Ways to prevent brain death

The title is inspired by my overflowing fangirlism for everything that happens to cross my way. If you are a fandom magnet like me, I strongly suggest staying away from the computer, or at least limit the time per week (or per day) that you can spend in the net. But more about my mental problems later. I’ll do this chronologically.

~♥~

Let’s start with my Finland mini-rail I did last week with my friend Pia (who is clearly my senior, born one day before me). Just to annoy the life out of my readers, I managed to take the grand amount of zero photos during our five-day trip around Finland. Isn’t that just great? :D No need to worry though, I have got a few photos to show you anyway.

Our trip started with a two and a half-hours long travel by train from Helsinki to Mikkeli. We stayed at Pia’s father’s parent’s summer house (I probably could have put that in other words, but my English is completely failing me. Ah, this is going to be lovely.) for the first night, continuing through Pieksämäki to Jyväskylä in the morning. The Finnish summer was showing its best during the whole trip, so we were pretty much dead tired throughout the days, as the temperature kept staying above 30 Celsius degrees. Jyväskylä was an okay place, but as it is a student town and we were there in June, it was pretty quiet everywhere in the evening. We did buy a couple of drinks in the evening, though. ;)

From Jyväskylä we headed towards Tampere, where we stayed for two nights. Tampere was a positive experience, even though the restaurants closed down pretty early, at 11 p.m. usually. We had reserved a whole day for visiting the Särkänniemi amusement park, which turned out to be a good decision. Here’s the wristband/ticket to the park:

We really took everything… Mitä hiivattia on koko rahan edestä englanniksi?! Kohta luovutan! Ahem, sorry about that, my English is SERIOUSLY failing me. Must be the fandom… How could I say this simply… We went to Särkänniemi just before noon when it opened for the day and stayed there until 7 p.m. when it closed. Money well spent. :D

After Tampere we headed for Rauma, where we were going to see Semmarit (a.k.a. Seminaarinmäen mieslaulajat), a Finnish a cappella group. Pia is a big fan of theirs and she really got me into it, too. (Act surprised, everyone! xD) We actually saw them from the first row, can you believe it? Pia was over the moon for just that. But this isn’t where our good luck ended. After the gig, we headed to a restaurant to get some dessert and a drink or two. After we had finished eating, it just so happens that two Semmari singers came to sit in our table! We ended up heading to a small bar with them and spending the rest of the night chatting with various members of the group. We only headed to our hotel at 1:30 a.m., tired but tremendously happy.

The next day was our last, and we headed for Turku to see Pia’s other grandparents. I took a train back home, but Pia stayed for the night to see Semmarit again.

~♥~

Okay, that was our mini-rail in a nutshell. In a very small nutshell on my scale, I might add. ^^ Now, on to everyone’s favourite part, photos!

I bought these two rings at a flea market in Mikkeli.

When I got back home, these babies were waiting for me. *-* I bought GACKT’s new single collection from CDJapan and apparently the first press edition came with an awesome plastic pocket. 8D Now I feel like collecting all my fan stuff in one place, take lots of photos and do a huge blog post of fandom. Luckily I’ll be away from the computer for the next five days so you won’t have to suffer from my stupid ideas. x3

I felt like taking photos the other day…

And the results are crappy, as always. (Check my vampire blog for more nightly photos. ^__~)

~♥~

And then on to the problems of my mind… I can’t get over my fandoms for the time being. GACKT. Semmarit. Takara-freaking-zuka (is that the way I’m supposed to put it? :'D).

Zara is in Japan at the moment and that evil little thing (whom I tremendously love) is talking to me via MSN, telling about how she went to see a hanagumi show today. *______* I’m having a Zuka high just for listening to her (...reading what she’s writing…) and she, being the angel she is, has bought me a Zuka DVD, a magazine and who knows what for who knows how many yen. ;______;♥ I’ll be in eternal gratitude for her. If I won’t die of a heart attac when she gets back in Finland, that is. Well, I’ll be a gratefull dead person in that case. :D

…I’ve had such good luck with gigs this year, maybe I’ll win a trip to Japan to see Mizu’s last performance in Takarazuka?

~♥~

Well, I’m off to Denmark tomorrow, after having my last entrance exam, so I’ll see you all again next week. I’ll finally be continuing with my driving lessons, something I’m not all that excited about. D: And since I couldn’t make it last weekend, I’ll be going to my godparents’ summer house on the 13th. (Friday the 13th, by the way. O.O)

Until next time, honeys~! Let’s hope that my next post is going to be a less-failing one…

OMG! YFC~♥

If I was a person who swears, I’d put the f-word to Oh My Gackt. That’s exactly the kind of thing the man himself would probably do. Considering his tour goods, for example. And that’s exactly the first thing that came to my mind once I was able to find my ability to think on my way back to the hotel after the show. O M F G. But let’s not get ahead of things.

I hadn’t fully realized what a hardcore Gackt fan I really was until I saw him live and didn’t lol at his English. Or his anything. At all. Well, spending so much money on an artist, hyping so much, having his huge wall scroll in my room etc. might have told something about the fandom. But this man, this man has gotten way deeper under my skin that I had realized. Okay, end of random rambling. I know you’re just dying to get the whole story, so here goes!

