Wednesday, December 16

I missed the bus by seconds, so I walked back up the little hill, which was nicely slippery, and down the road to Alepa where I caught the 95.

I spent the morning writing reports, including the report from a thesis presentation that Maria and I supervised the other day. In the afternoon I played the part of the examiner in another thesis presentation. This thesis was actually excellent, and discussing it was a pleasure.

After this I checked that I had no outstanding grades to give out, and had a meeting with Liisa about the event we are still calling Nordic Narratives. Once we had done this I said goodbye to Jutta for the year and then Liisa and I caught the tram and metro to Kaisaniemi for the Arcada Chrstmas dinner.

We are here in the restauarnt where the dinner is progressing slowly. Fred, Andrej and Affe are sitting on the next table, and I can see Pluti in the distance. The place is arranged so that there will be very little chance to talk with anyone except the people you are sitting next to.

I am on a table with Göran Pulkiss, Valeria, Marja, Jonny Karlsson, Matthew and more. Liisa is sitting at the far end. Like everyone else we are getting drunk on water because we have discovered that the wine costs 8.40€ a glass. Some people will leave before dessert is finally served and most of the rest will leave as soon as they have swallowed their two spoonfuls of tart.

I will walk back to Rautatientori with Göran who lives in the centre, and I will be back home by about 22:15, as sober as I was when I left this morning and slightly more hungry.