Monday, February 10

This morning was my first day back at Arcada, and I got up at 7:00, left the house fully-breakfasted at 7:16, and got to Arcada at 8:15. The sky was grey but the weather was warmer than the weekend, and most of the ice had melted away.

Jutta and I had a meeting to bring me up to date, and then I began the detailed planning of tomorrow’s courses. I checked with Christa that the money for Denmark was still usable later in the academic year and it is. I checked with Mats about how to deal with the first master’s thesis. I had a long chat with Fred and Nicke about the changing institutional tides. I had a surprising and very useful chat with Janke as he passed through the office.

Lunch was chicken patties and potato wedges.

Now, having backed up everything I could think of to back up, I am looking out of the window behind me. It is almost eight weeks since I last saw this very familiar view but so much has happened in that time that it feels as though it could as easily have been eight years.

I will spend the afternoon in another meeting with Mats, before reconfiguring the Social Gaming course to strengthen it; that is, to take advantage of the changed timetable to do something that would not have been possible before. Once I have seen what I have planned I will be unconvinced that it will be possible now. I will, however, decide that if I insist that it is possible then it will almost certainly become possible.

I will leave for home at 16:30.