Surveys for Sunday 15 May 2011

Uid 11

Went to see a preview of "Win Win" with Paul Giamatti (directed by Thomas McCarthy, who also directed the excellent "The Station Agent" and "The Visitor")- a feel good and gentle film examining relationships, as all his films do.

After that came home and had lunch before going down to look at our newly allocated allotment on a prime site. We had intended to just spend half an hour or so there before I went home and chained myself to the big pile of marking that renews itself every few days. I ended up getting seduced by the lure of a big bonfire to clear lots of the weeds and other plant debris there. Ended up staying until 6.30 and felt shattered but happy. Came home and went for a pint and curry at our local pub before watching "Die Hard 4" (again!).

My wife was very happy that I had a day off marking - I'm looking at another two weeks at least, but with some interruptions for social activities planned to stop me staring at paper and screens all the time.

Last time that I will have this intensity of marking to contend with. Looking forward to being time-rich and cash-poor but with the roof over our heads paid for.

Uid 13

It was bad luck for my participation in the Share project--15 May was my first day completely off in weeks. So I did nothing related to work at all.

A week before Easter, my teaching assistant contacts me, distraught. Her brother had just died. She's dropping out of school for the rest of the term. I offer my condolences and hang up. That's the last I hear from her. Two weeks later, as the semester ends, I have all the grading to do that she didn't finish, plus the final exam to handle myself, plus my 40-person Senior Design to grade (all the final project documentation, project designs, personal reflections, etc.). I then had the most intense 10 day grading session I've had in my 18 years at the university. I finished on May 9, at 11 am (grades were due at noon). May 12-14, I had a three day meeting, working on the new Advanced Placement Exam.

So, when the 15th rolled around, I was ready for a day off. Went to church in the morning, then did the weekly grocery shopping. We then took the whole family to the Renaissance Festival. We (my whole family) used to go annually, so we have costumes. We had a fun time, watching juggling and hypnosis demonstrations. In the evening, we watched the latest Doctor Who episode. Great fun! But no work.

Uid 14

Writing this two days later, it's hard to remember some of the details. I'll do my best. In the morning, I remembered it was the 15th and that I should be keeping a log, but that slipped away for days afterward. Ironically, the next day I forgot it was the 16th too, so I suppose I'm on Summer mode.

Woke up around 7 to do the morning routine: get 16-month-old out of bed, set him on the toilet, sit uncomfortably on the floor, diaper him up. The two boys must have eaten something, but we did go to 9am church service, so it must not have been a grand breakfast. I am particularly irked at the music after having traveled with a research colleague who attends the same church, who himself is irked with the music, as he told me on the drive home. Now the things that bother him also bother me.

Donuts and coffee after the service. I run into a friend who I know socially and who works at a local IT company. Aside from some theological discussions, I mention to him that I have a meeting in the next two weeks with the upper management of his company and my university president, provost, and others to discuss how the company and the university can leverage each other. I have been stressing about this meeting (which was scheduled earlier in the year and then postponed) for two main reasons: my administration has made it patently clear that they do not understand technology or entrepreneurship (despite having a "ranked" entrepreneurship program, the bureaucracy kills all ideas), and the company has laid off almost all their engineers and now outsources everything to India. I joked with my friend that I was going to go in "guns blazing" and challenge the CEO, saying

that if he wanted to work together he had to hire some of my students instead of some idiots in India, and my friend suggested I not bring that up.

His suggestion was an interesting one, though. He suggested that quality is the biggest problem in the company---quality control overall, a process and administrative problem. Of course, one cannot walk into a meeting of executives and say "you are the problem," but it sounds like that's the case. I've heard it from multiple sources. It's the old problem of trying to apply industrial metrics to knowledge work. I have to think of some disposition I can have for this meeting that can be potentially fruitful, and that's going to be challenging. This is especially true since one of my colleagues has been working with this company for ages, through a third party, and I have zero respect for the technical or managerial skill of this colleague...or for that matter, of most of the other people in my department. To cut to the chase, if there's going to be any help for them, it's pretty much going to have to come from me, and I'm just not sure if I care that much when there's other scholarship to do.

Got home and made experimental eggs, which turned out really good: a fritatta with orange peppers, onions, chorizo, cheddar cheese, and cumin.

Played some board games with my wife and older son while the younger one napped.

Played some computer games.

Read the paper.

Made Turkish coffee.

In the afternoon, I spent some time thinking about a poster I needed to design for the coming week, a research poster that also serves as pitch for a grant. I stared at it for a while and tried coming back to it several times, but mostly ended up processing email, checking Facebook, playing games, or otherwise no working on it. I have been working like mad through the intersession, and there's a break in sight after the coming week, and I'm just tired. This meeting later in the week is a regular one and it can be soulcrushing, especially knowing how much my wife thinks it's a waste of my time.

After dinner, I make some actual progress on the poster and send drafts to my three colleagues. Then, my wife and I watch Deadwood and turn in.

Uid 21

~8:30 am woke up, read e-mail and blogs for about an hour

9:20-9:40 am breakfast

9:40-10:10 went through tables of contents for the past 5 months

looking for papers to use for journal clubs in one of my classes.

10:10-10:20 deleted some old e-mail, responded to Doodle poll for

student advance to candidacy scheduling

10:20-10:55 cleaned out lots of old email messages

10:55-11:15 showered and got dressed

11:15-11:18 requested new account on RAST for annotating a genome

11:20-11:40 put laundry in washing machine and reheated leftovers for lunch

11:40-11:50 read teacher blogs

11:50-12:10 uploaded genome to RAST site for annotation, replied to a

comment on my blog.

12:10-12:20 filled out RAST forms about genome, but it seems to have

lost the coverage, number of contigs, and read length info I provided.

I hope that none of those matter. (There were only 2 contigs,

corresponding to the two chromosomes, coverage was about

24.5x, and read length averaged around 410.)

12:20-12:50 read teacher blogs

12:50-13:10 read and comment on various blogs

12:10-13:25 fold towels, transfer laundry to dryer, make tea

13:25-13:40 wrote a short blog post about Bob Samuels article at

http://renewal.org.uk/articles/how-universities-became-hedge-funds/

3:40-14:00 helped high-school robotics club check that programs could

be downloaded to Arduino Uno (as well as Duemilanove) and run

the motor shield. [Worked fine on my Mac, so problem was most likely on

the Windows machine the student was using at home.]

14:00-14:05 Looked up the documentation for installing the Arduino Uno

drivers on a Windows machine and e-mailed them.

14:05-14:10 Muffin break

14:10-14:45 wrote another blog post and scheduled it for tomorrow.

14:45-15:00 at with robotics club as they debugged a C++ program for

controlling the arm. (Bug was an unsiged instead of signed

char, which they found themselves.)

15:00-16:10 biked downtown, bought a can of tea leaves, drank

complimentary tea while reading two papers that will be

presented in journal club by students this coming week.

16:10-16:40 did grocery shopping on the way home.

16:40-16:55 read e-mail and responded to a post on an Arduino forum

16:55-17:05 folded and put away laundry

17:05-17:10 read blogs (mainly FemaleScienceProfessor)

17:10-17:40 chopped up branches to fit into greenwaste can

17:40-18:05 read blogs

18:05-18:40 cleared over-size messages from my spamfilter (one of

which was the call for my merit review next year---the deparment

manager had attached a wholly unnecessary scanned PDF file of my

biobibliography)

18:40-18:55 read 43 e-mail messages on the AP-bio mailing list.

18:55-19:00 read blog posts and high-school newsletter from son's school.

19:00-19:25 modified Makefiles and started protein-structure

predictions for a colleague

19:25-20:05 dinner with family

20:05-21:20 reading history of programming languages essays by Alan

Kay and Bjarne Stroustrup and writing a blog post about them.

21:20-22:05 watched Whose Line is it Anyway? (on YouTube) with family,

took pills, practiced a little self-defense with son (from his

PE class)

22:05-22:15 read e-mmail and checked progress of protein structure predictions.

22:15-22:35 did situps and leg lifts with son, and looked on web for

the origins of the use of lambda in lambda calculus (we found

the story he alluded to of it starting out as a caret over the

variable, which I had not heard before).

22:30-23:00 read e-mail and responded to Arduino forum post about

pulse-width modulation on the Arduino motor shield.

23:00 checked status of genome annotation job. It still hasn't

started at RAST.

23:00-23:05 Brushed teeth and prepared for bed.

Uid 22

Yet another sunday that didn't follow my plans.

I took my daughter early to the dojo so I could help her and her friend with their techniques. They soon have a graduation and need to improve a bit.

But unfortunately I also needed to write on a grant application so I brought with me some papers and the iPad hoping to get some work done.

So first 1.5 hour of helping the girls, then 1h being the instructor for a group of kids, then a quick drive home with daughter and directly back again, followed by the supervision of two younger instructors (which did their work very well), then pizza in the microwave at the dojo, followed by few hours of grant application, then it was time for my workout but it turned out that my leg hurt so I had to stop at once (I don't want to get some inflammation in my leg due to exercising when I should get the leg the chance to heal). Then waiting for my son to complete the workout (which means more grant application stuff), and finally back home again. This means that I left home at 10 and got home at 20:30. Then some more writing on the application.

Then to bed.

Uid 23

Marking, marking, marking. 430,000 words to give feedback on in 6 weeks, then more coming in!

Uid 24

May 15, 2011

Sunday. Went to 8:00 AM mass - out the door at 7:30. After we came home one of my wife's guitar ensemble friends came over to practice. Great for me - I graded exams to live music :-) Spent most of the day grading, helped my older daughter with some math homework, and picked up my younger from her friend's house. Overall, not a bad day at all.

Uid 26

Sunday...a good day. Slept in (a real treat) and then went to church with my daughter. Then we went out to lunch (delightful). Returned home and did some housework. Finally logged in to check emails around 4 pm. Online classes for summer term start tomorrow and I still don't have everything set up.

Working on some of the learning modules and discussion groups. Spent most of the evening dividing classes into discussion groups and entering topics for them to discuss. Went to bed around 11 pm.

Uid 28

Marking; pub; dinner; bed.

Uid 31

I'm writing this after the fact since I forgot about the survey on Sunday!

On Sunday, I slept in a bit, until 8:30 or so. I had taken a red-eye back from a conference on Wednesday night in order to see my students' presentation, and only on Sunday did I really start to feel caught up on sleep.

I cooked breakfast and did some things around the house (dishes, laundry) that needed to get done before my husband returned from his conference trip. (I would feel bad if he came home to a mess in the kitchen and couldn't put his dirty clothes in the washing machine.)

I didn't get to work quite as early as I would have liked - not until 10 or so, I think. I had some email to catch up on, including last-minute extra credit work from students that needed to be entered in my grade book. I had committee-related email piled up in my Inbox in the aftermath of the conference, but decided to ignore it in favor of more urgent work for the upcoming finals week.

I had started writing a take-home final exam for my HCI students on Saturday. I like to leave myself some time to come back to the questions later and see if they still make sense. So I reviewed the exam and revised a few questions, though overall it seemed fairly good. I created a PDF and posted it on the web for students to download, then sent them an email to let them know it was there, as I had promised. Take-home exams are pretty common at my institution, though I've never posted one on the web before. I trust my students to follow the rules laid out for the exam, and I set up the web site so they would have to read the rules before downloading the exam problems. I'll take it off the web as soon as all the students have turned their work in.

I made lunch for myself and read a novel while I was eating. I also figured out what to make for a potluck on Monday night. I gathered up the ingredients that were already in the house and also made a shopping list.

I got back to work around two. I had an exam to grade for my intro class, which I had meant to start a lot earlier. Students in my introductory course had completed the exam before my conference trip more than a week ago. I felt bad - usually I get exams back to my intro class within a week. I had taken it on my trip, but it was foolish to think I would have time to work on it while traveling and going to the conference. (I had graded some essays for my other class, which I was also behind on - but that is another story.) The syllabus also offered an optional final exam on Wednesday morning, so I needed to get students' last exam back to them so they could decide whether to take the optional final.

Since the weather had gotten nice, I took the exam outside to grade, though I soon discovered I needed some impromptu paperweights to keep the exam from blowing away. I pretty much just plowed through the problems, going through all the papers one or two problems at a time. My colleague and I have a lot of experience writing exams for this class, so it was pretty straightforward to grade (though there was one problem that nobody got).

When I checked my phone at about 4:30 I discovered I had gotten a text message from my husband, whose plane had just landed, asking if we needed anything from the grocery store. Grocery problem solved! A few texts later, he was done shopping and on his way back home. I managed to grade all but the last problem when I looked up and he was home, so I took a break to talk with him and put the groceries away.

By the time we were done unpacking and putting things away, and he had started a load of laundry, we decided it was time to make dinner. I made a quick pasta dish with sausage my husband had just bought and broccoli raab from our CSA share, a favorite recipe we hadn't made in a long time. We had a bottle of wine with dinner and praised our CSA farmer for growing the broccoli raab (which we

had specifically asked for). The evening was nice and both of us had been sitting most of the day, so we took a walk afterward.

By the time we got back, I decided it was too late for grading. I figured no student would want their exam back before 10 a.m. or so on Monday morning [embarrassingly, I was wrong] so I decided to grade the last problem in my office in the morning. We read in the living room for a while and went to bed at about 11.

Uid 34

15 May 2011

=============

00:01 - 00:50 Am editing a volume of conference proceedings. EasyChair (thanks, Andrei) does make much of the legwork easier, but of course does little for the intellectual difficulties: has this author REALLY revised his paper sufficiently?

00:50 Bed calls: further decisions would not be wise. However, I get diverted via a Sudoku, and don't make it until 01:30

08:00 Alarm. Daily routine and breakfast.

09:15 25 minutes on the conference proceedings

09:40 Leave house for morning AA meeting, after which I get a lift from a friend who lives very close to the University.

12:00 On campus: decide to have a working lunch with WiFi in the Parade Bar on campus, having just beaten the students to the rush. This also means I get to pick the rarest roast beef. £5.95.

12:45 Finish working lunch, having got the preface out to all members of the Programme Committees (it's a multi-track conference) to check affiliations etc. Walk over to new open-plan office.

