Friday, September 1

 

 

I cycled again this morning, and made a note to replace my cardigan with a jacket sometime next week.

I started the morning by reading through the rules for the Finnish Academy grants for post-doctorate research. I decided, after a close reading, that I do not qualify, since the application requires me to have moved research institute since gaining my doctorate. Ho hum.

At 10:00 I set up a student for a Photoshop test designed to demonstrate that they have all the skills required to receive the points they didn’t receive last year because they never attended the test. I had made before and after images and a long list of the differences between the two. I had also printed out a copy of the after-image for handy reference while working. To complete the test the student needed to make a copy of the before image and work on it to make it as near as possible to the after image.

I checked the student at 10:30 and I watched them working away. I went back at 11:00 to find him gone. I checked my email, and the OneDrive folder where I had stored the original images, and found nothing. I emailed him and got no reply.

At lunchtime I went to S-Market to buy some pickle and found myself with almost no choice at all. Finnish culinary culture does not include pickles.

I carried on preparatory work for several classes in the afternoon and then cycled home to find Naa and Irma already there. We finished packing the car and headed to Pellinge.

Imagine our surprise as we sit waiting for the ferry to cross from Sundö to Tirmo. We knew that the regular ferry had left for servicing and that an old one had replaced it, but we thought it would have returned by now. Instead we watch an old, low in the water, ferry coming over. We notice that it does not use the guide cable, and instead the pilot drives it like a boat.

What a shock, we say to ourselves, looking shocked.

We will get to Sundö, let the cat out of its box, mow the grass, put all the furniture back in the sauna house, and sit on the terrace drinking cider.