It's not often that I find myself on a bus at 7.30 on a winter's morning. There has to be a good cause involved. The good cause in this case being Marivaux's "Arlequin Poli Par L'Amour" which his departed soul is no doubt looking forward to seeing in the SCDA One-Act Festival next month under its snappy local title of "Polished by Love".

I've yet to see the whole cast make it to a rehearsal but last night we had almost a full set, one of whom must be classed a trouper for having turned out, and the evening was enormously enjoyable. To say the work is rough around the edges would be an act of kindness akin to complimenting Gordon Brown on his charisma. But deep down and glimmering weakly is a little flame.

The challenge is to cajole that little flame into growing into the bonfire that blazes in my imagination. This is such a darling little play and I'm so pleased with the physical shape of the presentation, the look and the sound of it, and there is such potential in the cast that I've just got to strain every sinew to make it as perfect as I possibly can.

So to the bus. Two streets away there's a wood yard from which I ordered material for our set. They agreed to deliver it to our workshop this morning and that entailed someone being there from 8am to accept delivery. I offered to walk round and ride shotgun on the lorry but they wouldn't play so I had to take the bus to Tollcross and hang about until it arrived not long after ten.

While hanging about I got in some saxophone practice and by observing learnt a little about erecting scaffolding. The first stage of the statutory repairs that are going to set us back three grand was getting under way as I arrived.