I made a list of free things and paid for a bun.

My list had five free activities, their opening times and the walking distance between them. At the bottom I had written "relaxed day". This was apparently an instruction to whoever would be operating the list.

My friend Rina agreed to come to the first thing: a small neighbourhood art afternoon where people could sit down and make a collage. The supplies and entry were free that day. I had checked the details. I had also identified a display we could see afterwards and two other places that would fit before dinner.

We arrived and took a seat at the end of a long table. Rina began cutting shapes from a sheet of green paper. I made a small house. The roof was too wide, so I trimmed it. Then the walls looked wrong. After twenty minutes the house had become a shed.

We were already doing something.

I checked the time. If we left soon, we could still make the next stop. Rina asked whether I wanted to leave. I said no, but there were several other things we could do.

She looked at the little shed. "This seems to be keeping you busy."

It was. I had started adding a window, and I wanted to finish the garden. There was no prize for staying, and no one was assessing the work. The person running the table occasionally brought over more scraps. I chose a very small piece of yellow paper as though it were a major purchase.

We stayed until we were done. By then we were hungry. I had brought water but no food, because the list had treated eating as something that would happen at home later.

The bun was within budget.

We bought something to eat. I could afford it; the spending limit I had set for the afternoon had room. Still, I caught myself explaining that the day had been free until this point. Rina said hers had been enjoyable until I began the accounts.

We sat outside the bakery and compared our collages. Hers was a pond. Mine had regained enough confidence to be a house. We did not go to the other four places. They remained on the list, where they were not getting tired or needing the washroom.

At home I put the little house on the fridge. I kept the list for another day, but removed the suggested order. The next time Rina asked what I fancied doing, I sent her one thing.