My fandom, or rather my excitement for the gig, started to get to its full measure the night before my flight to Munich. Packing my things for the trip was, after actually getting my ticket, the first thing that really made it all feel real. But the real excitement, in worrying measures, started actually only when I was sitting in my hotel room on Thursday afternoon at two o’clock and realized that I was actually going to the venue. I thought about going there before three p.m. so that I would get a chance to see Gackt’s arrival, but decided against it after all. I was so nervous I thought I was going to faint, or probably throw up the Big Mac I had eaten just an hour ago, or maybe do both. I tried to relax as best as I could, but at three o’clock I decided to go and try to get myself to the venue, so that in case I was going to faint I’ would at least be somewhere where someone would be able to wake me up.

I didn’t have too much trouble getting to the venue. I had checked the site from Google Maps back at home and once I was walking on the Friedenstraße, I saw some people who looked like they could be going to the gig. (Thank Gackt for easily recognizeable j-rock fans. x3) As soon as I had gotten the words “Excuse me, Is this the way to…” out of my mouth, everyone was already telling me that I was in the right place and that if I just walked straight on, I couldn’t miss the venue. I tried to ask if there was already a long line, but they told me there wasn’t any line at all! Once I got to the place I noticed that it was true. People were just sitting around in any shadow they could find, or standing in groups under umbrellas. I went to sit by a wall and was glad for being able to get out of the direct sunlight. I only had a bit of water left in my bottle, so I couldn’t have survived in the sun.

At this point I was already quite relaxed, but my excitement rose when I could hear the sound check from inside. It was obviously cool to hear the drums and guitars, but when I could actually hear Gackt’s voice, everything was suddenly so much more real. *-* I could have sung along to Dybbuk, had I wanted to. When I heard him singing Kimi ga matteiru kara I was already grinning like crazy.

At some point I noticed a black-haired girl with a Kiroileva siili (=Swearing hedgehog) badge in her bag and realized that she had to be Finnish. I walked up to her and asked her, and she said that she indeed was Finnish. She was actually Myrf, a girl I had already chatted a bit with in Irc-Galleria. I spend the rest of the time waiting to get in with her and her German friend. It was so much better, not having to go to the gig alone. And I could actually speak Finnish! It was such a relief after all of the failing and mixing up English, Italian and German for the past 24 hours. It had gotten a bit cloudy by the time I walked up to the two girls, so standing in the crowd in front of the entrance wasn’t all that bad. Myrf had a self-made YFC fan, so she was able to make everyone around her slightly cooler.

The doors opened at 17.30 and this was when the things started to get hectic. Everyone was trying to get in at once, so there was quite a bit of pushing around. There were four security guys letting people in from two directions, and after seeing how much pushing there was on the right side, we decided to take the left line instead. Getting in wasn’t all that bad after all, but once we were in and wanted to buy some tour goods, we had to be up for a fight. Well, almost. People were really pushing eachother around near the goods table, but we managed to buy what we wanted in the end. I shoved all my goods to my bag and gave it to the staff at the cloakroom to keep it safe.

Here’s what I got: the headphones, the tie and the shirt (size M… typically, they had already run out of small shirts, but luckily this isn’t all too big anyway).

As you might know, I usually try to stay a bit further away from the stage, as I’m not a fan of crowds and I think that it’s usually easier to see if you don’t have anyone’s head in your face or the huge sea of hands right n front of your eyes. This time, however, I had decided that I’d take the whole gig experience. It was GACKT anyway. Luckily, I had Myrf and her friend as company and Myrf got us a place from some 20 meters or so from the stage, right in the middle. (I suck at guessing distances, so don’t take this too literally.) We thought we’d get a bit closer to the stage once the band would get on, but as it turned out, all it took was one staff member handing out water in the front and we suddenly found ourselves about ten meters from the stage. Myrf said that she would hold back the pushing crowds a bit, since she was the tallest one of us. She actually let me stand in front of her, since she was able to see above my head just fine. ♥

We heard “Gackt’s secretary” speaking to us twice before the concert, warning us not to take any photos, not to smoke, not to faint etc. and swearing a lot while he was at it. We lolled a lot at that. x3 The concert started pretty much in time, as far as I can tell. I was too excited to keep checking my watch to be sure. :'3

You could really tell when the GacktJOB entered the stage. The screaming really was something else. And when the man himself walked to the stage and set himself on the small podium in the front I thought that I would lose my hearing and my voice forever. He had a katana replica in his hands, left part of his hair braided, a white sleeveless shirt on with a black tie and a pair of black shorts. And he was hot. Totally hot. The sex. And he was right there, right in front of me, probably less than ten meters away. *_________*

At first I couldn’t really hear his voice through all the screaming and loud music, but when I did it was divine. I’m usually afraid that singers aren’t as good when you hear them live, and obviously even Gackt couldn’t sing as clearly and with as much finesse at a gig like this, but he was awesome anyway. He had such power in his voice, such charisma, such a show on stage. He’s a phenomenon, a force of nature, I’m telling you.

