealing with the rain too? It didn't rain on Sunday but still the situation called for a “pure sin” brekkie at Max Brenner before heading towards St Kilda. You don’t get proper food at Max, you get chocolate in many different forms. Seriously, no dish without chocolate. So I got a waffle with ice-cream, strawberries, bananas (still very expensive in .au, enjoy if you get one) and chocolate FOR brekkie, BECAUSE I am an adult and CAN decide of my daily menu by myself. I felt a bit sick afterwards and thought my Friday-Saturday Bloody Mary was way better choice nutrition wise (which reminds me of one particular mid-summer party where Aki made 10l of Bloody Mary for brekkie, oh dear). Anyways St Kilda is a small and lively beach city with one main street packed with restaurants, shops and coffee houses. The beach is a typical city beach: too many people, touristy and dirty. Beaches and weather, the cousin from the country side wins. The last few hours in Melbourne was spent at Botanical Gardens and enjoying afternoon sun and drinks by the riverside, then “bye bye city of Bloody Marys, chocolate and shopping! See you soon”. Very soon I hope.

Monday morning wake-up was a painfully early as I needed to head towards Sunshine Coast and Coolum already 6am to attend a week long Knowledge Transfer Workshop. I landed to Bris at 10pm, got less than 5 hours of sleep, cursed the iphone wake-up ringtone as I would’ve loved to stay in bed longer and continue living life in Melbourne time. Rise and shine. Up and Out to pick-up my colleague Bec.The Hyatt Regency Coolum was very nice and luxurious with big golf course, several pools, tennis courts, day spa and only 1km away from the beach...something I of course had no chance to enjoy with the tight schedule ahead.  At 8am I met some 200 colleagues from Australia, Singapore and Indonesia and felt like being at St Charles with Accenture Core training, wearing a necklace with a name tag, trying to resist conference candies available EVERYWHERE and having an overload on information, faces, names, coffee and delicious food. Coolum was a luxurious St Charles Simulator, an adult summer camp.

During the first day I realized that content wise the training should take a month, instead of a week and every single sentence and real-life example and scenario our faculty was telling was worth gold and I should’ve been able to speed write down EVERYTHING. There is so much I don’t know and understand. Stupid girl. I was told that most of the people attending have been working with the topic for years and that I shouldn’t panic for not being there, but I still did as I have a tendency to be the immediately if not sooner type of a girl and I hate the feeling of “just not getting it”. Back to the tennis court, starting from the basics, looking like an idiot missing the easy serves and realizing you need to practise hundreds of hours to get to the next level. Patience patience, there’s no shortcut to jump to the expert path, there’s no immediately if not sooner, so all I could do is pay attention, twist my brain to understand the concepts and terms and code language flying around and ask stupid questions during breaks. The sessions were from 8am to 6pm and I was completely exhausted at the end of the days. Evenings where luckily less busy than in St Charles...had a glass of wine and dinner with colleagues and headed back to our villa early for a hot chocolate and sleep, except for Wednesday which was THE party night with BBQ and free drinks.  I, once again, made a sort of promise to go just for the BBQ and hit home early but was convinced by my colleague Charles that this night will be spent on the floor dancing our asses off. Ok! Charles is quite a persona, very “intense” as Bec described and soooo funny that  he should be in entertainment business rather than working with the  letters S, P and A. So surprise surprise in no time I found myself at the only bar around the resort thinking sleeping is so overrated. The fun part of the evening was definitely the rough miners who after too many drinks thought they are a) extremely good dancers b) extremely attractive c) extremely funny approaching women with the weirdest moves and pick-up lines ever d) extremely persistent with their pursuit. For a second there I felt very homey, men get few drinks and “boom” their self confidence is 2km high. Anyways by the time one miner from my break-out group (older than my dad) was dancing without a shirt and opening up his zipper too I decided my eyes had seen too much and called it a night.  On the way back I saw a little baby kangaroo, the first living kangaroo spotted here in Australia which made me so excited I totally forgot the damage of half-naked miner dancing fiercely to the beat of Michael Jackson and got sweet dreams instead of nightmares. Two more days to go. Friday afternoon all the information was poured to our heads and it was time to start well deserved weekend. I felt dead tired, head spinning and somewhat out of place...too much information and too much happening within a week. Late afternoon we headed to Kaija and Ross for a dinner and was welcomed with a big hug and smell of Sauna. Yes, they have a proper Finnish sauna on their backyard and a pool next to it to cool down. It was just what I needed: sauna, pool, smoked salmon, excellent red wine and dear friends. I was normal again. Or at least “normal” with my terms. On Saturday I attended a hen party, on Sunday I had a Martha Stewart day and long long Skype session with little people. After Skype I cried. No drama, the normal story of missing the little people. Sometimes a good cry helps. Chocolate helps too.

This week has been incredibly normal. I go to work, I do work, I get home from work and enjoy life at home. I still have the flu, so no rage runs or yoga or anything else exciting until Saturday which is my internal deadline for being well again and kick-starting the sporty life. Last Thursday I hit the 4 months milestone and made a promise to start having more healthy routines in life...a promise that is worth saying out loud. A promise that is good for Ansku

4 months is 1/3 of a year. Not sure if it is a lot or not.

Love,

//Ansku

PS: In four nights my mom is also coming to Bris, she arrives on Sunday morning and stays over for a month. It will be weird to have “life from Finland” here with me...something that hasn’t been part of the setup since Eepi left. And obviously, can’t wait to get a big warm hug from a loved one. Four nights.

