Going to Helsinki with my ladyfriend this summer. This is costing a lot more than I expected.

£400 for two tickets from London to Helsinki. What happened to all of these £20 flights to Europe that you hear about? I had to pay £60 just to reserve the seats. Can you believe that shit? It's British Air.

I wanted to use FinnAir but I don't think there would be enough time for me to get from Glasgow to London. The timetable just wasn't working for me. I don't think that FinnAir charges for reserving seats. I can't believe that anyone does.

So yeah, I also had to find a way to get from Glasgow to London. I decided to fly. I could have taken a train but I'd have to leave at like 4.00 am and then there's the whole hassle of getting to the airport. You get off at Euston and then have to take the Underground to Paddington and then the Heathrow Express from there. It's a whole big hassle. So fuck it, I'll just fly directly there and then I'm already at the airport.

It's also perhaps cheaper, although, who knows when you add in these seat reservation fees?

So Glasgow to London is £140. These are all return trips, by the way.

Then the hotel. We're going for 8 days and it's about £800. It's about £90/night, which isn't bad. Particularly, given that it's a Hilton. Good reviews online. Typically, it's about £150/night at this place but for some reason, in the week that we're going, the price dropped to £90. I wonder what's happening in that week. It's £150 in the weeks before and £150 the weeks after. So I don't know.

So what is this? £1300 for the flight and hotel? For one week? Not worth it. There are much better things to spend £1300 on.

Still, what am I spending my money on? It's just accumulating. And I made £1000 in two days going to Inverness. I'll get £1400 for this most recent transcript that I'm doing. I've been working four days a week for the past month or so and I'm booked about four days a week for the next month. So the money is coming in.

Then there's the money spent on shit to do in Finland. That might be pretty negligible, though. A lot of stuff is free. Maybe we can go to some fancy restaurant. Maybe we'll take a day trip to Tallinn or Stockholm. There's stuff to do. Maybe I'll see my cousin.

It will be nice to have a holiday anyway. Don't people do this at least once a year? My ladyfriend might never have taken a holiday in her adult life. I'm much the same. But I take the view that every day is a holiday. I'm in Scotland, after all. And before that, I was in England.

Anyway, it will be nice to show my ladyfriend my childhood vacation destination. Hopefully, they still have the breastfeeding billboards.