~ Short story: Visit to Heaven ~

Before the 12th day of the the 12th month of 2012, never did it cross my mind tht the world was going to end. I had heard the Mayans talk about the 24th, but I didn't believe in that! I didn't predict it, but the weekend before I had heard Tanya talking about the Second Advent. She described how the sinners will be going to Hell, and the dead will rise again. At the time, I thought it was all swell. Before I heard about it, I had no idea that there was as alternative to Hell, unforsakeably, now I do! Never dreamed I would ever commit to a faith, but sometimes you have to go by your heart.

It was funny. Just a coupld of days ago I was wondering where I belong? Now I know.

It is the night of the 11th of December. We had the news on, but we were not listening. It was snowing. Beautiful. Then we heard something from the news that captured my attention. Intense flooding. Nothing that new, since Cyclone Annie had just wiped out our home. But something to worry about. I was considering moving to some place in Australia... "Intense flooding in all areas ... as far as we can tell, it will happen all over the globe ... will keep you updated" I was not sure what to think.

Next day at around 9:30 a.m. The lights turned off, which is pretty normal in this area of suburban L.A. Then I went outside to tackle with the electricity box. Nothing. I went inside to bake a cake.. wasn't going to waste my time on stuff not needed, as it was still sunny.

10:45, another report on the flooding. This time, we were amazed to see a video of what it could be like. It seemed to me that whatever was happening, would result in a million casualties. My god, what is this??

12:00. What on earth, water flooding the roads. Keeps rising nonstop!! This is extraordinary, reminds me of Noah and the Ark, I am pretty sure that's what the story was called. Heard it at Sunday School before my parents split. CANNOT BELIEVE THIS.

1:00. I have no idea where all this water is coming from. I am unusually calm, wierd..

2:00 I have this feeling inside of me that we will all be safe. The water continues rising, and Dave, my husband, had the idea to get to the hill. If we can make it. Luckily, we are not in the valley. Feel sorry for those who are! What are we going to do on the hill? Better than waiting here..

On the hilltop, and you can not imagine what we can see!! This is OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!! Water is everywhere!! People are everywhere!! How on earth are we going to be safe??

2:15pm. The water is uncontrolable!! Just as my ankles were going to reach the water, a small unearthly whole appeared below us. Wierd.. Now I start to panic. Here's for nothing, and we jump.

5:15pm. What happened just before was amazing! All of us just kept falling, and falling, for at least an hour I think. We started hearing angelic music, which you cannot describe. Nothing to pop, or jazz. Then we saw people on clouds, no, angels with wings. One came toward each of us. He took us by the hand, and it felt like nothing earthly. I had no doubt where we were heading, and I felt like I could trust my life with this being.

My angel took me to a gate, the golden gate that you hear about in movies and others. But nothing to what you have ever seen. It was AMAZING!! Beside the gate, there was a stand, with a book, the biggest book I had ever seen. There was noone there, and when I turned to look, the angel had gone, and the cloud I was standing on just led to sky. A voice, the most holiest voice, which I instantly knew was God, was sounded across the cloud. Although I could see no body, his voice said instantly that I was welcomed to His heavenly dwelling. He materialised, and his hand was outstreched to me. I took it in mine, and he wlked me through the golden streets.

He handed me a key, with some kind of chuckle, and told me where to go, again chuckling. His chickle reminded me of thunder, but of ourse there could not be thunder in heaven.. He then said that he had to leave to welcome a new Son or Dauter of his. I could say nothing. My lips were somehow sealed, or maybe in His presense you just can't talk. I started left, where He said, and then straight, passing awesome water fountains, and buildings. I looked up, and there was no sky. There was just clouds. Angels were all gathered around in the sky, watching over all of us. I was just wondering how I will find my home when.. WHOOSH, I say the Badham's courtyard. I remember passing the Abrahem's home, and then went straight to Badham. And I could remember every detail of my life, even my dreams. A dream, one were I was in a world full of Mummy's and Daddy's and fluffy bunnies:)

The Badham courtyard lead off to other courtyards, like Power, for my aunt, and Corset for my other aunt. The levels of the apartment went up for as far as I could see, and that is saying something, since my eyesight was so much clearer. Then I saw the house imprinted with my name on the door, so I went in. Now I know why God chuckled when he handing me my key. No need for keys in Heaven!!

