Floating above the moors with Kate Bush

I'm back in London. I slept on the train listening to a woman who was talking to her father. Her words seemed to be dropping out of her mouth like bullets from a machine gun! 

London, as usual, is frantic and full of shirty locals in open war fare with tourists who have no idea where they are. It's horribly depressing but always the same when you return from somewhere with a different pace of life. 

I've spent the rest of the day in a bit of a daze, imagining which bits of England we might film for the symphony and the sorts of musicians who might get involved.

It struck me that it might be the perfect opportunity for me to visit Stonehenge for the first time, and maybe to film someone playing their sequence in a hot air balloon, whilst drifting over the Bristol suspension bridge. How incredible would that be?

The joy about my work is that I can have these romantic visions - some of them even inspired by dreams - and then work with highly capable people to try and bring them to life. 

I must keep reminding myself that our budget on the project is very tight, however. I'm sure at some point very soon, someone will have a quiet word with me and ask that I come up with some more practical suggestions! In any case, the most important thing is that the BBC Regions themselves are able to suggest the locations that best sum their areas up. I very much hope that viewers and listeners will engage in this process, as well as making suggestions about local folk songs that I might weave into the symphony and the types of musicians I should be featuring. Do feel free to leave any suggestions on this blog.

Until we have some more concrete ideas, you'll find me floating above mist-covered moorlands with Kate Bush and the BBC Symphony orchestra!

I'm off now to watch Matt recording his new radio show. I'm taking the lovely Marinella, who I haven't seen for a few months. Very much looking forward to catching up with her.

Not a greatly interesting day for Pepys 350 years ago. A bit of work, a bit of food and a trip to the theatre to see "the mad lover", which he liked "pretty well."