helsinki 27 june 2026 - 3 - a few more pictures

 

OK so it pisses me off no end when Americans (usually) laugh or are invited by Australians to laugh at, for instance, the emu war or the Harold Holt Pool, but I just want to say that this is the Helsinki Dance School and WHY is that their logo!? 

Maybe it's just the logo of Helsinki, not of dancing. It's not the city's coat of arms though, though it literally is arms. But no coat. OH I DON'T KNOW. 

finland 27 june 2026 - 2

So I am pleased to report that I was actually able to get through the morning-to-early-afternoon without collapsing in a heap anywhere and made it to the delightful Park Hotel, Käpylä in one piece. I forgot (or never knew) that the tram to Käpylä doesn't run on the weekend, so the route here was rather tortuous, in the least tortuous way anything could ever be tortuous. The most anxiety-inducing thing about getting here was (a) my phone was running out of battery and for some weird-ass reason, my charger wasn't working - so while I was happy to walk all the way from Arabia (iykyk) (not that far - 25 mins at the most) I was facing the prospect of my phone dying when I was so close, yet so far from my destination. 

The most super irritating bit of my journey was actually not that, it was fine (and I stopped en route at the Frangipani bakery cafe, shout out to them, not only did I get a good spinachy pie and coffee and water but also they charged my phone a bit) the irritating bit was finding that the only people talking on the tram to Arabia were old (I say old but be fair - not much older than me or perhaps my age, but dumb boomer attitudes) Australasians. Let me tell you people, Sandy Stone and/or 1950s-70s Edna Everage, and for that matter Barry McKenzie... not at all dead. These people were dumb as shit and didn't think anyone could understand them, I suppose, like they were talking in a tram full of monkeys. Not talking about the people around them, thank god, but crikey christmas what a bunch. They thought it was very, very, very, very funny that they were going to Arabia, although for some reason actually they had no intention of actually getting off the tram - they were just going to go back. I think it was three couples. They were super annoyed that there was a LGBTQ march in town, because it was stopping them getting to the 'sights', I shit you not. The 'sights'. Classic slit-mouthed creeps who can't help but make everything about them. Fuck's sake. 

Yeah so hell is other people, but hell is never really good local birds:

This is the famous former plague cemetery, at least, it is still a cemetery for some but there aren't that many tombstones left. That seagull deserves a post of its own, it may yet get one. 

Yep so I just have no idea about the above. But look at the below, some just gorgeous big pictures, too big to put in a suitcase and take back to Australia, damn it. Just a little too big.  

Which sucks because I really wanted them. 

The market in question. It's really good. I bought a jumper, which now seems like a ridiculous thing to do because surely it will never get cold again?! But anyway, that's what I have - a jumper. It's great and it was cheap. 

Then I went to a few UFFs. I didn't have to but you know - I was filling in time and not really amazingly awake. I bought a couple of shirts, pretty pleased. Short sleeved shirts, which will seem ludicrous when I get back home, but will make sense in time. 

I didn't buy this shirt. I liked it, but it was too small for me. Love that label though. Finnish for 'mister' is 'herra'. 

I don't have the slightest clue what this is or was about. I think I mentioned previously that if I put too many pictures in a post it kind of buckles and falls into the void, so I will stop here and resume soon. 

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.