June 4, 2019
Kesäkuu 4 2019

Greetings—  as we watch the BBC and all the activities in London around Trump’s visit.

By the time you receive this note, we will have landed in San Francisco and be back to our normal routine. We will also be exhausted because we have to leave the hotel by 5 a.m. to catch our first flight. But the early hour will be made easier since the sun will be completely up! We head out on FinnAir to London and change carriers, planes, and terminals as we fly from London to SFO on United. Not perfect planning, but such is life.

Our whirlwind visit is coming to an end, but not without some more great memories. And some reflections on our days in Helsinki.

Started the day with breakfast at Ekberg (a bakery tradition in Helsinki on the Bulevardi – since 1852, and a place I frequented very very – probably too — often when living here). While the morning pastries were fairly consistent with what I remembered, the place has changed (not in appearance, but in the way the ordering and layout works, because they have a sort of take-out section in addition to the restaurant format). Then we walked for a bit down Korkeavuorenkatu in the design District (where I had tried something on and was deciding whether or not to purchase, so went back to make my decision — affirmative!); Mike sat in a quiet park on a bench (social seating) and then we met up to take the tram to Hakaniemi – a neighborhood within Helsinki that has undergone some change (gentrification) since we lived here and even since being here five years ago, and the wonderful Hakaniemi Market Hall is being renovated and is not open at the moment. We strolled through a park and stopped for appetizers and a glass of wine at a new restaurant that “floats” on the lake inside the park. Maybe I haven’t mentioned that the city of Helsinki, like the entire country, is laced with waterways and green spaces.

Then we walked into the Kallio neighborhood and to the top of the hill where the Kallio Church is located. Both Kallio and Hakaniemi were historically working class neighborhoods but are now definitely quite upscale with great little restaurants and cafes as well as small shops. It’s clear that these neighborhoods are going the way of Punavuori (the Design District) which some refer to as the “Brooklyn of Helsinki!” Just imagine.. all those years ago, I lived in a neighborhood that is now referred to as Brooklyn (my home town in NY). And then we walked back to the hotel (about 3 miles), stopping along the way to veer off course to see different streets and places, including Kaisanmienpuisto, and across a little bridge on Pikasilta. Walked past the university library which is yet another great sophisticated, unpretentious building that fits neatly with the adjacent buildings. By the time we got to the hotel we barely had time to pack before meeting Antti and Heidi to head to the little boat we would take to get to Sirpalesaari, a tiny island about 3 minutes from the Eira neighborhood in Helsinki (which was pretty close to where we lived, and which has been an industrial section of the city).

The restaurant has its own small boat that goes back and forth to the restaurant. We had drinks outside and then took a walk through the boat area to see Antti and Heidi’s little fleet of three wooden boats that they use at their summer cottage. All Finns have some kind of summer place to go to from the city when the weather is warm. Apparently all the boats at the club were just put into the water the day before. Weather was perfect so it was great to walk around the club and through the large structure where boat owners are working on their boats on land And then we headed inside for dinner. Had a great meal, including an appetizer plate of various fish and meats, followed by lamb with great fresh veggies.

We had a chance to talk more to Antti and Heidi and to encourage them to travel to the states. Hopefully they will come in 2020.

Interestingly, today the Parliament was sworn in and they decided to do this at the new central library (the one we visited on Saturday) and they arrived by tram (a statement about their commitment to the environment and climate change). Mmmm somehow I can’t imagine our congressional reps doing that. I do, however, assume they all arrived on a special tram, but still…..

