As I write the sun is just coming over the dip slope of the chalk as seen from the room I sleep in. There will be viewpoints in this landscape where you would be able to locate certain other features along the horizon by the sunrise time of year.

I have just listened to the mix I did last night based on the Webern Bag. I did a lot of editting in Cubase of the lead free atonal guitar part - maybe this is the theme of the piece. And very little editting of the sceond line which went on from the D-Horn through a Korg Pandora.

I have been reading lots of reviews of POD and V- amp and everyone seems to think that its a great development that you now have kit which enables you to DI the guitar avoiding miking the amp speaker or which you can put through the main band PA. Maybe the sounds on these modelling devices are as superb as the reviews claim - the promise is certainly tempting especially when a V-amp is only �99. But it has been obvious for a while how these multi-fx boxes can be used for low volume live performance with high volume type guitar sounds eg by sticking a PC stereo sound system into the output. Nonetheless I am tempted by the V-amp which costs as much as I paid for Pandora four years ago but has a PC based editting interface like XG and a vast array of simulated amps.

Another method I use is to take the headphone out from my Fender amp into the board - but just lately I have been using Pandora again.

Once the digital gtr part is down in Cubase the there are still a bundle of effects that can be applied. This particular part has Cubase distortion, chorus and ambience added in. There is a kind of brittle sheen to the result sound. Yvonne observed that it was strange that I was so wrapped up in this piece when she and Vita are about to disappear for four days to Centre Parcs near Warminster - must be a relaxing UFO spotting retreat.

Last night she presented her research results to her tutor group at Kingston U. So far three of the group have undergone this ordeal and it sounds like her research is the one which everyone has found it easiest to relate to. So she was pleased with how the presentation went. They allow you to take someone along as a supporter and she took her ex-boss from the school. I think I mentioned the cases I have seen are extremely well documented - very high evidential standards even say by the standards of DTI appraising a quite expensive economic intervention in a company. This is a good approach with something like "difficulty learning to read" where there are endless theories - extremely well documented factual cases gain significance by the backlog of competing theory which focuses attention on different aspects of the real events recorded.

I came home early to cook the children's tea - chicken - and while we ate it we discussed historical evidence. Vita is just doing the causes of the 2nd World War - which James knows backwards-sideways etc (have I mentioned that he aspires to study International History at LSE or Cambridge?) - and in the GCSE syllabus this topic also includes introduction to the idea of primary and secondary sources and the view that no source is absolutely reliable. As a radical teenager Vita picks up on this idea and applies it to everything everyone has ever told her about anything. This kind of slipped into a discussion of which degree course best prepares you to earn money in an interesting way. I threw the idea of John quoting verbatim from the Great Gatsby in a pitch to the DTI - the kids seem surprised that I know someone who owns such a succesful business.

We talked a bit about the time 10 years ago when there was a chance to buy Sunningdale Park - where I worked at the time. I was in touch with the oldest privately owned city merchant bank on this - and found some "accounting ploys" which could have made a step change to the asset values (post purchase of course). Peter Tebby was certainly game for a larf on this but Ministers changed their mind on the sale under strong pressure from the then Cabinet Secretary Robin Butler.

At the time I knew I would not get another one-off chance to make money... and I suppose after that disappeared and I returned to the antedeluvian DTI my interest shifted elsewhere.

The person who did Yvonne's job prior to her is married to an individual who has been through a similar opportunity on DERA the defence R&D outfit which includes Farnborough and Malvern. This buy-out went quite a long way further. Vita has visited their vast estate on the nicest part of the Greensand dip slope. I haven't look into the details - relying on the National Audit Office who are meant to go over each deal. James and Vita differ on the morality of this way of making a stack of dosh.

I am making copies of Plundafonix - this weekend is a sales opportunity and I need to lay up some stock. One of the things about my Toyota inspired production system (negligible inventory) is that you keep encountering the work after it is completed. Something Tracy said about the CD made me wonder whether it was a mistake to have all the vocals in the first half. I am shifting my

opinion on that as I go through making some more and I can begin to see some structural reasons for the order of tracks in the sceond half.

I learned that the owner of a PRS has just joined the team - Phil who specialises in global market analysis. I scent a further sale of Plundafonix. Peter who left the team about 18 months ago had a lap steel guitar that he ordered specially from a maker in the USA. He was also an ex-taxi driver and a fully ordained vicar. I felt like a Medieval Lord of the Manor getting a patch which came with a spiritual adviser thrown in. Then he got promoted - so its Phil refreshes parts of the team that are especially valuable.

Following the 5 hour meeting with John on Tuesday we have organised a lunch with him, Tracy and myself. Better steer clear of art and music in NYC if we want to get out of that by midnight.

Life is about to change gear for a while. I am going to see the Physical Sciences Research Council in Swindon today with Ashley. Ashley is a genius when it comes to other people's money. He has organised a programme of projects on the future of the car which is worth �100m - it started in 1997. My budget has only contributed �6m and yet it supports my policy objectives. So we are going down to Swindon to be nice to one of the fund supporters.

But after that there is a five day gap from work during which there is the lunch for the South Africans and then Sister Paula's labyrinth event. Then just two days in the office before I fly to the Cz Rep for a week. What will any reader say ? what has he got to bitch about perhaps.