Ladybirds and Lions

The ladybirds have arrived

After months and months of cold weather the sun was finally out this weekend, so we spent most of it outdoors. Hurray!!!! The first ladybirds of the season arrived in our garden...

Teletubbies come to Somero

... and there were also several other unusual creatures in the middle of Somero, in and around the Ahola building.

Varpu Honkakoski, Lions Club President

A member of the Somero English Club...look familiar?

Cameron plants some seeds

Niko goes fishing

Actually the Lions Club had organised an event for children on Sunday morning, with all the money raised going to local goo causes.  Niko and Luca were very excited to see that the Teletubbies had turned up and they enjoyed taking part in the various activities on offer.

The event was really busy and packed with children who all seemed to be having a good time.

I was just a little worried about Päivi from the English Club though. Seems to me that she may have woken up feeling a little rough. What do you think?

Michael Buble off my List.

I write lists all the time. I like them. They can be about anything...what I need to do, what I have already done, what I would like to achieve etc etc. I find them motivating and I like looking at how they change as time passes. A few weeks ago the following item apeared on one of my lists.

"Get tickets for Michael Bublé concert."

I had only found out that Michale Bublé was coming to Finland two days after the tickets went on sale, and by then it was too late because the concert had sold out. I wasn't going to give up though, so I spent the next few weeks checking regularly on tori.fi and huuto.net.

The reason I was so keen to go the concert is that Michael Bublé's song "Everything" was the song that I walked down the aisle to when Frédéric and I got married. Cameron and I also danced to the song "I just haven't met you yet" at Luca and Niko's christening, so I really wanted to hear these songs live as they both have such a special meaning to me.

Yesterday was the day of the concert. In the morning I still had no tickets. Then just before lunch time I received a phone call from someone who had seen an ad I had put on a website saying I was looking for tickets. The lady who called had two which she was no longer able to use. Good news.

I would love to tell you that the concert was fantastic....and parts of it were, but overall it was a real disappointment. Michael Bublé sings brilliantly, but when he talks it is a different story.  For me his talking totally spoiled the concert. He made bad jokes throughout the performance and kept making references to whether he was gay or not. Who actually cares?   I know that I don't, and I certainly didn't drive all the way to Helsinki to hear about his sexuality one way or the other.

I thought I would cry when I heard "Everything" because of the memories it brought back, but he performed a strange version of it which involved him jumping up and down all over the stage... not exactly the romantic version I had been waiting for!

Oh well, I still love the original, and in case you've never heard it, you can catch it here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPUJIbXN0WY
I'm not the only person who loves the song- so far 35 million people have watched this video.  Michael Bublé is even more famous than Akseli...so I guess he must be doing something right!

Learn a Bit of Akseli Attitude

Akseli does some stretching exercises

I thought April was going to be a warm month. I realise now I was wrong. As I look outside the window it is sleeting. Again. Not impressed.

Still, I always try and concentrate on the positive, so rather than looking at the sleet I spent the morning disussing life with Akseli.

I.......

Many of us suffer in different ways from a lack of self esteem. We think we are not good enough, or clever enough, pretty enough, slim enough, successful enough...whatever. But not Akseli. We should learn something from him, because he is quite happy with who he is. No problems with self-esteem, and totally "comfortable in his own skin", as we say in English.

look......

great.

 He had a quick stretch this morning in order to warm himself up, and then he spent some time admiring himself from every angle.  He looks fine and he knows it. He also asked me to post these photos so the world can see just what a magnificent squirrel he is.



 So if you're not feeling too confident this morning...hold your head up high and take some "Akseli attitude" out into the world with you.

It works for Akseli, it might work for you too.