Wednesday 25th January 12

A really good day, seemed to get a lot done, despite a late start, with Gill waking me up when she got in from delivering the kids to school.  She'd also popped into a city centre shop and returned some clothes she bought in October but they didn't fit, and they, amazingly took them back.  She was very pleased.

I had my breakfast and read my emails.  I got one from a representative of HotBin Composting, whom I responded to yesterday via a facebook advert.  I asked a few questions on their facebook page and told them I was interested in their product for York Rotters. I like the look of the bin as it's insulated (the plastic walls are full of air bubbles), has integral thermometers and is made in Northampton, UK.  They agreed to send a trial bin to me.... I asked whether they'd like to have it seen by loads of people (at St Nicks) or be used a lot (by me in my garden).  I was very happy to hear that they wanted to send me one AND one to St Nicks.  I look forward to trialling mine.  They seem like nice people.

Then I had lunch and sorted out a bit more stuff about the forthcoming weekend's activities, and then cycled to Fulford to see a friend, an old lady called Margaret, who frequently has squirrels bury walnuts in her garden, and they germinate... but she doesn't want walnut trees in her garden.  She'd asked me to come and dig up one sapling, about 70cm high, and an oak tree seedling... maybe 2 years old, and 20cm high, and I'd checked with St Nicks whether they wanted them, which they did.

On the way I met Valerie, the really lovely lollipop lady at Lord Deramore's, and she said she was moving as she and her husband had bought a place near Ripon, I think, and she'd be leaving her job at half term.  I am happy for her but will miss her as she's such a nice person.  I hope we can keep in touch.

So I dug up the unwanted tree seedlings and put them in a plastic bag and cycled over towards St Nicks, going via Heslington Road.  I saw lights on at Country Fresh, and so I popped my head in and said hello.  There were 4 Asian gents there, and I asked if they were taking the shop on... and great news, they are re-opening it as a greengrocers!!!! Excellent!  I told them about my previous relationship with Country Fresh and suggested that I'd be interested in continuing the situation.  They seemed happy to see me and invited me to pop in on Monday.

I called into Hazel Court to dispose of a load of plastic bottles in their recycling banks and some ferrous scrap into their metal skip. No hassle taking the stuff up to the top by bike.  Glad they're being sensible these days.

And on to St Nicks where Jonathan the Education chappie took the trees off my hands, and said he'd heel them in and plant them tomorrow, on the Mosque side of the nature reserve.

And so to home, where I had an hour before cycling down to town to work for David, who was keen to go to City Screen for a coffee and a read of The Times, before going back home to have his microwaved meal and prune juice.  I left at 7.45 and came home via a logpile.

A relaxed evening with an avocado sandwich and two veggie sausages, some telly and the computer.  Yup, a really good day.

Friday 20th January 12

Kinda mixed day, felt tired for quite a bit of it, but hardly surprising after a bad night's sleep and a very busy day.  I did however do at least two lots of washing up, jarred up two jars of apple rings and cycled round to the chemist to pick up a prescription for one of the boys.

In the afternoon I went for a coffee with Antonella and her daughter and grandson, and came back home via Freshways.

Later, before 6 I cycled into town again to meet David, who hadn't been out all day due to foul weather, and was itching to go to City Screen and meet his friend Elizabeth, who had just come back from Paris where she's been to an art exhibition and was full of tales of Matisse and Picasso. 

Richard Sheils popped in, and amongst other things, told us he was having an art exhibition at City Screen next month.

I took David home and did his meal and came back, collecting a Christmas tree I'd spotted earlier in the day.

Later in the evening, Gill persuaded me to watch Empire of the Sun with her... it was a good film.  She's seen it before and warned me that I'd find some of it upsetting, but it was worth seeing.

Wednesday 18th January 12

A pretty good day although I missed a phone call in the morning... the Co-op 'Will-Making' people that I'd asked to ring for a quote rang off just before I got to the phone.  Shame they didn't wait until the answerphone kicked in!

Never mind, it wasn't that important. I don't have the feeling I'm going to pop my clogs just yet. I will ring them sometime.  I got on with the day, Gill had gone to a felting course at the Steiner School and I bumbled around, doing a bit of housework and plenty of Scrabble and other 'net-based stuff.

