Posted by Johanna | 2 Comments

Hello 2012!

I know this post is long overdue but here it goes, I started typing this before the year changed and was meant to have it as my last post of the year but at the same time this became the first post of the year. I know I’ve been really extremely bad on the blogging, both typing & commenting. I blame Twitter! I won’t try to promise that I’ll change my habits entirely but I’ll promise to try more. Not to hold back posting for so long but just blurb it out even if it’s just a small insane post about anything.

First time in years I know I can make a resolution that I will and can keep. I will take care of myself more, both mentally & physically. I’ve started out the weight loss journey last summer and I’ve lost 11 kilograms so far. I still have loads more to lose but I’m taking babysteps since this is a change of lifestyle, not just a diet. I’m aiming to have another 10 kilograms gone by the start of summer and I’m not stopping there either. I’m very bad at counting calories (even though I do pay attention to them now!) or keeping diary what I’ve eaten today, I’m just gonna keep it simple and go for my walks at least 3 times a week and have my good old iPhone, Spotify & Endomondo to keep me company. I still can’t say that I love to exercise, cause I don’t and I hate the sweating but I have to do this if I want to live longer and healthier. I got some nice sports clothes and Polar heart rate monitor as Christmas gifts to keep me going. Heh, who would’ve thought that I’d be happy about sports related gifts someday. I lost a dear person to cancer last year and my grandpa was diagnosed with diabetes last summer and I decided I just don’t wanna go down the same road, at least I’ll fight to the bitter end.

I’ve been searching for my layout/web design mojo for a long time. I don’t know why I’ve felt so “dry” in that area, especially after I was working for that 10 months, I felt like I just didn’t have the time nor the energy to be creative. I’ve taken a very small amount of photographs as well, which just isn’t anything at all like me. That’s why I’m going to be more creative this year. Again, I’m not gonna stress myself and promise I’ll take x amount of pictures per day or week. It’ll come by itself.

I will be more social & active with my dear online friends, I’ve been hooked on Twitter for so long that it’s time to get back to the blogging scene! Facebook is just, bleugh. Timeline, yuck. Again I feel like deactivating the whole thing but there’s also so many lovely people there I don’t want to lose touch with them. But sometimes I just want actual comments and not just “like”. I want people to bother to surf outside the Facebook to find out how I’m doing. I have to say that I’ve gained lots of great friends last year too, all thanks to the “little” game called World of Warcraft and our fabulous guild & raiding team there. People of all age, race, gender and from all around world – I wouldn’t change you for anything. And it’s been a great practice for my spoken english as well, after I got over the first jitters and dared to open my mouth there. I know there’s lots of people dissing that game, but yeah, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all :)

Happy New Year everyone! I hope this year will bring you lots of magical and wonderful moments!

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Posted by Johanna | 2 Comments

Autumn is here

I come baring photos once again. Autumn is always too short, especially the bit where nature blows me away with it’s beautiful colours. Green in summer is so boring, autumn looks like the nature is on fire!

I wish I could go and take more pictures but it’s always raining or there is a huge storm outside, we’ve been promised the leftovers of a hurricane today (it’s only 30 meters per second wind but it’s nothing to an actual hurricane) so let’s see if it calms down after it and I could snag a few more during the weekend.

Quiet on the job front, sending out open applications but nothing heard back so far. I even tried to contact the city hall if they’d take me back, but no such luck. I just have to keep my spirits up and try to remain sane :P I thought I’d never say I miss money, but I do! Once you get the taste of actual salary, it stings when they take it away and I’m left with 300 euros per month. Bleugh.

Well at least I have the fantastic new fall premiere shows keeping me busy! I’ve started to watch Person Of Interest (Michael Emerson from LOST is fantastic in it!), Pan Am (thanks to Emma!), Ringer is still waiting for me to watch it, though I am not sure will I ever – I’ve never ever liked SMG for some odd reason. And can’t wait for Mad Men, The Walking Dead to get back.

So how’s your autumn been?

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Posted by Johanna | 2 Comments

Photos: Escurial Zoo

At the beginning of August I visited the Escurial Zoo with my aunt & godchild. There were a lot of animals there but the real gem was the awesome black swan!

For the rest of my pics, check them out at Flickr!

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Posted by Johanna | 1 Comment

Hey, how you doign?

