The day started off working on a funding proposal in conjunction with City and Guilds' Indian partner. The potential to extend the pilot project across India is potentially exciting, but at the same time would require a huge effort. Once in the studio the students arrive more or less on time (some clearly find it difficult to get there for the start), and today's highlight was Joseph bringing not one but six raw eggs to make tempera with - the big debate was were these town eggs or country eggs! There is so much positive energy running in our hot and sticky studio that it is becoming difficult to even stop in the evening.  We are half way through our syllabus, the exercises are being done, the indo/portuguese statues have been cleaned and consolidated. What is taking time and caution are the portraits of the Archbishops. They have all been restored at some point, or rather  it would be truer to say that they have been repainted (more than once in some cases). The more we take off, the more there is to retouch and scalpel off carefully. I am now more than ever aware of how little time we have and how much needs to be completed. If you could see the studio every inch of space is take by a project. Everybody is focused on their painting, at times I see more than one on a painting and I realize that they support each other and will clean, fill and retouch at a drop of a hat to move along someone else's painting. There is a WhatsApp group for the students here, and they are putting comments on at all times of day and night. It's a great feeling to see them pulling together as one team.One of the students commented this evening that it feels that we have all been together for years, not weeks. 'It's like a family, we have all become friends, and if one person is missing we care and want to know why.'