Thank You.

This is probably the last post of year 2008, so I am indeed thanking a massive amount of people and places and stuff. And before anyone asks, I haven´t forgotten that I promised a picture of my new rings, I just need to figure out the best way to take a picture. Picturing your own hands isn´t excatly a piece of cake.

Before thank you´s, I have something else. Ok, I was thinking that I won´t do any best of 2008 lists and I´m not going to, in the traditional way. First of all, music. No, not a list of best albums or songs, it would take me hours to complete it. I´m just saying that if you have the chance, get your hands on Dear Science by TV On the Radio. I have praised them multiple times and I´m doing it again, but I seriously think that was maybe the best album of the year. Also, the Nine Inch Nails frrebie The Slip is well worth a few spins, even if you don´t get it on CD like we somewhat hardcore fans did. For Finns, if you have missed Magic Recoveries by Disco Ensemble, do something about it. Best Finnish album of the year, by far. Right now I´d recommend you listen to Lightweight Giants. The song has charmed me. Totally. What else can I say... Tons of good music this year, new music (MGMT is fantastic) and old favourites found again. I enjoyed great live music this year. Kent at second row in January was absolutely fabulous and Rufus Wainwright at April Fool´s Day with all his jokes was more than enjoyable. Finally seeing Foo Fighters at Provinssirock in June was a dream-come-true, but Justice at the same festival was so great. Not to mention how intense the gigs of Stam1na and The Sounds were.

I am not going to say much about movies, because I saw a grand total of three new movies this year, but The Dark Knight was amazing. I just watched The Blade Runner last night and liked it. Movies at theatre are usually great, but who says you can´t enjoy them at home as much as you´d enjoy them with 200 people?

Books. Oh, I have to see what I´ve read this year. Fine, Robert Harris and Henning Mankell if you like thrillers, they really know how to make it work. The Chinaman by the latter is still one of the most impressive novels I´ve read during this year. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, great and I´ll know I´ll reread sometime soon, and Arturo Perez-Reverte has become one of my favourite writers. I won´t be saying another word of Ildefonso Falcones again, I have done my fair share and if you don´t read his masterpiece, well, shame on you then. If I´d have to say, the most impressive book I´ve read this year has to be The Road by Cormac McCarthy. So plain and simple and complicated and amazing and everything at the same time. I need to get my own copy.

I have watched way too much TV, but some favourites: Lost, as the fourth season was the best of the series so far and The Constant is still my favourite episode of them all. Criminal Minds and House that air at the same time will both always be watched. Mad Men had been impressive so far, as has been True Blood. Pushing Daisies and the bright colours made my grey and dull winter. Cuentame como paso, the lovely Spanish series has got me hooked and I think I got my Mom hooked on it too. There are probably tens of other shows I´ve watched this year and liked a lot, but I can´t remember them all.

But now, the thank you´s before this gets out of hand. Because of the Interrail, most of the thanks will be connected to it, but not all of them. Here we go:

VR, Finnair, PKP, Greg-Tom Hostel Krakow and the best staff I´ve ever met, Ubytovna pod mostem Ostrava and the lady in the kitchen - the match would have never been the same without her, CD, Downtown Backpackers Hostel Bratislava and the guys in our room for the entertainment, ZSSK, Leanback Hostel Budapest and the American boys, Eurosport, MAV, Vienna Fanzone and all the people there, Wien Westbahnhof, ÖBB, Fulir Hostel Zagreb and the Aussie/New Zealander and the Londoner, HZ, Vila Veselova Ljubljana, SZ, Villach Hauptbahnhof and the patient man working at the info, Plus Hostel Firenze and the Aussie guy and the Asian girl, Trenitalia, Hotel Monopole Milan, every single railroad worker and ticket salesperson met during that one month, all the people met and talked with, all the fast food chains for the food (special thanks to Burger King at Baross Ter and McDonald´s at Mariahilfer Strasse), everyone who thinks have somehow made that month special.

Parents, relatives, acquintances, friends; Mari, Jenni, Sini, Elina especially, bloggers, writers, commentators, John, photographers, journalists, teachers, co-workers, neighbours, fangirls, male forumists, Gunners & Gooners, other forumists, athletes, musicians, everyone who has made my year what it has been.

Emmi - for the brainwash and the rest. You know.

Everyone have a very happy and safe NEW YEAR and I hope I´ll see you in 2009! Until that, have fun and take care!

Listening to: Disco Ensemble - Lightweight Giants and TV On The Radio - Red Dress

Both Sides.

Three points. Feels pretty good right now. Arsenal 1-0 Portsmouth. Funny thing is, I had to actully think what Pompey officially is when my Mom asked it. And that I haven´t watched a single match of them since Community Shield. And I think they are a fine team, I don´t hate them or anything like that. But yeah, it took Gunners 80 minutes to score one goal and I think even that one was a bit lucky. No complains though, a win for the first time since ages feels absolutely brilliant. I had the English commentators once again and one of them pointed out pretty well: "Being such a defensive mastermind Tony Adams is, it´s funny they´ve conceded so much." I thought that too, but then again, I was looking for more goals than just one.

Arsenal were doing fine. Well, as fine as they can with the material they have. I was a bit surprised to see Van Persie on the bench, but he did play on Friday and we have other forwards too, so... Ade wasn´t doing that much, except not scoring from perfect spots. Once again, Sagna was awesome and yes, William Gallas might be a huge prick and cause troubles within the team, but he is a valuable prick (scoring the only one, doing quite well on the defence). Ramsey and Carlos Vela were nice to see, they keep trying and Vela is really fine with the ball. Just more games under the belt and a little time and wh knows what he´ll be (well, Arsene probably knows...). I still think that my Man of the Match would be Samir Nasri. It seemed to me he was working his ass off and fighting like everyone should have been. Still, January 1st can´t be here soon enough and I really hope we get someone we really need. I wouldn´t mind Arteta (scored twice today). Addict made a wishlist for Christmas and I agree with it. We´ll see what happens.

My back is once again killing me. Sleeping five nights on this matress is as good as sleeping five nights on the floor. Thankfully I get my bed back soon, it´s such a small luxury but I am loving it at the moment. Little luxuries are the best. Sleeping late, good food, warm weather which we don´t have... And I seriously hope our neighbours won´t spend the entire New Year blowing their money up in the air. They did that last year, nice trying to sleep...

I´ve got all the days mixed up. Too much being home with relatives. And too much football on days it normally isn´t played. Today is Sunday right? Which obviously means tomorrow is Monday and that I have to go to the library and renew the loan of two books as I kind of am intending on reading them. And I might as well check if I can find more poetry.

Yeah, I really didn´t have anything today, just wanted to post. Mostly because of the win. Which, when it comes to this blog, is reason enough. Arsenal is always a great reason for a post. I promise you something better next time, I think I´m thanking some people on the next post... Until that, enjoy and take care!

Listening to: Editors - An End Has A Start

Bring Em Back Alive.

Everyone had a merry Christmas? Good, so did I. The Christmas Eve was pretty much as planned, though seeing few kittens at Elina´s made it more fuzzy and lovely. (There is no way you can say no when someone asks wether you want to see kittens, no way.) Loads of good food as always, though the conversation we had while eating was kind of interesting... I have no idea how Dad and I ended talking politics, but we do that quite often. Like on the Eve. Dad is massively against stripping the President off his/hers rights whereas I´m more for the Italian/German kind of way where Prime Minister and Government do the actual deciding and the President just is. But yeah, that was one of our topics... Dad was Santa, did fine I guess and we took some candles to the cemetery. All the gifts were nice, it seems my Godmother´s are imlplying I should move out because they once again gave me stuff for "my own home". The calendar of 2009 is epic and I did eat some damn expensive Belgian chocolate. Done with all the candies for a year now thank you.

I have been reading and watching some good and not so good movies and reading a bit more and sleeping. I did watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix again and I still do not like it. They dropped off all the pieces I liked in the book. But if there is a chance of getting Gary Oldman and Alan Rickman on Christmas Day I´m not skipping it. I also watched The Devil wears Prada and liked it much more than I thought I would. I´ve read the book and didn´t think it was that great, but the movie was fine, nice light watching after eating too much chocolate and ham. I still have Arn-Tempelriddaren recorded but I think it´ll be next week before I get around to watch it.

I had some retail therapy today. In other words, I went to the sales. Got two cardigans, a grey one and a purple one. Mom wanted to know why I want the grey one, but when I was looking for a white button-down shirt, she didn´t even think it was odd. The last time I was looking for a button-down was when I absolutely needed it, now I just wanted it. And got it. But yeah, I´ve seen so many white button-down+grey cardigan outfits I needed to get one too. I think it looks great. I also bought the movie Alexander, but I don´t know when I´ll watch it.

