Monday, November 16

I have spent the day at Arcada, mostly attending Zoom meetings. In one sense this means I could have stayed at home, as most people did. On the other hand I had my own peculiar reasons for going to work.

Firstly, I try to leave the house for one, and possibly two, days each week because otherwise I fear getting a variant of Stockholm syndrome: a condition in which I feel unsafe anywhere except the work room and bedroom.

Secondly, I have come to realise that leaving my laptop untouched for weeks at a time makes it almost unusable when I finally open it. I have almost everything stored in Dropbox, and it takes a couple of minutes to update if I switch the laptop on once or twice a week, and an unsettlingly long time if I leave the laptop untouched for weeks.

Thirdly, Windows needs updating regularly. This morning I had fourteen pending updates, and I had to sit and drink tea for what felt like several hours before I could do any work.

Fourthly, I saw Monica, Niclas, Tomas and Kauko live and in person. I like doing that.

Now I stand at the top of the escalators in Rautatientori, waiting for Irma to arrive. She will give a public talk about the photography project she did with DOP last winter.

Many people have said that they cannot come and so Irma will expect no audience at all. To our surprise, though, people will appear as though by magic and the large auditorium at Oodi will end up half full.

Keba will arrive. Dan, Auo’s well-loved teacher, will come, as will Ann-Maj from Pellinge, and Cata from Hänko. Irma’s performance will score ten out of ten from everyone in the hall. She will return home tired but happy.