A bit broken

There's more than one version of breakups and goodbyes and no one can put a number on any of them or judge which one is more painful... In many ways it's an end of an era and i'm not entirely sure what it all means and where it all leads.

Here i am, listening to Angie Jones "Wish I Didn't Miss You", Kansas "Dust in the Wind" and Johnny Cash "Hurt" (why this selection, i'm not sure, but it does the job) over and over again and crying it all out...

"Don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away, all your money won't another minute buy..."

Naughty or nice

I guess it's not very hard to figure out whether i've been naughty or nice. I got almost everything i'd put down on Santa's list and interestingly none of the presents were double. Even though my family did not cooperate with my friends or vice versa. And, even more interestingly i got something from PM that was not on the list, but which i had only verbally mentioned to N, who had not mentioned it to PM. She must be psychic (psycho?:).

Thank everybody for all the nice presents Luv'em!

Mundane things

They changed the smell of my fabric softener. I bought the same brand, same colour of bottle...and wtf, the smell's different. I am not happy at all, i liked the previous one. And you know i'm a bit anal about it, as the smell of freshly washed clothes is the best in the world, so it has to be just right. Now i'm stuck with this one for a couple of months.

This morning i had another of my blonde moments. It's surprising how "strange" ideas i sometimes get, being the smart girl i am. Anyway, i seemed to have lost one of the metal thingies of the electrical adapter, you know, the 2 thingies plugged into a socket. Well, it was stuck in the socket under my office table. Tried getting it out with everything i had at hand, e.g. using 2 plastic paper clips, a wooden clothes peg etc, but the thingy was stuck and since it was so frustrating i thought i'd try with my fingers.....zzzz....got a slight electro shock treatment:) And the little fcker is still stuck there and i cannot charge my mobile phone.

Pamparamparam

This has been a truly shitty week at work and i'm not just saying it. Even after a massage on Wednesday, i still had the worst stress backache on Thursday. I'd already forgotten how tiring it is to feel like shit. At least it's weekend now. It's gonna be better.

I haven't been grocery shopping for over a week and my refrigerator is totally empty, except for half a bottle of Martini, a full bottle of French cider, a jar of jam and an onion:) I really have to get around buying stuff. I hope writing it down here makes me actually do it tomorrow.

On a more positive note, when i go x-mas shopping with N tomorrow, i only have to tag along, i've got almost all the gifts already, yipii.

Tune the radars, reclaim the modjo

Approximately a year ago i introduced MIKA in my blog. Here. He was virtually unknown back then and i prediced bright future for him. I said he'd be big all over Europe. Well, he's done even better, he's big all over the world. I'm so happy for him.

I would like to introduce another artist and there are many not so well-known talents that i like but none of them has given me the right vibe that they'll be big in let's say a year. Lately my radars are down and i seem to have lost my modjo....

Where should i go to get it back?

Vote for Estonia!

Go on now and vote for the Estonian street fashion blog to win the bloody competition:)!

You can vote every day this week and then Tallinn can be in the final.

Vote here: streetclash.blogspot.com

Make reservations

It's this time of year, when the social calendar is filling up. Concerts, parties, dinners, spa visits etc. It's only 27th of November and here's the list of already booked dates:

29.11 BD party of a radio station ...Edit: An OK event, nothing special though.
30.11 J-s BD and Paul Oakenfold Concert ...Edit: J's bd was perfect, except for one incident, fakit, Oakenfold sucked, sorry, but that's the truth, awful location, bad organisation and wrong crowd.
5.12 BD of a client ...Edit: I didn't go
7.12 probably another BD party ...Edit: Yep, another bd, despite some controversy, i did go. The night lasted til 8 in the morning. Alcohol is (d)evil.
9.12 Bond Gala concert ...Edit: ppretty good! Despite my ongoing hangover.
10.12 a TV event ...Edit: Not bad but not as good as last year. No actually, i still say rather good, thanks to all the dancing at the end.
12.12 SPA treatment and dinner
21.12 company X-mas party
22.12 hopefully another concert

...and then there's the film festival for which i definitely have to find time and then there are the salsa classes every Tuesday and Thursday.

