BBQ @Erik's

Couldn't have spent my last full day, Sunday February 26th, in a better way.

Johannes invited Karen and me to join him to a BBQ at his friend, Erik's, house. Tina had come to London with her sister, too! Exchange friends re-unite!

As London's weather at the time was amazing, +15°C, we couldn't say no. Well, we couldn't have anyway. ;-)

I doubt I've ever had a barbecue in February before.

Karen and me couldn't find a shop when we got to Paddington station. Probably still blinded by the previous night out. We ended up getting chicken from a local fastfood restaurant.

Erik lives on top of the station. How cool is that?! The weirdest thing was that we couldn't even hear the noises of the tubes.

So, we literally had a barbecue on top of a tube station. Never done that before either.

After eating we decided to watch a movie: The Island. I found it pretty good! Funnily, as I usually am not at all interested in Sci-Fi movies.

IMDb describes: "A man goes on the run after he discovers that he is actually a "harvestable being", and is being kept as a source of replacement parts, along with others, in a Utopian facility."

Karen and I couldn't get over how funny Francesco is. Situation comedy. He makes us laugh no matter if he means to or not. A guy whose words you just have to hear in order to understand how he makes us feel.

Constance had found sunglasses on the floor of her Uni on a sunny day. Francesco's reaction: 'Do you really use them? Ew, that's disgusting.'

Erik brings ice-cream, Francesco's face gets an 'is this real' sort of look, Francesco runs away and chucks his gum in the bin, runs back and asks: 'Can I have one? I love ice-cream!' ...yeah, we noticed.

Francesco's comments about his favorite football team loosing a game: 'I'm so sad. So upset. I can't change team though, because football is like love. You can't just not love and change the team.'

Francesco wants to enjoy the sun. He finds a spot where the sun just about reaches his forehead. Comment: 'Ah, this is so warm! So lovely. My hands are warm.' A moment later he continues... 'Oops, the heat came from the grill.'

And the list goes on. Amazing. Lovely. I think he just made my weekend.

...and then it was time to head home, back to Finland.

<3

L

Crepes and cider: Last weekend in London

Karen came to visit me on my last weekend in London.

We were invited to have dinner and pre-party at Johannes' apartment with him and his flatmates.

Coco had prepared tasty French crepes and Johannes had made tasty sauce for it. We met Francesco for the first time. He provided the humor. What a guy.

We provided drinks.

I'm craving for those crepes as I type.

After our delicious dinner Johannes' classmates started arriving for the pre-party.

Nobody had told us it was carnival! Helloooo!

People were all dressed up and had seen so much effort in they awesome costumes.

Johannes is lucky to be surrounded by so friendly and kind people. His classmates and house mates are all super nice and I felt like I'd known them for a longer time. Oh how I wish I would have! I surely should have joined the times I was asked. In the future tiredness will not be a valid reason for me to miss events like these anymore. Please remind me, ok? Maybe I should make myself a board with the phrase 'tiredness is not a reason' on it.

What a great night. As Johannes and his classmates continued to an open bar party Constance, her friend, Francesco, Karen and Me went to Camden's club Coco, which is right next to the Purple Turtle where I went to see Franco. (read here) I'll post more about Coco later. Hilarious night out. Sure was carnival... hahah!

Many thanks for Mr. Johannes, or Miss Black Swan should I say, for letting me use his pictures!
Karen has quite a few from the night + weekend, too. I'll post them for you once I get back home from Cuba. Or more likely when Karen sends them to me. ;-)

<3
L

This post is all about stoke. Critical Mass: February, London.

Just by looking at this first picture: Can you believe that this was the best skate so far? The best skate ever?

London will forever be my longboarding home.

Look at those people! Aren't they just great?

To the point:

Critical Mass February, London

My second CM. Hopefully not last.

They better have Critical Mass in the city/cities I live in the future. If not. Hey - I'm so arranging.

If the concept of Critical Mass is unfamiliar to you, read my post of my first CM in October here. From that post you can also find a video I made of the event.

The mass never has a point of direction nor a certain destination, it just goes and it flows.

It always starts at South Bank, near Waterloo station and usually goes past St. Pauls Cathedral.

Bombing Oxford Street, continuing on to Regent Street or Park Lane is also a very common route. And the best part of the mass. It's crazy how crazy the tourists get! Snapping pictures and cheering at us with amazed faces. People asking 'what is this all about?' and looking confused as...heaven.

Critical Mass feels good.

My favorite part of the mass was as we rode down Regent Street, continued towards Leicester Square, turned down to Haymarket and continued on Pall Mall ending up at Trafalgar Square. Long downhill. Smooth. Skating down Haymarket the fastest I've ever had the courage to go. Adrenaline rush.

