A couple of strange days - yesterday at Jaguar Castle Bromwich at an event organized by the firm to encourage 13 and 14 yr olds to think of an engineering career. The highlight was the appearance of Honda�s state of the art walking robot - about a metre high - quite uncanny seeing the future trotting round the stage and being cute - most of the audience thought so too. I saw the performance just after lunch having spent most of the morning catching up - gossiping - some good stuff came to light or so I am told by colleagues that I passed it onto.

Tuesday I spent most of the day at the Millenium Centre on the east side of central Birmingham - an event that was part of a new EC funded project bringing together outfits concerned with strengthening their local auto-industry from all over - Russia, Slovenia, (formerly) East Germany as well as West Germany, France, Spain maybe Portugal will join soon - useful to hear them explain the key issues as they saw them. There s an opportunity here for us. Also an excellent presentation from TIC - a faculty located in the Millenium Centre - a contracted out part of the University of Central England . Some contacts with Winning Moves - a UK firm that has built up an international business running benchmarking databases. I mailed the commercial director after with a suggestion how we might work together.

My day was made by an e-m from David at Loughborough copying an exchange he had just had with Boston University - following up a lead I had mailed him after the last meeting on the future of European manufacturing. I discussed this with Steve this morning and we agreed that this could be used alongside Steve�s links with Leicester and Cardiff Us to give us an edge with various audiences. I must get David�s book about the history of manufacturing in Birmingham. My page on the firm�s site had 200 visitors last month - I really don�t understand this.

Meanwhile - the vid of the 1st short story moves forward - does it wear its heart on its sleeve too much? I am watching Kids - a moral outrage movie - I like it because its set on the upper West Side - esp when they break into the swimming pool. S Vega�s collected works in print arrived - she is very absorbed in her roots. - right down to the juvenile society on he streets of NYC. Her 2 Cds playing constantly in the the car for a couple of days. 2nd SS first draft has emerged all of a sudden.

The first SV piece is about having her photo taken by D Bailey for Elle - along with Tori Amos. it�s a great read and has that NYC ironic authenticity thing - how she frets about the outside because it will mislead about the inside. The person photographed is not the same person who performed at Wwk by the way. In the piece she talks a bit about Tori Amos and also P J Harvey and the way PJH controlled the photography during her launch phase. There is a denouement in which she leaves her passport at the shoot while she travels off to a gig at Derby and you can tell she hates this disconnection a lot - as indeed most of us would.

I have reconnected my Yamaha beat box - and this morning I set up a groove and connected the Dhorn to it by midi - the link drives a piano patch in the box - and I recorded a quantity of fairly free piano single line over the core groove. This is move away from the duet and trio stuff I have been doing for a month or so. Maybe some guitar will go on next - I have a setting I rather like on the V-amp.

I saw some of the London Olympic bid presentation - you have got to hand it to them. Indeed the committee did.

I need to factor into my sporadic activities that in the less than 20 working days I will have disappeared to southern Turkey.