Saturday. To begin, a little field-recording resourcing in readiness for next week. I then undertook the annual CV and website MOT update and reconciliation procedure. I was struck by how little I’d achieved during the last year, how effortlessly web links ‘die’, the anomalies in the text (still), and the welter of things that have yet to be achieved in my career. And time and energy are not on my side.

Sunday. After lunch, we travelled to Strata Florida Abbey. I hadn’t returned in decades. CADW had arranged an open weekend, which appeared to be well attended. Too little remains to evoke a strong sense of the building’s presence. The medieval floor tiles are, for me, the most resonant aspect of the complex: a place where the monks’ feet fell as they traversed, at work and prayer, from one part of the abbey to another. Fascinatingly, the tiles were laid out in a grid formation, at right angles to another grid (a ‘ghost’ of a grid) inscribed upon them. Now, there was an idea to conjure with:

Today. Health issues and postgraduate admin to begin. Research admin followed. The SteelWork project has had to be placed on hold due to issues regarding copyright that remained unresolved. I needed to know whether the doors to progress were going to remain closed for the foreseeable future. If so, I’d move on to something else. Not all things are possible always. And, some things are possible only sometimes. 12.30 pm: Correspondence posted. I can only wait for a response.

1.00 pm: A research-update lunch with Dr Roberts. Sometimes there’s an abundance of possibilities, but too few opportunities; sometimes there’re many opportunities, but too few takers; and sometimes there’re a great many takers, but too few givers.

2.30 pm: I wrote a shirty letter to another university on behalf of someone else. 4.00 pm: Back to PhD draft dissertation reviewing.

7.30 pm: I returned to Saturday’s agenda – updating websites and professional profiles.