Friday, April 25

This morning I got to the Academy on my own initiative. I ate a second pate-filled breakfast, and then walked behind the bus station to the taxi rank. I arrived at 8:50 in time to find the right building on campus and walk in seconds before 9:00. when I was due to start.

I had slightly fewer students than yesterday, because some had projects that they needed to finish for external clients. Nonetheless we had a very productive day. At lunch time, after another mountain of recognisably Danish sandwiches (which were delicious) we went to see a student presentation of the Time Machine project. They had been building prototypes of various aspects of a time machine, and so the room was full of screens showing Flash loops, as well as a vriety of controller devices.

By the end of the workshop one group had a completed interactive story, in the form of a mobile web app, and two more groups had projects that they planned to finish next week. It was Erik’s birthday and he wanted to show me the better of the only two beer bars in Odense. We drove there and had two small drinks of exotic Danish micro-brewed beer.

Now he has dropped me off a few hundred metres from the hotel, I have walked down the road, and now I am waiting to cross. On the far side of the road is the Cabinn hotel where I am staying, and just behind that the train station. In a few minutes I will go there and get a ticket for tomorrow.

I will go for a Chinese meal on my own which will start with hot and sour soup which was, in fact, the only reason I choose the Chinese restaurant. I will drink a bottle of Pelligrino water which will prove more expensive than beer, but possibly more refeshing too.

Erik and I had a long talk about Aurora’s death. In my hotel room I will sit watching all the videos I have of her, which don’t unfortunately amount to very many. Sitting in a hotel room waiting to go home is, I realise, one of the times I will miss her most. Normally I would be thinking of things to tell her and making sure I have a collection of Danish coins for her foreign moneybox. Now I am watching some video selfies she made before Christmas.

If I will feel that I do not look forward to going home this will not mean that I don’t want to see Irma and Naa, because I very much do. It will simply be an acknowledgement that late in the evening, packing suitcases, is a time when I will be acutely aware of what will inevitably be missing when I get home.