Come hea!

How are you doing all my sweethearts there far far away? Hope it’s still nice and warm in Europe. Here everything is going good and smoothly, if we just ignore the fact that I had those days again, that I was missing home and all of you guys out there so much that I thought that I wouldn’t make the next 13 months that I still have left here. But luckily I won the battle in my twisted little mind and now I am fine again.

This week work was pretty much ok. Normal stuff, organizing media trips to Scandinavia, writing media coverage reports, dealing with clients. We also had few meetings in our office and on Friday we went up to the city to the office of Scandinavian Airlines and had a chat with the head of the SAS Australia Lars Sørensen about the coming projects. Besides working I have been punishing myself in the gym. I found this new fitness class called body compact, it is a mixture of boxing, kickboxing and screaming which is pretty funny =)

On Friday evening the boys (Chris and Marko) picked me up and we went to have a dinner in Cremonre, some yummy Thai. Later we decided to see an Australian movie, called Jindabyne. I really wanted to go to see one Aussie band called Eskimo Joe, which is quite hip at the moment. They were playing in the city, but like usually with my luck the tickets were sold out. The movie was based on a true story and therefore it was interested to see and also because it was Australian. Few years back few men went for fishing trip and found a dead woman in the river in Jindabyne, which is a town in New South Wales. The killer never got caught and he is still out there hunting for the next victim….oooh scary!!! Quite like our Bodom lake story in Finland. After the movie we went for a couple of drinks in the Oaks, which is “the place” in Neutral Bay (where I live). We managed to go home after 2 drinks, impressive, eh?

On Saturday morning I woke up at six and couldn’t get anymore sleep. The day was gorgeous and me and Marko decided to check out the neighbourhood in Watson’s Bay. Manly has been so far my favourite place, but after seeing Watson’s I was hooked. The place is amazing because it is located on a slope and you can see the city with all the skyscrapers and the Harbour Bridge. On the harbour there is one of the best seafood restaurants I have ever eaten called Doyles. We had a lovely lunch with prawns, salmon, on the terrace and it was so warm that it was hard to understand that this is the winter in Sydney. Later that evening I had the family dinner at our place. It was a farewell dinner for Christian (Jules nephew 23) who is going to England to play rugby for 3 weeks in October. Also there was his mother, Jules brother, Trevor and his 2 kids (Sarah 23 and Rob 17). The evening was lovely and food was delicious (Lasagne, Salad, chocolate cake). The whole family is absolutely great and I am so thankful that I can be part of it this 13 months. After the dinner we went to have few drinks with Christian in the city, in a club where his friend works as a bouncer. Such a nice guy and he promised to teach me how to surf… that will be funny =) We managed to leave quite early and I was a good girl again (holding on with our 2 weeks no drunkenness deal). Well it seemed like Marko forgot that and had a quite wild night in the Rocks (surprise) with Chris.

Sunday morning I woke up again too early and took a buss to Watson’s Bay. My plan was to get some colour to my milky skin, but there was too much wind on the beach just to lay there with bikinis. I was already getting bored to be there alone, when just on the right time Chris called me and told me that his brother (who I haven’t ever met before) was cruising with a boat close by and told me to catch up with them. Well I did and got a freaky bumpy ride in the ocean. After the guys dropped me off I headed back home, took a little nap and baked mokkapalat (my special chocolate cake) and watched few episodes of CSI with Jules… and now it’s time to go to bed. Night! Oh, and one more thing. My Aussie accent is improving. I learned that instead of saying here, Aussies pronounced it as hea… so cute ;)

Summer Im Waiting for you!

I can’t believe that it’s weekend again, days just keep on going by so quickly. The weather has been awful the whole week, heavy rain all day and night long. And I mean REALLY HEAVY! One evening when I left work to go to the gym it wasn’t raining so I left my umbrella to the office and of course when I was going home it was pouring. Honestly I have never ever in my life been so wet! It was so ridiculous and I couldn’t do anything else than laugh… Well few days later I wasn’t laughing any more and I got this flu and I had to skip Friday form work because I was feeling so ill. So there you go!

On Wednesday morning I had my first “Breakfast lecture meeting”. I went there with my colleague, Anders. Tom Burton (former executive editor of the Sydney Morning Herald) was giving a speech about the changes and opportunities of the Australian media. It was pretty interesting and I was really surprised the all the invited people were 20-30 old. I mean I knew that PR industry is relatively young and ruled by young people, but still! I met some interesting people. but as it was time to change business cards I felt a bit awkward and unprofessional because I obviously didn’t have my own business card to give, so I just got a punch of cards in my pocket after I left.

