8.45 am. When I arrived at the School, our External Examiner was already in one of our comfy chairs awaiting his first examinee to arrive. We discussed his experience of a poltergeist-infested hotel. I’m envious. 9.10 am. I’m working my way through a long overdue ‘to do’ list this morning:

The challenge is not that of executing mundane tasks well, so much as doing it in a manner that maintains one’s own interest. A little Miles Davis in the background vitalises proceedings. I’ve loved his music ever since I was in my mid teens. He is to jazz what Picasso is to art. When I was in New York, in 2011, I took my life in my hands (or so I thought) and the number 4 train through the Bronx to Woodlawn Cemetery, where he’s buried:

Davis has been of the most significant influences on my creative practice. Not that anything I’ve created bears his stamp. My debt is, rather, to the example he set — his bravery, ability to conceive of previously unheard possibilities and to forge new directions (he reinvented jazz several times over in his career), and capacity to inspire those who worked alongside him to give of their best. (He was a great teacher of his peers.) To such an artist, dues are owed:

2.00 pm. A finalisation of the MA Vocational Practice presentation marks before attempting to complete the Chapels in Wales essays.

6.30 pm. Practise session 1. 7.30 pm. Essays, again. A 5,000-word submission takes more than twice as long to mark as a 2,500-word one.