Over dinner, we talked about some issues that have emerged in Finland since we lived here. For example, when we lived there, there was truly no diversity. Nearly everyone was a Finn – born and raised in the country… all White. The only exceptions would be those who married Finns and moved to the country. I remember that there was one African American artist, Howard Smith, who had emigrated to Finland and he not only stood out, but everyone knew him and his name. I believe he later married a Finn and is still living in Helsinki (in fact, I’m told he now lives in Fiskars Village). Anyway, over the years, Finland has accepted several different groups of immigrants coming from distressed areas such as Somalia. Now, decades later their children who were born and educated in Finland and who speak Finnish fluently as products of the Finnish public schools. But are they Finns? Naturally, our friends believe they are, but there is discussion. It’s such a new experience for this small, traditionally isolated country to absorb people who do not look like them and who have different cultural backgrounds. I must admit that when we lived here we did consider staying (it was during the Vietnam War and we were not really happy about returning to the states), but quickly deduced that (at least at that time), we could never “become” Finns. But now, they are trying to absorb different people into their culture.

The Finns have managed to tackle and avert numerous social problems, including homelessness, healthcare, child care, and more. Being a social democracy has worked well for Finland. Granted, it’s all at a small scale, but it does seem as if we can learn a lot from them.

For a few changes over the years – parking meters downtown, including on the street we lived; food diversity and a host of new restaurants. Until about 2010 (or thereabout), there were really only Finnish restaurants and a lot of little baaris (cafes that served simple food, coffee, and wine). As I recall there was a Russian restaurant and maybe one not very good Chinese restaurant. And now, there are restaurants serving foods from all continents, interesting mixes of Nordic and ethnic dishes – so many choices it’s difficult to make a decision about eating. And if I think about language – when we lived here, English was not commonly spoken (except by those with higher education) and while the Finns were fluent in both Finnish and Swedish and often German in those days, English was less common; today everyone speaks English quite well (and they still speak Finnish, Swedish, German, and often French as well). And another change is that there are now very large cruise ships that stop in Helsinki right near the “kauppatori” – the market place. This has displaced a lot of the small boats from which fishermen used to sell small fish directly to customers.

After our great dinner at Saari , we took the boat back to shore, and then walked to the tram and headed to the hotel. It was a beautiful night – about 10:30 pm and still light out. Finished the packing and grabbed a few hours of sleep before getting the 4 am wakeup call. Taxied to Vantaa Airport and began our long travel day. Until 2024… when we return for our next five year visit.

See you all in the U.S.

Fern

 

P.S.  It’s now mid-day on Thursday and I’m about to push “send,” but realized this morning, as I drove to the office, one other strong difference between Finland and the U.S. — Finland is very focused on public spaces and the public sphere, for which they invest tax monies. As I drove, I looked at Oaklands streets filled with potholes with lots of litter scattered about and the edges of streets and highways looking raggedy and filled with weeds. Finnish highways are all beautifully landscaped and trimmed to perfection, mowed, and weeded. No trash on streets, no garbage pails overflowing with trash on public streets, and no potholes (in spite of having difficult winters and cars in winters all of tires that have “spikes” on them). There’s also no homelessness in Finland – they build sufficient number of houses to ensure that all are housed, even those with little or no income – and that housing is indistinguishable from the houses where very wealthy people live. So no tents alongside streets and highways. Finally, they have a guaranteed income and don’t have a 340:1 differential between company executives and low paying workers. Sure there are people who have more money than others; sure professionals earn more than those with other skills. And yes, they pay about 50% of their income on taxes, but look what they get for it: good schools, free higher education, excellent free healthcare, subsidized excellent free child care, good infrastructure, long maternity leaves, good public transit (buses, trams, subway, over-ground trains), subsidized dental care (including braces, I believe), well-maintained parks, and more. But – don’t try to emigrate… it’s not that easy, and you need to be able to speak either or both Finnish or Swedish (it’s a bilingual country with all signage in both languages).

Jäähyväiset Finland… Farewell Finland; until next time.. 2024! if not sooner.

