Thursday, June 21

 

 

I woke up, had breakfast, and got to Kamppi by 10:00. Irma’s mother’s had a problem with her balcony door. It blows shut in the wind and twice recently it has almost knocked her down as it blew while she attempted to go in or out.

I went and looked at the door, and measured various angles with the tape measure that I had brought. Then I walked back to Kamppi mall to Clas Ohlson, where I spent a long time finding and then examining the few hooks and door stops that they had in stock.

I decided on a simple hook and walked back and fitted it. Leena tried it in and out and declared herself completely satisfied. I left for home.

Once I got back I packed my suitcase for Monday, after checking the weather forecast for Amsterdam. It looked as though I would have constant dry heat so I threw in t-shirts and shorts.

Once I had done that we packed the car and put the cat in his travelling box. The traditional midsummer rain started as we drove out of Rohdinkuja.

When we get near Tirmo we find ourselves in a long queue for the ferry. We have 32 cars in front of us. The rain has stopped for a while and so I get out and walk to the front. The ferry goes back and forth without any pause, as it does when the queue get too big, and I watch cars boarding. We get on the third journey.

Once we have unpacked and Sunshine has trotted off over the bridge, we will drive to see Nina and Marie Kellgren. We will suspect that we will not want to go to the midsummer market because getting there will prove as difficult as last year. Instead we will buy our fish now.

Nina and Marie will chat away in two languages and we will buy fish cakes, salmon and gravad lax. Irma will go and see Maj-Britt and buy bread and cakes.

We will then go to Benita’s to drop some bulky rubbish we have brought from Helsinki, and stay for a drink. We will sit outside, under an awning. I will regard this as a terrible mistake since my cardigan will decide not to keep me warm in any way at all.

Later a major storm will sweep into the island and stay there until we go to bed. Sunshine will race in and stay there. We will eat freshly made fishcakes and freshly untinned stuffed vine leaves. The mixture will taste heavenly.

Heavy rain will continue until we finally go to bed at 2:00.