Tuesday, December 30

Irma went to work at 8:30 and Naa and I both slept on until 10:00 in my case and 10:30 in hers. When I looked outside it was snowing, and had obviously been snowing for some time.

At 12:30 Naa left to meet Emilia in the centre. They were planning to have a Chinese buffet at Naa’s favourite restaurant and then watch a movie. I did some reading and answered some emails. I also wrote to the developer of Wikipanion+, my small Christmas gift to myself, with a suggestion about making backups of the bookmark structure. If I could export and import the bookmarks it would be pretty well perfect for what I want it for.

At 13:30 I went outside and began to move the snow into the woods. It took me nearly two and a half hours. I know this because I listened twice all the way through Robbie Williams’ new album which, by the way, is his best in years even though it is allegedly offcuts and discarded album tracks. By the time I got in it had stopped snowing and then five minutes later it snowed very heavily for thirty minutes before stopping again.

I am now outside for the second time. I have decided to clear the second snow flurry in case it freezes in the night. I have just finished. This year I have made the effort to drag all the snow from the garden down the the woods which, if nothing else, makes me feel like I have exercised thoroughly. This is my pile, the result of this afternoon’s work. It is up to my shoulder.

In the evening I will get a phone call from Irma on her new phone saying that Ankki will be driving her home in a moment and that I should be ready to drive them both back to the youth centre. She is the guest of honour at an indoor football tournament and has been put in the best seat, right to one side of one of the goals. In the last minutes of the final one of the forwards has kicked the ball extremely hard right into her face.

Ankki will drive us back because she knows the way, and then I will drive across the city to Mehiläinen hospital where, by pure coincidence, Irma will be seen by the official doctor for the female Finnish football team. Her nose isn’t broken but she has whiplash and will have a multi-coloured face in the morning.

She is not allowed to drink alcohol, watch television or look at computer screens or tablets until the weekend. I will realise that our New Year has suddenly taken a turn for the exceedingly quiet.