I am reading the lovely Cathedral of the Sea (La catedral del mar) by Ildefonso Falcones and am totally in love with the story. Usually all that medieval stuff just bores me, but this one... No wonder it is a bestseller. I am about half way through the book by now and can´t wait to read what happens next. The novel is also making me fall in love with Barcelona, a city I have never visited. The first time I started to love the city was when I read Carlos Ruiz Zafon´s The Shadow of the Wind. I have a good amount of books to make me love Spain, a country I´ve never been to. Lorca has gotten me in love with Andalucia again (I never ceased to like the area, the feeling just mildened), The Basque History of the World has gotten me to like the entire Basqueland... You get the idea. Travelling at home.

Of course I have also been watching football. Last night´s match of the death. Or Aston Villa-Arsenal as some might call it. 2-2 is a miserable result when you have a two-goal lead. Then again, I spent most of the match in a fetal position in our couch because I thought Arsenal was dreadful. At least during the first half. I mean, I don´t think they should have been called footballers. And I couldn´t believe my eyes when Denilson scored. Villa had totally controlled the game as it wanted and suddenly we have the lead? Bizarre. And then Diaby and Eboue go and create the second goal. When has that happened last time? I can´t remember... In all fairness, as miserable as the result is, Villa deserved the point and it can be counted as a minor miracle we had one too, because we sure as hell weren´t the favourites of that match. The title still is impossible to get, but maybe there is some slight hope with the fourth place... And our team would have been an absolute mess hadn´t it been Bacary Sagna. When the time comes, I am in favour of giving him the title of the Arsenal Player of the Year. He constantly kept saving us, and the save from the goal line must have been one of the greatest I have ever seen. I have said several times when watching Real Madrid this season that Gonzalo Higuain is single-handedly trying to save his team, with Arsenal it really is Sagna who does the work and I really adore him for that. Almunia was having a fine game too, if you don´t count the penalty which he so badly missed (Blame Gallas for handing Villa the penalty, I won´t, because I think Gallas was doing fine on the defence. He might be the biggest cunt of the team, but sometimes we really need him.). Aaron Ramsey was finally given a bigger chance than last five minutes (Happy 18th Birthday Aaron! It must have been a pretty nice B-Day gift.) and he has what it takes to become a star player. But yes, he just turned 18 yesterday, so you can´t expect him to be it just yet. But he was trying, maybe sometimes too hard, but he was trying and that is what matters. The rest of the team... Well, I want to see them give their 100% against Pompey tomorrow at home. The match should be interesting. Okay, Pompey hasn´t been that great and we get Ade back, but Tony "Mr. Arsenal" Adams makes his return to home. More when the match is played. RIght now, I´m trying to be happy with the one point from yesterday.

Transfer rumours go wild as January first draws closer. I don´t know who I want to sign for Arsenal (I just want Cesc and Tomas and Theo back in form), but Arseblog has suggested we should get Mikel Arteta of Everton. I wouldn´t mind, he is a fine player and might fill the void we have in the midfield. He would also adapt in quite easily, unlike, say, Arshavin I think. I have no idea wether Liverpool might sell Xabi Alonso or not, but I think it´s more of the not since they are playing for the title. I would like to see him... I like him as a player and he has talent and I´m getting over the fact that it was his (completely fair) tackle that ruined Cesc´s season. I don´t think anyone else is showing their card yet either. Well, Real Madrid got Huntelaar, but that is so old news. Lassana Diarra is replacing the other Diarra of the team and I still can´t believe the back of his shirt. "LASS". Seriously. You might get away with that in Spain, but everyone speaking English will make jokes of it. I have.

I also have been having some odd dreams lately. First of all, one night I dreamt Arsenal signed David Silva from Valencia. All I can remember was that I was thinking the entire time that why the hell did we get him, we have decent wingers... And no, I hadn´t been thinking of Silva for ages (the first name of Palanca on the other hand bugged me for three days before I checked it - Miquel). Then I dreamt that I was in Budapest with a bunch of friends but the city was nothing like it is. There was a huge rollercoaster that was made of stone and some impressive fountains and all that kind of stuff, but no river or great buildings. As I said, odd dreams indeed.

One more thing. I have this lovely anonymous commentator that keeps feeding my Lorca obsession (keep doing it, it always makes me happy, like idiotic-smile-on-my-face -happy), so I think she/he at least might be able to help me with this one. I finished reading The Dialogue of Amargo or whatever it is in any other language than in Finnish and at one point the rider says something like this: "If you stay there where you are, then why do you want to be there?". I really need to know if there is a proper translation to English for that one. OR. If I can get that question in Spanish, I´d be more than extremely delighted. I need to kick my ass next year and I think that question is perfect for that purpose. (I know the rider is Death asking Amargo things, but that isn´t the point.)

I have a couple of pictures from Christmas Eve I want so share with you. They were taken at the cemetery, it is the memorial site we have. Where you can put candles if you cannot visit the grave of your beloved deceased relative/friend/other important person. I think they turned out well, given I usually don´t take pictures during dark hours and my camera isn´t a great as I´d want it to be. And I have no idea what happened when I took the second picture.


This is one of those posts that got longer than I expected, but apparently I need to tell everything I have to say at once. More when I have something. Until that, enjoy the rest of the holidays and take care!

Listening to: Tri Sestry - Stará Vec

Starman.

I´m writing two things at the same time. I need to do something while I wait for the official news of Cesc´s injury. At the moment, it is said he´ll be sidelined for three months, which means a disaster for the team. But I´m not going ahead of things, I worry when it´s told. Well, I always worry, but more.

I read my first Lorca poem collection on Sunday and started the second yesterday. I loved Romanceros gitanos (Gypsy Romances or something like that in English I assume). I can´t even explain why, it just got to me so much. And my absolute favourite of all the poems was the one about Spain´s gendarmerie. I have no idea what it´s in English or Spanish. And I don´t know why I liked it so much. I just did, all of the poems were amazing. Why haven´t I read them before? Silly me. On a side note, I have to say el gitano is probably one of my favourite Spanish words. I love the way it sounds when pronounced. I had the read the part about gypsies and flamenco on the Spanish book though half of the grammar stuff was beyond me.

Sigh. It´s official, Arsenal are counting Cesc out for four months. Basically, pretty much rest of the season. If we had some thoughts of being able to fight for the title (which, quite frankly, I believe no one had) they are now out of the window, it will be a huge miracle if they get the fourth place of the league. Wenger now needs to buy in January, even more than he needed before. A defensive midfielder, maybe a defender if Gallas is heading out... Rumours are Andrei Arshavin is on his way to London, but I´ll believe when I see it. As much I kind of would like to see him, I just don´t know... Is he able to fill in Cesc´s place, since our strikers are doing pretty fine. When they don´t see red. Gah, all of this just makes me sad and I should be happy because tomorrow is Christmas Eve and all. I will not think about this until Boxing Day. Anyway. Animo Cesc, mucho animo.

I finally typed the novel I wrote in the middle of the night. 428 words. I was surprised. I never thought I could get so much out of myself, especially into a novel, but I did. I´ll post it now. I wouldn´t call it a Christmas present, far from it, but I need comments and ConCrit, I need to know what I can do better. All the mistakes and grammar errors and others are mine, I sure as hell didn´t get up at 3 AM to check how something was written and didn´t bother it with today either. It is repetetive, it is meant to be. I shortened the end from the original one, but I´m not completely happy with it. I might rewrite it third time, but here it is. Tell me what you think.

The blonde will never forget the day and it would be the day to relive over and over again if it were possible. It had been raining all week, but on that day the sun was shining from a clear sky. It was the day the blonde met the brunette.

All the blonde remembers of that day is the brunette. It was supposed to be another regular day filled with work and it probably was. But the blonde won recall it. All the blonde remembers is the brunette, the dark warm eyes, the perfect smile, the sunshine reflecting from the brown curls. That is all the blonde can think of that day.

The day the blonde fell in love with the brunette.

Even before hearing the name of the brunette, even before finding out what kind of character the brunette would be, the blonde was in love.

The blonde thinks the name fits the brunette in a way that cannot be described with words and the brunette carries it with pride. Their characters are the complete opposites and no one ever thought they'd get along for more than five minutes without starting an argument. The blonde is considered to be irresponsible, flamboyant, obstinate, always too self-assuerd. The brunette is considered to be humble, sensible, responsible, everything the blonde isn't thought to be.

The blonde still loves how their personalities are so different though they have both changed. The blonde has become more like the brunette whereas the brunette has learned to love the way the blonde is.

The blonde will never forget when the brunette the entire life the blonde has. The blonde cannot still believe the brunette has chosen to share the deepest thoughts, all the secrets and little things that make life worth living for with the blonde. All the blonde wants is the brunette to be like on the day one, dark warm eyes, the perfect smile, the sunshine reflecting from the brown curls. And to the blonde, the brunette always is. At least has tried to be.

