Green & Yellow

In the very beginning before I go back to my chronological order, I have to congratulate Green Bay Packers for their impressive win at the Superbowl XLV. At least according to my Facebook's news feed they were heavy underdogs in this one, but were able to pull the ace from the sleeve and upset the Pittsburgh Steelers. I can't help to wonder if Penguins and their 3-0 loss to Ovechkin and the Caps had something to do with this. What a great day for Pittsburgh teams. Or to people who dislike them.

Now, back to the actual business. My posts have lately been in Finnish, about ice hockey and that has probably not have been the most exciting subject for some people. Firstly to the people who cant talk Finnish and to those who do not care that much about what London Dragons do. Some people described first I know do exist, because I have met some people in London who do not talk our noble language. The latter group has not revealed itself yet, but I am pretty sure that they are out there somewhere. Of course I have delivered some reports in English to the Dragon's Posterous site and brought the joy of our success accessible to all who can understand English in the very basic level, like me. But this has left out millions who wonder what is going on in my personal life outside the limelight. What I found extremely alarming was that my good friend, linemate and the eye candy for females around the world, Kell Lynch, confessed to me that he has not slept in several days because he has not been able to follow my steps in the windy streets of London. We have to remember that when I am not the hockey superstar wearing my texalium carbon fiber skates, I am just a student like thousands and thousands of others here in London. My last post excluding the game reports was during the always exciting exam weeks. Reading, eating, sleeping and playing the greatest game on earth. My life has not changed too dramatically since that, mostly thanks to the exams that ended pretty much a week ago and those two games against Oxford. I begin my coverage from the Friday before the second Oxford game, because that was the glorious day when we finally found a place that actually sells fuses that fit our fuse board. Our lower floor had been without artificial light from early December, and finally the other Kalle had found a shop from Charlton that sells what we have been looking from. After few pictures, we go make our way to that Monday that was the day when our final exam of the first semester in London Met took place.

Beautiful Mudchute station.

Greenwich University campus.

Greenwich.

And Charlton...

When I woke up around 10am on Monday, it was a beautiful day. Birds were singing and sun was shining like never before and you could tell that Sara's arrival was getting near. In the morning it seemed to be a perfect day, and after breakfast I began to make my way towards to the North Campus of London Metropolitan University and to the Old Benwell Road Gym where our exam was about to take place. I could not help to be amazed how warm it can be in January. While Finland is filled with snow, I was bathing in the rays of light raining down on me from the British sky.

Just look at that.

Spindrift avenue.

Why do they keep putting that salt-like thing in to the platforms when it is not even slippery or snowing? 

I did the usual three-train journey like I have done so many times before and for once I actually knew where to go when taking an exam. Last two exams had been relatively easy, not to mention anything more about our first exam that we had basically given answers to, but this time it was going to be different. Christine "German Precision" Voss would not give us any slack in any department and when we walked in to the Old Benwell Road Gym and took quick look at our papers it was painfully obvious that time was going to be a BIG issue. When you have 45 minutes to answer eight pages of questions, it formulates you an equation that looks something like f(x)=y+54,754*pen+moving+like+never+before. This was the first time during my not so successful academic career when I was forced to skip parts that I would normally do due to a lack of time and the urgent need to prioritize. How well I managed to pull this off, will be revealed accompanied by course works in month or so, god willing. Hence after the brief time given to us ran out, we expressed our dissatisfaction to the person who was monitoring our exam and headed down towards The Rocket to celebrate modestly the end of our first semester together.

Next morning was all about taking it easy, because the damage taken in the previous game had to be healed before heading to the next session on ice that lurked just around the corner. Other interesting thing alongside with the fact that this was the session where the playing roster for the Battle Royale, second Oxford game would be decided, was that my housemate, comrade, armybuddy and NHL enthusiast nearly equal to myself,  J-P Nurvala was taking the ice with the Dragons. This eternal prospect who was supposed to become something every season he played, is a true artist with the puck and pushes the boundaries of stupidity and selfishness when carrying the puck up and down the ice. Don't get me wrong, he is a very skilled player but he tends to hold on to the puck for too long. Every time. So far mostly known for the fact that he drove all of his junior coaches in to the brink of the padded room, he has decided to attempt to make a glorious comeback after five years of absence in this country of million opportunities. Since I made a decision not to talk about ice hockey all the time, I'll just add everything up by saying he has not changed a bit.

Apart from ice hockey, eating, sleeping and waiting, not much has been going on lately. Weekend was filled with nothing, as our game was cancelled. On Monday I did a so called walk in the park and wandered to the mansion at the Isle Meant for Dogs that is owned by the man himself, a piece of meat that makes Brad Pitt look like a wallpaper. Gentleman like no other, Kelleher Lynch, was kind enough to invite me to his riverside penthouse to watch the Superbowl XLV. On the way there and back I decided to take a few pictures of the beautiful and quiet Isle of Dogs neighborhood.

Buildings at Canary Wharf create that feeling that I would actually be living in some big city.

Spindrift Avenue right next to Mudchute DLR.

However, we can safely say that it is all about to change. The start of the spring semester at the university is one thing that may affect this change in the rhythm of life but there are far more important things going on. Today is her birthday and tomorrow she will get the best present ever known to mankind. Sara will move to London and settle down to our Finnish Commune and become part of this interesting combination of people living under the same roof. Weather Gods have recognized this and kept their part of the deal I made with them, sun is toasting us like it would be smiling too and you can actually feel the warming effect. Coming up this weekend will be something rather special, as we celebrate Sara's birthday and spice it up with Welcome to London -aspect. Will put up a audiovisual demonstration for my team/schoolmates about Finns and partying, but bare in mind that this is purely for academical and educational purposes only and we will only use alcohol-free samples. When clock has moved to a certain hour, we will move ourselves to the trendy area around Oxford Circus and then it will be time for some serious clubbing. This will be the first time for both me and Sara in a higher profile club here in London, and to make it more special for her I have arranged a table from the club with a help of a friend. I cant deny that expectations would not be high...

This week is in many ways a beginning of a new era. Especially it is a beginning of a new era for me and Sara as our many conversations in the late hours of the night about living abroad together, studying and then working there are about to come reality in a matter of hours. I have been here for about six months now, but somehow I have the feeling that now it all becomes complete and life here actually begins. I'm not even worried how are we going to fit in to our cramped bedroom, little extra proximity will just be more than welcome after this long range relationship. There are still few things to do, like cleaning the house thoroughly (apart from our room, this is always kept condition comparable to an operating room) and buying a new bed. Old one was not capable of coping with two large-sized and one small Finn sitting on it. It has been slightly uncomfortable but I put those combat engineer skills that I learnt during my year in the Finnish Defense Forces in to a good use and created a patent with tape rolls and one brick of a dictionary.


From the sunny London to all the people around the world (I find it extremely interesting that someone reads this blog from India and if you do it again, please leave a comment or something!), take care of yourselves. Let's do this shit!