Another funny thing happened to me few days ago as I was on my way to get the mail. I bumped into this old man, called Wayne who I met and started to chat with while I was waiting the train in North Sydney Station 3 weeks ago. He was the one I wrote about earlier, the old man who was offering his time share in the Cold Coast. Anyways, I lost his number when I moved into Julianne’s place, but now I got it again. I think this was meant to happen, destiny!

I really didn’t have any big plans for this weekend. Well I was thinking to have it a bit more relaxed than last weekend. Friday evening I was feeling better so I went movies with Chris (the Aussie guy I met last weekend). First time in my life I saw a movie at first class seats and it was great. The movie wasn’t that spectacular (My super ex-girlfriend), but I enjoyed the free drinks, popcorn and extra comfy seats =) After we picked up Marko from the hostel and had few drinks in Rocks in the same Irish bar we met Chris exactly one week ago.

Saturday morning Marko came to pick me up and we decided to check out the Kirribilly markets. During the weekends there are plenty of outdoor markets, selling food, antiques, art, juwelry, secondhand clothes etc. You can find basically anything there in fair price. We did the whole North Sydney walk and walked that day probably 10 kilmometers. We even walked the Sydney Harbour Bridge which is massive! The weather was great and we enjoyed lunch in Darling Harbour, what else than sushi ;)

Later that night I went to have a dinner with Minka, her boyfriend Tomi and with some of his collegues. We ended up in China Town and had a great meal in Chinese restaurant (surprise). Later we went to one of the clubs in Oxfort Street, called N&N which turned out to be the worst teenager hell that i have been to in a long time. I really didn't feel comfortable queuing there for an hour among all the kids dressed up in their mini tops and tiny skirts. The only way to manage that evening was to get few more drinks ;) Later I took a taxi to Kings Cross and met Chris and Marko in the Empire (which is becoming our regular club). I met so many strange people and most of the time I was hiding from them (after they offered free drinks for me and after I vanished) hehehe… I am such and naughty girl! Well we had to leave around 4am because the bouncer had thrown Marko out because he was feeling a bit tired on the dance floor =) yeah…. what can I say! What a night again!

I forced myself up at eleven because it was such a pretty day and I didn’t want to waste the whole day on sleeping. We decided to take to bus to Manly with Marko and spend the whole day walking on the beach. We also made a promise that we are not going to party for 2 weeks. We will see how that goes =) I really love the lay-back life style here. People gather on the beach during the weekends, go surfing, sailing, scuba, reading magazine on the beach, climbing, having barbi (barbeque), having a nice Sunday walk by the coast line etc. The funniest thing is that you are still able to do all these things, even though it is mid winter here. Manly is the second known beach in Sydney and really popular among the surfers and pack packers. It is just 30mins by bus from the place I live so it is nice to go there every now and then.

So that was the story of the week. I better get to bed now and get a bit more sleep than 5 hours like last night. Greetings to everybody and I still miss you all very mucho! Oh, and Drew congratulations for winning the band contest. I am so proud of you. Everybody go to this website http://www.purevolume.com/maclean/blog and listen the next BIG band from Canada. They will be HUGE! Remember Drew that I am still your biggest fan in Finland!

1 Month Anniversary!

Today it is my 1 month anniversary here in Sydney. Celebration =) In the other hand time has gone so quickly here and so many thinks have happened already, but then again it feels so much longer than 4 weeks when I left Amsterdam. At the moment I am feeling a bit sad because nobody is online (sleeping away their hangovers probably). God I miss you all so much!!!

The pass week has been really good for me. Everything worked out in my work and I feel more confident now what ever I am doing there. This week I was busy with organising media trips, writing itinerarys and reports (Media coverage reports) to our clients, which are done quarterly. Basically my task is to analyse the gathered data and inform our clients how the perception of the public has changed within the period and to research what is the share of the media. It is pretty interesting and days flew by so quickly. I am also happy because now I getting much better along with my boss. Oh yes, and we got a new employee joining us every Monday, Swedish guy called Anders. He is a freelancer journalist. So that makes us the total of 4!!! Besides Me, Satu (my boss) and Anders we have a bookkeeper coming every Tuesday called Marianne.