The house was filled with everything, and anything that you could ever wish for, well what I could ever wish for.

I am sitting in the drawing room now, my room is huge!! And we each have an angel in our house!!! I could see the most grandest piano in the corner, and the largest kitchen, in the world.. wait.. haha, on the opposite side of the room. There was stairs leading to other rooms, and when I went upstairs I found a corridor leading off to my mothers and fathers rooms. And on the other side, my brothers. It was amazingly, beautifully, wonderful.

This is where I belong.

New Years Day Post

Yayyy!!!!!

Has anyone made any resolutions? I want to start writing in The Purple Orchid at least once a week. Wish me goodluck! hehe:) If I am not mistaken, I think I made the same resolution last year..

New Year Resolution Facts:

Babylonians made resolutions to their gods at the beginning of each year.

Knights made resolutions in the medieval time to recommit to being a knight.

In a 2007 study, it was found that 88% of people failed at commiting to their resolutions made at a previous New Year.

According to Frank Ra, making a New Years resolution with another person makes a difference in success rates.

Popular Resolutions:

Improve well-being, finances, education and career, Taking a trip, Trying foreign foods:))

I am not sure if making new year resoutions is that great, due to the 88% ratio of failings, but it is fun. To commit to something is a huge thing, but I think to look at your life and find improvements is a step in the right direction. It does not matter, to me, whether you keep them at the end of the year, but to at least make them is something:) But it is completely up to you!!

So here's to the new year!

Happy 2013 readers:))

Travel Diary : Finland December

Has anyone ever actually noticed that snow is great fun?? Well nobody here has anyway. If you ask a Finn what time of the year is there favourite, it will be summer. Any finn, seriously! And there least fav month, November. November is the in between part between autumn and winter, where nothing grows and the birds don't sing. My fav season? Spring. Here, all things grow extremely fast after hibernating for the winter, which is pretty much a whole half a year! Spring is amazing! I shall not get side-tracked....

December is when all the shops open their window displays and begin their feature sales for the joyous season. Compared with other countries, ahem July Christmas tree in the middle of Robina Town Centre, this is a much better approach to Christmas. In my humble opinion, Christmas celebrations should commence on the advent, being the 2nd of December. Here, that is pretty much how Christmas goes. Finland is a very Catholic country, and there are special christmas services nearly every day, according to this brochure:)

In the center of Rautatientori (centre in Helsinki), there is an ice-skating rink. Many tourists go there. Hey! Last year nearly everytime we went there we met someone from Australia, or close to there anywhere. I woldn't be surprised if people just went to the coffee shop next to the rink, especially Finns, and watched all the new comers TRY to skate. It is quite entertaining... Not that I have ever done that (eye movement). It is, though, a great place to go. I frequently go ice-skating there. And it is a great place for entertainent.

Last weekend my grandparent, parents an I celebrated Christmas. I know, I know. I jut explained befor how important celebrating christmas on the right day is... We have a reason!! Since we will al be oing to Vienna for Christmas, we thought that it would be best to have a Finnish Christmas dinner BEFORE we go. BEWARE! Christmas dinner in a restaurant will cost aroud 60 euro per head. Or stomach:)

There is lights everywhere in the center of the city, and it all looks so beautiful!

Travel Diary: Vienna Trip

Day Three: Vienna, Christmas Eve. 24/12/12

Today was all about taking it slow. We wanted to have a Christmas Eve to be remembered, and that is what we got:)

As was told previously, we bought tickets to see a Christmas concert at the Shönbrunn Palace. It was to be held this evening at the Orangery, so we began heading to the Shonbrunn Palace via metro, at around 10am. The metro here is really good, compared to the metro system in London:)) It is actually just around from the hotel, and there are only like 5 lines running. The place where we wanted to get to was on the same line, /phew/, so it was even less complex.

