Monday and Tuesday

Monday - worked at home but got off to a slow start as the automated back up which should have been made to my external hard drive on Sunday night apparently failed because the drive was full. I am a bit obsessional about having lots of copies of stuff so my first task was to clear space on the drive and rerun the back up.

Concentrated on writing a funding application . For a long time I've been wanting to look at aspects of corporate governance which have been adopted in the public sector and I shall need another project when the book is finished but the proposal has to be put together in a very short space of time so that it can be approved internally and meet the funding body deadline. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to write but chasing up references for the appropriate citations has taken time and occasionally distracted me into reading other interesting material. I'm not very good at filing references - I have Endnote but tend to forget to use it. I used to be such an organised person... When I've finished this draft I'll have to edit it down to 1000 words and then email the people I plan to ask to act as referees.

Read and commented on an undergraduate dissertation draft. The undergraduates I'm supervising are incredibly keen. Three of them started working on their dissertations well before the summer vacation and have completed a huge amount of reading. They all wanted to get as far as they could before the academic year started again which was a very sensible strategy. Writing is more of a challenge for them but they've allowed lots of time for getting feedback from me, unlike the MSc students who left everything to the last minute.

Read through papers for tomorrow's meetings and checked the online system for submitting the research proposal to see what other information I'll need to collect.

Tuesday - in my office by 8 am (definitely damp - now the heating is on, my glasses steamed up as soon as I went in). Dealt with email and snail mail (very little these days) and filled out various forms. Chased colleagues for information about their research activities. Remainder of the morning taken up with a lengthy research leader meeting. Went to library to collect a book and wrestled with new self-service system, to amusement of library staff. First your card is scanned (if you place it in the correct place, the correct way up). Then you place the book you want to borrow on the machine. Then you have to touch the screen to get a printed slip showing the return date - no date-stamping any more. The onscreen instruction about this is very small and I would have missed it without guidance. And the slip is bound to get lost... I am far from convinced that this is an improvement.

Ate lunch at my desk while catching up with alerts about publications in my area and printing out copies of articles relating to chapter 6 of the Cadbury book - when will I find time to read them? Marked another MSc dissertation and completed the necessary form. Then a meeting with a young colleague to discuss the reviewers' comments on his paper. I think it's very bad form for a reviewer to criticise the writing style of a paper in disjointed sentences that don't make sense! Some of the criticisms were justified but the comments could have been much more constructive. But a "revise and resubmit" from a 3* journal is pretty good for a first paper, although his co-authors are not being very helpful.

Emailed colleagues with a report of the morning meetings and then time for a quick cup of tea and chat with colleagues before coming home. Meetings tomorrow, from 9.30 until 3, an evening of preparation for these.