Easter and Helsinki

I went out for some photos yesterday so I’m feeling a bit tired this morning, and the weather seems quite gloomy… so I thought that I’d write a post about Easter and my trip to Helsinki. It’s almost been a week since I got back, after all… gosh, time really flies! Σ(゜゜)

Well, Easter wasn’t really all that special. I originally thought about taking the bus to my parents’, but then I found out that my uncle was in Jyväskylä for a job (he’s a carpenter) and asked if I could get a lift to my parents’ as he was heading for Helsinki on Good Friday evening. So I was able to travel comfortably and we chatted about cameras and photography. He’s also a passionate photographer, but hasn’t had time for it lately because he’s so busy with work. But yeah, it’s something that we often talk about. （　´∀｀）

At my parents’ I mostly played with Valtteri, our silly kitty, and also helped mom & dad with some chores. The renovation is 95% done, so there isn’t much left to do with that… well, once the weather gets better, there’s some house painting to be done. My brother moved into his new apartment on Easter, so he, mom & dad were in Helsinki and I was at home keeping Valtteri company. He slept most of the time, though, but I also took him out. Now that it’s getting warmer and the snow is melting, he obviously wants to go out more. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

I was also my usual dorky self and introduced Eru to him, as she’s my newest doll:

I also took some Easter themed photos… editing them with my mom’s laptop was a pain, I had to ask Yenna in between if they look awful or not, lol! They do look a bit different from my usual editing, but I’m too lazy to re-edit them now, ahah… and, well, for Easter photos, I think it’s okay for them to be all colourful and vibrant, since it’s a happy holiday. I guess. I don’t remember if it’s happy or not in the religious sense, since I’m not religious at all and have forgotten everything since I got away from confirmation camp, lol. For a choco-holic like me, Easter is all about chocolate.

Easter bunny Kotori~ （*´▽｀*）♥

And Eru thought that we’d get chicks from the eggs… (;´∀｀)

But yeah, after Easter was over and done with, I stayed at my parents’ place for the following week. Since I had plans to go to Helsinki as I wanted to check out my brother’s apartment and also try meeting some friends of mine who live there. I had Kotori, Sachiko, Eru and Kasumi with me… originally I just planned to take three, but I managed to squeeze Kasumi in as well, so… the more the merrier!! (“⌒∇⌒”) But in the end I wasn’t able to take that many photos, because it was windy as heck – especially on Wednesday. My dad worked the whole day and night – he’s an electrician, so windy weather keeps him busy. I did brave the wind on Wednesday, though, ’cause I at least wanted some photos of Sachi – and there was a really pretty sunset. But it was waaay too windy. (´Д` ) She kept getting knocked over and her hair was all over the place… her cardigan didn’t want to stay on properly either, lol! So I gave up after just a couple of shots…

After I gave up on taking photos, mom came outside as well and we took Valtteri for an evening outing. The silly cat was super excited about having friends and climbed up to an oak… and then he didn’t know how to come down. (;´∀｀) He just kept circling around the tree trunk, balancing on the brances and licking his lips. He always licks his lips when he’s confused. Our previous cat was a master at climbing trees, he would climb up the trunk, not let go of it and then the same way that the climbed up, he’d come down (one time I laughed when he was climbing down and a branch stung his butt – he jumped off the tree the all ?!?!). But not Valtteri. He always goes to balance on the branches, and then he tries to come down head first, but then he sees how high he is and he gets scared. And the same thing happened now, so I went to grab my camera and videotaped him in the tree:

Eventually I had to climb up and show him the way down by tapping on the branches. Only then he was able to come down. (●´艸`) And it’s not the first time that he’s gotten stuck in a tree, I’ve had to climb to get him at least two times before this. He often thinks it’s a game and starts swinging his paws at me, lol. I’m just like, I’m here to help you down, not to play with you, you dork!! (ᗒᗜᗕ)՛̵̖ Well, thankfully he has really sharp claws, so at least he won’t fall… since he fails at climbing trees. And every time that he’s stuck in a tree for a while and finally gets down, he starts running all over the place. So he ran off to the nearby hill and played in the callunas. I managed to snap a photo when he was still for a while:

I have to make strange noises in order to have him look at the camera, lol. He really hates being photographed.

