Thursday 24th January 08

Quite a busy day in the house.

Gill had a very easy morning, the boys were on best behaviour, and ate a big breakfast. Gill puts this down to them enjoying Martial Arts Class yesterday. Also, our eldest woke Gill up in the night and said he was hungry, so she got him something to eat. On several previous occasions he has woken up hungry and just lain there, awake and hungry, not wanting to wake us up, but then been fractious in the morning. Gill has told him to wake one of us up to get him something if it happens again, and she was really pleased that he did this last night/this morning, as it seemed to have a beneficial effect, with him going to sleep again afterwards.

I did lots of housework in the morning, tidying and sorting and even some cleaning! Don't know what came over me!

At 12 we had a visitor we weren't expecting (it wasn't in my diary) and then we got a phone call saying that a visitor we were expecting had been in a car crash (only a little one, no one hurt) but he couldn't get to us.

Did a bit of cooking (well, slicing fruit and putting on the racks to dry) and sorting out (well, taking stuff to the compost heaps!). At 2pm I went to the Hazel Court Skip Site on James St and put loads of cartons in the recycling bank and clothes in the clothes recycling and some foam in the skips for landfill.

Gill got our youngest at 3 and I got the other at 4, after his Drama Club. Whilst I was waiting for him to come out, I did my usual composting collections from the school playground bins, taking about 6 or 7 kilogrammes of banana skins and half eaten apples and pears out of the waste stream and to the compost bins I administer. I feel this daily event is a good little achievement, adding up to a big reduction in waste when you look at the compost bins filling up, about one per term. I lookied in the big wheelie bins for some cardboard (the school does not recycle cardboard) to use in the compost bin to balance the fruit, and found a very large pile of books and catalogues... so I loaded up my trailer with a box full and a bin-liner full of these and took them home for putting in the paper recycling, I'd say about 20 or 30 kg. Another small bite of green-ness, but it does make me angry that the school says it recycles paper, but then throws away stuff like that, which could have easily been put with the paper recycling. A good cycle home from Drama Club, with him telling me about a forthcoming Drama Festival where they are going to do a Court Scene, apparently.

Then he did an email to his friend who's moved to Leamington Spa, and Gill made a good nosh for all of us, and then I got ready for work, with the Southlands Cubs. I took three unicycles down and three 4-wheel unicycles and two 2-wheel unicycles (Fun Wheels and Pedal Go), plus a load of devilsticks, diabolos, feathers and juggling balls, for their 'Entertainment Badge'.

The session went very well. I got an email from the organiser saying how much he'd valued it and thanking me for doing it at a very reduced price for the two sessions. He also offered to pay for the diabolo which one of the lads (or lasses, as cubs can be female too) broke by putting their foot on it, which was kind of him. Fortunately it was only a small diabolo so it should only cost perhaps £15, I'll find out from the Anti-Gravity shop tomorrow or over the weekend.

A late night doing more dried stuff.... sliced up a further 5 pineapples and about 10 red and orange peppers, these strips, once completely dry, will be put in the blender and reduced to dust, which is fab 'sweet paprika' for cooking.... really adds to soups, stews, nutloaves etc. And the peppers were destined to go to landfill, which is even better than having to buy them!