But, hey, there are still some vacancies:) Let me know, if you have some good ideas and i'll book a date in my schedule:)

Salsa in Tallinn

I googled "salsa in tallinn" to see what comes up....not the best overview of things, to be honest. Lot's of outdated and lacking info. Here's how i see things.

If you want to really learn salsa, there's Casa de Baile, check out the training schedules. Thankfully their page is both in Estonian and English.

If you want to just go out and dance some salsa and meet some of the Estonian salsa crowd, there's 3 possibilities a week:
Wednesdays at Kolumbus Krisostomus (Viru 24) - in old town, next to McDonalds.
Saturdays at Casa de Baile (Estonia pst 7) - right across the street from Estonia theatre. They usually have a party there, but check their website just in case there's a been a change of plans.
Sundays at Clazz (Vana turg 2) - in old town, right across from the Olde Hansa restaurant.

Not much, i know, but better than nothing. So, go and salsa away. I'll try to keep this updated.

Gay bars in Tallinn

I think i've been to most of the gay bars in Tallinn. What can you do if they are often more fun than testosterone-smelling, bimbo-filled, bad-music night clubs.

In the olden times there was Nightman. It was a good place to go with a whole group of friends after some other party. No one ever went to NM before 1 o'clock, 2 or 3 or 4 a.m. was more like it. So when the party ended it was light outside and the first trams were driving by. The place was big and the music was excellent and it was the only place where you could see drunken celebrites dancing on the bar counters or falling off the stage. That's because everybody was feeling free and there were no photographers around. NM closed at some point. I don't know the reason but i think the gaylords were getting sick of their crib being over crowded with all the straight people.

After NM came Angel. Angel has a better location and a nice little upstairs cafe, where you can have an after party snack at 6 in the morning. On the downside, the club's too small, but it's still a good venue with, of course, great disco music and half-naked, very fit barmen(boys) dancing on the counter, pouring liqueur all over them. And of course you see many stars and starlets and wannabes, i guess it's always the case with popular gay clubs.

Some friends once dragged me to a bar called G-spot, which was a dump. It looked cheap, had no air and no class, the people were not the best looking and even the music couldn't save the day. I put it down as sociological experiment as it's not a place to return to.

Last Friday i got lured to another gay bar, called X-bar. It's right next to Angel and has been there for ever, but i've never been in. A invited me there for a drink, saying that it was like being in some god-forsaken village bar. It kind of is, you can quite forget you are in the middle of town. It's very kitschy, has mirrors and a pole in the middle of the small dance floor... well, you get the drift. The drinks really were cheaper than in the rest of the places in old town and the music was good, but the place was full of ugly lesbians. And when i say ugly, i'm not being cruel or arrogant. If a woman is overweight, with unattended short hair, no make-up and wears over-sized sports jumper, she can not look good. I wish someone could give a logical explanation to why the male gays are mostly (not generalizing here, but it is mostly) taking really good care of themselves and are prettier than average, whereas the female gays are just the opposite.

Important things that are (not) happening in my life

N is getting a new home. I still haven't bought a new car. My sis has a new job and therefore is staying at my place for some nights every week. I missed my salsa class yesterday because of my boss's birthday. The salsa course is close to ending. I work a lot. I haven't made any plans for holiday, though i need it (i want it).

Lovely London day 3

Ok, i must admit, it's almost ridiculous to write about my third day in London after more than a week has passed but i'm still gonna do it because it was a good day.

