Wednesday, March 8
Hameentie, 07:47
We woke this morning to find that the promised snow had arrived; all ten centimetres of it. The garden looked like winter again and the cat looked less than happy about going out. We could see the footprints left by the other cat, which had obviously walked through our garden in the night. This no doubt explained the way the carpets lay all over the place. Sunshine had dragged them around in the night in fury, since it couldn’t get at the interloper.
I get off the 71 bus outside Arabianranta mall and look around. The temperature has dropped alarmingly since yesterday and the whole scene looks like a sight from December. I watch a student that I don’t know trudge her way towards Arcada, and decide to go to the mall to buy some fruit before heading after her.
I will spend the first two hours of the morning reading Draft 13 of a thesis that will probably need another thirteen drafts before I consider it ready for publication. It does improve each time, slightly and slowly, and the structure now seems more or less in place but I despair every time I think about it.
At 12:00 I will have a Skype meeting with various peple from Nobanet in a call organised by Hafdis and Vera from Iceland. It will consist of the usual round of technical glitches and funny background noises, but things will get done. I will hold it on my iPad in an unused room, because the staff room has too many people sitting in silence for me to consider shouting and waving my arms. I will discover that the iPad now supports conference video calls, which it didn’t used to.
I will have two tutorials in the afternoon, and leave with my brain hurting. I will feel very conscious that Draft 14 will arrive in a few days, and I will spend the journey home listening to Bridget St John’s first album. By the time I get home I will radiate calmness.
Good job really, because, once home, I will feed the cat and spend an hour clearing heavy, wet snow from the drive and paths.