Winter stories

This blog will be a lot of bits and pieces, memories and pictures, songs and quotes - all the things worth remembering. 

Bonding time at Annu's place with our dance group. Made pancakes and played a lot of guitar hero. Had another training at night, as we were the only ones in studio, had pots and pans nearby, in case the thief that has "visited" the studio, should come back. If it has been the same person every time, he has broken into the studio 3 times by now. 

It has been an incredible winter with soooo much snow. Keiu and her bother decided to use all that snow and built a ramp in their back yard, so we have been  practicing our snowboarding tricks. 

Mom had her annual work winter-conference-holiday in Otepää, our winter capital. I've been there for the last 6 years. Winter sport-games, skating, snow-tubing, club Comeback), was once back in the day my first visit to a club - with my mom!! :D), spa, good food and a bit of snowboarding to end the weekend.  

Last but not least - NORDIC MOVES dance competitions in Finland. Already the start was real smooth. Tuuli slept in and her dad took us to the port within 15 minutes, from Laagri, you can make your own assumptions, of how fast the car was going, in traffic by the way. We were the last people let in the ship. 

Met Kadri in the city centre and headed to her place. She lives in a hipster community. Interesting people and a very fun place to live in.

Second fail: the dance workshops we wanted to go on the first day were happening in Lapland. Moral: check what you book, everything in Finland does not happen in Helsinki. 

Third fail: Went for a walk in town. On the way back, got lost, and were lost for 2 hours, probably passed the right house 8 times, but didn't notice. All the blocks looked exactly the same. It was -20 C outside. Went in a store nearby, the cashier looked up the address Kadri gave to Tuuli on the computer, it lead us to a house that didn't exist, or at least there didn't exist any residential building. Later came out that it was the address of her school, as we were supposed to meet there in the first place. Kadri also didn't answer her phone as she was at work. At some point frozen and miserable, started laughing in tears, went in a nearby bar and did some shots. And got a mug of tea for the road. 

When at last at home, watched "Whip it". I'm not sure why we finished the movie as it was boring and pointless. Watched "It's complicated" later with Kadri and her roommates, that was much better. 

Next morning took a train to Espoo, where we took Sho-Tyme's 2 hour-long hip-hop workshop. Amazing stuff. Stayed in the dance studio for the night with other dancers, practiced some more in the evening. 

Fourth fail: somebody had left the air-con on cold after the training, we realised it in the morning after a cold cold night. 

Fifth fail: next morning headed back to Kadri's with Tuuli. Then, met the others again at the tram-stop. Got a right direction, until saw municipal police doing regular ticket checks, none of us had a ticket. Some locals later told us they have never seen the ticket-check go on in trams. And we saw them the second time in that day as well. Finally made it to the hall and registered to the competition. In hip-hop category there were 53 pairs of dancers. It was my first competition abroad and it felt good after! Was a great day and loved the judges performances in the end. The next day there were crew battles and the showcase night. Russian crew won with a choreography based on Super-Mario. Brilliant!