time activity

0620 Got up. Pondered a busy day ahead. Breakfast.

0720 Drove to UNSW via Macquarie street to drop Lyndell off at her work.

0800 Arrive UNSW and start up computer. Not too many emails. Reviewed email I drafted Wednesday replying to Dean’s request for comments on proposed courses for UNSW Asia. It’s important. Edit. Near enough – press send. Phone call from Tracie (another academic in our School of Engineering). Shall we meet this morning for planning? Agreed to meet at 3pm.

0820 Collate list of comparisons between statics/dynamics courses from Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mining Engineering and ourselves. We are developing a common course and need to see what we’ll agree on. Tracie rang “Hartmut is asking about the party for unveiling our uplifting artworks.” We’ll have to delay a bit – we’re both surfacing after overload. We’ll discuss it at 3. Took quotation form to Unisearch about a consulting job on engineering mechanics (I must finish by Monday).

0930 Meeting to look at common course in engineering statics/dynamics. Just me, Phil Helmore (our School’s Director of Education) and John Watson (from Mining). No Civil representative. A very productive and enjoyable exploration of a course that John and I clearly share a passion for. Would have been harder with three to satisfy though – we’ll see later how Civil Engineering reacts to it.

1030 Meeting with four students in a vibrations tutorial class. An assignment is due on Tuesday, so there’s the usual heightened energy levels. Good questions; lots of learning.

1115 Catch my breath. Plan a bit. Cup of tea, and cheese and biscuits to recharge the blood sugar. A few students ask about an activity they missed “I’m afraid the whole point of the activity is that you participate. There was Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday to do it. It’s only a small mark though.” Hope I didn’t sound too much on my high horse. Think it was ok.

1130 Start this diary. It’s good to be reviewing my day before I go home and share it with (or dump it on?) Lyndell.

1150 Prepare for 1st year mechanics tutorials. Last chance at a Guided Learning Opportunity 3. Will distribute some more worked solutions to tutors.

1200 Drive 1st year mechanics tutorials. Organise tutors in rooms to suit demand. Distribute marked test scripts. Field questions on marking.

1300 Continue discussions about marking.

1315 Grab quick lunch. Meet Rick, now retired and planning 90 days in Eastern Europe.

1345 Prepare for 1st year mechanics lecture. A nice one with an exploratory example followed by an introduction to the elegance of normal-tangential coordinates in plane particle kinematics (well I think of it this way).

1400 Go to lecture theatre and wait while previous class continues to pour out late. Looks on their faces say “We’ve just had a major test”. Tried a bit of jollity – no go. Still they came! Are they going around the block and coming back in again by the back door? Previous lecturer still there at 10 past the hour and oblivious to lateness apart from perfunctory “sorry” as he leaves. Too preoccupied myself to mention “politeness” to him. Give lecture, with microphone cutting in and out, and some of the class having their minds elsewhere (it is Friday arvo after all). But I thought it was ok – say 7.5/10 for us all in our communal activity.

1500 Had more discussions after class.

1515 Meet colleague Tracie Barber and PhD student Yvette, who came to retrieve her Japanese umbrella (much loved I fancy). I found the umbrella (and recognised it) in a tutorial yesterday.

1520 Discussions with Tracie, and planning for the grand opening of our uplifting artwork for the foyer. After coffee and Florentines our brains kicked in and we made great progress.

1630 Where did the rest of the day go? I emailed our artist about unveiling the engineering artwork, assembled the weekly School newsletter I’ve just started as a way of encouraging communication within the School, and then started writing this diary; but surely that was only 30-40 minutes, and its now 1745 and time to go home. I don’t know. My desk is a mess but then I’ve just got to get through Monday without losing anything important, before I’ll have that Tuesday I’ve put aside for tidying up – “Tidying-up Tuesday”. Lovely thought.

1745 I’ll now get together the materials I need for the consulting job on engineering mechanics that I’ll do over the weekend, before Lyndell and I go sailing in our Hartley TS 16 on Sunday. Ready about!

1850 Time to slow down. Dinner, television news, and conversation with Lyndell as I perfunctorily put in a few pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. Then an early night.