It's been a whirlwind few days. On Friday, we finished our term at the training course, and celebrated in the evening, at the end of which I saw Zan off for her week-long tour of Russia with Fretwork. So I'm on my own until Friday.

On Saturday, I had the job of demonstrating several (seven, I think) lutes to the assembled gathering of the Lute Society. Every couple of years, there's a weekend-long exhibition of lutes at the home of Gordon Gregory, a member of the Lute Society. There, people can offer for sale their second-hand lutes, and makers can exhibit and sell newly-made ones as well. The way it works is that people drop off their wares at Gordon's house at the beginning of the weekend, and during the weekend people come and go, viewing the lutes and disappearing into bedrooms to try them out in privacy. The bazaar atmosphere is heightened by refreshments and a good social buzz. It's a great thing. Anyway, at the end of the weekend, half a dozen instruments are selected for demonstration at the next meeting of the lute society, which was yesterday. And I was the unfortunate professional player who was asked to do the demo. So I had an hour (while everyone was off having lunch) to tune up the seven lutes and to get to know them a tiny bit (not nearly enough time, really), and then I had half an hour to play on each one for a few minutes, and chair a discussion about the relative qualities of the instruments. It's an enjoyable job, but actually surprising stressful!

Speaking of lutes and luteing, I did the strangest live radio appearance this morning that I've ever done! There's a Sunday morning news programme on BBC Radio 4 called "Broadcasting House". It's hugely popular (2 million listeners on Sunday mornings) and has won awards. The host, Eddie Mair, is a fine journalist and presenter. What makes this show special is that he interweaves his own brand of very dry, off-the-wall humour subtly into the show. The weekly "Donald Rumsfeld soundbite of the week" has become quite unmissable at our house, and in many other homes around the country. Click here for the archive of Rumsfeld Soundbites. Do have a listen! Anyway, it's always been a favourite programme of mine, and Eddie's subtle humour, just straddling the taste boundaries during the war, has kept me from total despair about recent events. So I was tickled to be invited the day before yesterday to appear on this morning's show. What, you may ask, does a news and current events programme want a lute player on the show for? Well, the answer lies in the fact that the word "looting" has been such a frequently used word in the news bulletins and reports of the last few days, that Eddie thought it would be topical to invite a lute player onto the programme (a "lewter", as we were called in the old days). To hear the broadcast (only available until next Sunday, I think), click here, and then click on "listen to the latest programme". I appear about halfway through, around 31 or 32 minutes into the show. But listen to the whole thing! There's a lot of interesting stuff.

So I was picked up and driven to the BBC at 0750 this morning, and I was home again by about 1030. Now I'm indulging in the very rare luxury of doing very little for the rest of the day.

Also last night, a powerful and moving concert: (click on "Spirit of the Tigris"). There was beautiful poetry in Arabic by a poet from Basra. There was stunning harp playing and singing by a Kurdish musician. There was intricate and subtle Iraqi oud playing, and rousing Iraqi-Jewish music. The whole idea, to arrange a concert representing the rich diversity of Iraqi culture, in the capital city of one of the "coalition" countries, was brilliant. It was pretty well-attended, and a memorable and thought-provoking evening. A theme emerging last night, and again on Broadcasting House this morning, actually, is that very many Iraqis living in exile were in favour of this war.