Monday, May 13

Oh the cold! I left for the metro, cycling happily to discover after several hundred metres that I would have benefitted greatly from the addition of a warm jumper – or any kind of jumper.

I got to Arcada and remembered that I now possess a new laptop with two monitors. I spent a final hour (on top of the ones spent on Friday) wrestling with the new computer. I tamed Windows 10 and decided that I actually liked the new method of implementing virtual desktops, once I had got used to it. I missed the ability to wrap round, though: the ability to move clockwise through desktops 1 to 4 and have 1 appear again to the right of 4.

I spent the morning running through lists of tasks that needed my attention. I paid special attention to the growing problems occurring in Interactive Storytelling as some students missed the first deadline, after which the assignment locked. What happened after the assignment locked came as a surprise to me.

At midday I went to the mall with Jutta and bought supplies for the next few day’s lunches. I went heavy on the salad. We talked about a variety of things from Hoppu to Naa, and about Jutta’s never-ending headache.

After eating I spent almost the entire afternoon with a student in Oasis, the green “relaxing” room otherwise known as C350. I tested out a new way of bringing the writing of a thesis to a conclusion. The student connected her laptop to the wall-sized screen and then we went through her thesis section by section. I talked and she copied, pasted and rewrote. After just less than three hours we declared the thesis done.

I got home early to let Sunshine out because Irma has a board meeting for the Finnish India Association, and will arrive home late.

At 18:15 I notice Luke online in Skype, and spend forty minutes in conversation with him. Luke brings me up to date with his and Alice’s life, and his work situation. We talk briefly about Todoist, which he has tried but decides to try again. He will then leave to talk with an intern on a project he works with.

Irma will arrive home late with a long and complicated story concerning Naa. The short version: they chatted on WhatsApp and Naa and Sampo delivered some things to Stoa which they no longer needed or wanted in their apartment. To Irma’s surprise, the bag included a birthday present for me, and a Mother’s Day gift for Irma.

Irma received two plates from a set she has slowly collected, and I received a genuinely great t-shirt and a pair of happy socks.

A flurry of messages will pass back and forth and contact will, it appears, tentatively restart. Long may it continue.

We will go to bed happy.