Saturday, February 24

 

 

The day began with a long walk through the woods, during which I listen to Extralife, the new album by Darlingside. It sounds even better than Birds Say, which makes it pretty damn fine in my books.

Irma woke up realising that Raghu Rai’s photographic exhibition closes today and so we ate an early lunch and headed to the centre by metro. We walked to Postitalo and upstairs to the photography shop.

We realise when we arrive that “the exhibition” has a completely informal appearance, since it consists of a number of signed prints on easels, situated in the lobby of the specialist photography shop. We wander around for thirty minutes examining them closely. I take several photographs of the photographs, trying to avoid reflections from the overhead lights. Of all the images that I take this one comes out best. One of his classic shots, it shows two men reading newspapers in the middle of the rush hour in Delhi railways station.

We will leave after Irma fails to buy an accessory for her camera. We will cross the road to look in Marks and Spenser and get fed up with that within about three minutes. When we get back to the car at Puotila metro Irma will remember that an exhibition at EMMA that she wants to see, so we will set off to Espoo. After what seems like hours of driving along Ring Road 1, during which we drive in a continuous queue and pass two traffic accidents of little consequence, we will get fed up, and turn off to head back to Helsinki.

We started our journey in Puotila metro car park, about one hundred metres from Prisma and about two hours later we will park in Prisma’s car park to get our shopping.

Irma’s blood-sugar levels go wild if she does not eat at regular intervals and forgetting to switch the cooker on and then sitting there for ninety minutes waiting for dinner to get ready will tip the balance. The meal, however, will prove delicious.