Project Bleaching PART 1

I have been having two packages of bleach in my closet for about two months or so. And it has been on my "to do -list" even before that. The last time I even dyed my roots has been at least four months and the roots were grown 3/4 of my fringe with my natural color. So it was the damn time!

The bleaching took more time I thought it would. After half an hour I was only half way through my hair. So about after an hour I was done. After waiting about half an hour to let the bleach to do its work I washed it off. 

My hair never, EVER bleaches evenly - and it now has every tone from blond to dark reddish brown.

Like the last time, I had already used two boxes of bleach and I still need at least one more. Tomorrow I'm going to meet my friend but in case this would happen and in order to go outside I'm going to put my hair as tiny bun as I possibly can and buy a box of bleach as I'm around.

While staring to the first ends I bleached first and which actually lightened to a blonde I was wondering what it would be like to be all blond... even I know that will never(?) happen. I don’t think my hair is made for that.

Hair, hair, hair...

Have I been looking for trouble since child because I always wanted to have red hair one day, I wanted to be a witch and always wanted to live in 19th century... Trouble? Being a woman in 19th century alone, not to mentioning having red hair which made the thing even worse and I don't even have to be a real witch for people would think me as one for having the red hair. And after learning the bizarre reasons for which innocent and perfectly sane women were locked away in insane asylums in that century I would be screwed to begin with – if not to be burned at the stake, then being locked away in an insane asylum for the rest of my life. If I would wanted red hair voluntarily in that century I guess I would be locked away for that reason alone... BUT! A Dutch physician Johann Weyer (1515–1588) claimed that women accused of practicing witchcraft were likely to be mentally ill and to be examined and treated as such. So insane asylum it is?

With the hair I knew I need to wait at least ten years for no parent would give a permission even to a 7-year-old girl to have bright red hair. Pitch black was the second option, but that wasn't so simple either. I've always had long hair which I think looked like golden and pretty hair for a child but when I got older the color of it looked like a bucket of sand to me. So I tried to do something and had two blond highlights on the front and paid that was so fucking overprized it now make me sick to think of it... So as a minor every decision was in the hands of my parents and I was not allowed to dye it so “radically”. So I got to dye it dark brown at first and ninja my way to the black. Then when they had got used me not to be that light haired little girl anymore I decided to dye it red... but from pitch black to bright red!? HA!!!

I was an idiot and went too often to hair salon what came to dyeing my hair (stupid girl!)  and paid the outrageously overprized amount of money for it. And to my experiences what ever you say to the hair dresser it's still something else than what you asked - even a dog can get it right (if I'd ask a hair dresser and a dog to fetch me a stick the dog would bring me a stick but the hair dresser would bring me anything else but stick - a rock maybe?). Anyways, after getting down from the ecstatic cloud of my new red hair (very dark, dark red) I decided to take it in my own hands and bleach the fuck out of my hair myself. After two bleaches and three packages of bleach my hair was orange but it was evenly orange and so it was brighter it had been since it was black - not every color from dark brown to blond roots. Still, I wasn't going for blond but something bright enough to dye it bright red, so bright orange hair was more than fine base to put on the red dye.

When my hair was finally as red as I had always hoped it would be I just stared it for so long and looked it from the mirror and I was so out of this world because of the joy of having my childhood fantasy of having this red hair finally come true!

My haircolors over the years...

Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I start to wait Christmas in October. To me Christmas is the best holiday of the whole year – even birthday comes second. And I’m rather traditional and I want a Christmas at home with good food and everything red and pretty and Christmasy all over. That’s all I need. Presents are not necessary.

