My cultural excursion continues this morning as I go to the house of a local woman who received an honour in the New Years list. I wrote to her to congratulate her and she invited me to learn more of what she does.

It was a really heartwarming story of success. She leads on a current pilot which is delivering in the seven pilot areas the opportunity to learn an instrument to every child in the school undertaking the pilots. It’s a long, complicated story – but suffice to say that children who would not have a flying whatsit at an instrument are now getting that chance. And I believe this is a wonderful project and that exposure in whatever way to such learning be it classical violin or African drums – will change that child’s horizons.

Meeting of the Advisory Panel on the future of Hornsey Town Hall. Very interesting speakers on how we might get a commercial operator interested in building a cinema on the site – but also how the existing but dilapidated theatre halls if resurrected could not be dual purpose. Apparently the acoustics for a concert hall / theatre are just totally different to a cinema. Lots of other good ideas from all the contributors to the panel.

Next meeting is the nitty gritty – funding!!!!!!!!!!

Chairs planning meeting – in which I plan the work program for the Transport Committee with the scrutiny officers, press office and committee staff. Still cranking up after the elections, but the first meeting of the committee scheduled for 22nd July will be Crossrail! This will be my third attempt to get the high ups to attend transport committee to give evidence. With the Government shilly shallying and trying to avoid not only funding Crossrail, but making any sort of move on Crossrail – and the Montague Report still unpublished – I have decided to press on. Public scrutiny will take place this time – or else!

These blogs and websites have lives of their own. Since coming runner-up in this years Guardian Political Blog of the Year a number of research projects seem to have sprung up on the use of e-campaigning and blogging. Today is an interview for some erudite and academic study of the genre. The girl interviewing me is really nice – so in turn I was nice too!

I also learned that my website has been short-listed for the New Statesman website whatever – so the genre marches on.

A day of media training. The training is by a top company for the new members of the London Assembly, but I have been offered a place that is going spare. I am trying to work out whether I have been offered it because I am Chair of Transport and therefore do quite a lot of media – or I am just so bad they think I need all the help I can get.

TV, particularly live TV is fairly tough and you never do it often enough for it to become second nature or to relax – so I am grateful for the extra help.

I usually think of the most brilliant come back – but sadly only sometime after I have done the interview and left the studio. Perhaps I could do a book – brilliant soundbites I never delivered.

Anyway – the training was for print, radio and various TV situations. All good stuff. What I did realise, as they made you watch the videos they take of the TV interviews with feedback, is that after the first term of office I have improved more than I thought. However, it was quite clear that I needed a haircut, to dress more smartly and to keep my answers short.

Have invited local neighbours in to discuss a planning application next to me in our road. It will be a nail in the coffin of the lovely Grove atmosphere of the road – but I doubt whether we will prevail. Everyone is against it – although the proposal is better than we might get from a commercial developer as it is supposedly by a local man wanting a small house for his daughter. Doubt is expressed by some of my neighbours who know this chap about the veracity of this being the case. Others say it may well be. We will do what we can. For me – if it were built as described and never expanded – it might be better the devil we know. But you can’t get guarantees – and Haringey don’t have a stunning reputation for enforcement or supervision – let alone protecting areas in Highgate. For me personally it will be horrible and invade my privacy with windows looking into my living spaces.

Heaven knows I have helped residents across the whole borough fight inappropriate planning applications – but it is very difficult for me. If it goes to committee – as it is a Labour controlled committee and despite it being required to act as a quasi judicial body – the sight of me would probably be enough to ensure they simply voted it through. The temptation would almost certainly be too strong for them to resist.

We will see.

Address huge rally on Haven Green in Ealing ‘Against the West London tram’. Ken’s proposal for this tram will cost £648 million and will displace 27,000 cars into local residential roads as they close off various bits of the Uxbridge Road. Trams are great – but this is the wrong place to force this through.

I arrive early (by car – yes even I occasionally use my car) and am sitting parked outside a house near the Green where a man is trimming his hedge. Very Saturday morning………. I realise that I need the loo and that I will never last the 2 hours of the rally without going. Can I ask a stranger to use his loo? I decide I have no choice, explain that I am about to give a speech at the rally down the road and am a London Assembly member and can offer identification. He says yes of course – but does add that it is conditional that I am giving a speech against the tram as he and his family will be there to demonstrate against. Happily, I am therefore allowed to relieve myself!

It was an outdoor rally, with shaky podium and microphone and strong wind. As Chair of Transport I get a five minute slot and did my best to support the local people who are really going to be screwed by Ken’s proposals – and for that matter the consultation which is just starting, but which questions are, as ever, designed to get answers on detail rather than ask people what they feel about the whole scheme.

Fantastic crowd – with a good MC and a poet who started the whole shebang off with a fiery poem against the tram. Speaker after speaker gave their own personal reasons why this was an untenable proposal. Banners were waved, TV cameras rolled – and then it was home for the Women’s Final for me.

All hell broke loose amongst the media when they discovered that stops of people of Asian origin under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act had rocketed by 302%. I am the spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Authority on this issue as I was Vice Chair of the scrutiny investigation on Stop & Search. I field media enquiries and interviews, juggling with school open day and Shrek 2. No one ever said it would be easy!

Third meeting of day with same officer – not really – he was doing a ‘surgery’ before the start of the Muswell Hill Assembly meeting. Nothing much of interest at the meeting -not that stuff wasn’t important – it just wasn’t interestingly presented. I stayed for the bicycle and the UDP update presentation – but then left to do work at home.