I think the set list was the same as on the other European gigs. Gackt started off with Zan (with the katana :3) and continued with Dybbuk. I was all hyped up by this point, jumping up and down with everyone and singing and shouting my lungs out. He kept us screaming pretty much through the whole show and I can’t for the life of me remember when we were shouting what. The gig went on with Nine Spiral, which I still don’t know by heart, and Speed Master, another one of my favourites. During the first four songs, or the short breaks between, Gackt was looking straight into my eyes. *________* I’m not sure when, because all I could think about was those ice blue eyes, piercing my heart. I know he probably didn’t see much from the stage and that it probably just felt like he was watching me, but I really felt like receiving the full Gackt treatment right there and then. I mean, I’ve seen those gorgeous eyes staring at me from the photos and videos, but seeing that look live was a hundred times better. *still dies at the memory*

I usually don’t like putting up photos that I don’t own the rights to, but I’ve got to make an exception when it’s about Gackt.

I mean, those eyes. Staring at me. Live. *______* For reaaaaaaaaaaal? I had officially died and gone to heaven called YFC. ♥

Gackt really put his everything to the show and by the time he was finishing Speed master, he was sweating like a pig. As the first notes of Lu:na started to play, people went even more crazy than before, if possible, for we all knew what was coming. And sure enough, Gackt- Oh, wait! I haven’t written anything about his fan service this far? I mean, we got the full Gackt treatment right from the start! He was rolling his hips, touching his body and raising the hem of his shirt, showing off his abs. Totally hot. But now, on to Lu:na and the striptease! Yes, you heard right. If you haven’t seen the YFC vids on YouTube yet, I strongly recommend them. During Lu:na, Gackt slowly and teasingly removed his tie and threw it to the audience. His shirt followed soon after, buttons flying off to all directions. There probably was a serious fight over his clothing, but I didn’t pay attention to the audience for obvious reasons. Gackt. Live. Without a shirt. HOT!

And next up was my absolute favourite of his songs; Kimi ga Matteiru Kara. ♥ I was a bit afraid beforehand, that people wouldn’t be all that into this song, since it’s a slightly slower one. To my pleasant surprise, everyone was singing their lungs out during the whole song. It was amazing. *____*

Next song was Mind Forest, and as we had read from the previous gig reviews, he sang the whole song in English. People couldn’t really sing along to the lyrics, but I guess we were all trying. I tried singing in Japanese at first, but it didn’t really work out, so I just sang the tune most of the time. (This coming from a person who couldn’t sing right if her life depended on it…) I didn’t know what he was singing most of the time, and what little I may have understood I can’t remember anymore. ^^''

Next songs were his brand new single Ever and Justified, both of which were great, even though I didn’t know the lyrics at all. I was totally partying up with everyone else and waving my hand the way Gackt wanted us to.

At this time, I think Gackt really made us shout a lot and talked about all of us being one big family. The next song was Jesus, which was another song that everyone was pretty much singing to and obviously shouting as Gackt wanted us to, again. After that he sang Flower and Kagero, but as Myrf was really feeling faint, going down a lot and actually passing out at some point, I couldn’t really concentrate with one hundred percent. Anyway, somewhere after Myrf had been carried away from behind me, I think this was during Flower, actually, Gackt passed out himself and fell off the stage. He had been looking a bit weak for the latter half of the show, but I think everyone thought it was just for show. Falling off the stage scared me pretty well, but we all know how Gackt is with his doings. He puts his everything to the show, so he was immediately lifted back on the stage and after holding on to You and Chahca, he continued with the performance. Everyone was screaming his name and clapping hands, showing their support.

After Kagero the band left the stage and everyone began southing for an encore. I don’t really remember how long it took for them to come back, but I think they didn’t take too long. Myrf was back behind me again when they started a remix of Uncontrol. The audience was almost desperate to show all its love for Gackt and the band and after the song ended, the man kept us all screaming for a good while. It was like he was getting his life force from his fans, enjoying the incredible energy that we all sent to him. ^^ The band members threw water bottles, plectrums and towels to the audience. Gackt’s towel was maybe about two meters in front of me, but I was actually happy I couldn’t get it, since the three people who had all grabbed it from some point were all clinging on to it for dear life, none of them willing to let it go. It was a fight I wouldn’t have wanted to be a part of.

The gig ended with Gackt’s secretary speaking to us again, telling us to get out of the venue. We stayed there for a little while longer, though, Myrf’s German friend buying us a glass of apple juice. I was so thankful, even though I hadn’t passed out I could feel that my legs were a bit shaky under me. Avoiding dehydration was a good idea.

When we left the venue, it was raining cats and dogs. A thunderstorm was really a great ending for the amazing day. I was soaked both from sweat and rain once I got to the hotel, but it was more of a blessing than a curse. I couldn’t get my shoes totally dry before the morning, though, but oh well. :3

When I left the hotel the next day, I was still on cloud nine. And I couldn’t help beaming every time I saw a Karate Kid poster, because it looked just like Gackt kicking the air at some point of his gig. Not to mention the KFC I saw on my way to the station. I mean, there’s got to be some sort of a joke in this:

 

Needless to say, I was grinning like a madman.