* * *
Sometimes late at night, the brunette gets up just to watch the blonde sleep. The brunette does not understand how it is possible that the blonde still is there, after everything the brunette has said and done, after all the times the brunette has turned into the blonde and hurt the blonde unintentionally so much it seems unforgivable. But the blonde is there, because no matter what the brunette does, the blonde knows that in the end everything will be fine, just like on the first day.

No, it doesn´t have a title because I couldn´t come up with one.

I really don´t have that much today. I´m setting into the Christmas mood, doing nothing but eating and reading and watching movies and a lot of movies. And I´m looking forward to see my Dad as Santa. Should be so much fun. I´ll try to get a picture.

I am trying to cheer myself up and think of everything I should and would do next year. Some might call it day-dreaming, I call it planning. And as I want to be a nice person before I take a Christmas break from Internet and spend time with my family, have this very pretty wintery picture I found while surfing.


So, because I probably won´t be back for a few days... HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Remember to take care of each other. And the last one to leave puts out the candles.

Listening to: Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

Negative Creep.

I fucking hate every single Scouser. Every single one of them. But right now, I can´t believe it myself, I hate Xabi Alonso that I have always liked. If his tackle injured Cesc for more than two matches... I don´t know how much I´ll want him to burn in the lowest hell but I´m sure it will be much. So yeah, the extremely nerv-wrecking Arsenal-Liverpool match ended 1-1, which was fine. It could have been great, Van Persie´s goal was amazing and the lead felt so good. But then came Keane and scored and I actually asked my Mum if I could kill the Irishman (sorry all of you who support the Irish NT). I couldn´t, unfortunately. What can I say... The ref was partial, I think it was Carra who hit Van Persie on the head, pretty hard, but didn´t even get a yellow whereas Ade got one ridiculous yellow and was later sent off. I know, I´m really pissed off right now, but if Cesc´s injury is bad... I don´t want to think about it. Without Cesc and Ade with only ten man on the second half a draw is pretty fine. Of course, a win would have made everyone more happy. Now, the Gunners need to beat Aston Villa on Boxing Day if they want to fight for the UCL spot, but with this team it doesn´t seem very likely. I keep my fingers crossed, hope for the best and fear for the worst. Seeing Tomas Rosicky watch the match was lovely, I think I don´t need to say how much I miss him. The crowd was amazing on the second half, booing for the Scousers and cheering for the own boys. Perfect crowd. I do have to give the Gunners a thumb up for donating today´s salary to the Teenage Cancer Trust. No matter what, I love them doing charity. If I lived in the UK, I would have been a Giver today.

// Cesc might be out from a week to three weeks to month to six months!!! Cruel, so very cruel. Merry fucking Christmas. I feel so bad for Cesc. :( //

Oh and a little peek to the Spanish chart tells me something nice, Sevilla is vacating spot two. The table is interesting, so it seems none of these leagues this year won´t be played until the last game is over.

My day hasn´t been so great. I think I just broke another toe. The pinkie toe (or whatever it is called) of my left foot. And I just got the toe next to it fine. I can´t believe it... Thankfully it isn´t as bad as it was last time, so I might actually be able to walk tomorrow which would be nice since I was told I need to help clean up the rest of the house. Which also means I should get up earlier than at 11 AM... Like today. Mum was like, why do you stay up so late. Well, I was supposed to go to bed early but then I started talking to Emmi and when I finally hit the sack I had one line in my head and I couldn´t sleep until I got it on paper. Actually, writing that one line down resulted in me rewriting a novel entirely, at 3 AM. I need to type it on computer and it needs a bit fixing, but I´m so pleased with the story. I might post it here sometime later.

i loved it how my Mum pointed out she has seen more football this fall as I have forced her to watch it with me than she has ever seen. And she might just be right :D.

Now I´m off to cool myself down. And answer an email. I forgot to do it yesterday. Sorry.

Listening to: The best and worst of Idols 2008

Slow Hands.

Thanks for the comments, really loved reading them. And yeah, you got the trade mark right, but it wasn´t that hard for some. I might post you something new later, but right now I´m all too wrapped up on this one story that has been in my head for quite some time and it needs to be written down. And the two parts I´ve already finished need to be rewritten a bit. I just came uo with a new point of view and I really want to try it out. And it´s still a horrible sappy love story.

Also, Mari, I fixed the Lapko link, it should be working now. Someone really needs to point these bugs out to me,because I don´t check them weekly, not even every month. To the lovely person who keeps leaving me Lorca poems, thank you so much, I absolutely love them. Oh and one more thing. I am open to all suggestion on what I should write about, assignments are very welcomed as are titles. I can´t always come up with proper ideas and that is when I need someone to give me something to write about. I have two titles that I´ll probably use in the future. I need to keep writing fic, I have noticed my vocabulary isn´t that innovative as it has been.

I have been somewhat productive today. I have more or less baked two cakes with Mom. We had to steal some of Dad´s cognac to bake the other, but I think he won´t mind after he´s got piece of it. The cake was so delicious. And this coming from someone who does not drink alcohol. At all.

Tomorrow will be nerv-wrecking. Arsenal has to beat Liverpool. Gunners have been doing ok lately, though no one should be happy with a draw and Scousers haven´t been that impressive without Torres (I mean, Gerrard is their best scorer at the moment and he isn´t even a striker!) so I really hope the boys will win this one. 2-1 would be my prediction, based on the other two Big Four matches. Just no own goal this time, right. Much depends on how Aston Villa does today. I want them to lose.

I also hate winter breaks. No Bundesliga for over a month, Serie A is going to take a lenghty pause. La Liga is thankfully back right after the new year and Premier never takes a break (well, FA cup, but we can still see them play, so) and that is why it is the greatest league in the world.

I haven´t been doing much today, so I´m going to spare you and go watch a huge bunch of YouTube videos instead. More later. Have fun and take care!

Listening to: Andreas Johnson - Glorious

See If I Care.

I hate Blogger. But I hate RIAA even more. More than I have hated before. They fucking removed one of my posts. Fine, it had copyrighted and protected music in it, but still. Here I am, trying to get people into new music and what do these people do. Stop me. And besides, I kind of think I am allowed to give at least one of the tracks as it is licensed under Creative Commons. So yeah, if you want to know my favourite tracks of 2008 drop me an e-mail and I´ll give you links. Oh, this just proved why RIAA is so wrong and why I do not like it at all.

I wasn´t supposed to begin like that, but I was forced to. Now something else. Yesterday was a bit odd. I was cleaning my room, which isn´t the strange thing. You should have seen my desk, papers, magazines, books, pens, even cds and bills all over it - and I usually want everything to be right on the spot, some people know I can spend way too much time to get table cloths or flowers or stuff like that even. I like my desk better now. But yeah, I was cleaning and all of a sudden I found myself on our kitchen floor, wrapping flowers in paper. I don´t know what happened, my folks wanted to have a nice red foil around the flower pot which somehow meant that I was needed to freehand them and cut them - I can tell you, they were nowhere near round... And then Dad got on the phone and Mom went to watch TV and I was there all alone, wrapping those flowers. Like, I was doing something else, how the hell I´m now doing this? It was so strange. In the end, the flowers looked fine, my room is clean and everything in right order and I got all the Christmas gifts wrapped today, so I don´t think I have much to do.

Champions League draws just got posted online. I´m ripping these ones from Marca, so if some of them sound Spanish, well, it´s because they are.
Chelsea - Juventus. Oh no. I mean, oh no. I want Juve to win this. Like really bad.
Villarreal - Panathinaikos. SO, could we see a Villarreal match on the TV?
Sporting - Bayern München. Don´t care.
Atlético de Madrid - Porto. Atléti, please, win.
Olympique Lyon - Barcelona. I´ll give you two guesses which one is going to win and the first one doesn´t count.
Real Madrid - Liverpool. YES! My inner fangirl was screaming of joy. This is going to be interesting.
Arsenal - Roma. Not that easy, but Roma isn´t Barca and they can beat them. Gunners have to beat the Italians. Thank you.
Inter - Man United. I dislike Inter so much, but ManU is on my eternal hate-list, so let it be the Italians.

When I was going through my papers yesterday I found some of my writings from my English writing course I had earlier this year. After that I had some sort of writing fit and spend last night writing four pieces. I actually love one of them, though it might need a bit fixing and it´s a horrible sappy love story kind of thing, but still. So, I´m now doing something I hate and have probably never done before. I´m going to let you read the piece I wrote in January. I never ever let other people read the fiction I´ve written, while in school I think only two or three of my things were ever read a loud, because I never gave permission. So, because I´m doing this, I need comments and ConCrit more than ever to know if I should keep posting what I write or wether I just keep them to myself. This piece is as it was written, no alterations. The idea was to write a descriptive story.

