Ricardo�s PH-fest sounds amazing. I hope some record of the event has been preserved. A video for example. I vaguely remember buying an octave splitter that belonged to VDGG and then foolishly selling it about 30 years ago.

We collected James from Selwyn and began to catch up on some of the things he has been doing for the last 8 or 9 weeks. Friday is was the College�s �Snow Ball� Everyone seems much more friendly than in my day and he seems to like the life. I drove there listening to both sides of Miss M�s orchestral double CD retrospective released this year � which sounds as good as ever after a few months� break.

I have written Peter C some text for a page on the KK site about the DH500 Dhorn.

I did a poster for the Lullabyes CD which is a bit of a Dhorn showcase. I put the poster up where it might be noticed � also delivered a few CDs to the linked retail outlet and to my first bulk purchaser. I gave Ciaran a copy of the CD and talked about the possible connection between his brother and St Martins. And I fed some of his thoughts back to Peter C.

As I work more on the finished version of a CD I can�t help reflecting more on what it adds up to. To an outsider, this is bound to look like a kind of self-absorption which I suppose it is.

The luls vary in their emotional perspective. Gilbert and I are definitely at the dark end of the street � the uncertainty of falling asleep � will we ever return � what might be lurking in the land of dreams ? Robin�s song is at the other end and is about security and safety as an incentive to cross the threshold of drowsiness. The Debussy represents an adult perspective on the beauty of children as they fall asleep especially when they stop making a racket. Paul�s is a witty inversion and is very up (makes a racket). Superficially it is a no nonsense approach except that it is very unlikely to get a child to �hop into bed and not make a fuss� � quite the opposite.

Vita decorated the tree and persuaded me to buy her a new stereo for Christmas. I wrote some cards. James printed off his Christmas list from Amazon.

I picked up an idea about the symmetry of keys a third apart and the octatonic scale. There is something that could be good in there (I hope) even though I originally put the idea aside because the first sketch sounded too pedestrian.

Can�t help noticing how short the days are.