To make Christmas feel a bit more like Finland, Elina and I made a ginger bread house.
Having left the cinema from seeing Johnny English Reborn, we decided to find somewhere to grab dinner.
It was Saturday night and a lot of restaurants would be busy – so we decided to hit Thai Edge as they always have a table free :D. Of course, I was hoping they didn’t remember me after the now infamous change incident.
Dinner was good and I almost finished my main – something which I would have considered quite an impressive feat given I had a starter as well and I’m not getting any younger.
I try to visit the Royal Armouries on a regular basis because it’s a fantastic resource located right on my doorstep (and it’s totally free!).
So with some time off work and Elina here, we decided to head down for a look around.
Unfortunately, Elina’s week over here had fallen in half term which resulted in the museum being full of kids which is annoying. I was disappointed to see that they didn’t really have anything new either, except for a very small exhibit on peace, which I thought could have been a lot better.
You’ll notice in the second photo that Princess Diana is still making an appearance. Also, they spelt brother without the R in one of the posters in the self-defence selection – well spotted Elina.
Hurray :D.
On December 24th, 1995, I was a 9-year-old child. Much younger than the soon to be middle-aged man that now sits writing this. I had already figured out that there was an international conspiracy among adults to perpetrate the hoax that a magical being called Santa existed, but being the materialist child I’m sure most of us once were, it didn’t make it any less magical – who cares who delivers the presents as long as you get them, right?
I was so excited, I couldn’t sleep a wink. Even if I could have, it wouldn’t have been that helpful as even if I had achieved multiple winks, that would still not have been enough time to reach REM sleep, because a wink is such a short period of time.
So, in my excitement, I decided to take out the cover inserts from every single cassette I owned (remember cassettes?) and inside them I wrote “Chris Worfolk. Happy Christmas 1995!” so that I could remember that moment, and how excited I felt, forever.
To this day, I’ve never recaptured such a strong feeling of excitement. Until now. The reason is the impending return of this young woman…
After parting at the end of August, she will be returning to see me in a mere ten days, and I can only describe the feeling as synonymous with how I felt as a child, counting down to Christmas.
The problem is that I have a lot of other things to think about, and laying awake a night feeling excited isn’t helping my already significant sleep problems.
God help you, FinnAir, if that flight doesn’t arrive on time. You simply can’t imagine how disgruntled a letter you would receive should it be significantly delayed…
With the university term drawing near, Elina had to return to Finland for the final year of her degree. So, at the end of August we headed over to Manchester Airport to drop her off.
It was pretty rubbish. I hate airports at the best of time, but when you’re only going there so that it can take away your girlfriend, that’s just a kick in the nuts.
Luckily, in today’s modern age, distance is only a partial barrier and Skype has been serving us well ever since. Big thanks to George for coming to keep me company too.
Recently, myself and Elina went for a walk down the canal. It was pretty scary, there was a lot of nature, including the rabbit you can just about see in the middle of the photo of the bushes.
Elina and I recently headed over to Ilkley Moor to take in a bit more nature. Afterwards, we went to lunch at the Cow & Calf pub, which turned out to be the exact same chain as when we ate at the Roundhay Fox the day before.
Having a bit of time before before Elina headed back to Finland, we headed over to Tropical World and Roundhay Park where you can observe nature from the safe distance of behind 20mm of glass.
Another great thing about meeting Elina’s mum was she had even brought me some presents over from Finland! Apparently, each year the reindeer shed their antlers, and then people collect them up and turn them into useful things like bottle openers, stopper and cork screws. It’s the cycle of nature beautiful.
