Monday 28th September 09

Up early as I needed to do the minutes of last week's Transition meeting... and got an invitation to put my blog on http://blogs.gogreen.vc/.

I got the minutes done and sent them off to Peter for sending out. I spent half an hour in the garden shredding some brambles which Gill has removed.

Immediately after lunch I wend down to the station with my bike minus trailer, got a ticket to Hornbeam Park and took my bike on the train so I could easily get from the station to the 'Family Chiropractic Clinic' where Karen hires a room to do her acupuncture. She had booked the room from 2pm so she could continue her research about ADHD and acupuncture. I arrived before 2pm and she was waiting outside, no sign at all of anyone within, just a little sign saying 'lunch 1-2' and Karen had already rang their number, and it was on answerphone. Banging on the door and ringing the bell made no difference either. She got reasonably agitated about this and by 2.10, went to ask a nearby shop owner if they had seen any movement at the Clinic this morning. And then the person bothered to come down and open the Clinic door. I was a bit angry about this late start... as I had hoped to get the 3pm train back to York. She told me that they opened the shop at 2.15. I hope they change the note on the door... and give Karen a key so she can get in and get prepared for her clients.

She took a little while to get ready, and then did her pre-acupuncture routine which involves looking at my tongue and asking various questions and taking my pulse. We discussed my diet and food routine. Then I had the rather nice experience of having the needles put into my skin (most of them I couldn't feel, some I felt a tiny pinprick, one was uncomfortable for a couple of minutes) and then lying there for 45 minutes or so. I felt very relaxed and calm, almost knocked out, and I might have even drifted off to sleep at one stage. It is most curious. But at 3.20 I had the needles removed and I had another conversation about my carbohydrate-rich diet and four to six cups of coffee a day.

I cycled into Harrogate and popped into Waitrose to get some goats milk which Gill had asked me to buy, and onto the station where I got the 4.05 train back to York, along with 2 other cyclists.

I called in on Freshways and picked up a small box of recyclables, and headed home.

I did about an hour of loading a heap with shredded brambles and food 'resources'. For tea I had a sandwich with two small home-made veggie burgers from a couple of days ago (basically a nutloaf mix cooked in small patties in a frying pan) and some salad and potatoes.

At half six I went out to the Theatre Royal to see what I thought was a play by my friend Kate Lock. 'Script Factor' was in fact a weird concept... five new scripts or mini-plays, read unseen by volunteer audience members, the script writer/playwright answering a few questions, and then at the end, voting for the one you wanted to win. I liked Kate's play which was based on one of her early journalistic experiences, and the winning play which was by Charlotte Court, called 'Bus Stop 21', about a conversation between 3 women of different ages. Age, specifically youth, was a recurring theme in all the scripts, as the Theatre Royal is in the midst of a 'youth take-over' with a bunch of under-26 year olds in control, and free tickets for people under 26. The winner of tonight's Script Factor certainly looked younger than 26, and it was her first play ever read out to an audience. I think she deserved to win, as her idea was so simple and elegant. Kate's was more entertaining though... a play within a play, someone having a seizure during a sex scene, a sexist critic choking to death on a scone after being assaulted with a lucky Buddha... all good dramatic stuff... darkly humorous...

I left at about 9.30 and was home 10 minutes later. Enjoyed watching 'The Cell' on BBC4.