Friday, November 4
British Embassy, 18:30
I spent the morning doing a series of rapid-fire small tasks. I logged my hours for Nobanet for the last three months. I answered several student mails. I updated and publicised the next two Convibial Mechanics events. I met with Micke about Nobanet. I firmed up some of the plans for Bryan’s visit in ten days. I started a travel plan for the Tallinn trip; no small task, that. Liisa was shouting at her computer last week when she tried to set hers up.
At 12:45 I left for the centre and met Naa at Tiger at the top of the escalators at Käisäniemi metro – the one we supposedly call Helsinki University nowadays. We walked down the hill and found Caverna, a relatively new restaurant Naa had been wanting to visit. They do a buffet lunch with an absurdly wide range of choices, so we sat there for about ninety minutes until we both felt that one more mouthful would make us sick. We had all sorts: I had asparagus soup (that tasted excellent), bataati pihvi, Lindström pihvi, creamed potatoes, salad, nicely burnt chicken wings, ice creams, yogurt and cake. Naa avoided the soup but added sushi to her go.
Next we walked to Kinopalatsi and got tickets to the 15:50 performance of Doctor Strange. It stuck faithfully to the comic lore as it told his origin story. Dormammu, Mordo, the Ancient One, the eye of Agomotto, and the cloak of levitation all played their traditional roles. The effects hit an interesting high, in both senses of the word. The magic battles rendered New York as a kind of 3D Eischer model that the combatants fought on as it turned in upon itself.
Following this we found the number 2 tram and rode and walked to the British Embassy where we met Irma.
The Guy Fawkes party started slowly but eventually the bonfire started burning and the fireworks exploded. We stand in the bitter cold watching as the fireworks whizz and bang into the night sky. The sheer amount of people watching shield us from most of the wind.
Afterwards we will drive Naa home and she will give us some amazing vegan chocolate that she has made. To make it vegan she replaced the milk and butter with coconut milk and coconut butter, and this innovation seems to have led to the richest, tastiest chocolate in history.