WFH: DAY 50/LENT 19. 6.30 am: I lay in bed last night wrapped around a hot-water bottle, and on an electric blanket, trying to shake off a gathering chill. My early-morning dreams were noisy and delirious — something about me having to superimpose a different version of the CD compositions upon the ones that I’ve just completed. ‘This is madness!’, I protested. On waking, ‘tiredness’ and ‘mild-flu symptoms’ (as described in the leaflet that accompanied the jab) prevailed. Ah, well! Since this was likely to be my lot for the next few days, I rescheduled meetings, where I could, and halved the length of each tutorial. I needed to pace myself. And this strategy was preferable to cancellations. 7.30 am: I rested in the armchair after breakfast, before posting notifications regarding my circumstances.

9.00 am: I’d operate an on/off (work/rest) pattern throughout the day. I returned to the CD design, before teaching began. I’d forgotten quite how long this aspect of the sound projects takes.

10.30 am: Respite. 11.00 am: Now, how do you crop circles from rectangular images in Photoshop? One ought to take as much responsibility for the design and packaging as for the contents of a CD album. I’ve only myself to blame, then. 12.15 pm: A delayed MA fine art tutorial (compressed):

1.00 am: A staff meeting to consider our ongoing response to online admissions events. 1.45 pm: In second gear, I returned the CD design. An end was in sight. 3.30 pm: I dealt with a student inquiry about my past work. 3.45 pm: I composed a set of instructions for the CD’s wallet and booklet designer. My homage to Tom Phillips’s ‘This night wounds time’, which is printed on the rear of the cover for King Crimson’s album Starless and Bible Black:

6.30 pm: Practise session. 7.30 pm: My mind was frazzled and my limbs were heavy. So, I worked on something mechanical: generating a second set of masters; this time, without any ‘hard limiting’ — for comparative purposes. I’m always ready to be surprised. ‘Interrogate your assumptions, John!’