This weekend was a blast! Finally I tuned on my party mode (took one month, tho). On Friday after work I skipped gym and yoga and we headed for a drink with my boss to the bar next to the office. Most of the offices have tradition to get a drink or few after work, especially on Thursdays (which is the party day of the week) and on Fridays. It was nice to chat with Satu about some normal issues and THANK god in Finnish! Our corporate language is English and English only, which first felt a bit weird, because we are both Finns, for god sake! After she dropped me home and a quick dinner I headed to the city to see Marko. We were supposed to go to have few, but like you probably all can guess, we had a bit more ;) We found this great Irish pub in the Rocks with live music and the singer was amazing (meaning the voice ;) of course and he melted my heart… (Don’t you worry Kelvin, you are still the ONE! heheh! After many many many drinks we met few Australian guys while I was loosing all my money to the gambling machine. They were heading to the Cross (Kings Cross, also known as the X) and asked us to come with them. The X is full of bars, pubs, clubs, drugs and prostitutes and of course we joined them. Chris (the obvious leader of the group) took us from the back door of the club, called The Empire in and my party life in Sydney was officially opened, HURRAY!

The night was fun, long and very expensive for some people. In some point we lost Marko and I was alone with my new Aussie friends. Only the next evening I was able to reach him. That night he lost his phone (a new Nokia, worth of 500€) and spent 300AUD! When I woke up on Saturday morning I was hammered, but I forced myself to wash the laundry and do the groceries with Julianne, as we do every Saturday. After, I decided to make a quick visit to the nearest mall, because the weather was bad the whole weekend. Mum I didn’t buy anything unnecessary ;)

Saturday evening started really relaxed. We watched a movie with Jules and I made some mashed potations and sour cream salmon, yummy! It felt like at home! I really wasn’t supposed to go out that night, but well... I ended up partying big time again. Chris took us to one restaurant called the Libertine, which seemed to be full of beautiful people, pretty girls and rich guys. Girls, that is the place I am taking you all when you come over ;) After we found ourselves in the Empire (again) holding a whiskey cola in my hand. Oh, and the best ending to my night was, when I woke up in a night bus somewhere in Manly (fell asleep and missed my stop). I had to take a taxi, which cost me 25 bucks, God damned! So that’s about my party carrier.

Again in the morning I felt hammered, but I had to recover quickly, because my boss had invited me for a lunch 12:00 at her place. The lunch was lovely, pumpkin soup, self made bread, chicken salad, wine and for desert coffee and cinnamon rolls, that she made herself…yummy, yummy! The rest of the day I watched some more DVD’s with Jules and finally relaxed. Great weekend indeed!

Blue Mountains & Northern Beaches

This weekend we decided to rent a car and explore the areas outside Sydney close by. 11 am Saturday morning I got picked up by the Finnish guys Marko and Mikko from Neutral Bay and my very first road trip in Australia was to begin.

Blue Mountains are located a little over 100 km from centre of Sydney. It consist of series of hills and impressive 250,000 hectares Blue Mountains National Park. The name comes from eucalyptus oil rising off of the trees and refracting the sun’s rays making the mountains really looking blue. The best way to explore the region is bushwalking, and without even planning the route we direct our selves among all the other tourists to the start point of 2,5 hours hiking trip.

Our trip started nearby the Three Sisters, which is the SPOT to take pictures. So did we as well ;) After way too many pictures we started our descending to the bottom of the valley (Giant Staircase) and I have to say that after 841 steps my legs were a bit shaky. The views were amazing, and we were lucky because the weather was sunny, warm and not windy (doesn’t happen very often during the winter). The valley is stuffed with eucalyptus trees and wollemi pines (what was thought to have been extinct for 150 million years). Even though, I tried really hard I didn’t see any koalas, but I heard there are some, well maybe next time. For a moment I was a bit worried that we would have to climb another stairs up to the hill (which would have been a suicide), but luckily in the end of the route there was a train, scenic railway (which is by the way the world’s steepest railway, at an angle of 52) which took us up in few minutes.
Pretty amazing experience!

After we survived up the sun had gone down and it was pretty cold and I had to dig out my winter jacket from my pack bag. From the top there was another 30 minutes walk (uphill walk to our car). After we left Blue Mountains we stopped to have a dinner in the Katoomba city. The whole centre was like a ghost town even it was Saturday evening, but we found one nice Italian restaurant, really popular one and it seemed the whole town was there trying to get a dish at the same time.

