Thursday 27th September 07

I got a lie-in til 8.30, as the noise levels increased downstairs as Gill tried to get the boys ready for school, so I came down and chivvied them out of the house. It's amazing how much more quickly an 8 year-old boy will put their own shoe on when you offer to help them do it... they then have to prove that they don't need help and actually get on with it!

I was due to go to town and do various jobs before my little holiday next week, but I had a very leaky nose and felt grotty, then I looked at my diary and saw that Simon from Yellow Pages had booked to come and visit me regarding my advertising with them, so I lit the stove and got a coffee and did some washing up, Gill went out as she has more stuff to do in town. I did my emails to find out if my friend had landed, but there was no message, so I wondered what had happened.

The Yellow Pages rep recognised me from the telly programme last week, and we took some time to get onto the subject of advertising Professor Fiddlesticks. I didn't want to spend any more money with them, but was persuaded to have a listing with Yell (dot) Com and to afford this I am not having a one-line listing in the Leeds directory, which has not given me many returns. Apparently the Yell advert will give me a better coverage. But Simon did his job well and I'll be paying more next year than this!

I got an email from Community Care saying would it be possible to get my column in by this afternoon? I did some online research about Ethical Investment, which I don't know much about, and continued writing my 350 words.

Then I got an email from St Nicks saying that they would be sending someone over to pick up my apple press and crusher at 2pm, for use at Apple Day on the 6th of October. So I had to excavate that from the studio, all the time sneezing and snuffling and blowing my nose, and feeling rubbish.

I got my column typed in by 3pm and cycled down to school to pick up the boys. My youngest asked if he could visit one of his friends, so he went one way, and I came home with the eldest, who only noticed we didn't have his brother once we'd got home! On the way home I chatted with a friend of mine, who's a chemist and very well informed, and she's not convinced that the paint on top of the sleepers will stop the creosote coming through, and she said if she felt brave enough, she'd raise it at school at a meeting tonight.

Once I got home I felt so poorly I went to bed and fell asleep with New Scientist in my hand. I was woken by a phone call from my friend, who had sent me some emails since landing at Manchester Airport, but they'd not got through to me. I was pleased she was safe and sound.

I made my own tea, finishing up the weird-tasting mushroom soup and putting some pasta in, left over from Gill's tea, and heating that on the woodstove, plus making some eggy-bread the same way, using a discarded organic loaf with the crusts cut off. It was very filling and dirt cheap, a good thing considering that I'm about to spend a large amount on a new bicycle.

After tea, before it got dark, I did a bit of putting stuff on the newest compost heap, and cut a bit more hedge. Then came in and sorted out the stove, got enought hot water for my boy to have a bath. Then I refilled the pans as I want to have a bath later. Gill and I enjoyed watching Carol Vorderman on BBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?', about ancestry and family origins. We had a game of Scrabble and I won, again.

Enjoyed my bath at midnight.