Adios España and Terve Suomi

April 5, 2019April 9, 2019 Mia1 Comment

spanish flag on pole — Spanish flag in Playa Del Ingles 2019 ©Mia Salminen

Greetings from the Canary Islands. Playa del Inglés in Spain to be exact. That’s where I’m been from last Thursday and we got back yesterday. It was my first time on a plane and in Spain in general. There’s is a lot to write about this trip so I do it in parts. There won’t be any dirty laundry to tell even if the trip wasn’t totally perfect. I’m still pretty tired of the trip so this one will be about the beginning of it. I’ll write more about it when I get them written down. I took 179 photos which are probably the most photos I’ve ever taken on a holiday. Obviously, I will only show the best ones.

Inside the plane before the take off. ©Mia Salminen

Getting close to Spain. View from above. ©Mia Salminen

I was quite excited to finally travel by plane. I thought it would be nerve-wracking but it wasn’t at all. I wasn’t even afraid to look down. Usually, I don’t like heights but now I quite enjoyed it. The flight took over 6 hours but taking photos from the view and doing drawings made the time go faster. I can’t even imagine how people can sit on a plane for 12 hours. It would bore me to tears. There was some turbulence but that can happen when you’re 11 kilometres from the ground. It was great to see the clouds below you. It’s even better when you see land from above.

land from plane — Land from the plane. ©Mia Salminen

Only when the plane turned there were a few butterflies in my stomach. But not on the trip home because then it wasn’t anything new. It was actually quite cool. When we left (me and dad) it was cold and some snow so I had a winter coat on. But when we arrived in Spain it was warm so it was quite funny to wear winter clothes. It was probably over +20 Celsius and windy so what a difference it was. When you get back home it’s totally the opposite. That’s how it is when you go to a warm climate to a cold one and the other way around.

So that was the first part of the trip to Playa del Inglés. I don’t know when the next bit will come. It all depends when I get to write the things down. Patience is a virtue so stay tuned.

Spray some popularity around me

March 11, 2019 Mia1 Comment

Do you ever feel other people seem to be much better at things than you do? Other people get a lot of likes on Instagram, for example. Or others get friends easier than yourself. You get the feeling you’re totally useless and no one pays you any attention. You don’t look for fame or anything but wouldn’t be nice to be popular at least a little. You know you shouldn’t put yourself down but you can’t help comparing yourself with others. It’s called the inferiority complex. You have low self-esteem and it can depress you. There are moments you feel good about yourself but then you see someone who looks confident and you feel useless again. You try not to care because deep inside you’re good in your own way. But still, back in your head, you think you’re not really good at anything.

My time on social media has been like this which one reason why I have thoughts about not bothering posting anything. Why should I use my energy trying to impress strangers? Spray some popularity around me, will you? I don’t know how people get a lot of likes or comments on social media. Maybe I’m just a boring person and untalented. It seems you need to post photos of yourself to get noticed. Most photos online are fake. Especially on Instagram so I don’t want to be in that game anyway. I’ve only used social media for fun. I have a love/hate relationship with social media. They say how you can promote your business or design work you’re done. But since my experience is mostly negative I’m sceptic about how it would work for me. I have posted my photos in different places and got likes and comments but not because of social media. Even if I use keywords I still don’t get any followers or views on social media. Mostly on Twitter since I use it the most. I don’t really care if it’s about the things I write. I’m more concerned about my design work or photography. Maybe I’m not good enough. At least not good enough to get paid for my work.

“I could have done that” or “It’s nothing special” are words I’ve heard about my photography. Thank you very much, now I really want to practice to get better. Not, it makes me want to give up altogether. It doesn’t give me the motivation to prove them wrong. It only gets me down. I need someone who says what I should do to improve it. I’m not clairvoyant. Even if photography isn’t important for me anymore, those words still haunt in the back of my head. Maybe it’s the same with web and graphic design. I make nothing special and anyone could do the same. It’s probably only in my own mind. There is a lot of people who have been in the business for years and I’m only starting out so you can’t compare. But I can’t even find a job so I can’t get better at it either. It seems you need to be popular and have connections to get anywhere. If it’s social media or finding a job. You also need to be an interesting person which I am not. At least when it comes to fitting into a company. I guess you just have to do everything yourself. Nothing new there. You won’t get help from anyone.

Having a blast by myself

October 15, 2018 Mia6 Comments

I like doing things by myself. I don’t need a lot of people around me. In fact, other people stress me out. I like having a blast by myself. It might sound boring for some but so is partying in my opinion. I hate all the noise and talking nonsense. That’s just not my thing and it has never been. When I’m around people, waiting to go home as soon as possible is my thing. Other people expect for you to be social and if you don’t speak, they say you’re anti-social. Like that’s a bad thing. I just don’t want to waste my time on something I don’t care about or want to do. It’s better to be alone than being with the wrong people. If you want to be with someone, you’ll never get the chance to be with that person because they live in another country or they already have someone to be with. Or they won’t like you the way you like them. You just have to accept it and try to think about something else than the company of another human being. There are other things to think about.

I go to the movies by myself because then you can concentrate on the movie. Even staying there until the end credits without having that other person to get irritated. I take bike rides alone. Sometimes it would be nice to have someone to talk to but not many want to take long bike trips. I used to do that with my mother when she was still alive. But now I only go by myself. I can cycle in my own pace and stop whenever I want. It’s really relaxing to be around silence. Yesterday I took one of this trips. It wasn’t long but still. It was to an outdoor museum where they have horses and sheep. There were some people there but it was still silent. A lot of beautiful colours on the trees and blue sky with sunshine. Here are some photos.

Kylamäki Village landscape

Black sheep

White sheep

View from Kylamaki Villlage

Nature has always been one of the greatest things in Finland. When tourist wonder why we want distance they should really experience this side of our country and then they might understand why.

Taking it easy is my kind of a blast. I think better when I’m alone. I tried to write out on the balcony one of my fictions but there was too much noise from the traffic so I always write inside. If someone kept talking I couldn’t concentrate. It different when I’m listening to music. Actually, I’m even more motivated when the music blasts in the background. Or since I listen to Spotify on my laptop, at the front. Not only when I write fiction but also when I write this blog. I get more distracted if the neighbours are coming or going from their flat. Or noise from the outside. All the small sounds irritate me but not the loud ones. Except if it’s the neighbour’s loud stereos where it doesn’t sound like music at all. Or the people shouting when they talk to each other. I can listen to music quite loud but still, I can concentrate. Sometimes I’m so in my thoughts I don’t even hear it’s being loud.

For some doing things alone can be difficult but for me, it’s in my nature. I never feel totally lonely even if sometimes it can feel like that. Some have a blast with other people but I’m having a blast by myself. You don’t necessarily need big things to have a blast. If pets get excited from a toy and kids get excited about something new they’ve learned. Adults should be able to have a blast from the small things in life too.