Moi Moi –

So, I hear #45 is on this side of the ocean, trying to be presidential. The Finns find this simultaneously hysterical and scary. Set out this morning with a first stop at Fazer, the more than 100 year old bakery (with many locations) that probably exemplifies all the wonderful pastries and breads of Finland. I had my favorite breakfast pastry – from Northern Karelia region — oval-shaped and filled with some kind of rice and potato and topped with egg butter which is made from hard boiled eggs mashed with butter. The Finns have lots of pastries that are for special holidays and their holidays are often for poets (like Runeberg) or musicians or writers. The arts are an integral part of the culture. So, for example, on Runeberg’s birthday there is a special and quite wonderful raspberry and rum tart dessert that is popular – supposedly this was Runeberg’s favorite dessert as a child and it is prepared the way his mother made it. Not many war heroes here – but lots of heroes in the cultural world.

From there I strolled to the kauppatori (the marketplace located at the harbor); it’s changed a lot since we lived here and relied on it for our daily food purchases (since we didn’t have a freezer and only had a tiny refrigerator). Now there are a lot of stalls selling souvenirs and I suppose most Finns are shopping in the many wonderful supermarkets they now have – or in the more local markets instead of this main market. And when we lived here, there were dozens of little fishing boats lined up at the shore selling fish right from the boats; now that harbor gets a lot of cruise ships where passengers get off the boat for the day and “see” Finland. So it’s a different place. Still lovely and fun to walk. There’s also a great indoor market there.

I strolled down the Esplanade to reach the market area, passing the gallery where I had an exhibit of my work while living here. The gallery is no longer and is now some kind of upscale shop selling Finnish goods. I met up with Mike at the Design Museum which had 2 fantastic shows: a history of Finnish design through products (called Utopia Now) and an upstairs show with works by COMPANY. For more than a decade, Aamu Song and Johan Olin have travelled around the world, looking for traditional crafts to understand the techniques and manufacturing skills of these products. The duo has visited workshops and master craftspeople in many countries including Japan, Russia, and Mexico. They’ve collected all sorts of craft art pieces, clothing, accessories and furniture some of which they created together with masters of these crafts. Their goal is to bring attention to the endangered role of crafts and the skills needed to sustain them, as well as the unsustainability of today’s consumer culture. They are trying to show alternatives to this kind of consumerism.

Prior to going to the Design Museum, we stopped for a light lunch at Juuri which is about a block away on Korkeavankatu. Shared three “sapas” (what the Finns call their tapas): herring with crispy fried rye and marinated fennel; a lamb croquette with yogurt and mint; and a cucumber side dish that had some kind of creamy cheese. After the Design Museum we strolled back to the hotel on a lot of small streets, returning to streets we hadn’t seen during previous visits over the years. And we walked within the “design center” neighborhood (of which the street on which we lived is a part!) Reached the hotel just in the nick of time to meet Tatu, the son of some old friends when we were here in Helsinki, Anne and Tapani (who I mentioned in a previous note).

Together we went to visit Tapani, who was diagnosed with Altzheimers about 7 years ago. We were all running late, so we hopped into a taxi to get to the Verahamaki neighborhood which is about 20 miles from Helsinki. Tapani was clearly waiting for us, sitting on the outside deck of his first floor “apartment,” in the assisted living facility that he’s been in since his wife (Anne) passed away a few years ago. He’s gained weight, and he’s clearly forgetful, but he’s got incredible spirit and has maintained his same rye sense of humor that he had years ago – noting that he had completed all the important research in Finnish demographics so there is nothing left for anyone else to research (and therefore it’s ok that he’s not doing his work any more)… and then said that probably when he came to the university as a young faculty member some older faculty member who was retiring said the same thing! He showed us around and noted that we should order anything we want at the café/bar that is inside the facility. “Everything is free,” he stated. “I never have to pay.” Later he suggested we all get ice cream at the café and again reminded us that one cannot pay there – “It’s all free!” He most definitely remembered both of us, which was nice and he knew that we were friends for a long time. We reminded him that we had visited the family when he was a Fulbright professor at the University of Wisconsin. He seemed to recall something about it, but said it was hard to remember but he had happy memories with us. It was good to see him in good and happy spirits, but obviously sad knowing what a brilliant sociologist he had been. He mentioned that he still plays chess, so Mike took him up on it and that had a very intense game that ended in a draw. Mike said he was very alert for the game, but when it went on for a long time he began to get tired. We walked him back to his room, where he noted that he gets a delivery of three beers each night. True to form, the beers were sitting at his table. Once a Finn, always a Finn. He noted that he wouldn’t be driving so it was OK to have the beers!