Because my parents have divorced, I like to "split" the Christmas: I go to my dad the day before Christmas Eve and stay over night. Next day I would go to my mom, but only when it's already evening and after I've spent the Christmas Eve with my dad. So I have time to spend the Christmas with both of my parents. This Christmas with my dad was left somehow unique in my head, for I knew he is not that kind of person who would stay up late and at about midnight we watched the movie "Nine" and after all the pauses and ending credits it was already 2 a.m. and just when I think he is suggesting I should leave he's starting to watch a documentary about boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, about the their three fight, particularly the third and final famous boxing match between them (fought on October 1, 1975 at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines) and everything behind it and them. I don't even like boxing  - on the contrary, I despise it to my very core (people brutally beating each other up for "sport". I mean it IS sport I understand that and don't diminish as such but I somehow can't see it as the same kind of sport like tennis for example because of its brutality - and in tennis people don't bleed, break bones and/or nearly die at the end). But I do like documentaries and I know my dad likes boxing... And I never say "oh well I should leave now to my other parent" when I'm around. Nor "oh well we should probably go to bed" when it's about staying up late... For the interest towards the documentary I could somehow bare these fighting scenes and in the end, it was truly a very interesting documentary which gave a different point of view to this whole thing between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, I don't think I would ever got without watching this program. Which I don't think I would've never do on my own (due to its nature and subject)... After all it was over 3 a.m. when it was over and I still not felt like leaving (even my dad was tired to say the least, but I'm like this weird night creature who is willing to watch extended cut of Gladiator in the middle of the night). But it was time to leave and I went to my mom, who was already sleeping and after munching through the candies I went to bed.

I have always had Christmas Rice Porridge at morning with sugar and cinnamon - with one almond hidden in it for someone to find. "The Snowman" comes from TV on every year and it’s like a tradition to watch it. The ending makes me cry every time...

The food plays a big part in my Christmas celebration. Without certain foods and the taste of these traditional dishes it feels to me that there’s something missing. Oven-baked “ham” (I’ll get that in a minute), root vegetable casseroles, mixed beetroot salad. Rutabaga casserole is also very traditional but I've never like it or rutabaga in general. Sweet potato casserole was a new thing to me and recipes to it seemed to be all over the place. So to bring something different to my traditional foods, it was a new food on our Christmas table - it was just divine and I've never even eaten sweet potato before.

Yum! Carrot casserole (left) and sweet potato casserole (right).

Because I’m vegan there’s nothing animal related food on my menu. We had carrot casserole, sweetened potato casserole, sweet potato casserole (made of sweet potatoes so different than sweetened potato casserole), mixed beetroot salad and Oven-Roasted Brussels Sprouts. The only ham that was covered with mustard and breadcrumbs was my seitan“ham”. For something sweet we made Star-shaped Christmas pastries. The plan was to make Vegetable Terrine (like last year), mushroom salad, bean pate (In place of liver pate) and traditional English Christmas cake also but the there was not enough time for all that.

Vegans don’t eat grass on Christmas either.

I was spending the Christmas with my mom, who has become a looong way to veggier person since I become vegan, and she never complains about “my” food (vegan food that is) and eats them, really and honesty likes them and she makes them herself. She had lessen down her meat eating so, so, so, so much and eats it only on some occasions for example Christmas – she had some meat but no ham. We ate the same casseroles and she doesn’t let the fact that there’s nothing animal related in them, “bother” her like it might to some people (a.k.a. OMG there’s no eggs, OMG there’s no cow milk that must be bad so I don’t even taste). There was still some fish and fish rod and turkey on the menu but so very tiny amount for there was only one eating them. Even I don’t eat meat, I don’t blame her or anyone else doing so. Some may do that but I’m not condemnatory vegan, I don’t have the right and even I have my ideology other people may not have them as much.

Star-shaped Christmas pastries with plum jam in middle (topped with powdered sugar)

Like I mentioned earlier, gifts are not that important. I guess that when you’re a child it’s so great to get a pile of gifts. But to me it is better get something I know I’m going to use and they are not left in the corner. So quality over quantity and less is more. For example my mom knew I love movies and when she asked what do I want for Christmas I immediately said “MOVIE!” and when she asked what movie would I like to get I said it’s going to be a long list - but really any movie is great. She knew I had looked after “Resident Evil: Afterlife” and she gave that to me. Funny thing, it seems that even from the shape and feel of the gift my brain just can’t realize if it’s a DVD - I automatically thinks it’s something else, like a book or something else. And if I suspect it is a movie it could be anything else than what I had asked for and if it is what I’ve asked it’s what I wanted. And I’m still surprised! It’s a win/win possibility when it’s a movie or anything related to it. I’m an easy person to give a gift to. Hah..

