The last post until the Christmas to New Year period of radio silence. 9.00 am: A ‘day of small things’: tidying up, putting to rest, and clearing away. I avoid letting the residual business of one calendar year seep into the next. Keep short accounts! A motto for life. First, an update of a new page, on the ‘Sound’ section on my website, devoted to my contribution to album compilations. Then, I upgraded and updated software, filed files, and prepared for a wet walk to the School to pick up late, incoming parcels. 12.45 pm: Attempt one was aborted on discovering that I’d left my key card at home.

2.00 pm: Following lunch, I made a second assault. This is the School when no one is in it (‘ghosts’ (and me) excepted, of course):

2.30 pm: Into the studio to work on the upgrade to Pedalboard IV. All new cables. But will the postman bring my pancake jack plugs, either today or tomorrow? On the bench, in bits:

I could only go so far without them. The post is slow. The afternoon’s business was punctuated by correspondence and telephone calls aimed at getting my new CD (500 copies) delivered by courier. The company had tried four times. But the School has been closed since Monday.

By 7.30 pm, the courier debacle looked more like to be settled by the ‘morrow. A final fling, and a return to the SteelWork conspectus. Not that I was of a mind to continue writing much; I needed only to review what’d been done already. After which, I’d have to prove to myself that I can cease from my labours. 9.30 pm: Pull the plug!”