Cracking day. Nice sleep in to start. Piece of hardware turned up to do better vocals understood it in minutes and deployed it. Good stuff. Trucked off to Durham with Clifford and Fiona under sunny Altostratus skies. Durham Woods green, orange and brown. City centre bustling with students. Spoke to busking guitarist Jake. Doing Ph.D. in computer engineering next year at Bath. Excellent. Brilliant guitarist and young man. Looked at Miles' flat and it is clean and tidy. He went to ceilidh last night. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Biscuit break in Durham market. Packed out with people looking happy. Met Mrs Wilcox administrator from the lads former secondary school. Wonderful lady, husband nice as well. Traipsed around Durham in basking light and then back home. Mini crash and cuddle with Fiona, meatballs pasta with tomato sauce now bubbling, third Batman film to watch and nice to have family together again. I thank God every day for my family and my friends. Looking forward to Butterknowle Music Bash tomorrow. I will try not to be too enthusiastic but I can hear the many notes flooding out already! Not good!

Yesterday, Miles moved into Hall of residence in Durham. Sharing with two fine German men. One has Latvian girlfriend who was there. All three laughed heads of when informed Miles had Latvian German grandfather. Ice smashed to pieces! Music mooching day mini harmonica practice. Visited IKEA. Second religion! Back up to Newcastle in evening to take Clifford to Bahai Feast and meet Newcastle Baha'is. Brilliant gathering, fruitful and loving. Must be kinder to Fiona. Sometimes get bee in bonnet when I am right but I am also wrong. Long-term marriage is about loving problem-solving and we have solved this one. No problem in our marriage ever lasts more than 24 hours! Amazing lady I am married to. Sometimes feel unworthy. Right: share of humble pie eaten. Back into music working day!

Great romantic and thoroughly moving day. Walked around autumn coloured York for about 6 miles with my beautiful wife. Mooched around city centre and then headed off to university visiting a totally lovely lady who I have known over a period of 30 years: Angela Gardham. Lovely to see her and she looked radiant and beautiful as she always did. Lived just down the road from her for   two years 1994-1996 and my second son Clifford was born over this period. Amazing house and garden, and her kids, who are young men now, doing really well and I felt very complete talking with her again because she was one of the first people I noticed in York in 1983 with her family that gave me the idea I wanted to be in a settled and happy family myself. Which I have done thanks to my lovely wife Fiona. I felt so privileged to be sat in the presence of two absolutely lovely fine intelligent women one of them being my wife and the other one my friend Angie. After this, walked around University Lake and saw three Great Crested Grebes, the parents and   fledgeling. Back home at six for soup and rolls still feeling quite emotional about meeting up with Angie again. Must visit friends more north and south of Darlington!

Great day yesterday. Figured out recording my voice problem and arrived at solution. Can now crack on with writing the many songs that are in my head. Did Baha'i stall in Darlington centre several people interested. Took Miles and his friend Luke to The Works Skate park in Leeds for manic four-hour session. Had good walk around Leeds myself. Walked amongst a huge group of students and at least a half a dozen  languages  spoken. Love multicultural and cosmopolitan Britain. New building gone up called Broadcasting Tower. Lot like Angel of the North with its rusted exterior. Nice to touch and walked completely around it. Only way to understand a building. Miles awesome in skate park and Luke was brilliant as well. The manager of the skate park had become a father since last there. First child died shortly after childbirth and now everything is okay. Lovely fine, intelligent and resourceful young man with a smashing wife and baby.Getting to know people  opens my heart up to a lot of their hurts but I feel that is a big part of loving all of humankind as I do. Love taking youngies to skate parks. Will miss it now Miles is off to Durham University getting really serious about mathematics. Hooray. Love being a father!