The Christmas went well. I had had SO much stress over it for so long, even before December - I really wanted this Christmas to be good and because two last Christmases haven’t been so much of joy. So I was stressed about certain things related to that as well as some things not as related even to Christmas. But that’s that. Even the food part took a lot of time to do, it didn’t matter. Better good food that takes time than bad food that is made fast or those ready-made meals from market. At least it didn’t seem to take as much time than last year and we made a few new foods than last year. I had a plan to make the casseroles ahead of the time but I’m just not that Martha Stewart yet. Maybe next year I would anticipate better and save some time... But the Christmas turned out very well and I was so very glad for it.

Christmas food & veganizing it

Food plays a big part in my Christmas celebration. It has always been about a half of it all. I’ve been fussing about the food for weeks now – not because I’m vegan but in general. It has been a wonderful and surprising thing to see that even being vegan there’s not that much to miss whatever holiday it might be. It depends on the point of view of course, for example I haven’t fancy fish ever so that’s no loss to me. The most traditional food on Finnish Christmas table must be the Christmas ham. You start to hear about the suffering of the pigs way before the Christmas and there have been these animal activist sues lately in Finland so this year it all has seemed exaggerated whether people are for it or against it – Personally I don't give a shit if someone sneaks and films something even without permission so people would know because it is outrageous some see so much effort to cover it all up. People MUST know!

TRADITIONAL FOODS IN FINLAND
In Finland, the Christmas dinner is eaten on the Christmas Eve, December 24th. In the morning there is Christmas Rice Porridge (topped with cinnamon, sugar / mixed fruit soup / prune soup / cold milk). Traditionally before the meal there is assorted fish and herring platter with boiled potatoes and it can include all things fish and fishy - freshly salted salmon, lutefisk (or lutefish), marinated herrings, Baltic herring with mustard, smoked or cold smoked salmon, fish roe.

And after it follows the actual Christmas dinner. Finnish Christmas table is similar to the Swedish Christmas table. It contains many different dishes, most of them typical for the season. The main dish is usually a large traditional Oven-Roasted Christmas ham, which is glazed with mustard and breadcrumbs and is eaten along with traditional root vegetable casseroles: Carrot casserole, Sweetened potato casserole and Rutabaga casserole, and with the other dishes. For some people Liver Casserole (with raisins) also belongs in Christmas. Potato casserole can be sweetened or not, depending on preference - BUT traditionally it IS sweetened. There can also be roast turkey, mixed beetroot salad (with dressing), Mushroom salad, Italian Salad, Liver Pate, Beetroot Pate, Vegetable Terrine and Christmas Bread (usually Sweet Christmas Bread). Finnish Christmas table also contains assortment of cheeses.

For dessert and sweet traditional foods are Gingerbread cookies, Star-shaped Christmas pastries (flaky pastry star with plum jam in middle), Christmas fruit cake, Cranberry parfait (with whipped cream), plum fromage frais, Christmas marmalades, Confections. And cheese and biscuits.

The traditional Christmas beverage is either alcoholic or non-alcoholic mulled wine/ Glogg (“glögi” in Finnish). The alcoholic version can be Red Christmas Glogg or White Christmas Glogg.

(On one site it was “glögg” which seemed wrong and weird because there is no letter “Ö” in english keyboard. Then I founded a word “Glogg” but whenever I’ve tried to search for the English word for the drink I had found the word “mulled wine” and if I ever try explain this to anyone in English that’s what I’m going to use – and besides I have no idea how to even spell the word “Glogg”.)

