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Probably the most telling evidence I have seen of the horrors on the loose in Syria, the most extraordinary country I have ever visited (and the region where a big slice of my genes originated, according to 23andMe), were shown in the New York Times International Weekly today. Two images map the amount of light visible at night over the country in March 2012 and December 2014. A grim overview of a gathering Dark Age.

Went across to Harley Street this morning to have my hearing re-tested by Capital Audiology, recommended by David Grayson. Very impressive consultation, one part of which involved establishing the approximate frequency and volume of the whistling in my ears – and then playing that sound back into one ear. After three minutes, the tinnitus vanished in that ear, for about 10-15 minutes. But looks as if I’m headed for hearing aids.

Then across to HMV in Oxford Street en route back to Volans, to look for some new music. Bought a bunch of things: two CDs by Madeleine Peyroux (Half the Perfect World and Bare Bones); Bob Dylan’s latest, Shadows in the Night; Brian Wilson’s Jukebox, which compiles the music that inspired one of my favourite musicians; Solo by the Mavericks; The Essential Paul Simon (many of the tracks I have on LPs or even CDs, but a nice compilation); and Carl Perkins & Friends, with the likes of Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Dave Edmunds) – which is the audio track of a concert we watched way back in 1996.

Am also listening a fair amount to Psychedelic Cambodia, a CD that rescues music that pre-dated (and whose sources were largely wiped out by) the Khmer Rouge. Given to me by Gaia and Hania: profoundly moving. Weirdly, one of the tracks is a Cambodiazation of a track I first heard in extraordinary circumstances in 1970 in Greece, Venus by Shocking Blue. We arrived in a garage in the Landrover, got out and were stretching, when a huge truck pulled in  behind us, the driver opened his door above us, and the first chords rang out.

Maybe that’s where the tinnitus comes from? Certainly bands like Fairport Convention were pretty loud in the day. But today brought home how much I love music, not just the Desert Island 16 I highlight elsewhere on this website.

Out at Kuala Lumpur International Airport after a high-energy flying visit, mainly for the Bayer MaterialScience Project SunRise launch and meetings (see previous entry), but also with a wonderful session at the KL Impact Hub, co-hosted by Christopher Erichsen and Shariha Khalid of the the Scope Group.

Fascinating to see how the Hub movement has spread – I was one of 12 inaugural members/Fellows back in the day when it was just opening the King’s Cross Hub in London, under the guiding hand of Jonathan Robinson.

Loved the enthusiasm, energy and humour of the participants in the Impact Hub session – and some great questions in the discussion period. another reminder of just how lucky I have been to be able to surf these consecutive waves of social and environmental activism and entrepreneurship. Intrigued to see the MIT Technology Review running its latest survey of 10 breakthrough technologies – bought it to read on the plane. Selection ranges from Google’sProject Loon and supercharged photosynthesis through to megascale desalination.

Arrived in Kuala Lumpur late yesterday, for the launch today of a prototype affordable house by Bayer’s Project Sunrise and Malaysia’s Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).

Am delighted that Volans has now been involved for over five years. Some video background here. Also thrilled that Bayer MaterialScience are backing Bertrand Piccard’s round-the-world Solar Impulse project, though am hopeful that Sunrise will have an even greater impact over time. (It was a particular pleasure last year to win a prize in Chile in the glittering wake of the ever-intrepid Piccard.)

The photos above show some aspects of the very successful launch ceremony today in KL. For me, the only fly in the ointment, or polymers headed into the Pacific Garbage Patch, came with the release of a large bunch of balloons to mark the ribbon-cutting. I trust the day will come when such things do not happen at ‘sustainability’ events – though I once went to WWF event in Sweden, of all events and places, where thousands of balloons were released into the skies.

The launch was followed by a fascinating stakeholder session this afternoon with a range of partners in Project Sunrise, among them CIDB, Greenclean Fab India, Habitat for Humanity, Habitat International, Phillips, Podar Enterprises, PU Profile Malaysia, and Square Panels Malaysia.

As a member of the project Sunrise Advisory Board, it was my task to ask some of the ore challenging a questions – though I was impressed how open the partners were not only with upbeat reports on their progress but also with candid views on the barriers they face, both within the emerging Sunrise ecosystem and in the wider economic and political systems.

As a sidebar, on the flight in yesterday I read an extraordinary novel by Laird Hunt, Neverhome – about the American Civil War. I stumbled across the book in the London Review of Books bookshop, around the corner from our office. Blown away by it. Here’s a review in the New York Times that I came across today.

Tweeted a note mentioning that Paul Auster had described the book as “magnificent,’ and suggesting that this was putting it mildly. Heard back from Laird Hunt this morning. What a connected world we now live in – and how totally alien that would have seemed to his extraordinary heroine. I winder when such authors will start to write novels around the dramas of the evolving sustainability revolution?

It’s been a fairly stretched week, what with working on the latest version of our impending White Paper and Eurostarring to Brussels on Thursday for a conference with Bank Degroof. The other speakers were Jeff Grout and Peter Hinssen. Enjoyed the event – and the train rides.

On Monday, there was an F&C private view of the Rubens exhibition at the Royal Academy,  fleshy but interesting, where we bumped into Tessa Tennant and her husband Bill. Then on to a dinner hosted by Jochen Zeitz in Shoreditch.

Yesterday began well when I spotted two herons flying south across our garden. Have always considered herons my totem bird, a sign of good luck, with their attitude and behaviour signalling something about the day ahead. Reading up on the symbolism today, I was struck by the long-legged bird’s role in liminal places, neither wholly of one world or another. Moving between land, water and air. An interesting distillation of the nature of much of my work – and of transitions in general, including the point at which the Volans team currently finds itself.

The heron, I discover, is also associated with longevity. With all the coverage of pensions in the media at the moment, triggered by impending changes in the regulations, I followed a link today to an online life expectancy calculator. It asked lots of questions about lifestyle and health. I put in all the bad things I could think of, and yet it still said I would live to 96. I suspect the idea may have been to encourage me to get better pension protection, but not sure how I would feel about the prospect of living another 30 years.

The website didn’t ask about dangerous pastimes, so I didn’t get to feed in cycling as part of the case for a shorter life expectancy. Around the corner from our Bloomsbury Place office there has been a column of flowers where a young woman cyclist was killed by a truck a couple of weeks ago. There have been several deaths since we moved there – and many accidents, including the one where I was hit by a cycle courier. My elbow is finally almost healed, some 5-6 months after my last accident, that one in Oxford Street, so have been pondering getting back into the swing. Have been missing the exercise.

Spent much of yesterday working on the latest round of columns/blogs, this time looking at a number of breakthrough technologies – and highlighting a new study by LIGTT. Watched the latest part in the Reginald D Hunter BBC2 series last night, Songs of the South. Gentling.

Then the bird theme continued through today, with high swirling clouds of rooks in Richmond Park this afternoon – and a flock of perhaps 20 goldfinches in our leafless apple tree early this evening. I stood for quite a while watching the rooks, thinking about some of the terms that would once have been used to describe what I was saying. That was largely because of an article I read in yesterday’s Guardian, by Robert Macfarlane, on the way in which our languages are losing words for the natural world. Looking forward to reading his book, Landmarks.

The goldfinches felt like some sort of blessing. Then I read that it is linked in Christian symbology to foreknowledge (on the part of Mary and Jesus) of the Crucifixion and the crown of thorns. Apparently, it was believed that the bird got the splash of red on its face when it pulled a thorn out of the crown around Jesus’s head. Intriguing, but I think I’ll stick with this bird as I see it.