About ‘Taking it easy’, futsal and female gene thing

I managed to catch a flu mid last week, or not really flu but a cactus ended up to my throat and I was dead tired and overslept both Thursday and Friday. I decided to “take it easy” during weekend to make sure I am in good shape heading for Melbourne. Back in Finland I was very bad in the “take it easy” promise. According to my dear brother 98% of times when I have told him on Friday afternoon to “take it easy, going just for a glass of wine and early to bed” I have ended having a massive night out and a bottle instead of the glass (no. I don’t have a problem but I get easily carried away in good company). Nothing has changed from Helsinki to Brisbane and “Take it easy” did not happen. What happened was basically Sauvignon Blanc. On Friday night I had agreed to do the October dress up fine-dining evening with Marijke. This time our chosen restaurant was E’cco, a modern Australian restaurant in CBD/Fortitude Valley. I had very high expectations based on reviews and The Good Guide and once again the food turned out to be mediocre and definitely not worth the price. It is a common story here. Rare restaurants are excellent or surprising and most of them pure main stream according to my standards, Sake is still favorite. Anyways the night was lovely as always, talk about life with big heart. Looking at the big picture I really don’t care if I am eating rice cakes or pickled onions as long as I can have a good catch-up with a dear friend...it’s the catch up that really counts. We also got free glass of wine that was left over from a couple sitting next to us who were in “get a room” state throughout the dinner and poor Marijke was sitting sideway opposite to the lady whose breasts were disturbingly out there. She deserved the extra glass

Saturday I made another promise to “take it easy” that lasted until 8pm when I grabbed a bottle of cold SB from fridge and headed to have few drinks at Marijke’s balcony (she has a lovely balcony with very cosy sofa that is perfect for spending the whole night out). Everyone had apparently brought at least one bottle of wine, which with simple math leads to the situation of everyone drinking at least one bottle too. I don’t remember what time it was when I headed back home curled up to a blanket (it was cold in my opinion, i.e. I was more sick leaving when coming) and having difficulties to walk straight. How did this happen? It happens. Oh well, that was only the second night in a row. On Sunday I kind of gave up the hope of “taking it easy” as I was attending a farewell party and had agreed last night at Marijke’s balcony to continue straight to Story Bridge Hotel to watch Australia- New Zealand world champs Rugby game (another indicator of me being drunk on Saturday to promise go and see rugby...I recall we were talking also something about getting the Wallabies game shirts (!!) which luckily didn’t happen...pheeew). I enjoyed the wine at the farewell party, I thought it was a brilliant idea to continue to SBH around 6pm, thought the situation also called for more SB, got more SB and around 8.30pm realized I need to go to work the next morning and made the best decision of the weekend not to continue with others to Boundary for drinks but headed home to Skype with Mom and Kiira instead. It was lovely to Skype again and see Kiira eat blueberry pie and explain what she had done with Mumma during weekend. I cried afterwards a little. I’ve been fairly emotional lately and missing the little people a lot. More than anything I wished I could have her on my lap, read a book and smell her hair and give a kiss too.  I gave her a “lentosuukko” in Skype instead and got many of them back. I love her and she loves me. That is what really counts.

So in a nutshell I had an awesome weekend that was more out of hand than easy going and I decided not to make such a foolish promise “to take it easy” again. It was foolish after all. Especially when I made it to office 8.45 on Monday looking almost fresh and rested. On Mondays almost is enough.

I’ve also played football, or futsal whatever. Well, you cannot call it “playing” as such but yes I have been on a futsal court, part of black team and wondering what the hell I am doing here and counting seconds for some 40 minutes and cursing one particular project Friday pub were I was persuaded to join. I do think the recruitment method was a bit questionable; to start with, it happened around 9pm after some 5 hours of happy hour. Me and my colleague were guessing the home country of one of our stream leads based on his accent, I voted for Italy/Spain, my colleague was confident for France, the loser was supposed to buy a beer and I lost (also wondering how come I agreed the price to be a beer as I don’t even drink beer). He was French. Anyways I had a chat with the French stream lead, later on he came to ask if I wanted a glass of SB and join his team "The Happy Miners" in the project futsal tournament as they are lacking ladies and each team has to have at least two ladies playing. I was slightly blinded by the first question that obviously got “yes” and didn’t really listen what the second question was and in no time he handed over a team shirt and said “see u in a week Monday”. Shit. Wot? I said I really cannot play football, I don’t know what “paitsio” is and the only games I have watched were two last games of Uruguay in the world champs 2010 and solely because of Diego Forlan *sigh for Diego* He said it doesn’t matter if I can play or not and “no one of us can and it’s all about fun and games”.  Great, I am into team activities and fun and games. Or so I thought.

