My hen do

It is finally here!! I cannot believe it!! I had planned for this moment at Christmas time, before which I had gone to a wedding with Graeme where a friend had told me she did glass painting. And ... two months later we were going to do just that!

Getting my supply of chocolate for the trip the day before - which I actually forgot to bring on the day!! :o I know!! Everyone was super disappointed.

The plan was to all meet in Glasgow, and by all I mean me (the bride) and my five bridesmaids (Danielle, Pamela, Iulia, Morven and Steph). We would spend the morning looking for bridesmaids dresses, then have an afternoon tea at a cafe I had been to with my parents, and then go to glass painting. 

The morning of the Saturday (the day of the hen do) Iulia and I had planned to get a train from Musselburgh to Edinburgh,  giving us 10 minutes to get to our second train to Glasgow. Because it was quite early for us to be waking up on a Saturday, we packed our breakfast for eating on the train the night before. 

So, the morning of the hen do I woke up, did some stretching to preparing my body for all the walking of that day, packed and met Iulia as we walked to the train station. We then realised we had to run to get the train!! 

After finally making the train, we unfortunately then had to then get a train ticket in Edinburgh for the trip before we could leave the platform, when we had only 5 minutes till our next train left. Ahh!!

So, for those that live in hereabouts you will understand what I mean, for those who don't let me give some background information: The train from Musselburgh to Edinburgh is 7 minutes, in Musselburgh there is an automated machine to buy a train ticket but is usually with such a line that you can't get your tickets, and sometimes in Edinburgh there is a barrier of people who don't let you leave the track until you have shown your train ticket - and there are usually a whole lot of people who haven't got a ticket and have to then line up to get a ticket. 

So, anyways we pushed (I did ask politely) in so we could get our tickets more quickly, ran to where Pamela and Steph were waiting for us for the next train to Glasgow, and then quickly got on the train with 1 minute left!! After which we collapsed onto the chairs with hugs and laughter :)

Oh, and I learnt a new Spanish word on the train - cosita. It means 'little thing'. I learnt it when ee were looking out the window and Iulia pointed out to us some rabbits in a field - where Pamela proceeded to exclaimed: "cosita!".

After no time at all (seemed like it) we arrived in Glasgow. 

Our first pictures in Glasgow!! You can see here that Iulia was the navigator ;)

Danielle was coming later, and so we took this when we met up with her!

So let the adventures begin!! Our second stop was a wedding shop that sold bridesmaids dresses. My criteria for the bridesmaids dresses was that they were all in a colour range of purples, pinks and blues, and that they were all long dresses.

Our first wedding shop - Wed2Be

It was quite successful, because 3 out of 5 of my bridesmaids found a dress that they will probably buy :) It was such a lovely time for bonding, while seeing each other wearing dresses that really matched them and their personalities.

We were then very hungry. I had booked us a table at the Willow Tea Rooms, where I had had tea with my parents when I first came to the UK in 2014. I was so excited :D Look at us, we are all soo adorable, even while our tummies were rumbling waiting for our food ;)

Us all at the Willow Tea Rooms waiting for your lovely food!!

After eating we needed to get a train to Paisley, where I had organised for us to all do glass painting. So, after we had all paid, which took a while because there were so many us ;) , we headed to the train station to take the train. Luckily, we didn't have to run this time!

Us all on the train.

We then arrived in Paisley and had a 20 minute walk to the church building where we doing the glass painting. So we designated Iulia to be our guide to the church, and while we took a few diversions along the way because we all were all great leaders and wanting to contribute to the directions, we eventually made it to the church 10 minutes later than expected :D

Our first task was to paint on a tea light from an outline - allowing us to start somewhat easy ;)

Pamela daintily painting her tea light - because she is a very proper lady ;)

Steph painting a butterfly on her tea light - because she chose something unconsciously to paint that represents her own beauty. 

Painting a butterfly on my tea light - just because it is pretty ;)

Danielle painting a sunflower - because she brings heaps of joy wherever she goes :D

Pamela painting a dragonfly - because she is full of fire like a dragon and loves giving new things a go flying from one thing to the next. 

