Friday 10 February 2012

Wednesday 23rd November 11

Well today I was due to go to donate platelets at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds... I took pears to Scoop, and spotted the preparation on Walmgate Stray to burn the big pile of brushwood which had been piled up since summer when the new fence was put in, and I'd asked the Council not to burn, but to leave as a wildlife resource.  As I cycled down to Scoop, at about 9.30 the little bulldozer was being taken out of a trailer behind a tractor, and as I cycled past again, the workmen were setting fire to the big pile of brash.  This is bad practice; if having a bonfire, it is far better to move the material to be burnt to an area near the storage pile, which may very well have got wildlife living in it.  The fire should have material added to it from the initial pile, but on Walmgate Stray, the big pile was torched in a very lazy and uncaring manner.  I was quite angry, and started composing a letter complaining about this.

I cycled on to the train station to get a bus. I had a bit of a drippy nose, but thought this might be an allergy, rather than a cold, so I decided it was OK to donate.

I donated 3 units of platelets in 67 minutes. I didn't feel that brilliant during the donation, and the staff asked me if I was well enough to donate.  However, I do get a runny nose fairly often, and have done since childhood.

Bus back, came home, flopped, and went for a lie down.

However, I needed to collect the unsold pears from Scoop, and then there was a seminar on sustainable development, organised by the University International Development Society.  The speaker was Professor Piran White, Deputy Head at the Environment Department.  It was a good overview about what sustainable development entailed.

Later, I wrote to the Press about the Council's bonfire, and copied in Andy D'Agorne, who'd been party to the discussion earlier this year.

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