The Rabbit (2)

Hello hello! How are you today?

Julius is still very fond of his (second) rabbit. He spends a lot of time with it and they seem so happy together. 

Anyway, that's all for today. I just wanted to tell you that the rabbit is still doing well.
Näkemiin!

The Rabbit

Morjens!

Today we went to the pet shop to get Julius a pet. He picked a rabbit and we brought it home in our wheelbarrow.

Julius was very fond of his new friend. He really wanted to teach the rabbit some magic tricks but the rabbit didn't want to stay in the hat.

While Julius was playing outside uncle Jevgeni showed up. It turns out that he also is very fond of rabbits but in a different way...

Damn him. I had to run back to the shop and get a new rabbit. Luckily Julius didn't notice.

Summer Highlights

Ciao a tutti!

Today being the last day of summer I want to take a look at the highlights of this summer and relive the best moment of summer 2018.

1. Our holiday in Italy. Lots and lots of gelato, fun day trips and many train journeys... Julius and I sure had some fun.

We travelled by train a lot in Italy and quickly realised that Italian timetables are just rough guidelines. The train we're on in picture above was already 30 minutes late when we left Verona and a hour late by the time we got to Milan.

The view from Città alta in Bergamo

"Finally some shade." The Italian summer heat can be scorching.

A beautiful flower somewhere in Italy.

The swans of Lake Garda

2. Our picnics, forest and city excursions in Helsinki. We went to the beach, we cycled to Teurastamo to eat gelato (because we hadn't had enough in Italy), and Julius and I went berry picking where the little imp ran away and hid from me. Sweet memories.

For some reason there was a sheep on the wall in the ice-cream shop. Of course Jevgeni had to go and talk to her but she only spoke Italian.

Mmm gelato....

Mmm blueberries...

3. Our exciting trip to the countryside in Russian Carelia to say hallo to grandmother, Tim the Dog and some feline acquaintances. We ate so many berries and peas and drank so much tea, we went the sauna, we teased the locals and Julius was hunted by giant mosquito.

Julius enjoying country life

Do you know what these are? If not, come to Finland, I'll show you.

I just told a joke but Tim wasn't amused.

Monster mosquito

Goodbye summer 2018 and thanks for all the memories!

Books, books, books!

Heippa hei!

Today's post is going to be a quick one. I just wanted to tell you that Julius, Jevgeni and I went to the library.

Julius went straight to the kids' section. I don't like when he read Pippi Longstocking, it put's crazy ideas in his head.

Uncle Jevgeni seems to have a new craze for history. I'm sure he's up to something I just can't quite figure out what.

I of course got some proper interesting reading.

That's all you'll get for today, folks. Now stop looking at monkeys on you screen, and go read a book instead.

Tschüss!

Souvenirs from Russia

Привет!

As you know we came back from Russia a couple of days ago. You've seen all the things we experienced but I'm sure you're also dying to know what kind of things we took with us back to Finland.

I couldn't bring everything that I wanted to bring. Partly because I only had a small backpack and Julius is no help when it comes to carrying stuff, but also because some of the things I wanted to bring probably wouldn't make it through customs. You don't want to fuck with Russian border guards. You may have seen in the movies how badly that can end.

So let's have a look at the things I did manage to bring home.

1. Sweets of course. I'm actually not terribly fond of Russian sweets. They taste like... well, sugar. But I love the colourful wrappers. Most of them have cute animals or other cute figures. This time I went for Alyonka and Mishki v lesu (bears in the woods). Asian tourists would pay a lot of money for the Alyonka wrapper, I promise.

2. Here is one of my life hacks. This one's for free. You're welcome.
Matches. Julius loves to play with matches and I let him have his fun of course. You should hear his laugh when he's playing with fire, so cute. So if you have hyperactive kids – buy them matches!

I bought Cheburashka matches. If you don't know who Cheburashka is you should definitely look him up. He's one of Russia's cutest carton characters ever.

Look at that smile

3. Wooden spoons for Julius. Did you know that spoons can be used for more that just eating. They are also musical instruments. The kid is obsessed with learning to play wooden spoons. He's watched thousands of tutorials online and broken all our spoons. So I had to get him some proper Russian wooden spoons. You're all invited to Julius' concert by the way. You might want to bring earplugs...

4. I brought quite a lot of things for Julius this time. Aside from the matches and spoons he also got a real Russian babushka scarf. We didn't buy it, we stole borrowed it from grandmother. Anyway, it's very practical in winter or after the sauna.

