Bright skies will soon be o’er me, where darkest clouds have been (Anna Letitia Waring (1820–1910)).

8.15 am: A better day:

9.00 am: There was time for minor adminy tasks related to assessment, postgraduate matters, and research before my shipment of assessees arrived. 10.15 am: The beginning. 2.10 pm: The end. And, in between, a great deal of wise words, sagacity, sober thoughtfulness, gentle rebuke, focussed encouragement, resolution, repentance, and illumination:

2.20 pm: A hurried, late lunch before an afternoon of assessment write ups, with occasional peaks at the US Presidential Inauguration. (I’ll refrain from commenting.)

5.20 pm: Eventide:

6.15 pm: Practise session 1. 7.15 pm: Studiology. Before re-adding the repaired devices, Pedalboard I required a complete overhaul of its power supply system in order to ensure that as many effectors as possible had an independent, isolated input. After a day of heads-on work, a hands-on activity made for a welcome change:

9.30 pm: 1982:

On walking down the rough track from the National Library of Wales towards my studio at the Art Department on Llanbadarn Rd, I saw sunlight — diffuse and shimmering — on the sea. At the same time, I became aware of a strongly illuminated playing field in the middle distance, with rugby players, kitted in blue and red, in various positions, against the saturated emerald-green grass. I experienced a mixture of delight in the elusive feeling stirred by these phenomena and of frustration at my inability to convey them (Aberystwyth, Diary > November 12, 1982).

Some principles and observations derived from today’s engagements:

• Discover the water that you can swim in best.
• Making art gives us spectacles and, thereby, a vision of the world that would otherwise be impaired.
• Discipline is your defence against slackness, vacuity, and self-indulgence.
• When you have to choose … follow either the style, or subject matter, or sensibility that has taught you the most thus far.
• Focus, prune, narrow, delimit, jettison, abandon.
• Nothing ‘just happens’.
• Learning can often be of greater value than succeeding.