Saturday, July 20

This morning Terttu shared the market stall again. The market started empty and slowly filled up. By the end Irma had had customers, and her cousin Niilo had walked past with his family and stopped for a long chat.

In the afternoon we did gardening.

Now we are at Tirmo Blues with Mika and Camilla watching Frederick. This is my second year of being introduced to Finnish pop stars of the seventies and, in my opinion, Frederick is not as good as Danny last year. It feels somehow useful to have seen him, and Tirmo Blues is probably the best place to have seen him, but I am not being converted into a fan.

Drunken women are genuinely throwing knickers onto the stage, which is, I suppose, an interesting phenomenon to observe. Auo has gone home. She left after he sang a song which, I learned later, was certainly sexist and probably racist. Stormed out is probably a more accurate description. I am proud of her.

We will stay to see the perennial Mister Jimmie Lawson and the almost perennial Robindians, and leave when Erja Lyytinen starts her brand of polite Finnish blues with slide guitar solos. We heard it last year and feel no particular need to hear it again.