~♥~

Yesterday Gackt decided to almost scare the life out of me. He wrote in his blog that he had passed out 5-6 times during the gig, couldn’t remember much about how he managed to get away from the stage, slept for six hours (and I understood from other people’s comments that this was actually a lot for him!) and couldn’t stop bleeding from the throat once he woke up. SERIOUSLY, man, don’t kill yourself! We usually appreciate our idols even if they won’t kill themselves just to give a great show for us fans. T-T Luckily the blog translation I read sounded like he was already feeling better and was happy about the show overall. And according to the Bochum live reports I’ve read this far, he seemed to be alive and well for his final show in Europe. Here are some screencaps from the Bochum show streamed over the net by niconico.

All in all, arigatou gozaimasu Gakuto-sama! The gig was unbelievable and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. (Except for your health, though. ;__;) See you again soon in Europe, right? Please?!

~♥~

I’ve totally got to get some sleep now. We had my godparents and Stella here for a “crayfish party”. I had such a good time chatting with Stella after such a long time, especially since she was about the first person truly interested in the gig. ^^ We talked for the whole evening, up until one o’clock when the taxi came to get them home for the night. I still had half of this post to write, and now I should pack for my mini-Finland-rail we’re going to do with Pia. Starting tomorrow at 8:18 a.m. >_______>'' We are going to have a great time, no doubt, but right now I’m feeling like I could have taken another day off and just relax at home. I hope I’ll be able to sleep in the train and tomorrow night, since this night is going to be very short again. And I already almost managed to get myself yet another trip for next weekend (our mini-rail ends on Friday), when I pretty much invited myself to Stella’s summer house. Having a holiday is so busy!

Right, so I’m off to pack and get some sleep. See you around after a week or so, if I’ll have time to blog before leaving for Denmark… :_____D

♥ Hetha ♥

P.S. I almost forgot… I’ve got a photo of my gig attire, which ended up being the same as in the D’espairsRay gig last summer:

This is how fresh I looked after the gig. :'3 What a lovely way to push my hips/stomach forward, makes me look so wide. xD And my hair just goes curly by itself. Kinda cute. x3 Have got more close-ups about that, but it’s too late to start with any new photos. So bye!

* My Munich adventure *

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen; I’m back from my short trip to Munich! I’ll tell you right away that there are going to be two posts about this; this one right here about the trip in general and then another one for the gig, the man, the fandom etc. I mean, you don’t really think Gackt would even fit this post with his ego? Not to mention my fandom. This post would be like hundred miles long or something. x3

Anyways, let’s get this show on the road!

I was slightly nervous about travelling completely alone from start to finish for the first time. I left my house at around ten o’clock on Wednesday morning and first took a bus and a train to get to Helsinki. From there I took another bus to get to the airport. I had done my check-in in the net the previous night and travelled with hand luggage only, so I could just walk right through the security control to the gates. I had plenty of time at the airport, so I crabbed a sandwich and some hot chocolate. After eating, I had to wait for about twenty minutes for the boarding to start and before I knew it, I was on the plane heading for the Copenhagen airport. I flew with SAS and was a bit disappointed for not getting anything to drink. I would have had to pay just to get water, so I didn’t take anything and pretty much just slept through the flight.

At CPH I had to wait for about forty minutes for the boarding of my flight to Munich to start. I didn’t even need to walk anywhere, since the gate for the flight to Munich was the same one I had arrived to from Helsinki. I read for a while and just tried to relax as best as I could. I bought a bottle of water on the flight to Munich and again slept for the most part. Everything went very smoothly.

Once I arrived in Munich, I could easily find my way to the parking lot, where my bus to the centre was already waiting. The bus driver was very friendly and there were only about ten people in the bus during the drive. I saved 2,50€ by buying a two-way ticket, yay! It took about an hour to reach the centre, so I was there at some time before six p.m.

The first thing I did in Munich was buying a map of the city from the train station. It didn’t help me all that much at first, though, because I got a bit lost right away. I somehow managed to misunderstand where I was in the first place and started to walk to the direction that was about 45 degrees off from where I was actually supposed to be going. :'D Well, after a few wrong turns and pauses to read the map, I managed to find my way to the hotel. ^^

There was some kind of a promotion event for the movie Knight and Day on the Karlsplatz, which was completely crowded with people.

The fountain was surrounded with huge Knight and Day banners and there was a red carpet on the other side of it. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz were actually coming to the place, but I didn’t stay to wait, since I wouldn’t have been able to see them anyway and I just wanted to find my hotel. :'3

I reached my hotel at around eight p.m. and after settling down, I went to eat to an Italian restaurant which was in the same building as the hotel. I first spoke English to the waiters but when I heard them speaking in Italian I also changed the language. They were first trying to speak to me in German, but I figured that I’m more comfortable in Italian. The waiters were obviously very pleased with that, as Italians often are when they hear a foreigner trying to speak their language. After eating Spaghetti Napoli and some Crème caramel, I asked for the bill in Italian. The waiter asked me if I was French and I told me I was Finnish. He was all “Que bella!” and I felt really pleased with myself, obviously. ^^ I thanked him and wished him good night, heading back to my hotel room.

The first night in Munich was painful, to say the least. I took a shower in the evening, but my room was so hot that I was hardly able to sleep at all. Luckily I’ve been sleeping shorter nights lately, so waking up in the morning wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be.

