Saturday, September 28, 8.30 am: This is the first occasion since Tuesday that I’ve felt able to move down into second gear. When the rain had abated, I headed towards town to fulfil domestics. The streets were spare and forlorn. The new students hadn’t yet risen to scour the shops for plants, mug trees, and posters. Perhaps, they no longer do. Phone contracts, wifi, and pizza deals may be their priority:

On my return, I surveyed the landscape of my responsibilities. Level ground was in sight. There was noting imperative to attend to immediately, so I returned to my personal website, ‘John Harvey‘, and its troubles (In the background, Gentle Giant’s Gentle Giant (1970).) During unsettling times and periods of anticipated change, the so-called Progressive Rock music of my teenage years has always been a source of solace. One’s history is ballast.

Website maintenance is a slow slog. Links die or are changed; every one of them needed to be tested. Anomalies creep in, not least when the website provider updates it’s templates. Its exacting, without necessarily being interesting, work.

5.00 pm: ‘I quit!’