Monsieur L'Impertinent

I just spent the last two hours preparing a response to a letter from a solicitor in Lincolnshire. Once again, I can’t really give any details, but suffice to say that one of the things I may need to discuss in court is the nature of “soul” and what constitutes “performable” music. If I lose, it will be a slap in the face for hardworking and ambitious composers across the world. What I will say, is that 8 weeks ago 250 musicians and a whole brace of BBC staff wondered if a Symphony for Yorkshire was beyond the realms of possibility. A great deal of hard work and belief has proved the opposite to be the case. Nothing is impossible if you simply close your eyes and open your mind. And surely something can only be deemed "unperformable" if one has tried to perform it! It is my ambition to have worked in every county in the country before I'm dead, but sadly when I hear Lincolnshire mentioned, I shudder.


The edit continues to go slowly, but we’re getting there. Unfortunately it looks as though we’re not going to be able to reshoot the Hull Youth percussion group and I’m devastated that we're going to have to lose them from the piece. Their conductor was contacted yesterday and asked about a possible re-shoot on Saturday but he claimed it was too short notice, so unfortiunately the kids have not been informed. My belief is that it should be the kids themselves who decide whether Saturday is too soon to head to the centre of the town they live in. At least that way they wouldn’t be upset when they watch the symphony and find they're nowhere to be seen. If anyone reading this blog knows any of the young people in question, perhaps you could get them to contact their teacher and lobby him to at least tell them where the filming would take place. Frankly, if only one wanted to do it, I’d still want to film them... I’m horrified at the prospect of their not being involved.

It’s been raining and thundering all day despite the BBC website claiming Leeds would have “sunny spells”. Not only are they not predicting the weather, they’re not noticing it either. Anyhow, it’s incredibly muggy and I feel like I’m in a steam room. Outside, the lightening flashes and the thunder roars and I have a stonking headache coming on. I can’t decide if it’s something to do with the humidity, the electrical particles in the air, or the fact that I’ve been staring at a substandard screen in the edit suite all day. It would be just my luck to be struck by lightening. My little episode on the bumper cars has proven that I must be some kind of mecca for electricity. Perhaps that's why all technology breaks when I'm anywhere near!

350 years ago, Pepys kicked off the day, by telling his wife to start preparing their things to be transferred to their new house at the Navy Office in Seething Lane. And for those of you who are interested in details, this particular lane is in the City of London, just round the corner from the Tower. This would have been something of a move for Pepys. Westminster was a considerable walk away and also the home of the King, Parliament and juicy gossip!

He spent much of the day paying off various tabs at the stalls in Westminster Hall, knowing that he'd soon need to start shopping elsewhere! There was a brief cameo appearance in the diary today from one of my favourite characters, one Mr Butler, always known by Pepys as Mons. L’Impertinent, possibly on account of his political incorrectness and seeming ability to say (and get away with) the most astonishingly rude things. I wonder why he appeals to me quite so much...?