Monday, 26 December 2016

HOLIDAYS


I recall myself stating, after last Christmas, that went by too fast, that I'd start the following Holidays in early November already; haning up Christmas lights and stars here and there, enjoying glögg (the warm spiced wine -or sometimes just juice- that resembles 'glühwein') and getting to enjoy Christmas for as long as possible. I probably say it every year but I do enjoy the holidays.

Well, this year we put our lights up in the evening of the 23rd and didn't even get a tree (it can't fit for the moment, as our Tapiola-flat is boxed up in our living room)...



Well, next year my home will be nice, organised and fancy again and I'll have all the time in the world to sit at home and be cosy with my cup of hot and spicy and my seasonal light for weeks ahead. Or, so we can say.

But, even though the rain was pouring outside (ironically, I did joke about it being all green on Christmas as we had half a meter of snow two days after Halloween...) we managed to get into an express Christmas mood once the light were up and we did some ginger bread baking with the boys!

I also made a batch of apple-ginger marmalade for Christmas gifting.



Half of the dough never makes it as far as to the oven of course.


I supervise with a cup of glögg, before the younger generation think they've baked enough.

(That's about after one tray.)


And you haven't really baked gingerbreads if you haven't burned one set of them.
(The rest did turn out fine and half of them are in my belly already).


And then I (almost) turned off social media for a couple of days and my work email for reals and enjoyed being at home (first time on months Eddi and I are at home during days off at the same time!) with the family.
Christmas <3 3="" br="">


Monday, 12 December 2016

CASUALLY HANING OUT ON THE FAINTING COUCH


Some time back we had a photoshoot at home with Asko Jonathan Rantanen. (It's convenient when you have a house that can double as a suitable set for a photoshoot. Although for the nearest future it cannot, as there are moving boxes everywhere)

Here are a couple of photos from the first series -

I've worked with different things with Asko and his partner Nadja for years and it's always fun to come up with new themes and settings to shoot!




Friday, 9 December 2016

BACK IN HAMBURG


 At the end of last week I traveled to Hamburg again to perform at the Home of Burlesque.
As we shot the music video the night before I opted on the late afternoon flight; to once not have to get up at 6am with just a couple of hours of sleep to go to the airport. Arriving late when performing the same night is always a bit risky, but with a straight flight on a well travelled route you'd still think you're pretty safe, because things can go wrong but in the end they don't actually do that often.

This time it did though; first the Helsinki airport was shut down due to a rescue operation, which resulted in delays and too many people wanting to get to the same point (=inside) at once. I worked with transportation and travels for over a decade, and I know what it's like to be on duty when the shit hits the fan and you can't do anything to solve the problem, only try to make the situation run as smooth as possible, and boy was I glad I was not somebody working at Helsinki Airport that day.
But well, we made our plane on time but the flight itself did not, so we left a over an hour late.  Was already seeing the scenario of me putting the stage face on in the airplane, but we still time to make the show!

Upon arrival in Hamburg it's pretty easy to get  to the venue; straight with one train and a little walking-and-bag-dragging. However, one situation was not enough; there was (apparently) an incident on the tracks so at some point we found ourselves, our bunch of bags and a clearly added sweat-layer to our foreheads stepping out on some train station in Hamburg as the trains stopped moving. But, there's always a cab to be found somewhere; we made it on time to our show in the end but I am seriously wishing I was able to do all my show travels a day in advance... The rest of the shows went well (we perform for three days in a row) except for one moment when the DJ managed to accidentally mute my track and I found myself just clapping my hands to get the crowd going, starting to do jazz hands (and singing JAZZHANDS YEY) after a while as nothing was happening, and finally getting the DJ, who seemed rather clueless and actually asked me what to do to just play any f-ing music ok? and then improvising myself trough some random rockabilly song to finish my act. But those things have to happen sometimes too. And the bar serves good gin afterwards to cool your nerves.

Otherwise -


- late evenings and late mornings, the usual traveling showgirl nutrition (a mix of yin and yang there I tell you), my have-to-go in Hamburg: Miniatur Wunderland, harbours makes me happy (both miniature and actual ones), Christmas markets and fairs too. Also the Reeperbahn version, because: mulled wine, although I am a little more traditionally put and thus care more for candy apples and gingerbreads than giant inflatable dicks. By large.

Now I'm back home and this weekend it's off to Southeastern Finland to perform. And next Saturday it's time for our fourth (time flies!) Christmas revue, Under The Mistle Tease!  Everybody has to come.

Monday, 5 December 2016

THE PERFECTION OF MOVEMENT

Since this autumn I've been following dancer Lil Buck on social media in total awe. Very inspirational and madly beautiful movement.