Tuesday, August 21

Hermanninrantatie, 7:50

This is Auo’s first early day at school. We got up at 6:45 and got the 7:23 bus. The sun was bright and warm, so I decided to walk from Katasalama to Arcada. I am halfway there and I am looking at a van in a puddle. I am reminded of the cover for the Beach Boys’ album Holland.

This morning I will create a week-by-week schedule for my three classes in Period 1. Since one of them, Advanced Web Apps, also runs in Period 2, by midday I will have done half of my preparation for Period 2 as well.

Jutta will be in for some of the morning before leaving in her kleinbus to pick up Camie and drive to Turku for a Kent gig. We will iron out a few more details for this year, concerning which students we are actually expecting. I will bump into Nigel in the corridor and have an unexpected chat about Curatr. He met Ben’s brother and is now very enthusiastic about it. Unexpected good news there then!

At lunchtime I will sidestep lunch, opting instead to walk to Alepa and pick up some bananas and apples for later; plus some milk and teabags and a big bottle of fizzy water.

After that I will start writing, planning to pause only for a quick visit to the gym. However, before any iron gets pumped, Irma will phone about a mystery involving a silent teenager and several inexplicable purchases. I will stop writing, pull on a trenchcoat and a trilby, and slip out into the night to investigate.

The 250€ gold ring might be a clue.