At last a day off, and rather than stay at home on the one day I don't have to go to Edinburgh, I went back there again to the opening of a friend's exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery.  Sandra Davie's husband Joe (another artist) did the covers of our last two CDs, so it was good to see him at last and say thanks, as most of our communication's been done through the record company.  And we bought a wonderful, and huge, painting of the Sound of Harris by Anna Strachan for our bedroom, after some discussion on what sacrifices we'd have to make to pay for it.  That's Christmas presents and an October holiday out the window ...

There was much amusement on Thursday, as over the last week or two I've been getting a bit narked by Michael Tumelty's habit of dragging me into his Edinburgh Festival concert reviews in the Herald, usually to disagree with me about something.  So when a friend told me I'd made it into his review of the Kuijkens' recital, I thought 'oh here we go again', only to read the following: 'it became difficult to resist the vision of what one of today's younger, more buccaneering harpsichordists - such as David McGuinness - might have made of such a tasty dish of notes.'  Ha ha ha - there's nothing like a bit of public flattery to get you on someone's good side.  He sought me out later on Thursday morning to check I wasn't pissed off !  

My name also made it onto the new website of wonderful Glasgow band Cnut (pronounced "k-noot" as in the king).  Not that I've done much for them apart from tell everyone I meet how great I think they are.  www.cnutonline.com 

Now then - better get on with planning and publicising November's concert dates.  Unfortunately I have a month's worth of unpaid bills, unchased invoices, and general detritus lying around to be cleared up.  Paddy McAloon was on Jonathan Ross's radio show this morning plugging his new album - reminded me I must chase that Prefab Sprout project up as well.  Maybe I'll just mow the lawn, if it stops raining.