Gill came back and we had lunch and as she was going to get our eldest at 5.30, I cycled with our youngest's bike to the Steiner School to pick him up, going via Alligator to collect compostables which went on the Steiner School pile to rev it up a bit.

I then did a bit of stuff outside for an hour, and then came in to get ready to go to work, getting to David's at 6.15, made him his meal and then wheeled him to the Friends' Meeting House to the YAYAS (York Architectural and Yorkshire Archaeological Society) meeting, which was on the Backhouse family of York, presented by Penelope Dawson-Brown, President of the Ancient Society of York Florists.

She spoke about 3 generations of the Backhouse family, Quakers who had a nursery in the early 1800s at Toft Green, then moved to Fishergate, then to Holgate. One of them, a James Backhouse, travelled extensively to Australia and S. Africa, spreading Quaker teachings and botanising, collaborating with Hooker, the first curator of Kew. The West Bank nursery was sold in the 1930s to the Hamiltons, who then bequeathed the land to the City of York.   The big house the Backhouses had built overlooking a gigantic rockery, built to resemble the Alps, was knocked down, and the rockery bulldozed into the lakes.  The land was used to build loads of housing, and the open space left became West Bank Park.  There was a wonderful slide-show, of really old photographs, one showing Holgate Windmill in the distance.  This is a bit of York's history which isn't very well known, and I think it probably needs better documentation.


I took David home, we got our diaries up to date with some future work days, and I cycled home via a logpile.

Friday 4th January 13

Another good day, as it was mild and dry, so I did some more work on the big willow tree, and removed another two big branches, and then pruned them down at ground level.

In the afternoon I bombed down to town to get a cheque out for Yell. And my new website is ready to go live.  It needs just a couple of tweaks.... and my professorfiddlesticks.co.uk URL directing to it.

The other good thing was the Residents Weekend pamphlet was published and the Towards a Sustainable York 2013 event is in it!  Hooray!

At 6.30 I arrived at David's again and I took him to City Screen, just did an hour and a half.

In the evening I worked on tomorrow's 'fracking' talk in Malton.

Friday 13th January 12

A late start as Gill got the kiddies up and off to school and did her stint in the school shop.  I was woken by a phone call at about 10am but it rang off and there wasn't a number left for me to phone back.  I got several more silent calls, before the scammers got through saying they were aware my Micro$oft Windoze computer was underperforming.  I told them I don't use Microsoft or Windows, and told them politely to remove my number from their database.    I got phoned by these scammers a while ago and they ask for a card payment to sort out your system... which of course has nothing wrong with it (well, thinking about it, if it's Windows, it probably has!)

So I got on with assorted online nonsense and interspersed this with assorted housework until Gill came in.  I got a genuine booking phone call for an event on my birthday in May, and another which I couldn't fulfil as I'll be at the Little Green Gathering.

After 5 I got ready to go to work, got to David's at 6 and he asked to go to City Screen, where I got him his coffee and I had a mocha, and Dave Taylor came to join us and we chatted about travel, since Dave is going on a short break.

I then took David back and got him his evening meal, and left just before 8pm, collecting a sack of tomatoes and other unsold stuff from Freshways on the way home.  This meant that at midnight, I made a wholesome soup out of two onions, a small leek, about 20 large tomatoes and some Marmite.  That'll mean Gill doesn't have to think about cooking tomorrow, when I'm in Manchester.

Friday 6th January 12

More paper shuffling in the morning, then went to town after lunch to have my teeth cleaned and polished, and went to my Building Society to shuffle yet more paper, to Dixons to ask what might be wrong with the phone, and then on to Alligator to pick up their compostables and buy some peanut butter.

When I got home, the phone was mysteriously working again.  Very odd.

I did a little bit of log splitting and stacking.

I had an early tea... soup with vegetables in, and then headed for David's where we went for a coffee at City Screen.  Thee was no-one there that David knew to talk to, so we read papers and came away in less than an hour, and I left his place at 7.30, and came home via a logpile.

Tuesday 20th December 11

My first Pantomime!

David has been going to see pantomimes since he was a child, and he goes to see the York one every year. So this year he organised tickets to go with Carolyn and her grandchildren.

