So it came as no surprise when I was summoned by a manager 3 levels above me (yup, 3 levels) to be told I "may" be made redundant, which in CorpSpeak[tm] means I will. I was kindly offered advice about how to write CVs (yeah, thanks) and a help line in case I want to commit suicide or something. That is how much this company cares about me. My heart is bleeding with gratitude.

The environment in this place is so bad that all the people affected went out for lunch in what felt more like a celebration than a group of people digesting bad news. Or maybe it was a coping mechanism.

All things considered, it is a great time to get a big load of cash (and from my previous diary you can see that there is no love lost with this part of London) and go for pastures new.

Back to more pleasant things, I assisted to the Beethoven's Piano Sonatas cycle performed by Maestro Daniel Barenboim.

Just google about this man. I don't know why, but the proportion of good people amongst classical musicians is disproportionate. Maestro Barenboim is one of them, that alone would merit to support him in whatever he does.

And what he did was to embark in the Super Bowl of piano playing: offering the 32 Beethoven Sonatas in a cycle of 8 concerts in a span of 2 weeks.

That is close to 24 hours of music. Played from memory. But it is not only the circus factor, as one critic put it "we may not like all of Barenboim's answers to Beethoven, but he asks all the right questions".

Lets me try to explain, he played slower than other performers, softer in many passages, to the point of stillness at some points, and the effect was new and enlightening.  At some points he was literally jumping in order to press the pedals! I did not like all of it, but here it was a musician trying to interpret masterpieces for the 21st century and throwing the gauntlet to the new young performers (Lang Lang, Euveny Kissin) showing that technical skill is not even half of the job.

It pains me to say that I believe there are no recordings from these historic performances. BBC: where were thou!

I will  go to the opera again (money permitting, now living as a pauper I may need to buy tickets in the gallery. Standing). I have forced myself to do so by organizing several people to assist to performances. Once people look up to you for advice, you can't sneak out of a performance or two once in a while.

As for running, I did my 2nd fastest 10K ever. I will not give you the time because it is nothing to write home about (thus I write about it here). The run was in an old racetrack with an adjacent museum about motor racing and a famous motor brand 's showroom masquerading as a theme park. Drop dead gorgeous blond girls strutting their stuff around trying to sell you 25000 quid a pop cars, so picture the scene: luscious mini skirted maidens chasing sweaty, old gits dressed in sporting garments. Quite fun to see.

When I told one of the girls I would buy a car if she married me she gave me the sweetest smile I have ever seen. And what legs! But no deal was reached, it pains me to say.