*deep sigh* Tommi just left and mascara is all over my face. I knew it to happen, after all, he is my best friend and I don't get too see him too often. *another sigh* Am I glad he gave me a big box of chocolates, (cure for every 'illness') and a biiiig poster of Aragorn. *beams* Christmas present. For me! *beams more*
Oh well, he took me to this Mexican restaurant today. Actually, to be totally honest, I suggested that place but he paid so, it really don't matter. It was nice to sit in the warm and watch the snow falling, sideways! Oh, how utterly nice. If I had to come up with a positive thought about that sideways falling snow, it would be that it looks like we are getting a white Christmas after all.
I propably should not say this, but I relly don't care. Thing is that I never have a dull moment when Tommi's around, this time was no exeption, only I stumbled on words, as usual. *grins* Well, that's to be expectecd when your thoughts run two miles in a minute and you can only speak one mile in a minute. You get the picture. Add that and the fact that tomorrow is Monday, when it is virtually impossible for me to be serious. So the Monday-curse is beginning to take effect, so there I am yapping, laughing and in general just enjoying being with Tommi.
We talked about sooo many things, like always, but I think food in general was 'the topic'. Me, I love to cook, but to cook just for myself, that ain't something I could honestly say I like to do. Nay, I need to have a good reason. So, when Tommi told me that he has this friend who just might give him a chunk of elk meat, I told him that he should bring the poor elk over so I could try and make something out of it. Now, I said to him that I am not very good at game food, but I would surely take up the challenge, it would be a much needed change and I could expand my cooking skills. So, any time next year will be fine with me. *grins*
One more thing before I go & wash my face. Tommi isn't just good & kind, he is also quite useful (what an awful thing to say about my best friend!). What I mean is that my neck's been, quite literally, out-of-order, i.e. for the past two weeks it has been very difficult for me to turn my head, without exquisite pain, that is. Now, Tommi darling fixed that. He found all these 'lumps' hiding, and causind pain, on my shoulders and here and there all over my back, so he did the best he could and gave me a much needed massage.
So, I want to thank you again and tell you that you deserve the Christmas presents I gave you.

So, it looks like this'll be that last time I'll be writing here before Christmas so I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I hope you all have been kind so Santa will bring you something else than a big sack of coal.

Renny-Alexander off to hang Aragorn on the wall.

19/12/03

Back on-line, finally. I was getting *a little* desperate for not beeing able to read my mail for a whole week! End of the World! This miracle to happen needed 'consulting' various instances and yapping to a bunch of people, who, excuse my French, did not give a flying fuck about my problem. All I got was that, "yes, there seems to be something wrong with the ADSL, but I am terribly sorry but I cannot do anything." ARGH! So, the work did got done, but not before I got mad at them and said that it MUST be fixed, on the day before I phoned! I mean, how many hours/men/days will to take to change a burned-out fuse or a malfunctioning switch? Days, apparently. Some customer service...
Shame on you! I hope the Santa brings you all a big sack of coal and naught else!

Two days since Return of the King... Still too confused to talk about. Awsome, magnifigent, I cannot describe the film better. Oh, Aragorn washed his hair! Yau! Good for you! Much better. *bows* Moments to remember: Gimli about the ghosts, that they are handy, even if they are dead! LOL! The singnal-fires, mountains, clouds and then blink! a fire. More mountains & clouds and another fire. Beautiful, I cried my eyes out. The Riders of Rohan on the Fields of Pelennor, just before they fell on the orcs. That'll teach ya. And best of all, Aragorn, hopping off that ship, death in his eyes. At that moment he really became the King of Men. Had I been there, I'd picked up a sword and followed him to the end of the world.
Now, this really causes a bit of a problem, where do I go when I die? To Coruscant, to become a Jedi and to live with my dearly beloved Qui-Gon, my guardian angel, my mentor? Or do I choose to go to Middle-Earth, to Minas Tirith to serve Aragorn the best I can? Or do I just dump them both and do something else? Or go first to Coruscant and then to Middle-Earth or vice versa? I don't know, but my Jedi training would come in hand when fighting the orcs. Just mind-wham the uglies, tell them to go home and if they choose not to listen reason, then slice & dice few of them with a lightsaber, as for an example. *giggles* ...Hey, don't kill me for this, it is just a thought!

Oh dear me, I am beginning to sound like Han Solo...*shakes head*

Renny-Alexander off to work.

