Santana - Put Your Lights On [TheWraith]

There is just something in this man's voice that makes me melt. Yeah I think you know what I'm talking about

I absolutely love the weather <3 It is so wintery!

I just realised today in my Chinese Business lecture that we are currently on a week 10, which means that there are only two weeks left for this semester! Whoopey-doo! Tomorrow I have my next Chinese exam and next week, the last listening exam. Then I'm done for all the term time exams -well of course excluding the final six exams after Christmas! That should be fun...

Tomorrow I will also make gingerbreads. I have had a terrible graving for them all weekend and as I couldn't find any from Tesco today, I decided to make them myself. Sorted!

This week will be a lot more relaxed compared to the previous weeks, or at least that is what I hope. On Wednesday I have a Business opportunity seminar at 5pm and am going for coffee with Matt earlier that day too. Then I have to update my CV and that's pretty much what I am going to do.

On Thursday, I have a CV meeting and I should have had another meditation group meeting, but I think it might run parallel with the CV thingy. Annoying. But then in the evening Scandinavian society is arranging a glögg party so I shall be popping down there later.

Friday will be a day of joy! Then end of the week, which is always a reason to be happy. There were some suggestions for going out with the MA people, but we shall see if that is going to happend on Friday or Saturday. Hopefully the majority wants to go out on Friday as I have other plans on Sat. 

Saturday plans include attending a Chinese cultural study group and probably just going to gym during the day. Karin will host later in the evening her famous annual glögg parties, so I will be most definitely going there too!

And on Sunday, Ken has invited us all for a Sunday roast. Mia has flown from China for a week's visit so I shall be seeing her, which is always lovely. She is so nice.

Right, so this is what my week is probably going to look like. I'm so happy that the semester is finally ending and I can take a good long breath in and breath out. No more hectic studying or stressing. God, I'm happy to have a little bit of life again :)

Eilen oltiin joulumarketilla ennen kuin mentiin Town Hallille katsomaan joulukonserttia. Ulkona oli aika paljon pakkasta, joten kuumat kaakaot oli aivan must. Millennium Squaren German Market on aivan ihana! Mä oon käynyt siellä joka vuosi ja vaikka tuotteet on aivan samat niin silti mä tykkään siitä ja koko siitä tunnelmasta. Varsinkin tänä vuonna kun meillä on Leedsissä lunta ja oikea talvifiilis <3

Me mentiin jopa karusellinkin kyytiin! Super kivaa :)

Inspiration and the Orchestra of Opera North  joulukonsertti oli mitä ihanin. Kuoro koostui noin sadasta 50+ nais-että mieslaulajasta, kapellimestarina toimi Gary Griffiths ja lavalla oli myös soittamassa täysi sinforniaorkesteri. Ohjelma koostui kahdesta osiosta ja puoliajasta ja välispiikkeinä luettiin jouluevankeliumia. Mä tykkäsin kovasti.

Konsertin jälkeen muut tytöt jäi vielä ulos juhlimaan, mutta Karin ja minä käveltiin pikapikaa meille ja Jamie tuli hakemaan Karinin sitten meiltä kotiin. Sisälle päästyä mä ajattelin, että tässä voisi vaikka katsoa hieman iPayeriä, kunnes mun luokkalaiset soitti mulle ja sanoi, että nyt on tultava Old Bariin kaksille. Ei auttanut muu kun vain laittaa takki takaisin päälle ja suunnata kaksille. Legendaarinen lähden kaksille päättyi siihen, että tulin takaisin kotiin aamulla klo. 04.30am.
 

Ja voin sanoa, että kivaa oli!

I thought I would allow myself a half an hour mentally getting ready for my lovely (who am I kidding?!) Chinese revision. We have yet another Chinese exam next Tuesday (Jesus!) so I have a few hours today, the whole day tomorrow and half a day on Monday to get as much in as possible. Even though, they always say that it is not about the quantity it is about the quality of learning. Yeah right, that's rubbish! If you think about the simple sentence structures or exercises in general in any given languages the chances to get better mark is mostly related to the number of words you know. If you want to disagree, that's fine. Normally, it really isn't such a big deal if your grammar goes slightly wrong as long as you sentence is correct, you have a clue about what you are supposed to do and you have all the right words there. And if it doesn't work you can always blame it on your dyslexia. I'm slightly dyslexic so I can actually say that :)

I went to the hairdresser's yesterday. My lovely Nathalie, who btw is the best person on earth to get my colour just write everytime, cut me a Christmas fringe as well. I can sweep it on the other side, put it up with bobby pins or just to let it hang like a curtain and not to see anything. Brilliant! 