5. Of course we had to bring something for uncle Jevgeni too. We bought an old Soviet poster for him. I think he really liked it. He hung it in his room and stared at it for hours, I think...

"Have you taken care of your breasts?" Remember that cleaning your nipples with cold water is very important, folks.

6. That wasn't all though. We normally bring a bottle or two of something strong for uncle Jevgeni when we travel. Then we won't hear from him for about a week which is nice. This time he got a bottle of "Dusha monacha" (Monk's soul).

Having alcohol at home can be useful. When we travel I always add a little to Julius' water bottle. Then he sleeps like an angel. There you go, another useful life hack, I should start charging for these... But remember don't give him too much, if he wakes up with a hangover, he becomes downright unbearable.

That's it for today folks. Hope you enjoyed the post and my useful suggestions.

Picnic on the beach

Moi!

This summer has been incredible in Finland. Last week we spent a lot of time in the sun. It was almost 30 °C. Julius gets very cranky when it's this hot – somebody shoot me. So I took him to the beach to cool down a little. We packed a grill and a picnic basket and walked down to the sea.







Jevgeni wasn't really invited (he's really annoying 'cause he just keeps blabbering on about his goats), but he tagged along and we let him join us.

We live near a beautiful beach with rocks and plenty of birds. For some reason I always end up in a brawl with the seagulls. I know they are after my candy. I just know it. Once they even abducted Julius and took him the bird reserve on the skerries just off the beach. Luckily it wasn't far away so Jevgeni swam there to save him. I wasn't too worried, Julius is a tough kid.

Stupid bird.

Tomorrow I'll tell about our berry picking trip.

Vi ses!

What to do in Helsinki in the summer

Moikka!

When I'm not travelling I try to entertain myself in other ways. Today's blogpost will be about things to do in Helsinki in summer.

Let's take a look at a typical summer day in Helsinki à la Vanja.

I'm not a huge fan of Finnish design but since we live near a Marimekko outlet shop I can't help sneaking in. I usually try out the latest products before they get sold to silly Asian tourists who are willing to pay unreasonably high prices in order to get a piece of Finnish design.

But having said that I actually kind of like Marimekko's colourful design. It always cheers me up. and it's easier to not lose sight of Julius when he is wearing a shirt with giant red flowers.

One Japanese shopper thought the 30 % discount applied to me to and tried to buy me...

After visiting Marimekko I might head towards the city. If you're not as opposed to exercise as I am you can take one of the yellow city bikes.

I'm not quite sure how to operate this thing...

Okay, human, start pedalling!

Next stop Teurastamo, a rather hipsterish place that used to be a slaughterhouse but now hosts restaurants and events. My favourite place there is Jädelino. They make the best icecream in all of Helsinki.

Julius also likes Teurastamo especially the children's corner in the bookshop:

Fun for the whole family

Other favourite pastimes in Finland this time of year are barbecuing and berry picking. I'll tell you more about that in the next couple of post. Until then, näkemiin!

Travelling with Julius

Hello! I think I've told you almost everything about our recent trip to Italy. I'll probably post some more pictures later but for now let's talk about what it's like travelling with Julius.

Travelling is fun and probably my favourite activity but it can also be a hassle. Especially when travelling with an annoying kid like Julius. Or well, he's also annoying when we're not travelling. The little rascal is completely spoiled and is always bugging me for icecream, candy or money.

Julius is in the Moscow metro

Here are few of the things that you can't do when travelling with Julius.

• having a beer without Julius taking a sip if he gets the chance.

I left him with uncle Jevgeni for a couple of minutes and this is what I saw when I came back.

• you can never relax because you always have to keep an eye on him. Once he even ran off all the way to Russia (maybe he was planning to join the Russian circus?), that little rugrat...

Julius somewhere in Russia. No idea what he's up to but even Peter the Great seems to think he is annoying.

... and came back two weeks later with this guy.

• Julius is such a gossipmonger! He always makes me look bad in front of our friends just because I, for example, sometimes forget to feed him or accidentally left him on the train a couple of times.
• He always gets into trouble. Look at the "friends" he made in Malta. Just look at their faces – I don't think I have to say anymore but they still give me nightmares.

• He has an incredible ability to ruin the mood whenever I make some new friends. I never get any privacy. Wherever I go, whatever I do his squeaky annoying voice is always in my ears.

The party was just about to start when Julius barged in...

As you can see it's quite a challenge to live and travel with the kiddo. In conclusion: leave your kids at home when travelling. They'll be fine.

Jevgeni

This is my cousin Jevgeni. He never shuts up but I like him anyway 🙉