Yesterday we did the press conference, drove to Tampere (via a chocolate factory), and did the sauna thing. Today has been academic conference for me, and Moomin Museum for Liz and Lois. Later there will be fine viking food and cinnamon beer.

Yesterday’s culinary experiment was smoked reindeer cheese. That’s smoked cheese made from reindeer milk, not cheese made from a smoked reindeer. It was part of a dish rather than on its own, so I can’t comment much on flavor, but now I know it exists and can seek it out.

The academic conference was good, though most of the papers were fairly unimaginative. I have come away from it with a great idea for a paper that I probably won’t have time to write.

Also Edward James (who is here researching a book he’s writing about Lois’s work) told me about this interesting conference on gender in literature that is taking place in Bristol in September.

Tomorrow I’m going to be busy at the convention for about 12 hours solid. The only blogging I’m likely to do will be the results of the Translation Awards.