HELSINKI STROLL

Yesterday we went into town for a stroll together with Dag's oldest (half)brother . Which does not happen that often, having a day off and haning it in town, when you spend most of your time way out in the countryside.

Walking in Ruoholahti, which is something I almost never do; walk around in, other than walk just trough. I used to come trough here almost every day when at lunch from the harbour.

Some hundred meters further a whole new part of town has sprung up during Dag's lifetime on parts of what was once the old harbour. It looks different every time I pass. When I left work before Dag was born this was all just one big construction site. (And half of it still is.)

Do you know how many times I stared at those shipyard cranes and the blue dry dock wall opposite of our spot in the harbour? Do you know how many times? Of course you don't, but many, many times I tell you.

 We popped by the flea market. Dag got a red smiling tractor.


Had lunch at Moko market. Salad with kale and marinated carrots and fresh pea puree. Nom.

 Moko is also an interior store, with lots of wonderful useful-and-less usefull stuff, books and some foods as well.


 Moko has a playground space for kids too. Convenient.

I used to go there and shop all the time before, you know, when I had a job with a steady monthly wage and could do shopping just for fun. When you work solely by yourself things are so much more uneven. (I might have to get myself some pineapple and palm tree boxes though. Because they are always good for somehting...)

But I wasn't really there to get anything for myself but to pick up some things for our studio. Which I will get back to later. (And get back to a lot to; you'll see.)

 Later we did some toy shopping -there are a many small misters all turning one year old in August.

Sometimes I wonder how these small stores that are specialized in something can pull trough when rents in town are what they are - I remember thinking so about this toystore too when walking past it before, do people really buy enough to make it go around? But now I get it, in this case at least, I just wanted to buy everything in there.

Then we went to join up with some 15,000 other people at the Citizen's Square. 

The rather impromptu manifestation for multiculturalism and anti-racism; We Have A Dream, took place. It was organised in just a couple of days as a counter-reactions to some writings of a politician and the discussion it sparked.

Then the teenager got tired.

So we had burgers at the new-in-town hipster burger place Friends & Brgrs. (Everything there is made from scratch and with clean ingredients. The queue in the restaurant is thus thereafter. Here's my veggieburger. Approved!)

And strawberry milkshake. Made on actual real berries, not just aromes.

More days should end with strawberry milkshakes.

THE STRANGE LONGING FOR DIRTY CLOTHING, OILY GLOVES AND HAVING YOUR HAIR MESSED UP BY WEARING A CAP FOR TEN HOURS OR MORE.

I was driving home from a show we did tonight with a glitter-heavy lid and lashes tickling my eyebrows, and as always when heading west to where we live I drove past the harbour. And I always give it  a look as I go by and think of the guys out there in between cars and trucks, next to the ship, loading and unchanging like I did for so many years.*

(This hello-I-am-having-a-show-soon pic from a few weeks back gets to illustrate the glitter heavy eyelid even though this here is on the ligther side sparkle-wise. But I have Disney-princess hair so there you go.)

Then I drove past a work team fixing the road in their yellow safety wear and Goddamit! every single time I see workwear I get this itch to throw my old bulky yellow reflector pants and steel cap boots - that both immediately changes the way I walk- on and head out among the trucks to get some black dirt on my jacket. In certain ways I really miss my harbour days! And in the same time I am happy not to be standing there in whatever weather it is at six in the morning, or at midnight either, for what it matters.

Me in the harbour a summer's day a long time ago.

I also remembered all those times fixing my make up and rolling my hair in our locker room and often getting the guys to, during the evening break, drive me to the venues our shows were held at. Once I had a week off went to a gig but realised I had forgotten one thing at home and was not by car so I was rather fucked but checking the time knowing it was between ships I called work and one of the guys came to pick me up and we went to get my missing showstuff. We did favours for each other all the time.

I haven't actually retired from the harbour totally; I am on an extended (unpaid) parental leave for one more year still. But even though having every third week off I don't really see how working from the afternoon to one a.m one week and from five-something a.m until the afternoon including 20+ work hours during that weekend could work for me anymore... and I never meant to stay there for as long as I did. As many others, I have an education in something totally different than what I worked with there (however working like I did was also good since it's healthy to work along other people than just creative and media, you get a different perspective...). And another and, even though I'm not exactly pulling in a fair monthly supervisor salary nowadays like before being back to being The Freelancer Of Many Things is going rather okay for now.
But we'll see what happens, never say never.

Btw I just noticed I had a whole album titled "harbour birds"with pictures of the birds in the harbour that could never quite capture what I had tried to, which often was that there were shitloads of birds in huge colonies around.

Hundreds and hundreds and they always gathered rather freakily at night and watched us.

*) 2001 to 2012 if you wondered.

JULY 31st

Because I'm in vacation mode I will let Instagram do this post for me.


 Today we went on a day trip to visit my parents at their summer stay in the archipelago home.

 A little by-the-way but here's where my iPhone wemt bathing earlier summer.

Yet another angle of my grandparent's house.

 
Walking to the garden.

The small guest house shed in the garden is pretty much ready now and mainluy occupied by my sister and her fiancé. (Funn,y I posted about it being built one year ago exactly...)

And here's a little Eddi & Dag parade:

Eddi and Dag eating berries.

