Sunday, July 5

I got up at about 8:00 and put the water heater on in the sauna. I then caught up with the news and wrote up the last two days.

Irma got up at 9:15 and I washed my hair and body. We had breakfast inside because it was cloudy, and then we left for Landloppis, the flea market that always takes place on the Pellinki Days weekend.

I am spending an hour or so saying hello to people while looking at things I don’t want to buy, while the weather is changing rapidly; cycling frombright sunshine to heavy storm clouds and back every five minutes.

I will leave with two Ruth Rendell books from Nina and a copy of Bob Dylan’s Chronicles Volume 1. Irma will have a crystal vase and some gold nail polish.

When we get home we will pack up the laundry, including the bedding I changed earlier, and the rubbish, and put it in the car. Irma will leave for Helsinki on the noon ferry.

When she leaves the storm clouds will be creaking ominously. It will then rain for two minutes before the clouds are replaced by bright sunshine again.

Sunshine, who went into the house to sleep when we went to landloppis will still be asleep at 15:00. The sun will be out and I will be halfway through Ruth Rendell’s Murder Being Once Done. I will not be very impressed. I will not be unimpressed either, but rather I will feel that the set up is merely a good example of that sort of stuff. It is cosy; and the conclusion, even if gruesome, will be cosily gruesome.

By 21:30 I will have eaten dozens of mini-pizzas woth salad, drink two cups of tea, and discovered that the end of Murder Being Once Done involves a sudden plot twist that stretches credulity to breaking point and beyond; while remaining (as predicted) resolutely cosy.

I will have a small supper and another cup of tea, speak to Irma and Naa, and prepare for bed.