Gilbert seems to have liked the pieces sent this week. His Line6 amp simulator has arrived � I can�t wait to hear how it sounds. Unfortunately he has hurt his back again.

I had lunch with Sue today in the same restaurant as on Tuesday but today I had salmon. We met at 12.15pm and had finished by just after two.

I was in two minds but I went round on the Circle Line to Bayswater and slipped into the Kings Head. I didn�t recognise many people but luckily there was someone I had given a job to about 15 years ago with whom I could have a long conversation. It transpires that someone who I knew pretty well during my career and who had prospered since I left the department has been ousted by a political coup. Something is being cooked up on the Big Society. The future of Sunningdale is in doubt and by a quirk of fate the person charged with deciding its future is the younger sister of the person who was CEO when I was there. I also had a word with Stephen who studied the same subject as me at the same university a year later. The soundtrack in the pub was 60s folk and folk rock. It was cold on the way back and there was a lot of messing about at High St Ken.

Later on watching the Dyke on a Bike show on BBC2 I was intrigued to note that they used the start of Bryter Later as background music � also the intro to Cello Song.

I watched the Marianne Faithful film on BBC2 - she was very good in it.