Friday 22nd July 11

A fairly nothingy day, but Gill and I got our accounts from 2010-11 finished.  My income has gone down again.  In a recession, kids entertainers are one of the first things which get cut.

In the afternoon, I bombed into town on my bike.... stopped at Country Fresh to pick up a huge load which I repacked, much to Shirley's amazement, and got it all into the trailer and a box of old plants on the rack, including some onions which I might plant out.

From here I went to Cycle Heaven, where I got a receipt re-issued from March this year, to put into the accounts.  I'd paid a large bill by cheque, and hadn't got the receipt to prove that I'd spent that money.  Cycle Heaven were happy to oblige.

Then to the station. where I used the machine to get the tickets I bought yonks ago for our summer holiday. I called in to Clarks in Coppergate, as Gill had suggested, and found the reduced price sandals.  I quickly found a pair which had originally been £50 and were now £30.  I hate shopping so I tried them on and bought them... no point of trying to get  a cheaper or better pair; these will do.

Then I came home, stopping at Freshways for just one of two sacks they had for me... I couldn't get the second on the trailer as it was already overloaded with about 100kg on.

So I came home and loaded the wheelbarrow, and took a load down to the Compostumbler which I emptied a day or two ago.  I went to investigate a mature heap, and disturbed it... and a wasp's nest in it.  They came out and attacked me; I ran as fast as I could and shook most of them off, but got several stings, including some under my clothing, which was horrible.  I got one on the top of my head, one on my arm and in my armpit, one on my leg and one in my groin.  It was horrible... although I don't dislike wasps and am happy for them to have nests in the garden, I prefer not to get stung.

I didn't come in immediately, but did a bit more work before tea... Gill had made some rice and veg, with home grown beans in, lovely!

Did some washing up before bed, and took some antihistamine to see if I could make the swelling go down a bit.

Was pleased to see that this blog has had 50,000 hits since September 2008, according to my Bravenet counter widget.

Monday 19th July 10

No lie in as the phone rang and woke me. But I'd got quite a bit to do so I got up.

I first worked out the train times to Harrogate and the whereabouts of the Cedar Court Hotel, as I've got my first RSA meeting tonight. I used Googlemaps to pinpoint the hotel, and drew a basic map on the back of an envelope so I could walk from the station to the hotel.

Gill was doing accounts, and we worked together on this task, mainly me interpreting scrawls in the diary! She asked me to tell her how much I'd earned selling compost, so I looked through the diary and marked things there, but also needed to check my blog, to see how much has been taken to Country Fresh, so I spent quite a long time checking this blog for any mention of taking compost down to the shop, and started listing these loads plus other compost sales. I've done April, May and June. OK, 3/4 of the year to go!!! I had two Fiddlesticks letters to deal with and one phone call. I spent most of the day doing this, until 3pm when I got dressed and had an hour and a half in the garden.

But at 4.30ish I came in as my train was at 5.17, in order to get me to Harrogate by the 6.30 meeting start time. I took a sandwich with me to eat on the train and chatted with a chap who works for the people doing the 'Scores On The Doors' website which tell users of catering establishments how good the place is from the perspective of the local authority hygiene inspectors.

When I got to Harrogate it was raining and I followed my map, but unfortunately the Googlemap had the hotel in the wrong place, and I had several minutes of being confused before retracing my steps and asking a local where the Cedar Court Hotel was. So I found it and there were already quite a few Fellows there.

I said hello and went to get a drink, a pint bottle of pear cider was a whopping £4.50, very expensive. I won't be drinking there again! The meeting was good, met some interesting people, quite a selection, although most (all but one, I think!) were older than me. We had time to chat and move around, then the facilitator, Marion Simon, introduced a gentleman who wanted to float an idea to have a regular meeting in a Community Cafe in Harrogate, to attract young people to make a difference and perhaps get better employment possibilities. He also mentioned about promoting low carbon lifestyles and low carbon businesses, which made me take more notice. I said I might be interested in getting involved to some extent, and suggested that the Transition process might be a good one to look at for inspiration. No-one in the group had heard of Transition Towns... I was flabbergasted!