One thing about Australia. Most of the restaurants have this policy that you can take your own drinks with you, how great is that. The reason for that is that most of the restaurants don’t have licence for selling alcohol. I heard that it costs around 30 000AUD to get the permit, therefore most of the smaller places can’t afford it. Well, I think it is a great deal for consumers!

On Sunday we decided to experience some beach life and we planned our trips towards the northern beaches. From the place I live, Neutral Bay all the way to Palm Beach (1,5 hours by car) there are beaches and more beaches after another. At least now I know how I will spend my summer weekends ;) Here are some pictures (coming in few days) from Dee why, Palm Beach and Collaroy.

Oh, and just for the record, I got my internet today. So I can skype etc. from home now!!! Miss you all very incredibly much! And if you have time I would LOVE to hear from you! Enjoy the summer heat in Finland, soon it is gone…

Winter wonder land!

Two weeks have flown by and I am finally starting to find my place. But let’s go back few days. I moved out from my first hostel last Wednesday. It must have been a sight, me dragging all my stuff (the amount of luggage have increased already quite a lot ;)) at 7am and trying to get a taxi in the worst rush-hour time. Finally I got one and direct myself few blocks towards the city. The hostel is located right in the centre, above a dance studio. It’s funny, but the hostel is kinda underground place. It has no name and the people who live there have founded their way by accident or heard about it from a friend. I belong to the last group. Thanks Henna ;)

The hostel is modest and ideal for pack packers because of its location and prices. My room was neat, but all the conveniences, like TV, heater, fridge and own toilet & bathroom were missing. Well I think you get less if you pay less. Even though my room wasn’t that spectacular I met some great people while living there for 3 nights, some nice German people and coincidentally two Finnish guys from Lahti. Since then I have been spending quite a lot of time with them, going for a dinner or drinks, watch movies etc. Really nice to meet some new people!

On Saturday morning I finally got to move into my new flat. I can’t even describe how good it felt to settle down, wash all my clothes and get rid of the stinky hostel smell. Not to forget to mention how great it felt to sleep in a queen size bed…

Julianne, Jules is fabulous (the woman I am staying with). She is really helpful, kind and funny. I am so happy that we get along so well and I can really be myself and act like at home. (Mum, you probably think oh nooooo that poor woman doesn’t know what she is dealing with! Well don’t worry I’ll try my best to behave.) Saturday evening I just stayed home after having a dinner with Minka and making a long “get known to the neighbourhood” walk. Later me and Jules watched few episodes Miss Marple on TV and went to bed early. On Sunday the weather was great, +20 and sunny. It is very hard to understand that it is the coldest season in Sydney (mid winter). Anyways, we did a long coast line walk with Minka, all the way from Coogee Beach till Bondai Beach. The sights were incredible like you can see from the pictures. Can’t wait the summer to come.

Work is ok, at this moment. I am starting to understand better the organization style and now I have learned a bit more how the travel industry in Australia works. Satu (my boss) can be sometimes a bit pain in the ass, but I will survive. Sometimes she looses her nerves if I ask some things that in her opinion are obvious (but in mine are not!!!) But at least she gives me quite demanding things to do. For example I am responsible to produce all the Work in Process Reports and Annual reports. I am also involved with the Sibelius proposal (which is the main project for the year 2007). There is also continuous media monitoring task, where I have to extend Finesse’s own database etc. So at least I don’t have to be an idler =) Anyways, I will take no stress about the work. I am going to do my best, but not loose my sleep.

Today I started in a gym nearby, Fitness First. Yes, I did it after 2 months break, hih! And it felt great. My goal is to go to a fitness class or a gym 4 times a week. That will happen after work, because I don’t want to waist my weekends of that kind of nonsense ;) More over I want to learn how to surf and scuba! Well few months to go still…

OK, I better go to sleep now! Early waking up tomorrow, that means early walk to work (so great that I can just walk 15mins and be there). I miss you all very extremely much. Mum, dad, Jaakko and Anniina I am so looking forward you to come here during Christmas. I already have BIG plans for that trip! K I MISSSSSSSSSSSS U!!! To all my other sweethearts hope to hear from you soon. I’ll get my internet this coming Saturday, so I will have my hotline tuned on 24/7. Kisses and hugs and you can also write how things are going in the other side of the world as a comment!
kus kus *