Catching up

Almost two years passed by and I kept thinking "I should update the Pool", but for some reason I didn't. I've certainly posted on my journal in LJ, since in all honesty it's somewhat more versatile as a blogging platform. I do like the fact that I can easily screen who sees which post and I'm ridiculously hooked on using icons, but on the other hand blogging here has always been more straight forward. More serious in a way, also because in here I post with my name and over in LJ my name doesn't come up anywhere. Anonymity there, name and face over here. In other words I've wanted to keep the posts less silly here, despite the title of the blog.

Perhaps I've made myself an ill service keeping the Pool more serious, because one reason I haven't posted is that I've felt like I've nothing to say. Nothing that made any sense anyway. I'm not sure things have changed in any way, but I'm going to give it a try. A voice into the void, if nothing else.

So, catching up then. I seem to have been worrying about turning 30 the last time I posted. Hah. 30 came and went, I'm not certain I'm looking forward to this year's 32, but as it's unavoidable I choose not to go on a rant about that. This time around.

There have been many positive changes in my life since the spring of 2007. That summer I did go to London and Wales for the first time and it was amazing. I loved every moment of that trip. I completely fell in love with London, Cardiff and small Welsh towns like Conwy and Caernarfon. I haven't yet had the chance to go back, but I'll go as soon as it's possible.

When I returned home from the UK, I didn't meet my grandpa alive anymore. He died the same night, about 10 hours after my flight from London landed in Tampere. Turned out I spent most of his last day on this Earth on Stansted airport waiting to board a RyanAir flight. I didn't know it at the time, as my parents decided it wouldn't be necessary to inform me, as there was no way I could've been there in any case. I think they did the right thing. Those hours at the airport would've been horrible, if I would've known. This way they were just tedious...

I miss grandpa, but at the same time I think it was his time. He was tired and confused, with his disease eating away every recognisable fragment of his identity. What was (and is) heartbreaking was to see grandma's despair. Today she's coping relatively well but we're all seeing clear signs of dementia and tiredness. The spark of active life is slowly diminishing. It's becoming more and more difficult for her to live alone in a big house, but understandably enough she has refused to seriously consider any other option. There are all sorts of aided living arrangements that could be made, but I suppose she has to come to the decision herself. It'll be very difficult to let go of her and grandpa's home, where they lived all their married life and raised their children.

Hmm, this got serious fast...

On to lighter updates. I was planning on buying a car in the summer of 2007. Surely enough I did buy one. Cara Giovanna, it was affectionately named quite soon after I got it. I admit to being materialistic and shallow, but I still sometimes catch myself grinning when I walk out to the parking lot - that's my car and it's not an igloo made in an Eastern European country that doesn't exist anymore. Wahey! (Not that I've forgotten the dear old Skoda. The stories still live on even though I'm quite sure the car itself doesn't exist anymore.)

Summer 2007 also saw me begin apartment hunting. That all ended last July, when I finally bought an apartment of my own. I didn't buy my old flat, because it was priced a little high for me, but I got a bigger one a little bit further away from the city centre. I've renovated it to my liking (and I like it a LOT!) and this upcoming June will see the old kitchen completely redone to a more modern and sleek kitchen. I simply love having a place of my own, a place that looks like me and really feels like a place I belong to. Besides, picking up colour schemes and furniture and such is so much fun!

So what else is new? Well, one topic I used to post about nearly ad infinitum was my thesis and graduating from the university. Guess what, I did that, too! A year ago I was finally given my Master's Diploma. I got a good grade on my thesis, which I ended up putting together surprisingly fast when push came to shove. I was quite happy with myself, for sure.

Some things haven't changed since 2007. I'm still very much single and definitely not any closer of becoming a girlfriend / wife / mom to anyone. I did become an aunt (and godmom) last May. My brother's daughter is the cutest little girl, although I don't get to see her that often nowadays since she and her mother don't live with my brother anymore. I hope she'll visit her dad for her first birthday so I'll be able to spoil my goddaughter with loads of presents. Isn't that what aunties are supposed to do?

So there. Consider yourself caught up with my life. For the most part, anyway.

Times they are a-changing: A BLOG RESURRECTION!

Well well well. It's been seriously long since I last visited this blog. I've been really ashamed of my negligence of poor Pool, and now it's time to do something about it.

The perfect excuse being that I'm actually on a short course on Google docs etc. and as I'm pretty familiar with it all, I can play around. And write a short entry promising that I'll be back soon. I really will be, honestly! There's been stuff going on in my life and I think there could be an entry or two in it somewhere.

So now I need to look like I pay attention, so this is it for now. I'll be seeing you soon.