Sunday 22nd June 08

Another day working... the second day at the CTC rally on the Racecourse. It was very windy and I didn't get to the Minster for the big cycle ride from there to the Knavesmire, but I got to the Knavesmire at the same time as the cyclists, at 10am, and I 'set up shop' and got going with the unicycle workshops. I had a visit from a girl who spent lots of time with me last year, now 10 and still unicycling and turning heads, as it's quite unusual to see such a small person unicycling around! She spent most of the day with me, using both of my kids unicycles (not at the same time!) and helping other children too, which was nice.

I was also joined by a tall 19 year-old chap, who had a few goes on a couple of activities (devilstick, juggling, unicycle, balloon modelling) but did a lot of just standing around watching, so I got several chances to chat to him. College dropout, jobless but hoping to work in a bar, but he was pleasant. Before lunch, my unicycle pedal broke off (the second of the pair, one of which broke last Tuesday!) he either offered or I asked him to go and get a replacement. I gave him a £20 note plus the unicycle and said 'hope to see you soon, or if I don't, you've got yourself a free top-of-the-range unicycle plus £20'. He assured me he'd come back, and soon he did, with a new pedal fixed on and the other of the pair in his hand, plus £16 change.

I took 10 mins off for lunch (sandwiches) and then continued full-on til 3.30, with the wind getting stronger and stronger. My hat kept on blowing off, and then I remembered that I'd found a large elastic band a while ago on the ground, picked it up and put it on my tri-bars... so I put this on my hat and it held it firmly on my head for the rest of the day. However the wind did more damage than blowing my hat off... the event was sponsored by Nokia and they had a large marquee with two large screens in it... the marquee blew down, smashing both screens (I was told) and causing thousands of pounds-worth of damage....

I got packed up for 4pm and went to get paid, was given a coffee at this time too, most welcome.

Lots of branches down on the way home, and something blew into my eye and when i got home it began to really hurt. I tried to wash it out by putting my eye in an egg-cup (bathing it, not taking it out and washing it! lol) but that didn't seem to work. Gill put a patch on it and after tea I cycled cyclops-like along the cycle path to the A+E Department of the York Hospital and presented myself as walking wounded. I waited for an hour and a half, resting my eye but wrote my journal and wrote most of the Community Care column which is due in tomorrow. Then my name was called and after I chatted with the tired young Doc, took my patch off and my eye felt completely normal... how odd! I might have washed it out with the egg-cup trick, but the eye remained hurt and needed to recover. We had a laugh about it and I cycled home, picking up several huge fallen branches on the way so I can shred the twiggy bits and use the sticks as fuel.