Thursday, June 3

Today I have gone to Arcada to have my final development discussion which, officially, I should apparently regard as an exit interview.

I meet Tomas outside Arcada by the sleeping lions, where I find him chatting with Mirko. Once they have concluded their business we set off on a long walk, heading towards the beach.

I photograph the seashore as we walk along it. Gulls fly around and I wrongly imagine I have caught one in one of my images. Tomas thinks so too, and comments on it. I have not. I just have the sea and sky.

We will walk for almost two hours talking about a range of topics. I will agree that I could site my research activities in the new coming-soon research suite, which Tomas regards as a good idea for many reasons.

Towards the end we will come across an artisanal ice-cream van. We will both get one scoop – banana split in my case and something else for Tomas. He will decide to have an espresso as well and the man will persuade him to let him pour it over his ice-cream.

We will part with Tomas looking for a city bike to use to cycle quickly to Carusel, where he will have lunch with his wife and a friend, and me walking to Lidl where I shall buy a lunch that involves no cycling at all.