Day 161: 'All those in favour...'

Day 161 (16 May) Thursday. Well, it seems I got through the day unscathed...it wasn't in anyway a disrespectful tweet and subsequent convo but may be just on the edge of a 'please come to the Dean's office' about it. 

Thursday has a touch of the 'long day' about it too, I just have to switch to Japanese until 9pm. Today is also the day we hold a branch meeting to endorse the claims for the next round of bargaining...that is something that will take up my time post-semester too (just in case there is anybody left out there thinking we academics don't work...much). 

Budget wins and losses,
at 6.12am

At 6.12am I am following up on some of the continuing analysis of the budget and various campaigns carried out by interest groups and lobbyists with regards to the budget spoils. The verdict on education remains 50/50...universities will have to make do with less. It is hard, there's not a lot left to cut. 

Koyo, of sorts.

I'm also due to pick up a colleague to car pool to work soon so get going; at a set of lights, my photographer's eye notices the colours in the foliage on the median strip, almost like the 'koyo' or autumn leaves in Japan. 

Much of the morning at work is taken with preparing notes and proxies and so forth for the midday meeting. It is an important one and we need to make sure everything is right. At some point I need to also make sure the six hours of teaching ahead is prepared...I'll be running straight into them this afternoon until late. 

The meeting passes without too much incident...there are a few points to clarify and one or two other things, but mostly all fine. All were in favour...

The library, at 6.12pm

Thursday night's class is tricky...an awkward combination of students who have missed the important first tute and those who can work on...it is a matter of teaching two classes simultaneously...patience doesn't really win this evening. The 6.12pm pic is of the library at night; an award-winning building, it is the centrepiece of the campus and I pass it on the way back to my office to retrieve materials the students didn't have in class.

I get back to the office at 9pm. I have a few things to tie up but not too much...I'm returning to campus tomorrow to attend a seminar. 

I miss the Opposition Leader's budget reply speech this evening...I can justify streaming the budget into a politics class live, a little harder for first-year Japanese class...something else to catch up with soon.