Daily Loaf

Roundup.

Last weekend Jaakko and his family threw up one of the most divine parties in a long time. The word party doesn't do it justice, because it had nothing to do with the usual cityside events, hosted in cramped apartments. It was a festival, in a beautiful garden, a historically laden milieu that was oh-so-fitting for the theme of the occasion, the 1950's. Good food, good drinks, good people - especially the latter. Most participants had really thought out their costumes, giving the evening that additional twist that makes the difference between a good party and a great party. Even the few exceptions were only too appopriate; after all, the 50's were very much an era of budding rebellion.

Alas, I forgot a few essential items from my, mind the boasting, rather successful costume. The lack of the first, a hip flask, for which I even had reserved some single malt Scotch, was fortunately compensated by the well-planned inclusion of a bottle of Koskenkorva vodka - at the firewood stockhouse, as tradition dictates - which was fraternally consumed at one of those circular meetings of lads, which spontaneously come into existence whenever more than 2 Finns meet and there's alcohol available. The second, my digital camera, was woefully left at home, and the only other camera I saw during the whole evening was on Jaakko's father's mobile phone. The quality of those pictures is lacking to say the least.

dtm was a hoot afterwards, although most of my straight friends were not up for the challenge and left before even the upstairs was open for men; I hooked up with Lissu and her sister, who's name escapes me. We (sort of) decided that I was going to join the Wellness gym as soon as it opens up on Eliel square - they have a "body and mind" room with yoga and stretching, which sounds really promising. Prices are, as Hakkis pointed out, ridiculously high compared to the University of Helsinki gym, but I'm such a newbie that I'm going to need constant supervision or else I'll start loosing body parts. Partying with a three-piece wool suit is all fine and dandy, but it's a tough proposition heat-exchange wise, so by 3.30 I was pretty dead. It took me the better part of Sunday to recover, and I only made it to Tampere by midnight. Did manage to finish Peter F. Hamilton's Misspent Youth, though. He makes some good points about separatism in a federalised European Union, but otherwise it was typical - in good and bad - Hamilton, more along the lines of A Second Chance At Eden than the Reality Dysfunction trilogy.

Back up north it's been pretty miserable thanks to the bad weather we've been cursed with after the wonderfully crazy heatwave. At least MTV3's been having a Will & Graceathon. Yesterday, between rains, I managed to shoot a few nice pictures which I've been planning for a while already - mostly I've wanted to wait until it's dark enough. You can check out the best shots here. While a written synthesis of this summer's events will probably come sometime next week, a picture gallery might be in order as well.