Well, not really, but “kinda okay isolation” or “not entirely without redeeming qualities isolation” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. It’s been five weeks since Finland was placed on lockdown to keep the COVID-19 epidemic from running amok, and a new normal has been established. As I anticipated in my last post, having to stay away from the university campus hasn’t affected my work much – I actually quite like the fact that when I get up in the morning, I’m good to go as soon as I’ve brewed some coffee and brushed my teeth. 

I’ve set up my home office next to a south-facing window, so when the weather is nice it can be rather distracting, but it’s my own choice and the general abundance of natural light more than makes up for any regret I may feel about being stuck indoors. Besides, there’s seldom anything to stop me taking a break and popping out of the house for a while if the sunshine is just a little bit too lovely to resist. Still, I can’t deny that the social isolation is starting to take its toll on me and that I’m very much looking forward to when it’s okay to hang out with people again, whenever that may be. 

Last time I talked about how I’d been noticing various small things that I like about being back in Finland, but since then I’ve been struck by a similar variety of things that I miss about Ireland. Presumably part of it is that my first months back in Finland haven’t exactly been the way I imagined, what with suddenly not being able to see my friends and family, but there’s also a general bittersweetness about the fact that I had this wonderful adventure and it’s over now. Funnily enough, it’s often the most mundane things that trigger such feelings; for example, the other day I made myself a pot of Tesco brand Earl Grey – products from the Finest and Free From ranges are available in many supermarkets around Finland – and felt a pang of something akin to nostalgia for doing my shopping at Tesco, hardly one of my top 3 most exciting Irish experiences. 

To be fair, my local Tesco was certainly one of my top 3 most frequently visited places during my time in Dublin, so I suppose that makes it as good a part as any to represent the whole of my two-year stay there. For a fleeting moment it was all contained in that small box of tea bags, the highs and the lows and everything in between – a curious feeling to say the least.  Maybe I should start writing songs again to make the best of the lockdown; I surely have enough subject matter in those two years for an entire rock opera. 

One thing I have already started doing again is baking. I can’t help but feel it’s a bit of a cliché – seems like everyone and their cat has started doing it now that they’re spending so much more time at home. I suppose it offers a certain amount of comfort in these troubled times, but for me there’s also a more prosaic aspect to it: I have quite a big surplus of various ingredients in my kitchen cupboard and I’d much rather do something useful with them than just throw them away, so I’ve been looking for recipes that help me get rid of them. Besides, it’s also a good way to bring a small piece of Ireland into my life here – last Saturday I baked a lovely loaf of Irish soda bread for breakfast. Come to think of it, maybe I should have done a full Irish fry-up while I was at it…

Work-wise, the main bit of news is that my proposal to the Academy of Finland was not accepted for funding. That was as I expected, but it was quite disappointing to see how far I was in terms of ratings from making the cut. Trying again is of course an option, but I really don’t know right now if it’s a sensible one – it would take a lot of effort to get from where I am now to where I’d at least have a fighting chance, and there are things I could spend that time and energy on that are considerably more likely to yield some kind of reward. Making a half-hearted attempt with no realistic hope of success, just for the sake of being in the race, doesn’t appeal to me either.

Thankfully, I don’t need to make even a tentative decision right now or in the immediate future. For at least a couple of months I’m just going to let the matter sit in the back of my head; brooding over it is hardly going to help me get a fresh perspective on things. I certainly have plenty of stuff to think about even without the AoF grant, so it’s not like there’s any serious risk of my brain capacity going underutilised. Besides, I need to reserve some of it for personal purposes – how else am I going to discover the secret of the perfect sourdough?