Tuesday, March 31

Stockmann, 12:21
Today Irma has her nimipäivä which means very little in many countries, but a whole lot in Finland. I give her a card at breakfast, which contains a promise that herkkua will arrive later. Google Translate offers delicacy as a translation of herkku. The “a” at the end indicates the plural.
I spend the morning revising my exercises for this afternoon’s opening session of thr Structuring Information course one last time. I have written a kind of script for the session because I have come to realise that I cannot impvise the way I do in face to face classes. I need anchors: things the students can cling onto when the going gets rough.
At midday I have done as much as I can, and my eyes have begun to ache. I leave the house, get on my bike, and head for Stockmann.
I stand at the entrance to the deli, in its relatively new rebranding, and look around. I can see one woman in the entire shop. You can see her too, on the right at the back.
I head for the cake counter and buy six absurdly good tarts and slices of chocolate cake. As I head for the automatic checkout I see three other shoppers, each keeping their distance from the others.
I buy my goodies and cycle home.
By the time I start teaching at 13:15 we will have eaten four of the six delicacies and I, at least, will feel like it.