NEVER GETS OLD

Some things that never get old -

That first warm summer evening when you can have dinner in the green and the wind is warm and soft.

Sudden snuggle-ups and love declarations from your child.


Twin Peaks.

Anything with chocolate. Well, almost anything.
(and then I wonder why some of my clothes won't fit me in the waist anymore. If they don't fit my behind it's of course just because of my squatting and heavy weight leg pressing at them gym, obviously.)
ps. Pictured are the almost healthy chocolate raw food muffins.

Gardening. You know all those things they say about gardening and life and so on. All true.

And then of course This One.

FOUR SMALL NICE THINGS RIGHT NOW

Four nice things right now.

Small kumquats on a branch.

Who wouldn't get happy over cute small orange thingies like these?

Green branches and leaves in a vase; a mini jungle,  left over from when I had a mini-spa for my plants at home some time ago.  (I wonder if these are of the kind that they'll grow a root of their own and I can plant them? Hmmm...)

Green grapes in a pretty bowl.

And green grapes in their most superior form, helping me tidy up the kitchen.

A MINIATURE A DAY -

You may recall I have a huge love and fascination for all things miniature. As well as photo stories (my Milk Toof, remember?). Minitature Wunderland is one of my favourite nerdy places to go when in Hamburg. So when I stumbled across Miniature Calendar and it's small smart dioramas by Japanese artist Tanaka Tatsuya I was of course blissfully happy! And there are so many of them, as Tatsuya has been creating these for years, one for each day. *late night insomnia browsing topics secured*

Ah, so many genius thoughts there!

All pictures from Miniature Calendar
You can follow the artist on instagram @tanaka_tatsuya

GETTING MARRIED IN VEGAS

Today (or well, yesterday by now) was our third anniversary. Can't believe it has actually been four years since we got married and did our roadrip in the US! Time flies when you are having fun. Or when you're being very busy.

As most of you know we had an Elvis wedding while in Las Vegas. I have received a lot of questions about the how-to's of getting married in Vegas trough the years. The internet is full of information on the subject, but I know it is always different hearing it from someone directly.  And as people were asking I thought I'd make a post on the subject. I had this planned for our first anniversary when all details were still in fresh memory. Now a few years later I was wondering if things have changed but a quick glance on ze world wide web showed me procedure is still pretty much the same.

The first question I always get is: is it a real marriage? Is it legally binding or do you have to do it again at home for it to count?


The answer is Yes, it is a real marriage. But it requires some paperwork.
A couple that we knew were in Vegas the same time as us and when they heard that we got married they asked if we had gotten married at home in the registration office first. When I said no they were all "ah, so this is just more of a commitment then, you will have to do it for real at home you know".

Not only was this a very annoying thing to say at that moment but also not true - it is an actual marriage right away. Taken it that you actually got wed by somebody who is entitled to do so of course. Perhaps those places also exist where you get drunk and wake up with some random new spouse you married in a drive-trough like they do in the movies, but for you to actually be able to get married in Vegas you need a little planning ahead: you need to get a marriage license first.
The license allows you to get married in the state of Nevada. Without a licence a ceremony may be performed, but then it is indeed just a “ personal commitment” or something done just for fun. It does not hold legally anywhere. You get the marriage license from the courthouse; the Marriage License Bureau (which I've also seen called "Clark County Marriage Bureau".) You both have to go there in person to get it,  but you can do a pre-application online that saves you a lot of time, and then just pick it up. It's a busy place and the wait can take some hours otherwise. As we did it online at home first we were in and out in about 30 minutes. There was a huge line of people queuing for a license (in the line that had not pre-ordered), but it was fun to watch - so many different nationalities and languages, some couples in sweat pants and tank tops while others in their wedding attire.
The license is 60$.

Also note that Vegas is not exactly pedestrian friendly, to get to the building you will need to take a cab, unless you have a car rented or manage to get on a bus that takes you there.

The Chapel had deals with limo services but we had some friends along so we booked a mini bus via the hotel. 

Other things folks wonder about :
Can you just pop in somewhere to get married? Will Elvis perform the ceremony?


The groom waiting for  the bride. Or, for Elvis actually.

Whilst you perhaps can just pop in somewhere (when you have your license) we booked our wedding about a month in advance, which is my recommendation, at least in our case when we had a schedule for the day (this was during the Burlesque Hall of Fame) and friends attending. We got the day we wanted but not the time we first had planned as they were already booked then. So chapels are busy.


There are different packages for the ceremony including different things at various Chapels.  We had an Elvis wedding at Graceland Chapel with a  (great) Elvis that walked me down the aisle, hanged out at the wedding and sang some songs.

