What are your hobbies?

Remember those little books we used to have as kids where each one of your friends (and obviously your secret crush) would fill in their details, hobbies and interests and usually a little message to you? I loved them! I used to get a new one almost every year. But I didn't really like filling in my own details to my friends' books for one particular reason - I didn't have many hobbies.

My family is and has always been very supportive for us children to have hobbies, but I wasn't really too interested in anything as a kid. Even though my parents were always encouraging I was secretly very insecure that I couldn't do this and that or become really good at anything. I tried many things like dancing, different instruments, cooking, skating and skiing but would always give up after a while. The only hobby that I truly enjoyed was reading. And I sure read - I read so much that in the end of my school years I had read everything I was even slightly interested in in our small town library. I still like to read, but my old habit of reading before bed has turned into climbing into bed, eyeing for my book on the shelf but almost instantly passing out for being so exhausted of spending the day outdoors.

When I was studying to become a registered nurse I started going to the gym and different group fitness classes. I became so obsessed that I even trained three months with a personal trainer! I had never been physically active but now I was truly enjoying it. Another hobby I picked up later on was painting - I had no idea what I was doing, but I didn't care. I bought myself art supplies and just went for it. I still think I'm really not good at it at all, but why should that matter? It was a brilliant channel for my creative traits that have always been strong.

I made a conscious decision around that same time that I should educate myself and learn more skills, so I picked up ukulele. I taught myself with the help of the all glorious YouTube tutorials and a year later I was playing on a rooftop bar in Spain for fun whilst everyone was singing along. It was such an amazing feeling!

Later in life I noticed that nursing wasn't really good for my mental and physical health and I wasn't truly passionate about it so I decided to go traveling a bit further away to find out what did I really want to do with my life. You can read all about this in my previous blog post https://www.tidesncurrents.com/post/our-dream so I won't go to details here, but during my first year in Australia I realised I was an outdoor person and I fell in love with sailing (and an Australian guy haha, but that's a whole another story!) as well as hiking and camping. Naturally whilst working on sailboats being surrounded by waters all the time I noticed I truly enjoyed being in the water as well as on it. I started practising freediving. I had done some yoga every now and then since studying nursing but when you start practising freediving it naturally leads to practicing yoga and breath work regularly. One of my biggest achievements since becoming a registered nurse has been becoming a yoga teacher.

I had spent some time fishing as a kid but it wasn't until I met Josh that I really got into it. Since we spent so much time around, on and in the waters it was just natural that we picked up spearfishing as well which lets you be more selective with your catch. With boating comes along navigational and weather reading skills as well as learning a bit about everything for maintenance such as engines, electronics, fibreglassing, painting... You name it! Changing reality tv -shows and movies to selecting more documentaries to watch instead led us becoming really inspired about climbing (I blame Free Solo, 14 Peaks and The Dawn Wall!). We met some new friends who were already into climbing and they showed us where to start - and it was so much fun!

Last time I wrote to a book of friends was probably when I was around 14 years old with hobbies like reading, riding my bike to school and watching movies. Nothing I was truly passionate about. Now that I'm starting my 40th decade on this planet I can finally say that I do have hobbies. Lots of them! But since book of friends is no longer a thing at this time and in my age, I'm listing them here instead for my younger self to see that I've come such a long way:

• Writing

• Reading

• Learning

• Sailing

• Hiking

• Camping

• Playing guitar and ukulele

• Freediving

• Spearfishing

• Yoga

• Climbing

• Photography

• Videography

• Editing

• Painting

• Jewellery making

• Dancing

• Hopefully soon acroyoga with my partner and friends!

-Heli

Ps. To that teacher that in the end of my elementary school (when I was 12 years old) told me and my parents that I would never be a very active person but she rather saw me sitting still and reading in peace and quiet and that I should persuade something like that in my life as a career - see me now and hear me roar.

I am the squid whisperer (and a bit about our diets)

As you might know we love fishing. There's just something about it, standing around waters most often during the dusk or dawn casting the line in over and over again until your wrists are aching. And often catching absolutely nothing. Funniest thing is I'm not even being sarcastic here! It gives you time to think, lets your mind wander aimlessly and you start to notice and admire the nature around you.

Even better than fishing without catching anything is actually catching something! One of the yummiest things we have been catching over the years has been squid, because you can turn it into delicious rings and snack away.

