Wednesday 17th November 10

Well a traumatic start to the morning but both children did go to school and this allowed us to get on with a variety of paperwork-type things, despite feeling stressed, tiredness and having a headache. I wrote and sent an invoice,  received a cheque for the Pickering Transition event, and got the paperwork through for a series of 5 gigs as Father Christmas in Dewsbury and Huddersfield.  I don't really enjoy being Santa Claus, although the excited kiddies wouldn't know that as I remain professional and do my very best.  For me, being Professor Fiddlesticks doesn't actually seem like work most of the time, as I genuinely enjoy myself, and Fiddlesticks is more the real me than John Cossham is.  But acting as Saint Nicholas is tough, it is definitely work, not play.  I'd rather not get offered more Father Christmas gigs, unless the money is very good, which in these cases, it isn't.  But I'm in a situation where I cannot afford to turn down any paid work, so I look forward to the eventual cheque and will ensure that I work hard and do a good job.

So, once I'd done some of this paperwork, and dealt with a sales phone call as politely as possible, I did some outside work... a load of chainsawing, collecting the final load of logs from the Millfield Lane house and processing them, and at 4, I cycled round to Beryl the Freecycler in Heworth, who had offered a pair of size 9 steel toe cap wellington boots, and I went to try them on.  They fitted me perfectly and she was happy to give them to me.  On the way back I got a heavy wooden pallet.  I also collected one sack of fallen beech leaves from a nearby tree, and added these to the leafmould pile.

The boys came back having had a good day at school which was a relief.

In the evening I did a big pan of stewed apple, using the tasty cooking apples from our garden, and Gill made a celery soup which was really nice.  Later on in the evening my headache went away, probably due to a second dose of paracetamol.  I enjoyed the last of the 3 programmes on the National Grid... a fascinating subject.