Thursday, July 2

This morning I got up and cleaned the floor of the sauna house. By the time I had finished this and read the online Guardian, Irma was up.

After breakfast we went to Borgå. Svante’s daughter Leena was at the Tirmo bus stop so we took her too.

We went to Mikrokulma, and then to Robin Hood, which (like Tarjoustalo) has now been renamed Tokmanni. It sells a wonderful and unpredictable assortment of stuff, including alcoholic drinks you don’t see anywhere else.

Next we went to Lidl and finally to Sokos, which is being rebuilt and hardly exists at the moment. We sneaked in a burger before driving home.

Now we have just sampled two of the drinks, and they are surprisingly good: so good, in fact, that I am photographing the bizarre cans. The tropical is dark orange, like peach juice. The Daiquari is yellow.

Last year we got liquorice lonkero from Robin Hood, which I quite liked and Irma didn’t.

For dinner we will have tiny new potatoes from the farm, with fishcakes from Viking and Nina.

The day has been the hottest of the year so far. We will both feel tired. We will go to bed early.