Farewells... and a huge stress!!!

Saying goodbyes ain't always easy! A week ago we started to say goodbye to our friends and my relatives here in Finland. Last weeks tuesday we had again car full of stuff and headed towards my poor little student sister... so now Heli has a proper jungle in her flat and birthday presents for the next ten years (at least!) :) Then we went to my grandparents who can sometimes be so nice and positive... last words I heard were: "I guess we'll never meet again". How lovely to hear such things, when you anyway worry about them almost constantly:( Well none can do. It was still a nice afternoon there and I will heavily miss them! Terveisiä mummulle ja papalle, ikävä jo nyt!

My mini cupcakes were a huge hit :)

Last weekend we had a farewell party here at our home with a vegan potluck theme. Was a lovely day with nice atmosphere and the guests could get to know our plans and equipments etc. much better. Warm thank yous to all of you who attended the party! All the foods were great too, especially the hummus and banana cake! :D

The bald and the hairy old dudes :D Always teasing the smaller ones...

For me the toughest part was most likely yesterday when I had my last training in my beloved karate club Sokuto. That club is so far the best I've ever been into and I have (unfortunately?) been in quite many already! I had really great seven years there, had plenty of good time and great trainings and befriended with many wonderful characters. I will miss you guys a lot! This of course doesn't mean the end of my karate career, not even a bit! I will still continue practising alone, visit as many clubs on this planet as possible and will also teach my dear husband to be my training partner (Wolfi has jujutsu background) so that I'd finally get the black belt...

So this last week has been full of farewells, but also full of STRESS! Everyday has been a real working day with cleaning the house and yard, building/maintaining the bikes and doing all the final paperworks. Wolfi just estimated that we have donated about five full car loads of our belongings to Fida, two car loads went to my sister and one load to HESY (animal protection society). Also countless of bags of clothes to UFF and way too much of things to trash/recycle! Tomorrow our car, some tools and rest of the useful stuff will be donated to Tuulispää animal sanctuary. So plenty of good work done at the same, no need to earn with everything! :) Still some tiny things to do, like our testaments... Thank you Ulla for giving that as a very first advice, when we told about our plans last year! (hehe) Well there was some point in her comments also... if something will happen to both of us we would never want any state to inherit us, no way! Much rather some animal sanctuary or so, who do much more good in this world! :)

btw. It's now Vappu here in Finland, which is a celebration of work/working class and we have definitely celebrated it with a load of work! Well done us :D Tomorrow will start the packing stress, so let's see what all have to be excluded...

Hyvää Vappua! Happy May Day!

~ Ilta