Baccalaureate

Today Jacob is visiting Asker International school, which he'll be attending after the summer. There is a teacher outside the school greeting all pupils and adults. Inside, we're greeted by the headmaster, who gives all the right impressions. Jacob declares that he is "inquisitive" and is told immediately that curiosity is to be valued and rewarded.

We have come to the right place.

I talk with the principal. He tells me he'll be teaching Spanish next year, and later there's be Mandarin Chinese too. He jokes that when he was a kid, only the Pope could speak such a diverse set of languages.

When I collect Jacob (a little too early – the International School has a longer school day than his normal school) Jacob is tired. He's been doing art, mathematics, Norwegian, and science today. He tells me the maths is much harder than at his normal school. We discuss this a little as we're leaving. The school receptionist overhears us, and chimes in "yes, we expect them to work here".

Another good sign.

It's Freya's turn in the afternoon to visit Heggedal school, where she runs into some of her old friends. She's wary of the visit, and less enthusiastic than Jacob. Hopefully, she can feel safe here.

Interspersed with this I have long telephone conversations with Austin and Seb, make progress on various bits of work, try to resolve the looming scheduling crisis (nearly done), and completely fail to make headway on invoicing or expenses.

By 4.p.m. I'm exhausted. I lie down for a snooze. I fall asleep immediately. Liz wakes me over an hour later. I chide her for waking me up so early in the morning. She explains it's just before dinner. We'd planned to have a barbecue, but inexplicably Liz has been flaring off gas since the previous barbecue a few days ago, and its run out. Maybe she's practicing for work.

At 6 pm I receive an email from a client to tell me they need to see me in the office tomorrow, rather than working remotely as planned. I start to iron a shirt. I get distracted. I review an abstract Liz is submitting to a conference in London. Liz irons the shirt while I'm reviewing.