New Year

OMG I haven't written in here for such a long time! I don't even have any good excuses for that. Well, anyway, now I'm here.

Not so much has happened since May 2009. I passed my driving school and I've been driving now and then. It's not a passion for me, it's OK and it definitely helps Tarmo as he doesn't now need to drive all the time.

I also went back to taekwondo and will have a belt examination next week. Jump kicks are still something I really cannot do, but nowadays my knee doesn't hurt anymore. Now it's mainly inside my head. But I'm taking it easy, I'll give myself some time.

I also started a new martial arts, kobudo. It's a relative to karate but we use weapons. Mainly 180 cm long stick bo, sais (kind of daggers, those that turtles have) and tonfas (short sticks with handles). The training does really good for my upper body as taekwondo is mainly for lower body and it's not as physically hard as taekwondo, so it's just usually nice "warm up" ;)

I was also an international tutor last Fall. I had five students, one from Pakistan and four from Egypt. The Pakistan guy is in the Master programme and will be in Finland for two years and all the Egyptian guys (and a girl) were here for only one semester. Though I think one of them will stay for another semester too. Tutoring was fun but I really didn't have as much time for them as I thought I would. The time I started tutoring I hadn't yet started training and when I started doing that, I didn't have much free time for them anymore :( Also for some reason all my weekends were fully booked. I had seriously busy Fall! Well I got to know some awesome people and had fun :) Though this Spring I won't be a tutor, at least officially, as I want to give more time for my students. Now I felt a bit bad though they said they were (quite) OK with that ;) Well, not with the lack of time but with me, obviously.

We finished the painting in our house during Christmas so now our home is beautiful :) During summer we also renovated small part of our garden. Didn't do much in there last Summer as I just wanted to see what I have in there. Now we just should change two doors in here and do something to the stairway (probably change the carpet and paint it white) and of course the bathroom renovation. The last one will cost too much for us for now, so I think we'll do that after few years. I'm also dreaming about buying a kitchen table for us and some cabinets for the kitchen. I also would like to have a good storage space in our stairway (we now have one cabinet that the last owners left here). And new bed. I'm dreaming on motorized bed for two, they're just way too expensive. Though I think we can save for that and sleep in our 120 cm bed until that :>

I think that was basically all I've done. Of course I've been working hard with my mice. I'll also start few new projects this year and hope to get enough good results so that I could publish my first paper!

All in all I'm quite happy with last year, though I didn't have as much time for my friends as I'd hoped but that's the problem I've always had.

I'm really looking forward for this year. I'll start to watch what I eat, mainly try to eat enough (now I don't eat enough, I think my body is getting too less energy and it's in saving mode because after the surgery I stopped training and ate less) and no candy or chips during the weekdays, exceptions are holidays and special days, when I'm allowed to eat what my heart desires :> Also I'll try to lose few kilos and get myself back in shape. Though, no stress over this. I'll do what I can.
And this reminds me something new I started last year, I've been baking cakes and goodies almost every weekend :)

And my New Year resolution: I'll try to say "I love you" to someone every day.