Then Tatu, Mike, and I took the bus back to downtown and had dinner at Gaijin, an Asian-inspired Finnish restaurant. I’d been here twice before and it was as good as all prior times. For the foodies, I think we had 6 tiny starters: salmon tartar on a black squid cracker, with a tobiko dressing, baby shrimps, and marinated trout roe; an edamame and avocado taco, with dried tomatoes, and wasabi mayonnaise; three pieces of fantastic dim sum… followed by two main courses: a steak tartare with a miso dressing and pickled mushrooms; and baby back ribs with a great marinade. I think we had something else (beyond drinks and wine), but can’t remember. It was great to reconnect with Tatu, whom we hadn’t seen in about 20 years. He lives in Los Angeles having emigrated to the US about 30 years ago. He’s turned into an interesting adult with good politics, a healthy critique of the US, and lots of fun. He has been coming to visit his family in Helsinki annually, since he got his green card and was able to travel (no easy task).

Dinner ended at about midnight, and we strolled to the hotel. Tatu headed to the Metro to get to the apartment he is using for the month. Amazing! By the way, the weather has been fantastic (in the 60s and sunny).

Tomorrow we face our last day in Helsinki and then head out on a very very early morning flight on Wednesday morning – transferring planes in London (complicated because we will be changing terminals and won’t be able to check bags straight through —- yes, here we are actually checking bags. A new thing for us. We usually try to do just carry-on, but this time it’s not going to work)

I’ll try to write the final chapter tomorrow if I have time… Another hectic day, including dinner on Sirpilasaari Island (you take a five-minute boat), with Antti and Heidi.

All the best –

Fern

Moi Moi –

It’s midnight in Helsinki and it’s not pitch black out there yet.. See photo above taken at the Railway Station (Rautatieasema) as we got off the train from Espoo at exactly midnight. Also see photo of train station statue of the “lantern bearers” — lyhdynkantajat, in Finnish– bedecked with regalia from Finland’s win in the world cup ice hockey championship – with an amateur team that had never played together. Naturally, the small country is elated!

It was a long and busy day. Left hotel after a quick morning snack at the St George Bakery, for the train station where we quickly picked up flowers (Finnish tradition to always bring fresh flowers when visiting – summer or winter, as Finns love colorful flowers) and then we took the train (overground, not the Metro) to Espoo which is about 35 miles from downtown Helsinki and is its own jurisdiction. It took about 18 minutes, with the reader board on the train showing the exact minute when the train would be at each stop and it was exact. We were met at the station by Antti and Heidi in their 19-year-old and very functional Volvo, and off we went to Fiskars Village. We had been there about 10 years before, but now there was a biennale and it’s hard to explore all of the village in any one visit. So it was nice to go again.

Fiskars was begun as an ironworks company in the 1700s; they also produced copper. It developed quickly as an industrial community with workers living in the small village located about an hour west of Helsinki on a beautiful piece of land with a river running through it. The factories and workshops produced items like scissors (those great ones with the orange handles that many of you probably own) as well as knives and other tools, especially gardening and agriculture tools, and later power transmission devices. For about 100 years there was a railroad that went from Fiskars to the harbor. Today there aren’t any active factories on the site… it’s been transformed.

