july 3-4: helsinki/tampere

OK so the Helsinki Public Library is out of sight. Libraries, generally, rock and this one is superb. 

So after that, and noting that there is a sign saying a lot of ordinary people don't like to be photographed (my bad) I went to the Sen restaurant again - the Vegan Vietnamese restaurant in Jätkäsaari. It's just really good!!! Sorry! 

Like the last time (which I probs didn't tell you about) there were no other customers there, but the woman who runs it and her kids were there, the kids doing homework I guess. Food was excellent, and it overall just seemed super wholesome. 

Move on to this morning: here's a hare I saw out the window of the airbnb this morning at... god knows what time. Oh, the time was recorded on the photograph. 7:44 am. 

It's really nice to see a hare looking quite unafraid but always leaving you in no doubt that it's unafraid because if there was any threat it could outrun anything you can set after it. 

So many times in the past week I have passed a cafe called Morton which was always closed, but this morning as I was en route to the station to go to Tampere I was late enough in the day to find it open. So I tried it out. Not disappointed. Staff delightful, food excellent. There's just that little problem of why can't I ever get a decent coffee that's not in a thimble, but as someone said (I can't remember who but not a Melbournite),. 'well, you're from Melbourne', like that explained it. And actually it does. 

Wonderful place. 

Thence to my spiritual home (yuck, I hate myself for feeling this way, perhaps that's part of it) Tampere. What a divine city. Look at this...

I had to not buy this fucking amzing painting of these ridiculous women skiiers. I love it though. So Tampere. As is...

This...! 

So, this is where I'm staying today and tomorrow, and it looks good from the outside but wow...

It's heaven inside. More soon. 

braybrook and maribyrnong

Perry and I went for a long walk around the Maribyrnong at Braybrook. The bit between Ballarat Road and the Maribyrnong River is largely industrial, still, and obviously has been since at least the Second World War. I don't feel very empowered to figure out the story of this building/site right now but it is presently Peerless Holdings, which changed its name from Rothfield & Company in 1958 (according to an announcement in the Age 21 Feb 1959 p. 8). Rothfield & Company made sewing cotton and thread; Peerless also made buttons and slide fasteners. According to its website 'Peerless Foods began its life in the 1950s as a small business, recycling and rendering meat by-products in Melbourne, Victoria. Over the years, the refinery was upgraded and expanded with state-of-the-art technology and systems.' I mean, apparently, kind of. Peerless was purchased by Smorgon - which manufactured and exported canned and frozen meats and canned fruit - in late 1959 (according to an article in the Age for 23 December 1959, 'Smorgon's bid for Peerless').  

This is what's around the corner also I think a part of the same block though it's not entirely clear. This nice building...

...and this even nicer one which has the words 'String Factory' on it (this bit just says 'Factory', the word 'String' is on the other side but I couldn't even begin to find a good place to photograph it). 

This business has been Klipspringer Pty Ltd for at least my lifetime; it used to be a tennis 'gut' manufacturer. Maybe that's the 'string'? I am not sure.  
This building, which is at the corner of Evans and Ballarat Rd, really intrigues me. It appears that this was an aluminium factory of some sort, under a few different names (starting I think with the name Ocal, which the Sands & McDougall 1965p. 185 suggests is an acronym) but that doesn't explain why it has the word 'Novelty' written very plainly at the top.  

It's now a Go-Kart place as you can see, though I gather it used to be known as Fun City,* a name I would tend to take with a grain of salt - how about you. 

I don't know what this ever was or currently is - I'd like to though. 

These nice birds were hanging around a garbage truck, The one on the left is called Shitz, the one in the middle is Gigglez, the one on the right goes by Li'l Shitz. 

This is when we finally ('finally!' said Perry) got to the river and crossed the bridge. I mean, this is an amazing house. 

Can you imagine. It's like living in 15th century Italy somewhere. 

I noticed that the bridge here had a sign on it proclaiming it as from 1970, so I had a quick check on what used to be there. Interesting (?):

Now, it's:

Have to go back and retrace that old bridge line sometime.

I have to admit that by this point we were starting to wonder if we had bitten off more than we could chew as it was getting kind of stupidly hot. But we didn't actually have much choice at this point. Here one might almost feel one had reached the end of the road...

And indeed someone had clearly used this point for some kind of ritual. 

Investigation revealed we cbf finding out what was going on...  

OK now we're on the home stretch back to the car. This is Omar street, just some nice, nice houses that are ... nice

this one's nice

this one is also nice

Turn right at Radio Street

 Another nice one

And this one with... 

A nautical logo. Within minutes we were back in the (bit hot) car and heading home. Ultimately, Perry's assessment? 

* I may have got mixed up with the Fun City in Ballarat Road Sunshine North which burnt down in early 2017. I'll get back to you