A knitted silk garter

I’m feeling more on top of things today, so perhaps I’ve not completely lost my mind... well not just yet. I did, however have to get up extremely early this morning to do a series of telephone interviews with various regions of the BBC. I’m completely knackered. I’m sure I made absolutely no sense on air but with any luck it’s encouraged a few more of the good folk of Yorkshire to sign up for the symphony. Tomorrow I have to get up even earlier for even more interviews. I'm officially burning the candle at both ends. Thank God whatever illness I had seems to have finally passed through my system.


My new software is working like a dream, and so it should do for the price I paid! I’ve now finished the second draft of the second movement. It should have taken two days but with the never-ending technical catastrophes, it took seven. I’m now wading into the third movement armed with a pair of sheers and have just cut 3 minutes of musical material, which feels weird and horrible. I’ve got rid of countless passages which were riddled with writing that I longed to keep, including Pepys’ rainbow and all references to his losing his brother. Talk about killing your babies, but I have to keep telling myself that I’m doing it for the good of the over-all piece... A motet should not last forever and I am not Mahler!

I’ve just seen the Liberal Democrat party political broadcast with all those weird bits of paper floating about on hillsides. It’s a crazy concept but in the middle of the weirdness, Nick Clegg really does come across like a decent, honest man. More interestingly, he seems to be able to walk and talk quite happily to camera without looking like he’s just filled his pants. Astonishing for a politician. This appeals very much to the filmmaker in me. Frankly, I’ve worked with professional presenters who look less at ease in front of the camera.

I’ve just visited http://www.voteforpolicies.co.uk/. It’s a simple concept, and everyone should have a bash. It lists lots of statements and you vote for the policies that most appeal and after a while it tells you which party you sympathise with. I assumed I'd be Lib-Dem down-the-line so was horrified to discover I was 60% Green and 40% Labour! Nathan came out as a Lib Dem, but seems to share the BNP’s views on the National Health system! What? No Indian doctors?!

350 years ago, Pepys decided he rather liked the sea life and its lack of the distractions and worries that he suffered in London on a daily basis. A man without a wilting wife in Buckinghamshire would perhaps have been as happy as Larry! That said, the sea was high, and rough, and Mr Pierce the surgeon almost drowned attempting to transfer to the Nazeby, one assumes from the shore. He was saved by a rope.

There was good news from London. The army had finally made it clear that they would no longer oppose any decisions Parliament made regarding the future of the country. A really important development. The other interesting gossip reaching the boat was the rumour that heavy-duty Parliamentarian Lord Lambert had escaped from the Tower of London in a dazzlingly audacious plot which involved cross-dressing, a rope, a barge, 100 pounds in cash and a knitted silk garter.