After the night in bar of the year and some rather expensive and fancy drinks (preceded by some less expensice drinks at home and some Cava on the tube to town) we were bound to be slightly hung over. That means it's better to keep any kind of compulsory activities to the minimum and just chill. We headed to Camden Town. After a roaring review from N i already knew what to expect but it still blew me away. The diversity of people that you see in London is multiplied 10 times in Camden - from punks to classy old ladies. Even the tourists are varied. And then there's the merchandise - you can buy almost everything - from antiques to sex toys. And let's not forget the merchants - they're a class of their own, mostly with attitude. For instance, there was an old man, 70+, reading a paper, wearing tiny reading glasses, i was going through the old biscuit tins in his shop, unable to decide which to pick. Suddenly the man, without even looking up from the paper, says: "So, is the tin lady going to pick one out or is this taking for ever?"

Anyways, i went there with no expectations and ended up buying a lovely coat (which was a real bargain), gorgeous blue, very high heeled shoes and a necklace. Plus, we ate some excellent African food, some doughnuts and mulled wine and topped it all up with strawberries in white chocolate. It sure was a delicious day.

Superhero interlude

I dreamt i was a superhero. I've always thought my superpower would be flying. It almost was. I jumped from a very high cliff, glided for a while and dived gracefully into a deep blue ocean. The enemy, however, jumped after me and managed to grab me by my foot at the last minute. So my superpower was actually staying alive in water without breathing. The enemy died.

Lovely London day 2

a.k.a Where to meet all the Estonians in London

Day 2 went as promised, under the tagline of heavy shopping. Shopping is most efficient with no more than 2 people. It's also possible alone but you need someone who helps you make decisions or sometimes decides for you. That's why we separated and i got S as a shopping pal. We started off at Primark, which is the new and cheaper H&M and let me tell you, it's a madhouse and i would spare myself from the hassle but since it's so cheap it makes it worth while. This is how you shop in Primark - you see sth you like, you bag it, you move skilfully though the store and collect things, not looking back, you find a mirror and take a first thorough look at all the stuff and pick the ones to buy. You only try on things which can be tried on without using the fitting rooms, since queuing for those is a total waste of time.

Some fellow Primarkers (image from google)

After such an exhausting first stop it was time for a coffee and after that some high end stores. Looking at Louis Vuitton and Gucci bags with a huge Primark paper bag in the other hand was a bit weird but that is exactly what we did. Note to fellow shoppers - when the bag is already chained to the counter that means trouble, or let's say, that means prices over £250 pounds.

In a little boutique an older man was sitting on the floor, knackered, while his somewhat younger other half was trying on fur coats. He looked like a perfect exaple of how tough it must be to keep up with a younger wife. Well, serves him right:)

In the evening we went out to a bar, but not just any bar....to London's "bar of the year" called Lounge Lover, where Madonna celebrated her birthday last year. The bar was rather nice, a total mixture - 21st century meets 18th century meets hunting lounge - but somehow, the mixture worked. The coctails were delicious and expensive. We had a nice waitress, who'd been bringing us drinks all night when suddenly Jazz, the only English-born among us, asked her whether she didn't happen to be Estonian. He later said he thought her accent sounded Estonian. And would you look at that, not only was she Estonian, she was from Tartu and she used to go to school a couple of hundred meters from where i used to live. And then there was another Estonian girl in the table next to us and who knows how many more were scattered around the bar:) As it turns out, you need to go to one of the most expensive and popular places in London to find all the Estonians. Poor post-soviet country....riight...

Lovely London day 1

London's lovely, as always. They've been havin an unusually warm November and a perfect 14 degree sunny day is awaiting for us today. We didn't do much yesterday, just chilled in Covent Garden, met up with S and J for after work drinks and came home after that. I managed to give and interview to some guys from an advertising agency and A claims to have seen Noel Gallagher, even though, he always sees the celebrities when the others are not around. This time i was buying my coffee in Starbucks. So i'm not one hundred percent sure, it's all not happening in his head:)

Today's gonna be heavy shopping, hopefully we'll also be able to take a look at Camden market and in the evening ...party time! S's birthday needs celebrating.

Bedwetters

So looong.....Bedwetters won and i'm going to celebrate...in London, for a couple of days.