I took another shower in the morning, made myself some tea and headed out to the shopping street, to buy myself a deodorant (the best thing to forget when going to +30°C Munich to see Gackt in a concert >.<''). I took my camera with me, just to take some photos for you!

The shopping street was right through this gate. I took the photos on my way back to te hotel, after having walked to the Karlsplatz again. ^^

In the middle of the walking street, there’s Marienplatz with this huge Neue Rathaus that just wouldn’t fit in one photo!

There are some dolls in the tower that supposedly do something at certain times of day. I heard some bells ringing when I was there, but the dolls wouldn’t move. Here’s a close-up anyway:

And under the dolls, there was a statue of someone riding. (Wow, good job me with finding out what was going on with these sights!)

I had to take tons of photos because the building was so beautiful. *-* Too bad I was hurrying and didn’t really pay too much attention, so the quality is once again crappy. :'3

I wonder why they’d put some random shops in such a gorgeous building. o.O Well, I loved watching it from the outside.

There was a golden statue on top of a pillar in the middle of the square. I guess she’s the Holy Mary, considering that this was Mariensplatz and that she’s holding a baby with her left arm. ^^ A close-up again:

Tired of the photos yet? Just a couple more. :D

A tower!

A church!

People by the river. Just where I would’ve liked to be. *-*

Yet another tower!

Okay, that’s pretty much it for the photos. ^^ I decided to save some money and ate lunch at a McDonald’s. That Big Mac meal was the only thing I ate on Thursday, so it’s a surprise I didn’t die at the gig. :D

I came back to the hotel at around 13.30 and rested there for a while. I took yet another shower and thought about sleeping, but I was way too nervous to do that. I ended up leaving the hotel at around three p.m. and didn’t get too lost on my way to the venue.

*insert the gig review here*

I was back at the hotel somewhere around ten p.m., totally soaked from sweating and from the rain. The thunderstorm was a blessing, really, although I was slightly worried about the only pair of shoes I brought with me. :'D I stayed up for some time, beaming and taking photos of the goods I bought (more about them later) and having a texting war with Zara. :'3 I took a shower and went to sleep before midnight.

The next morning was cloudy, and it rained a bit when I left the hotel. A kind man in the reception did my check-in for me, so I didn’t have to worry about that. I walked to the station, hopped on the airport bus and ended up being three hours early at the airport. I ate some sushi (which was incredibly good, by the way *-*) before heading for the security control. I spent most of the extra time listening to Gackt and reading, but I felt more like sleeping. I got to sit with a lot of small children around me in the plane, some playing around, some screaming for fun and some crawling on the floor. So no sleep at all during that flight. Luckily I like kids an am usually patient, so I was mostly able to laugh it of. Especially when I realized I was going to get a free meal with drinks. *-* (Nothing special, but at least I didn’t have to pay! And I got some orange juice, bliss.~) Lufthansa was a much more pleasant experience than SAS, I can tell you that.

When I got back to Helsinki, I had my whole family waiting for me. Everyone had so much to tell others, since dad had been on a biking trip for the past week and mom had taken my sister with her to Seinäjoki where she had spent her nights when she had a gig with her singing group nearby.

I hope that’s all for my trip. o.o I’m feeling pretty much exhausted. Sorry for the low quality of this post, I feel like I’ve failed with English again. -.-'' Can’t have anything to do with my will to get to write the gig review already. ;D

♥ Hetha ♥

The major fangirlism strikes back!

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! ASDFGH (sorry about this :__D) !!

You know what ‘tis all about, right? I’m really starting to feel the GACKTism here. I’ve dreamed of seeing him live ever since the 8th grade and even though I got the ticket to his concert and got the trip settled, the whole thing just seemed very surreal to me. Until today.

As you might have guessed, I read some gig reviews by the people who were at his concert in London yesterday and the fangirlism stroke me very hard. (The internet is such a dangerous place for a girl like me who easily takes influences from others. The *squeeeeee* mode spreads like nothing else when I read any fan reports.) Only five more days and I’m off to Munich all on my own. And after that, just one day before I’ll get to see the egoist of my life. ♥ x3 And this time I’m up for the whole lining up thing too, like a good fan. I’ve paid enough for this and I’m going to get the full experience of a great gig. What would I do alone in Munich anyway? I’ll just leave the hotel on Thursday morning, grab something to eat and head to the concert place to meet the other fans and wait for the Man with his crew to arrive. :'3 (I wish I had some information about the gig routine in Germany… Limits to the time we can stand in line, are there any extra fees we need to pay in Theaterfabrik etc.)

Oh well, I guess we’ll see how it goes. I’m just so excited about this whole trip, traveling alone, seeing GACKT etc. that I can’t even write anything understandable. (Wonder why I even started… I guess I just had to get all that ‘gah’ out of my system. :'D My apologies.)

~♥~

Ahem, let’s see if I’ve got anything comprehensible to the non-j-rock-loving readers… (A short pause in writing here, reading another review and almost crying already.)

It’s still Too Darn Hot here (and I can’t stop loving that song, btw), so I haven’t really been doing much. Or actually – I forgot it’s been two weeks since my last post. I was on a Saimaa cruise with my parents for four days the week before, and we’ve had about 30°C almost every day since then. Can’t complain, because we don’t really get warm weather often here in Finland, but I’ve got to say that this darn heat is eating me up.

