Wednesday, August 8

 

 

In the middle of the night I got up and switched the sheet covering me for my duvet. Summer has finally begun to close shop.

Irma went for a massage at 9:30 to a masseur not far from Naa’s apartment whom Sami had recommended. I had a shower.

I ordered Irma’s birthday present from Amazon, switched my Diners Club bills from paper to e-invoices, and changed the day my Mastercard bills arrive so that everything happens on the 15th, the day I get paid.

I went outside and picked a big box of redcurrants from the bush in the garden that refuses to stop giving.

Shortly after midday we left to visit Marja, Irma’s sister in Virkkala: a long and uninteresting journey that involves rather too much of Ring Road 3. We spent most of the afternoon with her, and with Jens once he arrived from work.

We drive home down the E18 and shortly after Hyvinkää we pass under an elk bridge. It took me eighteen years but I finally found out about them this summer, when we drove through some on the way to Kotka. Bridges for elks to cross highways: who would have guessed?

When we get to Helsinki we will drive past our turning to Herttoniemi, where we will visit the Marimekko outlet to get duvet covers. Irma will also get a drastically reduced bag, and some equally refuced earrings.

When we finally do get home I will go for a 70 minute walk listening to the new album by Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. I will not really expect much, but I will get a whole lot more than I expected.