Monday, November 14

Sörnäinen metro, 8:40
Yesterday evening we all got out here. Bryan left to walk back to his hotel and the three of us waited for the next train, because the one we had got off went to Mellunmäki and we need to get to Puotila. Irma explained to Bryan about the decorations. Helsinki City has taken most of the advertising hoardings on the metro and turned them into sites for communal art.
This morning I just caught an early bus and so I have time to look at the images on this side of the platform. When the train has gone I pick some to photograph. The images have been made in various youth clubs and these seem worth recording, even though they contain creatures that seem halfway between Angry Birds and Pokemon.
I will get to Arcada, get some work done, and then collect Bryan from Vallila and bring him here. I will realise that I could have met him getting off the tram, but I will decide that there may be benefits in showing him the way the first time. Not least, I will leave the office to walk in the cold.
Bryan and I will lunch together and then he will lead a long and interesting discussion at Kulurmöte, our monthly team meeting where we discuss issues wider than administration.
At 18:00, after he has returned to his hotel and collected his swimming trunks, we will head to Senate Square to meet Naa and Irma. We will then go to Allas, the fairly new and allegedly temporary outdoor swimming pool in the sea by Kauppakeskus. One pool contains warm(ish) water and one pool contains sea water at a temperature just above freezing. Irma and I will remain in the warm pool while Naa and Bryan will both leap into the cold pool. Naa will emerge in about thirty seconds but Bryan will remain in there for minutes. I will spend much longer in the sauna than in the pool, where I will find myself engaged by a stranger who overhears Bryan and my conversation in a discussion about consciousness and sufficiency.
We will all decide two things afterwards: it felt immensely enjoyable, despite our reservations beforehand, and it left us feeling sleepy.
I will sleep like a proverbial log.