Anyways, this Monday I attended my very first ever futsal game as a "Happy Miner" and thinking back, I guess the last time I have played football goes to 1980s when the gymnastic teacher gave football and orienteering as the options to choose from and with my sense of direction I was kind of forced to choose football. Luckily my very positive and optimistic colleague and a team player Bec promised to come with me from office to the game venue and reassured me throughout our way that “it’s a lot of fun and you’ll manage fine”. Ok, I can do this. At the TAFE centre I needed to invest 16 dollars for proper socks (at least 1 meter long very thick and uncomfortable and ugly socks) and shin pads, I said out loud that in my wildest dreams I didn’t really see myself investing any money to a pair of shin pads and life has a tendency to surprise. I had a black team shirt on so all of my fellow colleagues with black shirt were my team members. Here we go. I’ll tell you straight the game was not fun and games. For starters I don’t have that boyish urge to “fight for the ball” so the idea of chasing it and trying to tackle opposite team members to get the ball felt somehow very strange. I am a kind person and don’t like tackling people. So I chose the strategy of staying away from the hassle and if the ball came my way I tried to get rid of it as soon as possible. Other thing causing discomfort was with the position on the field. Throughout the game one guy (from my team) was shouting “up Anna, Down Anna, Up Anna” and I found that very confusing. I think it was even a bit rude to shout to me, especially when he was not playing. So I got very irritated for this guy as I think he should’ve just left me alone. Mur. Then the last bit was with the kicking itself. It’s difficult. My first problem was not knowing if I should kick with left or right foot. I think I am a leftie (left leg is my stronger one) but in the sudden situation of the ball coming against the decision wasn’t that clear and I struggled to make one. And if you struggle to make a decision the momentum might be gone already. The fourth problem was hitting the ball in case I had made the decision early. You might miss the ball if you are not looking at it when kicking. This happened quite a few times too. I think it was 5 minutes before the end of game and after my 10^th miss when dear Bec gave me advice “Anna, look at the ball when you are kicking”. Okie. Thanks. I think it was a brilliant advice but too bad no one was passing for me during the last 5 minutes (for a reason as the situation was 6-6 and my team mates didn’t really see me as THE key asset for us to win) and I didn’t get a chance to fix the problem. “Look at the ball” must be the universal rule of thumb for any ball game but still it is easier said than done...I’ve struggled with it also with tennis (I am way better in tennis than football which is kind of comforting, also with tennis you get to wear pretty clothes and decide yourself if you’re up or down).  I do believe the challenge with “eye on the ball” is a female gene thing. It is natural for women to look further than the moment at hand. In life, for example, women are very often speculating and trying to crystal ball the situation further than it is really possible and our focus is in the opportunities going forward rather than in the second we are experiencing. Funny enough, here I have been living more in the moment than ever before, I actually don’t have the ability to plan long haul. I have absolutely no idea where I am in 6/12/18 months, in terms of work, life and myself (location ought to be Bris for a year at least) and it feels painful when my manager is in a side sentence telling me to commit to the project until end of 2012 as I cannot even plan what I will eat for dinner or what to do the next weekend. Down under I am not that interested about future ahead but more so about the moment of now. But the normal thing gene happens with tennis (and football apparently), as a woman I am not that interested about the moment of racket touching the ball but instead what’s happening opposite side of the net when the ball gets there. And sure, I have learned in a very harsh way that before the ball really gets to the other side of the net (and doesn’t end up being a weather observation ball or one in the net) you need to look at it as the touch point is the most important moment in the life of the ball determining its future. Long story short, I blame the female genes for missing the ball. And to summarize: I suck at football big time. BIG.  Anyways after the game the French stream lead who recruited me asked if I enjoyed the game “No. I hated every second”. He looked confused and sorry. Seriously, if he paid attention in the game, he should be smart enough not to ask.  I told Bec I think this was my first and last try. She said “it will only get better” and we just need to work on my attack game. I don’t know if I want to attack. I am a kind person after all.

Rest of life has been mainly work. Few hours ago I delivered a big junk of stuff I have been working the past few weeks (on top of on-boarding), got very positive feedback and am ready to take off to Melbourne tomorrow morning to celebrate dear Simone and Markus getting married. Yes, I have a long weekend ahead in Melbourne and I am so excited I almost cannot stay in my pants. Next week’s post is also a bit in danger zone as I arrive from Melb late Sunday night and head to Sunshine coast for a workshop until Friday afternoon. So most likely no news next week but double news the week after.

Now I better continue packing. JIIIIIIIIIIIIHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

//Ansku

PS: I hate packing. Hate is a strong word and I hate packing.

About Straddie, stalker crab and getting fined by officer with kind eyes

Highlight of last week was definitely a visit to Stradbroke Island on Sunday. North Stradbroke or Straddie as the locals call it is the second largest sand island in the world, Fraser Island being the largest and Moreton the third largest. Whereas Moreton Island was 98% of protected national park, Straddie isn’t. It has about 2000 permanent residents, three townships, pretty decent road infrastructure, lots of resorts and even 2 sand mines (if mining companies get a footage somewhere you can forget the nature protecting part). Basically two thirds of the island is leased by mining companies which has been a bit of a hot potato considering the environmental and native heritage value of the island and the mines are forced to shut down latest 2025 (or so I was told).  Good thing with Straddie from touristy point of view is that you get there with your own car, a normal car, which gives of course more flexibility to come and go as you like. You get to the Island with ferry, leaving once an hour and we took the early 8am one as guys went diving (I need to sign up for a course soon)

So for me it was a beach day, perfect one with clear sky and lots of beach to take in a day. I started from Cylinder Beach as it was the first sign that came on my way, thought I will have lots of peace and quiet at 9am but that was certainly not the case and I was accompanied by (too) many families with (too) active and (too) loud kids for my needs. I had my towel, sunscreen, bunch of magazines and water and found a peaceful place that was safe from the footballs and frisbees flying around.  There was also a triathlon going on and the running route went through the beach. I felt a bit sorry for the people trying to make their way in the soft sand under the burning sun, it was so much easier to lie down and drift between naps, dreams and reading...I preferred my choice of Sunday “activity”.

Somewhere half way in the sleep I got a feeling that someone is watching me. I looked around, saw nothing else than the kids and sporty people going by and closed my eyes again. Got again distracted and was 110% sure someone, somewhere is staring at me. Annoying. This went on for some 15 minutes, got a bit nervous and finally looking a bit closer saw a little sand colour almost transparent crab that had very big eyes compared to the size of its body staring at me. Ha! I knew it! I took a picture, had a staring competition with it to make it go away, lost patience (and the staring competition), moved my towel a bit further away to be in private again and in seconds the little stalker followed me (it was apparently interested about my bright yellow towel) and started the staring. I once again went a bit further, the crab followed and stared. I tried to “shhh” it away and it always came back, and stared. Around 10.30 I decided to call it a game and head towards the main beach that’s supposed to be “amazing”. Totally worth it, no screaming kids, no hassle, no sand coloured big eyed crabs staring you, just  38km of beautiful white sand ahead. Think about it, 38km! Pure beach from Helsinki to Jarvenpaa? A hot surfer guy told me the beach was almost empty because of shark alert so I sat down, added some sunscreen, enjoyed the beach, ocean and hot surfers (oh dear) and thought it feels unreal to be here. “Just another Sunday in Australia”. Yeah right. I also had a big ice cream for lunch (as an adult you are allowed to do that) saw 2 whales and huge flock of dolphins and thought it is good that whales do not eat dolphins. I also hope the sharks aren’t eating the surfers who didn’t mind about the alerts. Passion for a sport makes you do crazy brave things?

