Sunday 21st March 10

I would have liked a lie in but no, I was up at sometime soon after 8 as there was a good deal of noise happening...

Gill walked our youngest over to the University for 9.15, as he was participating in a Drama Festival, and this morning it was a practice until 10am. Gill waited for him and walked back, getting in at 10.40.

The York School Drama Festival was due to start at 2.30pm, with tickets on sale at 2pm for those who hadn't got them through school.. we hadn't as there was some confusion whether our boy was going to go. I offered to take him down there on the bike... but then there was dissent in the ranks about who else was going to go. So I said, OK, I'll stay at home with our eldest and Gill and our youngest go.

This option caused ructions too, and the original offer was accepted. I said that I wouldn't buy the tickets for them until they arrived at the Central Hall, as I wasn't going to buy tickets for them if they didn't turn up. I bought mine... and luckily, they arrived just as the last few tickets were being sold, and therefore they did get to see the performances. I was stressed though.

I watched the first half, and enjoyed my son's school performance, which was about a missing fish.. a nice simple plot, easy to follow, with humour. There were a couple of performances which were as good as this, or better, but at least 3 were complete gobbledygook to me, I couldn't hear the performers nor could I follow the plot, and I found myself falling asleep.

I left at half time as the thought of another hour or more of this was too much to bear. I'm glad I saw my son doing his thing. I picked up some sticks and a big log on the way home, and then did washing up and tea preparation until the rest of the family came in at about 5.45. I'd prepared fried home-grown yam slices on the woodstove, and got enough boiling water to cook tagliatelle and broccoli.

I went out when they came in as the tension was too much for me. I did some stick breaking and stacking until Nick popped by, to ask my opinion on his composting experiment, which hadn't gone very well due to being put in a dustbin without drainage or ventilation, and he and I chatted in the garden for a while. He wants to get experience of building a pond, which is another project we'd like to do as there is an area of the garden which would be a good pond. So hopefully, sometime this year, we'll get that underway. Nice one Nick for offering to help.

The tea was nice.. I cooked my own tagliatelle and a red pepper rescued from the collected stuff yesterday. Filling and delicious, especially the yam rounds.

I spent an hour upstairs whilst there was a programme on TV I couldn't cope with, but came down for some good science stuff from Brian Cox exploring atmospheres.

Felt quite low this evening due to assorted factors. I feel under pressure and don't feel as if I'm getting enough done.