Random escapes from the humdrum of existence.
Methods used: culture, travelling, and little pretty things surrounding us. Sometimes giving way to anxiety about the environment.
I arrived to England yesterday morning. It was freezing in York. I needed to take a long bath (though I don't complain, there's some luxury into it) in the evening trying to warm up myself. And this despite the fact that the first thing I did in York was to buy an umbrella and a cardigan.
After equipping myself for the British autumn weather (and well, after some conference stuff), I went to discover Marks and Spencer's food department and purchased some nice souvenirs: jam, crumpets, cookies, tea, fudge, and some odd but super delicious Welsh cakes (already gone!). Today I continued with some more cookies and chutney in Bettys, which seems to be the top place to have afternoon tea in York (at least their take-away scones were fantastic).
Though England is a bit like Switzerland - it doesn't move me much emotionally - I love the grocery stores and the little delis here. I might have even got a bit carried away with my shopping, but after building up this hoard of English goodies, the autumn is very welcome in Helsinki as well. How nice to eat an onion chutney sandwich in a park and watch the leaves fall down from the trees.
It's good to have the courage to seize the moment and see what happens. This is what I did when I booked flights to Switzerland following a tall and handsome Swiss guy that I hardly knew. Instead of a romance of the life time, I got back home with some great gruyère cheese. Not all the stories end up like some Hollywood films (not that I was expecting that in this case or of my life in general), but you live and learn. Hopefully, the next tall and handsome guy lives in some place a bit more exciting...
To be completely honest with myself and you, it would have been nicer to visit my friends somewhere else in Europe, but I decided to be happy to discover Switzerland a bit. It's funny how the country is beautiful and it has wonderful nature, good bike lanes, town squares filled with cafés and markets full of organic products, but still it doesn't make me say "I just love Switzerland". It's a bit like Belgium (except the opposite in almost any other sense) that it somehow lacks spirit, enthusiasm and passion. It combines good things from France, Italy and Germany and still it's not the sum of these countries, but less.
The Swiss towns are cute however. I enjoyed the beautiful views in the French-speaking Fribourg during the last summer days of the year. Drinking rosé wine at Rue de Lausanne and discovering the small medieval streets in the old town. In Basel, I walked on the banks of the Rhine watching people floating on the river with their picnic stuff packed in water-proof bags (never seen such a thing before). Big groups of people had gathered on the river, probably many of them having got there by swimming (photo below). And the capital, Berne (photo above), had obscure little shops under the long arcades circling around the whole centre and wonderful views from the Rose Garden. Definitely nice places to visit, but maybe not the most memorable towns for tourists.
No sign of perfectionism when I'm baking. Compare the photo in the cook book and my cake. Mine was delicious however, so who cares. But honestly, I don't how I could have it so wrong...
The Helsinki Festival had a special focus on the American composer / pianist Philip Glass this year. I went to see his beautiful piano recital, but of more interest was the film Koyaanisqatsi for which he had composed the music. The festival also presented the film in the Music Centre of Helsinki with live music, but I opted for the cheap version in the cinema (perfect!).
The film was absolutely gorgeous and the theme was obviously close to my heart: the exploitation of the planet by humans, the consequences and the craziness of it all. The film is directed by Godfrey Reggio and it was made already thirty years ago. However, the theme is even more actual now. In fact, it is devastating to see how things have only got worse. When will we learn that our way of life is not good for us or our surroundings?
The word 'koyaanisqatsi' is Hopi indian language, meaning 'life out of balance'. How wonderful that they have a specific word for that, it is a truly useful word. The film excellently portrays how life is out of balance: that is, humans and the nature are not in balance and humans are not in balance with themselves.
The film starts with amazing images from somewhere in Arizona or Nevada desert. At first, you think that it will be a film of the beauty of the nature. But suddenly, the tone of the music changes and emerge the tractors, the huge machines turning around the soil, explosions, oil rigs. Exploitation of the planet. After the beautiful images, it's a shock. The film goes on to show images of cities and human constructions. 8-lane highways in the USA. Skyscrapers. Big cities. You are simultaneously aghast but also admiring the capacity of the engineers to create and manipulate our environment. A capacity that is so grand that it makes you a little scared as well.
However, all these constructions and destruction of the nature doesn't seem to make us happy. A sequence of the film with fast and almost psychedelic music and images makes you think of the craziness of our busy and stressed out lives. Like ants working working working without any idea why, no time to think what we are doing and why. And could there be any other way. We don't treat only the nature in a shameful way but also other nations, other people.
The films ends with the explosion of a spacecraft, I guess the images were of Challenger exploding after its take-off. It was a great symbol for the capacity of the humans to create unimaginable things, but also how this engineering intelligence and greediness lead us to our own fall.