I did some post hairdresser's shopping yesterday as well. Bought Cheap Monday's dark denim wash jeans, beige trousers from H&M and pins&needles white cardigan. I also took back the red River Island top even though I really liked the colour, but it just made me look like a potato bag, and that is not the look I'm aiming at.

I was also planning to go for a quick workout around 3pm in the gym and then I come home and start getting ready for tonight's Christmas Choir thingy at the town hall. I'm meeting the girls at the Christmas market an hour before as we are going to have a quick bite and cups of mulled wine. That should make us all feeling very merry.

Oh and it snowed yesterday! The ground is all white and I feel like home. Love it!

It is 6.30am and I'm awake, even though I went to bed last night at 11.50pm. How can this be? Oh well, maybe it is the full moon and I can't sleep. OR then it is the fact that Karin and I went to meditation yesterday. I LOVED IT! Our this week's exercise was to get rid of pain and how you can control it yourself. It worked. I had a massive back pain from sitting in a wrong position in front of my desk and I managed to decrease my pain from six to two in a scale of 10 to 0, 10 being the strongest pain and 0 being no pain at all. 

I have a rather exciting day ahead of me today. I have a hair dresser's appointment and then I'm going down to Matt and Ken's to help Ken out with his big clothing shop. Well he has done then labour bit and actually bougth the clothes already, I just go there and help him to match it all together. I'm being paid in food, which is more than ok! Ken is the most talented person in the kitchen. Everyone loves his cookings. I'm actually feeling so privileged for being able to taste some of this creations <3 

Aamuvirkku olisi nyt jo hereillä. Kello on 06.30 eikä vaan enää nukuta, vaikka menin vasta klo. 23.50 nukkumaan viime yönä. Mistäköhän nyt tuulee?

Tänään on varmaan vain niin jännä päivä tiedossa ettei uni tule sen takia. Jännän tästä päivästä tekee se, että mulla on kampaaja :) Hah, joo... No ei, mulla olisi tänään ollut Cross cultural management luennot yhdestä kolmeen, mutta niitä ei tällä viikolla ole, joten mä oon vapaa kuin taivaan lintu lähtemään heti klo.12 kaupungille.

Mä sain myös Kentsulta viestin eilen illalla, että nyt tarvittaisiin personal stylist apua vaatteiden matchaamisessa. Kysymykseksi jää, miksi tää viesti oli osoitettu mulle?! :) No ei, kiva kun mun silmään luotetaan. Me tehtiin Matsun kanssa sellainen hyvä mitä vaatteita vaatekaapista löytyy ja miten uudet vaatteet voi yhdistää kivasti vanhojen vaatteiden kanssa. Matt näköjään tykkäsi siitä mitä näki.

UK universities protesting over fees

Meillä oli eilen ihan mielttömät mielenosoitukset yliopistolla lukausimaksujen nostouhan takia. Koko kampus vilisi poliiseja (mä olin innoissani ratsupoliiseista!) ja mielenosoittajista. Tunnit oli peruttu, joten koko kampuksen tunnelma oli ihan jännä :)

Students walked out yesterday to domenstrate against tuition fee raises. The whole campus was packed with police and protestors. According to BBC News over 1000 Leeds university students took part in the protest over the raises. All the classes were cancelled and it could have been one big chaos, but everything stayed under control. I loved the whole mounted police riding with their horse around the campus bit :)

Eikä tää ollut vain meidän yliopiston juttu, vaan tää oli ihan maan laajuinen protesti.
Yeah it was a nation wide protest. How very exciting!

How to lose your sexy in 60 seconds

Wihuu lentoliput ostettu Suomeen! Takaisin ollaan tulossa 12.12!!
H-A-P-P-Y!!!!!!!!

"how to lose your sexy in 60 seconds" by That Girl On The Moon

Tiistain spinningtunti on ihan huippu! Me sotketaan Eveliinan kanssa ihan innoissaan ja hulluna milloin mistäkin syystä kovempaa ja hitaampaa :) Biisit on ihan sairaan hyvin valittuja ja mun mielestä se ohjaajakin on ihan mukiinmenevä.

