As I expected I have let one of the juggled items almost hit the floor. I promised that I would do a note assessing a commercial risk that the firm is thinking of taking � in fact one that I want us to take. And I haven�t yet. Its needed for a meeting on Monday so I had better knock something out this weekend. I hope its going to flow pretty freely.

Su Lyn�s cassette � Songs About Housework arrived � just starting the second listen through. You Make Sense stands out but it is too soon to judge the six together � anyway it is a pretty good investment which I can recommend. I heard some David Sylvian in the car � an important first for me. I read a bit more of the Ian Sinclair novel � it will take time if I keep to my plan of just reading at weekends.

I talked to the Peter Chatterton about an emerging plan for 2 June. Maybe 20 minutes of presentation to set the thing up and introduce the two scenarios. The essential question is whether we can use a systematic approach to learning get ourselves out of scenario one . Participants have a paper setting out a set of questions � plenty of space for answers � no obligation to answer any specific question.

The novel element is that around the main room are a number of experts/advocates. Each has his or her own space and of course their specific subject of expertise or concern. Participants are few to talk to the experts � as many or as few as they wish � to develop their written answers to the questions. The process ends with a short collective session. The papers are collected and analysed.

We also talked about getting Peter and Mark together to look at the CDROM as a form. I mentioned the Poseidon item and Peter was very interested. He is currently planning a Lullabies offering in the same medium. The Meridian Lullaby � Philomel � is going down very well. I hope it will soon be up on the Lullabies page on the Highveld site. Volumes in May look as if they are going to be around the same as February March and April � maybe the upward drift will continue. There aren�t any specific new trends

The idea of going back into the Escom archive and using that as a real time resource to add other elements � flute, dHorn, various guitars, airsynth, looped sections of other stuff, Box material � is gaining momentum. Also I have realised that having put Box1 on the Dell to process it in Wavelab, I can do this repeatedly. In the light of listening to last week�s version � both as in its developed and original forms � I can go back to those and do another development which I can take down to the net MD to work on back in Leantown.

You Make Sense is playing now. It really is a cracker. Talking of which, I listened to various versions of 60-40 � similarly absorbing. I had the idea that you could see it as a balancing song � like Riverman - which hovers between stoicism and something bleaker. In Nico�s case she is wondering whether there will be a return of the urge to communicate � amid various conditions which might push towards silence or not � conditions of the moon and tears in the brain , the sound of �hells bells� etc.

Beneath all the superficial softness of this time there is a pretty profound discontent lurking. Summer rain would be better than balmy evenings. The impulse to gentleness is just too rare.