Backstage at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh: I'm playing organ in the SCO this week for performances of Haydn's Nelson Mass with Nicholas McGegan: great fun. But it would be even more fun if I wasn't fighting off an upper respiratory infection. In the first half is Beethoven's 1st symphony (they're playing it as I write this), and in Glasgow last night, just after the last note and before the applause broke out, someone at the back of the hall shouted out 'Bravi!'. It had been a good performance right enough. But the Barony Hall is a big place and from the stage it sounded like he'd shouted 'Rubbish!'

It's always a pleasure to play for Nic, as he has the uncanny knack of getting what he wants from the orchestra (and choir) without them realising he's done it.  If you go out and listen from the audience it sounds wonderful, but elements of the orchestra inevitably moan that he hasn't prepared properly, or that he's being trivial, neither of which are the case. From where I'm sitting, he just wants, and expects, music-making to be an enjoyable social experience.  This makes perfect sense to me, but perhaps it is deeply disturbing to elements of the orchestral mindset, that want someone to tell them what to do in a suitably stern manner.  

I'm carrying CDs of session takes everywhere I go, and making notes whenever I have a moment to sit down. And at home I'm trying out Cool Edit software to see if I can do some editing at home, instead of always borrowing or hiring other people's machines. 

I also found time this afternoon to loudly berate a complacent Mercedes driver who seemed to think it was OK to reverse across a pedestrian crossing without looking, narrowly missing my son, just so that she could get into the correct lane to turn right. Beware pedestrian road rage, we're fighting back.  Come to think of it, what a wonderful pressure group could exist: pedestrians for safe driving.  If every pedestrian had the legal right to inflict cosmetic damage on any vehicle that was driven without due consideration for other road users, you could have tremendous fun with nothing more than a set of keys.  Fear would be struck in the hearts of complacent drivers of overpriced cars everywhere. Go on someone, do it.