It's fantastic to be home. I live a double life and I couldn't stand living here in the village without traveling for the exhibitions - but being home with the family is the real substance of my life.

I watched with my daughter the European Football Championship game between Spain and Russia. We jumped every time the Spaniards scored and yelled maali, maali in Finnish. We are kind of well integrated immigrants, though many people here think that we are scum from Ukraine.

We got everything done but had no time to solve any problems. I did my wall painting on an old wall and after finishing we found out that there was some oil based paint below and the acrylic color began to peel off. Everybody tried to convince me that it actually looks interesting. Maybe it does... in Russia.

Every day (and before coming here too) I had been asking the gallery staff to find an empty bottle of the super expensive Cristal Champagne to prepare a Molotov Cocktail for my installation. Cristal was first created for the czar Alexander II and now it's a symbol of the New Russians in the power. At last, I got the bottle during the opening. Masha had bought it full and we had to wait her mother to arrive and share it with us. I think I've never tasted so expensive wine but it was a bit difficult to enjoy of it in those circumstances.

In any case, the opening was exciting and there were more than 600 guests. The fashion show of Ivana Helsinki during the event provided some glamour what the Russians seem to adore. After the party we had a chaotic dinner in a fancy restaurant that had no windows but big plasma screens and for the dessert we took a wonderful cruise in the Neva River. Then everybody disappeared and Sami guided me again to the white nights of this monumental city.

Eeris had warned us about the Russian chaotic way of doing the things. It took one day before Galina found somebody who actually had a key to the gallery space. Irena was in London - shopping or doing somethings else urgent. Finally, on Sunday when Eeris arrived, we got in the gallery and then we panicked: it was a construction site and they still had to install for example a big part of the floor before we could begin with the exhibition. We felt helpless, and although the gallery had rented two big flats for us, we needed to be close to each other. Eeris came to sleep in our place and I shared a bed with Jani.

My last time here was ten years ago. Everything has changed and I don't know if I can really believe it. Everything is too clean and neat. Everybody is slim, beautiful and elegantly dressed. The majority of the people drive a Lexus SUV. And the rest of them drive an Infiniti SUV. And our gallery owner drives a Maybach. I want to see behind the facade and go by metro to the suburbs.

Yesterday afternoon, Jani and me headed by the lovely Russian Repin train to Saint Petersburg. We sat in the the restaurant car and ordered a bottle of Russky Standart vodka and freshly prepared delicious blinzes with caviar. We had still the idea of going to the miserable East but when the bill arrived we changed the idea, we spent over 200 euros in our schnapps and snacks. No doubt, it was good value for money – watching Finland (the landscape) from Russia (the train) was a moreishly confusing experience.

When we arrived, Galina packed us in a car and we drove to Achtung Baby, the bar where she works and where the young artists and art world wannabes meet. Sami appeared soon and started our endless guided tour through the white nights and the darkest corners of the Imperial city. Sami could the wierdest person I’ve met. He’s a Finnish photographer, journalist, artist, DJ, tea expert, tourist guide who has lived 13 years in Saint Petersburg. He looks like a bum in the corner but he 's always surrounded by the most beautiful girls and with him we skipped all the lines to the most glamorous discotheques.

It's difficult to sleep here in the North in the summer time, there's too much light and it's too beautiful. I just came back from Mänttä, where I did Without Tits There's No Paradise installation about the dark macho world of SUVs, guns, big tits, burgers and beer.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Russia with Jani. Or I hope that Jani is joining me. I said to Eeris that I don't want to travel alone to St. Petersburg, I hate adventures. And actually I hate traveling, too, but I'm excited of going to the East. And I'm also thrilled about Raul's invitation to participate in a big group show in Korea in August. But I think my family is not going to be too happy about that, August is the sacred holiday month.