Tuesday, May 15

 

 

Sunshine woke me at 3:50 this morning demanding to go out. He scratched the bed and howled to an extent that forced me to lock the bedroom door, open the window, and try to get back to sleep. At 6:15 he started scratching on the door and howling to the extent that I got up at 7:00 and let him out. I decided to count this as getting up early.

At Arcada I spent the morning running a four hour workshop as part of the Interactive Storytelling course. I had the students read the Tina Two-Languages fairy tale and then go away in groups and think about how they might approach turning it into an interactive story. When they had returned and made presentations we looked at Twine, the software for creating interactive work online. I walked them through how to use it and then then went off to create a longer version of their story in Twine.

On the way home I walked down Helsinginkatu looking for Velo & Oxygen, the bike shop. Eventually I found it and went in and bought a basket for Naa’s bicycle exactly the same as mine. She had said she wanted one and we had looked in Prisma and XXL, and Stockmann and Intersport but all they had consisted of a range of small detchable baskets with handles, like miniature supermarket baskets.

I then stopped again at Prisma where I collected two chocolate drinks for Irma to test, along with a lengthy form for her to fill in. She had seen this test advertised somewhere and decided that testing chocolate drinks sounded like a good hobby. One has full packaging and one comes in a plain white carton. I put them in the fridge to await her return.

When I get home I let Naa know about her basket and she comes round on her way back from college. She waters plants in the house and garden and I water the basil in the kitchen. It seems to have survived Irma’s absence so far and indeed it seems to have flourished in the last few days. I move it onto the sink to water it, and decide to photograph the green against the metallic background.

Naa will borrow a couple of allen keys. She will go home by bus, basket in hand, and send me a photo thirty minutes later of the basket mounted on the back of her bike.

I will spend the evening engrossed in the Larry Norman biography that I got given yesterday. I will find it gripping and read it in a single sitting. I will fall asleep about midnight.