VEGAN
There is SO MUCH meat and fish on the Christmas table, all sorts of fishes and fish roe, ham, turkey and sometimes reindeer.

Many casseroles have eggs in them but they are as easy to make without them and tastes as good (if not even better). You simply replace cow milk with soymilk for example. And like carrot casserole you just leave out the egg, usually recipes with only one egg can be done without it without it would affect too much (depending on the food of course). Some want to save time on Christmas and take a shortcut what comes making casseroles from scratch. The ready-made meals usually have eggs in them as well as bunch of food additives. And I have learned well that food made by yourself is so, so much better than those shitty ready-made versions on the shelves in the markets - So I've learned to do them by myself. And shortcut to that is to use ready-made purées (which usually they don’t contain food additives), so you don’t have to cook all those carrots yourself.

As a vegan, I don't eat ham or meat at all. So I replace the suffered pork with seitan "ham". Seitan (also called "wheat meat") is a food and a meat substitute for vegans, made from gluten, the main protein of wheat. And for the record, the name has nothing whatsoever to do with Satan or anything like that, like some close-minded (and childish and/or stupid) meat-eaters might think - but vegans know better.

Like I mentioned I myself don’t miss fish but if you’re planning having something fishy fish roe can be replaced with “roe” made from seaweed and it truly resemble the looks and the taste of fish roe - and would fool anyone who doesn’t know what it is. Take my word for it. For fish, I came across this interesting substitute for herring and particularly for mustard marinated herrings. There herring was replaced with eggplant which was first cooked for five minutes until it softened and then marinated in same mustard marinade like herring. Apparently it resembles the real fish things with its texture and all. I don’t know but sounds very interesting and clever idea.

You can replace traditional Liver Pate with Bean Pate. Even vegetable terrine can be made without egg. It is easy to substitute egg with egg-replacer but not everyone like to use those and they can be really expensive. But it sure doesn’t mean it’s not possible to make.

Christmas Rice Porridge is made in soymilk or other milk than cow milk. Sweet things like Gingerbread cookies, Star-shaped Christmas pastries can also be done without eggs. And also Cranberry parfait. I think that eggs are overrated what comes to making foods and even desserts... It can take time and effor to trying to complete your dessert just the way you want it.

You can find ready-made frozen puff pastry sheets, from supermarket freezers. Many people use them as a shortcut to save time and effort – not everything needs to be made from scratch. But since they are ready-made, always remember to read the list of ingredients from the back of the box, etc. They could be containing butter and sometimes eggs. So make sure it's butterless and doesn't contain dairy products or eggs. There are also ready-made frozen puff pastry sheets that are suitable for vegans too. Same thing with frozen gingerbread dough! Yes, there's ready-made gingerbread dough too, but as far I have noticed so many of them seem to contain eggs and other stuff. But gingerbread dough is very simple to make by scratch unlike puff pastry dough which takes a lot of work and time to make...

When making Christmas marmalades (or marmalades in general) gelatin is most often replaced with agar-agar. Agar-Agar is a (flavorless) vegetarian gelatin substitute derived from seaweed. (If someone didn’t know yet gelatin is derived from animal bones along with animal skin, hooves, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage. Fucking yummy!)

For more information, instructions, recipes and stuff Google, Google, Google!! :)

- - - -
Okay.. To some this might look like some kind of a preaching on being a vegan and not eating meat - But it’s not. Ok, there is cute animal picture but at least not a gory picture of a butchered pig or anything (I’m not like that). This is just an information from traditional Finnish Christmas foods and vegan Christmas foods. If nothing else, don’t judge people who don’t eat meat.

Talk With A Fake British Accent Day

International "Talk With A Fake British Accent Day" is on December 17, every year. It's an annual holiday. When I heard this, tried to find more information about it just for being a curious creature - and for an annual holiday there was not that much of information about it (for example confusion about the exact date among certain people). Then for my surprise I found a video from YouTube when this guy who created this holiday, cleared out some of these things, for example the exact date. It starts at 12:01 a.m. (that's midnight) and goes until 11:59 p.m. that same day. Some say that the day is on May 7th, but it's wrong.

