I had a long talk to Tracy who is still recovering from her broken ankle � she was grimly funny saying that if this was an example of what old age was going to be like she was going to vote for euthanasia. She had no idea beforehand that physiotherapy would be such torture. We talked about Nick Brown�s proposition and she was very supportive. I took the idea to Graham to see if he would pitch it at the name in question and then back to Nick who came up with just the right brief for Graham to use. Well fingers crossed � if this one flies everyone will win.

I set up some more stuff on the automotive global quality standard � one of Frances� team will come on the two day course I did a couple of weeks back. One of Frances� great triumphs quite early on in the time we were working together was getting me to back www.autoindustry.co.uk. Now its in its fourth year volumes just keep growing and since January this year have increased from around 50k sessions a month to around 70k. Every year is the same and we can�t believe the growth rates keep on. Anyway the aim is to siphon off some of the traffic onto my firm�s excellent material on this standard. I had a chat to Robin who runs this bit of business about all of this � he has set up a visit for me tomorrow to one of his major clients. I explained to Frances that regretfully I can�t do the DTI reception on Monday because of James� interview.

Laurence phoned and we talked a bit about the Defence Logistics Organisation. He has been pulling the thread on what Graham is up to after the meeting from a couple of week�s back � and he has some ideas about a collaboration. We agreed to meet the week before Christmas. He said the copy of Plundafonix had arrived. Gavin mailed from DTI with a similar message and we bounced back and forwards some emails about Prince�s oeuvre. Gavin had also got to see a Skin Too Few which he had enjoyed especially the bits about Molly.

I did some more work on Centres of Vocational Excellence. Last Friday�s seminar was mostly about the global quality standard but there was also an interesting section on a European Logistics standard called ODETTE. Anyway I remembered that there is a COVE on logistics quite near where I live and I set off to find out more on what it does. Half way through this I bumped into Stefan who seems to be thinking along similar lines in terms of his contacts with the Learning and Skills Council. He has set up a meeting for quite early on Monday morning with one of his contacts. I think I have to be at this � it�ll mean driving from Gfd to L-town on Sunday evening and then back to Gfd in the middle of Monday to take James to Cambridge but I guess that�s why I get free petrol. The local LSC Strategic Plan arrived and I did some work on that � including phoning their PR department on how they publicise progress against the plan.

I made a contact at the Institute of Transport and Logistics � my idea is to start pulling a similar thread to the one which paid off on procurement and to see where it leads.

I wrote some stuff for Stephen on how the �9bn actually gets to touch the ground. The local Business Link rang me in mystery shopper mode to explain about a programme whereby a small company can get employees with no qualifications at all to NVQ Level 2 absolutely free of charge. It sounds great doesn�t it but needless to say there are obstacles in the way.

Paul Bell arrived from Wolverhampton � he had had a good day on the new business front. Cathie has switched jobs in Frankfurt and it looks as if she will be doing an Mphil in Cambridge next year. We talked about the pros and cons of a life as an academic � and the irony of being academic louts with conforming children. I gave him a copy of Short stories plus some other the other GI-IC tracks and a couple from the Cleveland recital as a Christmas present. Paul�s work means that he is always on the road and has been for years � way back in the 70s I even did some jobs with him in Germany by way of moonlighting � and we compared notes on how this fits into the network of family relationships. We went to the same curry house as before � funny how one slips so easily into routines. I played him the CD of Howard Skempton�s piano music.

I mailed Mark a first pass at the BBC500 maxi � with suitable caveats.