Going back to ferry we were in terrible hurry as the dive was longer than planned and we had less than 20 minutes time to make it. I got nervous of the idea of missing the ferry, thought with the empty road ahead it is perfectly fine to over speed and cut corners “a little”, saw a police coming against, kind of realized I could be in trouble, saw the police do a u-turn and come after me, knew I am in deep shit and was asked to pull over. Shitshitfuckfuck. I am in trouble. I will go to jail. We will miss the ferry. I opened the window, the officer asked if I have any idea why they asked me to pull over, I gave an innocent smile and said no idea (a big lie of course), the officer asked if I know what the speed limit is, I gave another innocent smile and said ‘70 or 80 maybe . The officer said it is 70kph and they recorded me going 86kph, after breaking. Shitshitfuckfuck. That’s like shit load of over speed (didn’t say that out loud).

He asked me to come to their car. Showed me the recording of 86kph and said “it’s quite heavy over speed young lady”. Young!!!!  I smiled again, told I am extremely sorry, told I’ve never got fined before and cannot believe the first fine of my life happens at Straddie. The officer in charge smiled, he had very kind eyes too that made me feel at ease. Giving my driver’s licence the second officer got very interested of why I am at Australia, and even more interested after hearing I am not here for a holiday. So they all started to ask questions about my reasons to come to here, how I like it, what I have done so far and I told them the not-imported-white-wines-and-avocados-and-hot-surfer boys reasoning and said Straddie is a perfect place for the latter one and the second officer pointed out the white wine part and asked me to do a breath test. “Clean, that’s good news”. I knew that. I asked if I will get a fine and the officer with kind eyes said “I am afraid so, we cannot overlook this in any case”. Oh dear. I asked if it will be a huge fine and he smiled and said “no”. Pheeeew  *smile*.

As the 2 other officers continued asking questions about Finland and my plans in Australia the officer with kind eyes was filling in a fine form, got very confused with my Finnish drivers license and asked me to translate few things. He also said I look very different in the picture and complimented my current style to be lot better. I thanked him and blushed I guess. He asked the officer in the car about some codes, the officer in the car verified the code and said “you are lucky he’s in charge as he has a weak spot for blonds, you get the lowest fine instead of 400AUD”. Ouh? *smile for the officer with kind eyes*  I said “hi” to the officer in the car, and asked if they have the good cop/bad cop roles as in old movies? He laughed and said they are all nice guys. The officer with kind eyes said I will get 133AUD fine and 1 point deduction for my offence and he lets me go because I am “such a nice lady” and hopes I can still make it to the ferry. I smiled, thanked them, wanted to give him a hug (I didn’t) and promised to behave and obey the limits. They said “no worries” and wished me good rest of the Sunday. I thanked them again for being so kind and went back to car, sat down and felt my heart was almost jumping out of the chest. I go fined. I got my first fine with someone else’s car at Stradbroke Island Australia on a Sunday afternoon. I did a crime and got a fine on yellow paper. I lost a point. Don’t know if one point is a lot or not but I had still lost it. I also lost a point in "never have I ever" game (most of the people have got fined before, me too now obviously).The boys asked what happened, laughed when they heard about getting 300AUD discount and said that would never be possible if they were on driver’s seat. You play with the cards you have, huh? Sometimes it is extremely complicated to be a woman, at times (like this) it is so simple it leaves you amazed. God bless macho professions and officers having a weak spot for blonds. Just saved me 300AUD. Worth a nice dress and shoes :)

After getting yellow papered I had basically 3 minutes time to catch the ferry, obeying the speed limit of course, I think we are not making it. At the port the ferry looked full and there were four 4WD in stand-by and a guy shaking his head for our late arrival and talking over the radio to see if it fits one more. Luckily we were the smallest car on the queue and got a go to try to fit in…made it hardly…had audience (of men) on the upper level watching how the lady squeezes in the BMW. Not fair. I just got fined and really don’t need audience with this one *wants to show mental middle finger*. Figuring out from the whistles and cheers there’s apparently something “interesting” with a blond driving a black sporty BMW? Que? We got in with zero extra space, my heart was still racing, and I think I had a lot of luck on my side the past 10 minutes. Luckily rest of the Sunday was less exciting. My heart beat got steady, got home happy, tired and hungry and went to Story Bridge hotel to have some dinner and chill out. Got dinner but no chill out as there was on Aussie rugby game going on and the place crowded with fanatic supporters. Australia won, I guess. What a Sunday.

This week has been very interesting at work. I am continuing with onboarding on the topics I am working on and realized I have learnt something as it takes less energy to follow the conversation (I can speak mine on some level!)  But on the other hand, I’ve gained the level of knowledge to understand there’s heaps of stuff I DONT understand and there is a lot of complexity in terms of the business, different functional areas, project and our approach too. So my learning curve is pretty much getting vertical, which is exactly what I wanted and days go flying by. I also get more and more confident with the fact that I have an amazing team around me and we’ll have quite a ride together. Good people is one of my key motivators at work, I can deal with lot of shit if I am dealing with it in good company. So the anxiety with work is easing up thanks to fun and smart people and the relaxed feeling at the office. I have my own seat (and locker) too, with my name in it, first time since 3.5 years or something. Feels very grown-up and official.

