Time for a break and London Trip

I know you’ve missed me, so I’m here to please the people! I'm even posting on a Friday, and you all know how I feel about Fridays!

Since I last posted, we’ve won two games in a row and didn’t concede a single goal in the process. We had our best 45 minutes of the season in the second half against Honka so the team’s confidence is high.  We always seem to do well in the last game before big breaks and it’s good because it makes the break more enjoyable.  Finishing with a great result also keeps the spirit of the team high and that’s been true into this week.  Training this week has been as good as any week all season, at least since I arrived in March.  People are getting healthier as well so it’s almost all good news. The only downside for me personally was that I got a yellow card on a play similar to this:

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be 2014 VPS if an important player didn’t get hurt so now Timi’s out for months with some sort of ankle injury.  Regardless, we’ve now gone over three games without conceding a goal.  Vaasa is going to have to change its name to Shutout City Finland™.  That’s assuming HJK concedes a goal sometime between now and the end of time.  Now, I’m not going to re-hash the games because there’s not much to say, so instead I’ll talk about life because it’s gotten better now that the weather has improved!

The weather is pretty consistently good now, so I’ve been out and about.  I even made my first appearance at Vaasa’s beach!  There’s not so much to do in Vaasa, but my teammates and I have been making the best of it and enjoying our downtime.  The World Cup is coming up soon, so I’m preparing my house to screen the games.  I have a projector and a screen, so I’m pretty sure the guys will want to come over and watch the games on the biggest possible screen!  The USA games though I have to watch by myself, because I get really intense and don’t like to be around people when USA plays important matches.  The fact that we’re probably going to lose at least 2 out of 3 games only makes it more important that I be alone for those games.

As I mentioned earlier, we had a break for a week. It was a great week and a good chance to recharge my batteries and, more importantly, stock up on a bunch of cheap stuff that I can't find in Vaasa.

The highlight of my trip was visiting Wembley Stadium, one of the biggest and nicest soccer stadiums in the world. The game wasn't very good, but the atmosphere there was amazing. The funny thing was that more people were entertained by throwing paper airplanes onto the pitch than the actual game. We also were seated a few feet away from the people who started a wave that miraculously made it's way around the stadium five times! I got to see a lot of the stars that I watch every week on tv play in person, so it was a great experience.

The walk to Wembley

Stadium empty

Stadium full

I won't bore you with details of the rest of my trip, but I will post some pictures.

Me with my man-purse

Victoria and Albert Museum

Tooting Broadway station.

After the vacation was finished, it was back to reality.  I had to be at training on Monday morning, but didn't leave London until Sunday night.  Unfortunately, that meant flying to Helsinki and spending the night at the airport.  I was worried that I'd not be allowed to do it, but I wasn't even the only person sleeping at my gate.

The view from my seat.  It was 1am.

The plane to Vaasa.  Like something from the 1950s.

I made it back in time on the plane in the picture and went straight from the airport to training.  It must have been good preparation because I did well in that day's training and the rest of the week as well.  Hopefully the good work leads to a good performance from me and the team this weekend in Lahti!

In honor of my going on vacation, the meme is a cheeky dog on vacation: