Today I feel like I need a detox.

Appalling time management is causing me problems> I had set the evening aside to work out what I am going to play tonight, especially if I have to play it on the River Wey between Godalming and Guildford. First I had to pick up Vita from her bass gtr lessons where she had been learning Message in A Bottle - sounds promising.

I decided that the 3watt stereo system (6 AA batteries) I bought in Dixon's for �5.99 plus plus Minisdisc was part of the solution. Also discovered that I have already played the Sibelius song as a solo guitar piece. I thought I will premiere a version of Fifths and maybe also use the guitar/tuba track of Nightingale. Anyway then the phone rang to see where I was - I was meant to be leading a discussion in a group on the other side of town. And in about twenty minutes I was.

It was the section of the book about the Disciplines themselves - divided into disciplines of abstinence and disciplines of engagement. In the former category there was a fairly positive view on silence and solitude - and a sense of not coming up to the mark on fasting. Celibacy is definitely having a bad press at the moment. Frugality is just hard. Secrecy seems to be making a comeback. The disciplines of engagement seem generally to be easier - except for prayer and confession. Study is making a big comeback especially with The Summer School. The author suggests that the point about the disciplines is firstly that they are undertaken for their impact not as ends in themselves and that it is the process of doing them that is all important - if you try to fast for an afternoon when you normally have a couple of snacks then that counts. I suppose my reservations are where the disciplines stand in relation to the intuitive side of creativity. Anyway - even though there was a rush to start I was glad I managed to get to the event.

One of the most thoughtful group members said that the problem with The Disciplines is finding a credible reason why you are not going to try them. You know that the likelihood is that you won't do much more than you do already - but this exposes one's superficiality ruthlessly. The next Chapters are about poverty which won't be any easier.

Interesting diary entries today from Mark and Robin. Yes I have had snake dreams especially when I was younger - I think people do use the short term asset maximisation approaches that Mark suggests and you should always dig deep on this stuff before deciding how to respond.

I finished my presentation for Brno and got a couple of colleagues to look over it. I think I will send it off today.

With Fifths I am playing in my mind with a new(?) way of offering the piece as a composition. Its quite common for pieces to be offered with a tape - especially where the tape is electronically generated. I am playing with the idea of offering the piece as a backing plus two instantiations plus a set of instructions for the performer - in text. Of course it all depends what the instructions are - nothing as radical as Lamont Young's instructions to feed the piano a bale of hay.

I listened to Vask's 2nd quartet on the way to work. I am getting to like it. I think there is a UK premier of No 4 around now. It made me wonder whether at the end of the day I didnt prefer Britten's 4tets to Tippet's - maybe except for No 5.