a journey back in time

Last night, at work took me for a journey into the past. In fact it took me to times I have not been here to see, but I know from movies and stories.

I got changed and sneaked into the restaurant. The shades in the windows gave the room a hazy touch and had there been a circle of smoke in the air, it would have been a perfect scene from a Tauno Palo film. It was still early but there were people already dining. Shots of vodka were taken to a table where there were four older gentlemen, in suits. With my minds eyes I could see them talk business over their meal – I could hear the whispering voices discuss the shade of grey to be chosen for the next cloth line produced for the USSR markets.

A couple walked into the restaurant. I was asked to escort these “foreigners” to a table. In fact I had to look after them the whole night, as I happened to be the only person among the staff who know how to speak English. Russian would not have posed any problems but “London” was something too alien to any of my co-workers.

Rye bread. Steak with garlic potatoes. Irish coffee. And of course vodka. I remember when I was little I used to think that creamy garlic potatoes were the most delicious dish there was. My grandma used to make them for special occasions.

I think I now know what happens when time stops.

But what will happen when the ladies with their fur coats no longer come? Or when the gentleman who had his first business dinner ever (with some fine gentlemen who knew the President – who was Kekkonen at the time) in that same table no longer holds meetings?

When I woke up this morning I felt like I had been a part of the film “Das Leben der Anderen“ (The Lives of Others...which is an amazing film by the way). It was just too absurd. Surely, nothing like that no longer exists. Or does it?

I have to wait until tomorrow to find out.