Tuesday, May 21

 

 

The weather has got warm again so I abandoned the too-hot jacket that I wore yesterday in favour of a cardigan. I cycled to Puotila and walked from Kalasatama to Arcada.

I spent most of the morning reading theses and having conversations about the theses that I had just written. One, we agreed, has failed to reach its potential in quite alarming ways. The student has run out of time, though, so we will just have to treat it as kindly as possible while pushing any idea of what she might have achieved out of our minds.

At lunchtime I decided that a longer walk might prove useful. I therefore took my cds back to the library before calling in at the mall to buy bananas on the way back. The walk did prove useful. It both cleared my head and suggested something else for me to think about.

I spent some time in the afternoon with Matteo working on a grant application, or at least talking about working on one. This also proved useful. We talked; I went away and wrote; I sent it to Matteo and Tore; they commented; I went upstairs to see them; and the process repeated. I find this much faster and more stimulating than sitting on my own looking out of the window, wondering why my brain has emptied.

At 16:30 I left for Vallila for the fourth Social Tools meeting. I had missed the second and the third, so I felt genuinely interested to see what had happened in my absence. The answer: a lot.

I bumped into Oliver as I entered the building and Ilpo as I entered the room. About twenty four other people showed up, including Antti and Vishnu from yesterday.

The workshop takes place in a kind of maker space called Kehä Nolla, in Nilsiänkatu, which reminds me of Temporary, when Aga and John first set it up. I wander around and come across a diagram on the wall. I spend some time looking at it and decide that something has gone wrong with it. I decide this not in a critical spirit but because it genuinely interests me. I approach it like a puzzle, and decide that I will photograph it so that I can think of the solution later.

The workshop will last about three hours, with a promise that it will continue on Loomio later. I will leave and catch a bus to Sörnäinen, and the metro home. I will realise that even my cardigan counts as an item of clothing too much.

I will arrive home too hot and in need of an immediate shower, which will amuse Irma no end.