8.15 am: A communion. 8.45 am: A review of yesterday’s incoming mail. (Whenever possible, I decline to be roused into action on my day-off. However, my principle is always that of : ‘If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?’ (Matthew 12.11). Compassion is the primary consideration. I attended to the ‘ugly stuff’ first. (Like I’m sure many other staff also feel: Christmas can’t come soon enough this year.)

10.30 am: I made trial of a new microphone for use on Teams, Zoom, etc. And also researched the possibility of using a DSLR camera as a webcam. The drive towards a more professional presentational quality was underway. This is the media of both now and the ‘future normal’:

11.00 am: Teaching prep in advance of Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s classes and tutorials. In the background, emails came and went and returned too soon, and went again. 12.00 pm: I reviewed Saturday’s composition and considered file processing that could chug-along in the background of today’s desk work. I slowed down a 3-minute sound sample to the length of one day.

1.30 pm: I took time to re-read my text for the symposium on Friday, as well as for better solutions to clicking between and activating the progression of slides and the scrolling of the text, together. 2.45 pm: Another delouse of an inbox infestation. 3.30 pm: I returned to ‘Black Man Standing’ [working title] and the quest to generate a whistle from the read text of the account. 4.45 pm: The daylight failed as the starlings crossed the sky, heading towards the pier where they’d gather for the night.

7.30 pm: Two references for former students were dispatched. 8.15 am: While attending to further emails, I began constructing a whistle sequence. The ‘tune’, such as there was, needed not to be jolly. I aimed at something that inclined to the atonal. It was an encouraging start. I ended the evening reading through the relevant account. The more clearly I visualise, the more powerfully I ‘audiolise’.