249: Weekends

Went to town last weekend, met up with Marette and her date and headed to Sasku's place for drinks and karaoke. Karaoke didn't really materialise due to some technical problems, but Marette sang anyway. Halfway through some drinks, Sasku took out a booklet I gave him before; a booklet on the flavours of Malaysia.

He pointed out to me that he tried to make nasi lemak, following the recipe printed on the booklet, because I told him that's the most popular food in Malaysia; something we eat at any time of the day. The more we talked about food, the more hungry I got. I asked for food and he showed me his fridge, his kitchen...There were enough ingredients to whip something up. Better yet, there were enough ingredients to make nasi lemak. So ta-daa!


It's my first time making it (cos why make when you can always get it for RM1) and it's not too bad. No one got sick, at least. I learned to make nasi lemak, my hunger was satisfied, and my craving for nasi lemak fulfilled. Ok what.


The sambal was in the wrong colour, though, but got the taste there la. *pats self on the back* Will improve next time.


Most importantly, Sasku enjoyed it. It's important that he didn't feel I wrecked his kitchen and wiped clean his food stock :P

Sasku

This weekend, I went to town again to meet up with another friend. Made a mistake of not checking the weather forecast before heading out. Thinking that the weather's has been about the same for the past few days, and also it has been 'warmer' for the past week, like between 2°C to -3°C compared to -10°C. So I happily trotted out in my usual layers. Usually, it would be enough even in -10°C. But on Saturday night, it was exceptionally cold for some reason.

Kappeli's muffin and hot chocolate

It was probably -13°C when I headed out of the house. You know it's cold when the hair in your nostrils feel like they're frozen. Went to Kappeli to get a cup of hot chocolate and a muffin, cos I was hungry and hunger definitely do not help in keeping you any warmer. Andreas came, he had something too and then we went to this Latin American themed bar called Bar Llamas, somewhere near Bulevardi.

Orange & chili and kiwi & lime shots

I thought they'd have a wide array of cocktails here (most bars in Helsinki make the crappiest cocktails) so I asked the bartender, 'What's your specialty here?' And I got a reply, 'We only have normal teas, you can check it out over there.' Riiiight.


We decided to start off with margarita anyway. Or at least, a variation of it as they were out of triple something that usually goes into margaritas. It was ok, not as good as usual margarita but drinkable haha. Not like I know a lot about cocktails anyway.


But it's an interesting place. Small, cozy, warm, quirky. And there were swings at the bar! But maybe it wasn't the best idea when a drunk decides to use it. This particular guy sat on one of the swings and started swinging himself back and forth and around in the crowded bar. Like seriously, dude? And then he tried to chat up with some Americans sitting next to him, telling them they're handsome and that his female friend's single and available, and then grabbing my ass as I stood up to leave =.= You know a Finn is drunk when he talks non-stop and is restless.


But still, it's a nice place. It's filled with young and trendy people and they look like they've got more yummy drinks here. So, it's in my list from now on. I would've taken more photos if my camera didn't run out of batteries.

We hopped to check out 2 other bars in Töölö area. Well, probably not the best idea. Like I said, I did not read the weather forecast. I did not expect the night to be so friggin' cold. It wasn't even windy, but it was freezing. We ended up in this Czech bar, had a couple of Belgium beers and nuts for munchies, and then had to leave at 2am cos the bar was closing. That's an hour or two earlier than the usual opening hours of other places.

Anyway, that was when I decided to be a superwoman. I needed to get back into the town area. Trams were no longer operating at that hour, so I thought I could take the bus. But then certain buses only stops at certain bus stops. I'm still not familiar with all the connections yet (there's probably like hundreds of them) so I just waited for the next bus to come cos most connections go into the town anyway. Then I realised, waiting is just going to be colder. So I walked. For about 30minutes. All the while shivering. I've never shivered while being outside before!

I think after about 15minutes of walking in the snow and on ice, I couldn't feel my feet anymore. Not only the toes, but the feet, up to my ankles; I couldn't feel them. Totally numb. It felt so surreal.

Reached my destination eventually, thought I'd get some warmth. But noooo, the bus station was surprisingly chilly cos it's usually comfortable in there. Or maybe it was just me who was feeling really cold. Too cold. Sat on the metal chairs and continued to shiver (like seriously!). It was 2.45am when I got there, my bus was to leave only at 4am. But good thing it came at 3.30am and allowed passengers to get in.

Warmth for a while, arrived back in Nummela after one hour, managed to catch some sleep on the way, drove home in the cold (the car was equally freezing), stripped and changed and hid under my comforter until 2pm on Sunday. -21°C is no joke =(