I’ve also Skyped a lot this week, with friends and family. It is fun to hear what’s happening back home, or to be honest to realize that not much has changed back homw while I am having a 24/7 adventure here. I also don’t mind the cold-buu-dark-buu-wet-buu updates I am reading every morning, while I am writing this I have my balcony door open as it is pretty warm outside (and inside) already. So my friends start saving and planning your escape to warmer side of the world, it’s my 5^th day without woollen socks again.

Pus pus

//Ansku

PS. After this I upload new pics, losts of them. I know I've been terribly bad with it so far...try to behave better in the future. Try.

About bad hair day, rye bread, new places and work stuff too

So last week was the final week at site and I was more than happy to pack my stuff early Friday morning and leave Dysart and later on Moranbah airport for a while. It also meant I am done with facilitating the training sessions, managed to repeat the same some 30 or so times. End of intermediate role and beginning of well deserved weekend. From the airport I headed almost immediately to Guggenheim for Hair to get my style updated and the girl who had done my hair well earlier wasn’t there and I was introduced to a new girl, a young one, with not that cool style and way too much make-up. I didn’t feel at ease at all *Please do not f*** up my hair*. And of course she did, at least according to my standards. She had absolutely no idea what to do. I’ll give you an example. She asked if I am having the part in the middle. Yes I am, please. Then she makes the part about 3 cm to the left. A: Excuse me but that’s not middle? Oh, uups, you’re right. Then she blow-dried my hair super puffy making me look like a US house wife (cookies and juice) and said she’ll cut it dry. I said I never dry my hair like this, so could she kindly cut it when it’s less puffy so that the cut is more normal and lasts longer. Ok, no worries. So she used the straightener to make it flat again and cut it way too short from the back and asked only afterwards if I would’ve wanted to keep it longer as it was earlier.  The final moment of horror was with the fringe…first time she got it skewed, second time she got it skewed and third time she got it too short as there were no options. Thanks, I think I am done now. So after 3.5 hours I left Guggenheim disappointed, stressed, feeling I look like a boy. I was told I do not look like a boy. I was told the style is more “spicy” than the earlier one. I was told there is not much difference between the earlier and this one (a comment from a guy, obviously) I was told hair has the tendency to grow a bit every day. But bye bye for the comfort zone of finding a good hairdresser. A peeled potato became a mashed potato. Buu.

So what to do after depressing hairdresser visit? Go out. Go eat. Go drink. Go and see new places. Go and celebrate the fact that you don’t need to be in Dysart or Moranbah next week. I went. The place for the night was a busy Mexican at Bulimba, a small and lively part of the city at “the other side of the river” opposite to Powerhouse and New Farm. Basically the heart of Bulimba is Oxford Street that has loads of restaurants and small shops, like Boundary Street here at West End. It’s very typical for different parts of the city to have THE one and only street where the life happens and rest of it is just suburb. After few glasses of Sangria and tasty Fajitas I had forgotten my bad hair day... Food and wine can also solve any problem outside office hours…at office I still stick to coffee and macaroons. For the sake of drug and alcohol policy.

Then the long waited moment of rye bread. Oh boy it happened on Saturday morning, sunny October 2^nd around 10.30 am after a good night sleep. I finally got a chance to end my rye bread celibacy after 3 months and one week, took a picture and everything. On purpose I saved the bread for a Saturday as it is my favourite morning of the week (unless Friday gets out of hand) and I am overly protective for getting to wake-up slowly and eat my breakfast in peace, with time and quality newspaper. I did miss the quality newspaper but had the latest Hesarin Kuukausiliite instead as I had asked mom to send one over.  Oh the joy. I had the bread with ham and cheese and a cup of good coffee, like my usual brekkie back in Finland, excluding the carrots as they are not that sweet here at the moment (since 1999 I have had the routine of eating a carrot with my morning coffee…a habit that came out of nowhere and stayed until coming here). I ate it in silence and smiled, it was a sweet reunion, tasted like home, like childhood too. What a great Finnish Breakfast Simulator :) What a way to start the weekend! I sign up for the cliché of Finns missing salmiakki and ruisleipa the most...try yourself to live without!

Later that day we had planned the already traditional Dress Up Wine-Dining evening with Marijke and her dear friend Marijke who is visiting Australia for few weeks. We agreed earlier that this will be a monthly happening but did not find a free weekend on September so need to do twice in October. Not a problem. Some people here are also attending Ocsober (a sober October that is a fundraising initiative) but I think it is a very foolish idea (to give up beautiful wines, not the good purpose and fundraising), it would ruin our wine-dining promise and decided to save my alcohol-free months “for later”. I can also report on behalf of Marijke that she’s not doing it either. Our chosen new restaurant was Tukka, a modern Australian restaurant at Boundary street that is supposed to belong to the fine dining category. Hopes up. We all of course went for the exotic discovery menu with matching wines…full glass...why would someone take only half a glass? The menu had lots of stuff I had never tasted before, like emu, kangaroo, crocodile and weird berries. Emu was like chewing gum and not that good to be honest – a no go. It tasted like it looks like; old, ugly, angry and dry bird that has been spent most of the life under the burning sun. Kangaroo was better but I had a bit of emotional dilemma as I think kangaroos are pretty cute animals (stems from Winnie The Pooh, who would ever like to eat Kanga or Roo?) and I could never tell to the little people I have been eating Kangaroo. Crocodile was the most exotic one, taste in between fish and game. We also learned that crocodile is categorized as seafood (which of course makes sense as they spend most of their time in water but I thought it would be meat) and has very little fat, less than 1% or so. The taste was very unique and strong, I think I didn’t like it, even with a bit of rocket salad and raspberries and good white wine. It tasted like danger if danger has a taste. Scared me a bit. Anyways we enjoyed the dinner, wine and good company and continued to Valley to Press Club to dance the night a way. Rest of the night is history, good booty shaking, good times, home late or early, depends how you look at it. Highly appreciated tradition we have here.

