Painting, love and shopping

Painting

Painting is one of the only hobbies I have but I haven't felt like doing it for months. On last Thursday I was in the right mood and decided to continue working on something I started ages ago. It didn't go like I planned it though. First I couldn't find my paints.. I spend over half an hour looking for them. Then I realised I have run out of some of the colours I needed so I had to go to town. It was actually quite nice, the sun was out for the first time in a long time and I found a nice set of Galeria acrylics. I also bought a new reflective collar for our cat Nero and a paradise mix -dried fruits. When I came home it was already late in the afternoon but I wanted to do some painting since I had done so much work to get that far. I started painting and opened the paradise mix. A couple of minutes later I tasted paint in my mouth. The paint on my fingers hadn't dried and by that time my hand had been in the bag and my mouth several times. I went to the toilet to clean my mouth very carefully trying to spit all the red out of my mouth. There was more than I realised. With a clean mouth I returned back to the living room only to realise that Nero has walked over my palette and he had already managed to walk on the fitted carpets, sofa, kitchen worktops.. Well, everywhere. After doing my best to clean the paint up I returned to my painting and managed to work on it for a couple of hours. For some reason I haven't been in the mood since.

Love

It was Valentine's day last Friday and because my English man is an important character in my blog I thought I'd tell you how we spent it. I was working. The restaurant where I work was fully booked, my managers were in a horrible mood and I was told to fuck off as soon as I arrived. For the rest of the evening I tried to avoid my bosses and looked forward to going home. I finished after midnight and D had bought me a big beautiful rose, chocolates, a card and sour apple Cactus Jack's. We "cooked" a frozen pizza, had a few drinks and managed to have quite a good night after all. We are both stressed and tired with our jobs, money and all that but I do feel lucky to have him. He is a caring boyfriend but also my best friend.

Shopping

D's birthday is coming so I went shopping yesterday. I can't tell you what I bought him because he reads this blog and it's a bit silly anyway. But I will show you my Yoshi t-shirt and Nero with his new collar. :) 

Foreigner, Immigrant, Alien.

I'm sorry it's been a few days since I wrote last time but I've been busy playing Skyrim, watching Game of Thrones, working and stressing. Anyway, I've been wanting to write about what it feels like to be a foreigner in England. Everybody has an opinion about immigrants coming to their country and taking their jobs but now I am that person coming to someone elses country. I have not been attacked directly or people haven't told me to go back to where I came from face to face but I suppose being a foreigner is a part of my identity when I'm in England and it is not always positive.

Racist experiences

My racist experiences have been mainly very indirect. I do hear people complain about foreigners on the news, on Facebook, on the bus etc. There was a time when Job Centre Plus sent me to this info meeting for young unemployed people and everybody had to introduce themselves and tell everybody about their worst job ever and why they didn't like it. The guy before me mentioned a chocolate factory and said he didn't like working there because there were so many foreigners. Then it was my turn.... It wasn't a nice moment because I knew that opening my mouth means letting everybody know I am different. I wonder if the guy would have said the same thing if his turn had been after me and not before. Anyway, I tend to worry about things and take things personally. If I see a skinhead I do my very best to avoid speaking to anyone so he can't hear my accent. I know, I'm paranoid. Other than that it's just mainly the way people treat me or speak to me. Some people talk to me slowly and loud like I'm brain dead, some people's friendliness just seems to go down a level when I reply to them with an accent. I work as a waitress and get some people talk to me like I'm a child.. It could be for a number of reasons, not just because I'm not English. I am also short, blond, female, look very young and well.. work as a waitress. I wish people didn't judge each other without actually knowing anything about them but I suppose everybody does that.. I do it when I see somebody who looks like a skinhead.

Good experiences

I love it when somebody smiles at me and says "Welcome to England!" I love it when I'm accepted as an equal. Many people say to me that they have nothing against me because I speak English. I think the problem with foreigners in a work place is that they speak with each other in a language you can't understand and when you don't know what they are talking about, you start thinking they are talking about you. I haven't met other Finnish people in England so I don't have a community, especially not at work.

I love it when people tell me everything they know about Finland and tell me if they have been there before. Last Saturday I even met somebody who worked behind a bar and surprised me by greeting me in Finnish when he heard where I come from! Usually people who travel don't judge others so much.

I would also like to share this experience I had last week on the bus. I usually wear headphones to show people I don't want to talk and obviously because I'm listening to music. Well, this old scruffy man sat next to me and started poking me. I turned to look at him and he asked me if there was brown on his nose. I told him where the brown was and he looked happy about the help. He showed me the snuff he had been using and wanted me to smell it because it was supposed to smell like menthol. Then he asked me where I come from because I have an accent. I told him and he was genuinely interested and asked questions. After this he wanted to shake hands and said "Nice to meet you Millie, take care." I felt really happy about being accepted by this scruffy man who probably was lonely. He was like me, different.

Beautiful England

 Last time I wrote about things that I found weird or different about England. This time I would like to show you some of the pictures I took during my first few months in the country. Every time someone asks me if I like England or what I like about England I tell them I love the countryside and the nature. That's definitely my favourite thing about the country.

I find it difficult to get the pictures and the text to look smart so I gave up trying.. These pictures are from Chatsworth, Scarborough, Whitby, Bakewell and Derwent. Please don't copy them without asking me. Thanks!