NORMAL LIFE: Japanese Company

It was the fourth time we had met in about as many years yet, whenever we meet, time has a funny way of melting away. One time we met, we visited Suomenlinna (Helsinki's offshore fortress) when it was -10°c (see here). It was so cold offshore that the memory will probably never be erased from our minds.

This time, the weather was a bit more pleasant and I was being invited for dinner. Who am I to refuse free food and great company? We dined a L'Osteria in Korkeavuorenkatu, south of Helsinki's city centre. Over white wine, we dined on a shared platter of parma ham, bruscheta and stuff olives followed by beef in balsamic vinegar.

I told my former colleague my plans for the year ahead e.g. travelling around Australia. I suggested that I would stop off in Japan on the way to which she reacted with excitement. That was when she removed a package from her handbag which, coincidentally, turned out to be a Japanese Guide Book. It was as if a visit to Japan had been somehow set in stone.

Foregoing dessert, we made our way to nearby Hotel Torni which isn't a normal hotel. It was, until 1976, the highest building in Helsinki and, during World War II, served the needs of air defence owing to it's height. We headed towards the elevator and ascended eleven floors to the Ateljee Bar, where, among countless others, we drank the barman's self-styled Smirnoff Ices and Lime Passions!

We parted just after midnight, and I rush back home to get some beauty sleep before meeting my colleague bright and early for a day of travelling around Helsinki.

We drove around the city, visiting:

- Hietaranta, Helsinki beach
- the Sibelius monument, celebrating the life of composer, Jean Sibelius
- the President's weekend home
- Seurasaari, Helsinki's notable outdoor museum
- Villa Angelica, home to expensive teas and cakes
- Olympic Stadium Tower, offering fantastic views of the city
- Vanhakaupunginkoski, Helisnki's Old City Falls where Helsinki first came into being.

If anything, the day had been a pleasure for myself. It was bitterly cold in the shade, but the skies were bright blue and my colleague's bright, smiling demeanour (typical of Japanese people) made her a welcome change to the usual, glum Finns!

The day turned out to be a great exercise for testing some of the photographic theory I had learnt in my photography course thus far. Check out the pix in this post. What do YOU think? In my defence, this is the first time I have used manual settings in my digital camera. Therefore, I have been manually control the ISO (I had it on 400 all day which is a big no-no), shutter speed and aperture.