Park

That is not, of course, a person sitting out in the cold, but some sort of stone nymph on a plinth, who was looking jolly frosty this morning when I took a short detour through the park off University Street in order to look for photographs.

Another sunny day. A "shut up and write" with some colleagues in the Faculty of Social Sciences, followed by a pleasant lunch in Tampere Hall. Then some more time in the office, before recording a segment for an American radio programme on citizenship deprivation over Skype. I'll post a link to the programme on Monday when I get it. Finally a Pilates session down at the gym. A good way to round off a very productive week. Lots of "firsts" in Tampere this week, including joining the writing group and finding the gym. Both ways to make me feel more at home in my second home.

But gosh, it's icy out there after several days of -10, which followed a weekend when the temperature rose to +6. The results are obvious. Luckily, Finland is the world champion at spreading grit, so the surfaces are still walkable. Just don't step off the grit.

Looking forward to our first full weekend here, as we're only moving to Helsinki - where I'm doing a different sort of work next week - on Monday morning.