We got out of the metro, arrived at the palace, and bought the grand tour tickets for all of us. The palace has a wide area behind where there is billions of meters of gardens, including a maze, and fountains in Summer. I wished to go to the zoo that they also had there, but it wouldn't have been as amazing as it would have been in Summer, so we decided to skip that
;o

Inside the palace was awesome! We were not alowed to take our own pictures, but I manage to get some postcards showing the inside ballroom, which I have to say was my fav room.

Included in the pic clockwise: The Empress Elizabeth, nicknamed Sisi, of 1879, the grand ballroom (the ceiling is actually straight) and my scrunched up ticket to the concert.

After the tour we went to some markets outside the palace.

It was around 2pm, and the concert attendent that we met said we should make sure to be at the Orangery at around 3pm, so we began heading in that direction.

One person from information told us that we could get in here, where mummu is standing, but we could find no entrance to the orangery:) When we eventualy, finally did get in, the concert was great, althougj we had to wait like an hour inside! Again, we could take no photos, though in the intervals no one stopped us from snapping a few pics ;p

This was taken from our seat of where the orchestra would be seated. I am sorry it is a bit blurred.. It was an awesome place! There were many chandeliers, and the place was actually where Mozart and Wolfgang had competitions playing music.

This was the view from the Orangery.

After the concert, we were quite hungry. There was luckily one cafe that we could find open on Christmas so we had dinner there. I had a ganache soup, not sure if hat is how it is spelt. It was amazing! When they brought it out, we got a huge basket of bread to share. It was a great Christmas dinner :)

Overall, I don't think that we will be forgetting this Chrstmas Eve in a long time..

Travel Diary: Vienna Trip

Day Two: Vienna

Since we were so had it from the previous day, we all slept in. When I say SLEPT IN, it actually means around 8am we woke:) Nothing too great. - rolling eyes-

In the morning we ate a gorgeous continental buffet -pronounce the T- in the hotel, including nutella sandwiches and hot chocolate with milo cereal. Delish:) Best start of the day:)))

We then took some time to oganize our stuff neatly into the compartments in the rooms, before heading out to one of the many Christmas markets. And just as we were stepping out the door, we found that is was raining:( NICE. Great thing for tourists, all that sightseeing in the foggy, wet weather:)

Anywayz, we didnt let that put us off. The hotel attendent had been so nice, see, and had shown us exactly which stop we should get off at from the D tram. Right. Annndd, we got lost.. Well not technically, since we were spit up to begin:)

Just as we had arrived at the tram stop to begin our glorious feat, Harri realised that he was cold. So my mother and him went back to the hotel, and we said that we would meet them at the stop that the hotel attendent had told us to stop at. Bound for something to happen, right? New city, new sights. So, yes. Myself, pappa and dad got off where we were supposed to get off. My brother and my mother took the tram after the one that we took, and decided to get off at the first markets that they saw.

We were waiting for them for some time, and when I eventually rang Harri.. In the end, we did find them:0 On the bright side, the markets were really pretty. We had a great time. There was what we think is the House of Commons behind the markets. We found iin that building an indoor market. This market hall was some exibiton for children to create items such as candles and necklaces for Christmas presents. The place reminded Harri and I so much of Hogwarts, since we could glimpse a courtyard outside, and there was even a picture of a phoenix on the wall:)

After this visit, we all found that this was not a good idea, being out in the rain. We did stop at the market to get some drink which was like glogi, but we decided to head home after that to change. As we were walking toward the tram stop that would take us back to the hotel, a man stopped us. He started asking whether we wanted to buy some tickets for a concert in the Schonbrun Palace. He said that we coud get some amazing deals, and get free drinks! Mummu, knowing mummu, was very interested:))

Finally, we ended up on the tram with tickets to the concert tomorrow evening. Yay! So tomorrow we will be going to the Shonbrun Palace!!:)

In the afternoon we all went to the arts and cultural museum in the center of Vienna. It was not as totally extraordinary as the British Museum, and the artifacts were better there I think, but the building!! Simply bliss:)

We ended the day by going to another market area, buying sausages, and eating those looking under the archway to what we think may have been the entrance to some military building:))

Travel Diary: Vienna Trip

Day One, Berlin.

