Iain Cameron's Diary
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2002-12-10 - 9:36 a.m.

Cold morning and I overslept � but I got to work in record time � still listening to Ives � as I drove through a crystal clear morning.

There was a meeting of the management team to look at the year end results and think about how we can profit from the new Supply Chain scheme from DTI. We seem to be well placed to understand the complexities and guide customers through them. The weather was still good after the meeting so I walked across the Business Park to get my lunch � in the interests of healthiness. Mincepies were on sale at the snackbar at 25p each so I bought two! So much for an attempt at a healthier lifestyle

I checked through the News items from the Sector Skills Development News Agency Newsletter. A very interesting piece about the increases in the Learning and Skills Council budget � which is rising to over �9bn in a three year period. The reasons for the increase seem to suit our current strategy very well � they seem to be looking for the things that we are in a position to deliver.

I mailed Gilbert so say that I had started work on the latest CD � he replied. I mapped out for myself some of the areas that I had been working on since September. There is a lot that I have forgotten about. I wonder what to make of this � whether to just let the pieces lie fallow until they are rediscovered by some accidental process. Rather than to anxiously husband them back into prominence.

Paul mailed to say the CD of Shortstories had arrived OK.

I got the BBC500 trio to a point where it seemed to make some kind of sense � there is something nautical about it � maybe being down on a wild Cornish beach � and left it to dry out. I had trouble with the next track on Gilbert�s CD which is a postfifths piece � one of his guitar parts wouldn�t come off the CD. That is digital audio all over in my experience � it appears to work fine for quite a lot of the time and the suddenly doesn�t. Then I went onto a more authentic/faithful take on BBC500 and again there are two guitar parts � which just fell onto the basic track without any nipping or tucking at all � I just left them where they fell. I suppose partly it�s the contrast between the sanity of this latter version and the absurdity of the previous one.

Then onto a Fifths/Boulez piece � Gilbert has done two guitar parts for this but only one seems to want to get into the Cubase file (this stuff is so quirky). Even so it is more than good enough on its own. This piece is pretty scary � Gilbert�s playing is very determined and wilful � Robin�s vocal sweeps in and out � and there some crazy atonal piano player interjecting. Meanwhile some almost Pythagorean Fifths do crescendos and sudden fall backs. What can we all have been thinking of?

It feels like a cold is hovering � not much philosophy in a cold.

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