Hello from Helsinki!

Christmas is over and 2006 is rapidly approaching.

I'm planning on seeing 2006 in here in Helsinki with Karoliina, though there were times yesterday when I feared that I wasn't going to make it.

Over the past few days there have been some serious wintery storms across Europe, including England. My train was delayed by the snow, but seeing as I took it for granted that my train was bound to be delayed knowing GNER to be as it is, that wasn't such a problem.

I had a connection in Copenhagen to get all the way to Helsinki, but there was pretty much a blizzard there. Sitting on the tarmac for over an hour, I saw the takeoff time for my connection through to Helsinki come and go, and thought that I might be having to stay the night in Denmark.

when I found out that that flight was delayed, it was actually the only time I'm ever likely to be glad that my flight was delayed.

Eventually I landed in Helsinki three hours late, with poor Karoliina and her mother picking me up at 4:20am local time.

Sorry about that...

I'm on Holiday!

At last I've had my last exams for the term and I have Christmas and the New Year to look forward to!

Karoliina went back to Helsinki yesterday so I'm all alone in my flat - and as I've just realised, it's the first time that I've spent any substantial time here by myself. Before term began Lari was staying here while he was getting his own living arrangements organised, and since then I've had Karoliina here all the time, so being here alone makes this place unusually quiet.

I'm heading back to Yorkshire on the 21st to spend Christmas at home with my family which I'm really looking forward to, but I'm particularly looking forward to flying to Helsinki to spend New Year's Eve in Finland with Karoliina.

I'm really excited about seeing Finland in the Winter, but it's likely to be quite chilly... I guess I'm going to have to try out the famous Finnish saunas to keep warm.

First exam gone, still not feeling on top of the world.

That's genetic approaches down.

I'm still not feeling great, but hopefully it didn't affect my results too badly. unfortunately, it was kind of difficult to do my usual heavy revision for the last couple of days with the feeling of my tonsils trying to strangle me on Monday and my head feeling like it was about to burst yesterday. Having my sleep patterns messed up wasn't very convenient either.

I've told the people who need to know about it in case it mucked up my exam worse than I realised. It makes me feel like a moaning hypochondriac doing it, but I know that it's the only sensible thing to do. That and going to the doctor, which I'm going to try to do this afternoon.

I just hope that I'm better for Friday and can do myself justice in my next exam...

Yuck. I appear to have caught the lurgy.

After a week of Karoliina being ill, I thought I was safe from the nasty lurgy she has, but I was woken up by my tonsils about an hour ago and they're refusing to let me go back to sleep again.

I really hope I don't get this as badly as Karoliina did (she's getting better now). The timing's meticulous - my finals start on Wednesday.

At last, I have flights booked!

I'm going to Finland for New Year!

I managed to find flights that weren't horribly expensive through Scandinavian Airlines, leaving London City Airport at sensible times on the 29th and returning on the 5th of January...

I'm really looking forward to seeing Finland suring the winter, a pleasure I've not yet had. I'm also looking forward to seeing Karoliina's family who were absolutely great when I last got to see them.

The only thing I have left to worry about now are my 4 exams coming up in the next couple of weeks. They're pretty important, but I'm feeling better prepared than I've felt in the past about my exams.

Why is organising trips abroad always so difficult?

A little while ago I decided that I wanted to visit Karoliina in Helsinki over New Year's Eve, but I'm having a nightmare working out how I'm going to get there and back.

Having researched the flights, I could get extremely cheap flights to an airport 2 hours away from Helsinki (£10 plus taxes). However, that would involve me either having to spend most of the night at Stansted airport waiting for a 6:15am flight, or arriving at in Finland 10:00pm in the evening, cutting it extremely fine for any chance of public transport down to Helsinki. I sure as hell don't want to get stranded overnight in central Finland in late December when there'll likely be nowhere to stay.

Flying back is giving me a similar headaches, with me having to be able to get back up to Edinburgh.

I wish I could just blow a couple of hundred quid to make the whole problem easier, but I'm too much my mother's son.