In the 1990s, the owner realized he needed to reinvigorate the small 300-year old village where the company was founded. The town had thrived as an industrial and commercial center for three centuries, but by the 1980s, it became clear that the ironworks were too small to support a global business. Fiskars shifted its operations to larger facilities and then many of the factories and homes sat empty and were deteriorating. But Lindberg was determined to do something. He recognized that these spaces and houses and this idyllic setting could be attractive to artists. He offered to rent spaces at very affordable prices, and artists came to work and live in Fiskars. Now 30 years later, there are about 600 creative people living in the village spread out over hundreds of acres. There are furniture makers,  glassblowers, jewelry designers, and other creative artists and craftspeople. There’s a restaurant, a hotel, and a café and other amenities spread out on the grounds as well.

The Biennale was focused on diversity and sustainable development. There were some interesting projects, including the concept of “social seating” – which invited a diverse set of artists to design “benches” since benches are meant to be enjoyed with others (as compared to chairs that seat just one person). The benches were scattered all around the site. One artist created an economic nutrition guide for various products to show the percentage of time and cost for labor versus materials, etc.

We had a simple lunch at the café (a wonderful risotto with fresh peas, local mushrooms, local herbs… ) and we continued to reconnect. After several hours exploring, we drove back to Espoo where Antti and Heidi have a wonderful 80-year-old farmhouse on a few acres at the edge of a large lake. While their permanent residence is downtown Helsinki, they live at this house several nights a week and always on the weekends. About 10 years ago they built a second house on the property for their daughter Hannah (an active Green Party member) who now has two daughters (ages 9 and 7) who were eager to give us a tour. We had been to this Espoo house several times over the past years, but had never seen Hannah’s house. The kids are also into this strange Finnish craze about hobby horses (the ones with the head of the horse and the stick that you sort of ride around on). They did an “equestrian” show for us jumping over hurdles. They “sold” tickets for this “show” and we watched as they galloped and trotted. By the way the horse’s name is Milton.

The farm house is delightful and a stark contrast to Hannah’s very modern Finnish house. Antti and Heidi cooked a great dinner, with wonderful wines and we chatted until we had to catch the last train to Helsinki.

It’s late now and I’m going to crash. Hope things in the states are ok.. We are keeping up with politics and world news by watching Al Jezeera. But frankly, it’s been good to be this distance and to be in such a sane and thoughtful place. Our friends sound hopeful regarding their recent parliament elections with an expansion in the number of seats for Green Party and for Left parties.

Oh, one last thing I forgot to mention yesterday. While at the library, I used the WC, and then went to wash up at the sink. As I extended my hands hot air seemed to burst from the faucet. I was a bit embarrassed and tried to see if I needed to push anything to get water for my hands. Eventually I must have used the appropriate hand motion and water came out of the faucet and then I gently moved my hands to the right and left and the hot air to dry my hands started to spray. They have an all-in-one water and air drying system for their sinks. How cool is that? No need to walk with dripping hands to the dryer. I’m telling you, we are way behind.

Only two more days and we are back. Maybe we should stay? We considered staying in Finland when we lived here, but realized that you can never really be a Finn unless you are born here.

All the best.

Fern

Hei Hei (which was the “casual” greeting for friends when I lived here) and now they seem to say “Moi” or “Moi Moi”… Nothing stays the same, everything changes. Here we are at June 1, 2019 (just 20 days before the midnight sun when Finland will pretty much have 24 hours of daylight)… Today the sun rose at about 4 a.m. (full sunrise), so light around 3 am; set at 10:30 pm.

We started our day with a simple takeaway breakfast snack (from the little take-away cafe at the hotel., so as not to lose too much time with a fussy breakfast – just simple  croissant /scone. And we were off.

