Vigilia

I'm backblipping for yesterday, as when we got home last night I felt quite "off it" so went straight to bed. I've got the vestiges of a sore throat and swollen glands, although it hasn't amounted to much as yet. Probably I didn't do myself too much good by going to the gym yesterday afternoon when not quite 100%. When will I learn?

Varied day. Lots of reading, some writing, and some posting of stuff on the internet that garnered some interesting reactions. After the gym, I met up with Mr A and we went for a beer and a "comfort" tea in Bryggeri - burger for him, sausages for me. Although it had been very misty and rainy in the morning, the sun was shining by the time we wandered across Kauppatori towards the Orthodox Cathedral for our evening engagement. We had a bit of time to kill, so we walked up the steps on top of the Allas Sea Pool to get better views across the harbour. I've updated my album on flickr for the transition from winter to spring with photographs from the last couple of days. One noticeable arrival on the streets of Helsinki over the last few days have been the city bikes. I intend to get registered and start using them soon. They are a cheerful yellow colour (because of the firm that sponsors them), but all colour is still very welcome here, wherever it comes from.

I described that album on flickr as enabling me to chart the subtle shifts during the long slow transition from winter to spring. It certain is slow. And delayed. No sign of spring flowers or blossom here :-( But it's not especially subtle, in the sense that Helsinki can swing in a single day from the glummest mist to the brightest sunshine, and indeed has done over both Thursday and Friday this week.

Anyway, back to the subject of this blip. We visited the inside of the Orthodox Cathedral (Uspenski) today for the first time, in order to attend a concert by the Aho Ensemble, one of whose members works at the Collegium. Absolutely superb singing of Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil, appropriately enough on (Orthodox) Easter. Although, in fact, the Finnish Orthodox community being rather pragmatic, both versions of Easter are celebrated on the same weekend in Finland - that is the western Christian version, that is, last weekend.

Tram home (although by then it was cold and a bit rainy again), to complete a very interesting day.