finland 27 june 2026 - 1

Arrived in Helsinki at 6am, after 25 hours of flying. My waking hours have been aided by three Michael Connelly novels in one big volume, perfect inflight material. I had other novels (which I have to read in the next week because I am going to pass them on to Steve) but I went for the easy reading material on the way here. I like paper reading matter because you can keep reading while landing or taking off, unlike if you have a device. On the way back I imagine I will be reading from the kindle, I have a LOT of stuff on that which is half-read. 

I also watched the beginnings of a plethora of films and tv shows, I can't even remember what most of them were now. A lot of films ordinarily have ups and downs and I didn't feel I could face the downs, even though I knew the ups would come soon enough. There was at least one series that made absolutely no sense to me I think partly because it was all shouty and distorted.

I am writing this at the quiet arty airport station, it feels a bit like the bottom of the new part of the Art Galley of NSW only it has trains running through it. 

I have developed a bad headache presumably because I have not had any coffee since I left Melbourne. Addicts are disgusting and should keep their problems to themselves (is what you're thinking). 

The Finnair plane was delightful though - made last week. 

An hour later

I'm at a cafe called Lazy Fox in a very deserted central Helsinki at 8:30 am. I have that 'what to do before I check into the hotel' thing going on but, also, the 'by the time I check into the hotel the day will possibly effectively be over for me' in terms of falling asleep on my feet probably. So IDK. I have a kind of hankering for going to see a Hollywood film which is what I generally do when in Finland. Something I would otherwise not bother with. Perhaps Toy Story 5. I have heard it is OK. 

useful

They don't make useful things like they used to do they. I have been looking at Building and Construction from 1926 and these items are frequently advertised. Takes me back to my childhood in 1926 when we'd double quick boil, er, stuff and there was always a door within a door. Very good times that actually will probably be back with us quite soon again. 

I remember a boy in school who climbed into the Kaustine tank once. Perhaps he's still there, as Doug Ashdown sang. 

art project

 

Every so often someone lines some stuff up like this at the dog park known as Clayton Reserve which, by the way, is undergoing significant overhaul at the moment. I have no idea if this is an art project or has some other meaning - obviously it has meaning for someone, at least one person, the person that is doing it. 

delta 5.1

I mentioned a few days ago my mild disappointment at Delta 5's only 'real' album, See the Whirl', not least that fucking apostrophe. I'll have a second go at that if you don't mind.

I've been playing it (interspersed with the sumptuous French Disco and Boogie Sounds 1975-1984) pretty much all week, at least, when I play a record. For a first album, it's actually very excellent. It has range and there's a couple of tracks that really take the whole D5 project beyond the realm of the first three singles (which are brilliant, faultless but like the Buzzcocks, you can't do that forever). I particularly like the song 'Telephone' which is very, very Au Pairs-y and in a very good way. It's here if you're interested. If you feel sentimental about getting crank calls on your landline (oo-er) that song will do it for ya. 

tax time

Doing my tax always puts me in a weird place, partly I'm forced to remember things I have done over the previous 12 months which is hard but once I'm in that place I feel OK about it. Sometimes when I'm looking through my credit card transactions and see where we went for dinner to that African place in Victoria st and then went to that bar in Queensberry st afterwards, I am like, wow that happened and it's provable. But in the main it's just... fuck I can't believe how much I fucking spend on... whatever. There are actually some massive, like hundreds of dollars, supermarket transactions that actually make no sense at all. But you know, Woolworths wouldn't rip me off so... I don't know. 

The fact is I don't really understand tax returns anyway, or at least only in the most basic way. I am a rube. I feel like it's bad karma to think/worry about it too much. 

This cartoon dedicated to Pauline Hanson, who at time of writing is enjoying some prominence. 

port melbourne this morning

Perry and I went to the beach this morning just for something to do. He loves to dig in the sand, I hope he doesn't cause an environmental disaster. We went out on this pier which btw I had never noticed before...

And got the weirds, because there are all these memorial plaques on it. Did you know about this? 

Then we had a quick look at the vacant site over the road. I can't even remember what used to be there, only that I was somewhat disappointed it was pulled down. 

I took this photograph through the gate. Made me feel a bit like the Mars Rover

i'm coming out

This bizarre animal, having been a complete shut-in for five and a half years, rarely if ever venturing out of my bedroom and spending most of that time underneath my bed, has now decided for some reason to do the complete opposite, and to be perennially in public (well, at least, she has located permanently to the sitting room and as far as I know has not returned to the bedroom once). She sleeps in the sitting room, usually on the couch, sometimes with her face turned resolutely towards a bar heater that's here at the moment and turned on a lot of the time. 

It makes absolutely no sense to me - and I suppose both nothing and everything makes sense to her. 

I will say that Nancy is here too and does not venture into my bedroom anymore either.

Perry, who used to sleep in the sitting room, now sleeps in the spare room.