1 October 2006 9.22 am gametime (14 or so my time) the Institute is shut. There is a silver Mercedes. Must be that someone is still inside. HASSAN is here. He seems to be poorly. MARTIN, SUPER GIRL and JOHN are all here. I ask if anyone wants to run away with me, but somehow I receive no reply. I decide to leave.

1 October 2006 9.47 am gametime (19 my time) I'm back at the Institute though I failed to get something to get in. MARTIN, SUPERGIRL and JOHN are here. I'm still trying to find HASSAN.

2 October 2006 I am at the institure while the game opens. It is a scary place. HASSAN wonders whether I would like to use the ladder to get in. I decide I'd rather hace a 'chinwag', as he calls it, at the cafe. I don't know what a chinwag is but go anyaway.

3 October 2006 (I forgot the precise time I arrived at tis destination). On the way home, I receive another flurry of messages. Both BARNEY and I arrive at the Rat Research Institute and I notice that yesterday’s ladder which HASSAN thought I should take is no longer there. I now realise that I should have listened to him. FRL AGATHE is here too but is very quiet. I ask around if anyone knows where to find a ladder and BARNEY wonders how I even know that we need one. I realise that I now begin to have a past in the game (i.e., yesterday HASSAN asked if I wanted the ladder to get inside and so today I remember that I need a ladder to get inside), but also that this means I now know what ladders are for – bearing in mind that the first time I encountered a ladder in the game I was at Kath’s Café and QUEENIE, I think, was trying to pass it on to someone. I also realise that although the fact that I have a past allows me to build on my knowledge, it also creates the possibility of false memory and confusion (Did this really happen? Where did it happen? Did I understand correctly? If only I took more notice in what HASSAN said. If only I picked up that ladder yesterday. Where might the ladder be now?). This reminds me of Peter Handke’s play Kaspar but more on this shortly.

4 October 2006 (I do not know the precise time I reached this destination). I come back to my hotel and the game resumes. I do find the stepladder as I was told, and dash back to the Rat Research Institute where I am at last able to accomplish my first mission and rescue the dogs. This is when I get my fist dilemma. I look for BARNEY again and cannot find him.