Photographic evidence of autumn foliage.
Another week went by. Temperature has been hovering a tad over zero outdoors and indoors I had to turn on the radiator a bit. Wool socks are also back in fashion.
Football and art
The main event of the week was going to watch a football game at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, where the national men’s teams of Finland and Kazakhstan played against each other in the UEFA European Championship Qualifiers. This was the first time I saw the national football team play anywhere.
Inside the Helsinki Olympic Stadium.
Finland lost 1-2 and while the atmosphere was fine, I don’t think I will be seeing another national game for a while. Been there, done that now. I still have two tickets to upcoming European club games this year as HJK still has two home games at the UEFA Europa Conference League. Better make sure I have warm clothing as both games are in November.
Watching with thirty thousand other people how a ball gets kicked around a football pitch for 90 minutes.
I also visited quite a few galleries around central Helsinki after a long break. Always a bit of an awkward situation when the gallery owner starts asking what I think of the art pieces and I try to come up with something that doesn’t reveal how narrow my understanding of art is. Then again, surely it isn’t a requirement to enjoy it?
Gallery hopping on a Saturday afternoon.
Gaming house rules
During the week I took a break from video gaming. It was interesting how there was a constant temptation to have just a quick session, but I didn’t give in. It was a bit difficult to focus freely on something else when there was that siren calling in the background, but eventually I did start to read a book instead (about why social media services are harmful) and watching an old British sitcom Yes Minister.
I did however install in advance the next game I will be playing, which is Final Fantasy VII Remake (Intergrade). To my surprise, it didn’t seem to have any separate patches to download after copying the game from the disc, although the DLC material was on a voucher code.
I’ve been thinking of setting a house rule for the game: undertake no side quests. I want to see how long it takes to complete the main story and does it get any harder that way. I’m also aware that completing the game unlocks a harder difficulty level, which I might try and then dig into the side quests as well.
Another thing I’m thinking about is setting the voice language to Japanese. Not that the English version is inferior, but just to have a listening practice while gaming. Yep, trying to make use of my time spent again.
Speaking of spending time, I haven’t been following the news for a few weeks now. I rarely feel good about it afterwards, so I came to the conclusion why bother then (at least for the time being). Feels different to hear about important news from the mouth of others as a very compact version with no extra links to follow.
Realized I haven’t taken a photo of something I’m about to eat in ages. So here you go: a bowl of ramen.