Another visit from Germany? Well, almost. This meeting already took place in the
beginning of April 2015, during the Easter weekend, at "Hotel Scandic Julia" which is located in the centre of our hometown Turku / Finland...
It was a very lovely
evening, and today, the dear friend from Berlin shared a picture
taken by me on the "Official Michael Monroe Street Team Germany"
page on facebook (for which she is working as one of the
administrators) and on the "German Michael Monroe Fanpage"
on Instagram (for which she is working as the only administrator)...
The picture was taken
in April 2015, in the main library here in Turku. Probably the most
rocking library in the world... ;o)
It's nice to see how
much such snapshots are appreciated by his fans, and if you want to
stay up-to-date regarding Michael Monroe, just give the mentioned
pages a "like" or a "follow"...
This week, a dear
friend from my native city Hamburg / Germany was visiting us here in Turku / Finland. It was her very first stay in Turku, and since Turku doesn't have an adequate nightlife for rock fans to offer, we
focused more on sightseeing during the day and visiting cafés -
because for this, the beautiful city of Turku is just perfect.
I decided to share some
of my snapshots from our sightseeing tour here on BlogSpot... I hope
you enjoy it! :o)
A well in the nearby Garrison Park
[in Finnish: Kasarmin puisto / in Swedish: Kasernparken]...
... and the "Drummers From Pori"
sculpture in the very same park,
designed by Niilo Savia
On the way to the Turku Cathedral [in Finnish: Turun tuomiokirkko / in Swedish: Åbo domkyrka]
The fishtail fountain sculpture
"Harmonia" [in Swedish: "Harmoni"], designed by
Achim Kühn
The star of Michael Monroe (Hanoi
Rocks) on the "Walk Of Fame" which is located
at Veistämönaukio [in Swedish: Varvsplan]
The Turku Castle [in Finnish: Turun linna / in Swedish: Åbo slott]
Exactly three months
have passed since my last blogpost, and I will spare you the usual
"lack of time" part...
This is certainly a
very exciting time for us: We got engaged, have other big projects
"in the making" and so on and so forth. Interestingly, just
a few days before the marriage proposal, I started to pack away most
things from my days in Helsinki / Finland. From my native city
Hamburg / Germany, I have even less items left these days. Well, this
is how it goes when one has lived the life of a Rock'n'Roll wanderer
for years... ;o) Those were the wild, restless days, and as much as I
love to have all those beautiful memories in my heart, my life went
on around three years ago when I decided to settle down with my love
here in Turku / Finland. And so it was simply time to kiss
most of the souvenirs goodbye...
And this was just the
tip of the iceberg... ;o)
After the
engagement, I became occupied with other things than re-organising our walk-in closet. Some of you might know what this was all about...
;o)
By the way, if
you are in need of a photography store in Turku, I can highly
recommend "Kuva-Paijula" (Address: Hämeenkatu 1, 20500 Turku)...
At the post
office in the city centre of Turku, my breath was taken away by these
postage stamps...
I never expected
to find postage stamps which would fit the occasion so perfectly. The
stamps were designed and photographed by Ari Lakaniemi and Susanna
Rumpu, and released in the year 2012 (Another fact which fits quite
perfectly... ;o) ).
During the
following weeks, we received phone calls, text messages, emails - and
engagement greeting cards...
We even got some
"Förlovningspresenter" [Swedish for: "Engagement
Gifts"]...
Once again: Thank
you all sooo much for all the congratulations and
"förlovningspresenter"! ♥
There is nothing to add to the
actual LIVE review, except for: "Look what I spotted at 'Klubi'
after the gig!"
I used to have that poster of the
Michael Monroe Band on my front door, back then when I lived
in Helsinki-Vallila. Well, this concert evening was special in many
ways...
It's just three weeks ago since the
year 2015 has begun, but...
2015, you blow me away!
As some things are
still "in the making", I will share only a part of the things that
happened during the past three weeks. More will be revealed
later... ;o)
After rocking into the
new year on Viking Line's cruiseferry "Viking Grace", the
party continued at home, at least for our stomachs, since many of the
Christmas presents we received this time were eatable / drinkable [A
fact which I liked quite a lot, by the way...]...
A small part of
the gift basket we received at Christmas 2014
Danerolles
croissants from the can, filled with Cloetta's "Royal"
chocolate
I also baked for real
during the past three weeks, of course, but that topic is reserved
for my food blog...
We also went to
IKEA from where I got myself amongst others more boxes from the IKEA
series "Pingla", this time just in another colour than last time, for our walk-in closet whose re-organisation is more
time-consuming than expected...
Despite the constant
lack of time, we went for a longer walk in our lovely hometown Turku / Finland the other day...
Definitely the cutest
letterboxes I have seen so far...
A cute little bridge
somewhere in Turku
Entering the
forest...