13:00 Back in the new office. We've been moved to Siberia (Our new open-plan office is cold and in the Far East), with the Deputy VC playing Lavrenti Pavlovitch [Beria] to the VC's Josef Vissarionovich [Dzhugashvili/Stalin]. By the time I get there, I've been sent the first correction to the list.

13:30 Now I'm down to preparing the table of contents, rearranging papers into tracs (some got moved to the 'conflict of interest' track) and ensuring that they are in alphabetical order (EasyChair produces a list in rank order!). It's hard to make things fool-proof because fools are so ingenious! Some people have complicated macros in the titles of their paprs, which confuse the table-of-contents processor. Also Claudio Sacerdoti Coen has surname Sacerdoti Coen and first name Claudio, whereas Maria Emilia Maietti has surname Maietti and first names Maria Emilia, and so on.

19:00 Finished the first draft, and off to the evening AA meeting (where I am Treasurer). This is followed by a business meeting, and a discussion on Higher Education with another recovering alcoholic.

22:00 Home for dinner, and another session on the proceedings. Get the draft ToC and author index out to all the authors.

23:59 Still at it. Net balance for a day on which the University doesn't pay me (they deduct 1/260th of annual salary for every strike day) is 8 hours conference proceedings and 3/4 general admin. Of course, in a science subject edited books of this sort don't count for the REF, but are still part of "research environment".

Uid 38

It's 'Helicopter Sunday' in the Scottish football league - unfortunately that means the maurauding hordes descending on Rugby Park...

The 15th falls on a Sunday this time, and today is so busy (going to football with son, taking daughter to swimming lesson, etc, etc) that I don't get any work started until about 10pm. Have to do some,

though, as there is too much marking to be done and not enough time to do it. A slight complication is that the EIS is directing members not to submit marks as part of industrial action short of a strike. I'll get the marking done and then see what happens.

If I ever have to read another excruciating individual evaluation report of a group project I will be forced to scream - unfortunately I will be doing a lot of group project marking over the next few days, so I'd better scream quietly so I don't disturb my office colleague. It's almost enough to make exam marking seem like fun.

I do have some very good PG students, though, who actually do work very well on group projects. One of these students said to me the other day "I'm not that interested in the marks - I'm here for the learning", which struck me as the complete opposite of the attitude of the majority of UG students.

Better get on with the marking - the deadline is looming...

Uid 45

Yesterday was graduation day. We had a good speaker, but we were packed in like sardines in a can in uncomfortable chairs. For more than 2 hours I was trying to find a position that would relieve the pain in my back and shoulders, to no avail. I just kept on telling myself "they pay me to do this, they pay me to do this..."

Grades are almost all calculated and turned in. Will finish that on Monday. Today, no obligations!!!

Uid 46

I try to keep weekends clear of work, but as we all know, this time of year is hectic with marking exams, marking project reports, working on papers and grant applications for summer submission, ... I am behind on marking exam scripts for my two courses, so devoted 0900-1800 today to marking the 75 scripts in the Advanced Programming course. Of course, since this is not one of the sample weeks for me to complete a time sheet, the powers that be will never know ...

Performed blind marking, as per requirement, but having had this cohort for courses in both the Autumn and the Spring, was able to make educated guesses as to who did well and who did poorly. This is a pretty competent cohort in programming and systems, so the average score was quite good; ~20% are A's. It's nice to see that after the effort that I put into lecturing and assisting during labs that some of the material actually is committed to at least medium term memory in the students' heads.

Uid 47

15 May 2011

8:00 am We're on the road today. My nephew celebrated his first communion yesterday so my crew journeyed on over to watch it. Now we're trying to wake up and get ourselves together for the day. I let the kids stay up late so they're groggy. (I'm not expecting to get many work-related tasks done today.)

9:45 pm Home at last. I don't think I have the energy to do any work at this point, though I see some email has piled up so I'll probably go through that.

I have meetings starting at 10 tomorrow and teach in the evening so it'll be a long day once it gets rolling.

Uid 50

Our semester is officially over, and the graduation ceremony was today. I'm at home though, watching the kids, as my wife caught a bug from one of her students and is in rough shape. (This was a bit of a relief, actually, as otherwise I'd have had to decide whether to join a faculty boycott of the graduation ceremony to protest some heavy-handed revisions to our benefits package!)

As possible, I've been finishing up some final grading today, and corresponding with students. I've also got "homework" to do regarding our curriculum review process, but I'm procrastinating on that. In other news, my long-awaited (and dreaded) meeting with the dean to address a switch to a lab-

based model for our intro courses took place two days ago. It was a resounding success, from our perspective, and I'm still basking in the glow a bit.

Since my last report, a bit of big news is that our department (a combined Math/CS department) has decided unanimously that a soon-to-be-vacated faculty position on the Math side should go to hiring a CS person. It's not up to us -- we need to lobby the dean to be allowed to hire -- but it's exciting to think about growing from three to FOUR CS faculty. Of course, the universe giveth, and the universe taketh away: While I've spoken previously about one of my fabulous new colleagues who's likely to leave, I've only recently discovered that the OTHER might be on his way out as well. Sigh.

Uid 52

This is the second day of a weekend of birthday celebrations for a friend, so a late breakfast followed by some free time this morning before meeting up for lunch with all those who have been celebrating the weekend. I caught the train home and was back at about 5.30pm absolutely shattered after a very late night on Saturday. I relaxed this evening – the only work I did was to check in with emails and to start to worry about how many nights I am going to have to work this week to complete the marking in time for the exam board!

Uid 53

I've been fairly disconnected from my University's activities while out of the country for eight months, but this last month or two since my return has been a rude awakening. This was churned up on Sunday while at lunch with a colleague.

My general observation is a parallel I see between my university's management and that of the country. Principally, they present their ideas so badly. They're made up of intelligent people (I assume), and have good reasons for what they're doing. Is the failure to communicate their reasons to those who work for, or vote for, them down to oversight or arrogance?

Examples at the level of government involve the fees issue. Presenting them as fees has attracted all manner of bad press and instilled genuine fear among parents by promoting the view that from 2012, each student will need to find £9K. But they won't. The 'fees' are not fees, they're fee-loans, or in many cases fee-waivers. Students won't pay the money back until they can - many never will. Furthermore, there is plenty of research showing that the best return on educational investment takes place at the 0-5 age group, and then steadily declines through primary, secondary and tertiary education. Yet currently, the most money is spent on tertiary education per head, with steadily reducing amounts through secondary, primary and pre-school. This is a compelling argument for shifting the balance of education funding. I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with what the government is doing - I'm just amazed that they don't think it's worth spelling out their reasoning more clearly in order to take the electorate with them.

Similarly in the University here, there is a clear failure to articulate policy that is created by an ever-more unrepresentative, and diminishing, body at the top of the institution. One example is a decision to close a number of subject areas in the face of imminent budget reductions. At no point has the senior management made a coherent attempt that I've seen to argue why these particular areas, not those, should close. But surely there must be such an argument in place? One is left to assume incompetence or mendacity at the top, neither of which any sensible management group would want to attract.

Hey ho. On balance, my colleague and I are erring toward mendacity. The University is in the process of spending £13M on a new student records system. From the very first day it was announced, we in CS have noted all the typical hallmarks of failure in procurement of public sector IT systems. At so many levels, this process and system are broken. We, a highly-rated department with specific interest in accident analysis and software engineering failures, have duly reported our concerns on many occasions. But there is no point. Nobody listens. They talk about consultation and transparency, but these are smokescreen words for apparently listening but then doing nothing.

My colleague is only a year or two from retiring, and so while he is amazed at the incompetence displayed, he appears content to hold his station on the juggernaut. I'm left wondering how you do get

heard. Do I have to go to the press? What evidence do I have? Data Access Requests have parts of meeting minutes redacted. Why? What is there to hide? Surely it can be nothing other than some wrong-doing?!

Another colleague, also at retirement, recommends the light-hearted approach. "You mustn't let it get to you" - and of course I know the truth of that. Laugh about it with friends and take the next step. But where do we take a stand? What issues are large enough? Surely twenty-five thousand staff and students should stand against a management group of four, for the sake of the good standing of their institution?

Damn. I'm on the fence, or rather, still keeping my head below the parapet. Where **is** the Vice Principal's number....?

Uid 60

It was a lazy Sunday morning. I got up late - the after effects of attending a party on Saturday night. I spent some time chatting with family on Skype. It seems parents continue to give advice even when the brood has quit the nest.

After a long nap in the afternoon, I was ready to tackle the conference paper I was preparing. I worked steadily till dinner time. All in all, a very satisfying Sunday.

Uid 64

I had intended not to do any work today, not to make myself look more interesting for the Share Project, but because I really wanted a break. The last few months have been hectic. However, my preferred alternative activity was a long walk, and as it was pouring with rain when I got up, I thought that I might as well spend a couple of hours preparing a presentation I have to give on Wednesday to replace a colleague who's ill. I also looked over a job application for one of my MA tutees.

After that, my daughter, who's starting GCSEs tomorrow, wanted a lift to the cinema with her friends. Fair enough - she has been working really hard and I think it's a good idea to do something completely different. We live in the middle of nowhere, so it was over an hour round trip. Still raining, so back to the computer - in all honesty, this probably just a displacement activity so I don't have to do any housework! Day job vs housework - now that was a choice made many years ago!

Uid 65

Sunday 15th may 2011

I set aside the whole of Sunday to work on a paper that has been sitting around for months, largely unwritten. I find it really difficult to write papers if I don’t have a decent, uninterrupted period of time – like ten days or so. I simply cannot get the job done when I am trying to do it in a couple of hours here and half a day there. I lose my train of thought and end up starting from scratch every time. I thought if I could make a real start today I might be able to find some more time later in the week.

Alas, my plans came to nought. I sat and stared at the scribbles on my paper for some time but couldn’t summon up the courage to actually make any progress at all. In the end I gave up and had what most other people in the country were doing – having a rest.

Uid 67

I intended to mark four Honours Project dissertations when I worked from home on Friday, but only managed one and a half. They are so poorly written and constructed, it's truly painful to read them. Knowing I'd failed to get much done, the thought of reading the others weighed heavily on my mind all day Sunday. Instead we spent the day coming to terms with our finances - another unpleasant task, yet still more inviting than the marking.

In my living room are several books I've taken out of the library or ordered to read and help me with my teaching and they stare at me shouting 'work! work! work!'. It's stressful and makes me panic a bit, so I turn my attention from them. I shouldn't complain because it's a fascinating topic and I love reading these things - it's hardly work at all, yet once it becomes tied to the concept of work...it loses its appeal and fills me with worry. So, instead we tried to take a walk outside, but it was raining, so

we walked around the flat pointing out various DIY things we needed to do, sat down and had a cup of tea instead and talked about the past.

Uid 71

I don't really work at the weekends. I try to keep a strict separation between home and work. I have just moved to working at home which makes this even more important. The exciting news is that I am now dog-sitting! I was not looking forward to a long summer of trying to write at home (boring and lonely and stressful!) but I replied to an add on gumtree and now I look after a Spaniel. Good to have someone to chat to and an excuse to go for a midday walk.

Usually at the weekends I read the newspaper to keep up to date with contemporary issues for a course I teach on criminal justice but that is over (and I won't be teaching it in the autumn) so I get to read for general interest.

Glance at my e mails to see if there is anything intertesting but only reply to a colleague's e mail about accomodation and travel to a conference on drug policy in Utrecht next week. Mainly I have a lovely day pottering about in the garden, go a friend's house for a barbeque.

Currently all my friends seem to be getting pregnant. I can't think about it until I have done my book. I've given myself 2 years to get the book out. After that, who knows what might be happening. I started working as a lecturer 2 years ago: it's a bit like arriving at a party after its basically over...

Uid 72

I'm currently spending weekends at my father's house since my mother died earlier in the year, so I started out this morning there sorting out a few domestic things and making lunch. Headed back on the train in the afternoon, a three hour journey, read some of a PhD thesis that I am examining at the end of the week and a couple of papers to review, and then a bit of the London Review of Books for a contrast. Got back, checked email, made dinner, wrote up the reviews from earlier, responded to a few work and personal tasks like paying bills and sorting out arrangements for external examining and answering student queries about the upcoming exam.

Uid 75

19:00 and I have switched the computer for the first time for today. What's more I didn't manage to clear my emails last night. My weekend has been full with a Workshop course looking at issues around the Christian faith and living it out where we live.

What is even nicer is that for the first time for almost a month, I haven't had any marking remaining to be marked. This week, has seen me complete the marking of a final programming exercise, complete moderation of project marking, and go through the moderation of portfolios that I marked for a PGCert in Learning and Teaching.

This marking emphasis was interrupted by students wanting to negotiate project supervisions. I now have ten MSc projects to supervise over the summer teaching break and five or six final year projects for the next academic year. The good part is that most of the final years are working on projects that I want done or I am interested in getting up to speed with. The MSc are more diverse. There are some that are working on projects that I want done but most are working on things that I have knowledge of but it really isn't my major focus.

On Friday, I did get some time to chase down a reference for a paper that has been accepted for a journal. The big difficulty with the reviewers comments is that at least two of them really want me to frame the research in terms of what they see as important. Potentially the research could but when we gathered the data, we were not focused on what they want. Consequently we don't have all the data that I think is needed to address the issues that their framing requires. Still I will read the references they have suggested and see how they relate to our research.

I really wonder how much of the effort to get research published is really about satisfying the way reviewers want the work published rather than simply reporting on the work and the outcomes. I know that I interpret the results in a specific way because of my experience with teaching but I don't have data from that teaching to justify my interpretation. As long as I am in contract teaching role, it is

going to be difficult to collect that data or to raise research money to carry out the research. However, if I can't get the research published, I have no hope of getting a permanent lectureship so it is a case of doing what I can and have to in order to publish what results, I do have.

The coming week will be focused on revising the paper and ensuring it is ready for publishing.