I’ve also seen few new places during the weekend, Redcliffe and Montville. Redcliffe is a small (and windy) beach very near Brisbane, only some 20km away and a good option if you get up late and have overly slow morning and still want to see a proper beach (all applied). Most of the people there where families with small kids and few fisher men too, zero surfers and therefore the place doesn’t make to my top 10 list.  I missed the sunscreen so our visit was pretty short, but had enough time to read few Finnish magazines, listen some music and get the weekly portion of Pacific Ocean watching (well, in reality the beach is on Moreton Bay but if you look far enough you see the endlessness too). It is funny how you easily lose perspective here, a beach like Redcliffe would be considered luxury in Finland, but after Moreton, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Burleigh Heads it feels like a kids meal, tasty but leaves you hungry...and only three months ago I was more than proud of my “back yard” Hietsu :) When it comes to beaches and strawberries I am blinded by size here. The strawberries are huge too. I was not blinded by size when going to Montville. It is a beautiful little city about 100km from Bris and warmly recommended by my (already) ex colleague from South Africa. On our way there we spotted a little stand selling first mangoes of the season, got 4 for 10 dollars and asked the lady to pick the best ones. I was like a little kid who had just seen Santa Claus, I get to eat fresh mangoes soon!! Road to Montville was steep uphill again and the view very pretty the higher we got. Again we saw quite a few brave cyclists all going uphill and looking strong, respect. Montville turned out to be a small and cosy little town (as promised) about 430 meters above sea level with weird combination of speciality shops from chocolate to clocks to toys to astrology to palm reading. There are also few small wineries in the region that definitely deserve a go but didn’t get one as my Saturday night out wasn’t that dry. In general I would compare Montville to Porvoo, it’s very friendly and romantic and in a way an escape from the busy reality. We got coffee with a great view to Sunshine coast and candies from the Chocolate Country. It is difficult to find proper “irtarit” here, so if you see some you better get some. Montville was worth visiting for sure, I think I’ll come back too.

Monday was yet another first day at work. It was my official start date vol.3 and again I was wearing my traditional first day purple Tara Jarmon dress. Finally the real thing. Now we are talking business. We had a full day kick off with bunch of new colleagues and project team members joining the project too. Got heaps of new info, lots of new faces and names and a coffee and acronym overdose. This project has acronym for almost everything, just to give you an example, I am in the R3 CIT L&PS team working with WM. Try explaining that to your mom. I am still waiting for R2D2 and 3CPO to show up, I used to play Star Wars a lot with my brother and cousin Kalle when we were kids. I was also asked to give a presentation about my time on site and I shared pictures, told stories and my lessons learnt and people were green with envy for the tour I got at Goonyella Riverside and commented it’s unfair the blue-eyed Europeans get always VIP treatment with monster truck rides and locals need to settle with meetings in barrack buildings. Anyways I was very happy after that day, I learned a lot of new things, was impressed by the approach we are having and realized the people I will be working with are very nice, have lot of knowledge and are on a same wave length too...i.e not at all uptight but funny and a bit crazy instead. So I am also somewhat optimistic that there will be good parties with this team, though nothing beats my previous team and managers in terms of partying and budget. Good times. Rest of the days I’ve spent onboarding. I have read tons of different documents, asked hundreds of stupid questions and been relieved as my colleagues and project counter parts are super helpful, know the business extremely well and are always gladly and patiently explaining me the details. I’ve learned a lot more about mining, the end-to-end process and random stuff like monster truck maintenance and site shut downs. I do feel a bit dizzy at times...it is such a different world. And I have never even changed a tyre to a car.

My evenings this week have been super busy, I guess I am trying to take back the missed city life after spending three weeks in a row at site. Every evening I have been out (especially glad about Tuesday when I met a dear friend I haven’t seen in two years or so), reason why this blog post comes late too :) So it was definitely needed to clear the calendar and have even one easy going evening at home, eat something else than restaurant food and drink mint tea and wear woollen socks (the orange ones from Kurrela) too as it is pretty cold at the moment. I was close to beating my record of 21 days without woollen socks but lost the game today with the coldness. Got till 16 which is pretty decent try.

But now I better go to bed to make sure I make it to the office at 8am. Sweet dreams my friends,

//Ansku

PS: A lot of people keep asking what items I miss in addition to Ruisleipa and salmiakki. Well Fazerin sininen, drinkable tap water and Helsingin Sanomat. Also running out of Kanebo 38 as it is not sold here at all. And Lakkahillo too. To mention few

About Q1 milestone, Coffee cupping and live Rugby

Last week at site was shorter than expected and I got to go home already on Thursday afternoon. I also managed to make my first mistake in traffic at Moranbah town that day. I was fueling in before heading to airport, left the gas station turning right to reach the main road and quite quickly realized I must got it wrong as in no time there was a car coming against, the driver showing the international sign of dislike and blowing the horn. Ooooops. Shit. This is a one way road and I am going it the wrong way. I kindly waved and smiled to the driver (who still had his middle finger up and was shouting something I luckily didn’t hear but could read some common insulting words from his lips), quickly reversed back to the gas station, gave another confused smile and a wave and took a bit of a time out. Focus girl, focus. I knew some mistake would eventually come to my way and luckily it was at a small town like Moranbah with very little speed. Also, it was a rent car so the guy can’t track down who was the “dum *itch” blocking his way. No harm done. I am a tourist. No one knows me here, I hope.