A few days later,
walking outside wasn't that fun anymore as the road surfaces have
become icy and slippery. In December 2012, people in Stockholm made a great hullabaloo about the gently falling snow in the capital of
Sweden; everyone was talking about a meteorological phenomenon called "snökaos" [in English: "snow chaos"]. One would
think that Sweden should be familiar with handling snow, even if it
is a bit more. But one would also think that Finland would know how
to handle icy, slippery road surfaces...
Icy, slippery
road surfaces, barely taken care of. Everywhere. Every year.
That's definitely
one thing that does NOT rock about Finland since many people get
seriously injured and end up in hospital. However, my humble self had
to walk outside, amongst others in order to review the gig of Viper
Arms within the framework of the Turku Band Festival 2015 last
Wednesday (14th January 2015)...
More about the gig to
come soon, but here is already a video clip from that night when
Viper Arms performed "You Will Not Possess Me" at
"Klubi"...
The days after, I
fortunately could work from home, without risking any bone fractures
- and with the possibility to admire our beautiful view...
Since there are currently so many things "in the making", it can take a while
until the next blogpost - but we'll read again... ;o)
I know, I'm a few
days late, but: Happy New Year 2015, everyone! ♥ ♥
♥
Spending New Year's Eve 2014 / 2015
on Viking Line's cruiseferry "Viking Grace" somewhere on
the Baltic Sea between Turku / Finland and Stockholm / Sweden
turned out to be the perfect choice: Lots of food, stunning
landscapes, live music... As expected, our New Year's Eve cruise was
indeed wild and fancy! ;o)
More about our
New Year's Eve cruise to come soon, but here is at least an
audiovisual impression of the live music played on "Viking
Grace": Alice Cooper's "Poison", reinterpreted by the
Swedish rock cover band BULLDOG...
Furthermore, I already
put my first New Year's resolution into action: My food blog, simply
entitled "Sound Kitchen - The Kitchen".
After developing a
growing interest in food, nutrition, cooking and baking over the past
few years, I had plans to also write about this interest of mine for
about a year - but, unfortunately, nothing in that direction really
worked out in 2014, so for 2015 I decided to take matters into my own
hands... ;o)
And already
during the year 2014, I got rid of some online and technical clutter
/ time wasters such as facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and my Apple
iPod... It feels very liberating!
I guess the
re-organisation of our walk-in closet is the next thing on the to-do
list... And maybe another trip to IKEA... ;o)
I hope you all had a
peaceful and contemplative Christmas time. We surely did. Before
Christmas, we went amongst others to "CaféArt" here in Turku / Finland... Highly recommended!
The other day (Friday,
19th December 2014), I met the one and only Michael Monroe during my
Christmas shopping in the shopping centre "Skanssi" while
he was signing the updated version of his autobiography in the
bookstore "Suomalainen Kirjakauppa"...
And now I'm
drinking some coffee out of one of my Christmas presents, this lovely
girly Moomin cup, since I need to get myself going; a lot needs to be
done before jumping on the "Viking Grace" ship tonight,
celebrating into the new year while floating around somewhere between Turku and Stockholm / Sweden...
In the meantime, it
snowed again here in Turku / Finland. This time, the snow
remained an entire weekend. And this time, I also enjoyed the
beauty of the snowfall a little bit more than last time... ;o)
One of the reasons why
I was able to enjoy this time's snowfall a little bit more than the
snowfall before might have been the fact that I could finally fix the
plans for New Year's Eve 2014 / 2015. This year, New Year's Eve
will look something like this... Just a little bit wilder and
fancier... ;o)
Using a hashtag
and presenting my latest "hauls" (formerly known as
"purchases"): I'm so hip(ster) right now! Nah, don't worry,
I'm just kidding... ;o) But, indeed, I lately spent some money and
thus supported my local record stores here in Turku / Finland,
namely "8raita" and "Levykauppa Äx - Turku". Two
CDs I bought myself...
Deathstars - "Night
Electric Night (Gold Edition)"
Dregen - "Dregen (Exclusive
Hardback Cover CD)"
... and one CD I got as a present...
Finntroll - "Nattfödd (Limited
Edition Re-Issue)"
It's not that hard to
support the local record stores when they have such treasures in
their stock - but especially in times like these, it's very important
to support the rather small shops. Here in Turku, we recently faced
the close-down of both branches of the Finnish department store chain
"Anttila" as well as the close-down of many other shops.
Loads of empty facilities with "To hire" or "For sale"
signs everywhere... I wonder how the city centre of Turku will look
like in the near future...
Apart from buying CDs,
I'm also not getting tired of buying boxes of whatever kind in order
to keep my stuff in order. My latest catch were these super cool tin
boxes; I simply couldn't say "no" when I saw them at "Tiger
Store"... Retro-style rocks!
Ok, what else? Well,
yeah, we had this winter's first snow here in Turku last week, and it
was the first time that I wasn't happy about the first snow. After
living over half a decade in Finland, one simply knows too well that
snow might be the only thing one can see outside, all the way until
April. Fortunately, the snowfall turned into a slush which vanished
the very next day, so it's still possible to cruise around with the
bike... :o)
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