May 29, 2018

6.45 am: Late night; late start. I’m a creature of routine; departures from it unsettle me. 7.30 am: A communion. 8.30 am: Off to the School to return papers and deliver the mark sheets completed thus far. ‘BUNNIES!’ More bunnies on the School lawn than previously:

I have this vision of the Edward Davies Building disappearing into the ground, having been undermined by a vast network of warrens. 9.45 am: Back at home, I pressed on with Vocational Practice marking.

The Guardian League Tables 2019 have been published. This is one of a number of such tables. They don’t share all the same metrics, so the results aren’t comparable, strictly speaking. The aim is to be as near to the top of one’s sector as possible across all of them. Quite how the attainment converts into applications is anyone’s guess. Intending applicants look to not only the department but also the university and its locale. Those, too, have to be in division one:

11.15 am: I returned to the Nomine Numine masters. Tracks two and four each required a minor tweak. I wanted to complete the masters before close of Friday. 12.58 pm: An accident; a determination was executed that had been planned for the close of Friday. A letter was dispatched before time. I couldn’t retrieve it, and was aghast. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The tent was suddenly lowered, and the pegs pulled up. ‘Trust the timing, John! “God’s time is the best time”.’ In that moment, a new chapter had begun.


‘Continue … ‘. 2.00 pm: It was getting warm. The heat rises to the top of the house, where I am. A descent into the cellar to dig out the cooling towers was written down on my ‘to do’ list. In the background, The Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Dream, from the Between Nothingness and Eternity (1973) album. To my mind, the final few minutes are among the most emotionally charged in the history of music. It’s the soul’s cry, and the heart’s outpouring, the will’s submission, to their maker. On with Vocational Practice marking, and down the hatch with an iced lime cordial:

No doubt further submissions would arrive this evening and tomorrow (the day of the deadline).

7.30 pm: And one did. Get to! I’ve been impressed by the standard of submission for this module. The students have worked very hard, maturely, and with a determination to behave professionally. They’ve provided a very helpful sidelight on the tutorial assessments in particular. The submissions plopped into my inbox without ceremony.

And, to close:

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