Old haunts

We had a nice wander around our old haunts on a cold and grey day - much colder than any November day we experienced when we were living here in 2017. But warmly wrapped up, we took the tram 2 up to Apollonkatu and did the old circuit up to the Sibelius monument, across to Cafe Regatta (too busy to stop there) and back into town to get coffee and a bun in a Fazer cafe in the Kamppi area. Afterwards we did a bit of shopping to pick up something for P and E and to find me a new laptop charger and cable.

Back at the hotel, my equanimity was somewhat disturbed when I discovered that I needed to self-isolate on return to the UK (as well as booking a PCR test). That blew my plans for Wednesday afternoon out of the water and also cast some doubt on plans for later in the week. Too much complacency about COVID-19! Anyway, all will be fine in the end.

Our evening with P and E was very pleasant. Pizza ordered in from a local pizza place as a treat, and less infection risk than going to a restaurant. The travel out there and back on the metro was incredibly easy, as our hotel is located just by the University metro stop. However, on the way back not one single person was wearing a mask in the carriage we were in, so we kept our distance. Lots of catch up with P and E. It's been a long time. In fact, I cannot recall when we last saw both of them "in the flesh" (we've had zooms in the meantime), as when we were in Helsinki in autumn 2019 we did see P, but E by that stage was at Yale for her eventually curtailed research stay.

A lovely day back in Helsinki, but bitter sweet because it was for such a short time and it has something of an air of finality about it.