Practical, everyday shoes (sic)

May has finally arrived and the summer with it. The 1st of May celebrations are now behind us. The weather was exceptionally warm and sunny throughout the season holidays, at least in the Southern part of Finland, where I have been living all my life.

Along with the summer, the shopping for new summer shoes is also reaching its climax. All the shops seem filled with a multitude of choices in every colour and type to suit every taste. I too have been shoeshop-hopping frequently, trying on this and that, but it took only one glimpse at this very pair to set my mind on having them. For I had a definite need for them. The colour, light leathery brown, is perfect for my purposes, and matches with almost everything. The heel is somewhat high, but the shoes are quite steady and even longer distances are not impossible. They gave me just one blister when first worn; since then they've been behaving surprisingly well.

These shoes are Italian, by the label 'Gino Ventori' - and very affordable. Still, I had to wait for my paycheck on the last of April to be able to collect them! Thank God for the reserving policy ;) I plan to wear - and already have - these shoes on a daily basis. This was also the case yesterday, when I arrived at work at 9 am, left at 5:30 pm to meet a dear friend, visited a few bars and finally played billiard for an hour or two till way after midnight! At some point we learned that there had been a huge fire in the city center - some pyromaniac had burned down the old railroad warehouses doomed to be torn down starting in May. At first we wouldn't believe it, and thought it was some weird joke. However, it turned out to be true. The city center was filled with smoke, and thousands of people were witnessing what they referred to as reminiscent of the 'final day of doom' according to the local newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. It was quite terrifying, since such havoc* is uncommon in our peaceful country.

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*(addition on July 27) In fact, the investigation so far shows no signs of such a pyromaniac; instead, it seems the whole incident was purely accidental! I truly hope that it was. However, another pyromania has taken place since then: the beautiful old church of Porvoo was set on fire on May 29 by some idiotic youngsters. Even if the roof was not original, the heart of an art historian is turned upside down by such stupidity.