Monday, March 4

Sörnäinen will have major renovations of some sort, beginning today and lasting until “early 2020”. As a result no trams will stop there for the next year or so.

This morning therefore began with an experiment. The trams still go to Arabia but obviously by some other route. I got the metro past Sörnäinen to Hakaniemi and waited for the 6 tram there – to see where it actually went.

Standing at Hakaniemi I notice that the next tram number 6 will arrive in eleven minutes. I look around and remember that the old market building has closed for renovation. I look over at the new, possibly temporary, market building, and take a photograph of it. I have gone in there once, for ten minutes. It seemed fine to me, but not as atmospheric as the proper one.

Eventually the tram will arrive. It will go up through Kallio, past the church and the fire station, and then turn left down Helsinginkatu, away from Sörnäinen, before turning right and ending up going down Sturenkatu and turning left at St. Paul’s church by Hermanni, where it will rejoin the usual route.

This has added at least twenty five minutes to my journey. I will try the buses tomorrow.

In the morning, I will write furiously, and then pause to read furiously. The writing will concern podcasts, blog entries, errant students, forthcoming Nobanet meetings, and chats with Irma.

At midday I will go to the mall with Jutta, where I will but hummus, fresh coriander, tomatoes, cucumber, some Tabasco, and a pasha because they only arrive once a year and I cannot resist.

In the afternoon we will sit through a team meeting in which I will learn that Arcada will now sell courses to anyone who qualifies with the result that the prerequisites for a course have suddenly become items of almost religious significance.

At 15:45 I will leave with the intention of getting the bus home, thinking that this might become my usual routine.

At 17:30, much hurried reading finalised, I will sit down for a ninety minutes discussion with Scott, in which we will continue last week’s topic: what should I make of Peirce’s apparently crude arguments in favour of something he calls God, which may or may not correspond to what other people do or don’t call God.

We will also cover some crucial new ground. Scott will suggest a list of Peirce’s core works, which I will note down. He will also send me a bundle of papers while we talk, which I will save and file.

Irma will arrive home in the middle of all of this from a visit to see Marja.