A Walk in the Sunshine

Theoretically, Fridays are my days for preparing lectures, grading, cleaning my desk and such. Practically, I have meetings or someone convinced me to give a talk or whatever. Same deal today - we are getting ready for the Berlin "Long Night of Science" in which our school is participating for the first time after a long abstinence. But I don't have to be there on the dot of anything, just get it done sometime today.

So my plan was to drop by two of my doctors in a three-hour time span and then head off to work. I know, sounds ridiculous, but being a private patient in Germany currently has its advantages. As my eye/ear/nose/throat doctor says, "Look. 10 minutes with you pays me enough that I can spend an extra hour with patients whose insurance only pays a flat fee per quarter. Open up."

I slept in a bit, discussed the renovations WiseMan is planning, and then headed off in the sunshine. Yes, sunshine. I was expecting a volcanic ash summer, i.e. no summer. In celebration I wore my Iceland T-Shirt today and headed out.

6 seconds later I regretted not taking a coat - it was darn cool in the shade. But it is supposed to get very warm today, so I soldiered on. I made it through both doctor's officed in under an hour, so I dropped in the local second hand store. I love second-hand stuff, but the beautiful purple jacket was not my size, so I left without purchasing anything.

A few stores down a member of our handball club who had trained WiseKid when he was little was sunning himself - with a cast around his knee. Handball is a rough sport. The hospital was bad he said, but hey, on sick leave during the soccer world cup: he can take it. It was wonderful having the time to stop for a chat!

I dropped into another store I had been meaning to visit for a while, I'm looking for something strange that I have to describe as I don't know the term. The male clerk was playing condescending with me, and getting a sarcastic edge to his voice - "Just bring it here so I can look at it and see what you need." No, it's in Sweden, I'm not lugging it here. I left abruptly, stating that he did not need to get aggressive, and sought the sunshine.

Just across the road was the mother of a girl from WiseKid's kindergarten class, we had a very nice chat, and I set off for the tram. And I'm even at work 45 minutes before I was planning to be here.

Maybe I should just plan on starting work at 12 every day. I feel rested and relaxed ;)