Wednesday, January 30

It was snowing when I woke the girls up. The cat had already woken me and I had got up five minutes early to let it out. There was deep snow and it was still snowing. The cat was outside for three minutes.

Now I am at Arabia walking into the almost-deserted mall to buy some apples. Since embarking on alternate day fasting I have been eating ten times more apples than previously. Perhaps this is because I allow myself to keep my hunger at bay during “no eating” days by having an apple or two.

Janne, Johnny, Jutta and Tommy went to Köln last night for a meeting, and so the office is quiet – except for regular banging on the door by students who want to see Janne, Johnny, Jutta or Tommy. I will fill my time in the morning getting up and down to answer their inquiries with a simple “no”. In between practising my act as a human yo-yo I will rethink parts of this site, which is what my diary tells me I should be doing.

Luke will Skype me and we will spend an hour talking while I rearrange old files into new folders and he does the same while sitting in his new apartment in Chiang Mai.

I will also spend a good part of thwe afternoon working on my web site and, since the office is so quiet, I will make a lot of progress. Not only will I rethink parts of the site in ways that I intend using in a course next period, but I will also get some of the changes implemented.

At 15:45 I will look out of the window and notice that it is snowing very hard indeed. I will then go downstairs to have my life changed by “one of Europe’s leading coaches and speaker, Daniel Sá Nogueira”, who will, according to the Arcada web site, “give a free lecture in the big auditorium … on different leadership techniques, teamwork strategies and very practical immediate tools”.

Later still, of course, I will shovel snow. This will prove to be the heaviest snowfall this winter and will take me two and a half hours to clear.