Same evening I met few Finns from Nokia and went to see the Brisbane City festival light show to South Bank. I had heard a lot of good about the light show but for me it was a bit of a disappointment as we had a poor location and it didn’t look that good from a side angle. After the show we headed to Powerhouse for drinks AND I saw an opossum on the way. Yay! My first living wildlife spotted in the city! I did run after it to get a pic, absolutely no idea why – it is a big rat after all. At Powerhouse I also found out that the night was my 3 months anniversary at Australia. The Finns asked how long I have been here and I said 2 months without even thinking. “Yes, I have been here two months, eight week that is, feels so much longer though”. It was Kalle who corrected that I have been more than that as I came already in June. *Counting July, August, September. Ahaaaa!* Really, is it three months then? How come such a big milestone can come from the back left corner without me noticing? One quarter of life down under, time flies! I was super happy to have reached a proper milestone and not just some baby stuff like eight weeks. Also, I felt very lucky to be here with an open ticket. If I had only one year time I would be panicking already to have only ¾ left, now I have 3y and 9m until my visa expires and that’s a lot better. So we raised a glass of wine for Ansku Q1 Down under, I felt very proud of myself. As next morning I had a meeting at 8am I decided to leave the celebration to Friday night. I did raise more than 3 glasses then, few for the upcoming exciting months too. Also an overly drunken Aussie guy made me feel like million dollars by grabbing my ass and saying “hey blond, fancy a *uck” while I was ordering my white wine at the bar. A very feminine open hand slap would’ve suited the situation well. I think I should learn to slap too. I do prefer the “Thanks mate” over this.

On Saturday I had been invited to a Coffee tasting at Campos, a very nice coffee house next to James street market. I have never been in a non-alcoholic tasting before and was very much looking forward to it. Also last time I visited the place I met the owner and he was super passionate about the quality of coffee so I knew this better be good. We got our aprons which made me a bit suspicious of what’s about to come and went to this mysterious quite dark and small room with a long table in the middle filled with little cups, six cups for each of us. We were about to start “Cupping” = standardized tasting technique to evaluate the flavor and aroma of coffee = kupitus = kupittaminen? In each of our cups we had about 2 table spoons of freshly roasted and grounded coffee, 5 of single origin quality and one of commodity coffee supposedly to highlight the bad comparison. Our first task was to smell the grounds and compare the observations, the fragrance of the coffee. My favorite at this point was an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Haille Selassie 607 (wasn’t Haille Selassie an Ethiopian long distance runner?), it smelled a lot like fruits and bubble gum (maybe this was the coffee I got with my first D&D visit, but did not get the bubble gum then though)…and as my minor hangover made me super hungry for sweets I chose this one to be the best. After the grind smelling they poured boiling filtered water to each cup and let it brew for some five minutes. We were to smell the coffee again and stir it 2 times with heated spoons (important!) to help the grinds sink to the bottom of the cup. In each of the phase the aroma of the coffee was very different, the one that was sweet at the beginning turned out to be quite dry and burnt after 5 minutes brewing. I believe the same applies for other areas of life also. Then they scooped out the floating grinds and the coffee was finally ready for us to taste. About time! The coffee was supposed to be slurped loudly from the spoon to cover whole tongue and get more air at the same time. I was very bad at the slurping. You learn it before you’re six that slurping is bad no matter how hot your soup or drink might be. Thanks Mum. Anyways I still liked the first fruity Ethiopian long distance runner the best. The third one was so bad I almost spit it out. Number 4 and 5 got evenly ranked for second and third. All in all it was very interesting to compare so many different qualities and really focus on analyzing the different aroma and taste. So often with coffee I just need it for the daily caffeine kick and don’t really pay attention to it, it’s either good or bad. As this was the first cupping a lot of my energy went for the excitement, new people, surroundings and info overload so I believe with a new try I would get more out of the tasting itself.

I also learned a lot of coffee trivia. We got a presentation of each of the quality: the location, how they are processed and who are the farmers and saw lots of pictures too. I didn’t know that as coffee is harvested it’s really a fruit, coffee cherry, not a bean. He also told about the Cup of Excellence concept “a lottery win for the producer and Eurovision song contest for the roasters” and how the top coffees ends up to quality places like Campos. First there is the national “competition” where top cuppers (=kupittajat?) score there different qualities and only the best ones are allowed to move forward in the competition. For the judges, the cuppers, it is strictly forbidden to show any expression about the quality (how good or bad it is) as it might influence the other cuppers and just need to silently give a score for it. He also told about cupping Jesus Jorge Escobar who is the best in the world and has a lot of power in the business and if he thinks coffee is good the price of that quality starts sky rocketing immediately. And if he gives a grin the competition, rest of the cuppers think that particular quality sucks too and the farmer is doomed. I couldn’t help at wonder what Jorge Escobar would say about the shiiiiat that is called office coffee in Finland. Long live Juhlamokka and the poor colleague who gets the last cup from the pot. Anyways, after the 30 best qualities of coffees for the year are announced, registered roasters can order samples for these 30 qualities and after 5 weeks starts and online auction where roasters can bid for the quality they would like to buy. Our coffee guru told us Campos orders usually a sample from all of the 30 qualities, organizes their own cupping event where each cupper must give 3 coffee beans for the best, 2 for the second best and 1 for the third best quality. Those qualities that get most scores they try to bid at the auction. Very exciting! Anyways, as 1 pound of commodity coffee might cost 1-2dollars, the best Cup of Excellence coffees might cost even 80 dollars per pound. Whoooh, it better be good then. And you see why it is a lottery win for the farmers. More so than for the winners of Eurovision Song contest I believe…and hope. Hard Rock Halleluja and so forth.

