The Howling

FME is behind now, and I feel no regrets.
Okay, maybe I regret not having enough gut to go ask those guys at the stand of the Sue Magazine about practical training as an assistant or something. =/
Oh well, I still have time...

It also sucked that my brand new Nightwish Tourbook 2005, all my Tuhma and Inferno magazines and especially that beautiful Native American/Wolf -themed card & envelope we bought for Mr. Shadow Wolf from Unio Mystica decided to go swimming because of an unfortunate water bottle malfunction. There were luckily more of those mags to get for free and even Jukka's autograph didn't suffer very bad damage, but there was nothing we could do to save the envelope. :(
Oh well, we would probably not have remembered to give it to him anyway... And there was nothing really that important in it, I guess. But I can't help thinking that maybe we weren't meant to give him that. *gets lost in thought*
Yes, I know I sound lunatic.

Anyways... It was a cool event, normal metalheads as well as famous musicians everywhere. It was like a big, happy metal family. :D
Spotted at least the whole line-up of Mokoma, Wilska, Routa of Finntroll, Alexi Laiho and Roope Latvala from CoB, Jussi, Jyrki and Archzie of The 69 Eyes, Hongisto of Kotiteollisuus, some random dudes from Stam1na and who knows who else. And the whole current line-up of Nightwish, of course. ;) And Ewo.

It was pretty unreal feeling to see Marco and Emppu walk past for the first time. Emppu was so small! About my height. O_O But he had very cool clothes. Black pants and a black jumper with a red star on the chest.
And Marco... Well, he was just as cool as I've always thought he is. And his beard is growing in dreadlocks already. xD Those two are a killer duo, absolutely awesome.
Emppu was grinning and flirting with the girls all the time (although his girlfriend was standing about a meter's distance... But I guess she's pretty used to it) and this was the first time I've ever seen, read or heard him talk this much. It was cool because you rarely hear his comments about anything. It was also cool when Marco called Emppu "Edouardo" or "Eetu" and when someone asked them what are they proud of, Emppu replied without hesitation: "Of Marco." \,,/
And the Tiernapojat song... Oh, we were so lucky to hear that live. \,,/\,,/
Oh, and they also played the bass and guitar parts of Dark Chest of Wonders with a backing tape (and Marco made some jokes about how we shouldn't be surprised if we hear female vocals, it's just a tape ;p). Wow, I've never before realized excactly how heavy the guitars in that song are because usually you pay more attention to the whole, especially because the Once songs have so many layers, I think...

Jukka also deserves a special mention for being really sweet, nice and exceptionally fan-friendly. He truly is totally worth his reputation. <3

I was also really lucky that I could stay the night at Veera's grandmother's place, otherwise I would have had to head back to Turku in the middle of the night and fail to see Tuomas because he decided not to make an appearance until on Saturday.
On Saturday we only bought the exposition tickets because we only watched half of the set of Ajattara on Friday too, and the whole day we pretty much hanged around waiting for that lad to show up. And when he did, I was for some weird reason actually pretty surprised how many people came to see him. Possibly because I somehow can't see him as a big celebrity or anything like that. To me he's... Just Tuomas. *shrug*
I thought that we'd wait until most of the people had got their autographs and pics, but pretty soon I realized it'd be impossible if we wanted to be home even moderately in time. Oh well, maybe we have more time next time...
The result of the waiting can be seen here anyway. We both look so very excited. ;p

In addition to seeing loads of famous people, there were a few moments when I felt like I'm famous too.
Like on Friday when this guy with a press camera came to ask me if he could take a picture of me, Veera and some of the metalheads from Turku whose names I never remember, and asked me if I was from Turku because he apparently has seen me in some larp sometime. O_O
Also this girl I know from the Nightwish Forum and IRC-channel and have met briefly a couple of times before came to say hi and said she's never sure if she dares to approach me because apparently my eyes are so intensive. O_O Whoa.
(If you read this, Luna: Hi! *waves* I'm really not that scary, actually I'm very shy. :))

Hmm... Was there anything else? I can't remember.
And if there was, I can always edit this later I guess...

So, there ya go. :)