Started out by walking to our old apartment building:  Eerikinkatu 25 B (Eerikinkatu kaksikymmentäviisi B; pronounced Cokxy-kumenta-vees-ee Bay); some things you just never forget. As we walked to the old haunt, we passed the little pocket park that each of us would pass daily on our way to work, shopping, or whatever (whenever we weren’t driving). This time we noticed a statue and were initially embarrassed that we never saw this on any of the days we had lived just down the street. So we checked it out and it is a statue of Arvo Kustaa Parkkila – he was a former alcoholic who started a support group for homeless alcoholics to help provide food, shelter, and emergency care. The statue wasn’t there when we lived there because he was still alive. Apparently when the statue was unveiled (in 2001) speech-makers included the prime minister, the mayor of Helsinki, and others. As I said, we lived in the neighborhood where lots of men (I only saw men in these  conditions) were walking down the street totally inebriated.

On this totally perfect sunny day (eat your heart out London!), we set out to see the new institutions in Helsinki. Walked to new museum (the Amos Rex) which is underground, and sort of across the street from Kiasma (another fairly new art muiseum we saw over the last 10 years). Apparently the story is that the museum (Amos Anderson) wanted a new museum and they set their sites on the old Amos Rex movie theater. But the building was too small and they wanted to expand. They couldn’t get permission from the city for the expansion. The architects came up with the idea of expanding underground and this created a moonscape and fun climbing ”domes” at street level. The museum was closed to install a new exhibit so we only saw the exterior.

From there we walked to the new central library – the Finns still read—real books—in spite of just how high tech the entire country is. (Frankly walking around here, I feel as if the US is a developing nation)

One of the largest bookstores in the world is here in Helsinki – Stockmann Akateemien Kirja Kauppa (sp?) and nearly every book that is published in English or other languages get translated into Finnish. Anyway, five years ago we saw the new university library which was  quite wonderful, but the new central public library which they call the Oodi is a joy and so much more than a library – totally expands the notion of what a library is and might be.

 It’s like an urban gathering place with people of all ages and all backgrounds spending good amounts of time there.. The first floor is the makers’ level – with sewing machines, 3D printers, woodworking, giant printers (40×60 and larger), and more. The second floor has books and great reading niches, and the top third floor is considered the peoples’ living room which is about an acre and a half of unobstructed space (no walls) with wonderful wood floors, white bookshelves that are only about 3 feet high so you are always conscious of the space and the outdoors since the exterior walls are floor-to-ceiling windows, and an amazing outdoor terrace that goes the length of the building.. Inside on the third floor there is an area for knitting and even “designer” rocking chairs. People were relaxing, reading the newspapers from around the world, and chatting. There are three coffee shops – one per floor, and a bona fide restaurant on the first floor. There’s a cinema, a sauna, and lots of meeting rooms. There are even special areas inside to park you baby carriage.

The library faces the Parliament and is said to be a statement about the people meeting the government (perhaps prepared, well-read, and armed with real facts!) There is also a spectacular spiral stair in the center of the building on whose walls are written 350 words (I think) in Finnish – words that the community suggested in an online request. So, it’s architecturally interesting and inspiring and also conceptually taking public places beyond the norm. That said, the library is primarily a digital library that connects with all other libraries in Finland and the full-scale lending library (with all the books) is located at the older central library.

From there we strolled through the Heslsingin Sanomat (the major newspaper) building which has a big atrium, a Fazer café, all sorts of sitting and reading nooks (to read the paper?); grabbed a simple Finnish open-face sandwich and then continued on our way to the new Helsinki Music Centre which is also just a five-minute walk from the library. Along the way, we kept running into those white-caps (students who graduated from high school and who passed the matriculation exams for the university. Happy families, lots of flowers, and lots of strolling through the city.

The music center is elegant and understated; the performance area (new home for the symphony, philharmonic, etc.) which is essentially underground, enabling the building to be elegant and low, is surrounded by a ring of double glass walls – so technically you can see the performance (I assume) when the lights are on and it’s dark at the entry level. One funny thing is that the coat check area is huge – imagine all those heavy coats and hats and other gear for cold weather needing to be hung up before performances. The performance hall was closed, but a nice guard let us in to see it. I asked what they are now doing with Finlandia Hall (the old symphony hall) and he responded that it was now being used for “congresses” which I took to mean conferences. That building had been designed by Aalto and was under construction when we lived here.

