Yes Little Feat were astonishing - I see them as the last band before punk arrived. They were included in an OGWT retrospective and they seemed even better 25 years after the event.

I owe Mark a reply on Cubasis. Quite simply I am not sure what I think about the newest version which I have got. I used the old sequencer version so much in the last six years or so and now there is all that new functionality. When I first got it I think I must have eased off going hell for leather into it - and in fact I have just started on a little something in it. I suppose at its simplest I think it has changed from a composing to a recording/performing medium. But the degree of compositional control thats offered over the performed elements is quite mindboggling. Maybe I am slightly wary of the complexity of the mixing process. And I know that I don't want the inevitable mistakes and losses that go with new software. I think I'll work over the manual in the train.

On the subject of career choice - I went yesterday to a place called Millbrook - just south of Bedford. Its General Motor's UK testrack originally located near Vauxhall. Its on the Lower Greensand Ridge - the geology of the Thames Valley is a mirroir symmetry around the Thames itself. So its one of the layers thats older than the chalk. The scarp face makes a good feature for various kinds of test. There are also very large circular and oval test tracks clearly visible from the air when you fly over. Future archeologists may well puzzle whether this was a functional or symbolic feature in the landscape. I have never really built up a good view of the geomorphology in this part - the line of the chalk is clear enough along the Ridgeway up to Grimes Graves and beyong the Wash to Flamborough Head but the next layers in the sequence are complicated by the drainage system - which seems to involve a series of broad valleys running SW to NE. This pattern is very evident at Millbrook.

Although it is part of GM it is more an independent outfit - a bit like TRW Connekt where the 42V expert Allan Williams works. One area of expertise is the conversion of vehicles to run on Liquid Petroleum Gas a subject on which it is very much a centre of excellence. This is my third or fourth visit and I always enjoy going there partly because of the very big man-made geometric forms placed into the landsacpe

The event was a general testdrive for journalists covering all the brands on sale in the UK. Within this they had brought together a group of people who are going through a kind of graduate entry scheme for motor retailing. Various people (including me) had a go at telling them what a brilliant choice they had made. Mike who is Chief Exec of Perkins Diesel talked about his career path - one can't help comparing it with ones own.

On the way there and back I listened to a 1992 Television CD - particulary the vocals I wondered whether to bunk off over the Millenium Bridge when I got back to Blackfriars but instead I dutifully turned up at the office and did some annual appraisals. To say this is a sore point with me is an understatement - I am not sure I can even start now on the long saga that my own appraisal is going to turn into. Anyway I managed to get three done - Tracy's, Ashley's (whose daughter seems to be recovering) and Frances (who works in Birmingham and has a two year old daughter born almost exactly the time BMW announced they were going to ditch Rover).

John Gambles phoned because he is not on the shortlist for this training contract - which as I expected is turning into a really prestige piece of work. Looking at the issue from an utterly narrow point of view, another company which I sponsor is well placed and looks as if it would deliver an interesting project. But I discussed with John what his best recovery strategy might be.

Yvonne is at the stage in her research where the work has to be validated with the rest of the group. Last night was the first validation - which involved a French guy who is working on appraisals. It sounded utterly bizarre - like something out of Beryl Bainbridge. The day before yesterday I read through the material which Yvonne circulated to her fellow students - its about a specific technique for getting a series of seriously under-achieving ten year old boys to improve their reading. It makes perfect sense to me.

Everyone involved can see that unless something is done the straightjacket of the national curriculum will intensify the gap between these low achievers and the mass of their peers. The NC allows no space for this to happen - but the risk that people are trying to avoid isnt just a matter of competence - its a matter of social inclusion. There is a negative future for these kids which involves marginalisation, low earning power, low self esteem and quite likely prison. Apparently only about 50% of current prisoners in the UK have decent literacy skills.

In the one case I read the subject move from the second to the thirteenth percentile during the intervention. One of the interesting dynamics in it is the extent to which the family tells the truth about supporting the teaching at home. It looks like one of those families where both mother and father work hard at jobs.

There was a Radio 4 programme about the UK economy last night - why is it growing faster than all the other developed economies (this year will be a record year for car sales)? Part of the reason is the housing market but also the fact that the in the UK a greater percentage of people are employed and they work longer than in most other places. But of course this emphasis on jobs has its fall out in other areas.