Uid 77

Sunday; the seventh day, the Lord's day, a day of rest. So at least I get the luxury of lying in bed and listening to the radio rather than having to start the frenetic morning rush. I did forget to get the croissants out of the freezer last night, so Sunday breakfast will be the usual cereal and toast. I notice when I check my iPhone that I have an email from a colleagues who clearly isn't having a rest on a Sunday morning since the work-related email has a time stamp of 8.20am! After getting the first batch of washing into the machine, and eating breakfast, I have come to start this report. "Where are you off to?" asks my 18-year-old daughter. We are again working together on her A level biology revision this morning; I am learning quite a lot about molecular biology, and learning how much biology as an A level subject has changed. I wonder whether I can claim this as CPD?

So while we take a break in biology revision, I hang out the washing (and put the next batch in), order on-line a couple of revision books, and standard set a finals paper; is this what is called multi-tasking? Actually I enjoy standard setting; it shows me how much I still remember (or not) of the general curriculum. Back to the washing and revision support! I did hear some noises downstairs that suggested that someone has just emptied the dishwasher. Probably the husband who has discovered something he needs is in it!

Third (and hopefully final) batch of washing in. First batch pretty much dry on the line but the weather is not looking hopeful for batch two. So I've resorted to the climate destroying tumbler dryer, without which, as a working mum, I'd never get clothes dry. Lunch time pizza now cooked, in between conversations about the normal distribution and interpreting z scores (A level revision again).

Having sorted out last batch of washing (sun now out again), and prepared dinner for the oven, I have returned to the computer to read (and reply to) a couple of work related emails, and a couple of personal ones. In the background, I can hear my husband doing his daily clarinet practice.

I have finally carved out a couple of hours to read the material I need to for a training day next week. Not without interruptions (Husband wants me to look at the light he has bought for our new house, daughter wants to share her success with her Statistics revision) I find myself getting snappy and irritated. All I want is a bit of peace and time to enjoy reading about new and challenging things. A couple more emails have arrived; far fewer than on a weekday. But clearly many of my colleagues also catch up with things on a Sunday afternoon.

Time now for a cup of tea, to collect in the washing, and get ready to attend evening service at the chaplaincy. Then the traditional Sunday evening pre-prandial aperitif (G&T tonight I think), dinner, and an hour or so relaxing as a family watching Sunday night TV, before bed.

Uid 78

It's my common pratice to do all I can to avoid work on a Sunday. I'm aware that other colleagues don't do this and that they may be more productive in terms of research because of it. However, I have a tendency to get tired and resentful if I work Sundays. This is probably one reason why I have absorbing interests outside of work. They keep me away from work at the right times!

I didn't go into my study today but the day wasn't free of the worries of work. That was because I entertained some friends for lunch all of whom work in related fields. We therefore spent quite a lot of time discussing work, government policy, threats to our subject discipline and so on. It was good to see my friends and they seemed to have enjoyed themselves but I worried over the conversation during the night. To be honest, I would rather have been out walking with other friends who have nothing to do with academia.

Uid 80

Unusually I didn't do any work today. I spent a lot of time during the morning with my wife and children. Then spent a couple of hours progressing their playroom. A couple of months ago this was a kitchen, and I have some finishing touches, like put in a window sill to finish. After lunch I took the children swimming. Then it was time to prepare our main meal and go into the bath/bedtime routine. I had intended to work on the operationalisation of a section of the unit's business plan including the onerous and cumbersome risk register. This was delegated to me last week and an unwanted addition to my workload which I'd already carefully worked out for the next month. However, when 20:00 came round and our evening could start. I found I was too tired to work properly, and ended up fiddling around aranging bits and pieces. As an alternative to evening working which I have found increasingly hard in recent months, I often get up at 5am to get around 90min work completed in the peace of the morning. This does mean that I am extremely awake and alert when the rest of the family wake up and this, at times, irritates them a little I think. Although I try to get up and work as quietly as possible it does frequently lead to one of the children waking up earlier than the would have otherwise - I'm pretty sure. Because they had become incredibly tired I deliberately stayed in bed this morning to avoid disturbing anyone and to allow us all to have a lovely, gentle start to the day. The children woke naturally around 8.30 and came in for cuddles altogether in bed before we got up. Normally, if I do get up earlier, at least one child is up by 7am. So, all in all a great family day but one that means I go into the week feeling burdened by the amount I need to get done.

Uid 82

This was a fairly ordinary Sunday all in all, apart from having a family member staying with us this weekend. I'm getting bored of cooking a Sunday roast and I don't have much time in the week for cooking more fiddly dishes so my treat to myself as an avid cook is to use Sundays to indulge in more creative cooking. There's also more time to walk it off or have a good old post-prandial nap!! I spent two hours making a lasagne for lunch, which hit the spot. After the family member had left, I thought I'd have a nap for 40 mins after my exertions in the kitchen and then the consumption of said lunch, and only to wake up four hours later... in time for supper and some light reading before bed.

All I can say in my defence is that I felt fresh and ready to go on Monday morning. Must have been the teenage quantities of sleep after weeks of marking!

Uid 95

No work!! Walked the dog, liesurely lunch, followed by grandon's first birthday party.

I can't help wondering if he will go to university and if so, what it will be like for him.

Uid 96

In the tropics on two week field course with Msc students . Rainforest hike spotting birds, plants and invertebrates; snorkelling reef in the afternoon. So I was working Sunday but didn't feel like work!

Uid 98

Two entries in a row that show I'm not working as much as I think I do. Did, though, finish marking one re-submitted MSc dissertation, half way through another and stayed with the emails.

Uid 99

Sunday is supposed to be a non-working day, but I spent most of it finishing off my marking, having already missed the deadline for submitting marks last Friday. My sister was visiting, so I spent the morning with her, then went to the gym at lunchtime. I settled down to start marking at about 2pm, and carried on until I finally emailed in the marks at 11.30pm. Such a relief to finally be finished! However, that's just the domestic marking. I have re-assessments waiting for me back at work from our overseas programmes, so I'll have to tackle those during the week.

There's an additional moral dilemma about all this. Our union has called for industrial action, and has specififed that it should take the form of non-submission of marks. as a union member, I feel an obligation to support the industrial action. However, as a lecturer, I feel a moral obligation to my students, especially when this action could seriously mess with their lives. So, I've taken the decision to continue submitting marks. I've informed the union of this, as I wanted to make my position clear -

I haven't heard anything back yet... It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth to be a 'scab', but I'm relieved to have taken the decision, and definitely feel that it is the only one that I can live with.

We do indeed live in interesting times!

Uid 111

Had a massive cleaning day yesterday then watched the Eurovision Song Contest ... woke up feeling very chilled this morning and totally refreshed - it's been ages since I didn't do any work at the weekend. Spent today happily pottering about and not thinking of anything much - its been ages since I've done that either!

Uid 114

Was woken up this morning my a cockrel!

With the weather being so glorious we've gone camping for the weekend in our newly aquired "funbus" which has room for children, bikes, camping gear and a few other bits and pieces. Stayed on a lovely little campsite on Kent where thye ahve a cockrel who does the rounds of the camp site each morning, stopping to crow outside every tent to make sure everyone is up.

After a breakfast of eggs, spagetti hoops and brioche we packed up the tent and got on our bikes. Unfortunately we'd expected the terrain to be a bit flatter and then route to be a bit shorter.... and there was nowhere to stop for sweeties. There were a few complaints from the children by the time we returned to camp after 2.5 hours and about 16 miles. Luckily it only too tea and a hot shower to get them to speak to us again!

Stopping for lunch on the way home the guys hastily rejected the childrens menu and demonstrated just how good cycling is for building an apetite, much to the shock of other diners! Yes a petite 11 year old girl can consume a large roast dinner and ask for more :-)

Once we got back home the kids were fed again (just a light snack of ham, potatoes, salad, eggs, crackers, fruit and cake!) before being returned to their mother. Their more sedentary lifestyle during the week allows them to recover from the weekends!

We often go out on a Sunday night but there was not time for that this week as I had work to do. I'd got a call on Friday asking me to go and do a TV interview with one of my students who is getting a NIACE Award as part of Adult Learners Week. It's going to take me about 3 hours to get to the location and they want me there before 10am. I spend a couple of hours sorting out train times, thinking about what I might say, worrying about what to wear and booking a rather ealy cab.

I crawl into bed surprisingly early and looking forward to the coming week :-)

Monday 16th June (OK I know this isn't in the remit but let me just share a little bit!)

I turn up for the TV interview, my student is there ready and waiting. The recording will inclue a training session with one of the UKs top weightlifters who is on track to compete in the paralympics. We get a call to say the camera crew are about an hour late so order another round of coffee.

Eventually the crew turn up and we can get started. Our athlete starts his warm up by bench pressing roughly my body weight before moving on to his main set which is nearly twice his body weight - he is significantly larger and heavier than me! I'm completely blown away by the display of strength as he completes the fifth rep. Meanwhile the cameraman casually asks "can you do that again so I can get another angle?" clearly oblivious to the amazing athletic feat we have just witnessed. Undetered by the refusal to repeat the bench presses the camerman changes tack "can you do some leg presses with a couple of hundred kilos?" I laughed as the obvious reply came back "I've only got one leg, I don't think so mate!"

Later on I join the boys for lunch and we recount tales of our athletic endevours. My new weightlifting friend keeps nudging me under the table. I though he was playing footsie with me but it turns out it was just his prothetic leg being a bit unruley!

Uid 116

Sunday, Sunday.

8:49 AM: Up early thinking about how much I need to accomplish in the next six days. We leave for sabbatical on the 21st. Need to pack everything we need for 14 months, but still fit it in the car. Also need to pack personal belongings out of most of the rooms in the house so we can turn it over to our tenants. On top of that, I still teach through the end of this week. Thankfully, both my courses wrap up with significant projects, so I'm spending most of my classroom time consulting with projects teams this week. That reduction in prep time will save my bacon.

1:28 PM: Sang with my choir for the last time this morning, then forgot to pick up more packing boxes on the way home. That meant a quick run to the packing store after lunch. Thankfully they're open on Sundays or I'd be further behind on packing.

Since we have to hire someone to take care of the lawn this summer and next, I'm selling all our yard equipment. The lawn tractor went today. I took less than I hoped for it, but it went to a 13-year old boy who is just giddy about getting it. He's starting is own lawn mowing business this summer. I appreciate seeing kids with ambition.

7:45 PM: Spent the afternoon packing up my home office. Tough to decide what to take along and what to store. I'm just accepting that I'll take some things I don't need and will leave at least a few things that I will wish I had. It's just stuff, so I'm not going to worry about it.

After the packing, my wife and I went to some friends for a going away party. Several people in our running club are leaving the area, either permanently or temporarily. Our first big race of the season, a half marathon, was last weekend, so today was a good day for a party.

Now back to packing for the rest of the evening…

Uid 119

No, it's "not a 'regular' working day" as you stated in your email, but with the end of the semester upon us I spent most of my day working.

I did do the TeamWalk for Cancer with my wife this morning to benefit the Cancer Center at our local hospital, but then I came home and spent the afternoon putting the finishing touches on our responses to questions from an NSF program officer about a large grant proposal that we submitted in December and that "was well received by the review panel." We are hoping that satisfactory answers to our questions will result in funding, which is of course our goal.

The interesting thing about this process from the perspective of the Share Project is that I sent the third draft of our 11-page response to my fellow researchers on the grant proposal on Friday evening at 9:55 PM, and all four of them reviewed that draft and responded to me by 24 hours later ... on a Saturday. Thus, again from the perspective of your study, you can see that all of us worked this weekend, not just me. Such is the life of professors in US institutions trying to be true research universities.

It is 5:20 PM on Sunday as I write this, and after dinner with my wife I will return to my home office to continue grading student work.

Uid 123

9.00-10.30 - working on my laptop in bed! Like many other institutions we are 'restructuring' to do 'better with less'. I am 'at risk' and have to apply for another job in my faculty so I am beginning to put together my interview presentation for next week.

10.30-7.00p.m. I have a guest from New Zealand so a bit of sightseeing in Oxford and then taking her to her next port-of-call.

7.00-8.30 p.m. make supper and eat with my son

8.30-9.30 p.m. back to the presentation

9.30 p.m. - early to bed.

Uid 124

I started at 8 this morning intending to convert a 3000-word Proceedings paper into a 20-minute conference presentation for Thursday, finish analysing data for the revision of a journal article I'm working on and analyse some data from a student who missed the relevant session on descriptive and inferential statistics he needed to attend in order to report the findings of his mini-research project in class on Wednesday. These were today's three tasks - I'd promised my husband that if got them all done I would go and hear the orchestral concert he's conducting tonight at his institution. I spent the first hour responding to the Course Leader for UG Programmes who had written asking if I would do some new teaching next academic year for first and second year students on two topics of great interest to them and also one of my principal research areas - so the answer was yes, but it was a case of figuring out how best to deliver the workshop/lecture sessions I propose, and to which cohorts of students. The transformation of the Proceedings paper took much, much longer than it should have done because I spent a lot of time hunting for appropriate images, and converting tables (from the Proceedings) into graphs (for the presentation). My husband was out rehearsing all day and we'd run out of certain essential food items, so I took half an hour off to cycle to my local Lidl and stock up. Oh, and another half hour to eat some lunch and flick through the Sunday paper - breakfast had been at my desk as I worked. Shortly before I finished the first task, around 4.30 p.m., I had a phone call from an "alarm warden" who was at my mother-in-law's house, 150 miles away. It took a little time to find out what had happened (he didn’t know, and she is rather elderly and slightly demented), but it transpired that the lavatory cistern had been leaking, the water had found its way through a light fitting, the ceiling was in danger of caving in, the water and electricity had been turned off and if it couldn’t be repaired in the next few hours she would need to go into emergency respite care. At first it looked as though I was going to have to organise everything myself long-distance – her neighbour is away and she has no relatives other than us – but in the end the alarm warden contacted the duty social worker who found an emergency plumber. Apart from going off to another emergency for an hour or so he stayed with her until the plumbers arrived and repair was done (about 9.30 p.m.). The whole process was punctuated with phone conversations, each one ending with me asking to speak to my mother-in-law so I could reassure her. Husband got home from his rehearsal and talked to his mother, the social worker and the emergency plumber while I got on with my presentation (finished about 6 p.m. and sent to the colleagues with whom I am giving the conference symposium); then I made some dinner so he could get off to his concert for 7 p.m. He was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to hear it, but acknowledged that one of us needed to stay home to find out what was happening with his mother and it couldn’t be him. Apart from calls from my mother-in-law’s social worker and my children – both students with their own academic preoccupations – I spent the rest of the evening working on the data analysis for my revised article – no word from my own student, thank goodness! That will be a job for tomorrow, now. It would have been nice to have read the newspaper, or watched TV, or even read another chapter of Colm Toibin’s ‘The Master’, which I have been trying to finish since Easter, but I haven’t finished the task I set myself yet!