09/12/03

Of all the things on this planet I hate being sick the most. And I am almost never sick, not even a little bit. I might need to get my head examined, but that is irrelevant. So, for the past week I have 'lived' on hot water & Irish Wiskey, sandwitches and I have eaten tons of eucalyptus-menthol sweets and likes. Ugh! As a result, my throat is still a bit sore, I can lose my voice any minute and I am so tired of waking up in the dead of the night only to find out that I cannot breathe. Oh, how veeeery nice.

It seems that my dear old comp has also developed aome sort of illness. In fact, I believe it ia the antivirus thingy. It keeps popping up like blink!, out of the blue and it won't go away!! Aaaaaarrrgggh!

Tommi, I really, really need you!!! *rips off hair & runs around in circles*

Yep, I shup my yap and tell something else, I never thought it could happen but it did, to a friend of mine. Honest!
So, the other day she is working on this train, when, doing about 100km/h, the cars of that train decide to part. Like the first 4-5 cars go on and the last 3 decide that we're staying right here. What happened was that the connecting ironloop (?) got loose! As a result the cars moved apart and the brake-cables and the power cable snapped loose as well. Luckily, no-one got hurt. How, or why this happened is beyond me and as I asked around I was told that it has happened before but never to a passenger train. First time.

Last Friday I came home and found out the hard way that I had no light in my apartment. Lovely. As I am afraid of hights, and there was no handy-man available, yours truly had to stand up on a wobbly table and change the bulb all by herself. If I had a tail, it surely would have been between my legs.

Well, I am kinda used to living a life with 'coinsidences' that cannot be explained rationally. Mostly it has been images of place I have never been to, things that have yet not come to pass. In dreams I am introduced to a person but I never remember the name when I wake up, I only have an idea, a similar name. Now, this last 'vision', two weeks ago, is a bit different, mostly because I was awaike, sitting in a bus, going to work. I am staring at the wall when this series of numbers 'flashes' in my mind, six digit number. Nope, it was not on any wall, nor was it a license plate number. Believe me, I did look around. So, what I did was that I worte the number down and I stared at it, thinking what does it mean. The more I thought about it, more convinced I was that it had to be a phonenumber, not a cellnumber (seven digits). So, I asked some of my friends if it meant anything to them. One hit. It was a phone number all right. Honest to God, hand on the Holy Bible, this is how it happened.
Ugh, there seems to be too many of these things in my life.

Renny-Alexander out.

28/11/03
Sometimes, when the world just seems to crash on you, one tiny little thing, like a phone call, can save your day. Agree?
Yes, this Tuesday I am walking home, via video rental, and just before I get in the store a very old and good friend, Taina, phones. She and her boyfriend are on the road, heading to Turku via Tampere and she asked if I was home. It took me all ten seconds to get the picture, but, hey, we don't see that often and of course they are most welcome to my place. So, there we are, talking the night away, laughing our heads off. Nice.
I've known Taina about ten years now, we studied French and the French Culture together. On times like this one realises how fast time really goes, it seems that we've only just met and now, gee! All the things that have happened, places we've been...Well, I guess such is life.
Now, I will crash, it has been a very long day and I am tired, tho' I propably sleep three-four hours. I haven't been sleeping well lately and that has affected my appetite...So, no sleep, not hungry thus I am not tired and the very thought of food makes sick. Juuuust great! :/
Renny-Alexander out.

