12 of 12, August 2016

It took all of my alarms (4 different devices), but I managed to fight jet-lag and weariness to get up and get to work before anyone else had turned on the lights in the building.

The day began by dealing with a few work emails, one of which wanted to know how to properly reference a booklet I prepared with a colleague for teachers. I always get really annoyed when documents don’t quite fit the standard referencing categories, or don’t bear enough information to fill in all the referencing elements … and this document failed on both counts. (To be fair, when we prepared it we weren’t really thinking about it as a reference-able document!)

My morning was taken up with a university graduation ceremony at which, in the absence of the Dean, I took on the role of reading out the names of the graduates. They sent me a script beforehand, although it didn’t bear as much resemblance to what actually happened on the day as I would have expected.

The following is a surreptitious shot of the academic procession just before we processed into the Federation Concert Hall (surreptitious, because it would have been too hard/embarrassing/awkward to explain the weirdness that is this 12 of 12 tradition to all these rather senior academics (the Vice Chancellor was standing behind me)).

Afterwards it was time to take some photos of one of our rather chuffed PhD graduates, Seeta (that’s her second from left and then second from right), with some of my colleagues.

Seeta had organised a bit of a celebration in the afternoon, but I had to pick up the key to a university car on the way. The short-cut route goes through the lovely little patch of bushland and picnic area just near our building. It’s a peaceful spot, good for putting a bit of calm into the day when things are frantic.

When I said that Seeta had organised a bit of a celebration, it was a bit of an understatement, as she had invited some of the staff, her family, some fellow students and friends to a late lunch at the university staff club.

The food was yummy (photographing the meal necessitated me having to give the hard/embarrassing/awkward explanation of the weirdness that is this 12 of 12 tradition, lest anyone think that I do something as weird as instagramming everything I eat 😉 !)

In the evening I really needed to put my feet up. I also needed to do some work producing some resources for some professional learning I am running early next week.

Actually what I really needed to do was go to bed (I am rather jet-lagged and the late-afternoon dessert had given me a bit of a sugar-headache).

(The “12 of 12” project involves taking 12 photos on the 12th of the month. This provides the opportunity to get snapshots of different aspects of your life or some photographic theme or whatever. I have been doing this since 2009.)