I was lucky enough to be asked to be his personal assistant.  Thus, I got to see my first panto!

It was 'The York Family Robinson'.  The plot was less important than the traditional content that pantomimes have built up.  Berwick Kaler is the regular 'pantomime dame', and this was his 33rd year. He also writes and directs.

I was unaware of all of the traditions beforehand... I knew the audience participation with answering back 'he's behind you' and the like, but not all of them.... which I looked up later in the day.

I did enjoy it, to some extent.  I liked the way it was made, and liked it that lots of people were having a really good time.  David enjoyed it, so that was the most important thing for me.

Wednesday 14th December 11

I slept later than I really wanted to... I have on the previous several Wednesdays taken pears into Scoop for 10am, or soon after.  However, today, I hadn't collected the pears together the previous day, and I got up late too... so I got some pears from some I've got stored in the garden, and took a tray-full in at 11.30.  I bought a tub of peanut butter as we've run out.

I came back via a large pile of leaves and collected a dumpy bag full, which I brought back on my trailer, and added these to my leafmould enclosure.  I did a little bit of work down the garden, sorting out an empty pallet compost bin which had collapsed.

Then, due to worsening weather, I came in and focused on editing a 'guest blog' which someone had emailed me about.  The idea is that I publish an article on something, which has a link to a website, and get a small payment for it.  I get a lot of offers to do this but this one, on wood-burning stoves, is the first one I've said yes to.  I get a lot of really unsuitable offers, nothing to do with anything I'm interested in, or low carbon living.  However, this one looks good... and I edited together two articles, adding my own stuff too, and then emailed it back to the chap who sent it to me, and now await his decision.

I also wrote a 'note' on facebook about a study design I have been thinking about which I think would ascertain whether homoeopathic remedies work.  This stems from a discussion with a good friend who's into complementary and alternative therapies, and said that you couldn't test homoeopathy in a scientific manner.  I'm also interested as a few years ago, I knew someone who consulted a homoeopath about her bi-polar disorder. The homoeopath advised her to stop taking her medication and start with homoeopathic remedies instead, and a couple of days later, my friend had committed suicide.  I don't know the name of the homoeopath who did this, and if I had done, I would have reported them to the police as I hold them partly responsible for my friend's death.  I also accept that my friend was partly responsible as she'd listened to the homoeopath and done as they had suggested.  As far as I'm concerned, homoeopathy is based on 3 illogical and unscientific 'laws'... and is no more than a placebo.  I'm a huge fan of placebos, they often work really well!

I also dealt with an enquiry, from a chap in Leeds who runs Leeds Green Drinks.  Next month he's running a Yorkshire Green Laughs event, with a comedian, and he asked me to help with publicity, as I run the York Green Drinks facebook group.  I told him I'd be willing to do some entertainment too, and have got myself a gig.... no fee, but it's exposure, which is great, and I get my train fare paid!

Later, I went out to collect unsold pears, and then to town to see David and take him to YAYAS.

Wednesday 7th December 11

So, got up soon after 8 and got stuff together for Scoop... I finished washing out several more 340g jars and put them to dry on the stove top, and then filled them tightly with a mixture of dried pears off the top of the stove (moist and chewy) and some out of bigger jars which are slightly drier and even more chewy.  I got a tray full of ripe pears from the store I have in the garden and carefully loaded it up onto my trailer.  Gill wrote out some labels for the jars.

I gingerly and slowly cycled up to the University and delivered the pears.  I've a feeling some of the fresh ones will be rejected as over-ripe.

I came home and immediately cycled up to Blacker Steel in Osbaldwick, where I knew I'd be able to get my trailer welded up again.  They did it before... a 5 minute arc-weld, and this time, again, one chap said 'no problem' and within 5 minutes had sorted it, and sprayed the weld with some protective 'galv-spray' to stop it rusting.  Excellent service, no nonsense, friendly.

It was chucking it down, sleeting, when I cycled home so I came in and didn't do any work in the garden.  I do have more log stacking to do, but not in this weather!

I retrieved a load of pears from the studio, and sorted these out, loading up two racks, and getting some pears ready to make some pear leather.  At about 5.30 I cycled in to the University again to pick up the unsold pears, and yes, there were some as I'd expected, as this batch contained some which were rather soft.

