Distractions, reflections

With a visit to the UK and Finland planned for the same trip, summer air fares led me to fly direct from Toronto to Helsinki, with a side trip into Heathrow and back.  I arrived in Helsinki just in time for the start of SEM 2009 – Service Engineering and Management Summer School — attending for the fourth time.  The classes were scheduled for the Otaniemi campus, as usual, but the first meeting was held at the Helsinki School of Economics downtown.

I had booked a flight arriving that morning, so the introductory lecture was a big foggy.

The welcome dinner was held at a restaurant just across from Senate Square.

In a game depicting the Finnish heritage, a competition of hammering …

… and sawing preceding the drinking songs.

Besides attending the summer school lectures, I managed to squeeze in sightseeing.  Minna took me over to see the Design Factory.  Read more... (447 words, 15 images, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

The welcome dinner for my class was an easy walk across the centre of Helsinki.  Kluuvi is the commercial centre with major stores (and katu is Finnish for street).  Part of the city centre has pedestrian malls, and bicycles are most expedient.

Without automobiles in this area, pedestrians have to watch out for oncoming trams.

Sculpture provided a scenic touch to the walk.

Approaching the harbour, the Esplanadi is a wide pedestrian boulevard with traffic running down both sides.

The statue of Runeberg is a landmark where birds conveniently perch.  Read more... (364 words, 25 images, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

For the Helsinki portion of the Rendez workshop, we were joined by Gary and Teri, who had just flown in. With DLH in town for such a short trip, Karlos joined us for dinner at Eatz.

Although I prefer the apartments at the Accome Parliament, the rest of the group stayed at the SAS Radisson Plaza just east of the Central Railway Station. The 20-minute walk to Stadia started by a new Ice Park directly on Railway Square.

 Read more... (270 words, 10 images, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

As part of the study tour for NJIT executive MBA students visiting Finland and Helsinki Polytechic Stadia, the group visited Kone Corporation — that’s the elevator company!

One perk of visiting an elevator company is the ride up to the top to check out the view. Here’s the view eastward, over a small marina where a few people commute from their islands into work, with Helsinki on the horizon.
 Read more... (171 words, 3 images, estimated 41 secs reading time)

For the second week of my two week stay in Helsinki, the first apartment hotel was full, so I was booked at another location over by the ferry docks, and kauppatori — the market square. Minna drove over, to help me move from one apartment to the other.

On the Sunday, the market hall (main building) at the kauppatori was closed, but the stalls outside on the market square were still open for business. Since the apartment hotel had cooking facilities, I bought a few vegetables for dinner.

Minna and I shopped around for lunch. The best alternative (given my aversion to shrimp and dairy products) was a salmon paella. (As I do with Diana, I gave Minna my olives).

There’s lots of tourist-type opportunities for shopping in the outdoor stalls, but mainly, Minna was just fooling around.

Minna actually pointed out some watercolors by a local painter. She thought that they would be good when she gets a bonus cheque!

When I visit at someone’s home for more than a day, I inevitability offer to cook at least a few meals. Since my family had a restaurant in Gravenhurst — I think that my grandfather and father sold the Queen’s Cafe circa 1966 — I’ve always cooked. When I was a student at Northwestern University in the early 1980s, I started cooking for myself pretty well every day. It was there that I hosted my first ten-course meal with my foster relatives. Even after getting married, I still do more than the average share of cooking, because I’m faster than Diana, and it’s more constructive for me to cook than criticize. Cooking while travelling has turned out to be more than a habit; it’s now a reputation. When I go to Finland, I’ve had a habit of packing more than a few distinct Chinese ingredients in my suitcase, because (a) I can only find brands that I prefer less in the K Citymarket or Prisma hypermarkets at the Iso Omena mall at much higher prices, or (b) I can’t find them all in Finland.  Read more... (679 words, estimated 2:43 mins reading time)