Well, we're back in business. Roy arrived with a large van at 10am this morning to load up the harpsichord and digital piano: the ingenious bread-board type carrier he made for the 'piano' some time ago has acquired a luxurious carpet base since its last outing. To my shame, my harpsichord has been living up against the wall (vertically) for a few months, but when lovingly uncovered chez McGillivray père this morning, A was still exactly at 415Hz. The whole thing wasn't in tune of course, but still ...

DG flew in at lunchtime, and the three of us picked him up at the airport to amuse ourselves at his inevitable jet-lag. It's a band joke that whenever he works with us, he's in a state of permanent exhaustion. We spent the afternoon playing through lots of new tunes that Kate had packed him off with, as well as revisiting Echidna's Arf and trying out some tunes by Katherine and me. Hers fits in between the two 'arse' tunes I found in the National Library of Scotland a few months ago. This is not a joke: the tunes are called 'Johnny's bare arse' and 'Maggy's covered arse'. Her tune in the middle was a Christmas present and is entitled 'Dr McGuinness'. You can imagine your own scenario that this set might depict. I'm not going to.

An afternoon of jamming brought out some nice combinations under the tunes: my purple Yamaha melodica goes well with viola in jigs, and 19th century strathspey basslines work very well on cello with nothing else.

At home tonight, the mail had brought a Sibelius upgrade, and a copy of The Beggars Benison: David Stevenson's book on 18th century Scottish sex clubs and their rituals. Given the press release that Linn sent out to an assortment of men's mags about the 6th Earl of Kellie's involvement in one of these, I thought I'd better do some homework. And it will be fun to read it in public places and see what kind of looks I get.