8.00 am. A significant frost overnight had glazed the roads and rooftops in the neighbourhood. Reflection … . 8.50 pm. Off to the Old College to teach third year painters:

Some principles and observations derived from today’s engagements:

• There’s a ‘devil’ on your shoulder who will tell you that your only as good as your worst mark. Don’t believe it!
• To succeed, we must first overcome ourselves.
• Not all courses of action are either possible or necessary or worthwhile or sustainable. Choose to choose. Discriminate. Eliminate. Dictate.
• The brave do not procrastinate.
• Always seek advice. Don’t live by your own counsel only.
• If you’ve any hope of finding your ‘style’ (whatever that may mean), you must first find yourself.
• Don’t obsess about marks; obsess about doing something remarkable.

11.00 am. An additional MA Fine Art tutorial at the Samuel Graham Laboratory, followed by a brief MA Vocational Practice consultation at 12.00 pm, followed by various administrations. I felt a cold coming on. Another Visiting Day was percolating in the background:

1.40 pm. A review of another draft from a PhD Fine Art thesis submission. It’s shaping up. Since one stem of my amaryllis was irreparably damaged in the still mysterious accident last week, the other has prospered and lasted longer than anticipated. There is a lesson in this. We are all limited in our resources. Sometimes, perfectly good activities need to be sacrificed in order to nurture others better.

3.30 pm. An art history examination question review meeting. 4.30 pm. An MA Vocational Practice, workshop project consultation. 5.00 pm. A short tour of the upper studio, in order to take the temperature.

6.30 pm. Practise session 1. 7.30 pm. On with ‘Ways of Working with Sound’ and a further preparation of PowerPoint slides — a great many of them. A set of practical exercises needed to be formulated. I had in mind the sound of a sprung ruler, for one: