Three days ago, I ended my journey from Uganda amongst some snow, which had fallen the day before. It's gone now. The snow was somehow the embodiment of my sleep deprivation: roughly 40 mm for 40 hours without sleep, and then most of it had disappeared during the first night's deep unconsciousness.

Yesterday's celebrations honoured Timo and Anne, whose bond is now official. We had a wonderful venue for the evening party and the family occasion earlier on: a series of conference rooms, complete with sauna, kitchen, and fireplace - right at the heart of the city, by the rapids, in the old industrial complex of Kehräsaari. The sauna, the löyly room itself, sits in a little protruding wing in the building on third floor, a niche you might call it. It hovers right above the terrace of the Falls restaurant. While enjoying the heat, one has a direct view on the pedestrian bridge and the black waters of the Ratina pool. Like a womb with windows on the world.

As tends to happen in a party like this, in a culture like this, the atmosphere turned somewhat delirious around midnight. The alcohol supply never ran out. Some people turned into writers and philosophers, some into clowns or acrobats, some into army officers, or gigolos. The chairs started moving, as if by their own initiative, the music getting louder and the clock faster, the empty bottles accumulating. Inevitably, as most of us had studied in Tampere and prefer tasty rock to disposable electronic music, Doris was the place to be checked out after we hit the streets. Unfortunately, we were not alone with that idea. A one-hour queue was enough for a change of plan. How nice that this was the night when the clocks were turned back.

(Addition: I'm not talking about turning back the clocks only in the nostalgic, metaphorical sense - though, as usual, the non-literal is my preferred meaning. The clocks were actually turned back by one hour, which kept the idea of getting up before noon on Sunday just barely within the realm of realism.) 12:01