Amongst us I have earned myself the title Squid Whisperer. It all started from the very first time we went fishing for squid in Esperance 2020 during the notoriously beautiful West Australian sunset. Josh handed me a rod that he had rigged up for luring in squid and told me how to use it. Whilst he was rigging up a rod for himself sitting on the rocks, I saw something glittering in the clear turquoise waters of the Great Australian Bight, just a few meters from the rocks. I casted my line in and what do you know! On my first cast, and first time ever even trying to catch a squid I had landed a jackpot - a school of squid! I reeled in a relatively big one on the first go but wasn't prepared for the fight. I completely panicked and started shouting Josh to come help me, because I had trouble even holding on to the rod! Worst thing was that we were high on the rocks, and the squid decided to hold on to that rock wall with all it's strength. Josh being the gentleman he is got up immediately and ran to my assistance - to film the whole thing. I must say I wasn't laughing at that point but rather terrified I'd lose the rod - or dinner! But my lovely partner knows me too well and he was sure I'd manage - and that we'd be dying from laughter watching the footage later on. He was right! I pulled in over 30 cm long, shimmering and glittering squid that looked like it had been struck with a rainbow and a glitter box of a four year old. It was beautiful and I was victorious!

As many of our close ones know I prefer a vegetarian diet, with the occasional seafood that we catch ourselves for environmental and ethical reasons. Josh on the other hand has been hunting and fishing his whole life and even though he mostly follows environmentally conscious diet as well he has the guts to take a life to provide for us. I hope I'll get there one day as well, being able to take a life of the being I'll be eating for dinner, because with my values I feel like otherwise I haven't deserved the honour of consuming it - it feels like cheating. I'd love to hear you thoughts about this, no matter your diet! Back to the rocks in Esperance at sunset though: we got a quick shot of the beautiful colours of the squid on the camera, but like most seafood once they die they lose their spark. The magnificent colours fade away. And we kill our catch as quickly as possible. That image will stay in my mind forever though - I've never seen a squid underwater or anyone catching one before so I had no clue how beautiful they are! And the next surprise was about to hit me like a lighting struck - whilst Josh was preparing the first squid I cast my line in again to the same spot and caught another one! And another! I was pulling them in with such speed that poor Josh didn't even get a chance to throw in a single cast anymore. We kept three big ones and let one smaller one go since we didn't really need more than three and returned back to the campsite very happy - we had so much squid rings that we shared them with two other couples at dinner. This whole experience is on film! If you'd like to see it just head to our YouTube channel and check episode 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQxqIfBQDGU&t=8s.

And that is how I became the Squid Whisperer.

-Heli

Ps. They ink.

The Blues

Do you feel the blues sometimes? The feeling of being unmotivated and uninspired to do absolutely anything? How do you handle your blues? Do you just let yourself rest through it or do you push yourself to be productive even when you really don't feel like it?

I had the blues yesterday. I did literally nothing the whole day, except cooked dinner and did a load of washing. Lets be brutally honest: I laid on the couch the whole day watching series and movies. You can tell that I tried to push myself in the morning since my cosmetic bag was out on the desk and my gym clothes on the couch ready to go - but instead I folded them back to the closet in the evening when the gym had already closed. I wasn't feeling particularly sad about anything and nothing special had happened. No stress, no poor night sleeps, no sore muscles or feeling a flu coming. No social drama or worrying for anyone. There was absolutely no reason for my blues.

I couldn't help but thinking that I hadn't earned the rest. And that I only had two days off before working for four days, then adventuring with the ball of energy called Josh for four days and then working for four days again before my next few days off. I only had these two days to be productive. Because of this limited time I felt even worse about being such a couch potato and getting absolutely nothing done. In the evening I had a video call with Josh (who was away working on a mine site) and he made me feel so much better by telling me to listen to myself and respect my needs, no matter the reasoning behind it. It's okay to feel useless sometimes and just rest. The morning will come and you'll have a chance to start over.

And he was right. I made a to do list for the next day after our chat. A very simple one; just things I enjoyed doing and didn't require too much effort. And in an order I was supposed to do them:

• Drink water

• Charge your phone (I always forget this!)

• Have a shower

• Pack your bag (laptop, journal, gym clothes)

• Go to a cafe for brekkie

• Edit videos

• Gym

• Cook

• Shower

• Sleep

And what do you know! I wasn't feeling very motivated in the morning but I started following my to do list immediately after waking up and all of sudden found myself sitting in a cafe and done already half of my list - and there is even a little spark of inspiration waking up in me!

I hope you'll have a great day wherever you are - on the couch or on top of a mountain! Know that there is no pressure of being productive. Resting is okay too. The inspiration will come back. And when you get in the flow - enjoy the ride!

-Heli