Just before bedtime, I received a telephone call from an old friend to inform me that Martin Budd, one of my secondary-school music teachers, had died at the age of 88 years. Mr Budd (I’ve never been able to call him by his forename) encouraged me to take-up singing and an orchestral instrument, even though I was conspicuously untalented in respect to both. He was a teacher who prized enthusiasm above ability. This attitude left its mark on me, and became a cornerstone of my own pedagogy. Mr Budd contributed so much to not only the music education of his pupils but also his chapel (where he was the organist) and local town choirs and operatic societies. He’d lived his life, and invested his talents, in an exemplary manner.

8.30 pm: I readied myself:

8.50 pm: The storm yesterday had deposited a proportion of the beach on the promenade. Natural displacement, I think it’s called. 9.00 am: The first of the day’s series of MA fine art one-to-one tutorials, and much else besides.

11.00 am: Back at the mothership for a further three tutorials, one via Skype with a painter of horses, rather than with a horse:

2.00 pm: Rachel Luxton (the former Ms Rae) was our guest artist at Vocational Practice. She’d been a BA and MA student at the School, and is now working at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre. She gave an account of her work from her 3rd year as an undergraduate to the present.

3.15 pm: I returned to the Old College for two further MA tutorials, and then back to the School for a lecture on the Professional Practice module, at 5.00 pm:

Some principles and observations derived from today’s engagements:

• About not of.
• That you do do it is significant.
• Working in a sketchbook or drawing book is rather like preparing in a rehearsal room. The canvas or board is, thus, like the stage. And there’re times when we can develop stage fright.
• Things become as we think they are.

7.30 pm: Emails to answer and references to write. Today, I’ve been struck by a number of examples of students who’ve shown extraordinary resilience in the face of monstrous circumstances.