Sunday, June 22

When I woke it was cold and raining. Nonetheless I was determined to actually make a noticeable dent in the writing I still have to do. I ate my Weetabix, washed and shaved, and sat down in the sauna house to begin.

Irma had told me that the heater in the sauna house was the most effective in the whole area. I had been ignoring it and writing in the cold. Today I switched it on and discovered just how right Irma was. After an hour I was warm, and after two hours I had rmoved my cardigan.

Last week I reconfigured the thesis for the final time, simplifying it so that it has an introduction and three main sections. Last week I also rewrote parts of the introduction and polished the rest. Today I have gone through all of Part 1 and fixed everything that needed fixing. To my relief it was better than I had remembered, and the bits that needed changing were obvious: both in terms of what was wrong with them, and what needed to be done to make them better.

When I had finished I looked up and wished that Auo was here to share my joy. However, as I did so the rain stopped, and as I emerged from the sauna house I saw the traditional line of vehicles waiting to get back from Pellinki to the mainland. I decided that now was the time to fill the water bucket.

I am standing looking at the line of cars, which stretches behind me round the bend. I have counted 53, and the ferry takes eighteen at a time. It will be running nonstop and so I have no fear of missing it.

I fill my bucket and decide that I would like baked beans to go with the eggs I am planning to cook, and so I head to the shop. I don’t make it because I bump into an Arcada alumnus whose name I have forgotten. He is sitting outside the bar, under a cover and I stop and chat for ten minutes about a startup he is thinking about starting.

When I see the ferry approaching, I will leap to go because the gaps in the clouds have disappeared and the rain looks as though it will return any moment. I will be on the ferry with my waterproof jacket done up when I realise that I am still not in possession of any baked beans.

There will still be a line of cars as far as the eye can see when I get off the ferry in Sundö. I will arrive back at the house just as it starts raining heavily again, with a new plan involving boiled egg sandwiches. I will eat them at about 20:00 while watching the line of cars finally starting to disappear.

I will speak with Irma later and the rain will continue pouring down until I go to bed.