Rush hour in a city

It is an early morning, but the city is already full of hustle and bustle. The traffic is getting really thick and drivers are becoming frustrated, judging by the sound of the horns. Men wearing suits are queuing in front of a coffee stand in order to get their drinks and their day started. The sky is grey and a chilly wind is twiddling people´s hair.

A young boy wearing red shoes stands up from a bench and starts walking. He passes by a group of giggling girls and gazes at them quickly. He then decides to concentrate on an old man reading the newest bestseller book. The boy stops and starts to draw him with a coloured chalk. A busy man accidentally pushes the boy and his sketch is ruined.

The red-shoed boy continues his walk, but is forced to sidestep a flock of pigeons and almost bumps into a newspaper stand. The tabloids are shrieking the news about a death of a popular actor, but the boy ignores them. He seems determined to capture the hectic morning in the city. He sketches out black taxis, people with briefcases and a man who drops his papers when he stumbles.

The boy leaves his drawing on a squalid table at a nearby cafe and heads for the underground. He gets surrounded by striding people and disappears. The picture is still on the table and everyone can see what the city looks like during the rush hour.

The story actually has one of my trade marks, but I won´t tell what it is, you need to spot it yourselves. But comments are now loved more than ever before.

Also, thanks to the person who left a Lorca poem as a comment, I really loved it. I´m still going through the plays and cannot wait to read the poems. The comment kind of made my day.

I´m off to do something else than post my writings in any form. Have fun, take care!

Listening to: Disco Ensemble - First Aid Kit

One Hundred And Rising.

It is time to celebrate as according to my calculations this is my 100th post. Because of that, I´m bringing you a new lay out. I do not remember what I was searching when I stumbled on to the palm picture, but I liked it and you´ll see it as the header for a while. The lyrics are from the Chris Cornell song (Follow My Way) and I thought they might fit in quite nice. A blue lay out this time in a way it reminds me of winter but at the same time it´s the bright blue skies of summer. You decide what you see. Let me know what you think of it.

I am also dropping the four letters from the end. Not because I don´t think they are funny or stand behind what they mean or... I do, but I think it´s time to drop the inside joke. Instead of them you´ll get to know what I´m listening to as I´m writing these entries.

Like I told yesterday, I have a topic for today´s post. I was so wanting to post it earlier, but I decided to keep it to myself until I reach the 100 post mark. So now you get it too. I´m bringing you my Top 10 football icons of all time -listing. While reading it, please remember I´m 19 and haven´t been watching football that long. And when I´ve been watching I´ve had periods during which I haven´t paid that much attenttion. There won´t be Maradona or the likes on the list. And when I´m using the word icon I´m merely referring to the fact that these men (if I´d done this with women it would have had like only Marta on it...) have been the ones that represent their country or club to me or that I just remember particularly well. But some of them are legends. No one can deny that. Here we go.

Raúl.
The captain and symbol of Real Madrid, who used to captain La Seleccion too. You don´t need the family names to know who I´m talking about. I remember that for years he was the Spanish football to me. I guess it was because his name was short and thus easy to remember, maybe also because as a striker he was always in a way leading the pack. When I was younger I used to think he was amazing, scoring beautiful goals. I can not even tell when I first saw him and started to think he was brilliant but I´ve been young because Raúl is one of those footballers I have known ever since I have watched the games. I still think he is great, and respect him much.

Ronaldo.
The original Brazilian one. I remember him from the 2002 World Cup final, scoring two goals. I was at Grandmother´s, watching the match and when I saw him perfrom his magic I was sold. He became the icon of Brazilian football to me. I never was interested in which team he played or any other stuff, but when it was time for the international´s, it was Brazil that I was interested in. He might be past his prime by now, but no one can deny he wasn´t fantastic when he was on the top of his career.

Luis Figo.
One of the very few Portuguese players I have ever liked at least a bit. Once again, it must have been some World Cup or Euro tournament where I have first seen him do his fine tricks. When I was watching a Inter Milan match a weekend or two ago I saw him enter the pitch and suddenly remembered how he had been somehow "hot" (meaning the press was praising him and that kind of things) in the past years. He is still doing quite fine, which is no surprise. If you have the skills, they cannot be taken away. He might have slowed down, but is one of the greatest footballers of all time.

David Beckham.
What can I say, of course he is on the list. He was the one that made football more than just a sport. He was the one who brought it to everyone, the one that made everyone watch his every move be it his new hair style or his latest goal. I don´t know, but I´d be willing to bet he is the best known footballer in the whole world. Even to those who know nothing about the beautiful game. Of course, he is also on the list because he is one hell of a player. I started watching what he was doing when he was still playing in Manchester United and have observed his actions more or less ever since.

Michael Owen.
Maybe the odd one out on this list. Even I am not able to tell why I remember him so well. First and foremost he is an England national team player to me as Finn´s have always seemed to like that NT much. I do not remember him from any of the clubs he´s played with, I just remember him scoring for England. These are the worst reasons ever to get on a list, but I cannot come up with better ones.

Alessandro Del Piero.
Like I have stated, Juventus has a special place in my heart. It was the first Italian team I ever learned to know and of course Del Piero was the first player whose name I was told. Oh what a player he is. Amazing, simple as that. To me, Juventus is Alex. All the other players might leave the club when it´s hard, but not him. I respect him (and some of the other Juventus players for that matter too) playing the one season in Serie B instead of leaving the club in order to play in the highest levels. He isn´t that young anymore, but who needs young when you have brilliant talent that will make people admire you, when you can perform the kind of magic that makes even the opponents fan´s give you a standing ovation.

Zinedine Zidane.
Zizou was French football to me. And he is one of the best footballers of all times too, no doubt of that. I don´t even know what to say about him. As a player he was great and I am not a bit surprised when every new talent is France in compared to him, he is one of the biggest stars ever. It was a huge shame his career ended the way it did and I think people should remember all the other performances he has given, not the one unfortunate incident. I can say, the French football hasn´t been the same since he quit and I think that for a while it won´t be. It will take long to find a new Zizou.

Oliver Kahn.
We make it back to the 2002 World Cup once again. It was there when I first noticed the scary German goalkeeper. And after that, Kahn has been German football to me. I think I have never seen him perform badly, he has always made incredible saves that some of the other goalkeepers would have not stopped. If I was ever asked the best goalkeeper in the world, Kahn would be my answer. Germany has done well after he retired, but their goalkeeper hasn´t been the icon of the team. I am glad I saw his last Bundesliga match last spring and I think I really had tears in my eyes when he was substituted. I think he was one of the biggest reasons Bayern München has done so freaking well. One of the biggest indeed.

Edgar Davids.
Okay, maybe he is the odd one out on this list. I admit, it was the glasses and the hair that made me remember him. But you cannot say that he hasn´t done hard work on the Dutch NT midfield.
He was the one I kept watching whenever The Netherlands were playing because he was the colour the game needed. If it´s any consolation to anyone, Ruud Van Nistelrooy is on my bubbling under list, al the way back from his Man United days.

Jari Litmanen.
A Finn on the list. I might not be his fan, I cannot say he isn´t the best and biggest footballer Finland has ever had. He is way past his prime by now, but when he was younger he was good. In Finland, he is called "The King". That says pretty well how much appreciated he is here.

I am sorry this is heavy with pictures and might take some time to load, but I wanted to do this properly. I also hope the pictures are on the places I wanted them to be when I wrote this.

There will be a lot of post after this one, but right now I have spent so much time writing this one that I´ll need to do something else in order to be able to provide you with some quality the next time I post. I would really like to hear your thoughts about the icons listing, maybe you´d like to share your list with me and also opinions on the new lay out are more than welcomed.

Until next time, take care!

Listening to: Amigos de Iker vs. Amigos de Rafael

I Do Not Want This.

For once the title actually says what I think. I really do not want this. I don´t want yet another sleepless night during which I think what I would want to do and what I won´t do. I am, for some reason, once again struggling with my studies. Or more likely the fact that I do not know what to do. I haven´t read that history book I´ve had on my desk for some time, it is extremely boring and has made me think wether I really want to study history after all. Or what ever that subject that would literally translate "political history" ever is. And really, if I could just concentrate on that instead of reading about how one should study history, I´d be more than happy. I do want this, but... I was once again surfing on the university website and thinking that if I ever get in, what else would I like to study. Just why, why cannot that university have journalism? Ok, they have it with another name, but it is not the same. I mean, I´d be thrilled if I could combine politics, history and journalism, it would be like heaven. And add a language or two and see me happy. At least the book I´m supposed to read for the entry exam is from a series I´ve already read and found quite interesting, so I might actually read it more than once. And yeah, I still have plan B and maybe even C in my pocket, but I´d much rather stick to the A. I don´t know, just had the feeling that I don´t have the faintest clue on what I want last night and that thought kept me awake for two hours. So I fell asleep around 2 AM I think. Gosh, couldn´t I just get myself think something else and stop worrying for a couple of weeks...

