The Return of the Jedi

It has been an amazing experience, but the travels are over for now. I’ve seen and learned more than I ever hoped for and the results will show in the designs to come.

Home sweet home

Whilst unpacking my bags I find both my mobile phone and laptop mouse missing. The phone was hidden deep in the structure of the rucksack, so someone has spent loads of time and effort going through the bag. Right next to the phone was my external hard drive, which contains all my commercial work files over the past four years… and no, the thief didn’t take it. Hahaha.  Had I lost that hard drive, that would have been a nightmare, and I would have cried for weeks. Besides, I never really liked that phone anyway (I always wonder why people praise Nokia so much), so the thief actually did me a favour.

I find a replacement phone from my mum’s drawers; her old phone is a proper old-skool Nokia with no mp3 player, camera or 3G. Perfect.

Baby, call me on my new mobile

The thief also took my old, no longer valid passport. The only reason why I hadn’t thrown it away is that my Australian visa was registered to it. Wonder if this mysterious thief will get to Australia using an out-of-date passport and my not-quite-Asian mugshot.

Altogether, the travels went remarkably well and it is time to get organised again. First thing is to set up a room for myself. Every nerd needs a private nest with a wi-fi. After being away from Finland for so long time I do not have any permanent presence here. Now it is time to  introduce you My New Room:

A peek to my peräkammari

I am now a proud peräkammarin tyttö, adapted from Finnish expression peräkammarin poika, describing those hopeless mums’ boys who have never moved out from home and instead choose to live in a room in their parent’s houses.  A very good start…

The room is not just any kind of space – check out these amazing views over Kotojärvi (Homelake). Yes, that is its real name. Someone once was in a very creative mood.

A room with a view

It is now time expand my territory to Helsinki. According to all-knowing Wikipedia:

The population of the city of Helsinki is 569,892 (31 March 2008)], making it the most populous municipality in Finland by a wide margin. Foreign-born population stands at around 10%.

First thing is to go and say hello to the popular but unwelcomed new inhabitants, who breed so fast that the city’s population is rising rapidly. Citykanit, the abandoned pet rabbits have learned to survive through the harsh Finnish winters. They love sex and their new freedom and successfully have taken over all the Helsinki central parks.  They are currently migrating north towards the suburbs. They prefer living around the main train lines – smart rabbits wanting good connections to the city.

I was expecting that the rabbits to come in all colours and fur lenghts, dotted, striped, limp eared and so on, but I only see these plain brown ones. Plenty of them, though.

Citykani huntress watches its prey and prepares for the final attack

For their credit, the dull brown fur matches the Finnish landscape most of the year, so I guess it makes sense to wear brown and modest oufit. Blending in and modesty are two main traits for surviving in Finland.

A walk around Töölönlahti was nice. Everything feels smaller than the last time I was here. During the past few months I’ve travelled through dozens of big cities in South-East Asia and have realised before, how small the buildings in Helsinki are. The city also feels quiet: the Asian never ending streams of scooters and constant noise were overwhelming and never made me relaxed.

A view over Töölönlahti towards Helsinki Railway station

I am staying in Museokatu, Töölö, a neighbourhood most known for its challenging inhabitants, Töölön mummot. I liked this definition I found:

Töölön mummo on ikänäköinen rouva hyvältä asuinalueelta Helsingistä. Hän tietää useimmat asiat muita paremmin ja mieluummin, ainakin kun tieto on kerättävissä kotisohvalta käsin.

Töölö granny is a mature old lady from a good neighbourhood of Helsinki. She knows most of the things better and more eagerly than the others, at least when the information can be gathered sitting on the couch at home.

‘My town, my street, give me peace of mind that can’t be beat, yeah’ (Buck-O-Nine)

Room in the countryside is sorted, room in Helsinki is sorted – the next thing I need is a vehicle. Aunt-Paula’s old faithful Jopo has been gathering dust in the basement all these years. Its tires need air, the chains some oil and I also need to buy a new heavy lock (who could resist trying to steal that beauty), but the bike is solid and its orange colour makes me smile. Helsinki is a compact city and has very little traffic. Good bicycle roads are everywhere so a bike is an ideal mode of transportation… at least now, when it is summertime and living is easy. When the autumn rains begin and later snow covers the streets, it will get more extreme sport. But there is nothing like a bit of challenge. Bring it on!

Paula-tädin Jopo

Now it is the time for the last and the biggest challenge; getting my website and CV up to date and start looking for a job. Helsinki has a good reputation in the digital media and it is going to be interesting to see, how work compares to Australia and England. My design style is a grungy and not quite the soft and round Web2.0 – even though I have learned to design in that style fluently as well.  Finnishness brings out the raw metal and edginess to my designs.

Talking about metal and edges, last week we went to a Indie-iltamat in Tavastia, the most famous live music venue in Helsinki. The line-up was Propagandhi from Canada and three Finnish bands No Shame, Anal Thunder and Deathbed. My mate Jere spent Propagandhi’s gig in the mosh pit, but I really enjoyed Deathbed, where my brother’s friend from recently-split Endstand is playing guitar. Of course, the name sucks, but their sound doesn’t. Their Myspace page states:

We gave back to hardcore what it gave us – heart, sincerity and a chance to be heard.

It was a really good night and this autumn I plan to see loads more gigs that have heart and sincerity.