Friday 8th July 11

Quite an odd day.

I had arranged to do a children's party in the afternoon near Bishopthorpe, but when discussing this I realised I had a platelets donation appointment in the morning.  So what we agreed was that I'd cycle my kit to the venue and then walk over to the bus stop on Tadcaster Road, go to Leeds, donate platelets, come back, walk back to the other side of the Racecourse and then do the party.

Well it didn't work out quite as planned... I left home at about 9.15 and got to my client's house within 20 minutes.  There was no-one around, so I put my bike and trailer in the marquee in the garden and walked over to Tadcaster Road, which took about half an hour I think.  There was a bus stop near the top of Middlethorpe Drive, and I had less than 10 minutes to wait until the bus at 10.18.

Some nice Polish visitors on the bus, and we were soon in Seacroft where it was just starting to rain, but I got to the Blood Donor Centre before it tipped it down.  All went smoothly until the nurse put the needle into my vein to let the blood flow into the centrifuge, and it hurt a bit, which is unusual, as usually it's not uncomfortable at all.

The machine started doing it's pumping and whatnot... and when it got to the returning my blood minus platelets, the nurse noticed a bit of swelling around the needle area, and it became obvious that the pressure of the return had ruptured my vein and some blood was getting into my tissues.  It might have been that when the needle went in, the wall of the vein had got damaged, but impossible to say.  The procedure was stopped, amid sincere apologies.  I invited them to try the other arm but no, they didn't want to do that, or weren't allowed or something.

So I was given a leaflet about bruising and told to have a drink and sit down for a few minutes before leaving.  I was asked to come back in 8 weeks, which would give my arm plenty of time to recover.

Back to the bus, which came in 10 minutes, and I was soon back in York, £6 poorer and nothing to show on my donor record for it.  I walked back over the racecourse through the woods and arrived at the party venue soon after 1pm.  I had a bit to eat with the other guests and at 2 got changed so I could do my show at about 2.30, in the marquee in their garden.  We were lucky to have this, as a thunderstorm arrived, with heavy rain which was so loud on the roof that it was quite difficult to do the show at times. However, the 6 year old birthday boy and his friends all had a good time, and the adults enjoyed it too.

Whilst the cake was being 'done' I blew up plenty of balloons for the second show, which again went as expected, and was fun for all concerned.  Some lovely feedback from children and their parents at the end.  And a cheque from the lad's mother.

I changed and cycled off at about 4.30 and was back home exhausted by 5pm. I took all the circus gear off the trailer and put the bike away, and came in to relax for a while.  Gill microwaved a potato which I had with the last of the nutloaf.

I did an hour in the garden after this, chopping up some comfrey for putting on top of the soil in the planters of tomatoes in the conservatory.  I did a few other jobs too, before it got too dark to do any more.

And another late night, writing, chatting, sorting out my things for the weekend ahead.