Anyway, I forgot to take my camera with me to Saimaa and my dad has got his camera with him right now, so I haven’t got any photos from the cruise. The Saimaa Canal was amazing and I loved Olavinlinna, as I love all the old castles I visit, so the cruise was a success. I suffered from a slight lack of sleep from staying up ‘til four in the morning on a couple of nights before the cruise (MSN with Zara, obviously. Dad found out but hasn’t killed me yet.) and as we were going through the Canal from 3:15 to 8:15 in the morning, I was a bit tired and actually slept in the cabin whenever I could (I had to wake up to eat occasionally). :'3 The hot weather was unbearable, even when we were at the sea, but at least it wasn’t +15°C and raining.

~♥~

Before the cruise (yay, Heta, thanks for doing this chronologically), I surprised myself by sopping in Sello and actually managing to buy something! Bad for my wallet, I guess I won’t be eating much in Munich, but good for my mood. :3

I finally bought myself a new wallet! I was happily surprised that this one has actually got a good amount of card pockets in it. Now I won’t have to try to stuff all the cards on top of each other. Notice my French manicure in the photo, too. Mavala White and Lumene Dancing Waves.

I found these too from – surprise, surprise – Seppälä. Again, their size 34 is too big for me, so I have to buy from their ‘teenager line’, Link. I’m starting to feel like these shirts make me look like a child…

Well, this dress is actually from the women’s section. ^^' I actually really like this one, even though I never seem to get the collar right…

~♥~

Alrighty then, next a little something about nails! First I’d like to show you a wannabe summer-y manicure I did a while back.

Sorry for the messy. :'3 I wanted to try something a bit out of the ordinary (my ordinary, that is) and went for a nail art with summery colours. As you might know, my polish collection consists mostly of darker or flashy colours, not of the currently fashionable taupes or creamy pastels, so I went for the brighter shades. Mavala Gold, OPI DS Reflection and OPI Catch Me In Your Net. Due to the hot weather, the golden polish got extremely bubbly. For some reason, I could only stand this mani for a day or so before replacing it with the French one, shown earlier in this post.

Next, a new polish to my collection. I know what you must be thinking right now, but please let me explain! My little sister was in Barcelona for a week and she bought this to me as a souvenir. It’s not completely my fault that my polish collection just keeps growing!

Sorry for the crappy look. I was pleasantly surprised by this, because I had just read a review of a Kiko nail polish in someone’s blog when I got this. The review was very positive, so I couldn’t keep from trying this on right away. I first applied this on a fake nail and noticed immediately that this one could be the great one-coater. I was super excited and almost jumped up and down from the perfection of this polish when I first applied it to my nails. The excitement didn’t last long, however, because I noticed that the polish was getting very bubbly when it dried. I removed the polish in the evening, disappointed. But, as I reapplied it in the morning, in the basement where it’s cooler than elsewhere in the house, I noticed that the bubbliness (is that even a word?) was again mostly just caused by the warmth. My top coat, however, seems to have suffered more by the warmth, since it almost made this polish look worse than what it was by itself.

Kiko polishes cost only 1,90 € and it seems to me they are worth every cent. This colour, Midnight Blue, is a great example for me of the fact that darker polishes are actually harder to wear than the lighter ones. I should have cleaned the polish more around the cuticles, and the tip wear starts bothering me with these darker colours sooner than with the lighter polishes.

~♥~

I’ve been trying to take some photos of myself (narcissistic, much?) despite the heat we’re having. I’ve got a few okay inspirations and a couple of nightly bad-for-the-quality inspirations too. Here are some photos I’d like to show you:

A ballet-inspired piece. The concept was ‘Never the ballerina I longed to be’ or something similar. There are many things I don’t like in this one, but there always are. :'3

Here’s what my nightly inspiration looked like yesterday. I don’t know why but this photo somehow reminds me of some old paintings of noble ladies (except that they obviously looked better x3). Maybe it’s the serious look or the play of light and shadow… I don’t know. (By the way, corsets can really do wonders to one’s bust. >w<)

And here’s something very different again – me by the pool. Erm, lol?

And – well, another lol at me trying to look cool?

I could keep this on forever, but I’ve got to go to sleep soon. >.<'' 

~♥~

Just one more thing about what I’ve been up to.

I was in Helsinki with Zara today. She was hungry, so we went to eat. Here’s what I had:

A big ice-cream (strawberry, vanilla and salty licquorice) with heart-shaped pink waffels, whipped cream and sauce. And freshly juiced orange juice, the best drink you can get, after blood orange juice. ♥

And before I finish, I’d like to get your opinion on something. As you might or might not see in some of those photos, I have tried to keep my bangs off my face as much as possible lately. Yay or nay? I actually like the look more than I thought I would, but as I was searching through some old photos I came across this:

It tempts me to cut my bangs again! Why does it always have to be so hard to decide on a hairstyle? Last week I almost convinced myself to get a bob cut again… Gah!