Ok. To me, nothing beats the real British accent – but I find this holiday quite funny. It’s funny idea and on that day (and why not in other time) people can talk with (fake) British accent, without being too specific is the accent too authentic. Whatever suits you well. Oh, and talking about accents why not trying talking about different English accents, like Cockney accent?

There’s still time to prepare, if you’ve decided to speak with the best British accent you can. Internet (for example YouTube) is filled with videos and instructions how to speak like a British person – with good tips with how not to sound extremely and utterly fake. And with this I mean the things the British people do, when people talk by the stereotype ways how they think some words are pronounced or stretch them too long – when it sounds just comical and hilarious as well as quite horrendous at the same time. Moving on. I’m not saying I can speak with British accent, no. I can not. I’m just speaking English like a common Finnish people – you will notice I’m from somewhere else. And I’m not trying to fake anything. It’s like.. an American or British trying to speak perfect Finnish and/or saying they are Finnish people. That’s the only language I can speak as perfect as I can.

Okay. But this wasn’t my primary subject and kind of just slid into this. It’s not I’m not judging people trying to speak with different accents. I’m just rambling on... I don’t think I’m going to speak fake British on this day for I’m waiting Christmas like nothing else on this world. I just found this interesting and I’m just writing about this and just bringing this out and letting you know (whoever might read this) that this kind of funny and clever holiday is existing!

So, are you going to talk like a British on December 17th? What do you think about this holiday?

Quite fancy, eh? - Hehe. :D

Finland's Independence Day / Itsenäisyyspäivä

FIRST OFF ABOUT FINLAND'S INDEPENDENCE DAY:
Finland's Independence Day (Finnish: “itsenäisyyspäivä”) is a national public holiday held on 6 December to celebrate Finland's declaration of independence from the Russia. Finland was declared as an independent state, on 6 December 1917. Independence Day was first celebrated in 1919.

There are state festivities on Finland's Independence Day and the national festivities commence with the raising of the flag on Tähtitorninmäki ("Observatory Hill"), in Helsinki. On every year the movie adaptation of "The Unknown Soldier" (Finnish: "Tuntematon sotilas") is broadcasted on TV. The movie is based on "The Unknown Soldier", a novel by Väinö Linna. The story is about the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union as told from the viewpoint of ordinary Finnish soldiers. It is traditional to light two candles in each window of their home in the evening (from 6 to 8 in the evening) to remember daring plan of the light infantryman (“jääkärien”) for liberating our native country.

In the evening, the Presidential Independence Day reception is held for approximately 2000 invited guests at the Presidential Palace. This event, known as "the Castle Ball" (Finnish: “Linnan juhlat”), is broadcast on national television and has been a perennial favorite of the viewing public.

AND AFTER THAT:
We made tofu burgers and we destroyed them while watching “the Castle Ball” and commenting the gowns on our own commentary (the Ball is commentated in either Finnish or Swedish – depending on which channel you’re looking at).

 We made vegan tofu patties and hamburger buns from scratch.

On every year there’s ”Patriotic Festivities” (Isänmaallinen juhla) at Tampere-talo and it turned 50 on this year. I’ve been there on many years but last year was skipped. But it was so nice to be there again! There were choir group ”Mieskuoro Laulajat” and with them were “Eagles Brass Band” (”Kotkien puhallinorkesteri”). This time also were a choir group ”Seniorikuoro Konkelot”. The song ”Finlandia” (by Jean Sibelius) was amazing as always, and especially it was sang by TWO choir this time. I always wait “Finlandia” the most – it is SO important to me on Finland's Independence Day. I’m happy this has become a tradition already – and there’s my own father and godfather on the choir.

At the end of the celebration we all stand up and sing “Maamme”, the Finnish national anthem.

I was browsing through my old files and found a few pictures from 06.12.2008 show, three years ago: