Tuesday, April 17
Tallaght, 11:10
I woke up without the alarm clock going off, and seconds later Jutta phoned me to see if I was ready for breakfast. I was, and I had the full Irish breakfast which today had an astonishing amount of baked beans included.
We got the Luas tram from the centre and now, almost an hour later, we have got off in Tallaght. It has not yet rained, but the wind is heavy and biting.
We will talk to the second year encouraging them to decide to spend half of next year in Helsinki, and then we will have lunch in the catering students’ restaurant: fish and bacon soup and a medium steak in my case. The food is always excellent, and the service is always interesting, and the experience is always one that I want to repeat.
Afterwards we will do a repeat performance with another group of second year students before wandering around the Tallaght mall, and making the long ride home. On the way from the college to the mall we will get the promised rain, blown into our faces by the still-biting wind. We will be drenched before we even get an opportunity to shop.
While checking my email in the hotel in the early evening, Auo will pop up on Skype and we will have a spontaneous video chat which, since I am unprepared and have no headset to hand, will echo all round the lounge. This will make me very happy.