14/11/03
I take back all the evil things I said about BBCWorld the other day. I did get too see Talking Movies, only it was at the inhumaine hour of half three in the morning. Note: I wasn't tired at all and I stayed up till around five when I finally decided that now I simply must get some sleep. Yep, here we go again, I don't sleep, thus I am not hungry and because I do not eat, I do not sleep. Hurrah! *shakes head*
Last night I went to see Love Actually and I must confess that though I am not much of a comedy fan, I was laughing my head off. A must have on my DVD-collection once it comes out.
Needless to say, my favourite Irishman, Liam Neeson was just great. The funeral scene was at the same time very sad, the people in the church and Daniel sobbing & weeping (me doing so too) and then, out of the blue comes this old, old BCR hit Bye bye baby. Oh. No. *slaps hand on head & grins* That was good, so there I am, crying and laughing my head off. I must say, what ever the critics may say about Liam Neeson, they can never convince me that this laddie has no talent because he has, loads of it, and in fact, I haven't seen one film in which he'd been without. Take, for instance, the 10 second clip where Sam (Thomas Sangster) is drumming behind the closed door and Daniel walks by. You can clearly see the he hasn't been sleeping for God knows how many nights, the look of utter despair on his face and the laddie just keeps banging on and on. Liam Neeson is not only playing the part, he is Daniel. As is in so many of his films.
I don't mean to say that Liam Neeson is the only one in that film to have talent, oh no. Though I don't much like Hugh Grant, he was great. From the very first moment when the PM and Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) meet it is obvious that something will happen to these two. When the PM 'relocated' Natalie, I thought that OK, now he takes her out to dinner or something but no! What I especially liked about the PM was that he had this 'soft side' as well, that he was a man, not only a 'cold & heartless politician'.
Another 'couple' that made me laugh was Just Judy (Joanna Page) & John (Martin Freeman) who are the stand-ins in this porn film. At first I was thinking what is this, but after a while, I was greatly amused by the contrast what they were doing and what they were saying. Judy and John both were well aware of what kind of film it was and still, John beeing the perfect English gentleman, politely asks her if it is all right to do what the director tells them to do. The Aurelia (Lúcia Moniz) - Jamie (Colin Firth) story, shows what crazy things love makes us all do, and that love is the one single power that can overecome the barriers of language and cultural differences.
All in all, this is a film I would go & see again and I am sure it would be better on second time. Since the film does have nine (!!) love stories in it, it is a bit messy in the beginning... So I don't think it wouldn't be just as good on the second time.
Renny-Alexander out.

10/11/03
I must confess that I do feel a bit like Indy Jones, only I am not looking for the Ark of Covenant, mostly because he already found it. My (doomed) search is again for my lost inspiration that seems to have vanished somewhere. My inspiration seems to one of those who can stretch morning coffee break into early & long lunch and thus dinner & supper as well. Only this time I am not talking about food (contrary to one belief, I am not really a hobbit 'tho I do have a hobbit name), my ispiration took an early summer holiday last year, extented it to Christmas holiday and at the same time took winter holiday never to return to me. It visited me in May but I haven't seen it sence and I am beginning to be desperate, I need it!
Another thing is that I don't much like that cinema here. Why? They set me up again! I went there to see The Revolutions, but guess on what I stumble on? A brand new Liam Neeson -film! Love Actually and of course I have to see it, if it is only because of Liam Neeson. Need I remind you that I suffered through Excalibur, which I bought just to support my favourite Irishman? Still no postcard from Liam. *sighs* So, I am the desk, pointing in the general direction of the cardbord thingy and asking when's that on? What I get is a seat in the sneak pre-view, this Thursday. Can't wait... The only question is: Why, oh why, haven't I heard of this film? To anger me more, the BBCWorld has this Talking Movies with Tom Brook and guess what? I can't get to see it!!!! I do get to see all the adds & stuff but not the actual show. Most annoying. It is the Finnish end (I think) that is to blame! Curse them! We hates them!
About The Revolutions... I liked it, the trilogy ended just the way it was supposed to end. Had I carefully watced the oteher two, I might have seen it coming to it but I still did not like the end. CGI & Matrix effects were just as great as in the earlier two ones. But because every other film uses them today, ugh, booring. What really bothers me, among the proverbial Matrix-chit-chat was that since Hugo Weaving is both, Agent Smith and Elrond, I had hard time figuring out which one was speaking. Ugh! Defence rests.
Have you noticed that time is a relative matter? Sometimes you have too much time and other days there is not enough time. Today I have been doing three things simultaneously, doing the best I can to concentrate fully on all of them. Msg with Rika, e-mail with Tommi (the 'correspondance' has been most interesting and I wouldn't have missed it for anything!) and this. Each one demanding my undivied attention. ;) The thing to do is to priorisize.
Renny-Alexander out.

05/11/03
Just came in to say hello and to let you know that I am going to the cinema in just a few moments. Yes yes, The Matrix Revolutions. Reason for this is not that I would be going with someone, oh no, I am doing that later and I could easily wait untill that day but...
There always seem to be a but, right?
The real reason is that I most definately do not want to spent the next three weeks or so in the darkness, i.e. not surfing the Net. I simply cannot.
No so great day, its gray out there and absolutely no running water, the water pipe is 'broken' and the repair crew from the city have been working with the problem from six this morning and it is now half one in the afternoon and still no water! Keep up the good work, lads! Har-har.
Good or bad, Tommi is teasing me, telling me (in)decent things. I guess I had it coming and seriously, I do not mind. He might be the only one who can tease me and get away with it. One reason could be that I cannot get my hands on him over e-mail... Imagine that! ;)
Renny-Alexander goes now.

