Wednesday, May 1

Having drunk nothing more yesterday than 1 small can of cider each, we both woke up early, feeling lively.

I went for a long and unusually quiet walk listening to Phil Ochs again. The streets seemed completely deserted and hardly any cars appeared even though I walked down the side of the main highway.

Since yesterday counted as one of Finland’s official drinking festivals I assumed that most people had hangovers or had not woken up yet. I could think of one other possibility. They remained at home, drinking coffee or otherwise preparing themselves for the traditional Vappu picnics at either Kaivopuisto or Hakaniemi.

We spent time tidying, which included finding things we had forgotten about years ago. Irma led us in a proper Spring clean: not dusting, but asking “do we actually want these things and, if we do, where should we put them?”

When we had eventually finished I felt inspired to Spring clean my iPad and phone. I deleted a pile of unnecessary apps, changed the wallpapers to soothing almost-black images, and set up Spark, Todoist and the calendar apps to work harmoniously together.

We had planned on cycling to the sea to feed the ducks but we abandoned this in order to drive to Espoo to eat in an Indian restaurant that Irma remembered we had wanted to try.

We arrive at Tony’s Corner which, as promised, does not look like anything special. We enter to find it much smaller than we expected. We say hello to Ashu who owns it with her husband, who plays the part of Tony. We know Ashu from the Finnish Indian Association.

We help ourselves to the buffet which contains a number of delicious options. In fact we help ourselves rather a lot, accompanying the food with chappati and naan bread, before finally finishing with a mango lassi for me and a banana lassi for Irma. The other customers finish and leave, and we chat with Ashu for awhile, then stagger out completely full. I pause to photograph the front of the restaurant.

As we drive back we will notice that our stomachs both feel as though we have swallowed whole watermelons. Irma will say, “There are two things we should never be allowed near: buffets and open bars”.

We will arrive home, lay on the bed groaning and then and fall asleep. We will wake up at about 19:30 in time to wander around groaning for a couple of hours before getting washed and going back to sleep again.