Wednesday, December 21

I don’t often go to Kamppi twice in a day but today I did. This involved gingerly stepping onto icy pavements and slip sliding along.

I never fail to find Finland a land of adventure and I usually manage to find it amusing or at least interesting. Finland stands at the opposite end of a scale where places like California and Kerala occupy the other end. At the other end of the scale everything remains approximately the same from day to day. At the Finnish end the weather contains constant surprises.

I like surprises.

When we get to Kamppi for the second time I find an immediate surprise. I walk straight up to a giant music box in the foyer, find a gap in the people looking at it and take a photograph. Ho ho ho, I say to myself.

We will meet Niilia and go up to the fifth floor to find somewhere to eat. We will opt for Sandro, who appear to have one branch in Helsinki and one in Tampere. We will all have burgers. I will have a seitan burger. Everyone will leave happy, except I will have a niggling feeling that I should have chosen the tagine.