And why am I not a master at German or Spanish so I could apply to a university in either of those countries and actully study the history that fascinates me the most? Oh yeah, maybe because my parents only speak Finnish (fine, Mom knows some Swedish) and have let me make my own decisions ever since I entered upper secondary school. Sigh. Well, I am trying to do something about it. My own language knowledge I mean. Speaking of languages, I managed to get some Garcia Lorca poetry on Saturday. I´m happy now, eventhough I am reading them in Finnish. But at least I have a lot to read.

Moving on to other subjects now that I´ve gotten my study ramble of my chest again. First of all, as I like sports in different variations, shapes and sizes... Anyway, congratulations to the Finnish men´s floorball team that won the World Championship yesterday. Beating Sweden that has been dominating the sport forever. The golden shoe laces must have helped. I was watching TV and checked the textchannel to see if anything special had happen and saw this piece of news and was thinking "Oh my god, they finally managed to beat Sweden? That is one of the coolest sport things this year!". And I´m not even into floorball.

Also, I would like to congratulate all the cules for Barcelonas win. It wasn´t a thrilling match, I´ve seen a lot better ones (like the Real Madrid-Sevilla the weekend before), but it was enjoyable. And not that predictable after all. Madrid´s defence held hell of a lot better than it has been lately and even Casillas seemed to be more like the goalkeeper he has been before. But still, Barca was a lot better. Usually people start supporting teams when they keep winning and are on top, I start supporting them when they are doing bad and are in a crisis. Well, not supporting Spurs, but otherwise.

I missed the Boro-match, I was dragged to see Grandma and I didn´t have time to record the match. Thank god for Pay TV and reruns, I´ll see it tomorrow. I just kept reading the BBC live text via my cell phone and what that said the first half was quite fine. Of course I´m not happy with a draw. All the other Big Four teams drawed, I know, but Aston Villa won and took the fourth place, so, I´m not smiling that much. This is someone else´s season. Did watch some Serie A yesterday though, saw Juventus beat AC Milan which made me ridiculously happy. For one, I have always disliked AC Milan so much and Juventus has always had a special place in my heart as it was the first Italian team I ever knew. Second, the match was great. A lot of goals and huge amounts of talent on the pitch.

I watched The Simpsons Movie today. Didn´t bother going to the cinema when it was screening. And I´m happy I didn´t spend my money on it. It was fine, something I watch on a dull afternoon when I´m not happy with anything, have slept too little and don´t feel like doing anything. But I rather take my Simpsons in 30 minute pieces, the story doesn´t work when it is longer than that. The supporting characters are the best the show has and the movie doesn´t have enough of them. I probably won´t watch it again, but at least I can say I´ve seen it.

I have developed a weird obsession with a city. And I will not tell which city, not yet at least. I have been reading its´ Wikipedia entry and watching pictures and thinking how great it would be to get there. Getting there won´t be too easy, if I´d want to visit the place I´d first have to fly to the capital of the country and then probably take a bus to the city. I do not even know why this one city has gotten into me, it´s a new thing. Maybe it´s the architechture, maybe it is the culture that is usually associated with it, maybe it is the location. What ever it is, I know I really am dying to see the place. And I will see it, it is just a matter of time.

I already know what my next post will contain, but it requires a bit of research. Also, I am thinking this blog will have something new when I post the next entry. You just wait and see. Until that, take care!

IWFT

Way To Fall.

Our library sucks a bit. Just a bit, because I got heaps of good albums that I wanted to have but didn´t care to buy and am now bringing them to iTunes. The reason I actually decided to go to the library today was to get some poetry. And just for the record, I very seldom read poems. I was looking for something by Federico Garcia Lorca since I decided that if I can´t travel outside Finland at the moment, at least I can travel with a book or something at home. The had zero Garcia Lorca poetry. Nothing, nada. I did get some of his plays though, Bodas de sangre and other plays. In Finnish, it would take me years to read them in Spanish. And I did get poetry in the end too, Les Fleurs de Mal by Charles Baudelaire. In Finnish too, my French sucks even harder than my Spanish. I really should brush up the French... And I have a goal in my Spanish studies. To understand and be able to communicate and all that stuff of course, but the day I can read Cien Anos de Soledad in Spanish, I´m happy with myself.

I haven´t done any studying today and I feel a bit bad about it. But I kept reading about some possible schools I might want to apply to. I have a feeling I might not want to study in a university after all, I have found a couple of other options that sound quite good. I got to keep reading about them a bit more, how to apply. It won´t hurt to apply. Much.

I don´t think there are much transfer rumours today, I haven´t been paying that much attention. But. Edwin Van Der Sar has signed a new contract with Man United and will keep playing until 2010. He´ll be almost 40 by then... Also, Real Madrid´s Ruben De La Red will be out for the rest of the season. Apparently his health issues need to be solved, it is suspected that he might have some genetic thing.

I very much doubt I´ll be posting anything tomorrow as I am planning on having a real football day. Starting with my rollercoaster boys against Middlesbrough and hoping Gunners can get back on the winning track, moving onto watch Stuttgart vs. Bayern München just because Bundesliga is lovely, especially after the final whistle. The day will be crowned with El Clásico. Blanco o blaugrana navidad? No matter which one of them wins, it will be great entertainment. Oh, and I am wishing Real wins (seems quite impossble, but you never know with El Clásico), but if I were betting, I´d put my money on Barcelona.


Posting these two pictures I took the other day. I am not that satisfied with them, but I just love the snow. As always, ConCrit and other comments are more than lovingly welcomed. Now I´m going to check if the e-mail finally works. More soon!

IWFT

A Hard Try.

I was reading through some random football news and one of them made me sad. A one about Adrian Mutu, for heavens sake... Fiorentina played Steaua yesterday in Romania and apparently the home team fans weren´t that into Mutu. I mean, I think you are entitled to boo to the players if they are doing extremely bad, you have paid to see them play and expect to see the best. And I understand that of course you want to insult the opponent too, but taking one person as a target? I don´t care if he was formerly playing for Steaua´s rival team. I assume those people who were insulting him also support the Romania national team. So, you are taking something out on your own player? With a subject I bet Mutu is willing to put behind. Fine, he made a really big fuck up when he used cocaine and got busted, but it was his mistake and the has to face the consequenses. Which he is doing, as far as I have read. That was four years ago, ever heard of forgive and forget? The unfortunate actions will always shadow Mutu´s career, but he has been fine since and Chelsea isn´t ecxactly on the bottom either. So maybe those fans could let it go now. It is supposed to be about the game after all. Respect.

By the way, I have to point out that i absolutely love the little commercial before the second half kick off that Champions League has. The one about how football connects people even if they don´t support the same team. I know how much it is true and have this huge, idiotic smile on my face every time I see it. Sometimes it´s the best part of the match.

Transfer rumours are all over the place again. I don´t know, Man City is after everyone and most seem to want Amir Zaki. From what I´ve seen, Arsenal hasn´t told anything about wether they are after someone or not. Makes me a bit sad, because we need players. I guess we won´t be getting Xabi Alonso anymore...

Every single music magazine (and non-music magazine too) is making the Albums of the Year listing. Quite obvious choices, Coldplay, Metallica, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Duffy... Rolling Stone did choose TV On The Radio´s Dear Science as the best album, but at the same time they do not have Portishead on their list. Shame on them, I understood Third was amazing. I can´t actully say which is my favourite album of the year, but TV On The Radio has been playing much, the album is brilliant. Also, MGMT´s Oracular Spectacular is great, I am still loving it. The Raconteurs, Glasvegas, Nine Inch Nails and Disco Ensemble released albums that I have been listening hell of a lot this year. I just bought The Last Shadow Puppets´ The Age of The Understatement yesterday and like it very much. I need to check what I´ve been listening this year and tell you what are my favourites after that. But I can say, this year gave us quite a lot magnificent music.

One thing about movies. Our biggest daily newspaper was running a story about a movie called Milk. So I had to check IMDB after reading the article. It´s about Harvey Milk, a gay politician who gets assasinated. I was raging about Prop 8 a while back and now that I heard about this movie I know I need to see it. Critics have been saying it´s one of the best movies of 2008 and I really want to believe them. Unfortunately it premieres here in March, so I got to wait. Directed by Gus Van Sant and casting such names as Sean Penn (one of my all time favourite actors), Emile Hirsch and Josh Brolin this can only be good. Not to mention the topic is really hot right now. Maybe it will open eyes in the not so open-minded parts of USA.

J, my e-mail is screwing again and doesn´t work. I´ll try to write as soon as it co-operates with me again.