Uid 126

Sunday 15th May 2011.

Something of an unsettling day. Piles of marking to do, but I just couldn’t get down to it. I went out with my children last night for a lovely birthday meal in London and when I got home I discovered that my daughter had been mugged walking from the bus to her flat. She was not harmed but her handbag taken. Not much money in it, an oyster card nearing its expiry date ... her camera which is essential to her work and her notebook which no one else would want but contains her current observations and thoughts. I have twice lost a nearly full journal. It is heartbreaking. And a new lipstick. That’s about the size of it. Stupid, stupid stupid. She has tried to make light of it but phoned in the afternoon as she waited for a bath to run. She is allowed to be upset. And angry. And at a loss. Two teenaged boys whose description was so stereotypical that it was useless, and she did not even want to be saying the words. She was driven round the local estate in an unmarked police car. It was full of identical teenaged boys, all wearing the same kind of clothes in the same kind of way.

And I have no dog to walk. He died a fortnight ago and I am missing him. Walking is essential to writing and walking without the dear old dog is just not the same. So I have been cleaning today and gradually the dog hairs are disappearing from corners and carpets. I have fielded a few e-mails of the kind that arrive as students nervously approach the final stretch. One from a woman who had been to a tutorial and seemed very resistant to what I was trying to get her to think about. She had had the generosity to see, when she compared her notes, that I was saying the same thing as her class teacher had been saying and had written to me.

I have written two references, both for one time MA students. One of them is hoping to get on the creative writing course. I am envious. I have managed to do quite a lot of tidying and am beginning to get to a point where I can sort books and papers into piles that will be relevant to different chapters. I really want to be systematic about this writing. Last week I nearly went into meltdown as I struggled to finish a paper. My house looked as if some rampaging bear had been stamping its way about, dropping notes and drafts on the floor and leaving books in an untidy trail upstairs and down. Today’s long and serious tidying has been very necessary.

I have a writing group tomorrow and am not well prepared yet. I am finding collaborative working rather challenging at the moment. I think I have a way of thinking about things and then my co-worker, or whatever you want to call him, has another set of ideas that are similar but slightly off course. I am quite a slow thinker. I have some thoughts but they are still too raw. Hmm.

I e-mail my colleague, who is starting jury service tomorrow, and discover she can’t face the marking either. It will get done. We exchanged a few e-mails about what she should wear so that she is not chosen and can get on with her work. I think these cannot be repeated here. I finished the crossword. I read a bit of Georgia Heard’s book about writing and listened to a few of David Morley’s podcast about the same. I wonder about podcasts for our students. It might mean a better use of face to face time.

I have responded to some writing that teachers have posted on the writing website and worried about what I should write next. I have dithered about whether to sign up for a short story writing course in the autumn –the man running the course is a fantastic teacher – will I have time to focus on fiction writing when there is so much else to do? I should probably stay with the poetry. I cooked asparagus and poached eggs, very yummy and have had a long, aromatic bath. I am tired now and although I could write more I shall not do so, partly because the cursor keeps jumping around the page so that I find myself typing in the middle of a previous paragraph. I haven’t the patience.

Uid 127

Share Project

Sunday 15th May, 2011

I was wondering whether or not to fill out an entry for today, but then I realised I’d be cross with myself if I didn’t, because I’d have broken my unblemished record. I am honestly amazed that I’ve managed to find time to complete a diary entry every month; it’s reassured me that I can dedicate time to something not strictly within my job description, but something really valuable nonetheless.

Saying that, I didn’t think about work at all today! I’ve been out several evenings for various activities over the last week, and was away from home for the whole of yesterday, so today I really enjoyed just messing around with my children, and talking to my husband. Now that all the taught sessions are completed for the academic year, I’m trying to slow myself down a little, and just live in the moment, especially when it comes to my family. I am well aware that I live at top speed when the students are in session, and I easily lose sight of the real world. However, I am also aware that my list of jobs for the summer is rather substantial, and if I slow down too much then I’ll not have a chance of completing it. Mind you, if I really worked at the same level for 45 weeks of the year, would I actually survive?

Uid 128

Up at 7am to start the chores (washing machine and dishwasher on) before going back to be for an hour or so. Then it's off to church - why is it that even at church someone finds me work to do? An elederly lady walks in off the street saying she doesn't feel well and demanding an ambulance. The 2 ladies on the door obligingly call one for her, but I am asked to assist (don't become a nurse, you always get drawn in to these things). As soon as we establish where she lives I realise we have a lady with dementia who probably does this quite often. Nonetheless the paramedics were great and very appreciative of my help (unusual - often they don't even acknowledge your existence). My mum had the same condition so I guess I was the right person to help after all.

Home for lunch - our lodger ( a student at the uni) has been really unwell with a chest infection, but finally seems to be on the mend, but still coughing a lot, which is very painful. But he wants to get out of the house so we take put the dogs in the car and take them for a walk over the North Downs near where I grew up - lovely memories, but I didn't realise how much of an impact the walk would have on my friend.

Back home and a quick squint at work e-mails, just to minimise the risk of being inundated tomorrow - nothing urgent. So roast beef, roast potatoes and yorkshire puddings to cook followed by a classic lemon tart. I love cooking for relaxation!

Husband is tired and goes to bed early, but no chance of that for me - our lodger needs to talk about memories engendered by our walk. Bad memories and good - but he is distressed so we talk and, by the time I go to bed, diary day is over

Uid 136

Mmmmm Sunday, a day of slightly different priorites from the rest of the week. In days gone by I would not do any 'uni work' on a Sunday, but although I do try to restrict it I often do need to put in an hour or two. we indulge our weekend morning ritual of eating our breakfast en famille while watching recordings of programmes which interest us all. Thank God for the invention of DVD recorders, as we rarely get the luxury of watching a programme as it is being broadcast! At the moment we are working our way through Michael Wood’s ‘Story of England’; both my husband and I are very interested in history as amateurs (I am a scientist and he a civil servant with a background in law) and our son finds it useful to see his school work presented in a somewhat different context. After breakfast, put lunch on to cook during the morning, then set off to church. A stimulating sermon for adults on the interface with other faiths in everyday life; many of our students are Muslim (and smaller numbers of other faiths) and many follow no religion so this is a constant challenge for me. Son, meanwhile has been studying family relationships in his Pathfinders class, and is thinking about the ways he ‘takes after’ blood relatives, in laws and adopted cousins. After lunch, we try to get son packed for his school residential course, which runs Monday to Wednesday. This results in family arguments, mainly because the ‘essential equipment’ lists from school are conflicting. How many pairs of footwear can a 12 year old boy possibly need for a three day trip to go mountain walking, rock climbing and canoeing; why has he grown out of all the casual trousers we bought a couple of weeks ago and how many pairs should he pack; how does the new rain cover fit over the rucksack; what constitutes appropriate warm clothing for North Wales in May?

Eventually we decide we have packed everything we can for tonight, and separate for an hour to do our own thing. Husband works on family business, son completes the homework which is due in the day he gets back from the residential and I do some marking. I have an extra load this year – someone accidentally cut and pasted the wrong exam question so instead of half the year doing my level 6 essay in one module I get all the cohort, about 160 7-8 page essays. The marks are due in to the departmental office next Wednesday but I am not sure I will complete them in time. Maybe if I had not gone to church, helped with packing etc I would have done, but as I only get 4 marked in the hour before tea I somehow doubt it. Half heartedly plan an all night marking session, but reckon I won’t complete the pile anyway (about 50 remain to be marked) and I want to be fresh as tomorrow I am due to sit on an Academic Misconduct panel….Stop marking to read the papers for the Academic Misconduct panel, then decide at 10.30 to sit with husband and watch the latest surreal episode of

CAMPUS. Only hope none of my family or friends think it bears the slightest resemblance to what really happens in a University…….

Uid 138

I slept in. After church (where a choir of 3 did a marvellous Byrd 3-part), I met with a 92yr old member of the congregation who has created a new crossword for the monthly church magazine for over 15 years ... and is still going strong. I am producing an edited booklet of all her crosswords to sell in aid of church funds. She is a wonderful woman - I hope I am as sprightly and as sharp and as witty as she is when I am that age. But she is lonely, and tells me that she only has one friend left. Having someone interested in putting her crosswords together has cheered her up no end.

So I honestly did no work on Sunday: listened to choral evensong, had a luxurious late afternoon bubble bath, read a novel, had salmon and white wine for dinner, watched some TV, and went to bed early.

This coming week is TAS week. Not sure what "TAS" stands for, but I know that it means that I have to keep track of everything I do, and at the end of the week, have to fill out a form to tell the university-powers-that-be how I have spent my time. We are allocated one random week a quarter. The categories are broad (e.g. 'institution funded research', 'teaching support') - it usually results in my making up some numbers that make reasonable sense. This week I hope that I will spend more hours in the 'research' column than in the 'support' column.

Uid 138

I slept in. After church (where a choir of 3 did a marvellous Byrd 3-part), I met with a 92yr old member of the congregation who has created a new crossword for the monthly church magazine for over 15 years ... and is still going strong. I am producing an edited booklet of all her crosswords to sell in aid of church funds. She is a wonderful woman - I hope I am as sprightly and as sharp and as witty as she is when I am that age. But she is lonely, and tells me that she only has one friend left. Having someone interested in putting her crosswords together has cheered her up no end.

So I honestly did no work on Sunday: listened to choral evensong, had a luxurious late afternoon bubble bath, read a novel, had salmon and white wine for dinner, watched some TV, and went to bed early.

This coming week is TAS week. Not sure what "TAS" stands for, but I know that it means that I have to keep track of everything I do, and at the end of the week, have to fill out a form to tell the university-powers-that-be how I have spent my time. We are allocated one random week a quarter. The categories are broad (e.g. 'institution funded research', 'teaching support') - it usually results in my making up some numbers that make reasonable sense. This week I hope that I will spend more hours in the 'research' column than in the 'support' column.

Uid 139

Sunday 15th May...

No, I did not do any work this day. Well, I say that, but I did sort out a few pictures from the car history research project. Now, if anyone else has visited the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart and taken a few pictures, then identifying the cars a bit better would be most useful! I didn't take full notes at the time (which was when we were collaborating with Mercedes-Benz on a student project - very interesting but that's another story and didn't happen on 15th) and it's coming back to haunt me just a little. And Google pictures don't seem to pick up pictures with the precision required to locate the exact vehicle. What a pity. Not really sure whether this is called work or play anyway: it could be either, or both.

Uid 140

Sunday. Loads of marking to do. Deadline is Wednesday but unless the marking fairy helps I won't make it. Oh yes, and when we went on strike the management based deductions on a 5 day week. Will we get overtime?

The April entry was missed due to a family bereavement.

Uid 141

Sunday's are not normally a day where I do much work and this Sunday is no different. Perhaps the context for this is that this is the summer term. I have no modules to teach (projects to supervise, PhD students to look after etc but not the standard routine of lectures, practicals, exams to set and the like). Thus I am not generally busy at work except on things of my own making so why would I make my work so busy that I had to work on a Sunday?

So basically, leisurely breakfast, walk the dog, go to church (late but it's hard to make a five month old run to schedule!). After that, started getting lunch ready as my sister and brother-in-law were coming over. We don't see that much of them even though the live only about an hour away. The plan was to have a picnic but the Yorkshire weather had decide to threaten rain. Still, it was jolly.

They went about tea-time and I did some work! Well, sort of. D and I were discussing days when I would not be around due to work so I looked up on my email when I would be doing a stint of External Examining that means an overnight stay away from home. So I deleted some email as well while I was there. Hardly strenuous!

And then it was just usual evening things of getting children to bed, a light supper (left-overs from lunch) and then watching/snoozing through a DVD.

Uid 142

As with the 15th January - this was one of the days on my yoga weekends. (Only got 7 through the year, but they happen to be round the middle of several months!)

So, totally relaxing day - very refreshing; and made a point of not doing anything work related in the evening. (Didn't even put the computer on, so couldn't not check the email as it were!)

A blissful day.

