My Monday Morning in Three Episodes

Ok, here we go. I feel the need to tell about how my Monday morning started today. I am doing this by recounting three episodes of life in my hood, Vallila and Sörnäinen districts of northeastern inner city of Helsinki. Everything happened within less than one hours' time.

1.) After having my morning coffee I kiss my baby girl and my baby-momma goodbye and leave my house around ten o'clock to go to work at the university downtown. I take a tram #7 but the first people I meet at the tram stop are this junkie couple in their thirties. They look kinda ok, except that their fashion sense is stuck on 1993 and they are all skinny and pale and trembling , quiet and spaced-out, and they have that creepy Skeletor look with dark eyes deep in their sockers etc. on them. I hope they were on their way to the needle exchange place in Hakaniemi, for their own good. Nothing so special about seeing junkies out & about on the streets of Kallio/Sörnäinen/Vallila but somehow this set the mood of the morning for me.

2.) Before going to work I visit the local Post Office in Kurvi, Sörnäinen to drop off a effect pedal I just sold on rather succesfully on Ebay but at the counter I realize that I left my wallet home and I need to go back home. There was also a freaky looking super-pale, skinny and dirty Heavy Metal dude in black leather outfit hanging around in the post office. He looked like he is planning a hold-up, or something. I head back home.

When I got back in to the tram #7 at my stop the second time to get back to the Post Office, there is another young couple sitting in the back. They look kinda normal, except for the fact that the dude is packing, and very openly too, a good old Missisippi Corn Cob pipe with a seriously heavy load of hashish & tobacco mixture. When they get off, I see the dude lighting the hash pipe immediately. I also see them heading off to the direction of the municipal Bailiff's Office.

3.) Next, when I finally get out of the Post Office the second time after sending the pedal, I see the old guy in red winter coat, as pictured above. He is trying to get over the Hämeentie, a big street with busy fast traffic, but he is so wasted that he cannot stand up, let alone walk. He falls down, rolls on the muddy street, tries to get up, his feet don't carry him, and he falls down again, rolls almost on to the tram tracks and finally ends up just sitting on the ground. I am scared that will get run over by a tram or a buss and I actually call the cops to come pick him up. The police sound very bored on the phone. Then someone helps the old guy a bit and drags his ass away from the car lane and the cops arrive pretty soon. I take my tram and go to work.