I went on to David's, where I was due to do a 6-8 shift.  I took him to City Screen, as requested, where we had a coffee, he read the paper and we chatted with a student nurse called Rachel.

I finished at 7.30, after doing his food, and bombed home, not worrying about the integrity of the pears which had already bounced around and released some juice.

I finished the pear leather job in the evening, halved, cored and skinned, washed and all the soft 'sleepy' bits removed, then whizzed a saucepan full of these with the hand-held liquidiser, put the slop through a sieve, to remove the stony bits which abound in Winter pears.  I filled two trays with slop, as I've run out of space in the freezer, and balanced them on the stoves.

I also really enjoyed David Attenborough's Frozen Planet, about the climatic changes at the polar regions. 

Wednesday 30th November 11

Up bright and early to take pears into Scoop. After which I collected some logs and did some good work in the garden, mainly taking last year's leafmould out of its wire cage and bagging it up in sacks.  The chicken wire cage was then empty, and ready to refill with the sacks of leaves I've collected over the past few weeks.

I discovered a couple of patches of very large fungi which I couldn't immediately identify.  They were growing out of the base of one of my humanure compost bins, so no wonder they were so big, all those nutrients!

I came in as the light faded and at about 5 started cooking tea as Gill and the boys were due to be late in due to congestion in town.  I made a rice dish... 2 onions and a leek in the wok, and some carrot cut into little sticks.  When that was all soft, I added rice and boiling water, and when the rice was nearly cooked, a tin of kidney beans and some reclaimed cherry tomatoes.  The family came in at 6.  I served the food but the rice could have been cooked for another 5 minutes... it was long-grain brown rice which needs a good 25 minute boil... however, both children said they really liked it 'al dente' and I was pleased they ate it all up.

At 6.20 I got a phone call from David... whoops, I was supposed to have been at his place at 6, but I'd forgotten.  I quickly bombed down to Scoop to collect my empty pear tray, and on to town where I got to David's at 6.45.

We went to City Screen where David met one of his old friends, Lotte's Mum, Janette, and I chatted to Janette's friend Sue.  However, we didn't spend a long time there and we got back home at about 8, I got him his food and we worked out the November hours, and I got a cheque.

Due to the large numbers of people in town today, there were lots of aluminium cans to be collected... I think I should go and cash them in soon!

Wednesday 16th November 11

Woken by shouting.... a bit of a to-do about whether or not to take some dried fruit to school. However, I got up and slowly got myself together and got the pears ready that I need to take to Scoop.

I set out just before 10 with the pears very carefully packed in a box with special moulded cardboard which would hopefully stop them bouncing around and getting damaged.  I'd agreed to help at the People and Planet allotment at 10.30 with my big riddle, as a compost heap needed digging out, so I carefully placed this on the trailer and the pear box on top of this, giving it extra cushioning and suspension!

The pears arrived at Scoop in perfect condition, and the lovely Phoebe took them off me and I zoomed off, pearless, to the lottie, and found two students there who were more than willing to help dig and riddle the entire heap. We removed loads of 'contraries', mostly bits of plastic, but also wire, spoons, glass and other rubbish.  A neighbouring lottie holder gave us some parsnips, which was kind.  Mature compost often seems to have lots of contraries in it... this is because it is very easy to accidentally put a bit of plastic or some cutlery into the compostables, and then when this rots down and reduces in volume by 90%, the numbers of contraries seem to be 10 times as numerous, and they're easier to see as the mature compost is uniform, and the contraries stick out.  However, this compost was especially bad and full of uncompostable bits.  We did a lot of hand-picking.

I got back home via Country Fresh and in time for lunch.

I had a fairly quiet and frustrating afternoon, trying to work out how I can cheaply get to Bristol, and I can't.  My visit might not happen, or might be put off til after Xmas.

I took David to the Friends Meeting House in the evening for a YAYAS meeting.  Tonight it was a fascinating look at the Magnesium Limestone area of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, and how mapping it shows where the different pre-Roman tribes were, and some information about how they lived.  Ian Roberts, from West Yorkshire Archaeological service, told us about crop marks, barrows, henges, chariot burials, brickwork field patterns, and how quarries are good for archaeologists!  We both enjoyed the talk, as it was new information for both of us.