Perfection.

Talent show on Trafalgar Square. ;-)

If you skate and go to London, do contact these amazing and talented people. You can do it by for example joining/contacting this group on Facebook: London Longboards. Or by reading and contacting via the London Londboards Blog here. They will be more than happy to take you along to skate sessions all around the city. You should most definitely go to London for a weekend during CM time, which is always the last Friday of the month. A skate at Critical Mass will redefine your understanding of the words stoke, community, friendship, kindness, help and fun. And I will be jealous that I won't be there to join you.

<3

Linda

xxx

Franco @Purple Turle, Camden

Franco @The Purple Turtle, London

23.2.2012

My last London gig was a night at the Purple Turtle with Franco, an artist who came to record at The Animal Farm during my internship period. I'd promised Franco I'd go see him before I leave - promise fulfilled. On my very last days.

Matleena and I got a ride to the gig from boss Mat. As soon as we got to Camden, where the gig was, I thought 'damn, why didn't I come here more often? for gigs, for parties, for anything.'

I guess that's a normal thought, no matter how often you do something. ;-)

Beth was surely enjoying the evening!

Other Farm colleagues came too. An other 'should have' -thought I just got: Why is there no group picture?

I decided to go all experimental with the camera.

It was nice to hear songs played live that I'd earlier heard being recorded in the 'Farm studios.

Was good to sing along.

Franco has an exciting voice. You can kind of hear his Manchester accent but on the same time you just think 'what is that special twist'?

His music is calming and makes you think. By that you can probably guess that I like his lyrics. Powerful songwriting.

Find him on Facebook here.

This evening was all in all so great. I was surrounded by very lovely people!

Not only colleagues but also the greatest, most curly haired, super exchange friend Chris was visiting London and joined us to the gig!

Felt so funny to meet up in a totally different environment than Holland or Finland.
At a gig in London.
When really we should have been in Haarlem, Holland. At Patronaat. Stagediving. Crowdsufing. Singing: 'We are..your friends. You will never be alone again.'


<3
L


Listen here: Franco and the Dreadnought - Last Man Standing Piano Version

Brick Lane on a Sunday

We had heard Brick Lane was worth a visit on Sundays, so we went to check out the hype on

Sunday February 19th

The area is always exciting and packed of people with personal, special styles.

When we got out from the tube station at Shoreditch High Street the first thing we saw and heard was a smashed piano being played by amazed tourists. Yeah, Brick Lane is one of those areas again where anything and everything is possible.

Feels like people 'fly high to an other level'. And you can smell that it's not only a feeling, but also the green green truth.

Loads of graffitis everywhere.

Let the street art above explain what Brick Lane is all about - at least at night.

Nigel the cat is missing. Thankfully it's amazing weather for him to take his 'day off' from home.

So yeah. On Sundays Brick Lane gets the Camden Market and Notting Hill's Portobello Road vibe.

Selling print shirts, jewelry, 2nd hand leather jackets and fur coats, old cameras, clocks made out of vinyls, vintage sunglasses and what not.

You can check the similarities from my previous posts:

Camden Market

Notting Hill

Camden + Greenwich

In addition to clothes, accessories, gadgets and all there is a food market serving food from probably every country you can think of. Though we did not find Norway, Finland or Sweden - maybe they were hidden somewhere. The typical Chinese, Indian, Thai, Turkish, French, Italian, etc. were represented by many stalls. In addition there was Lithuanian, Brazilian, Mexican, Argentinian and mixed (e.g. Turkish Indian)...and probably much more than I can remember or that I even walked by.

We'd had enough of walking and standing. As we were on Brick Lane it was time for the last Indian meal - and we got to sit down. Brick Lane is famous for its' tens of Indian restaurants. The best curries you can find in London and with reasonable prices. The vibe is very hectic as every restaurant has a man outside telling you the special deal of the day, and doing all he can to get you in his restaurant. You pretty much have to have the rudeness to smile and just walk past without opening your mouth. That way you won't get stuck at every restaurant listening to the yardi yaa blaadi blaa.

Also, every restaurant claims to be 'the restaurant of the year' or of the previous year, or since 2008 and so on. It's actually pretty hard to choose a restaurant. I'd just say - use the common sense trick and go into the one with most people. Or then be adventurous and pick something else. :-D

I guess all the Indian restaurants on Brick Lane are somewhat on a tasty level. Well, they are all 'the restaurant of the year' - right. ;-)

In the evening it was time to say byebye Ingarito and get ready for my last week of internship.

Feels weird that now I'm at home, in Finland, looking outside where the sun is shining so beautiful and the piles of snow are melting, and awaiting for my new adventures.

Lots of <3,
L
xxx