Wednesday, February 3

It was lightly snowing and slightly colder when I left this morning. I got to work in time to have a cup of Tulsi Original tea while preparing for today’s teaching.

The session for Structuring Information went well, or at least I think it did. The students had things to do, and the sequence seemed to make sense to them. Nobody got completely confused or lost, and everybody was well on their way to producing a result by the time the session ended.

The session end at 11:43, rather than at noon as we had planned, because a voice came over the tannoy to tell us that all the electricity was going to be turned off in the house “so please make sure you save all your work and close your computers”.

I ate lunch at my desk and chatted with Liisa while she ate her salad, while everyone in the room listened out for more news.

Ulrika phoned me to ask if this afternoon’s session was going to take place, because she had just seen on Facebook that Arcada had no electricity. I asked where she was. She said she was “at the far end of Espoo”, so I told her not to come in. Before I could say anything else she said “Thanks, I’ll tell the others” and closed the phone.

At 13:15 I went to see who was in the room. There were six students. I went to see if there was any news about times or dates. I noticed that the building was already noticeably cooler. As I left a voice over the tannoy told us not to worry because the source of the problem had been identified, and work was now beginning.

Nobody seemed to know anything so I talked with the students until at 13:45 a different voice told us that the work would take about two hours. I knew for a fact that it would then take another hour or more for all Arcada’s digital services to come back online.

The students left and I wondered whether I am ever going to get Game Theory and Design off the ground.

Now I am on my way home. I have just got off the 841 bus and I am looking at the path that goes under the main road. I wonder whether to take it, look round at the lack of traffic, and decide to walk to the traffic lights instead.

At home I will let Sunshine out, and then clear the snow for an hour and a half. It may not need doing, but the weather forecast says that there will be more and then the temperature will drop below zero, so it may need doing.

I will take comfort from the fact that Arto who lives opposite us is also clearing snow from his drive. If I am mad then I am not the only one.