(I don't know if there are Elvises that actually perform the ceremony; if there is an Elvis guy that is an officiant and licensed to do so in Nevada then perhaps? ) We had a officiant/minister performing the ceremony that the chapel automatically provided. As with all civil marriages you will need a witness. We had some friends with us which solved it, but it could as well be that cab driver that got you there. If you go to a registered wedding chapel they will sort out a lot for you (they sent a lot of info to us before the actual wedding), and the officiant will do the registration of the wedding to the (officials afterwards. The people at the chapel were very service minded, they know what they are doing as they do it a lot.I think we paid about 300 all in all for our ceremony with Elvis and my flowers. The minister performing the ceremony was paid separately in cash, in this case it was 60$ . There was a photographer present on behalf of the chapel and we paid for the photos later (one was not allowed to take photos during the ceremony). The price was reasonable and we got a link to download the pictures.

Also when planning the day it might be good to know that the actual ceremony was over in about 10 minutes and the whole thing in less than 30, so it is short and sweet.

So, what happens then?
Even though your marriage is registered in the US they will not send out any info to wherever your location is. Once you get home you will need to take a certified copy of the Marriage Certificate and an Apostille from the Nevada Secretary of State to your Local Registration Office (Maistraatti) to have it registered there. An apostille is a form of additional authentication required for international acceptance of notarized documents (

And this is also the part were we went a bit wrong in the sense that we delayed the paperwork-thing; I can't exactly remember what I did or did not do but in any case I went with my official marriage certificate copy and some other paper to the Registration Office at home where I learned it was not enough (and that I was not the first to do so; it apparently happens a lot)  - the APOSTILLE was missing. I had of course checked our local site in advance and it states the marriage certificate should be translated (and it would of course have to be an official translation, not your own printed word document). But no one ever cared about that, it was all just about the apostille.

Because snail mail back and forth between here and there takes some time I asked the official if we could just get married again now at home at the office because it would be quicker. But the answer was that it is not possible as already were married. (So again, back to the first question, it is official but not just officially registered  in your home country until the paper work is done.)

Some weeks later I got the big A and went back to the office by myself (spouse not needed) and then it was done on this side of the Atlantic too!


Newlyweds on a parking lot, four years ago.

The wedding pictures in this post, apart from the one from the actual ceremony, are by (our wedding witness) Aino.

GIANT FOR A DAY

When we were in Hamburg a couple of weeks back we visited MiWuLa. That would be Miniature Wunderland - the world's largest model train world. We were there with my whole family - kids, parents, sisters and their kids - to celebrate my father's 60th birthday (which was last year already, but hey, there are only so many available weekends to match in a year...) My dad was in to trains when he was small (and still is), thus the visit. 

Things like this totally awakes the little tech nerd in me. BIG TIME. I have hundreds of  photos from our trip to Legoland a few years back with the boys (I got a bit insane there too with all the miniature Lego worlds and vehicles that move and I am not even going to start on how many pics or video clips I started taking now at MiWuLa because it all looked so real and the airplanes fly and land by themselves.)

The place is huge. It has millions of visitors per year and they have put thousands of work hours and millions of euros on building the place over the last 15 years. One of those things that give me a headache, thinking of all the planning and execution to get something like this done... Of course, it is surely The Dream Job for some.

Here they are building new landscapes. Italy. It's interesting to get to see things half way trough too, how it's made.

And yes, I managed to shut that somebody-built-all-this-stress aside and enjoy all the small details instead. And go crazy and take 1,000 photos of everything. Well in some cases the good optical zoom could help spot details that otherwise were to small to see; I took pictures of a lot of animals for ecample to show to Dag as he had a hard time spotting those out himself.

It's a good spot for kids, although it is more fun for an adult; trying to find all the small fun, ironic details and scenes. For me it's not so much the trains (that actually go around the whole damn thing, all trough different settings and scenery that blend into one another in different etages, some 10km all in all, which itself is a total whoah -well, that's kind of the actual point with the whole place) but all the things happening.

It's mostly funny things. But something terrible happened here.

And here too. (There's an angel crying behind the tree.)
Well there are quite a lot of accidents actually.

Bikers gathering.

Pride party!

Airport catering kitchen.

Nordic walking in Scandinavia, of course.

As the old harbour worker I am, I had to take a few extra shots of all the harbours.

Mm-hhhmm, mhhhm. (Add nodding of head here.)

And then that cruise ship left berth and sailed away on water! Real water. Sorcery!

No realsorcery though, but lots and lots of chords and lots of computering behind it. (There's that headache again thinking about it. I'll spare you any pics I might have taken of any chords and servers that you could see at one point. But then I looked at the wiggling tails of the elephants at Hamburg Animal park -you could press buttons here and there to have stuff happen, like tail wiggling - and left the engineering be.)

In Finland it is forever winter. That's what it feels like for real sometimes too

The light switches between day and night with sunsets- and rises too.

Here's Las Vegas at night.


And the small green men and men in suits underneath area-51.

And a concert with some 20,000 small people attending. With lighters in the air and cameras flashing when it got dark. Plus of course moving figures doing the show on stage.

If you have a thing for technique, kitschy details, miniature stuff (and of course model trains) then you should definitely stop by MiWuLa when in Hamburg (and book tickets in advance to avoid waiting for hours).

BEFORE THE SHOW, BACK IN THE DAYS

Cabaret artists and chorus line girls getting ready in the 1920's.

Source: Vintage Everyday.