~♥~

Okay, that was it! I’m sorry about the hugeism, the fangirlism, the failism and all the other isms in this post. :'3 And sorry for anything I might have forgotten to mention. And for the language. Excitement and tiredness isn’t a good combination – especially if you’ve had a two-week break in blogging.

Anyway, until next time, honeys!

♥ Hetha ♥

P.S. I want to make hats! :D

Nerdier by the hour

As some of you might already know, I was in Tallin, Estonia for three days last week. As usual, I didn’t take any significant photos during the trip, and I think that neither my granny nor my cousin would have appreciated having their photos shown all over the internet. Not to mention my one-year-old godson. I guess we’ll just have to do with the things I bought and a very artistic (or not) blurry photo of a glass of rosé wine, from the first evening (that’d be Thursday), shown here:

We ate some Spanish food, my dish being some tasty beef. ♥ My mind is telling me to stop eating beef for environmental and ethic reasons, but my meat-loving mouth is making it impossible…

On to the things I bought!

This I actually bought on our way back home. A Snö of Sweden necklace with a red gemstone (or a wannabe, anyway). I wouldn’t really have the money for it, as I should be saving for my trip to Germany, but I simply couldn’t resist!

Other thing that I couldn’t resist was a discount on OPI polishes. :____D This brings a break to my mission of not buying any new nail polish, but OPIs were only 11€ in Estonia, and that, my friends, is a 4,90€ cheaper than the price in Finland. I considered getting two OPIs for just 22€ a bargain.

Here are my two new babies, O’Hare & Nails Look Great and Catch Me in Your Net. Apparently my brain told me that I haven’t got enough red polishes already. ^_________^''

Here’s a close-up of Catch Me in Your Net, a sparkly blueish turquoise polish from OPI’s Summer 2010 collection. A real eye-catcher, if you ask me.

I’m having a bit of nail crisis here. I’ve got a 5 mm crack on my right middle finger’s nail and I managed to burn the tip of my right thumbnail while lighting a candle. I’ll probably have to cut my nails soon… Do not want! ;__;

Ahem, back to the subject.

Here’s a crappy (and totally straight) toilet photo of the clothes I bought. The white jeans didn’t quite fit on the waist area, so I had to do a little sewing when I got back home. (A good chance to test my new sewing machine. :D I keep thinking the word computer instead of sewing machine, by the way… Strange. x3) I’ve been wanting to buy a lace t-shirt for some time and in Tallin I got the chance. I also got a black bolero, so now I can wear something else than my boring black hoodie if the weather is chilly. ♥

I also bought a new tea cup, as if I already didn’t have enough of those. :'D But it was Chinese porcelain and very pretty, and my granny actually paid for it, so… And I got a tea cup from Taitti too! As a graduation present. Thanks again~! ♥

That last photo was taken yesterday in the toilet of a local cinema. We went to see the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time with a couple of friends. I didn’t really have high expectations on the movie, so I was positively surprised. The movie was actually very good, in my opinion. The ending was a bit unfair, but I guess it couldn’t have been any other way. (Can’t say anything more specific if some of you haven’t seen it yet.)

Dum-de-dum, what else… I’m pretty tired already, so I won’t bother you for much longer. Tomorrow I’ll finally be getting behind the wheel, as I have my very first driving lesson. That’s one reason why I should be getting to bed; the lesson starts at 8:00 a.m.! :D I’m excited, as I’ve never even tried to start the car… My teacher seems funny but also slightly intimidating… When he’s joking I don’t know if I should laugh or cry! x3 I’ll also have an appointment with a doctor tomorrow, and a theory lesson, so calendar’s full for once! I’m thinking about going to Helsinki to buy an Ed Hardy t-shirt, as Hearts of Hollywood is having a 50% discount… There goes my money again! :'3

(Anyone willing to go to Germany with me, by the way? I’m getting three tickets to GACKT’s gig and I’ll probably be in Munich from the 21st to the 23rd. C’mon, anyone?)

That’s all for now. Until next time, my dears~

♥ Hetha ♥

P.S. …I realized I actually forgot to tell you what that title was all about. :__D So I’ve watched some 28 episodes of this Italian animation called ‘Angel’s Friends’ during these past three days… In Italian… Mind you my Italian vocabulary is probably less than a hundred words when it comes to speaking, although I understand Italian pretty well by the help of French and English etc. On good days I might be able to understand whole conversations, but sometimes everything just goes in from one ear and out from the other… And thanks to magical Italian animation, I’ve been reading some W.i.t.c.h. comics and even fanfiction… Nerdy, much? ~

Okay, that was it. Bye

Ah, bliss~♥

I’ve probably had a couple of yet another best days of my life, and more are coming, if everything goes as planned. :3

Should I do this chronologically? Umm, I’m thinking maybe. At least for the two most important things. ♥

First off, my graduation party! I managed (quite miraculously, in fact!) to finish my dress in time, had to sew a few stitches in the morning, but I didn’t need to downright panic at all! :D What an accomplishment.

Newly graduated, in our school’s lobby. I had about 15 minutes in the morning for curling my hair, so I’m positivelly surprised that they came out pretty well (better than ever before, I think) and they also lasted for the whole day (and I still have some loose curls, didn’t have time to wash my hair yet) so I’m extremelly happy!

