Monday, September 7

I cycled to the metro with two enormous metal vases that Kirsi had lent us to take the flowers home from my doctoral defence.

I spent the morning preparing Lynda playlists for my courses this period.

At 11:40 I left for Aalto with the vases and a copy of my thesis. I took the first to Kirsi and the second to the Dean, Anna Valtonen. We chatted for some time and she suggested I should contact Philip and Teemu to see if we can establish a partnership to house my post-doctoral research.

Now I am walking back to Aalto, and the cat catches my eye. It wasn’t decorated the last time I noticed it. Or I would have noticed it.

I will spend much of the afternoon in a team meeting, after which I will finish compiling a spreadsheet that tabulates the student feedback from the summer course.

I will send this to Erik and Anneli, who are at the Nobanet meeting in Iceland, where I am not. Going to Nobanet would have been useful. Going to Iceland would have been interesting. Taking four or five days out at this point would have caused scheduling problems that would have lasted till Christmas.

It will be raining when I leave, pouring down when I change from the tram to the metro and, remarkably, drizzling very slightly when I collect my bike.

I will pedal home as fast as I can and make it before the rain increases again.

I will play with the cat and do the ironing, and then read until Irma arrives home about 21:00.