27/10/03
A new lay out, with Aragorn on it. Meesa this, mucho. It took several hours and two pots of coffee to fininsh this one, but I am satisfied.
Ouf, my head hurts, big time. I've sat all day at my comp, so, no wonder. Yes, Tommi, the screen is ancient, I know and my headache is the very reason I am going to get a new one, soon, very soon. I am thinking of getting a LCD (?) screen, the flat one. No room for any other sort of screen, my table will run out of space, it is too narrow. *sigh*
Dear sister wisited me for a week and all we did was eat at American Diner here in Tampere and watch five miles of films & DVD's. So, we go out and think not to eat the burger, which is, like, huge (according to Finnish standards). Instead, Rika and I order sandwiches thinking that they can't be so huge. Well, wrong again, we nearly rolled out of the Diner. Niiiice. ;)
We also visited dad in Kotka. The house is very nice and it will be even more so after he has put some new paint & other stuff on the walls and fixed a little this & that. But, there I was, thinking I have come to meet my dear old daddy but what do I get? The very feeling that I am not on holiday but on a labourcamp! Jiihaaa! Sister & I got to use the saw and no sawing horse. Rika & I hammered one, hammered it back together again, and again, and again... A sad attempt to make it stay together as long as we needed it.
I must go before my head explodes.
Renny-Alexander out.

02/10/03
First of all, I want to let you all know that I am still 'live & kickin', so to speak. I just haven't had the time do anything here. So sorry. (like you'd care...)
Another thing worth mentioning is that today's my best friend's birthday. I am not going to say Happy Birthday again for I've already done that, so bite me.
For the past month I have been going from one place to another, working my arse off, sleeping in and out.
Rika, Tarja and I decided to walk the Karhunkierros Trail in Northen Finland, in the Oulanka National Park that lies right next to the Russian border. It is a long walk, some 80-90 kilometres, but we thought we could do it, in six days. We never did that for Tarja met a slight accident and our nice little stroll in the park was over, no broken bones. So, it was a nine kilometre walk to the road and she did it, without whining, tho' she was a bit high on painkillers.
It was fun, walking in the woods, and believe me, in absolute qiuetness, save for the birds. We Finns are used to have pretty good covereage with our cellphones but this time I was really out of touch. Most of it is because mine was switched off, to save the battery. Moreover, cellphones and National Parks do not mix. It is like going to a opera/theatre and not turn your cellphnoe off. Of course, a cellphone is good to have, just in case.
I am planning to put up a longer version of all this, with some pictures, on my site, but that will take some time.
So, before this Karhunkierros-episode, something else happened. I am what I am, and what I do for living can sometimes stir up some pretty unexpected situations and I can never be too sure who do I meet.
Ok, I am doing a night train and there is this laddie who's been in the woods for three weeks, hiking, mostly. So, as ignorant me, sister dear & Tarja, are going to do it, I ask him a million questions about clothes, food & other stuff. So, he tells me tons of things and before I had said hello, he invites me over to his place on Sunday lunch so we can talk more. Huh? Did I miss something here? Being curious me, I say why not. So, we talked a lot, about meany things, went for pint. All went fine untill the moment he got an sms from a friend (lady) and he tells her that he's 'having a pint with pint with his future wife.' Excuse-me? He says she don't mind. Well, I bet, but what about me? I DO mind. For God's sake, I just met you and already you are walking me down the aisle. I am not even sure if I like you enough to become friends with you!
Later, on the Kerhunkieros Trail, he sends me these sms' every day asking when am I coming home...*sighs* And then two weeks later he calls me and babbles on and on and on... And he says that he 'needs to train me how to treat men and how to be with them.' Uh-huh? Really? I bet you'd like that, but I think you can't change me as much as you'd want to. What I mean is that you simply cannot change a person unless this person wants to change.
I'vee been wondering, what is with the lads? I mean that eveytime I meet someone I find worth of befriending with, five minutes later he is proposing to me? Is it just me or am I too sensitive? Another thing is that I tell them that my best friend is a man and they say 'fine, I understand'. Boy, have I heard that before! There is a difference between understanding and knowing and I am pretty sure that none of these lads realise just how good a friend he is to me, how much my best friend means to me, what I would do for him.
All right, I quit whining and go finish (=wrap up) the birthday present I have made for my best friend.
Renny-Alexander out.