Great day yesterday. Up at 6:30 AM buzzing with thoughts about how to record my voice better. Took Miles to RKade skate park for final session. Moving. Been going there 10 years. Integral part of Miles's social contact when being home educated. Visited Mum in afternoon. Small Richmond walk bathed in Autumn sunlight. Mum chirpy and looking well. Took family home. Out swiftly to York for walk and wild country music session at the Community Pub the Golden Ball in Bishophill. Many friends there not seen for 17 years. Known most for 30 . Warm welcome. Right-hand well pumped. Loving thanks to Frank Pallister, Pete James, Harry, Mike, Ken Meadows, the lovely Suzie Mackenzie and partner Dave, Bert, and the big and warm Gill. 2.5 hours of manically incessant country music with no break. Just what I needed. Nearly warmed up at the end of it. Didn't play well at first. Shined eventually. More into harmonica now . Feel less disabled on that instrument. Going to attend Butterknowle music sessions again but using a looper to accompany myself. Back at 12:30 AM Fiona patiently and sleepily listened to my evenings tale! Brilliant wife and friends !

Beautiful day. Up early, Clifford going to hall of residence at Northumbria University. Daddy lectured Clifford in car about importance of getting Computational Mathematics course cracked. Daddy nervous? Whole family accompanying him. Cumulus cloud filled blue sky approaching Tyne Bridge looking over busy, North Run prepared Newcastle. Clifford's accommodation great. Students really helpful. I helped flatmate Nicola with using cooker and getting vegan bacon going. Nice girl. Clifford happy and whole family said prayers together in his bedroom before leaving.Clifford back home again next Friday. Onto Durham, walked Autumn tinged woods, sipped espresso and went to Cathedral to look at contemporary stained glass. At home. Crash out and cuddle with Fiona listening to Leonard Cohen Live in London. Gobbled tea of home-made meatballs, tomato sauce, fresh pasta and garlic bread. Watched Lord of War. Excellent but gloomy and thoughtful. I keep thanking God for such a wonderful son as Clifford.I don't miss him because he is where he should be. Miles away to Durham in two weeks time. Family wonderful, friends great and at peace with the world.

Wide-awake 5 AM. Wife dead to the world no chance of getting family out for walk. Up and out and headed off for York. Massive stratus cloud over North Yorkshire Moors slips sideways to reveal sun coming up. Nice! In York Minster early, absolutely nobody there at all not a sausage. Whole place to myself for 40 min. Said prayers in Chapter House for friends dead and alive. Octagonal Chapter House, sun bursts in from East side. Strode around York. Crash out on Millennium Bridge, buzzard spotted over Rowntrees Park, circling round in thermals wandering over to station. Buy cheap mobiles for boys. Home, bang on 1 PM. Out again at 3 PM to walk in Durham City, buy mini espresso coffee cup, middle-class aspirations fulfilled, ending up munching food at Inshanghai Chinese tummy filling place. Stride back to Shincliffe, around 10 miles in the legs for the day, watch "Bandits" at home, Miles giggling at my preening over my expresso sipping cup and feel a lot of love for family and friends. Great day and looking forward to a good shift at the job tomorrow. The night is still young!

Kids with parents who value education and are prepared to pay for it or home educate the kids themselves are going to do better no matter what schools do. That said, I think it is a travesty of our social and economic fabric that only getting academic qualifications is regarded as being successful. All that happens in reality is the Bell curve of intelligence gets raised up, it bulges a lot more in the middle, sure, a good thing if you want better technology and a cure for cancer sooner than later, but the very intelligent stay brighter than the less no matter how much a parent spends on the child's education. I've said to my family loads of times since I started working with Learning Disabled people that the two leading edges of our civilisation are how well we care for people who have problems of any sort and the science and technology that we get into . The main problem in my view is society has to value and pay for those millions of people who do great jobs in social care but get little reward for it. I don't think the answer lies in higher pay I think it lies in higher privilege in terms of reductions in power bills and housing costs so the pay they get is worth more. Raising taxes specifically for this purpose is the only way.

Private tuition risks 'learning gap'

www.bbc.co.uk

Private tuition for state school pupils is booming, particularly among wealthier families and in London, suggests a poll of 11- to 16-year olds.