Managed to wake up shortly after 6am. I forgot to pack my wife's lunch last night, so I did that before anything else. Weighed myself (still the same as yesterday), made a sandwich with egg and salmon, drank coffee, kefir, tea in this order (yuck). My wife left, I pushed myself to get ready to leave the house by 7:30, which I did. It's strange how just 15 minutes can change the outlook of my commute - far quieter, fewer people around, fewer cars. Came across the same market girl as yesterday, this time she saw me and we said hello. I have a huge pimple on my face, so large that I can see the bastard in the corner of my eye. It's making me self-conscious. I expressed this to my wife yesterday evening and she got offended, because she used to get them too and I always told her they were no big deal. They really weren't. I didn't manage to verbalise this appropriately back then, but I think the difference between us is that a pimple on her beautiful face is basically nothing, whereas a pimple on my ugly mug is just the straw that breaks the camel's back. Though she would say it's the other way around. Nothing to do but wait until it goes away, anyhow. Administered a test to yet another group of students at 9:00. One of them emailed me in a panic because she was stuck in traffic this morning, but she made it to class in time, eventually. There's also always 1-2 computers who don't work for one reason or another, so I had to let another late student use the lecturer's desktop. After the test I delivered a rather uninspired lecture - I was boring myself. The issue at hand is that I didn't have time to prepare, so I've been following someone else's notes; but they are just a sequence of loosely connected statements - there is no overarching narrative to them, which is how I usually lecture. Humans make sense of the world through narratives, little stories populated by a few characters that capture a small orderly slice of the mess that is reality. At least, that's how I see it. Hopefully tomorrow's lecture will be better - I have some ideas. Yet another test after the lecture (we're doing it group by group; two more to go). Nothing of note happened. Sp. wrote to remind me yet again to upload some files from my personal laptop - I only remember when I'm outside and forget as soon as I get home. After the test I had a couple of free hours which I spent marking half-assedly, save for a cigarette break that was cut short by an email from the dept secretary. It used to be the case that we could just get a key to the stationery cupboard to get what we needed, but now you have to essentially make a bloody appointment with her at a time of her choosing (she's lovely, but come on). One has to wonder how many more wrenches can be thrown in the wheels before the whole thing grinds to a halt; I have a feeling we will find out before the semester is over. Went back to marking after that. My god, life would be so much easier if the students didn't suck. It takes FOREVER to mark a bad script, because you're trying to see what's salvageable, except nothing makes sense. It's as productive as trying to decipher hieroglyphs without the Rosetta Stone. Had a final tutorial at 14:00 but nobody turned up, which is bad for them but great for me, because I got to leave early. Grabbed the remaining scripts and headed for the market to grab some pie to fatten me up. They had a new one, with a wild boar ragu filling (fancy). I chatted a little while with the pies girl, Ch., who kept showing me instagram reels; I ended up following her, though it was mostly an act of politeness if I'm being honest. I also bought some fresh carrots and some decorative pumpkins - t'is the season. Then went home, had the pie, which was nice, and instead of marking I spent some time unwinding (i.e. doomscrolling; shameful). My wife came home from work in the meantime, with the usual bagful of packages she has delivered to her work address. One of them contained a dress she later tried on to get my opinion - dark, soft, tight, with a long line of small buttons down the front. She was wearing nothing underneath, which turned me momentarily feral. It looked good on her, by the way. I did manage to work out this time, thankfully. I did it while listening to a podcast Al. recommended me recently - something about interviewing Twitter anons. I listened to an episode about China but I found it a bit boring; might give it another try but then I'll be back to my usual history seminars. I showered and then did some prepping for dinner. We smoked the usual light joint, then I finished off dinner - beetroot risotto with taleggio. It was good, but could've been better. We watched Gilmore Girls until it was time to get ready for bed.