IWFT

On.

I wasn´t too keen on thinking of a witty title, so that´s what you get. An interesting day today. Of course, Martti Ahtisaari got his Nobel Peace Prize and we all should be ecstatic and overly proud of him at the moment. Yeah, I´m not that much, but you can be if you feel like it. I would like to highlight the fact that today is also the Human Rights Day and I think that beats even the Nobel prize. And it is the 60th anniversary of the day. Imagine your life without the basic rights that you don´t ever think about. Right to life, liberty, freedom of expression, equality before law, the right to have education and to work... Sounds everyday to us, but that´s certainly not the case everywhere. Just think about the right to life. The most important right of all. And as a westener I can write this as I have the right to express myself freely, but if I were in totalitarian country, I couldn´t do this. So I think it´s in a way also my responsibility to remind you of this day. The day and the rights aren´t just words on paper, they have a meaning.

My right arm is sore at the moment, as I went to get my Havrix (hep A vaccination) injection today. The second one and now I don´t have to worry about it for years. But yeah, for some weird reason my arm ain´t that nice at the moment. Will pass soon, I know. Just waiting to get to the nurse to inject it took an hour. The health center was packed and understaffed as it always seems to be. I was feeling so bad for this girl that apparently had broken her pinkie (I know what it´s like, I have broken mine too. Actually, it was not my fault.) and had been waiting there for ages. And then there was this absolutely adorable little boy with his mother. The boy had a really bad fever, I know it as I talked to the mother for a while and I felt like I wasn´t supposed to be there. I just needed someone to stick a needle in my arm, the others actually needed health care. I know I sound like a fucking snob and all, but when I really need health care, I go private. Unless it´s like really ER kind of thing. I can´t imagine how bad I would have felt if I´d been forced to wait for a doctor when I had lumbago. I can assure you, it really hurts like hell.

I did take some pictures today, but I am still unsure if I want to post any of them. It seems to be so hard to get a new point of view to the pics and then I think they are all boring. Maybe I post one or two later. They have a lot of snow as it had snowed coulpe of inches during the night. I like it. Much.

It still not January and the transfer rumors are going wild. Apparently, Real Madrid are still after Andrei Arshavin (who has admit his agent is in talks with the team, the price being about 20 millions) and about half of the Spurs pack. Liverpool are targeting HSV striker Ivica Olic (no, please, just no). Half of Valencia team seems to be on the market, Man City having their eyes on David Villa. Former Valencia goalie Timo Hildebrand officially became a Hoffenheim goalie, it is on the news today. To make it clear, everyone is after everyone, even if they aren´t saying it.

Oh, now that I remeber it, UEFA wants to know your Team Of The Year. I am not sure about mine yet, I have to do some thinking. Ok, I registered my team as following:

Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas. This one was really hard. Casillas might have been rusty this fall, but before the season kicked off... If subs were allowed, mine would have been Petr Cech. And I think it was very unfair to have Igor Akinfeev there too. But no Pepe Reina?
Right back: Bacary Sagna. Of course. I love Arsenal and he does fantastic job. My sub would be Sergio Ramos, but I still think he makes a good central defender too.
Central defenders: Tomas Ujfalusi and Carles Puyol. They are great at what they do and I wasn´t too keen on the other options. My second choices would be Jamie Carragher and John Terry. See, what I mean about the options?
Left back: Yuri Zhirkov. I know, this is the surprising one. I haven´t seen much of him, but I was impressed. My sub would be Joan Capdevila, but I am also a little pissed that Gael Clichy wasn´t nominated. He would have been my first choice in a heartbeat.
Right midfielder: Christiano Ronaldo. I would be insane not to choose him, no matter how much I dislike him. Bastian Schweinsteiger would be the sub, not great but neither were the others.
Central midfielder: Xavi Hernandez. You know him right? His actions speak for him. I´d sub him with Marcos Senna.
Attacking midfielder: Cesc Fabregas. Another of course. I found this one extremely difficult to choose as Andrei Arshavin is there too (he´d be my sub). But yes, Fabregas it is.
Left midfielder: Franck Ribery. He might have been invisible at the Euros, but with Bayern... Usually amazing. Hardest one to sub as there are Andres Iniesta and David Silva.
Forwards: Lionel Messi and Fernando Torres. Again, I´d be insane not to choose Messi. He is like... beyond words. And Torres. Proved to be good, big time. I was almost ditching Torres and choosing Zlatan Ibrahimovic instead, but I couldn´t. Zlatan would be my first sub, David Villa being the second.
Coach: Sir Alex Ferguson. The only choice. There was no one else.
So, my UEFA Team of 2008 would be Casillas - Sagna, Ujfalusi, Puyol, Zhirkov - Ronaldo, Xavi, Fabregas, Ribery - Messi, Torres - Ferguson. And against all my principles (never have goalie or forward as captain) I chose Casillas as captain. You go give your vote and let me know what your team looks like.

I am off to write an e-mail now. Posting some time soon again.

IWFT

Let Me Down Gently.

I know that when I have a 100% better day than I am having today I´ll deeply regret ever writing this... I am not the kind of person that easily opens up and talks about things and I don´t do it now, because I don´t think there would be anyone I´d talk to face to face. So I´ll write as this still is supposed to be my personal journal and I need to get things of my chest. Really bad.

I have developed this very un-Finnish way of telling how I am. I mean, when someone asks how I´m doing I just answer fine instead of being a Finn and complaining about everything. To be honest I don´t know what I´d answer if someone really wanted to know what´s going on. I have no idea. I woke up today and was just laying in my bed trying to come up with reasons to get up. The only one was that if I didn´t get up, I´d have to explain that to my parents and I really didn´t feel like doing that. So I got up and drank my morning tea and tried to think of something to do. I did end up taking a walk and some photos, but I really think none of them are good enough to be posted here.

That is one of my problems at the moment. I think nothing is good enough. Fine, I think I´m not good enough. I have pretty much lost the little that was left of my self confidence. You have no idea how frustrated and anxious I get when I start thinking about next year, what school to apply to and how much reading the entrance exams take. If I´d start to think what would happen if I don´t get in to any school... Well, I don´t want to think about it. I can accept being rejected once, because I wasn´t even sure I was applying for a school I seriously wanted to be in, but if I have to go through that again... This can be topped with the fact that I haven´t much read those books I should have been reading because the first exam. It went to perfectly well that now I´m afraid I´ll just fuck the next one up big time.

And of course, I keep worrying about my parents. My mother, losing her jof of 25 years, being unemployed and not even knowing when her last day of work will be. And Dad, he was just today given a schedule of their possible lay-off. We are doing fine at the moment, but I am who I am and an´t help but worry eventhough I know it won´t do any good. And I know that if they both are at home in spring when I´m supposed to be studying, I know I´ll snap at them. And I hate myself for that. But I know that at some point they start to irritate me so much that I either keep it all to myself and build the pressure or shout at them, which is something I really don´t want to do. I need to space and time alone. But at the same time I need people.

I am sick of not seeing anyone, not hearing from anyone. I don´t know how my, I don´t know if the term still applies, friends are doing and I hate it that I can´t answer my Mom´s questions about how they are doing. I rarely meet anyone. I remember how sad I was feeling when I informed Emmi of one match that will be played next year and she pointed out it was a birthday of our friend, but that it probably didn´t matter anymore. It felt so bad. I have no idea what this friend has been doing lately. I am sick of being the one that tries to stay in contact with everyone, usually without response. The little cheers of my days are e-mails from John, because it means someone wants to know what I´ve been up to lately. And also, if I could, I´d give Emmi the biggest hug ever for putting up with me, more than it probably is healthy.

The only time today when I really felt happy when I sitting on the livingroom couch, doing my Spanish exercises. I felt that I had actually accomplished something even if I´m doing them mostly for myself.

I think I´m done with the opening up. Everyone who knows me even a little knows this is something I do not do. And like I said, on a bright day this is something I regret doing, but I needed this right now. I know this probably changes nothing, but it makes me feel better. And I really hope my shaky fingers have hit even most of the right buttons and this is readable. Don´t know if that´s a word, but not caring enough to check.

And after the angst something else.

So, Schuster finally got sacked. I am no Madridista, but I have been feeling sorry for the team. Actually, I blame reading Marca for having any kind of feelings for them. At least i´m not rooting for Barcelona... Anyway, I wasn´t even surprised when I saw it on TV, as even I know that as a coach you don´t go and say it´s not possible to beat Barcelona ("Ahora mismo no es posible ganar en el Camp Nou."). And when it comes to Spain, they are quick to try to fix things, unlike in England I´d say. I have very little to say about their new coach, Juande Ramos. I like Sevilla and understand he did hell of a good job there, but everyone remembers how magnificent the season start of Tottenham was. Not that I mind. I don´t know, but it feels like El Clasico just turned out to be a bit more interesting than everyone was expecting. Oh and I have to say, after the great German had said that quote, Raúl came and said something along the lines "Con esta camiseta se sale siempre a ganar.". Have to respect the man for loving his team. And if your Spanish isn´t as good as mine (believe me, mine isn´t that great), use translator or just guess. Good luck to Real Madrid, they´ll need it. Really.