We walked past the major train station (rautatieasema) … note that the statues (the lantern bearers—lyhdynkantajat) are wearing caps supporting Finland’s soccer team! Having amassed a lot of culture for the day, we hopped on the Metro to Hertonniemi – location of the Marimekko Outlet Store, a must when visiting Helsinki. Mike found a nice couch with Marimekko pillows scattered about and proceeded to take a nap (embarrassing) and I did my quota of shopping for the trip. Then we headed back to downtown by Metro and walking and Mike headed to the hotel, while I strolled around to find some Nikes or similar shoe; seems as if we will be going on our friend’s wooden boat (weather permitting) on Tuesday and I really didn’t bring shoes for that. I’m up for a new pair anyway. 

Got back to the room for a short bit and off we went to meet the son of friends of ours from our days in Helsinki. He was about 7 years old when we lived here; he currently lives in London, but has lived in the states (LA and NY) for the past 30 years. He emigrated to the US soon after graduate school in Finland (MBA), but always had a passion for contemporary music (rock band in high school), and he had started a music company in Finland in his 20s. He did a second MBA at UCLA where he focused on the music industry. From there he went to BMG Music and somewhere along the way decided to get a law degree. He’s successfully merged all of these interests and studies, and was the Director of International Publishing at Google for about 8 years. He recently moved to London to join PRS where he heads the international division. Complicated, but I think they deal with protecting the copyright agreements for musicians and writers. Anyway, we had dinner and got caught up. His mother (died in 2013) was an amazing Finnish art historian and specialist in contemporary Soviet art. She was also the editor of the Finnish Art magazine, Taide (meaning “art”), which is how I met her. When I was here I had a grant from the Finnish American Society, to exhibit my work. In the course of preparing for that show, I went to meet with “Taide.” Anne and her family had just returned from living in the US for a year (Berkeley and Johns Hopkins). Tapani, her husband (and Sami’s father) is a sociologist who held the highest academic position possible at the University of Helsinki, winning the Finnish equivalent of the MacArthur genius award (twice). They became our good friends and we connected with them many times when they were traveling in the states and of course on all visits to Finland. Anne invited me many years ago to speak at an international conference and exhibit – my talk was about the state of art in the states. I probably have it buried somewhere. And later Mike and I co-authored an article for “Taide” on the magazine’s 25^th? 50^th? Anniversary. Also must have that somewhere.

We met at Shelter – a new restaurant situated in an old warehouse in the Katajanokka Harbor. Food was surprisingly good. We shared whitefish ceviche with prawns, coriander, and avocado-wasabi cream; beef tartare with lovage, crispy potato, and red onion; grilled octopus with some kind of almond romesco, and yuzu flavored yoghurt; for the main course we all had braised perch with baby potatoes, a dill pesto, asparagus and roe butter. Finland now produces some special gin, so Mike and Sami had gin and tonics; I opted for their special Shelter Mojito.  It was great to see Sami (we last saw him in NY about 4 years ago). He has two grown children who interestingly enough have settled in Seattle! Miko, the son, is fast becoming a music business entrepreneur and is setting up some kind of city music festival in August. Sammi’s daughter Kia is working for the Pacific Science Center. We will definitely connect with them when we are next in Seattle in June. On Monday, we are scheduled to visit Sami’s dad, Tapani who is in an assisted living center, suffering from dementia. That will be tough. I last saw Tapani about 7 years ago (when I came to see Anne after she had a serious stroke), before Anne passed away. Interestingly, their other son, Tatu who lives in LA and is a photographer, is also here in Helsinki on vacation so we will see him on Monday when we visit Tapani. It continues to be quite a reunion. 

OK.. that’s it for me. It’s about midnight and we have a long day tomorrow in Espoo and on to Fiskars Village Biennale.

Fern