June 11, 2020

‘Oh happy day! Oh happy day!’ (Philip Doddridge (1701–51))

WFH: DAY 66. 4.00 am: ‘When morning gilds the sky’, the birds sang a paean of praise in thanksgiving for the new day. 6.30 am:

7.15 am: Breakfast:

8.30 pm: A communion. I determined to slip into the day softly and quietly, so as to preserve that incomprehensible peace which had blessed me from the first. 9.00 am: Fruit tea in hand, buoyed-up by a sense of hope and the anticipation of things to come, I hit the admin trail (again). (In the background: BBC Radio 3’s Essential Classics.) This day would be busy; but I felt no anxious imperative as I set about my tasks. (Which was unusual for me.) 11.00 am: Leg-stretching. I ventured into the studio to rummage among my effectors. It’s a kind of therapy:

11.00 am: I responded to a Tweet from one of our former students. They confessed to missing during lockdown the olfactory and tactile characteristics of archival material:

12.00 pm: Marmite (which, I’m told, was in short supply). 2.00 pm: A second ‘walkaround’ with the fine art staff. On this occasion, we explored the undergraduate Exhibition 1 and MA Exhibition 1. Having talked a little too long about each student yesterday, we kept up a pace this afternoon. And, we’d a much more developed sense of how the land lay in terms of the range and rationale of the marks. There was common sense, charity, and lenience in evidence. The quality of studentship makes a significant contribution to one’s perception of their attainment. At the end of the meeting we discussed, informally, further ideas to assure health and safety when we reboot the School.

7.10 pm: A late and contracted walk. On my return home, the landscape and the heavy clouds reminded me of that first home, in the South Wales’ valleys. And I longed to be there right then. A beautiful melancholy:

8.00 pm: I returned to mark preparation for the remainder of the evening.

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June 10, 2020
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