Jock Tamson's surgery.

          I had a great meeting with Stephen Greenhorn today. Most enjoyable. We were supposed to be talking about my play, Jock Tamson's Half Hearted Transformation, but most of the time was spent catching up. Lots of good things seemed to have happened to Stephen in the last twenty years, which is what you want to hear. Seems he lived in London for eight years or so, but now he's moved into a house in Chalmers Crescent. When Graham Worrell bought a house with a roof on it in Wormit, I realised that the kind of folk who lived in middle class houses were now friends of mine. But Chalmers Crescent? So pleased. It's not always the bastards who score in this world.

          Stephen seemed to like the play. Said it needed tightened up here and there and so it does. That's why I'd like to hear it read. That probably won't happen. There's no point in writing plays without getting a commission first. I don't like working from commissions and would prefer to just write something, and that is not the way it used to work, and I don't think it's any better now. Anyway, it was good to do this today.

          Stephen said my play was picked not because he used to know me, but because it was one of the four best sent in. That was nice to know. But even if it was Hamlet, it's chances of getting a production from this position is zilch. C'est la vie. Pleased to have written it. That's the main thing.