Downs, ups and beers.

This week was full of exciting and less exciting events spread nice and evenly throughout the week and among school, ice hockey and partying. These ups and downs have mainly been either academical or emotional but luckily the trend has been positive and around Wednesday the slowly rising curve pretty much shot through the roof like if it would have been hit by Iron Mike Zambidis's ferocious uppercut. By the way, that clip is from 2010 K-1 WorldMAX Final 18 where Zambidis and Chahid put up a show unlike which K-1 or anyone else had never seen before. If you have any interest in any sports whatsoever, that is a match you WANT to see.

On Monday we traveled to Basingstoke to play against Southampton Spitfires and all you guys need to know about the game is that they had 7 skaters against our 13, we lost 6-4 and they received 8 minutes of penalties compared to our 159. And that's about it. Only thing worth mentioning apart from these facts is that my next door bedroom neighbor, comrade, armybuddy and very good friend with funny hair Juha-Pekka Nurvala made successful return to competitive ice hockey and did not even get knocked out in any point.

Before that the week had began very well. Morning was absolutely beautiful and there was not a cloud in sight and the British sky greeted me with blazing sunshine when walking to Mudchute DLR station. But in our afternoon lecture we received results from our first practical exam, and the steep downhill that would have required some padding and painkillers began. At the time of the exam I thought that it was somewhat a piece of cake although I nearly froze in my first oral exam taken in English. Or actually, it was the first of it's kind in no matter what language. Result was a close shave -pass with 50% and I could not believe it. It did not help that the Dane got 77% and German Felix "Nerd" Falkenberg scored even higher and budding depression started to gain upper hand on my normally steely mental toughness. Stage was set for the game in the following evening and result speaks for itself.

I cried my way through Tuesday but luckily my smoking hot and on top of that caring girlfriend was there for me and to dry my tears of sorrow. My self-confidence also began to rise once again after an unexpected setback and I was even able to motivate myself to continue my studies at London Metropolitan Uni. To ease my troubled mind we decided for the first time ever to actually WALK to Canary Wharf in stead of taking the lovely and lightning fast DLR. Sun was once again shining upon us, some signs of spring are already clearly visible and regardless of the wind it was a pleasant journey through the neighborhoods we live in. We were also carrying Sara's Canon with us, and this is what we were able to capture along the way.

Her Majesty's pets.

Spring is coming, are you ready?

Who said that cats do not like water?

Polly & Mates

It seems that coots build their nest from what ever is available.

Pan Peninsula, highest residential building in the UK.

Wednesday went by as usual, and after I got home from school I decided to take a look at our schools online system Evision that keeps track of our our grades, attendance and all kinds of other useless stuff. Grades from the first semester were supposed to be up at 10th but for the first time in the school's history something happened early. Grades were indeed there and suddenly I felt like a king standing on top of the world looking down on my humble kingdom known as the earth. I received three A's out of four possible and only "blemish" in the armor was one B from Basic Sports Science caused by practical report in which I scored a sad 49. But that did not matter, since I received in my scale massive 70% from the laboratory report written for Science for Sport. That was the first bigger coursework and I can't deny being proud about that result. That alongside with 69 from the exam was enough to land me an A from this module. Other two modules that I got A from were Sports Training Principles (72) and Professional Studies (71).

So, after this I was in an ecstatic state of mind and so happy that I accidentally overslept my Thursday's morning lecture. In the afternoon however, in our Leadership practical in Sports Psychology and Coaching I had a chance to use my highly respected officer training received in the Finnish Defense Forces and redeem my respect in the eyes of my classmates when I was randomly selected to be the autocratic leader of our group in a certain exercise. Fifteen minutes of time to prepare a fifteen minute presentation about sport psychology related subject and since we did not only have a great leader but also a great group consisting of Josh, Sam and Mikkel under his command we were able to put together the longest presentation and the reviews were also pleasing. So, it seems that the few months of hell in the windy Hamina actually has proven to be useful outside military as well. How useful in the long run, only time will tell, but it certainly helped me out of this situation.

The inevitable fun time was staring us in the eyes once again and another great weekend in the modest village known as London began. An e-mail had been sent earlier circulating our a-team mailing list and in the evening we headed with Sara towards ULU and cheap beer. Present as usual were the common faces, Martin, Dmitry, Suzanne and even the most beautiful man ever to honor Isle meant for Dogs with his presence, Kell Lynch, showed up with his body and face that are straight from a Emporio Armani commercial. Later on to join us were another Dragon Philippe and two of his mates, Alicia and Ian. Sadly, pretty much right after they managed to sit down and get drinks they shut the place down and Finnish-French corporation headed towards the Tube and eastern London.

Tesco is useful.

X-large and x-small.

Hi Kell :)

Martin is telling a story about the Mighty Dragons.

O Canada! our home and native land! 
True patriot-love in all thy sons command. 
With glowing hearts we see thee rise, 
The True North strong and free! 

Coach and his buddies.

Happy French Philippe & Alicia

:)

Planning a riot or something.

How YOU doin' ? @ Jubilee line.

After forming these new friendships with these two French speaking human beings I started to put pressure on Philippe about a party in their equivalent to our Finnish commune, the French Commune that is situated somewhere in West Ham. For the second time in one week something, someone or some nationality surprised me with it's unexpected quickness and Philippe threw a party that is going to take place this Saturday! Talk about quick response to a increasing demand. Other noticeable events still coming up are that J-P Nurvala's girlfriend Henni makes her long awaited return to London and this will also be the first time when they are in the our commune at the same time with Sara. On Sunday our friends Miika & Roosa from the greatest town in Finland, Tampere, arrive to check out our hoods. While we are stacking up guests to Isle of Dogs, our normal inhabitants Tuomas and Kalle&Mimi are abroad, mostly in Finland and Sweden. So the normal roster has gone through some changes for the following days but I think that we will still come up with good results.


From the middle of Marks&Spencer's tortilla chips & dip, Cherry Cola and from a nearly empty commune, good night to you all of you precious readers. Till the next time, Isle of Dogs goes silent.