I said goodbye to James � he is off to Moscow early tomorrow � apparently the person �looking after� him is a radio DJ � the mind boggles. But he will see a new side of life - no question about that.

Every so often I mention the fact that John Renbourn went to school in Guildford. There is a rumour that Eric Clapton �went� to the same school for a year but maybe it�s a bit like the way Miles �went� to Julliard. Anyway the school in question has just offered Yvonne a job in their special unit for teaching visually impaired pupils . Hooray. Jake heard the news and decided to celebrate by rolling in dung on his walk. Dogs are so human sometimes and not others.

Yvonne is going to Verona at the end of the Summer to hear the opera and so she will fly back on Sept 1 and start the job on Sept 2. She asked whether I could have the dog in Warwick some of the time. This is actually not an altogether silly idea. This evening I was checking out a patch of the Grand Union Canal near the office where we could go for walks.

Talking of Julliard I mailed Alison at Seaview Music about Phil in the Flute Shop just down the road from J who is designing a revolutionary new flute with a transverse head and conical bore. I thought Michael, her partner from the Cambridge Buskers, could be interested in this innovation as he plays an extraordinary range of instruments.

I am asking Alison to look at the business plan for Gilbert�s ND recital. I had been hoping to meet her last week in Cambridge when I went to the AIDS seminat but that didn�t quite fit together.

Now that www.kwase-kwaza.org is in slightly better shape with respect to the Lullabyes � both Gilbert�s and Paul W�s are up � I want to start developing the rosta. Alison has said I can use some Seaview material. Did I mention that there is an all-female barber shop vocals group in Dublin that Peter has talked into participation? This increases the international dimension of the venture from 3 to 4 which has to be good. They are thinking of doing a version of �Dream�

I also mailed Mark and Peter Chatterton about the new software that Wendy is developing for disabled users of PCs. I hope to be able to meet Mark on 7 May after an appointment at the Judd Institute � I need to do some work for this. The day before that I arranged to have lunch with the Director of Music at Warwick � in fact I called on him (not planned) at lunchtime � I decided that rather than sending him 10 Shortstories I would deliver it by hand � and he happened to be in his office. We talked about the university big band which apparently gets lots of gigs. I metioned Gavin Band and how individual his piano style is - but this was news to Colin.

I also arranged a meeting in Sunderland the week after � the day after my lunch with Charlie Alexander of Jazzwise. So I need to get from South London at around 3.00am for a meeting in Sunderland the next day at 10.00am. The obvious thing is to fly rather than drive. But I am developing quite an interest in the Sheffield and I was wondering about taking that in either on the way there or the way back.

The last time I went to Sunderland Stephen Bates did the driving � indeed the meeting in May arises from that trip. He actually dropped into my office this morning after having done a presentation with my boss. We talked a bit about a new a new report that has just come out from the Engineering Employers � and also about some skills strategy issues � which inspired me to write a bit about the subject for my boss � who is taking a keen interest in some of this stuff.

I also bought some research online from Roffey Park � its an interesting transaction � you buy using a credit card and then you download a pdf. But you can make as many copies as you like and so I then mail the research round to people that I am trying to cultivate in various ways � as a �gift�. The unit cost comes down pretty fast

Here�s a puzzle � whats the connection between Robin Frederick and Elvin Jones?

When she was a girl Robin lived just round the corner from a famous West Coast jazz venue called The Lighthouse. Miles Davis was hanging out there during his most chemically extenuated period in 1953. Miles and Max Roach had a big argument on the latter�s birthday at that place and Miles decided he had to straighten out . So he went to his father�s farm near East St Louis to get clean (some dispute this). In order to stay clean he had to stay away from NYC and so he went to Detroit where he seems to have had a really good time playing at the Bluebird Inn with Billy Mitchell�s rhythm section which had Elvin Jones on the drums. The piano player was Tommy Flanagan who played on Giant Steps.