Otto, Paula and I have invaded Harald and forced the staff, at axe point, to slaughter various animals, vegetables and trees for our culinary enjoyment. Sadly there was no one in anime costume in the restaurant, which would have been quite funny, though later there was a stag party with the unfortunate groom dressed up as a viking maiden. We didn’t stick around in case they ordered spam and started singing.

Besides, we had another engagement. There is a microbrewery here in Turku, in a building that used to be a school. Much of the furniture, from maps on the walls to desks to chalk boards, is still there. It is a strange and lovely place, and the beer is good.

I finally caught up with the local paper, in which Nalo and Richard have a full page spread. It is good to see the Finnish media machine still working well.

I also picked up a special English language issue of Spin, Turku’s local fanzine. It isn’t as polished as Tähtivaeltaja, but it is older, dating back to April 1977. Pasi Karppanen has an article in this issue about Finnish fandom, which is essentially an expanded and updated version of the article Jukka Halme wrote for Emerald City many years ago.