I got a call to go to Glastonbury with the circus, but there's only one ticket available, so perhaps I can't go - I know Julie hates us doing thing separately. It's a shame - to me, as all the little self-employed bits and pieces contribute to making my steady job bearable.

Hey ho - got to decide today.

I am at work right now. We are still quite busy getting ready to migrate our system to the Council network, prior to actually installing a new library system in the autumn.

I have found a copy of 'You can't beat people up and have them say I love you' by Murray Roman. This is a 60's album [bit of nostalgia] a one-off mixture of jokes and music. Rather a scratchy old copy, but when I tried using the library system their record player didn't seem to grab the stereo effects properly - so my rough old needle at home will have to do for now....I sent a copy to Judith for a belated birthday present. It still makes me laugh even now....

And now it's Friday - but I work Saturdays, so the weekend DOESN'T start here. I was up all night on Wednesday (couldn't sleep) and decided to find the old cards I made up...like a Tarot set, but 24 cards related to the Eight Circuit model of the brain. I found them, and scanned them ,and then put them onto a page. Because they are a private thing, I didn't stick up any kind of link to the Website as such....they are too contentious for that...but I will put a link here, so long as you understand that they are just a little bit of art-in-process.

The background story is that I was stuck in a little bed-sit room for the winter; no money; no prospects; all my library lost in a personal disaster. I cheered myself up by deciding to reconstruct what I could remember of the 8-Circuit model, and make up a pack of cards, using only what I could find in my papers...old magazine pics, photocopies of books, etc. This is why they are such a mixture of faded B&W and glossy colour. There is no special pattern to this, I just used what came to hand that day (similarly, two of the cards display in landscape orientation and there is no significance in this....

Note, too, that circuits 6 and 7 seem to have been reversed in the last few years...but in the higher circuits....who knows? Anyway, I have left them as they are for now.....and will no doubt be redoing them as soon as I find some time.

See how time flies? I have been through another month of The Spring not quite arriving....

Bob Dylan came to Cardiff with his current band, and was excellent. My friend Judith came over from Somerset to watch - it was my present for her Sixtieth birthday (no secret, I hope Judith!) For Judith on her miscellaneous birthday........

I love the new band - especially playing the stuff from the new album - their album - Love and Theft - and we had a great view, as I had somehow bought tickets in the balcony, front row, centre stage. We could have done with binoculars, for close-ups, but we were right in the sound mix... Just up and behind the sound man.

Down on the floor people had to take their chances - thousands of standing, milling, dancing people below us. I heard good and bad reports about the sound and view down there - but there was no doubt that people mostly had a pretty good time. After the second encore Judith asked if it was the interval. Over two hours continuous music had flown by..........

The circus has its new show on the road - Sci Circus. The original crew do not appear on stage this year. Everyone is new (except Peter who joined recently, but has appeared in several shows). I saw the opening night, and enjoyed it a lot, in spite of my doubts (even rebels resist change) and after a wobbly start (it isn't easy telling the audience they don't have seats to settle into, but have to MOVE) I really got into it and enjoyed it a lot. The kids I was with thought it was great, as they milled around in the crowd, finding their own viewpoint, while the action moved from place to place within the tent.

I loved Dan's hat routine, but I didn't get to tell him that.

Sponsored by Science Year - the theme of SciCircus is the place where science and circus meet - gravity, friction, inertia, centre of balance, fulcrums, pulleys, it's all there. This is not a pompous lecture, however. When the audience arrive they find lots of 'things to do' with a science theme - there are booths with distorting mirrors, and puzzles, and disorientation tricks. The show emerges from all this, and wanders about the space, incorporating shadow shows, theatre in the round, booth stage, and aerial circus feats, with the audience breaking and moving and reforming as they go and performers popping up all over the place, and the lights shifting. There are many amazing props, too, but I won't spoil that for you by describing them - large and small.

The circus skills were excellent, and eventually we were charmed by this strange crew......good clowning....great disruptive fun.