Life in general has been very very ok. I left my job back at the end of March and have really enjoyed all the free time I’ve had since. Who wouldn’t?

I started jogging a few times a week and was showing gradual improvement, was doing some weights in the garage, a bit of P90X on the side and even 10-12 minutes of “decent quality” skipping each session. I think it all helped a bit but I wasn’t really seeing big results for the two months I was doing it. Having a bad diet is probably the major reason why.

I also started going through some programming tutorials. I have always enjoyed tinkering with programming but never really stayed up to date or even committed to it as a hobby. I have some little ideas I’d like to try out, mostly for fun but if they’re any good maybe for a little money. I also figure that if I want to get some more work in IT in general it can’t hurt to brush up on my coding experience. Sadly I fell into a common trap for me which is to get too caught up going through tutorials and not spending enough time practising and experimenting on my own. I think I’m a bit scared my ideas will demoralise me when I discover they are inevitably more difficult to create than I anticipated. Still, there’s only one real way to progress, I guess.

Then it was June.

Our little family of three flew out to Tallinn via Singapore and Helsinki, as we often do. This time we decided to stop over in Singapore for 2 nights, primarily to give us all a chance to sleep after the “short” 8 hour flight and mentally prepare for the 14 hours of travel coming up. It’s worth it with a toddler, for everyone’s sanity. We stayed in the airport hotel, which was a great decision. Singapore airport is a fair way from the downtown area and we didn’t really want to lug a sleepy, cranky baby that far after the flight. The hotel was pretty deluxe, for us at least, and it made everything simpler. We booked it for our return flight, so there’s the proof in the pudding.

I’ve only been outside Singapore airport once before and that was in maybe 2003 or 2004. I may have even mentioned it on here. Let’s see… Yes, 2004. Fuck, I’ve had this thing a while now. Anyway, it’s still 40°C and 300% humidity there. I thought I was struggling but then I saw how sweaty our kid was and I just felt bad for them. So, I think we’ll just hang around the hotel pool this time.

We survived the trip to Helsinki primarily due to our sound decision to purchase “comfort economy” seats. It’s amazing what an extra 15cm of leg room can do on a plane. It also helps that Finnair have new planes. Finally. Finnally? I’ll pay for that option every time from now on.

Estonian summer was not bad. Perhaps a little cold. We stayed in an Airbnb through June. Cute place.

In July we moved into our new apartment. Woohoo. A nice big one. We’ve been splashing out on decor and kitchens and all those things. It’s nearly complete. It looks good.

So yes, we’re moving here to live. I even got my residency visa sorted out in August. Just in time, because my holiday visa was due to expire after another week. A bit of back and forth with immigration and forms and some stress and phonecalls and meetings and boom… Pink card.

Now we’re here until November. 5 months. Long stay. I’ve been keeping busy by working in the bar from time to time, going to the gym 3 days a week and playing rugby for the local team. I’ve lost 7kg since we arrived, which is nice. I’m really enjoying the gym as I’m making steady progress and after an initial period of crippling pain, I’m loving rugby again.

It took a few weeks for my body to adapt to the physical contact/abuse but now I can actually move about the day after a match. We’ve won the minor premiership on debut in the Finnish league we joined. The semis and hopefully grand final will be coming up at the end of September. Go Kalev!

I’ve even scored a try this season. That means no nudie runs. Phew.