If anyone wonders what that bit there was, it was about Eveliina and mine Tuesday's spinning glass appreciation. Love it. In fact, I just said to her today after the class that I'm always looking forward  to Tuesday evenings because of the class.

Mä sain loistoidea kuinka välttyä asioiden unohtelulta. Mulla on koulustressin takia muisti huonontunut ihan kamalasti. Not funny, oikeasti. Se on ihan sitä, että aivot käy koko ajan ylikierroksilla ja sitten mä unohtelen koko ajan ihan normaaleja asioita. No ratkaisu on löytynyt. Mä oon ostanut piene mustan vihkon, jonne mä kirjoitan heti kaiken mitä pitää muistaa tehdä esim. illalla, huomenna, ylihuomenna etc. Sitten se pieni lisämuistivihkonen kulkee mun mukana koko ajan. Kätevää!

Huomenna olisi sitten International Business Theory exam. Tässä ollaan kovasti tankkailtu erillaisia entry modes että different foreign market servicing strategies. Kuten silmistä näkyy! Motiivit voidaan jakaa kolmeen eri alueeseen: market seeking, asset seeking ja cost efficiency seeking motives. Mikäli firma ei halua lähteä ulkomaille tai kokee, että markkinat voivat tarjota firmalle osia/tuotteita/palveluja tarpeeksi järkevään hintaan voi firma tehdä päätöksen siitä ostaako firma palvelut ulkomailta (outsourcingin, offshoringin ja co-sourcingin kautta) vai tekeekö firma itse osia/tuotteita/palveluja talon sisällä. Silloin kyse on make or buy decisionista ja siitä päättääkö firma externalise vai internalise.

Mikäli yhtiö päättää lähteä lähteä ulkomaille (internationalize), voidaan kyseinen tapa tehdä kahdella eri tavalla: trade tai sitten investmentin kautta. Mikäli mennään tradin kautta silloin päätettäväksi jää millä omistusmuodolla halutaan edetä. Yleisimmät trade tapauksessa ovat exporting ja licencing, ja investmentissä (FDI) greenfield tai takeover/aqcuisition.

Tässä on esimerkki mitä manufacturing firmojen ja service firmojen on otettava huomioon mennessä ulkomaille.

 Ikechi Ekeledo, K. Sivakumar, (2004) "International market entry mode strategies of manufacturing firms and service firms: A resource-based perspective".

I had such a good and productive weekend. I was particularly pleased with the amount of work I managed to do and how little it actually affected to my weekend socialising. We had Rob's brother, his girlfriend and their friend visiting us from Poland. They came quite late on Friday evening and on Saturday they had a shopping day in town whilst I had my Saturday's study group until 6pm. From there we all went to Matt and Ken's for a quick drink and then for hotpot.

The plan was to see more people in German Christmas Market in Millennium Square after hotpot. Well, it didn't quite happend as we spend three hours in the restaurant and once we were ready to leave it was too late for Christmas Market anymore. So Matt, Ken and I went to theirs and watched X Factor. I stayed over.

I had my Sunday's study group from 2pm onwards, so we thought that I would be a good idea to go shopping in town. Yes, finally!

 

Who said that money can't buy happiness?

Kohta olisi salille lähto edessä. Mä en olekaan käynyt vielä kertaakaan salilla heti kun se aukeaa yhdeksältä viikonloppuisin. Mä aion ottaa nappikuulokket mukaan ja katsoa samalla vähän telkkaria kun juoksen matolla tai meen crosstrainerillä. 

I'm off to the gym soon. I actually haven't been to the gym  this early during the weekends for a long time. It should be nice, because it is less busy now and you can have pretty much most of the place to yourself. As if I would need it or it would be any difference what so ever, but I guess it is just nice to think that way. I was planning to take my earphones with me so I can watch and listen the TV whilst I'm running on the treadmill.

 Toivotaan, että tänään tulis vähän parempi ilma. Eilen oli jotenkin niin Sleepy hollow fiilis ettei kyllä tehnyt mieli mennä minnekään. Illalla meillä on kyllä sen verran suunniteltu, että mennään syömään kiinalaista hotpotia. Se on ihan mieltöntä :) Varsinkin tää upea paikka, jonka Ken löysi muutama kuukausi sitten ihan sattumalta.

