Distractions, reflections

I’ve been going back to Helsinki one to three times per year over the past five years.  On the past few trips, I’ve been staying at the same apartment in the city centre, just behind the National Museum.  I usually land one day early so I can get over jet lag, and do a little visiting.  On the way to the grocery store at at Kamppi, I came up to the plaza and noticed another in the ever-changing schedule of activities.

The Finns can make hockey a year-round sport.  I noticed that the goal post and net are a smaller target than in the winter.

On another rink, women were making aggressive moves with their hockey sticks.

The next day was rainy.  I arranged to meet Ritva at one of my favourite places, Kiasma: the Museum of Contemporary Art.  I assume that the large pink writing described the show, because I still don’t read Finnish.  The Kiasma web site describes a show called  Fluid Street.

These 2005 “Modified Social Benches” by Jeppe Hein don’t encourage visitors to lounge.

DLH and I had been discussing a visit with some colleagues at Penn.  I was in the New York area on business, so I dropped off my rental car in NJ, and he picked me up to ride together down to Philadelphia.  We arrived early, so DLH gave me a tour.  On the northwest corner of 34th and Chestnut Streets, we encountered the Wave Forms (2007) sculptures by Dennis Oppenheim, an installation of public conceptual art … filled in with summer greenery.

Across the street on the southwest corner is the U. Penn. Law School, which has a history dating back to Benjamin Franklin in 1740 … lending support to the description of a “Philadelphia lawyer” back to 1788.

On the southeast corner, Fisher Bennett Hall houses some of the departments of the School of Arts and Sciences.

Entering the campus walking southwest, Blanche P. Levy Park is a well-kept and inviting place for a stroll.

Since DLH studied architecture at Penn, he pointed out the Fisher Fine Arts Library.  The structure has had many additions, with a history of varying opinions of the design as innovative or as a behemoth.

West of the theatre district in New York City is Hell’s Kitchen, a district with such a menacing name.  I’ve never had a reason to go there, but since I was staying in a hotel right on the edge of the neighbourhood, it was worth an early morning walk.  I started at 49th Street, walking south on 9th Avenue.  It’s a wide street, with traffic one-way downtown (i.e. southbound).

On the east side of the street, the security gates on some shops were still down in the early morning.  They don’t present the most attractive face for the city.

Another block south to 48th Street, there were more shops with shutters down.

The variety of storefronts on 9th Avenue means convenient shopping for residents nearby on the side streets.

44th Street is a wide one-way street, looking east from 9th Avenue.

Friday night, and I really needed to get out of the house. I’ve been reading about pork bone soup, so I suggested to Diana and Noah — the only son at home that evening — that we check it out. We went drove up to Ka Chi in Koreatown.

The interior is modest. The impressionist paintings on the wall were an interesting selection for a local Korean restaurant. We ordered the pork bone soup, and some dumplings.

The pork bone soup tasted homemade. So homemade … that we’ve made similar at home. I guess that we’re untraditional in modern Western society, but traditional in our Chinese roots that we make soup broth from scratch. The taste of the Korean soup was a little different from ours, but that degree of variation isn’t unusual from cook to cook.

It was a dark and stormy night …. and we heard a crack outside out from front door.

There’s two trees in front of our house. The big linden tree is city-owned, and was a little sapling when we moved into the house in 1988. When we had some professional landscaping done, a small tree — I’m told that it was a bean plant grafted onto a tree trunk — was put in to shade the kitchen window.

Wychwood Park is a semi-famous enclave in midtown Toronto. Somehow, in all my years in the Toronto area, I’ve never been there. Maybe it’s because it’s up a hilly section of town, so I’ve avoided it on my bicycle. On a bright summer day, I decided to make this a destination, just to see what was there. I rode west on Davenport Road — bypassing a further climb up to Casa Loma — until I reached Bathurst Street.

Near the northwest corner is plaque that begins: “… 12,00 years ago, meltwater from retreating glaciers formed Lake Iroquois …. The ancient shore remains as an escarpment overlooking the plain on which Toronto is built.”

In an early private-public partnership, Davenport Road was constructed with tollbooths. The Tollkeeper’s Cottage dates back to 1835.

Across Davenport Road, on the south side, is the TTC Hillcrest Complex.

The Hillcrest yards are where streetcars are maintained.