Cooking went OK - mainly based on the frying pan - turkey breast strips and peppers (orange and yellow), new potatoes, beans done in the microwave in the serving dish (to help with logistics) and new potatoes. We met Ruth and Stuart with their dogs (Barley and Zsu-zsa) at the foot of the Chantries and walked round partly in the shade of the forest and partly looking south up the Wey valley to Godalming and along the track of the Wey-Arun navigation.

Jake likes nothing more than a pack trip - he stays with the humans whereas Ruth and Stuart's dogs like to explore. R&S are in the process of moving to Bath from Acton - currently living in both places - they have noticed how clean Bath is. They seemed genuinely pleased that James' A levels had come out OK. We lunched in the garden - a sparkling Samur to start and a mouthful of Chilean chardonnay with the pudding.

Ruth is a great one for personal histories (we first met when we were five year's old). For some reason she wanted to see our wedding photos - there aren't many of them. I look very thin and Yvonne looks about 20 (which she wasnt). My brother in law Rodger still looks the same as in the pictures.

First thing I looked at the last 10 bars which underpin the piece The Last Ten Bars about to be retitled as The Last Eleven Bars - utterly impressed with the invention and compression of the original. I also managed to push Approximately Four minutes a bit further and found a useful exercise to start preparing the flute part - it will probably be played on the flute.

I tried some sketching in Sarah's orchard yesterday but couldn't quite get into my stride. I had another look today and have managed to salvage something which didnt look too bad after it had been scanned in and mixed a bit.

The last programme of the series on Jamaican music was no less interesting if a bit more complicated especially in the flows between the local developments in Dance Hall and the world market through the USA and UK. For me Bob Marley still stands apart - it's a conventional judgement but there we are.

The Horizon programme on the Anthrax attack was gripping - especially the role of the Harvard English professor in decoding the written material associated with the infected envelopes. The emerging conclusion was like something out of the X Files.

Radiohead were on Mixing It talking about Miles Davis and Messaien. Bright bunnies.