Month: January 2021

WFH: DAY 17. 7.00 am: BBC Radio 3 in the bathroom. 7.30 pm: BBC Radio 4 in the kitchen. (Everyday, except Sundays.) On Saturdays, I allow myself a piece of toast with my cereal, and to linger over breakfast. (‘You’ll spoil yourself, John!’) 8.15 am: Studiology. The mix. To begin: ‘This Sweet Bell Ringing’. This is one of the simplest…

WFH: DAY 17. 8.00 am: 8.15 am: I took my walk — en route to the chemists — along the Promenade, heading towards Constitution Hill. Since 7.00 am, I’d been exchanging occasional tweets with one of the School’s recent alumni. They were suffering a bout of morning Aber-sickness (for, not of). Presently, they’re far afield and developing into a well-loved…

WFH: DAY 16. In the dream, I saw Lindy Morgan. When I awoke, in the middle of the night, I was convinced that she was someone with whom I’d studied at art school. Back then, and in the dream, she had bleached-blond hair that was cut close to the scalp at the back and left long — falling over her right…

If you don’t change, then, you’ll decay. WFH: DAY 15. 7.15 am: 7.45 am: A communion. As of yesterday: There’re have been 100,000 (more, in fact) deaths from Covid-19. The number strains at the imagination. I’ve not lost either a relative, or friend, or colleague to the virus. I suspect that, until I do, that figure will remain an appalling…

I want to be someone other than I am; I want to do something other than I do. WFH: DAY 14. 7.45 am: The busyness of the immediate times required an earlier start. I console myself with the realisation that I’m not having to be a home-school teacher on top of my regular job, as are some of my university…

Now, it’s your turn to talk. WFH: DAY 13. The fall #1. Shortly after finishing work on Saturday, one of the shelf arrays in my study collapsed. The wall, to which they’d been fixed for the last twenty four years (a chimney breast), had become sufficiently damp (due to weeks of incessant rain) for the plaster to soften and loose…

WFH: DAY 12. In my dream, the School of Art was in the process of occupying a large and splendid manor, reminiscent of Gregynog Hall in Newtown, Powys. Here, the staff and students would be residential. During the move, I’d lost the keys to my accommodation and office. In dream-lore, losing a key can either be ‘the omen of a…

WFH: DAY 11. I dreamt about a small bird that would, when out-of-sight, transform itself into a jet-black raven and swoop about the stairwell. 7.30 am: I felt unusually buoyant today. 8.00 am: A much-to-do day (again). Emailation, to begin: In these present times, even one-line letters are ‘accessorized’ with various expressions of concern and hope of wellbeing. You just…

Thursday, January 21. WFH: DAY 10. 8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: On with marking and the administration of such, and with arrangements for next week’s teaching. (In the background: Charlie Parker’s Jam Sessions (1952).) I’m most conscious of those things that Ill be doing for the last time. 11.00 am: I attended a conference-call about student mental-health issues. Treading…

WFH: DAY 9. 8.30 am: I set up the Teams room for a day of MA Vocational Practice presentations. We’ll each be the other’s teacher today. This was a hairy endeavour. Some students were experiencing internet outages, storms, and various ‘bugs’ in the display mechanism. It felt like trying to do something normal on he raft of the Medusa. I…