Also, I am so sad. Arsenal.com told yesterday that Tomas Rosciky´s return is at March the earliest. So so sad. I miss him. I miss his style of play, I miss having someone great at the midfield. If he ever comes back this season it is still over a year after his injury. As much as I hate to say it, I think his career is at the end. Wouldn´t want it to be, but... Just hoping he´ll return in the glory of his best days. Until that, I´m a bit sad. A bit only, because Eduardo is coming back. It´s like Christmas. Oh, wait...

I don´t know if I have anything else to say today. I´ll post more when I am up to it.

IWFT

Planet Of Sound.

Happy Independence Day Finland! I hope all of you are looking forward to tonight, getting ready to judge the dresses. I know I am, the little fun that everyone is allowed to have once a year. And also, Spain, happy Constitution Day!

I guess I´ll be skipping The Unknown Soldier tonight, I think I have seen enough of it. I mean, I have sit through the four hours or so of it three or four times. It´s good and apparently quite truthful, but I know better movies. I am not a fan of those war movies, unless they are top quality and well, usually they aren´t, unfortunately. I´d still say, the best war related film I´ve seen is The Band of Brothers. It is so great, no one can deny that.

The Cathedral of the Sea can be crossed off from my Christmas wishlist, I know I´ll get it. All the other items on the list still stand, at least I don´t know if someone is planning on buying them to me. I am on pretty good spree of buying/doing Christmas presents myself, I think I have purchased half of them. I just need to figure out what to get to my brother and Grandma. Why is it that buying stuff to some people is so much easier than to some others?

Just watching Arsenal-Wigan, I spent ages on finding a stream as none of my TV channels is broadcasting it live. And you have no idea how hard it was to find a stream that actually works. I know people want to ban EPL streaming, but I think they really shouldn´t. I mean, there are people who want to watch the matches and can´t get them on regular TV. Oh yeah, Arsenal leads 1-0, but I am not having my hopes up, anything can really happen. Adebayor hit the post just before the whistle and I think I actually said "motherfucking post" out loud...

I need to praise A Cross The Universe a bit. It is the absolutely brilliant live album by Justice. I purchased it a while back and have been listening to it pretty much every day. All the Justice songs that are killer and added with the live feeling. I feel like dancing every time I listen to it. A trip back to last June, to the huge tent at Provinssirock where they had an amazing set. Ok, they might not beat Daft Punk, but are still worth listening to. Check them out if you have any interest in electronic music.

And my stream just died, so this will be the second Arsenal match of the season I´ll miss. Oh, no, not miss entirely, I´l watch the rerun on Wednesday (!). Just hope they don´t fuck it up... What made me extremely happy is that Eduardo is set to return on December 16th. A reserves match, but he is coming back. How we have missed him. And the final result is 1-0, not great, but 3 points.

I´m off to watch TV and do the judging. More when two people aren´t shouting at me, telling me to get my ass on the couch to watch the ball with them.

// Ok, done with the watching. Some pretty nice dresses, the Prime Minister´s, erm, escort (not the right word, but it´s way too late for me to come up with any better...) had a really nice simple dress. I think everyone liked it. Papers will be full of pictures tomorrow, no doubt of that. No big disasters, but no big names either, it was rather boring this year.

I also now know that I really need to check the match rerun on Wednesday. Gunners weren´t bad from what I read (and saw about 60 mins), playing more of the football I learned to love. Eboue was his normal horrible self and RVP threw away plenty of good goals. A win is a win and that´s what matters.

IWFT

December.

Happy December 1st, now it´s officially allowed to start waiting for the Christmas to come. Also, you can now start thinking what you want for Christmas. I would like to have snow, a lot of it, a bit of peace and quiet and good time with my family. Though this Christmas will be odd, the first one without Grandpa...

I also have to remind everyone that today is the World AIDS Day. According to UNAIDS there are estimated 33 million people living with the virus. Of course, the situation is worst in Africa, where the health care won´t help and too many children get infected. It´s not good. I really don´t want to judge, because people make mistakes and they have to live with the consequenses, but you know there are ways to prevent HIV. Even if you and I are negative, it doesn´t mean that saomething can´t happen. So please, prevent the virus from spreading by using a condom. It is called respect. Here is the rich west we know what to do, now I can just hope that people in Africa start to understand what it takes. I am wearing red today. How about you?

I do not know, maybe I should not bring this up today, but I feel like I need to. I want to write about same-sex marriages. Here in Finland a same-sex couple can register their relationship and have pretty much the same rights as man and woman have in a marriage. Though, the church isn´t that big on same-sex couples, I remember the "is it right or is it wrong" -talk when a couple got benediction. If I believed in some kind of God, I´d like to believe all He wants is to everyone to be happy, so why not allow same-sex couples get married and get same rights as man and woman couples get? And if they want to do it in front of the eyes of God, they should have the right to do so. Same-sex couplse still can´t adopt kids together here, even if the other one of the couple has a child, the other one has no legal rights to be a parent of the child. I think that is highly unfair and I really hope they get that thing fixed as soon as possible. But why am I writing about this? I read a heart-breaking story yesterday and had to check out this Prop 8 that passed in California while the world was celebrating the election of the first black president of USA.

I mean, people. You had already ok´ed the same-sex marriages and then you take it back. You cannot do that! This doesn´t affect me, I am straight and don´t live in California, but it still makes me sad. That people still won´t accept the fact that a love between two men or women can be just as pure as it can be between a man and a woman. Now I would like to know what you think of this. Should same-sex marriages be allowed and if not, then why? You know what I think, if it´s love, then of course. If you are against them, please tell me why. And I will not accept "they are not normal, it is not what God wanted" -kind of answers. I understand that some people have strong religious convictions and that affects their lives. I just can´t believe people in California aren´t tolerant. They were and suddenly they are not? What happened? It´s not like a gay marriage will be a threat to the "normal" marriage. If the love is strong enough, there shouldn´t be a threat. This just makes me sad. It´s all I can say.

And on with the football. It has finally sunk in that Gunners actually beat the shit out of Chelsea. Fine, they handed the one goal to the Blues (unfortunately), but otherwise they did pretty good job. Maybe the didn´t rule the entire match, but win is all that matters. And apparently Arsenal plays hell of a lot better against the big teams. Remember what happened to Man United? Yeah, me too. Van Persie was of course the man of the hour, two goals in less than five minutes. He might have been offside during the first (he was, but the flag was kept down), but the goal stands and that´s what matters. I was really happy at that point, thinking a draw will be great, but then came the second goal. Totally out of the blue (no pun intented) and there it lay, behind the back of Petr Cech. After that all i could think was that Gunners will fuck it up so bad, but they did not and left the pitch as the heroes they were. A fucking sweet victory.

Yes, RVP is back on track churning goals, but he wasn´t the only one doing great. I have to say, Almunia has been pretty good, if you do not count the situation that resulted the Chelsea goal. And Sagna, gosh, I didn´t realise how much they had missed him. He was once again awesome. And so was the second half Clichy. The captaincy has seemingly cheered Fabregas up, he is the magical wizard we know he is. And his 150th Premier League appearance, first as captain ending with a victory must have felt absolutely fabulous. Nasri was a bit out, but Ade back after injury was doing pretty well. They need to keep doing like this. The kids will be playing Burnley tomorrow. They have been amazing, and that is what I expect them to be again. We´ll see. Right now, I still want to celebrate. Beating the almost unbeateble Chelsea. A fine moment indeed.

I have excluded one item from my wishlist, it was never there and won´t be, because I want to assume I am getting the, now almost annual, boy calendar from Emmi. No pressure, but I´ll be bit disapointed if I don´t :D. And Dad promised to pay part of my camera, so now all I have to do is to decide which one I want to get.

I´ll be posting again soon. Until that, take care!

IWFT

Miracle.

FUCK YES! Chelsea 1 - Arsenal 2! A great win at Stamford Bridge. Just what the doctor ordered. This is what the team, the players, we fans need. Looks like our new captain is some kind of good luck charm. Feels so fucking great right now. A win. I´ll get you another update tomorrow, after I´ve actually had time to analyze this match a bit more. I just needed to burst this magnificent feeling out. Let´s all celebrate the win over Chelsea. YES!

Shoeshine.

