I am so over familiar with Stansted airport now, it is a frequented non-place for me – i even have a routine when i go there which involves a flit around the perfume shop, a visit to WH Smiths to buy Harpers Bazaar and a sit down at Pret with an over-hot cup of tea. I wrote down some thoughts on non places whilst i waited for my gate number to come up on the screen and observed people who worked in this non place every day, also going to Pret for an over-hot cup of tea during their breaks. Is it a non-place for them too?
After pretending that my hand luggage weighed less that 10kg (rather than 14kg), i found a window seat on the plane, and a couple sat next to me;
Man: “Are you from Finland?”
Sam: “No, im from England, Norwich…”
Man: “Oh, you are just very quiet – i thought you were Finnish”
The flight was about 2hrs 30 minutes and the sun set as the plane flew over the coast of Finland, whispers of thin cloud illuminated magenta and the ground below was in shadow, apart from a mass of amazing lakes and networks of wide rivers below which shone up at us like mirrors.
Edwina met me at the airport and i was fed jaffa cakes and chocolate on our way to Riihimaki. The journey took about 1 hour and we ended with a tour of Riihimaki by street light, the train station, shopping mall, roundabouts where some public sculptures have already been installed, the high street and the empty building where i will be working.
It is Thursday morning now and we are just leaving to head into town for a press meeting at 10am – i can’t wait to see Finland in daylight.