And here’s some video material of the silly cat running around:

At first I planned to go to Helsinki on Friday night (the 10th), but mom, dad and grandma were going to visit my brother that weekend, so I ended up travelling with them on Saturday. On Friday evening I had time to take some photos of Sachiko, then, and although it was still quite windy, I managed to get some nice shots. I haven’t had the chance/energy to edit them yet, but hopefully soon… here’s a teaser in the mean time:

She followed Valtteri’s example and played in the callunas, haha~

But yes, finally on Saturday I headed off to Helsinki. I wasn’t able to reach that many people and a few were busy with other things or sick, so I didn’t have plans for Saturday. Both my uncles and their families also dropped by at my brother’s apartment on Saturday. I then helped dad with some plumbing work and installing lamps… and once everyone had left, it was just me and my brother. And the rest of the evening we spent talking and he played on the computer, while I played Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii. (ノ＞▽＜。)ノ My brother has a huge 50″ tv, so it was definitely different compared to my own tiny little tv… although, Wii’s resolution isn’t ideal for such a huge tv, but anyway: I had lots of fun talking about games and anime with him~ (*＾ワ＾*) He’d bought a PS4, but didn’t have any games for it yet – I hear they were coming in the mail, haha. One funny thing from Saturday evening: the doorbell rang after 7pm as my bro was preparing to go to sauna and he had me open it – there were two mormons who tired to get me to talk with them. I guessed that they’d have to be some kind of religious folk, I never open my own door if I see a pair of strangers standing behind it. Thankfully they soon gave up as I answered in ways that made it clear that I am not into religious talk at all. It was quite amusing, though. （　´∀｀）

On Sunday I had plans to meet up with my friend jesmo. ヾ(＠^▽^＠)ﾉ I was a little nervous about leaving for the subway station, as I had never been in that part of Helsinki before… and my brother’s directions weren’t very helpful. Thankfully we live in modern times now, and there is Google maps! Otherwise I would’ve gotten lost, I’m sure. Since I walked past the crossing that would’ve taken me straight to the subway station. (;´∀｀) But I was able to locate myself with my phone and eventually found there. We decided to meet in the Itäkeskus area, since it was just gonna be the two of us and it was closer than going all the way to Kamppi… especially since I would later have to head to Kamppi again, as I had to leave for Jyväskylä on Sunday evening already (something important came up for Monday).

But I met with jesmo in Itis. We’d wanted to try this waffle place, but sadly all the tables were full, so we headed for another café. They had really delicious cakes and rollcakes, though, so I didn’t mind. (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) ♥ Much more comfortable seats, too, hehe~ I planned to take a photo of my strawberry/blueberry cake, but I didn’t have the patience… and well, we got straight to talking, so I soon forgot that I even had my camera with me, ahah. I had my neemo girls with me and showed them to jesmo, and she had her Dust of Dolls Lünn with her. I’ve never seen their dolls in real life, so it was lovely! I always like inspecting dolls from various companies, all different types of bodies and joints are interesting! And I enjoy seeing different resin types and colours, too~ (´ヮ`) Well, actually I haven’t seen any European artist BJDs irl, ahah… I just mostly stalk everyone on flickr!

It was so much fun seeing jesmo again~ ♥ Although, I feel like I talked her ear off, ahah… sorry sweetie! (;´・`)> I hadn’t had anyone to talk about dolls with for several days, so I was kinda over-excited, lol! But once this busy spring period is over, I’m definitely making another trip to Helsinki in June! And making sure that I’ll be able to go there on Friday and leave only on Monday, so that I’ll have Saturday and Sunday completely open. This time the meeting got cut a little short, because I had to leave for the bus. But in June the weather should be better, too, so we could visit a park or something~ (*＾＾*) I always enjoy a nice dolly picnic with friends, hehe! I’ve been to the botanical garden in Kaisaniemi a couple of times, as well as the Japanese garden in Roihuvuori. Both are lovely places~ ♥

But thank you so much, jesmo, I had a really lovely time!! *hugs* ヽ(*⌒∇⌒*)ﾉ ♥ ♥ ♥

Since I’d used the subway already once before, I easily found my way there in the evening when I headed for Kamppi and the bus terminal. The trip was long and rather uncomfortable, as the bus was shaking. No wonder my ticket was cheap!! (￣□￣) The brakes made a horrible sound as well, I started wondering if it was even safe. Σ(゜゜) But eventually I was safely home after 11pm… although, when I got home and was super tired from dragging my luggage, I was greeted with a note that our elevator is broken. ヽ（゜ロ゜；）ノ So I had to drag everything five floors up, ugghhh… but yeah, I made it home. Went pretty much straight to bed, ahah!

… ahah, it took me quite a while to write this entry, especially since I edited a couple of photos & videos in between. I had lots of fun, although I missed doing doll things a bit. But well, thankfully I’ve had time to do some painting and photography this week, and now it’s gonna be the weekend so I’ll have time to sew, too, yay!! ヾ(＠°▽°＠)ﾉ