8.15 am: A communion. I’ve been pumping myself full of gluten over the past few weeks to ensure that my body has an opportunity to react against it, prior to a blood test for Celiac. I need a definitive answer. In the meantime, I suffer the consequences. 9.00 am: On with marking, and the Art/Sound submissions.

The submissions are presented on PowerPoint, and are designed to encourage an intermedial approach to essay writing. The much of the text is embedded as spoken sound files.

11.00 am: I met with my favourite American: Ms McKay at a local coffee bar. As we discussed, there are some people whose outlook and demeanour invigorate, and others who seem to leech you of all energy by the action of the same. Kassie is one of the former. ‘I look forward to meeting with you again!’:

12.00 pm: Back at home, I pressed on. The PowerPoint mode encourages the art historians to be visually alert. Those with a grasp of the media genuinely innovate with it, like a fine art student might. As I remarked in one of feedback comments: ‘The PowerPoint presentation enabled the essay to take on a creative identity that it would not otherwise have possessed as text on paper alone’. Elsewhere I observed: ‘The contrast between text read on screen, text read aloud, and text on screen read aloud, was intriguing’. I’d learned something new. A window had opened.

Each essay takes about two hours to mark and comment on. One further submission filled the evening slot. In the background, I kept an eye on the historic Brexit vote. Corbyn’s call for a vote of no confidence may be the single most important thing he has done as leader of the opposition. Not that he’s done much of importance, to my mind.

In the background to the background, I ruminated and fulminated over matters of a non-work and non-political nature. I’ve not been so vexed by a matter in some time. And this is one not of my making. It has proved to be a strain on the mind, heart and spirit and a distraction throughout the day. Many people have been distressed by the unfolding events. Which is the hardest part to bear.