Morven painting a rose - because she is a lovely and unique rose.

All of us busy painting our candle holders - deep in conversation. 

My final tea light 

Steph's final tea light

Danielle's final tea light

Pamela's final tea light

Morven's final tea light

Iulia wanted to design her own tea light without a template to copy, and so here she is drawing her outlines - which were very thorough and beautifully detailed.

Iulia starting her masterpiece.

After we had finished painting the tea light we could then choose to free-hand paint either a wineglass, vase or a tumbler. 

Danielle and Pamela chose to paint a wine glass. 

Iulia continuing with her masterpiece!! Because her tea light was super detailed, she didn't have time to paint anything else. But what an amazing job she did :D 

Steph decided to paint a vase with love hearts on it. 

This is my vase that I painted. Morven decided to paint a wine glass. 

The table laden with all out lovely glass painting works!!

Here is both my glass paintings - my tea light and vase. 

We then realised that we had to rush to get back to Glasgow, and so we had to drop everything (not literally dropping the glass) and run (this time quite literally) to the train station in Paisley... Not before taking a quick selfie with the lovely Jacqueline. 

Us all ready to leave taking a selfie with Jacqueline from Jac By Design

On the way to the train station

WE MADE IT TO THE TRAIN!!!!!! You can't see it here, but I was sweating and very hot in this picture. The other girls look like they just came off a run-way :o 

We got the train to Glasgow Central, where Morven needed to get her train to Dumfries. We said goodbye to her, and headed to Glasgow Queen Street to get our train to Edinburgh. Not before picking up some dinner though ;) 

My amazing pasta with sun-dried tomatoes, peppers and beef.

Danielle, Iulia and Steph with their meals.

Pamela and I taking up a four-seater eating our meals ;) 

One thing I really need to mention about the train journey to Edinburgh is a simple statement told by Danielle that got us (Iulia and I) debating. To this day I still don't completely understand what Danielle was trying to say ;)

So, along the way to Edinburgh she made a point that my Lindt Salted Caramel chocolate tasted like what tea smelt like. It seems like a simple statement, but when I asked whether I understood her correctly, she told me that I hadn't. And so we proceeded for half the journey trying to understand what we were all trying to say, until Pamela, who had been trying to not engage in our debate for an unknown reason ;) , spoke up and said exactly what Danielle was trying saying. But still I didn't understand it. 

So then we dropped the conversation :D 

After laughing some more about how funny our debate was, and me still trying to work it all out, we arrived in Edinburgh, hugged, and then parted our ways.

And that was my amazingly fun, and full-of-laughter hen do!!

Till next time,

Laura xx

Walk to see seals

Two years ago we had been to see the seals with my brother and other friends. Our Australian friend took a break from work to come to Edinburgh, so we decided to take her to see the seals. I had just arrived in Edinburgh from Helsinki the day before and rested that afternoon, so I couldn't wait to get outdoors and experience the awesomeness of God's creation!!

The path to an adventure!!

Setting out on our adventure in the cliffs off the South East of Scotland in the Borders - Graeme, Camden and I

The amazing sky scape

We had to gently scramble down the cliff to see the seals better - can you see the seals on the sand?

Action shot

All the seals on the beach

This was an amazing experience!! Not to mention an amazing exercise!!

Artistic shot

Sitting to see how the seals would respond to us coming closer - they didn't do anything different. One of the seals who was a mother with her baby kept looking at us checking us out, and she even moved closer to us, but did nothing to warn the others. 

My expression at how amazing an experience it was!! 

It was so amazing seeing the waves crashing on the rocks!! How do the seals survive in such treacherous waters? 

I tried to do a panorama shot ;)

We were just getting up to leave the seals be, but when we got up the seals started dashing to the sea!! We felt so bad for disturbing them!!

Coming back up the cliff was so much quicker than going down!! 

We made it to the top of the cliff!! Now to get back to the car. 

Coming back from our adventure

When we got back to the car we drove to get a Fish'n'Chips to give ourselves heaps of energy to warm up.

