The big research funding application that's been taking up my every spare synapse for the past few weeks finally got submitted today, with 25 minutes to spare (whew! - well done Bill). It had seemed quite straightforward to begin with, but today we looked at the bottom line and once all the various overheads had been added in, we were asking for nearly half a million quid. In a hurry. So now I have to forget about it completely as we won't find out if we're successful until January.

Last night I flew back from a really interesting gig at Hatchlands Park with Katharine Fuge, where I got to play the virginal that Purcell maintained for Charles II in Whitehall Palace. Here are some things I learnt yesterday. 1) Purcell's keyboard music is sparse in texture for a reason. I'd thought that Gibbons would sound good on the instrument too, but in fact it came across as rather congested and dense, certainly in comparison to how it sounds on the Ruckers harpsichord in Edinburgh. 2) James Oswald's 'The Parting Kiss', which Kathy sang as an encore only having seen it about 45 minutes before, is a really wonderful song. 3) Doing a concert when on antihistamines (Kathy also has a new cat who made my nose run) is quite strange. I was pleasantly woozy, which was really quite nice. 

Alison came along to listen and after lunch, Mark Ransom took us around the collection so that I could play the instruments, in particular a great wee Irish spinet, a clavichord with a phat bass, a really nice Zenti Italian, and the ridiculously opulent Ruckers/Hemsch, which demands that you play big grand gestures on it - I settled on some Balbastre. We even had time for a walk around the substantial park before the dash to the airport.