Thursday 29th October 09

A day with not much on the agenda apart from at midday we were due to collect our friends' son from the station, as he's come up from Leamington Spa for a couple of nights to spend time with our boys.

Also, Gill had booked her bike into Cycleworks to have the handlebars replaced.. the more or less straight ones were giving her backache, but she thought that curved ones would be easier for her. She'd asked at Cycle Heaven and they said they wouldn't do it! Weird. So she asked at Cycleworks, which is our nearest bike shop, and they said yes, and today was the day. So in the morning I cycled her bike (me on mine, holding her handlebars with my right hand, with hers freewheeling alongside) down the road and left it there. Mid afternoon, I went down and got it back. On the way back in the morning I popped into St Nicks and got my preserving pan back.

So the rest of today was filled with sorting stuff out in the garden, moving things around, digging out a compost heap, putting stuff from the small Compostumbler into that pallet bin, refilling the Compostumbler, tidying up my messy plastic bag habit, setting up the new wormery.

Then in the evening, amongst other things, I did lots of paperwork... wrote an article for a magazine, wrote a couple of important Fiddlesticks emails, made several rail times phone calls, and more.

Later on, got myself ready for a trip down to London tomorrow. I've been invited to a party and a Fiddlesticks booking. I'm using the Grand Central service on both journeys as it was the cheapest.

Monday 15th September 08

Slept well and Gill asked me to take our youngest to school as his bike was out of order, Gill had tried to sort out a new inner tube but the shop, Cycle Works, had sold her a tube that was way too thin/narrow for his chunky wheel/tyre.

Soon after I got back from school I set out for a house a bit further up Hull Road where our friend Beth is a gardener. She'd asked me to come and help dig out the compost heap so she could spread it as a mulch under the raspberries and roses. I dug out 11 barrows full and then started to turn a large heap into the vacated space. Whilst I was doing this, I was pulling on my fork to try to pull some material towards me, to make it easier to fork up and move, and I pulled the handle into my mouth by accident, splitting my top lip. I was initially worried that I'd knocked a tooth out but it was only my lip which was bleeding. After a glass of water and a two minute breather, I continued shifting the heap and justabout finished the job. Very satisfying work, pity about the accident.

Home via the bread shop and had a fairly restful afternoon before going down to school to collect our little one, who again got a lift on my bike to do the journey. When I got back I zoomed down to Cycle Heaven to sort out the inner-tube problem, and visited the Building Society to put in the cheque from the organisation which was being very slow in paying. I am so glad they've paid up as I really didn't want the hassle of taking them to court.