Uid 149

It’s Sunday. I have to be up early to do a radio interview. Fortunately it is over the phone, but it does mean I have to set the alarm for 6.00. I wake before the alarm rings and take the opportunity to switch it off so as not to disturb my partner who is slumbering on the other side of the bed. I go downstairs and put the kettle on so as to fill the first cafetiere of the day and settle down to await the call from the radio station. I am interviewed about the persistence of the interest in Madeleine McCann after all this time. Why does the story still remain in the headlines whilst other tales of missing people rapidly recede from the public eye, no matter how desperate their loved ones might be. It’s a hard once to answer, but I fumble my way through the interview and am thanked gravely by the producer afterward. I knock off an email to the university’s Press Office to alert them to the fact that the job gas been done and then settle in to the task of marking. Because the university is now in its assessment period, there are fewer emails from colleagues and students, but more marking. Today am working on some final year undergraduate coursework. This is an interesting piece which I have been setting for a number of years, which involves students having to design their own. With some guidance from me, they choose their own topic and decide how they would like to address it. That means I get some conventional pieces of written work, but others do work in the form of magazine articles, health education leaflets, videos, presentations and artwork too. There are broad criteria which the students have to address, such as demonstrating that they have sought out contemporary literature in the discipline, that they have thought about it critically and demonstrated some degree of originality, but how they present their work is part of the decision making process for them. They’ve also got to decide, where it is primarily in written form, how long it should be – no arbitrary word limits from me! My colleagues are horrified by my approach. I don’t set ‘titles’ (shock horror). The work does not lend itself to ‘feedback’ on a tick box sheet. ‘How can you mark it?’ Well, people in the creative disciplines have been assessing creative work from students since time immemorial and the get on OK. Plus, if you get people working on something they’re interested in and committed to, they are relatively less likely to copy and paste from Wikipedia, they can do work that suits their career

ambitions (hits the PDP and ‘employability’ buttons) and encourages them to talk to me about what they’re doing, thus enhancing opportunities for formative feedback and relationship building of the kind that seem to be valued. Nevertheless, every year I have to fight harder and harder to retain this kind of assessment, in the face of comments from senior colleagues that this represents ‘bad programme design’. Never mind. I enjoy working with students this way, and a whole raft of pedagogic literature is on my side. A while ago I was gratified to see a man featured in the Times Higher Ed. who got a whole article about himself for letting students set their own questions. Ha ha – I’ve been doing that for years. Anyway, there are some interesting bits of work to assess which show that students have done some serious literature searching and really thought about their work, which is what ;m after. I want to make people able to teach themselves, and some of these students certainly seem to, as they’ve gone well beyond anything I’ve talked about in class. The marking is interrupted briefly for a walk in the spring sunshine with my partner in the early afternoon. Once you get away from the urban sprawl, it’s amazing how green everything has become after that hard winter. Then there’s more marking. And more, and more and more. This lot is going to take me quite a while, ass there’s a class set of around a hundred scripts. Marking proce4eds up to bedtime, so there’s little else to report today. I have relatively few days in the course of a year where I can devote solid blocks of time to tasks. And when it does happen it’s because of marking!

Uid 154

Woken at 5 by Neville the cat who wanted his breakfast. Having attended to him and made a cup of tea I decided I might as well get on with reading papers in preparation for the invitational seminar I’m involved in organising and will be attending on Monday and Tuesday. The intention of the organising team was that invitees should read all the papers so that the available time could be spent in discussion. It seemed like a really good idea at the time – before I was faced with 14 X 7,000 plus worders to get through (and that’s not including the ‘stragglers’ who have failed to deliver beforehand).

Still, there are worse ways of spending time. The papers are interesting and engaging and I find myself sending a couple to colleagues who I know will find them worthwhile. Quite a few are by people writing in a second or third language and, once again, I find myself feeling embarrassed to be critical when my linguistic abilities are ziltch. Having said this some of the translations are amusing and I wonder just exactly what the Swedish term of abuse that’s been translated to ‘bloody piss chicks’ means.

Given that it’s Sunday I make a large pot of coffee as a treat and finish off a partly eaten Easter egg. Not a healthy breakfast but what the hell..

At 10.15 I go out to church. This weekend we’re at our ‘holiday home’ where we try to spend as much time as possible. I do bell ringing here (can’t do it at our main home church because they don’t have a ring) – something I have recently taken up again after a gap of nearly 40 years. And, because I wasn’t picking up news last week I learn that our priest has just been invited to become a bishop. He and I are of an age and we often joke that ours is a good vintage. I joke that his Christmas present this year is easily sorted – posh purple socks. I’ll miss him – although as he’s a friend we’ll keep in touch – he‘s a gifted preacher, one of those whose homilies contain something for everyone and a deeply spiritual and I’d say holy man.

After mass I have a word with a member of the congregation who is a retired professor and who might be able to help find an examiner for one of our professional doctoral students (not one I’m supervising but I’m responsible for the programme) who is doing some relatively esoteric work. The professor thinks they know just the person so I promise to send the abstract as soon as possible.

Back home for scrambled eggs followed by emails that include a student draft to be reviewed and an ex-doctoral student’s first stab at a book proposal based on their thesis. I had thought that we might go for a walk before travelling back to our main home but it’s chucking it down so I finish off reading through the seminar papers after seeing to the draft and proposal.

At 5.30ish we set off, arriving home at 8.30ish. Not a bad weekend really and at least I’m thoroughly prepared for the seminar.

Uid 155

A nice short entry. Got up at 6.30 am. Marked essays pretty much non stop all day. Went to bed exhausted at 10pm. I have 200 essays to mark in 21 days, and most of those days are full of meetings, so I will be doing the same next Saturday and Sunday too.

Uid 157

Sunday 15th May started with a rare lie in. With our son at a Beaver (section of Scout movement for 6-8yr olds) sleepover we were not woken up bright and early by demands for breakfast. But we picked him up later in the morning and it was back to the normal routine of entertaining an active child with various other demands on our time.

I escaped into the garden to try to make it look more like a garden than a jungle which, despite the lack of rain, it is threatening to do. Then whilst my husband was occupying my son with a cycle trip to the local park I carried on with some marking. As is always the case it takes longer than I hoped and I never get quite as much done as I think I will. The evening was eventful as my son had quite a serious allergic reaction (what to we will probably never know) that meant we rushed to the drop in centre. Panic over and once I was convinced he wouldn't have trouble breathing I sent to bed far too late (something that happens far too frequently).

Uid 158

This diary entry corresponds with a foreign trip I was on. This means that I was travelling from Cape Town to Villiersdorp by way of Franschhoeck, where we stopped off for some sightseeing on the way.

Not a lot of connection with my teaching duties, more the hilarity of a small group who had already been on the road together for several days.

One side-effect was the absence of an internet connection (I am not yet equipped with an all-singing, all-dancing mobile device). There is a lot to be said for not having to worry about such things, however, the mountain of emails that builds up on ones return is a real disincentive to protracted breaks!

Uid 168

15th May

I try really hard to avoid doing any University work on a Sunday (although I often end up doing stuff that's on the fringes of work, e.g. book writing). Usually I'd go to church with my family in the morning, but today there were county hockey championships to be played. With both of my children playing, in different age groups and different counties, it was all hands on deck. The son I was accompanying needing to be at his venue - more than an hour from home - by 8:30, so we ended up set off horribly early.

5 hours and six matches later, his team had come bottom of the league. He'd played quite well (in goal) but with a complete failure by his colleagues to score a single goal they were sadly doomed.

Once back home I pottered in the garden for a while and then did some work on one of those para-work projects. I have a talk to give to a Christian group on Evolution and Intelligent Design. It's quite a tricky ask, I'm quite sure to offend lots of people, and frankly I could do without the extra hassle at the mo. However, it's an important issue to cover and invitations such as this help me to crystallise my own thinking. I'll know in a few days time whether I should have bothered or not!

Uid 171

This weekend, I sent the rest of the family to my mother-in-law's and spent just about all my time spring cleaning and packing things up to go into storage, so that the flat will look nicer and bigger when we try to sell it (soon!). The amount of dust I brought up raised the very important question of why we even bother to pay a cleaner to come once a week. That was one of my big fantasies when I was a student--that when I came to have a well-paid professional position, I'd have someone else come in and keep the place in a basically nice state, but I'm so bad at being a boss in this socially

unequal situation that our cleaner gets away with just hoovering the centres of the rooms. We almost feel like we're moving house so that we can get away from that relationship...

I had used Twitter and Facebook as rewards throughout the cleanings, which kept me in touch with my professional life a little, but I'd decided not to get involved in university email/VLE until Sunday night. Which I did--nothing too horrific, just a lot of 'worried well' students thinking about their final assessments. My sense of accomplishment in the house was great enough that I didn't feel TOO guilty about not doing any marking or reading during the weekend.

Uid 172

Interesting how this survey day fell on a day when I was at a Professional Doctorate teaching day. The Prof Doc students are ‘taught’ on days at the weekend and the days vary between whole weekend and single Saturdays and Sundays. Today was the introduction, by two of my colleagues, to the next module. Although I was not teaching I attend because two of my students could not. I find that if I have been to the introduction to the module I have some notion of what is required beyond what is stated in the specification.

Managed to arrive at the off site location in time for breakfast which I ate whilst we had an impromptu staff team meeting. This was followed by a two hour round table evaluation session. I am always interested in how my colleagues run their sessions and find the point where students get bored but they keep going quite intriguing!

A good lunch preceded the afternoon new module introductory session. Again very interesting to observe how students are highly focused and motivated when being told what is to come and the ways in which they might approach it. Quite a lot is hidden within a phrase like ‘write 4000 words for literature review!’

Cup of tea and long drive home. Just in time to ‘blob’ in front of Pirates of Caribbean, but did not make it to the final real. ZZzzzz…

Uid 179

Family out so spent the afternoon listening to and transcribing parts of a recent research interview - I want to use a few clips to illustrate a talk on Wednesday. Then mowed the lawn, went out for a bike ride, half prepared dinner (then they called to say they were going to a restaurant as a 'special treat'- ha!). Later, took the younger boy to the bath and read him a chapter from Michael Morpurgo's Kensuke's Island - our latest bedtime book. Fairly average sort of day really.

Uid 182

I had brought approx 30 essays home with me to mark over the weekend so I got through 13 on Sunday. I had coffee with a friend to talk about a panel we're organising for a conference in the autumn. I read 3 2011 journal articles for a postgrad seminar I'm giving next week. I spent approx 30 minutes pricing flights for another conference this summer. I emailed several writers who are part of an event week I'm organising in September to finalise their part in the timetable.

Uid 186

Eurovision last night, my step-daughter's 19th birthday today. Makes me feel young again. And is so far from work that it is great.

But I spent time last night on twitter with Eurovision - and of course started to think how we can use web2 stuff for our students - when most ofthe lecturers are 50 something like me, and 2/3rds of our students are over 26. Is it just not the right thing?

Didn't turn the computer on. Actually feel good about not doing any work. Hope I feel recharged on Monday.

Uid 187

7:30 AM - Woke up and got ready for the day. It's nice to "naturally" wake up rather than waking to an alarm going off!

8:15 - E-mail/Facebook

8:45 - Paying bills, etc.

10:00 - Heading to church and lunch

1:15 PM - Shopping for material needed to relocate two phone lines in our home.

1:50 - Home - checked email

2:00 - Started work on phone line relocation: testing that current lines work.

2:20 - Placing material orders for my summer job (Business Manager at a Boy Scout summer camp).

3:15 - House reconstruction from our flood which occured the first of March. (Now that my son's wedding is done and the semester has ended, I have a bit of time to complete the reconstruction before starting my summer job full time.) Today's task - preping for drywall.

5:00 - Hmmm. The drywaller didn't show up. Guess I'll do something else. Reviewing new textbook edition for CS0 and identifying required changes in assignments and projects.

6:00 - Dinner break

6:45 - Back to reviewing new textbook edition and identifying required changes in assignments and projects.

7:15 - (unintended) nap - must have stayed up too late last night.

8:00 - Back to reviewing new textbook edition

10:00 - Email message to online student and preparing an exam for her because the course management system is not working correctly. Grading what she was able to submit online.

11:45 - Back to reviewing new textbook edition and reworking assignments and projects

1:00 AM - Bed time

Uid 189

having attended and presented at a conference at Newcastle university on Saturday...used Sunday to catch up with work emails...spent (on and off) in total about 3 hours dealing with emails and related issues

Uid 191

The 15th was a Sunday, which made me think about what the point of this diary is. Reading back on my entries there is a lot about the Union and general job dissatisfaction, some about teaching frustrations, not much on research. Does that reflect the way I spend my time? Not at all. Your guidelines were very vague. You said 'We're interested in ...the gaps between what is supposed to happen and what does happen, between staff and student, between institution and individual' so I have talked a lot about the gaps between institution and individual, which are an easy target and also, I think, fairly entertaining. But the gaps between staff and student are more difficult to discuss without a whole bunch of background; and while I find my research interesting, I can't imagine that a general audience would find it so. In addition, if I were honest about my frustrations with my research partners, I fear they would find out about it.

If the first couple of entries hadn't coincided with Union sort of issues, this might have gone in a different direction. If the instructions had been different then what I wrote about would be different. I don't spend that much time thinking about the Union. I spend lots of time thinking about my teaching. I spend some time thinking about research, but not around the 15th of the month apparently!

I signed up for this because I also do qualitative research and wanted to be helpful, and I know all the stuff about how this will describe a particular snapshot in time etc etc. but, to be honest, I cannot imagine that you will get anything useful out of it whatsoever.

Yesterday I read Sebastian Faulks book about the benking crisis, did my shopping, talked to my partner on the phone and stared at the rain. What will that tell you?

Uid 200

It is really Tuesday when I am writing this, and even though I should remember what I did on Sunday, I am having a little trouble doing so. I'm not sure if that is a sign of old age or the fact that it is the end of the semester. However, now as I am forcing myself to remember, things are coming back slowly.

I know that I started off on Sunday waking up with the kids and having some breakfast. My in-laws came over early to spend the morning with me and my family. They usually spend one weekend day each week with us and the kids. While they were at the house, I did some laundry. Then, I needed to call about some tickets to an amusement park because the online site was not giving an appropriate field for a discount we were entitled to. By some miracle, the person I spoke to on the phone was helpful, courteous, and we were able to resolve the issue. While on hold, I read through some emails. I had been away from campus (and my email) since Thursday doing some personal stuff so I had quite a few emails, but nothing that couldn't wait until I got back to campus.

It is the end of the semester and grades are due on the 20th, so it is the time of year I like to call "whining season". It happens twice a year if you are on semesters, three if you are on quarters. It is the time of year when students are told the grade they earned and suddenly realize that it is not the grade they wanted. So, they proceed to explain to you why they deserve a grade they did not earn, and beg for extra credit work, or give some other set of excuses why they deserve a higher grade. My favorite is the "I'm supposed to graduate and I need to pass this course to do so."

In the afternoon, I met with a former student and former TA who was in town for graduation ceremonies on Saturday. I did not go to graduation. I am not in any mood to see my colleagues. I am leaving the university for another (and they don't know yet because everything is not finalized at the new place). I don't trust myself to "behave" at the ceremony, so I just felt it best not to go. However, I am sad that I missed seeing some of the students walk the stage. This student I met for coffee has been in New York City since February and has started a new position which he is extremely happy with. He will do well.