I am not sure but I got the picture that Campos is the only place organizing cupping at Brisbane and according to our guide the word is out there and they get a lot of bookings. It was also incredibly cheap, only 11AUD for the cupping (took 1h) and 20AUD if you wanted to have your favorite coffee with you. I definitely recommend cupping for those who like good coffee and are interested to learn more about it. I at least found all the stories and trivia very interesting, I think it was the best part of it. Rest of the day was very lazy. Had lunch nearby Campos (as they didn’t serve food at that time), went home to do a bit of laundry and headed out again for some drinks at South Bank. There was a Cuban band playing at Wunderbar (a bar opened just for the Brisbane city festival) so decided to stay there…good decision as it was super cool. I think in my previous life I was from Latin America (explained by my big bum, temper and passion for Latin dancing) and made a promise to self  to find a salsa class as soon as I am done with the site visits (Missing our Monday dance dates Inna!!). I was all smile after the show and I didn’t even get to dance…think about what happens when I get my booty on the floor. Whoop Whoop.

Main program for Sunday was a live rugby game at Suncorp Stadium. I was about to lose my Rugby virginity, how about that. The game was a final for the best team in Queensland, i.e. piirinmestaruuskilpailu. The game was Wynnum Manly Seagulls against Tweed Heads Seagulls (the nice place in the border of QLD and NSW). What’s with the seagulls, it’s not a cool bird. We arrived to the stadium 15 minutes before the “kick” and in 10 seconds I got the beef of the event, it’s all about beer with rugby. I so did not blend in with my summer dress, but who cares, I am a tourist watching a live rugby game for the first time in my life. My first shock was about the buuuuuing, everyone was buuuuing for the Tweed Heads team. How unfair is that? These people don’t know the concept of Fair Play? And it must be sad to enter the field with people buuuuuing for you? I felt bad for the team and decided to support them, they also had better outfit (black and white, I am very black and white) and I liked Tweed Heads as a place few weeks ago. As the game started so started the shouting. Next to us was this a bit older Aussie guy, obviously a Wynnum supporter who was shouting ALL THE TIME. Show’em Wynnum! Go get them Wynnum! Smash them Wynnum! They are nothing but flower sticks Wymmun! Rip his head of Wynnum! F*** You Mother F***er (as the judge gave a free ball for Tweed Heads) and it went on. There were small kids around, I think I wouldn’t bring my kids here. The best thing about this guy was that he didn’t even place his cheering to fit the game…he just had the record on, shouting as loud as he could because he obviously thought it was a cool thing to do. Not cool. You and the seagulls (bird) are not cool. So the first part of the game I just wanted him to shut up, lose his voice or someone stuff the stupid cap into his mouth. Pliiiis. I felt sorry for Juha sitting next to him, I think he’s suffering from left ear tinnitus nowadays. The first half ended with Tweed Heads leading 10-0 and I was happy that we were half way with the game already. As said before, this is not very intelligent game. It’s very violent one.

The second half started well as the loud guy was gone. So in theory the situation was optimal to focus on the game without annoying supporters making your blood pressure raise but in reality all I could think was ice cream. Yes, for 40 minutes I was thinking of ice cream and where to get one. In the meanwhile Wynnum got a new gear to their game and won 16-10 or something and everyone at the crowd was very happy. They had a small medal ceremony at the field with speeches and everything and sang some kind of an anthem. And that was pretty much it for my first live rugby game. I wasn’t badly traumatized, I am willing to go and see a game again, but prefer it to be a big game and none of these local ones. I did get my ice cream also, Mövenpick Swiss chocolate and mint…two scoops, one for each of 40 minutes of rugby. In the evening Marijke, Kalle and I headed to Ferny Grove for Ross’s famous pizza. He was a happy cook for his new Dutch customer who obviously was a fan of his pizza before it got out of the oven. Good times and excellent dinner.

Now I am again here at Dysart doing trainings at Peak Downs, the last week of my intermediate role and then I finally get into the real stuff. I almost managed to get through this trip without any travel booking hiccups until I arrived to the motel I was supposed to stay in and found out there is no reservation for me. It kind of freaked me out because I knew all of these small mine towns are always sold out in terms of motel accommodation and I had no plan b. The only room they had available was the suite and I HAD TO settle for that one. I was glad to. So now I am in this huge suite with big living room, huge balcony and a jacuzzi. And the best part of it: no wildlife in, lights in the bathroom and a hair dryer. WIN! Few hours ago I also did my first 10km run! See, I did it before end of September as promised *proud*. For my surprise it was very smooth and the last 3km where the easiest ones. So Dysart is from now on a special place in terms of running milestones and the time here in the middle of nowhere has really paid off sports wise. 

This is my last site visit for a while and from next week onwards I’ll be mainly at Bris. It’s good to have a bit of normal life and sleep in my own bed, dress up and get something else than cup noodles for lunch. Still I think it has been quite of an adventure and I wouldn’t change a day. Looking back I have learned so much - about mining, miners, and the culture and mindset here.  It’s the unknown and uncomfort zone where you learn the most, about yourself too.

I better do some stretching before calling it a night. Like you wanted to know but anyways…pusmoi!

//Ansku

PS: The reward for my 10km was a Fazer Tyrkisk Peber filled liquorice I got from my friends back home. It tasted very sweet. Salty and sweet. Just like my run :) I also got bunch of women's magazines that I am reading very carefully, extremely focused and in peace and quiet (you find a lot of peace and quiet here at Dysart, the only disruption is the Motel gecko)…no words to thank you enough for the great surprise, love it!