My class started at 14:00 and it was already 14:05. I still needed to collect the materials from my office. More pressing was the requirement to dress. I couldn’t really turn up to teach wearing just a navy blue towel. I wondered if I had PN’s mobile number? If so, I could send a text and ask him to make sure that he and the rest of students waited for me. I would be with them soon.

On my way to my office I passed SS heading off to a corporate do, dressed in a dinner suit. Then I spotted our former Head of School. I really did not have time to talk to him so I zipped past, hoping that I would not be recognised in my blue towel disguise. My strategy failed. Now I had to respond to his accusation that I had been supplying secrets to GW. Was I an enemy of the Principal? I declared that I had no knowledge of this, pointing to my horrendous e-mail backlog as evidence of my innocence.

I still needed to get to my class, and I headed off in the direction of the H floor. Since the merger with QMU it had become quite tricky to access certain parts of the campus: staircases led nowhere, and escalators randomly took you wherever they wanted, often to the opposite end of town. I tried to find my way by tramping up a steep, static escalator. At the very top I had no idea where I was.

It was with great relief that here I found someone who I both recognised and trusted. I turned to DT and admitted that I thought I was about to lose my mind. She stared straight back at me and replied bluntly “Too late, you already have”.