Afterwards, I did a little shopping (mostly returns) and then picked up my mom to come back with me to the house for dinner, which was a fairly unimpressive lot of Chinese take-out. Afterwards, I worked on giving my children a bath and doing some last-minute clean-up and laundry before the work week started again.

Can't wait until this week is over and grades are submitted and then I can work on other things!

Uid 204

I've been totally rewriting a second-year course. I wanted to complete this task before the course started, but other tasks with tighter deadlines kept intervening, and for the most part I've done it week to week. The lectures are at 9am Mondays, and each lecture requires a couple of days' work, so this course has occupied my Saturdays and Sundays for many weeks now. The main thing that distinguishes weekends from weekdays is that on the weekend I can concentrate more on a single task, whereas during the week my days are far more fragmented.

I continued preparing for Monday's lecture at 8.15am and worked for three and a half hours. Today is my mother's birthday, so I stopped at 11.45 and prepared the food we're taking, then gathered my wife and children and set off for the celebration. Back at 3.30, I spent half an hour on the lecture, then broke again for my ritual walk with my wife. Another two hours of lecture preparation when we got back, two hours off for dinner and a spot of television, then a final push from 8.30 to 10.45pm. I think I'm ready for tomorrow's 9am lecture.

Somewhere in with that 8 hours of lecture preparation I found 15 minutes to respond to an enquiry about an assignment at an overseas campus; and at the end I indulged in another ritual, half an hour of file backup.

My working weeks since Christmas have hovered between 80 and 90 hours. Several important deadlines passed a couple of weeks back, and I met most of them, so I'm really looking forward to the gradual return of my usual 65-to-70-hour weeks - blissfully light by comparison.

Uid 206

'Tis a funny thing: when there's a lot of work to be done some weekend working becomes inevitable, but Friday evening, faced with an enormous swamp of work & everyone demanding their bit of it done urgently, I just stopped, switched the computer off, and left the building. Enough is enough. My weekend involved no work. We got away. Sat watching the blue sky, water lapping the shore, birds wheeling.

Sunday we had to come back home, of course, and there were murmurs of work passing through my mind. But still I refused. Did the grocery shopping, went out for lunch, sat watching TV. I refused, even, to do the ironing, as it was all work clothes that needed ironing. Tomorrow can wait.

Uid 213

There is nothing in the world except marking. I spent all weekend marking. I did foray out to a Eurovision party - my first. I thought about taking marking with me but thought my hosts might not understand - as well as the fact that I wouldn't be giving my best attention to the coursework.

My husband (who has far less marking than me - he's at a Russell Group university, and their idea of a *heavy* marking load is one module with sixty students) did all the cooking, cleaning and errands around me this weekend as I sat still and marked. I have 140 students in total this semester - 100 first years and 40 third years. A colleague who has been away this year was supposed to return to share the marking (what I was told when I agreed to take on so much teaching), but somehow this has not transpired. So all the marking falls to me. I know that if I complain, they will say I could set the assignment earlier, that I could lower the word count, that I could go to an exam system - but all of these are very pedagogically unsound for my subject, where development over the semester is essential. I also teach on the basis of edit, edit and re-edit, so telling the students that they could produce their work in an exam setting in two hours is nonsense and would make a mockery of all my teaching throughout the year.

I'm going to a conference next week in the US, so I can't even run over the departmental deadline - I physically have to return all the papers this week. I finished the third years on Sunday, and got through two of the first years. I also have to approve 35 international student applications and pair them up with modules before I leave. Oh, and I haven't finished my paper for the conference either. I think I am bordering on hysteria.

Officially, I'm allowed 20 minutes per paper, according to my work load sheet. That doesn't translate in real time at all.

I filled in the individual assignment marks on my mark sheet while watching TV tonight. Tomorrow I'll have my yearly struggle with setting up the excel spreadsheet formula to get the overall marks. My third years are really excellent - there is a relatively high percentage of firsts, which I think my subject leader will question. But the second marker agreed with me, and I'll see what the external says. Some of them did some extraordinary work, and I don't want to mark them down so the class average fits what my subject leader thinks is appropriate. There were also some very poor work, so it covers a real spectrum, as marking should.

Uid 214

Sunday means 'work' in many forms: [a] reading newspapers (3 hours) = 'work' (cultural analysis of the recession and its impact on the arts and humanities); [b] listening to the 'Archers' (1.5 hours) = 'work' (studies of modern agricultural communities, their perception of the environment and their relationship with external groups); [c] cleaning up the house (2 hours) = definitely hard work but not 'work' work?; [d] desperately trying to complete marking undergraduate essays (4 hours) = unquestionably work; and to cap it all [e] a couple of pints in the local pub at the end of the day (3 hours). Not a bad day but not much of a day or rest in the conventional sense either...

Uid 217

It's a Sunday and I spent the bulk of the day marking BA dissertations and essays, starting about 9.30am and finishing about 6pm. I broke off for an hour-and-a-half's intensive skype session with my American co-general-textual editor of a large edition: we covered a lot of ground, mainly because I have, after the absurdly overworked semester I've just had, finally begun to work away at the backlog. Then I went back to marking. In the evening I had beer and pizza with friends.

Meanwhile my new head of department is hacking away at my morale. I spent days drafting the department's programme review document and she has just rewritten it wholesale to present the university with her view of the department, which is not one her colleagues share nor is it the one I wrote. I'm not quite sure what to do about it. If I protest I will be marginalised; if I go silent, I will of course also be marginalised. Great choice.

I had an uncomfortable e-mail exchange with one of my PhD students who, together with one of his colleagues, is running our postgraduate conference, an annual (and always excellent) event. He asked if I would say a few words of summary at the end and I said of course and then I thought to suggest that he perhaps, out of politeness, ought to ask the head of department or the chair of our postgraduate studies committee if they'd like to do the summarising. He told me he had already asked them and they had both said they couldn't because they couldn't be there all day (for which read 'couldn't be bothered to be there all day'), so he had asked me instead. He then added that it had been hard for him even to get either of them to chair a session. So his morale is now in a similar state to mine, and I need to encourage him while feeling furious about it all myself.

Two years ago I applied for a chair in another country and came runner-up. I can't tell you how much I wish I had got that job and could be out of the UK university system, which is going to hell at an astonishing rate. I don't suppose I'm the only person in this survey to express that view.

Uid 224

I do try to keep Sunday as a day off, but as usual a few jobs had to be done.

Overall I spent about an hour and a half providing students with feedback for a project due in a week; and did some work on a project I'm doing to help schools with teaching resources for new curriculum material that is needed urgently.

The rest of the time was spent with family, and at a church service.

Uid 226

During the school year Sunday is often a work day for me. But this one was not. I had breakfast with an old college friend, then picked up my niece who had a long layover at the airport in my city. We had a lovely day as she was returning from a semester abroad in Africa and had lots to share about the differences in cultures. A beautiful day, gorgeous weather, laid back - I wish I got to enjoy more weekends like this.

Uid 231

Had a late night out with friends so didn't rise until 10am. Beautiful sunny autumn day so spent it in the sun on the terrace. Had coffee over a sudoko and then read journal articles for a paper I am revising until about 2pm. Used track changes to make comments on a method chapter for a research student undertaking her study by distance. Usually it is not a problem doing things by distance but this time I would have much preferred to speak to here because of the complexities. Never mind, let's see what happens, she is a good student. After that I spent about an hour arranging flights etc for a week's holiday in June - am hanging out for it, I can feel winter coming on, especially the evenings are becoming cold. Finished the day with a progress report for another research student, a touch more reading with notes and prepared my papers for a trip to Sydney early tomorrow. Not a bad day, as days go.

Uid 232

I try to avoid working on a Sunday but e-mail hangover needs to be dealt with. I really would like to simply switch the f...ing stuff off.

Rain started in the afternoon so also did some work on the website for the course I'm teaching in York this week.

Uid 234

On April 15th I didn't enter anything because I was on Annual Leave, can't remember why I needed to take that day as Annual leave, but there you go.

May 15th was a Sunday. After a busy Saturday I had a nice, quiet day doing something close to nothing. I did check my emails three times but there was nothing of interest.

I was awaiting replies from three different people about three different research projects but I guess they had better things to do!

Uid 237

Diary entry 9

Sunday 15th May

Context:

This Sunday ends a rather busy week - Manchester (Mon), Leeds (Tues), Manchester (Wed), Cambridge (Thurs), Leeds (Frid), Birmingham (Sat) and Leicester (Sun).

- last week I was in Scotland for a conference. I've clocked up 1,300 miles in the past 10 days.

Content:

Starts with a drive, as always. Was in Birmingham for the National Karate Championships Saturday day and evening, and then back to Leics. in the morning to spend some time with family. I got some marking out today when I returned, but have yet to do any (now 9.40pm) so the moment has definitely passed.

Uid 239

This is the third week end in a row that the weekend has been clouded by a bad experience at work in the previous week.I could do without this. There is only so much emotional energy you can spend on second guessing and trying to find the best way to calm a situation and get the resonable result. We should probably resurrect all our carefully drafted then not sent emails which could produce many mountains of paper that we could exhibit on the 4th plinth at Trafalgar Square. I've been chained to the computer all day for other things as well, as I'm somewhat distractedly perhaps trying to apply for another role. That is the way of weekends, a new take on fight or flight!! Also worried about the prospect of talking round a distressed research student on Monday. Need to keep positive and help wíth the way forward on that one.

Meanwhile catching up with cleaning and ironing as trip to the Aged P takes half the weekend away. A non-stop day but neither the busyness nor the sunshine has lifted the gloom.

Uid 241

Today I actually did some much-needed house cleaning that was neglected during the semester. I also read some in "Chicken Soup for the Soul Teacher Tales: 101 Inspirational Stories from Great Teachers and Appreciative Students". It deals with K-12 teachers and students in the U.S., but the stories are relevant to faculty in higher education, too. One of our students emailed me yesterday that she had a poster accepted at this year's Grace Hopper conference and thanked me and some others for the encouragement. I was very happy to receive that email.

Uid 244

Finally a weekend where I decided to not do much work.

Morning was spent working in the garden at home, and afternoon playing with the kids and mowing the lawn.

Back to the grind tomorrow.

Uid 245

Unusually for me I did little work today. Was visiting my parents. Did spend some time reviewing a student's draft thesis on the train home. Not a bad effort. Also looked at other draft chapters and flicked through some of the material for our social theory reading group. Proved a good diversion from train delay worries.

Uid 246

I just finished grading the last of my final exams. Yesterday was our spring graduation, and usually I'm finished turning in my grades before the ceremony. This has been an unusually busy semester, however, because my family and I will be spending all of it at Harding's study abroad program in Athens, Greece. It's amazing how much effort goes into preparing for such a long trip, especially with two little boys (age 4 and 1). Thankfully my wife is gifted with excellent organizational skills, and we'll be catching our flight early in the morning (Lord willing). I'll be teaching two courses in Athens and my wife one.

The semester in general finished very well. It was nice to see another group of graduates smiling so big as they passed a major milestone in their life yesterday. One great thing about academia is that you get to see new students each year and congratulate a group which is about to go apply all they've been learning the past four years.

Uid 250

Sunday

This Sunday is a bit atypical in terms of weather. Recently, the weather is more like November than May. It's cold and wet. It's been raining pretty much all weekend and more is expected today. None of that cold and damp stuff makes getting out of bed particularly appealing.

The typical Sunday morning routine involves coffee and some quiet time. Other than a slow start, this Sunday begins on that normal routine; except, the recent acquisition of an iPad has my wife and I playing some game early on this Sunday. Time passes.

We both sing in the choir at church on Sunday mornings, so we're on a schedule. I've recently been moved back to the bass section after about five years in the tenor section. Neither move was my idea. I guess it's good to be flexible.

We practice / warm-up beginning about 45 minutes before Mass. In other words, our Sunday morning commitment is about 2 hours. Usually, about half of the choir has breakfast together at a neighborhood bagels-and-coffee place.

It's after noon when we get home. The plan for the day includes working on a newel post and cooking Mirliton (Chayote)and Shrimp casserole. I've been working on a renovation of the staircase for (what my wife claims is 2.5) years. The problem is that I'm a perfectionist when it comes to the carpentry. I've replaced the tread and risers with solid oak. One newel stands with a temporary handrail (secure, not pretty), but there are no balusters.

We're between terms. No classes last week, no classes this week. Summer term starts in eight days. I'll be teaching in the summer term.

On Friday I came across a list of 60-second videos for university courses. Today I'm thinking about creating a series of 60-second videos for my data structures course - perhaps one per chapter. I'm also considering using algorithm tools for explaining data structures and algorithms. All told I probably spend between one and three hours sketching some plans and thinking about these non-traditional teaching techniques.

The casserole turned out OK. I burnt something along the way, but it didn't totally destroy the dish. I glued together the frame for two faces of a newel post. There is more to do - both with the stair project and the course design. But I didn't work too hard on either this day.

Uid 256

On holiday, in a blessedly wifi-free part of lovely Kintyre.

It was also a sun-free, warmth-free, power down due to the gales Kintyre.

No work done.

Uid 257

I was going to be representing the University in the form of its staff cricket club in a 40 overs a side match this afternoon against Boughton upon Blean village team. The University Sports Centre is not being particularly helpful with our fixtures, they keep bumping us off the main pitch to make way for other matches or events. The captain had booked a local school’s pitch, at some cost, for this ‘home’ fixture. In the event the oppo cried off having not secured an XI, so I hope that we can avoid the booking charge. Last Sunday (a resounding victory against Northwood Nomads) was and next Sunday (against Littlebourne) will be away fixtures so we are getting some action, although two midweek evening 20/20s this month have gone by the wayside of the Sports Centre management. For the last week or so I and my spouse have been looking after my landlady’s ‘zoo’ - just two dogs and a cat - while she is off on a solo motorbiking holiday around Spain. A local schoolkid has been able to let the dogs out and take the younger one for a walk in the afternoon on weekdays, as he would in other weeks. Yesterday we took them to the seaside at Whistable (the younger and larger one hates getting his feet wet!). This afternoon a short ride out to some local ancient woods I have not been into before and a decent 2km circular walk. Before that, we go tootling round the countryside south of Canterbury, plenty of narrow winding lanes, and end up at the village of Stelling Minnis, which has a heritage windmill, in commercial use up until 1970 - locals were there showing people around it and others had turned up with old tractors to show off. My academic colleagues and I have been almost permanently overhauling our academic programme and I am given additional responsibilities accordingly in relation to this, so find myself thinking of new ideas at various unpredictable points in the day.