As I am writing this a day after my visit to Berlin, I may not remember everything as detailed as yesterday. The thing was, though, that we were all way too tired yesterday to write anything, besides a few postcards, since we were on two flights in the morning, and in the arvo, respectively. I will refer to yesterday as today, as it makes it easier to write:) So basically my whole family in Finland all are going on this trip. My mother, father and brother, grandmother, grandfather and myself.

This morning we woke up before dawn, at 4am. Not too good, since my sleeping habits have been badly as of late. A van picked us up at our apartment, and we arrived at the airport around 6am. Fortunately we had a teeny bit of time for brekky, since on the flight we were only given a muffin and some orange juice. So, we departed from Finland on our way to Berlin at around 7am, and arrived in Berlin at approx. 8am Berlin time. We lost an hour:)

The minute we touched down in Berlin; through the overhead speaker the flight attendent, or whoever, spoke some German and then what I thought was English. I think they said something like "Welcome to Berlin, the temperature is around -4 degrees, and the time here is 8:15". It was all combined together in a string of words that was virtually impossible to understand.So I am not certain what he actually did say, I asked later if anyone else did, and they didn't either ;p I found that quite funny:)

In Berlin, we were welcomed by some attendents handing out christmas chocolates, and were then plunged outside into the cold weather without a moments notice. There was no connecting platform to the airport. Everyone got out of the plane, and literally ran across to a bus which then transported us to the airport. The airport was really only a few metres away, but I guess it would have been hard to know where the airport wa concerning the aircraft, and with the weather as it was, the bus was probably a clever idea:) Although they could have warned us ;p

There was a bus that we heard some people talking about that takes you right into the city, and we decided to get a day ticket which would allow us to travel throughout Berlin all day till 4pm. But, my gosh, it is a different experience going on a bus there than anwhere else I have ever been. Somehow, everyone squashes tightly in together and manages to fit in the bus. It is quite funny:) We were watching some people trying impossibly to bring their luggage with them into an already full bus! Unmistakably, they did not fit :P

We then went to some Christmas markets that we found at one of the stops that we were told to get off at. Most of the stalls were full of lollies, and chocolates, and in the center we found a merry-round. Pappa wanted to get on, although we found that it was closed:(

The temperature was fresh, and so we had to all look for some nice place to go inside. So, we decided to walk to the Berlin Dome, which was not that far from the markets. This building is a huge dome, where you can find the most spectacular church, tomb stones, and panarama of Berlin city! Truly awesome!

To complete the gorgeous view that we saw at the top of the dome, it started snowing! That made everything so much prettier:) We walked around the streets, looking into various museums, and monuments that we saw aroound the place. It was quite cool, cause there was water in between and stuff. It reminded me abit of Venice, although I have never actually been there! We were getting a tad hungry y this time, and came across a place for lunch, which was actually a museum:)

We dropped in to have a bite, then followed on our self-made tour to see the rest of Berlin. Well, what we could see in the remaining 1 hour we had set ourselves:) The grandparents went back to the airport, while we went to the Berlin wall! Part of it, anyway:))))

Although we made it back to the airport in good time, and had time to eat something before the flight to Vienna, we still found ourselves with a mass of time to waste! We were all had it, so the time went terribly quickly. And we all slept like a log:)

Onto Vienna!!

Pt. 2 Cooking Tips

Yay!

Now we have all evolved into beginning chefs? No? Well..

You know how Julie Goodwin came out a such a great cook from Master Chef? Practice.

Practice makes perfect.

I know, we hear that everywhere. Blah blah blah you should be practicing all these concepts blah blah Practice Makes Perfect. Sound familiar? gosh, sounds like my bio teacher:)

My grandmother always has to have a variety of different colours on the plate. If not, then the dish is unservable:) So I tend to stick to that here. And anywayz, someone did say that you eat with your eyes...

It looks pwetty when it is colourful! Picture Perfect.

Updated saying: Practice makes Picture Perfect.

Tell me how your cookings going! I would love to know:)