It seems to have happened slightly later than usual this year, though that’s just a quirk of the calendar, but today was the day I could no longer avoid going onto campus and being faced by a large number of people who were not in the vicinity two weeks ago. Yes, it’s the first week of teaching. So be it.
There is still just under a month to go until I start teaching the latest intake, but plenty needs doing to be ready for that day. Hence the length of the morning meeting. I skulk around, visible as a shadow in the mirror, while my colleagues emerge in the direction of lunch.
Going on the visual and auditory evidence on this Friday in August, and the occupancy rates of nearby car parks, I might have been the only person to actually be present for work in the Ellen Wilkinson Building today. It was certainly a quiet one, anyway. I like the patterns on this shot, and a general feeling of monochrome calm.
Five days after Joe’s version, I get to attend another graduation ceremony, only this time in professional rather than parental capacity, so I was sat up at the front. But it felt more like the back, and quite comfortably at the back, so I could get away with some photography. I am pleased with this shot: it was what I intended when the shutter was pressed.
It’s nice when my students can still impress me, and, currently, Keela’s dissertation project is certainly doing that — although I can’t tell you what it is, not for any sinister reasons but just because it’s not finished yet and not my business to tell you. But, yes, it involves virtual reality, she doesn’t wear a rig on a regular basis. I do not believe my office noticeboard has featured before so there you go, a chance to check out the randomly accumulated display of items upon it for the first, and who knows, perhaps the last time.
You could say there’s been a change in the weather over the last couple of days. I managed to get to and from campus without getting wet but others were not so fortunate, including Susan in the next-door office, it seems.
First shot from Manchester since the 6th. Do I really spend so little time there these days? At some yet-to-be-determined date in the future, I will, of course, take my last ever shot from there, not so much the city but from campus more specifically. I will not be working at uni for the rest of my life unless that life ends unexpectedly, and fairly soon. But for now I am still going in. I do not know what this sculpture represents though it has clearly been built from the same stuff, and at the same time, as the building that surrounds the courtyard in which it stands. If I have a favourite place on campus, this is probably it.
My last scheduled day of on-campus teaching in this academic year. Very few turned up, but that’s OK, it was an optional class. Hopefully they are all off in studious contemplation somewhere, like she seems to be: although quite probably she’s just checking social media while she has her fag.
Back to work, and back to campus, at least for today. This was one of those shots where the shapes pleased me so I went for it, and even the red box is fine, it’s part of the composition. The wonky sign is the anomaly, but I could claim that’s deliberate too. (It wasn’t.)
He is watching something. The eye in the sky is below him and can’t watch him from there, but I capture him with a long zoom. Everyone is watching someone else.
Being 42 