So summer vacation went, that one official week I had. Now I’m officially unemployed again. Shock, horror! Not really, I can catch up on my sleep now, since I don’t have to up at 5.45am on weekdays. But strange things started to happen right after I left work. When I was still on my vacation week, one of the secretaries from work called me and said how worried she was that after even 10 months being at work I still wouldn’t get the earnings related allowance and to make a long story short: she had talked to one of the bosses there and convinced him to take me for one more extra month to work there! Not as project secretary but helping out with the secretaries. But the thing is that 1 month isn’t enough, I still need 14 weeks more work until I’m qualified to get that earnings related allowance. She said that she can’t promise that long, only a month now BUT she will talk to the boss again after they both come back from their holidays in August, “just sit, relax & take this July as your holiday, I won’t forget you, I’ll get back to you on August”. What an utterly sweet surprise! There still are genuinely sweet and unselfish people out there. I must’ve made some sort of impression on her since she was willing to do all this for me! Well there’s still the issue of talking to the boss and 3½ months is a lot more than 1 month (money issues mostly – city can be a cheap employer) but only this genuine act of kindness from her warms my heart!

I did receive some sad news at the beginning of my summer. I already tweeted about it when it happened, my great aunt lost the battle to cancer during our Midsummer festival 25th of July, so the “festival” pretty much stopped there for us. The funeral is coming up this Saturday. And just around a week ago we got more sad news as Jari’s grandmother (90 years old!) also passed away. Her funeral is just one week after my great aunt’s. So this summer hasn’t been joyous season as we’d wish. Not that I’d be a fan of summer anyway. Can’t wait for autumn to come back!

Haven’t done anything exciting or wonderful really, just enjoyed my time with friends & relatives, watched movies (Hanna & Transfomers 3 – going to see Hp 7 part 2 this Friday!) watched another season of Stargate Atlantis (Jari just went to buy the third, he is officially hooked too :)), played games and I’ve taken a lot of photographs and more to come! This week is Jari’s last holiday week so he’s back to work soon. Since his grandmother’s funeral is on Friday at noon he’s forced to take no pay day off from work, usually he’ll get (I assume and have been told) a paid day when there’s a family funeral but grandmother isn’t close enough relative, silly rules. But now I’m off to make some lunch and start with the 3rd season of SGA :)

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Posted by Johanna | 0 Comments

Closing a chapter

Two more days to go and I’m free. I can’t believe how quick 10 months have gone by. At first I was shocked and amazed by the amount of work & the description of work I was given, but I did it. I still haven’t received any feedback from the document but I’m not expecting anymore, it’s not my problem – that’s what you get when you force people to apply to places they’ve never even wanted to apply for. But that’s old news now. In a way I’m relieved to be out of here but at the same time I’m scared and bit afraid of what’s coming next, dropping my income from 2000 euros to 200-300 euros per month takes a lot of thinking (especially when I won’t be able to receive the bigger and better “Earnings-related allowance” – I worked for the required amount but payment came from somewhere else.. gah, fucked up system I say) and of course motivates you to search for that job even more desperately.. but the job market is very very poor here at the moment. Moving away isn’t an option either so I have to go with what I got. But first time ever in my life I’m gonna enjoy this well deserved summer holiday! Sure I’ve been free during summers but this time it feels more like a summer vacation after a long period of work. I can focus more on the websites business again, I just didn’t have the time or the will power to focus on it after a day’s work – especially when I had two jobs to handle (even if the other one is part-time). Like I said to my friend earlier, since I’ve been considered as an unemployed person all this time in the eyes of the unemployment office, if I’m this busy when I’m unemployed (1 day job (80% of a full day), 1 part -time job (2-3 times per month – 4-5 hours at a time) + freelancing projects) I don’t even want to think how busy I’ll be when I’m actually considered to be working.

I’m also trying to get away from blogging at LiveJournal, get my blog more open. I feel like I’m keeping most of the visitors in the dark when I’m blogging at LJ, since not everyone have an account there and I’m already paying for this space so why not make the most of it. Can’t wait to get working on my sites again, got so many new layouts to make and code.

So what summer plans do you have?

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Posted by Johanna | 1 Comment

Some day, I hope to find the nuggets on a chicken.

I’ve played World of Warcraft for 3-4 years now and ever since Cataclysm came out I really really really started to hate healing.

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