Uid 260

Today should be a day of rest - but instead it has become day of decision. I have plenty to write to you "Dear Diary". I am the head of a small research centre but, for some reason unknown to me, one member (I shall call him the Young Turk) has acted from the beginning as though he should be leader of the Centre and has presented me with a variety of faits accomplis. The situation is peculiar because although the Young Turk has an excellent research record and already has a complement of papers that would satisfy REF submission requirements , his academic background, published works, and most teaching do not fall within the ambit of the research centre's purported expertise. I don't doubt his interest in the Centre's field but he simply has only minimal expertise in it and is really a tyro. Young Turk has lots of ideas for things he believes the Centre should be doing but, alas, many of these are appropriate to a teaching centre but not to a research centre.

All of this came to a head a couple of months ago when I decided to fire a shot across his bows at the monthly meeting of the Centre. I was tired of him going behind my back and starting various initiatives without any prior consultation with me or the full membership of the Centre. I did this by rather robustly reminding the membership that our focus was research and not on student-centred activities, even if those activities were supported as a spin-off of the Centre's work. Word of this showdown had somehow got back to our head of school who, although nominally a member of the Centre, rarely sees fit to attend its meetings. It was he who originally appointed me as the Centre's Director. He summoned me on Thursday ostensibly to discuss my own research outputs but it soon became clear that he had other things on his mind. After a couple of minutes discussion of my research he moved on to observe that there was a split of views within the Centre about the direction it should take. He noted that the Centre had been running for a year and that we were scheduled to have

an official launch in the Autumn. He blandly said that there had never been an open competition for the post of Director (it carries no managerial responsibilities or salary enhancement) and that he proposed to settle the split within the Centre by announcing to all staff that there would be open selection for the post. The selection would probably be done by the Dean, Associate Dean (Research) and himself. Those interested would be invited to submit their c.v. with two pages of A4 outlining their vision for the Centre for the next 3 years. In his broadly accented voice he announced, "It'll be put up or shut up." On Friday he followed this up with a private email to me saying that he intended to announce this to the School on Tuesday and enclosed a draft of his proposed email for my observations.

As can be imagined, I was not best pleased by all this. Selection would be done by people with no expertise in the area and I would have to reapply for my own job. I could not win - if I was not reappointed I would be humiliated; if I was I would still be weakened because all and sundry would speculate why it was that the head of school would appoint me one year but throw open the question of the same directorship the following year. I mulled things over and discussed them with my wife this morning. My wife is a senior manager, a management guru and a woman well versed in the dark arts of skulduggery in Russell Group universities and the public sector. She considered my impasse and then pronounced that the only thing to do was to resign. That left the issue of whether I should simply resign as director or whether I should resign from the Centre as well. The question was whether I wanted to be Samson bringing down the temple or Achilles sulking in his tent. I said that I rather saw myself as Achilles for a while. I sent an email to my Head saying that I wished to resign as director with immediate effect. I wrote that I thought he had made my position untenable whatever the outcome and that the only remaining question was my continued membership of the Centre. I stated some extremely narrow terms on which I was willing to remain a member - most of which exempted me from doing anything the Young Turk might want me to do if he were appointed. I sent off the email and then took my dogs out for a good long walk.

I spent much of the rest of the day awaiting a reply - our Head is very much a 24/7 manager who does not seem to have a life. A reply was eventually received saying that he was "sorry that you feel this way" but that if my mind was made up he would accept my resignation. He set out a revised email for my approval that he proposed to send out on Monday and commented, "I have stated that you will remain an active member of [the Centre], but you may want to amend that (personally, I hope you don't see the need to, but I appreciate from what you have said that you might want this to be more specific)."

I replied thanking him for accepting my resignation and approving his email - I secured the deal by noting "You are my manager and I have indicated to you the extent to which I am prepared to be involved in [the Centre] for the time being. I am content for you to send out the message in the form you propose - I do not think that confining my activities to REF outputs, journal administration activities and PhD supervisions is incompatible with a description of my being "an active member of [the Centre]"." He responded with "I agree that the activities you have set out below constitute active involvement in the Centre." As my wife noted, "All you have to do is make sure you get your REF outputs and you are Teflon-coated and hold the moral high ground."

Once these obsequies had been observed, I felt strangely liberated. I marked a couple of coursework essays and made Sunday dinner. Very late I decide to send a Facebook birthday greeting to my brother on his Facebook page. I am not a Facebook addict and sometimes wonder why I bother having a page of my own. However, I happen to glance at the page of an old female friend of mine (K) whom I have known since childhood. I was once desperately in love with her sister P - the kind of unrequited, young man's love that so totally consumes you that it is almost embarrassing to talk about in adult life. I lost touch with both of them in the early 1970s. It was an odd relationship - I was in love with P (a physician) but K (an artist) was in love with me. I renewed my acquaintance with K in the early 90s and she went on vacation with me and my wife to Amerrica. However, I have not met or directly corresponded with P since 1972.

Until recently P has not had a Facebook presence otherwise I would have seen her as a friend of K's (they are a close pair) - but today I see a link to P's page. I take a look - it's private but does show the

world a photo of P. She's in extraordinarily good shape and looks as good as I remember her as a young woman. On impulse I send her a message offering her the chance to reopen correspondence with me by email.

Uid 266

Hmmm, not the day I'd choose to commit to a diary, but I'm enjoying keeping up my 100% record at this, so here it is. Spent until about 9 somewhere between awake and asleep, by which time the rest of the family had had breakfast, so Ann (my wife, not her real name) kindly brought mine up on a tray. Stumbled bleary eyed into the shower, stumbled bleary eyed out of the shower. A asked me into the office to talk about a birthday present for someone. I blearily mumbled something in answer to a question about said present, which caused A to explode with anger, and we spent the next couple of hours with her seething, me failing to get my conscience to rise above the horizon, and children upset at parents' rift. I finally got myself into a mental state where I felt able to say sorry sincerely, by which time A had evidently had enough of being angry, and we were back on an even keel in time for me to make gravy to go with her roast chicken for dinner.

Conscience still struggling to see the light of day after lunch, I did some chores after dinner, then went for a run at about 4.30 - my first for a month or two, badly out of practice. Did mainly a standard route, but decided to try a footpath I'd not been on before. It went across a nice lush field, then over a footbridge over the motorway. I get vertigo very easily, and what with quite a cross wind, the age and narrowness of the bridge, and the hand railing not reaching my waist, I took up a ridiculous crouching run, staring straight ahead and forcing myself to get to the other side before I bottled out. Must have looked like Gollum to the people driving by on the motorway beneath. After a few more fields, a canal bridge, and yet more fields I got home feeling much the better for it, must try to do that more regularly.

From there on, it was just shower, bacon sandwich for tea, tidy, children to bed, bit of telly, and to bed.

Uid 267

Not exactly a typical Sunday for a host of reasons. Firstly, despite stating previously in capital letters that I never work on a Saturday (and this being reproduced in the THE), I had spent the previous day working in the office until 2.00pm. Why break my principles? Because of course it is that part of the year when time is out of joint: marking time! Compounded in my case by my collapse into a fugue state around about a week into March, when the stress of teaching, leading 4 modules, maintaining work on an externally-funded research project, moving house and managing a 500 mile round-trip commute eventually got a bit too much for me. The last two months have been back-to-the-wall auto-pilot fire-fighting (an essential skill for the modern academic!). Anyway recently emerged into something like normal (!) sanity for 46th birthday and then set off for work again on 7.30 train next morning and got to work at 1.30. This was Wednesday, so I am digressing a bit but it is all valuable context. The point is that from that moment in time, I invigilated a 2 hour exam, supervised two PhD students, marked two MA essays and prepared sample for external, started writing paper, went to bed in hotel room on campus, got up and finished writing paper, hosted a day seminar event on Mass Observation diaries (at which I gave the paper) - I also have to write a day diary for this day for Mass Observation! - went to the pub, went to bed, got up and tinkered with a different paper, hosted a day seminar event on Intermodernism (i.e. 30s/40s writing) and gave the tinkered-with paper at it, went to pub, went to bed, got up (on Saturday)and went to the office and dealt with all the stuff that had arisen during previous days, did some marking and other admin, then went to vist my parents for rest of weekend carrying an incrediblt heavt bag containing coursework 2 for one level 3 BA module, a baker's dozen of level 3 special projects and coursework for an MA module, watched Dr Who, chatted and went to bed early.

Despite early night, felt completely knackered on Sunday 15th may and spent a very slow day listlessly marking MA essays and starting on the undergrad dissertations. (you see: it wouldn't be very interesting at all without the context!). Did interrupt to go for a drive with my dad trying out his new

satnav, which he has just bought at age 76 - who says older people don't keep up with the times!)and afterwards we also went for a walk. But that was about it.

The reason I stayed in London rather than trekking back to West Wales, was because on the Monday morning I had to go into central London for a seminar that was held in the afternoon to launch a policy report that I and two colleagues have written in conjunction with the thinktank Demos. I delivered my 45 second segment of the presentation with wit and precision. You could tell the Head of Ageing and Pensions at the DWP was impressed (although I can't report what anyone said because it was all under Chatham House rules). Afterwards ... we went to the pub (putting remaining marking pile out of mind successfully for a few hours).

Uid 276

My husband returned from an academic trip to Canada yesterday afternoon, so was not up to much today. Consequently we decided to take my parents who were down for a visit to the local garden centre, as we wanted some new pots and compost for the bedding plants. Whilst wandering around the herb section we bumped into one of our Emeritus Profs with his wife, doing a similar thing on a sunny Sunday morning. Is this how all academics relax?

Uid 281

Weekends are always difficult, not enough time to do things that you've planned for them. This weekend is no exception especially as I've taught 6 days out of 7 and so my motivation to get things done on the 7th day is somewhat flagging. Instead we had a relatively lazy morning, sorted out some of the seedlings as gardening has become an escape for me - one they were sorted moved onto trying to fix my bike so I can get back to some sort of exercise despite my disability. But the new inner tube wasn't playing ball - maufacture flaw meant it was already holed....

After that it was a quick nip to Tesco to get some party food for my god-daughter's birthday and then two hours of supervising seven years in controlled chaos. Back home after for dinner and some quality time with my partner before I had to drive him back to the station. Sunday evening's are really an extension of Monday's for me, it's a time to catch up on work stuff I didn't manage to do in the previous week. So spent four hours working on crime statistics for rape and sexual violence for a report for our local rape crisis centre and on transcribing my recent focus groups with male prisoners who committed domestic violence. Eventually made myself switch off the computer at 9.30pm and spent the next half hour winding down by cross-stitching - a panel promised for the 30th anniversary quilt for the rape crisis centre.

Also spent some time thinking about the forthcoming meeting I had with some of my academic group about their teaching hours. They have clearly taken offense at being asked to work close to their contracted teaching hours which I find bizarre. Find all I can do is settle on hoping they will be more reasonable than they have been in the past and not get stressed about it before hand (meeting is Tuesday). Sadly given the stuff flying around on email I doubt this will be the case.

Uid 282

skipped this entry

Uid 289

I had an assessment handed in last week in which the students had to implement a website. I use a website as well to support the marking. I decided that my site needed to be re-implemented and did this last week. My plan was to give it a final test over the weekend. I have an assistant who is going to help with the marking and I need to make sure the site is working and stable before he uses it.

So, in true homework fashion, about Songs of Praise time on Sunday, I looked at it. Firstly I had to deal with emails from two students who had done the assessment. They seemed to think that they should not be marked down for not having followed the instructions. I sent them brief replies, saying it was too bad and telling them to whom they should appeal if they think I am being unfair.

Unfortunately, there was a major bug in my website. This was probably not the best time to work on it. Firstly it took me a while to remind myself of my own logic (implemented only last week), secondly, having to access files on the department web server was not very efficient.

Eventually I gave up. I decided I now understood the correct solution, but would implement it tomorrow.

I know I spent 1 hour and 45 minutes on this, because this is a 'TRAC' week at the university, when we have to log all our work, for a transparency review.

Uid 290

I have missed my last four entries, for reasons that are largely connected to changed home circumstances. These have had a big impact on my normal academic life pattern, so I probably should have documented them but that didn't happen, though I guess I could do it retrospectively.

This Share Day was dominated by those circumstances so I thought I ought to get something down.

The background is that my wife's elderly mother moved in with us around 5 months ago. She has limited mobility and needs a lot of care. As a result, I have significantly increased the amount of time that I work from home, in order to be able to support my wife in this. There cannot be many careers in which my pattern of work would allow this, and technology is a major factor in supporting this change, too.

As an academic, I don't have to be present in an office from 9-5 every day. My teaching load was relatively light this last term, so the number of occasions when I had to be physically present on campus was fairly small. The availability of high-speed broadband and wireless networking at home makes remote contact with work little different from sitting at a machine in my office, while working in Computer Science means there is a convenient symbiosis of this technological setup with my field.

Sunday 15th May started like every other in recent months, with a carer coming in to help my mother-in-law get up. Shortly after, we were summoned to say she had had a fall - more like a stumble while standing at her frame. Unfortunately, her knees were bruised and painful from the fall. My wife and I cancelled our commitments at church that morning to stay home and I used the extra time to undertake some research-related programming work while sitting with my mother-in-law.

It soon became clear that the pain she was feeling wasn't going to go away, so we summoned an ambulance to take her to the hospital. Two hours after the arrival she was seen by a doctor. Two hours later we had a diagnosis of a broken femur. Two hours later she was platered and on a hospital ward.

As things stand, it seems unlikely that she will be able to return to us in the near future, so one consequence of today is that my academic work pattern will likely return to something like normal over the coming months.

