New year, new post!

It has seriously been forever since I had the chance to write last. Life here has been treating as very well, by now most of you know that Joonas managed to land himself a very good job and he also managed to make it through his probationary period, which means he has he is officially in! I have to say that our day-to-day life here is quite hectic, workdays are longer then they were in Finland and it takes so much more time to travel to and from work.  Joonas has a half hour drive to work and I commute using train and bus for 70 minutes each way. Unfortunately during the week that doesn’t leave much time in the evenings before the cycle starts again! But thankfully the weekends have been full of fun things to do and experience.

Since the last time I posted we have done some really cool things! One of the most memorable was our night out in Toronto where we went to see Pentatonix live at the Air Canada Center. I’ve been listening to PTX for a couple of years now and blast them in the car whenever I feel like singing like a drama queen, and we decided that if they were to come to Toronto we would go see them whatever it may cost. And I have to say, although the tickets were a bit too pricey, the show was super super good! It was unbelievable to see the amount of people who were there to see an a cappella show and that the most hysterical fans were teenagers!

Not the best picture, but here’s a panorama of the hald of the ACC during the PTX concert. 

Last month we also went to see a really good show called Potted Potter. It was two British guys who had the most half-assed props imaginable went through all of the Harry Potter books in an hour and a bit. It might sound a bit lame, but the show was crazy funny and the guys were really good. Highly recommend going to see it if you’re ever somewhere where it’s running!

Another interesting thing, which has happened, is that I have reconnected with a friend who I went to school with back in Kuala Lumpur 16 years ago! She has been living in Toronto for over 10 years already and I contacted her when we moved to ask if she’d like to meet up. To be honest I was quite nervous about meeting up with her for the first time because I thought it would be awkward and we just wouldn’t be on the same wavelength anymore, but it turned out to be a really nice evening and we only left because the last buses were about to leave! We’ve since met up with her and her boyfriend for dinner again and it feels really good to have somebody over here from ‘back in the day’! We laughed about all the stupid shit we used to get up to, gossiped the latest news about everyone we know and caught up on what has happened in each others lives over the past decade – also, we noticed that we’re old!

Christmas has also passed since my last post! We had a bit of a different Christmas this year as we spent it with friends! We actually went to stay with the couple whose Airbnb we stayed in when we first arrived. They have become some of our closest friends here and we regularly meet up for dinner or to take care of each other’s pets. So on the 23rd we went ‘back to square one’ and moved back into our first Canadian apartment for a long weekend. We celebrated Christmas with a raclette dinner one evening and then a traditional Finnish dinner (minus all the gross parts of it!) on the second evening. On the 25th we watched their son go crazy over everything that Santa had bought during the night – he got so many presents it was crazy! That night we went over to the girl of the couple’s parents place for a traditional English Christmas dinner. It was a lot of fun! But it was also nice to get home and relax after the weekend.

Two of the three pairs of socks I made for our friends and their son as Christmas presents. 

I’ve been wanting these little characters for a long time and we finally got some in a packet from my mum! So cute! 

New years this year was a bit shit. I was in bed with a 40-degree fever and Joonas was stuck entertaining himself for several days while I lay dying. We brought in the New Year standing on the balcony watching the fireworks in Toronto and Mississauga. It was really cool to see!

The New Year has started off very well. We had a fun secret Santa party with my colleagues where we were all assigned someone to bring a gift for and then we also had a ‘Gag Gift Giveaway’ which lasted about 90 minutes and involved a lot of stealing gifts from other people, swapping gifts and then just simply giving the shittier ones away! We’ve also had Ziggy stay with us for a week, which although fun is always super hectic! He absolutely loves Molli and Molli loves to play with him so you have those two continuously running around chasing each other, and the rest of us just sitting watching and waiting for Ziggs to be picked up! Although, he went home yesterday and I do kind of miss him!

Ziggy kisses! 

This was one morning when both Ziggs and Molli decided it was time to wake up to they both jumped on top of me to get some cuddles. It was heavy, but so cute!

Other than that we have a really fun spring coming up as we’re getting several visitors from back home! It will be so nice to show people our new neck of the woods and to introduce all of the cool places we’ve found and all the good things to eat! I am SUPER stoked for these visits!!

So yeah, that about sums up the last two months or so! I will try to be a little bit more productive where the blog is concerned and possible post shorter bits more frequently! :D

And just a couple of random pictures!

Bugi enjoying the only snow we have had so far this winter! 

Molli peeking out from one of her favourite spots – a cardboard box covered with one of Joonas’ old t-shirts.

Hopefully everyone is doing well and that the New Years is treating you fairly!
Peace out, brussel sprout!
-Elli