Stress stress stress

Morning everybody. This week seems to be one of those in which I have hundreds of things to do, and yet it feels like I haven't achieved much at all. Most of them are fun things - like refreshing our English Renaissance course - but time to sit and think has been limited. I've been marking re-sit essays: maximum respect to the young lady who plagiarised two essays on ethics and thereby demonstrates a highly sophisticated grasp of irony. I think. I've had a session with my work-mandated psychologist (or 'educational consultant' as it was put to us by management), seen friends, been to meetings and there's more to come.

No reason for this, I'm just rather pleased with it. I took it the first day I used my 50mm f1.8 lens. Click to enlarge.

Tonight I'm going fencing and then giving a fencing demonstration and photoshoot to the massed ranks of the international press. They're coming for the 126th Wenlock Olympian Games, the forerunner and determinedly non-corporate event which inspired that dubious aristo Pierre de Coubertin (hence one of the Olympic mascots being named Wenlock). As the international Olympics are in London this year, there's a huge amount of press interest, so I've to give them all a lesson, then put on a demonstration (sabre, as it's closest to the media's idea of sword-fighting) and pose for dramatic photos ('give me cynical, baby'). Not my favourite activity but all the people who look sporting are at work on Thursday mornings because they have proper jobs.

Then it's rushing back for a meeting with a very promising postgrad who wants to do a dissertation on the Mitfords, and at some point I need to get a haircut and sort out my clothes for a wedding in Winchester on Sunday. I'm reading a John Donne poem - one of the more family-friendly ones rather than anything saucy.

Friday's big event is another pleasant little encounter with Paul Uppal MP, who's making a cameo appearance in the constituency. I'm joining my allies at 38 Degrees to present him with a petition against the government's proposed new Snooping Bill. I thought Labour's security state was oppressive and authoritarian. Lots of Tories campaigned against it and promised a new era of freedom and civil liberties. Now they're proposing to eavesdrop on every tweet, email, phone call and - for all I know - pigeon post you send. Everyone's invited: join us at the fountain in Queen's Square at 2 p.m.

And in the gaps, I'll try to do a little work. Perhaps.