Happy holidays from OSA!

Just wanted to stop in to wish everyone a happy holiday season, and if you don't celebrate any one of the various holidays going on at this time of year...well, we are still Nightwish fans, so we can consider Tuomas' birthday to be a good enough occasion to celebrate! ;)

Have a joyous holiday season, "from all of ours to all of yours".
free-party-smileys-815.gif
 
Happy Tuomas' birthday to everyone (especially Tuomas), I mean er happy Christmas
I did some captions of the Imaginaerum photos as a christmas thing.
(Hope its not insulting or anything, I couldn't seem to find so many photos either)


http://www.nightwish.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=208&pos=13
Marco: she's going to be coming over and doing that to me in a minute, grim

http://www.nightwish.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=208&pos=3
Director: you're walking towards a grave, I'm going to need you to look more dejected than that

http://www.nightwish.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=208&pos=5
Emppu: yep you're right, it says made in china

http://www.nightwish.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=208&pos=6
Marco: I've got absolutely no idea how this blood got on my shirt, I mean not blood vegetable juice *hides under hood*

http://www.last.fm/music/Nightwish/+images/69059764
Anette: (singing) #you're in the mood for dance...... and when you get the chance (chance chance chance)#
Toumas: god no, please no
Anette: #you are the dancing queen...# come on Tuomas at least join in with the 'ooh yeah' bits

http://www.nightwish.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=208&pos=9
Marco: if you do that I'm going to fall off

http://www.nightwish.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=208&pos=4
Baddie: so they think they can use a lighting scheme that illuminates my dandruff do they, we'll see about that...... *evil scheming*

http://www.nightwish.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=208&pos=25
Director: Now Jukka lying on the floor and having a tantrum isn't in the script is it?
Jukka: Don't care

http://www.last.fm/music/Nightwish/+images/69034752
Anette: where's Marco? He was here a second age
Tuomas: don't encourage him

http://www.nightwish.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=208&pos=17
Emppu: betch didn't think I could get my legs this far apart
Everyone (off camera): betcha we did
Marco: don't encourage him

http://www.nightwish.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=208&pos=15
Dummy: your heart line is deeply etched but there is a strange cloud over your head line, almost as though something cloth is always covering your head
Jukka: these internet blind date things are rubbish

http://www.nightwish.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=208&pos=12
Troy: good evening I'm Troy Donockley and I'll be your magician for this evening. This is my lovely assistant Tuomas who replaces my previous lovely assistant who I had to replace because, well who I had to replace. Anyway I'll be sawing him in half in a minute but first, look at my hands, look at my sleeves, nothing there
Tuomas: wait, sawing me in half? You said I just had to stand around
Troy: yeah you just have to stand around while I saw you in half; its a standing sawing in half trick that's what makes it so unusual. Oh no he's gone... um, Anette could you come over here for a minute....
 
Yay Happy Christmas! Love the captions! :)

I just wanted to gloat on a couple of the gifts that I got that I think are so cool! My best friend got me 3 books that are all Finnish related. One is like a general book about Finnish culture with recipes, proverbs, etc in it along with common tales and lore.. LOVE. She also got me The Kalevala. It is an epic poem sort of akin to The Iliad and The Odyssey. The last one is called Louhi Witch of North Farm, which is loosely based on some part of The Kalevala.. but it's a children's story book. I love it!

Did you know there are more saunas in Finland then there are cars?
 
Well, I don't know if the sauna/car ratio is true any more. It used to be like that in the old days until 1970's maybe. Now statisitcs tell that there are about 2.5 million registered passanger cars and about 2 mio other registered vehicles (vans, trucks, motorbikes etc. aything allowed to run on public roads).
The sophisticated estimate about the number of saunas in the country varies between 1 -1,5 million of which almost half million are combined with summer cottages on lake/seasides. It's true that 99+% of small houses and summer cottages have a sauna built in/beside them and every apartment house has at least one sauna in the basement for all flat owners to use. In the recent decades it's been very common to built individual small (read: tiny) saunas in within bathrooms of all flats.

Yea, and Happy Holidays, we are celebrating the Boxing Day here already. Or actually it's called "Tapaninpäivä" in Finnish (derived from 'St Stephen's day').
 
I think the sauna thing is such an interesting part of your culture!.. The book I pulled that from was printed in 1999.. so who knows. It claims there are "more than 700,000 or more private saunas, not including hotels, hospitals, health clubs, apartments, etc.." It also says that "it has been estimated that there is a sauna for every five people in the country.." I'm sure there's a population difference now though. Either way, it's still amazing to someone from the US who only happens on a sauna at either a fancy hotel, or a health club. I'd love to pick your brain more about Finnish related things Enigma! ;)
Anyway.. I'll continue this in the book thread. Hope everyone else got special things for Xmas! I didn't get anything else this year, my main gift is going to LA for NW. :)
 
I'm lauging my a** off here people! I think that Tuomas and Anette doing the ugly dance is especially hilarious!
Sorry for being MIA but the stomach flu got the better of me the week prior to Christmas (when else should one get the stomach flu than a couple of days before X-mas Eve?).

All the best to all you fellow NW fans out there!