There was a bit of discussion and a few more ideas floated, and then it kind of drifted into the end of the meeting, with no real way forward other than the suggestion of doing 'something' at this cafe. I look forward to the notes being sent out to see if I had a 'petit-mal' and missed a whole chunk of the meeting somehow!

A few people wanted to chat to me afterwards so I must have made some kind of good impression, a chap who knows Edward Harland and another who's about to get involved with the Credit Union.

I was offered a lift to the station in a posh car which was going in that direction anyway so I accepted.

Uneventful train trip home, nice cycle home, and during the evening I contacted both Googlemaps and the Cedar Court Hotel people about the inaccuracies in their map.

When I went on my blog to write up the day, I noticed that today I've passed the 30,000 visitors mark with the Bravenet Counter thingy I installed in 2008! Amazing. Thank you to all visitors who've enjoyed reading my diary.

Thursday 28th January 10

Up relatively early compared to recent days, and by 10 was doing housework and being busy. A bit later in the morning I went to do some work in the garden, which was lovely as the sun was shining. I did more of the annual bramble pruning and some more compost heap construction.

Gill had an appointment in town so I went to our youngest son's class assembly, where the class puts on a little play or show. I didn't realise that my lad was the compere! He introduced the 3 different groups (Eboracum Romans 2000 years ago, Georgian ladies and today's schoolkids) and at a couple of intervals he helped explain the plot. He has a lovely clear voice and did it with confidence. I was really proud of him. But then he wanted to go to drama club, and be picked up at 4pm. So I cycled back home, did half an hour's sawing with the bowsaw, and cycled back. We then walked home together, which was nice.

I did a little more outdoor work but had a Fiddlesticks enquiry, and some interesting emails to deal with. Catherine from York Rotters started a facebook page for York Rotters, which is great, and I invited lots of my friends to join that. I also saw that my blog counter had gone past 20,000, which is pretty amazing. That's since Sept 08.

We had a small tea, Gill had made some rissoles with the rice from yesterday and she made 'burgers' with them, one each in a roll. Bits and bobs of salad, was very nice.

So, during the evening I had a lot of computery work to do, I did this whilst half-watching the TV and keeping the stove going as it has gone cold again. Brrrrrr.....

Monday 17th November 08

Woke at 3am with headache. Went downstairs for a lemsip (paracetamol) and put a log on the stove, and 10 mins later did a batch of washing up whilst waiting for the lemsip to kick in. Back to bed at 3.45 and slept til 8 when shouting downstairs awoke me. I went down to see if Gill needed any help... it was just our youngest being mightily resistant to putting on his socks and shoes! We all have our quirks, and he hates footwear..., putting on a sock and then off again, and on again, trying to get it 'just right'. Takes about 5 or 10 minutes per foot.....

When they'd gone I had breakfast and then went back to bed, with another lemsip to help me get better... I hope.

But nothing worked, headache all day, spent most of the day in bed. Gill is calling it 'Flu' but I don't think it is as Flu is a different set of symptoms and I had a Flu jab, so if it is Flu then it's a weird one.

The only good thing about today was that I got through quite a backlog of NewScientists! Oh, and a surprise visit from Damian and David, Gill's friends from the Arts Centre, who are back in York. Lovely to see them, but couldn't socialise much as feeling too poorly.

And I finished writing my column for Community Care, on reuse and repair plus Buy Nothing Day, which this year is on Saturday 29th November, just two days after the magazine comes out.

Spent some time trying to update Windows and when I got back on this blog, found my Bravenet Counter and Feedjit live stuff had gone... more than weird! However, my email to Feedjit was answered by Mark Maunder, the CEO/inventor of the tool, and he told me that the Live stats thingy was loading after the Bravenet counter, which was taking about 3 minutes. Also he explained a possible reason why the location/geographic database might be doing weird things, and told me he was developing a tool to allow users to confirm where they were. So that explains some of the weirdness...

Took bathwater up for our youngest and put the refilled can straight back on the stove so I could have one later, as if I'm going to try to go to work tomorrow, I might as well be clean but unwell rather than dirty and unwell...