…I wasn’t in my most photographable state on Saturday, I guess, but I’ve got a couple of okay photos. :3 Dad’s parents gave me that huge rose. I love it. *-* I got many compliments on my dress, which actually made me feel quilty, because I would have wanted to make it even prettier. My dad described it as one of the prettiest in the whole school (dad’s speech – I tried so hard not to cry, he was just overly wonderful ;__;♥) but he was obviously watching the whole thing through his paternal vision, so that’s not any kind of a proper measure. People told me they liked especially the corset (bought, obviously) and the part that covered my shoulders. Here’s where the quilt stepd in – I did the decolté just the previous day and actually had the only panic experiense at around eleven p.m. when I noticed that I had made it too small. I couldn’t really use the sewing machine at that time of the night, so I had to sew some extentions to the bach by hand. :'3 I didn’t mention it to the quests, though, and was just happy that they approved. ^^

My dear frien Kat came from Denmark with her parents who are our important family friends, almost like a part of the family. ♥ (I hope you won’t mind me showing this photo, Kat. I’ll take it down if you want.) The one on the right is my little sister. We’re like day and night, really. :'D I look so pale compared to the other two…

A little bit of shoe posing with my girls. ♥ You can finally see my shoes better here. I’ve got to say that I almost ruined my toes with these. ^^'' I wish I’d have a good photo of my complete outfit, but I guess we’ll just have to do with what we’ve got. :3

And now to the presents! I got a nice amount of money and gift cards from family friends and Godparents, which is good considering the other thing I’m going to write about. But let’s stick to the graduation for a while longer.

I got a new electronic sewing machine from my parents. ;__;♥ It’s so modern that I’m afraid to use it. So many cool options~ I learned that my mom’s sewing machine is about 20-30 years old, so I guess it’s good to finally have a new one in the house. I just hope that the electronic parts won’t break down… The old mechanical machines always last longer than the more modern stuff.

I got Arabia’s Satumetsä mugs from a friend, as I had hoped, and a teapot with two tea cups (Wildberries by Villeroy&Boch) from all of my cousins from dad’s side (as I don’t have any on my mother’s side). I also got a poppy painting from my dad’s mother and a series of three old portraits, one of my great-grandmother and my grandmother’s and mother’s graduation photos, all in black and white. ♥ Family history, that’s what I like. :3 There’s also a book journal I got from another friend. Got to start reading books more often again.

I got my first Nomination bracelet from my godparents. ♥ It has a star (for Stella, I suppose *-*) and a golden lyra for my graduation. :3 So from now on I’ll be more than pleased to receive new pieces for every little event. :D

My cards and the big roses. ♥

My cousin’s son (about 4 years now) was so adorable when he very shyly handed these flowers to me. ;__;♥ And his little brother, my godson, was the cutest little thing, as always. *3* ♥

And just to add yet another photo, here are my ‘summer shoes’ that I bought today. :3 I just couldn’t bring myself to buy flat shoes, a girl’s got to have heels. ♥ I hope I’ll be able to walk with these though… Unlike my fail with last summer’s shoes. x3

---

Now, on to the big news!

Heta is going to Germany ~22.7.2010. ♥

GACKTOOOO, here I come! ♥

(I’m so tired from all that rambling about the graduation that I can’t write a proper over-excited post about this right now… :'D)

I’m a bit worried, since I haven’t yet got the actuall bill, but I got the confirmation e-mail, so I think it means I got the ticket? *-* I spent the whole mornin (from about 9:45 to approx. 13:50) refreshing the page of the ticket seller, slowly getting on with the order step by step. I was too excited to get frustrated, otherwise I probebly would have paniced or blown up my head or something. :'D

Now I just need to actually pay for the ticket and then reserve the hotel and plane tickets to Munich, as soon as possible. I’ll probably be in Munich from the 21st to the 23rd of July and right now it seems that I’m going all alone. :D My parents are a bit worried, but I’m just… Almost high from the feeling of freedom and independance. :__D Somehow Germany seems like a safe place to go alone, even though I don’t speak German at all, just understand somewhat and know some Elisabeth bits by heart. :'D Me and my usefull vocabulary, I can ask people why they have murdered the Empress Elisabeth, or tell them about der Tod, or sing Die Schatten werden länger, if I still remember the german lyrics after all of that Yami ga hirogaru… :'3 Or maybe I’ll just tell everyone that I’m afraid of the police. xD Well, I’ll get to see GACKT and explore a bit of Munich and that’s the main point. ♥ Good use for my graduation present money. :3

Zara just convinced me to go to Annyeong!Party tomorrow, so I guess I’d better get to sleep soon. I want to buy a headband from Spiritstore tomorrow, plus I’ll have to get an appointment with a doctor for the driving school. I just started the theory lessons today! So many things to write about, so many things to forget… Well, until next time, my dears! Nail repairing post is on the way, plus I feel like cutting my nails, so expect something naily in near future!

♥Hetha♥

P.S. I really hope my mom and dad will want to go to see Sting when he has a concert in Finland… Mom already said that she’s not all that inspired to see a huge arena concert with Sting playing old songs with a symphony orchestra, but c’mon! She’s already missed him once and has felt bad about it later on.. We’ve got to see the concert, right? Right?