Uid 291

It was a late start. Not getting up until 10:45. It is some time

since I had days off. Made breakfast and while eating the

shopping arrived. Internet has made this so much easier (we do not

have a car) but as ever there are errors in the software design. I

guess we have a lot to answer for!

The first task for the day was to catch up on e-mail. Friday was busy

and Saturday likewise. It took until 2pm to do a first pass. Must

remember to answer the student who has misunderstood a question on

last year's exam paper. But more important is marking the assignment

for which the deadline is approaching. From 14:00 to 15:15 I mark,

marvelling at the bad answers and incorrect code; I suspect that the

simple skill of programming is dying. At 15:15 I stop for a small

snack and some intellectual stimulation with a sudoku. Back to

marking from about 16:00. Very disappointing to detect two identical

and wrong answers. Looks more like collaboration than plagiarism. I

wonder why these collaborations are so often totally incompetent. I

struggle on until 19:00 when I can stand it no longer. Also very

disappointed to discover that I had only managed to mark 15 answers in

about 5hrs. At least I am nearly two thirds of the way through now

and should be able to finish in only another day. I did not get to

making the travel claim or the other administrative task I had lined

up for the day.

Take my wife a cup of tea, and start the cooking process. Delay that

a little to investigate the 1960s group The Shaggs who are mentioned

on the radio, who are totally amazing! A mixture of bad drumming and

awful singing with delightful poly-rhythms.

Eventually cook supper, a pizza with olives and artichokes, pesto and

strong cheese with a good wine, followed by a creme caramel. Relax

after food listening to Reggie Goodall's Rhinegold on the house audio

repository. To bed to watch a video at 22:30

Uid 301

The week seems to be for work, but the weekend is for getting things actually done.

Sunday was mainly consumed with getting my eldest daughter packed up and shipped off to the army for officer training. A big change for the family with the first of our brood leaving the nest.

In the evening, it was back to the grind of marking. Finished up marking over one hundred exam scripts about 10pm and rewarded myself with a well deserved glass of Merlot. As always, a mixed bag of those students who delight with their obvious engagement in the subject and the interesting perspectives that they themselves bring to the course; and those that you wonder why they bothered to enrol. Marking is always an emotional roller coaster of highs and lows.

As always, I made copious notes about how to improve the course based on what I can see was valued or missed by the students from their assignment submissions. I know I'll only get to implement half of it in time for the next course delivery, but that's still progress, I hope. Perhaps that should be my new mantra "Progress, not perfection". That might stop me beating myself up over my teaching.

Uid 310

15.5.11

What a good day. An empty diary, no family or other commitments and it was fine.

Woke up at 10, too late to go swimming. The early slot is adults only and on Sundays it is usually like a private pool with only 3 or 4 of us there. At 10.30 the kids pile in. All nice kids, but it is tricky to negotiate swimming lengths, while avoiding babies, arm bands, floats and diving bars. Instead, spent most of the morning in the garden, with a bonfire and weeding, dressed in garden finery of muddy jeans, fleece and silly hat. It is a real advantage living a long way from work. No need to keep up

appearances as no-one knows or cares about what you do away from the village. Almost set fire to the next door neighbours’ hedge, but managed to douse that before they noticed (I hope!).

Cut the grass, did the ironing, read a book. Well, sort of: political spouses who are not able to say anything controversial and whose worst criticism is ‘disappointment’ at the media while being in awe and wonder at the knowledge and skill of their husband…. This was really a bad choice of light reading as it just annoyed me. Switch to Vogue. At least that does not try to be deep or meaningful. New shoes anyone, only £550! Just as well they don’t see my sartorial garden elegance. Then (sad eh?) a quick glance at the latest Times Higher, if only to see what jobs are around (not much,as it happens).

After that, relaxed and refreshed, I am ready for tomorrow and the onslaught of marking, invigilating and making sure 3 abstracts are submitted on time to get into the conference season.

I like Sundays

Uid 312

Unlike most Sundays, I got up early and arrived on campus by 7:30am. The university held commencement exercises for the graduating students, and we faculty were obligated to don our colorful robes to be paraded around. Due to inevitable problems with parking, I got to campus early and took care of some minor work in the office beforehand.

Typically I love the festivities. However, our campus holds our large graduation ceremony outdoors, and it was absolutely pouring rain. The administration supposedly had a "rain plan" in place, but decided not to use it because they believed the forecast called for only scattered showers. Things got started over 45 minutes late while they waited for it to lighten, but in the end we still wound up sitting in our finery, huddled underneath umbrellas while students got soaked and the members of the administration who made the decision were conveniently seated on the the dry, covered dais. Ironically, as we were recessing the rain lightened to a mist. Alas...

Despite the rain, it was nice to see a couple students from my classes graduate. I left campus around 2pm, my regalia air drying back in my office.

My wife and I attended an end of the year party thrown by other junior faculty members in the evening. It was really great to chat with other people without the pressure of tomorrow's class, next week's exam, or that stack of student papers to be marked. I've officially survived my first year of teaching---it's hard to believe it was only one year! Summer will be a great time to catch up on some research projects and work through all of the todos.

Uid 314

By some miracle, did no work today.

I estimate that's the second sunday since Feb where I haven't worked for at least a couple of hours.

Uid 319

A couple of panic stricken students emailing me. Nothing else. Calm before the marking storm.....

Uid 325

Today is Sunday and hence I didn't do anything to do with my work: (1) I went to church and then grocery shopping; (2) read the relevant research papers and prepared for my lecture on Monday; (3) vacuumed the house; (4) prepared a PPT for the lecture on Tuesday; (5) played with my son; and (6) progressed on my reviews for a conference. Isn't it great to have days off!

Uid 333

A friend who works at the BBC visited for lunch today. Making and eating lunch took most of the morning and part of the afternoon. Went for afternoon coffee and cake at another friend's house where we were five in total: 4 academics (2 retired) and my BBC friend.

Much chat about academia, the future of universities, and the relationship of scholarship to the media (my interview about my most recent book aired yesterday). My sense is that the media is politically to the right of nearly all humanities scholarship, such that the pursuit of the impact agenda through broadcast media for humanities scholarship will be an unhappy experience, requiring the removal of layers of critical (leftwing) analysis and a presentation of 'good old facts' (i.e. old-fashioned rightwing scholarship) in a gush of emotionality.

After the BBC friend and the retirees had left, myself and the remaining friend went to a pub quiz. Now I know where all the students are on a Sunday evening.

Uid 343

It's Sunday, and it's my turn to lead a walk for our local walking group. Unfortunately, the cloud comes down mid-morning and we're on the hilltops in a wet mist with a very cold wind. Fortunately, I'd decided to reverse the route that I originally intended so at least the wind is on our backs. In the mist I need to use map and compass to stay on track, but we manage not to get lost. With the weather, a popular vote chooses the shorter of my two options so we end up only walking 16 miles. Unfortunately the tea shop at the end had decided to close early due to 'lack of custom' .

When I get back home we get the Sunday joint in the oven and I prepare the roast potatoes. I always look forward to my Sunday roast - one of the few remnants of civilisation. The evening is punctuated with a series of phone calls, including one from my daughter wanting an opinion on an essay that she had written for her university course. After dinner we watch a DVD recording of an episode of 'Yes, Minister' - political intrigue seems to have altered very little since the series was recorded 30 years ago.

In the late evening I get some time to myself, so I spend an hour reading a PhD thesis that I am examining. I get so little time at work to think about what's new in my subject that I find such reading really quite relaxing.

And so to bed.

Uid 348

Work connected social occasion today! A surprise birthday lunch for colleague's significant birthday. This was work in the best possible way: a team of people who work so well together, respect each other and have just emerged unscathed from a major inspection sit and eat, drink and laugh together. And our conversation wanders into work territory from time to time butnot too often! This has come towards the end of an exhausting academic years with academic and personal pressures for us all. We are still in the midst of massive marking and beginning the forward planning for next year. A good interlude.

Uid 361

Sunday and no work to do!

I'm at my mothers for the weekend helping with shopping and houshold things. Still woke up early, but watered the garden rather than preparing for work. Had a short time in the garden topping up the bird feeders and feeding the tortoises. Sat in the garden for a short while and would have had coffee there, but it clouded over and the wind got up, so had to retreat inside. Couldn't resist a sneaky look at my e-mail whilst check out some other things on the net, but I didn't reply to anything. Tomorrow will be soon enough!!

Uid 362

I faced a dilemma this morning - do I spend the day catching up on work - an e-portfolio for the PgCAP due in on 14th June, re-reading one of the texts that a student is using for her dissertation, brushing up on some film theory - or do I have a day off? The day off won! And so I spent a very enjoyable afternoon curled up in an armchair reading a novel, purely for pleasure. It's been a very long time since I've been able to do that. Of course, in the back of my mind, I'm rehearsing all the other things I ought to be doing but it is probably the last time I'll get to do any pleasure reading until

the middle of June as I know that there's a pile of dissertations waiting to be marked, some 1st year creative writing portfolios soon to be collected and then a large pile of exam scripts coming in the next week or so. But although marking is time consuming and laborious, the end result can be very rewarding if students have achieved their potential. Here's hoping!

Uid 369

Woke pretty early - took Saturday evening off for Eurovision dinner party at friend's house so the inevitable fragile early morning ensued. Too busy to bake this week, so no fresh bread for breakfast :-(

Weather not particularly energising but took the dog for a longish walk, then about 10am settled back to work. Tasks on today's to-do list: Keynote presentation for conference talk in a fortnight, handout for same, run thro of draft talk to check timing. Also, for work, I want to put some time into my 5-year research plan.

These tasks take me right through the 'working' Sunday, but I do get them all done for about 4pm, when we break for late lunch.

After another dog walk, I have a go at checking that the new wifi router is on the optimum channel - it seems to be.

Feeling pretty exhausted by this stage and rather dreading the new working week. New 'leadership' role, plus other heavy duty roles at work, mean I'm at my desk at least 4 days/week for long days (8am-7pm often), and difficult meetings, so working thro the pain threshold of abandoning weekends is the only solution to factor in research time, but one does wonder how long the pace can be maintained.

Evening spent with trashy tv shows and some nibbly food bits, before bed at about 9pm.

Uid 370

The teaching semester is over, the brief return to classes after the long Easter vacatio is over and exam season is just about to begin. I've finished all my marking (bar one round of first year exam papers in about 2 weeks), submitted all the grants I intended to, and generally ticked off most of the semesters to-do list. All of this means that I didn't do that much work this Sunday. I checked my email fairly regularly throughout the day, responding to student questions related to forthcoming exams or emails from colleagues, but apart from that (and thinking about various projects), nothing serious was done. Bliss! Actually I was bored silly because it was raining and I couldn't get out of the house to do anything - would rather work on those days!

Uid 375

15.05.11

I had the first lie-in this morning that I've had for weeks. I got up at 8.30am and decided to take the day easy. I spent a lot of it catching up with reading - and with sleep. I slept a lot. I suspect this was related to the fact that for the past 2 weeks I've had a chest infection. I haven't missed any teaching (of course) but it has left me feeling washed out. The point is that it's my own work (my research) and my own well-being (sleeping when exhausted) that always get pushed to the bottom of the priority pile. I'm waiting to hear this month about an important research grant so feel generally on edge and am checking my email inbox compulsively. In the evening, I wanted to show support to one of my grad students who had organised an event in town so my partner and I went along to that briefly. It felt good to be out of the house, and we had a quick bite to eat afterwards. I was in bed by midnight, ready for the 6.50am alarm on Monday morning ...

Uid 378

I spent the day at the animal park with the baby, and then realised with horror when I got home that the marking deadline for all final year students was the next day. So then I was faced with the choice of marking or housework for my Sunday evening once the baby was asleep. So I ended up doing both.

I was marking MSc reports, which were pretty lousy. My husband said he and the cat can tell how bad the reports are by how loud I sigh!

Uid 379

This Sunday we (my doctoral student, a research assistant, and I, went to the north . We're conducting an experiment in school and this was the big day when students perform the activity we designed, and we observe and document it.

afterwards , we talked briefly with the exausted teachers. I also encouraged my team ( I personally see the research value in students' activities, even (or especially) when they surprise us. but the young generation tends to take it hard when things do not work exactily as planned, part of the real curriculum of becoming a (qualitative-oriented) researcher , I guess.

So, i left home at 7:15. i was back at about 5pm, ate something with my son and drove to Tel-Aviv b/c I promised my brother to go with him to the theatre. I was back home just before midnight, met my husband, had a late supper and thank God, went to bed.

Uid 381

Today I was on a weekend break with my two daughters, staying in a hotel in York. My husband is away on business in Australia for two weeks. This is the middle of our exam period.

I had taken honours project reports with me to mark. I spent about an hour today reading through one of these.

Other than that I did no work.

Uid 383

Today I walked the Yorkshire Three Peaks with the Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA). What a miserable day - left home at 6.30am, raining, windy, cold, low cloud.

Met up with group, put on full waterproofs and set off for the 25 mile challenge.

Who did I meet - my old boss from my previous institution. I can only say she was a real bitch of a boss - had lots of people off ill with stress, and I nearly left teaching as a result of her. So I wasn't pleased that after 10 years she turned up on a walk. I managed a few polite words with her and then made sure I walked with the front of the group away from her. My feelings were still surprisingly strong though - absolute hate! I can honestly say she is the only person (apart from my ex-husband) that I really don't like! I am a very tolerant person normally.

The day was a great challenge, before the final peak was attempted we stopped off in a cafe that was inside an open barn (so still cold and damp). What did I do? I got one of these new smart phones about a month ago, so that I could try and deal with emails whilst commuting (they stress me out so much to a point I don't want to go onto email at work or at home). So now email is better, however, it beeps everytime I receive a works email - including all weekend, and on this walk. So I am very cold and very wet, and having listened to various emails hitting my phone, I bring up works email and start responding to student emails - am I mad??? I am not supposed to be one of these people who doesn't have a life and can't switch off! Maybe the smart phone wasn't such a good idea after all!