Believe me, I had a much better title in mind, but now that I actually need it, I can´t remember it. Anyway, all of you should know what I´m on today as last night was UCL day. First of all, congratulation to Captain Fabtastic to leading his side to a victory. This is going to be slightly fangirlish today, but I am ok with that and so should you. Arsenal wasn´t playing thrilling footbaal against Kiev, rather the normal passing they do. And actually, nothing happened until the last minutes, if you don´t count the chances our young star Aaron Ramsey couldn´t use. But I still need to highlight the fact that he is very young and no doubt will be a great player eventually. Seeing Carlos Vela start was something nice, but he wasn´t on his best gear last night, I have seen him do much better. Introducing 16 year old Jack Wilshere as the youngest Arsenal player in European match was lovely, I think I haven´t seen him since preseason... And he has the talent, he really has.

Eventually it was our Danish friend Nicky Bendtner who netted the ball in the 87th minute. Highlights are here, courtesy of 101 Great Goals. The pass Fabregas gives him is purely brilliant. The reason why Cesc is our best player. And thank all the football gods that Nicky actually managed to score, he has a record of not doing that... But against all odds, Cesc passed the long ball to him and it was 1-0 to the Gunners. I still disapprove Nicky removing his shirt when celebrating (for the future, he is one of those people I do not want to see without their shirts), but it was the only goal and it was enough. Before I start praising Cesc (which I´ll do), a few words about the others. Clichy was once again playing excellent game, as he usually is. Almunia gets a huge thumbs up for keeping his back clear and no matter how big a prick he is, the team needs Gallas. And I´m glad no one buued him. That is what fans do. Also, the Kiev player taking a red when startong to abuse the ref, very clever move don´t you think?

And the praise our captain part. I am going to quote the SMS conversation Emmi and I had last night during the second half (started by me when I needed to whine about the commentator not getting the name of the stadium right), so Emmi, you can kill me for this good when we see each other next time. She stated that she was proud of Cesc "as if he was her own son" (I was too, still am) and I replied that I would have probably cried if I had seen them come out of the tunnel. Which I missed, but I might have sighed a couple of times when seeing the band on his arm... Then we kept going on how odd it was feel the pride and how cute it was to see Wilshere on the pitch. I also think that Cesc with the band was somehow really cute, at one point he seemed even younger with it than he is. But Captain Fabtastic did extremely well, he needs to keep working like that and we all will love him even more. I could go on and on, but I´m sparing you. I just need to point out that Cesc´s expression on that picture is, well, priceless.

I am listening to the self titled Glasvegas album now that I finally got around to buy it. I like it, very much. Maybe it´s the accent, because I haven´t listened to the lyrics that much yet. Not the most original band in the world, but I happen to like it. And so do all the critics here while everyone else complains they are nothing. This is something I will like to listen to for a long while. Check it out.

I need to redo my Christmas wishlist a bit. I can cross the ring off, as I got it yesterday. Two actually. Silver, really pretty and I can´t believe I need to wait a month to get to wear them. It took quite a while to pick out the one I like and I couldn´t so ended up buying the other one myself. I feel sorry for the poor guy who ever ends up becoming my husband (not in a while, I guess I´ll be needing a boyfriend first :p). It will take ages for me to pick out the ring I want to wear for the rest of my life. I can´t choose, I never can. Everyone who knows me knows making decicions is one of the things I´m not very good at. But I also have a couple of additions to the list.

- The Dark Knight DVD. It was a great movie, visually too, so I can´t wait to see it on my TV. I bet I´ll enjoy it even more. Not to mention the plot and the characters. This far probably the best movie I´ve seen this year. Maybe I´ll hint my brother on this one...

- The Kent CD Box. That might actually have some name. All the albums of my favourite band in one box with songs never heard before and with new artwork by Jocke Berg. What more can one ask for?

- Arsenal Monopoly. Unfortunately they are put of stock, but this is just something so bizarre. My first thought when I saw this was WTF? I mean, what do you buy in this version? Players? If so, then what do you build? This keeps on baffling me until I actually get one. Or at least get around to play this.

I might have something more to say, but my head is empty right now, so I´ll spare you. Waiting for Sunday already, not having my hopes up, but still. And it was a good thing Fab was suspended last weekend, because the first time he is captain in the Prem will be his 150th Prem appearance in the Gunners shirt. One more moment to feel proud. I´m off now, have fun and take care!

IWFT

Hallelujah.

This post is here only for one reason. Say hello to the new Arsenal captain, Cesc Fabregas! It was about time. He should have been given the band months ago. Well, finally he has it. Now I really hope he can take the pressure and unite the team to be the team we all so dearly love. Tomorrow´s match against Kiev will be tricky as hell, and I´m not expecting miracles. Right now it just feels that Wenger took a step to the right direction. I hope Cesc proves he is worth the band (nah, he´s already done that) and won´t pull a Henry at the end of the season. After all, at the moment he is one of the most loved players the team has. Suddenly tomorrow can´t come fast enough. Gallas will still be playing, which doesn´t thrill me, but the team kind of needs him so...

Every single Gunner blogger is typing as fast as they can I am sure of that. Like I am an exception, because I am not. Maybe this insanity can now stop and they can start acting like a Big Four team they are. And no matter what happens, fans won´t leave them. You choose the team with heart and you´re bound to it for good. Now, let´s see what this new era brings to us. Come on you Gunners!

IWFT

Wishlist.

Expect nothing, get nothing in return. Arsenal is playing so un-Arsenal right now. Another loss, and I´me getting used to it. The thing I was most interested today was wether Gallas is benched - no, he was excluded from the entire team and if Bendtner actually has those ravishing pink booths I´ve been hearing about all week - yes, he had. They don´t have the chemistry in the team to make them winners and people, remember to watch Gunners play Dynamo Kiev on UCL on Tuesday, because chances of seeing them next season are getting smiller every weekend. A one win this year would make me more than happy.

Ok, there were two things that made me happy today. Two people, I am not objectifying anyone. Vela and Ramsey. I might not know much about great players and stuff, but I can see the huge potential on those two. The minute Ramsey stepped on pitch, the team found a new gear and Vela is a hell of a lot a better striker than Bendtner. Hopefully next season´s team will be build around them. Hoping it would be build around Fabregas is more than wishful thinking, because every day I´m starting to believe more and more that he´ll be a Barcelona star next season. As much as I hate to say this, letting Flamini leave this summer was one of the biggest mistakes Wenger has ever made. I guess now I know what Spurs fans were feeling the first ten rounds or so. Not so happy now. (And I just read this lovely piece of news telling Gallas has lost the captain´s band for good. Thank God, it was about time. He managed to make himself the most hated person on the team. Provided he ever is part of the team again.)

I was at Grandma´s today, again. Cleaning up her house with Mom. And Dad was visiting his Mum I guess. I´m not very much in touch with his side of the family, I don´t know, maybe because they don´t live within a half an hours drive. It´s an hours drive... Maybe I´ll pay them a visit sometime during the Holidays.

I actually chose the title on purpose. I´m posting my Christmas gift wishlist. With some links and all. Most of the will be in Finnish, as I´m too lazy to search for them in English. Sorry, it´s my bad, I know.

- A new camera. I have set my eyes on Canon PowerShot G10. But then again, PowerShot SX1 Is has a xoom to die for. I guess I´ll end up having either one of those. The former one has more megapixels, but it´s not just about them you know.

- Marimekko´s Makoto bag. Not in that colour though, I think I´d go for the black/grey version of it, even the orange/black version is better than that pictured. It´s one of those bags that fits perfectly on your shoulder and has enough space for everything. And it´s expensive as hell.

- The Cathedral of The Sea by Ildefonso Falcones. A novel set in medieval Barcelona. I haven´t checked the plot, because I actually want to read it. I just took a quick look at the back cover.

- A Pure Drop. The Life of Jeff Buckley by Jeff Apter. I love Buckley, so this one is quite obvious. And Apter is a good writer, I liked his book about Dave Grohl. This would be so great.

- Someone to pay me Huvfudstadsbladet for the next year. I´d love to read it, but it´s a bit too expensive for me to get it myself.

- A ring. And this one is the one i know I´ll get as Mom promised to buy me one. She just needs my fingers when she is buying it. I totally understand. It´s going to be silver, but I´ll know more when I actually visit a jewelry store and find a ring I´ll like.

- Plane tickets and accommondation. To Spain and in Spain. And from Spain eventually. This is one of those funny ideas that just has to be made real. Like a trip to Monaco except this one will cost a lot more. One day, my dears, one day.

I´ll update this when I come up with things I´d like to have. The list isn´t long, but we have an agreement with my family not to buy anything silly that no one needs. This also means candy in every size and shape and form. I have eaten all the candy I want to eat this year. Even thinking about having to eat chocolate, no.

More text will come when I have something more to ramble about. Until that, have fun and take care! It´s a winter out here, so don´t crash your cars or break your limbs. Enjoy the snow, it might not last.

IWFT