I started the day by thinking about the music for Wednesday � and came up with a couple of ideas I really liked. The first involved the double length version One Point Two � I used this at WATCH about a month ago � I am taking this project pretty much to the wire.

Work � I started to write about last week�s course . And then I remembered that I forwarded to the my work e-mail the Sector Skills Development Agency newsletter � which I opened up. The first item was about an announcement of an extra �130m for experiments to find out what employers wanted from the training and qualifications system � as announced by Gordon Brown. I found a few Press Notices on the subject and mailed my colleagues. I was surprised how quickly Graham came back with a reaction to the effect that we needed to start chasing this stuff. I did some more research and mailed back a suggested set of priorities. At the root of this is the fact that we are extraordinarily well placed. I tried to book myself onto a course at the QE2 centre which is intended to explain to ordinary mortals what is going on � but it had sold out � my fault for leaving it too long. I put myself on the mailing list for the next run.

Paul Wheeler mailed about the Greatest Britons series and the requirements to be a hero these days within this Sceptred Isles. I think both he and I are sorry Shakespeare didn�t win � he blames Fiona Shaw more than I do. I mailed back saying that I had lost his address and wanted to send him a CD. The CD in question is the 10 Short Stories which I sent off to Gilbert at lunch-time.

I mailed Laurence Cranmer about the Bernard Williams article in Saturday�s Guardian � which he had seen . He said he was going to have another crack at Shame and Necessity which he had got half way through and abandoned. I mentioned the Observer article about New Labour and John Rawls � one of Laurence�s heroes. He had missed this and I suggested he look on the Observer website. I tracked down the first Chapter of Truth and Truthfulness which I skimmed and suggested to Laurence he get stuck into. I read an interview of Williams by Peter Jay which reminded why I hadn�t really liked BW that much at the time � in fact in the first Chapter of TnT there is a reference to the Frankfurt School � something I bounced out of analytical philosophy into. It made me think how much everyone had shifted over the years.

I had a meeting with Stephen Priest about how we are going to make our way into the Learning and Skills maze. Then Geoff Dale came up and said that he thought the Procurement NVQ looked the business and so I started pulling on that piece of string at the end of the day. Just before the meeting with Stephen I tracked Nick Sinclair Brown down to some International Studies Centre on Trumpington St � I mailed him and left a phone message and he rang back � clearly very keen to get on with the Standards project. I resolved to send him the short stories. I left a message on the domestic answerphone with Nick�s ideas about how James could check on the progress of his application to Selwyn and this seemed to go down quite well back at the ranch.

Back in my flat I started to work on the Cleveland EP � I think Peter is quite right about which two tracks from the first half of the concert should go onto it. I need to work out how you get the tracks off the CD and then back onto a blank one. One of the tracks Peter selected reminds me a bit of I�ll Be Back. I ran into an unexpected copying problem � that�s the trouble with the stage I am at now � I think I have got a stable path to follow and then I run into some wall I didn�t know was there. I also realised that I am suffering from mortality in power transformers � the one on my Tascam cassette 4 track has just gone.

I am working on a track from Gilbert�s Solo Works � the last track � which is turning into a free power trio with acoustic guitar episode. I can remember listening very hard to Mick Beck�s band and thinking how it sounded like a rerun of elements of the 60s. He pointed out that there were people all over the world who liked that style and in particular his take of it � I listened some more

Here�s Pascal � Nothing is to be more feared than the theatre. It represents passions so delicately that it arouses them in our heart � especially love � above all when it is represented as chaste and virtuous. The more innocent it seems to our souls, the more we are likely to be touched by it � its violence appeals to our self esteem � we desire to produce the same effects we see represented on the stage. Our conscience is tricked by the idea of loving with a love that seems to prudent. We love the theatre with minds convinced of the beauty and sweetness of love � so we are convinced we should arouse these passions in someone else � so we may enjoy the same pleasure and sacrifice we have seen in theatre.

So what about soap operas? Or singer-songwriters? I hear Joni Mitchell�s voice is wrecked by her smoking � and maybe Pascal might think he had won the argument on that basis.