This week I've been going through the registration process and beginning the research training for my PhD. In my naivety I thought that the difficult part for me would come when I had to turn my hand to academic research and analysis and the presentation of a thesis - (I have all of that to look forward to!) but as usual it's matters concerned with computers and downloading programmes and getting messages up I don't understand and being told that I can't access a file because it's corrupted and being advised that I'll need to download special software - they're the sorts of things that really stress me out. I didn't want to spend hours wading through booklets and pamphlets and instruction guides about e-portfolios and the special protocol of passwords - this is taking me about as far away from thinking about poetry and writing as it's possible to go, and I hate it. I just hope that everything will become clearer as time goes on, but right now I hate it and it's cracking me up. Why has the world become so very complicated?

In principle I have no problem about identifying my needs and aspirations, my strengths and weaknesses or about setting targets and measuring performance against those targets,I used to do that sort of thing when I was a personnel manager, but why does it need to be so complicated technically. I dare say the 30-somethings and under will have no problems, but there are quite a number of, shall we say, 'more mature' people wanting to undertake study at this level and it's enough to put them off. For me, everything having to be so web-based and technical, even having to think along those lines, kills all creative thought stone dead! At the moment, the facilities being offered are not 'tools' but 'obstacles' and I just hope I can overcome them.

Horace! You thought you had problems recording your rolls, come back and contend with this - see what affect it has on your beautiful lyric verse! Right now I don't want to seize the day, but rather, I'd like to seize someone by the throat, or else run off to some farm in the hills.