Monday, May 19

Naa is in Berlin so there was no need to get up early this morning. I was at work just after 9:00 and until Jutta arrived about 10:00 Nathalie and I were the only people there.

At 10:00 I had a long Skype tutorial with Ida-Maija about her thesis, which has the potential to be excellent. She has an interesting structural problem. Whereas many students write theses with themselves at the centre (“First I did this, and then I decided that…”) Maija has left herself out almost entirely producing a draft that Jack Webb would have been proud of. “Just the facts, ma’am.” I suggested a way of proceeding which involved sitting an imaginary exam without any books or references to hand and writing an essay that explains what the thesis is about, what she has discovered, and why it matters. Once this is written then the task will be to combine this with the facts in the current draft. Maija said that she will sit the exam this weekend.

I then went through ASTA, looking at all my courses and checking that everyone had had their grades entered into the registry. I also emailed those who had still not submitted assignments to remind them that they were doomed if I didn’t get them in the next two weeks.

At 14:00 I had my utvecklingssamtal with Mats in which we discussed my work over the last twelve months and my goals and needs for the coming twelve months. Several interesting ideas emerged from this, and I made notes to follow them up.

I got home early and let the cat out. Irma arrived home before leaving again to a Somalian dinner. Now I am in the garden looking at the flowers.

When Irma returns we will sit and talk while watching a sudden downpour of rain: one of those summer storms where the raindrops are huge in size on the pavement. It will last less than a minute and then the sky will clear again.

I will walk into the road, look round, and glimpse a faint rainbow that fades into nothing as I watch.