Eddi and Dag about to go home. 

 Eddi and Dag leaving.

And here's a majestic harbor view to end the day.

Good night!

I'VE LOADED MY LAST SHIP SO FAR

When I started in the harbour we younger ones had this thing of saying "if I'm still here when I'm thirty..." and then adding some thing sad after that as it just seemed so unlikely. Ha ha! But when I was in my early twenties I really would not have thought I'd stay there for so long.

Neither would I have thought I'd be there working in the third trimester of my pregnancy... Really, not! 

I always kind of thought I'd get off at four months already, one way or another. But it wasn't that easy to get things organized in the end.

Today however I had yet another meeting with the company's physician and am now on sick leave until my maternity leave starts later in spring!

Believe me, it will be so nice with some time off to be able to take it easy before the baby comes.

But it will also feel weird - although I've had other jobs and been away abroad in between I've still been in the habour since I was nineteen! I'll miss it. Every now and then.

My work wear the last months... someone else's big old pants plus suspenders to keep them up as I was not able to close them. One of my colleagues thought I looked so funny he brought me a clown nose :)

 I'm forever nineteen years old on my ID card.

MINT GREEN, MILKSHAKE PINK AND YELLOW STRIPES

As soon as the sun starts feeling warm during the day and the ice starts melting and dripping it's the urge for pastels and freshness in the wardrobe comes creeping (and also, that I should wash my windows. On the OUTSIDE, last year i went cheap and only did it on the inside. It's because they're three meters long and have to be lifted up, not just opened. FYI that should have been in capitol letters too but it would look too shoutish and ugly so just read it that way OK?). Well, now it's all cloudy and snowy and minus again. But it won't be long until it starts dripping and melting again. So yes, on can sprign it up a bit.

 Normal...

 Normal...

 BOOOM!

This skirt was the best thing I got in a while. Just a basic stretchy pull-on sort of pencil skirt, but in a material thick enough to pass as something of better quality I got it for less than 25 euros at Lindex when my tummy started pouting. Then, strangely enough it disappeared at work! I couldn't find it after one evening shift and had to go home (alright, drive) in plain tights. Not funny, it was cold. You see, a skirt is not the first thing you'd though would disappear from the dressing room in the harbour. A t-shirt perhaps to be mistaken for ones own, but not a tight skirt! As it hadn't been found the next morning either I panicked and got myself a new one on my way to the evening shift, and lucky for me it was on the mid season sale for only ten euros. Not that bad actually. Later one guy found it in his back pack; ha had mistaken it for his turtleneck sweater. So now I have two! I am letting the other one stretch out along with the poor skin on my stomach and saving the other for later. End of story.

FROM ONE THING TO ANOTHER

Here's me early (REAL early I tell you, harbour-morning early. Only with glitter lips this time) with that other new hat of mine on my way to the morning TV show with Bettie Blackheart to talk about burlesque.

It was live and I'm doing an 18 hour day (yey!) so I haven't had the chance to see it online yet. You can view it online here for about a week: LINK
...but it will not work abroad. I know, since our god damn server here at work is across the Finnish Bay. So it won't work for me even though I goddamit am right here in Finland right now.

Well, anyway, here's me some hours later, just before sunset.

My life is all about contrasts.

HARBOUR SKIES

The sky is always so big in the harbour.

HEADLINE

So, now I'm off with Eddi and the kids to Legoland!
(Do you know how many lego animations and whatever there is out there on youtube? Some very, some less well done. Got stuck watching them half trough the night when looking for something to post. Thank you fuck you very much, internet!)

Now if someone was hoping to (once again) see me in a post instead of grooving lego men you still can get your daily dose by watching Baltic Coasts today on TV1; I'll be doing some harbor stuff and burlesque too on tonights episode. I know that some of you elsewhere have seen it already and apparently my three minutes made a huge impact on some, since I started receiving Facebook friend requests and emails (basically saying "Hi, I saw you on tv." Ummmm, aha, ok.) from a lot of people I don't know. Which is a bit weird maybe -now the series are actually quite well made and interesting, but I've seen my insert and it is totally alright but I am still not starting my own Facebook fan page quite yet... How the voice over manages to translate my words of "sometimes it has even happened that a car has caught fire" with "Many times cars bursts into flames!" is and will remain a linguistic enigma for me at least. The harbor is a dangerous place. Eh, sort of. But ta-ta for now!

BLUE COLLAR CHIC

Outfit post coming up!

Greetings from the harbour!

I came home in my work wear last night and Eddi's five year old boy said: Oh! What fine trousers!

Trousers - Blåkläder, Jacket - Fristads, Shoes - Sievi. The vest and hoodie are old.
As accessories I have Famo gloves and motorola radio.

A LONGER LUNCHBREAK AT HELSINKI VINTAGE

So, yesterday it was the same procedure as last time Helsinki Vintage was on; off with the working gear and on with the skirt and the lipstick for a quick lunch break visit of browsing, admiring, super fast shopping and some mandatory socializing at the fair.


I pretened my hair was short; rolled it inwards towards the neck.

So many things, so little time...
Thanks to Gina at Americana for the give away tickets!

Then it was off with the lipstick and back to work.

But I actually managed to buy something; it was a good thing I had the guys from work pick me up with the van. Possible photos to come later on.