Let's hope the weather would be nicer today than what it was yesterday. It was so incredibly foggy yesterday that you just wanted to stay indoors and keep outing to the minimum. We have planned to go for hotpot tonight. Rob's brother and his girlfriend and their friend are staying over for the weekend so we have a good reason to go. This hotpot place is amazing. Ken found it a few months agon by accident from his way home from work. 

 

 

Did not quite found my way to town today.

So I decided to bake instead. I'm doing voisilmäpullia for my lovely weekend sweethearts. We shall see what Polish, English, Thai, Greek, South Koreans and Chinese think about these Finnish goodnesses :) I shall include some pictures soon :)

Morning :) Ok before you judge I want to make one thing clear; I'm about to turn 26, and therefore, I'm completely capable of making the decision wheter skipping lecutres today is good or bad for me and my learning curve. So yes, I pulled a sicky. It is not lazyness, it is prioritising. Sometimes you have to know which things to push aside and which ones to concentrate on. Thus, specific attention shall be given to International Business this week . Bite it or not, but this is my excuse not to go to my Chinese drill and practical lectures today. And I feel so guilty for doing that -even though I'm turing 26. Great.

It of course doesn't mean that I'd be doing absolutely nothing. Oh no! I have a mail long 'to-do-list' waiting for me on my desk. See here is where the justifying comes in. My problem is that I hardly ever have unfinished things and tasks hanging in the air. I always finish off the things that I start, which naturally is the reason why my 'to-do-list' can get guite long at times :)

I have finally decided to buy that lovely big blue scarf from River Island. The one I was talking about a few weeks ago. I would have probably bought it already if I only would have had enough time to actually go into town and get it. The picture doesn't do justification on how big and soft and lovely the scarf really is, but I can assure you that it will keep me warm -and happy. 

Right, I better go back to my Chinese and International Business. And breakfast would be nice as well. Yeah,  I will start off with the latter simply because I'm starving. A cup of coffee and a bowl of porrige with bananas and raspberries.

Wednesday the mid-week

Uni continues normally this week which means that I live for the weekends again. The weather on Monday was cold, but sunny which was lovely! I really don't mind cold mornings or cold weather in general as long as it is sunny. It gives you a chance to wrap up and an additional guilty-free hot chocolate :)

 


Ok about hot chocolate. I kind of want mine plain. People quite often love to stuff their mugs with all sorts of toppings, but I simply prefer having mine without that entire extravaganza. I blame my simplistic Nordic mindset. And this is true in many cases. I do tend to like simplistic and minimalistic things. However, then the other side of me, the other Pisces, is very Slavic and loves all that shines and the more over the top something is the better. But then, I might have or wear something that is very bold and noticeable, but I hardly ever mix it with another attention drawer. 


Yesterday, we had our third Chinese assessment. It was a computer test and I think it went ok. I'm happy if I get a 60. This time, I managed to do it all! 

Today we got our International Business mid-term exams back. The first one came back as a First, which means that I got the best possible mark. HAPPY! The other exam did not have a mark on it and it was very confusing anyway so I'm going to see the lecturer next week and ask him to clarify where I went wrong and what were the good points.

This weekend is going to be International Business Theory weekend, which means that I will dedicate most of my weekend only for that subject. I will do some Chinese and other subjects as well, but the emphasis will be on IBT. We have another mid-term exam coming up next Tuesday, so really need to make sure I get everything sorted out before that. Wish me luck :)

I like Chinese

Today has been an intensive Chinese day. Very intensive. Starting at 7.30am. Yes, I know,  I might have lost it -completely. I have been very good. Did finish up my eight pages worth of exercises, translations and grammar explanations and sent it off to Ning laoshi at 9pm today.

As I told you, we went out yesterday and it was so much fun. It wasn't a massive night out or anything, but it was just what I was and had been severely lacking over the past months. I enjoyed my bellinis in Browns and in fact ended up drinking a cup of coffee in Ha!Ha! at one point too. The coffee was free and I do have to admit that the occasions are rather rare and few when I say no to a cup of coffee, and as we see, yesterday wasn't one of the 'no coffee for me at this time' moments :)


I'm dead tired now, and I do have to go to bed. Well I'm actually in the bed as I type, but you know what I mean. Need to go to sleep. I need to put my laptop away, go and brush my teeth, and click, switch off the bedside table lamp and I can guarantee you that it will not take me longer than two minutes before I have fallen asleep.

Seriously, I'm a great sleeper.