Till next time,

Laura xx

Day out in Helsinki with Graeme

What a day!! We definitely made the most of our time in Helsinki together: skating, visiting the new art gallery and visiting a public sauna with a sea pool. I am getting tired just thinking about all we did!!

We (mum, dad, Graeme and I) started the day having a poached egg breakfast in our apartment. Our traditional breakfast ever since I learnt how to poach eggs at home Ec in Grade 9. 

We then went out for lunch in Helsinki to a restaurant called "No Pizza". And can you guess what they had? Pizza!! Well, sourdough pizza. 

Graeme and I then went iceskating while my parents went shopping. 

We then went for a walk through the streets of Helsinki. 

My favourite place in Helsinki is the White Church!! And yes, it is actually called such a simple name ;) 

Graeme and I had then planned to meet my friend from high school, Aigerim, and her boyfriend, Gintas to go to a new type of art museum called Amos Rex, renamed after being called Amos Anderson Art Museum.

The museum is named after Amos Anderson, who was a patron of the arts in Finland, and owned the largest Swedish speaking newspaper in Finland. Before his death he asked two architects to design a building in the centre on Helsinki for a combined personal living quarters and work space. After his death it became an art museum dedicated to the man. It was then reopened last year with a new type of interactive exhibition called "Massless" by a collaborative called TeamLab from Japan, where we are encouraged to interact with the exhibition.

The first exhibition at the Amos Rex museum. It was a room of waves that were formed by lines moving. 

Graeme and I in the room

The second exhibition was a huge room full of moving graffiti at first glance. When you looked closer you realised it was colourful animals and flowers all moving. When we checked the museum guide it said that we could touch the exhibition. So we touched the walls and flowers started growing, which attracted butterflies. 

We then went to a room where you could colour in an animal that could then be let loose into the room with all the colourful flowers and butterflies on the walls. There were also frogs and crocodiles. So I coloured in a frog, Graeme coloured in a crocodile, and Aigerim and Gintas coloured in a crocodile as well. We then let them be scanned and uploaded into the room, where they bounced and moved all around the walls and floor.

The next room after that was a big room where we waited to go to another exhibition. The room had heaps of moving lines moving up. The room was called a "Vortex". The next room was a video of a crow flying through space. It was very moving. Get it? ;)

I think by far my favourite of the exhibition was the Graffiti room. It was so amazing to be able to touch the wall and flowers grew!!

We went to dinner at a quaint Vietnamese restaurant called Onam, where we had a lovely Pho soup

After eating we had to rush to get to the Allas Sea Pool. When Graeme and I got there, we realised that the mixed sauna was closed due to a party being there. So we were a bit annoyed that we couldn't go to a sauna together. So we went to our individual changing rooms, and hopped into the sauna, realising that because it was a Finnish sauna most people weren't wearing any clothes!! I was fine because I didn't have my glasses on, and was more used to it than Graeme. Graeme, however, walked in and out again, apparently, the first time he went it ;) He had his contact lenses in so that he could see everything much more clearly than me.

We then met at the outdoor pool. It was a very slippery path to get to the pools. Not to mention that it was cold!! I think it was around 3 degrees celsius. So the first time I walked to the pool I slipped on the ice :o I was fine.

The warm outdoor pool

There was also a sea pool that guests could use. Graeme wanted to go and have a swim in it :o I definitely did not want to ;) 

After going back into the sauna and swimming in the warm pool a couple of times we were ready to leave. We were very relaxed, but needed some sugar to give us energy after our bodies had to keep adjusting to the hot and the cold temperatures.

We were walking up the Esplanade, and I was just telling Graeme about the most expensive cafe in Helsinki. And before he could hear me he went straight in to the cafe I was talking about to get something to eat!!

Having tea and hot chocolate at Kamp, while looking out over the street 

Our awesome desserts!! I had an amazing, the best in my eyes, creme brûlée!! It was so creamy and delicious!! Graeme had a nice macaron with ice cream. 

Sneaky kiss with the Christmas decorations in the Esplanade park

If you look closely the reindeer has a red nose!! 

We were then so incredibly tired that when we got back we literally fell on our beds!! The next day Harri was arriving on a plane from Cardiff.

Till next time,

Laura xx