Friday, April 12

 

 

I woke up at 4:00 with a fragment of a song going round in my head. I lay there trying to expand the fragment and find the rest of the song, but I couldn’t pinpoint it. Eventually I decided that OMD had written and sung it on one of their more recent albums and went back to sleep.

I woke up again at 7:10 with a start. The song I had had in my mind: the Flying Pickets singing Only You.

Irma had hardly slept again and I left somewhat down into a bright blue morning. The weather had changed again and hopefully our moods will follow.

At Itis I just miss a train and stand on the platform looking at posters for the election. A woman walks past as I photograph one set of images. These show candidates for the SDP who still lead Perusuomalainet, the right wing party making a sudden surge in the polls as people in the countryside who have never seen an immigrant come to believe that the immigrants they have never seen might change the country in a way they won’t like.

Arcada will seem very deserted. The office will contain Jani, Monica, and me for most of the day. I will start the day by looking out of the window and wishing to go out into the chilly sun. I will contemplate a long walk and then try to settle down to do some of today’s tasks.

I will start by opening the official video for The Flying Pickets’ Only You. I always liked the video and I will prove to have identified the song correctly. This easy win will, perhaps unsurprisingly, serve to cheer me up. I will turn my attention to more pressing issues.

Fortunately I think I broke through in my application writing yesterday. Suddenly I will switch from feeling like I have an impossible amount to do to feeling as though I am finishing off something that only needs a little more work. I will suspect that both positions constitute forms of self-delusion, with the primary difference lying in the fact that the current delusion feels like a more comfortable fit.

I will read through the application and fill in the remaining sections. I have not hear back Mats yet (I sent him a brief draft on Wednesday and a full draft of what I had written so far yesterday afternoon.) I will wonder whether he has not seen them or his silence constitutes his opinion of them.

I will then receive a heavily annotated copy of the document I sent to Mats, and pause for thirty minutes to read it. I will return to my application, duplicate it in Scrivener, and get to work on version 2, making changes and changing the emphasis of some sections. I will feel very grateful for his advice.

In the afternoon I will turn my attention to the next Miaw podcast and begin to edit it in to a state fit for publishing. This episode features our conversation with Abhijit and will prove an interesting listen.

After thirty minutes I will find myself yearning to return to my application, and so I will. I will find a time next week, after the application deadline, to do the editing, and update my diary. Then I will read through the application again and set off on another writing spree.

At 16:30 I will leave Arcada hoping for a peaceful and pleasant weekend. The probability that I will get one will not seem very high.

We will go to Prisma and by 21:00 I will find myself pleasantly surprised. Fun will transpire after all.