"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans..."

This is one of my favourite quotes, from John Lennon's song Beautiful Boy.  I love this quote because I'm a dreamer, and can get really caught up in planning and dreaming away all my time, rather than actually getting out there and living.  Or more accurately, I go through stages, and right now I'm in the dreamer stage.  I need to be reminded that life's about living it every now and again.

One of my very favourite things to plan is trips abroad.  My wonderful fiance and I have booked a weekend in Tallinn in a few weeks time, staying at an absolutely gorgeous hotel.  Even more exciting is the fact that for the 30th birthday, which is sadly coming up in just three months, my fiance has promised to take me somewhere really special... To the land of plenty, the city which never sleeps, the ultimate destination for all things glitz, glamour, sleaze and tack, the only city whose sparkling mainstreet is visible from space.  It's Vegas, baby!  Planning this trip is definitely half the fun.

x

On Collins Avenue

Let's light up this dreary, dark, gray Friday the 13th with a little hint of bright colour!  In search of a little tiny something to lift my spirits, I headed to Kicks yesterday to raid their extensive nail polish collection.  Lo and behold, I found exactly the shade I was looking for, here in Helsinki!  Both my fingers and toes are now painted a larger-than-life coral pink, courtesy of OPI's "On Collins Ave".  This Barbie shade of red (which, by the way, completely sold out in the US earlier this year) is definitely better suited for tanned summertime holiday tootsies than washed out scandinavian winter skin.  So the fake tanners may well be making an appearance this weekend...

Where and what exactly is this Collins Avenue, which has inspired such an uplifting shade of red?  I should have known... Miami Beach, where else!  Collins Avenue, or the Strip of Miami as it's known, is home to many of the famous art deco hotels Miami is so renowned for.  Collins Avenue also houses some more recent luxury hotels, night clubs, fabulous shopping, stretching all the way down to South Beach.  Could this be fate?  Either way, sounds like my kind of place!

America, I love you!

I am desperately, desperately trying to get used to life in Finland.  Because I look Finnish and sound Finnish, I don't think people realise exactly what a huge culture shock it's been for me, moving here.  I've been away for over 20 years, and fitting right back into things isn't exactly a piece of cake.  I'm going to give it my best shot, and do my best to enjoy my time here.

A dreamer by nature, I'm sitting here on this cold autumn day thinking back to life, trips and traveling in my favourite place of all, the US of A.  This weird and wonderful land of plenty, full of friendly faces, sprawling cities, plains of nothingness and anything and everything your heart can desire.

The last place I visited a few times was New Orleans, or N'awlins, as the locals like to call it.  This bouillabaisse of all things Cajun, Carribean, Funk and Jazz inspires like nowhere else I've been.  The sweaty tunes flowing out of dingy little jazz clubs, world-famous bartenders serving up the Sazeracs, tiny little antique art shops lined up underneath the balconies of the French Quarter, with the smell of the mighty Mississippi penetrating the city, mixing up with the acidity of Bourbon street's cleaning detergent.  At night the city comes alive, tempting its visitors with rows of bars, strip clubs, and tarot.  In the morning, the cleaning trucks arrive, the sins of the previous night washed away.
A city which is still struggling to re-build itself following devastation.

Here are some of my favourite photos from trips there.

Oh, I'm so glad America is back in fashion!  Baby, can we go visit soon?