9000 calories

It was a lovely Wednesday evening and i had a lovely way of spending it. N and PM came over and we were baking 3 totally old-school delicacies, which taste like heaven but are asolutely evil when it comes to keeping the figure. The sum total of all the three delicacies was approx 9000 calories. Mind you, we did not eat them all:) God forbid! Most of it will be used for journalistic experiment. However, we tasted all of them and got such a sugar rush that we were giggling the whole evening.

So, what did we bake? They're all such old-school Estonian things that it's almost impossible to translate them into english without totally losing the meaning. Like for instance "Kirju koer", which was in a cafe in Estonia translated as "Multicoloured dog":) - a tasty bite consisting of butter, cocoa, nuts, jellied fruit and bisquits. Or a childhood sweet with many names "Sipelgapesa", "Kass Arturi kook" etc - made only with corn puffs, butter and toffee. And last, but not least - the "Walnut biscuits" - walnut shaped (figures, right!) biscuits filled with cooked condensed milk. Yummy!

50 questions, 10 answers

There were those question someone sent me and said I should answer, there were 50 of them. 50 is too many. I picked randomly only 10 of them.

When did you last cry?
A bit more than 2 weeks ago, after my car accident.
Do you untie the shoelaces when taking off shoes?
No
Do you think you’re strong?
Yes, I do. Especially physically:)
Red or pink?
Red
What do you miss at the moment?
Travelling (and food, it’s almost lunch time).
What’s your favourite scent?
Freshly washed bed linen.
Last movie you watched?
Estonian movie “Kuhu põgenevad hinged”. My advice: don’t pay money for watching it!
Hugs or kisses?
Hugs
Sports?
Yes, please.
Name one blogger you’d like to meet in real life.
Belle de Jour

Can you smell your memories?

The smell of fallen leaves on a sunny day - that is my favourite autumn smell. I walked through my neighbourhood this morning. I've been doing a lot more walking lately, with the car gone. The sun was shining but there were almost no people. All of them probably cuddled up at their homes having sunday morning coffee. It was rather crisp outside and it was beautiful. The smell of the leaves was mixing with the smell of smoke coming from some chimneys. It brought back memories, reminding me of my childhood when i used to stay at my grandparents' in the country. And my parents are wondering how i can like living in Tallinn. It's all about which part of the city you live in, isn't it.

"Can you smell your memories?"
"Of course you can!"

My saturday activities

This is what i did last Saturday. It was an event organized by Cosmpolitan, called Cosmo glam market. I sold and bought stuff. It's amazing how much smoother sales go if champagne is included. The evening continued quite glamorously cruising through the clubs with miz E. all-in-all, had a really good time!

Shit happens...twice!

There are days, which are absolutely great, everything goes smoothly and life is a peach. And then there are days, that suck as hard as a street hooker. You can take a wild guess which of these two options was today.

It started in the morning with an incident in the parking lot of my office. A Porsche Cayenne was too big to turn out of the parking spot next to me and took a corner of my car with it. Anyway, the guy was not a complete prick, we filled some papers and he admitted his fault. The only problem was all the hassle with the insurance and the paperwork. I took care of it at noon, went through the red tape and made an appointment at the repair place.

In the afternoon, however, when i was driving to a meeting, i decided not to run the yellow light, as i've already got a warning from the police for doing it once. I breaked. The guy behind me didn't and hit me hard. Luckily i'm fine, and i hope N is fine too, though she is getting herself checked at the hospital as i'm writing this. She has a bit of a headache and i'm pretty sure it's the result of the accident. Fingers crossed that all's good. N was a big help in keeping my calm and dealing with the whole situation. My car, however, is trashed. It's hurt in so many places that the nice insurance guy was not sure it's worth repairing it:( He'll have more info tomorrow.

I'm finally home and having a glass of wine. Haven't eaten anything since morning. Hoping nothing's wrong with N... Stay tuned.