Sunday, January 26

Yesterday Irma went shopping brought some wine home, and after Naa had left for her date we cooked and talked and drank some wine with our meal. However, Naa’s date finished unexpectedly early, and unfortunately the wine turned out to be a very bad idea.

We woke to a morning in which nothing much would go right. In the early afternoon we went to visit Irma’s father and when we got back I went for a walk. I realised that I had not left the house at all yesterday and had not been for a walk for several days. My legs, back and arms were all aching badly.

I walked to Plantagen to see if they had any replacement bulbs for our winter lights. They hadn’t. They were gearing up for Spring and the winter stock was gone. I carried on walking down to the sea.

I am looking at the part where Auo lost her shoe in deep mud a couple of years ago. I will walk along almost as far as the playground when something will make me turn round. All the time I am walking I will be remembering things that Auo and I did here in the past few years: on our bikes in summer and walking in winter. The whole area is something that we used to explore, and the memories will be very vivid and strangely cheering.

I will walk up to Itäväylä, along to the gas station, across the road, down to the end of Riskutie, along Riskutie and home. The whole outing will take about seventy five minutes.

When I get back Irma will be watching a video that Olivia made of her and Auo. We will eat some of the fish soup that Tarkku brought round earlier today, and go to bed early, hoping for a better day tomorrow.