Thursday 10th November 11

I was due to go to donate platelets today but I woke up sneezing and with a runny nose, so I rang and cancelled, as they like you to be well, and I just wasn't feeling like it.

However, I felt better during the day, and did some composting and chainsawing, and at 6 went to work with David, and we went out to City Screen, where we had half an hour of peace and quiet, then we were joined by Geoff Beacon, and his and David's mutual friend Alec, who was an interesting chap.

I left David's at 8 and visited a logpile on the way home, coming back with a good load on my trailer.

Thursday 3rd November 11

Quite a good day... although it started badly with a lot of teenage shouting downstairs, and I had to get up quickly and jump on my bike before eating breakfast and cycle to school with our youngest, who is an excellent cyclist but not yet completely comfortable crossing the one difficult road on his journey to school.  I gave him a couple of suggestions about how this could be made easier and safer, but did go all the way to school with him, and came back via a good big logpile I've discovered.

I enjoyed breakfast.  A lot.  Lovely home-made muesli.  Gill put the washing machine on last night and when she opened it, the stuff was still wet and hadn't washed.  She tried to make the machine work and it just wouldn't.  It has been misbehaving for months.... which isn't surprising as it is over 20 years old.  We'd already done some research about washing machines when it started preparing to die, but now was the time to finish that research and make a decision.  Despite being broke.

So, I rang the Co-op electrical people and bought a £400 washing machine.  It will be delivered tomorrow.  It's an A+++ rated one.

I worked for David at 6pm.

Sunday 30th October 11

I had a quiet morning, keeping out of the way of Gill and the boys who were getting ready to go to Sheffield, to stay with their grandparents, see their Uncle Thomas and their cousins, and take part in Sheffield's 'Fright Night'. I had already agreed to work for David tonight, so I couldn't go.

Also, I was feeling lousy.  A running nose, sneezing, blocked sinuses.  So I had a very sedentary day, and during the afternoon, I decided that I should tell David that I wasn't well enough to work.  However, his phone wasn't answered, so I kept trying.  He still wasn't answering at 5.40, and I became worried that something had happened to him, so whether I was poorly or not, I had to cycle in to see him.
The cycle ride made me feel somewhat better, and when I arrived at David's I wasn't feeling like going home, although I told David that if he wanted me to go I would.  However, he was happy for me to take him to the William Temple Association talk, and he had a nice time. 

Friday 28th October 11

A really excellent day.  I was woken up just before 10 which gave me about 45 minutes to get ready and out of the house to get to work.  Quick breakfast and emails, gathered jugglestuff together, Gill plaited my hair and I left with all my work equipment at 10.45 to get to the station for a train soon after 11, as I was being met at midday in Leeds.

Nice conversation on the train with a couple from Darlington, heading for Stockport, which made the journey go quickly and I was in Leeds by 11.50.  Paul from Middleton Park met me at the back of the station and took me to the usual place, the building in Middleton Park which is due to be knocked down soon and a new centre built, hopefully by next summer!

This gig they'd booked me for was not well advertised, as they'd got some extra funding quite recently to put on kids events during this half-term, so it didn't go out in their usual literature, but was on their website, in the papers and on the radio.  So at 1pm, when I was all dressed up and ready to entertain, a family group of 4 wandered in.  And then a few more.  There can't have been more than 20 people there all day, but several of them worked really hard with the circus skills, and I got nearly everybody, including grown-ups, having a go with the flower sticks owned by Middleton Park, and with some juggling too.  It was a very successful event, because of the amount of one-to-one teaching and other interaction.  I really enjoyed it, despite not following my usual routine.  3pm soon came and I helped tidy up and by quarter-past, I was in Paul's car heading for the station again.

I soon got a train to York and was home by 4.45.  I had planned to do some stuff in the garden before going to work for David, but I had to do some sorting out about the gig tomorrow in Ashton Under Lyne.  I'd got a provisional booking for an event there back in July, and as usual, just put the contact name and phone number in my diary, and waited for confirmation.  Nothing came, so I left it as I don't tend to chase people until I need to.... either when I get someone else wanting me on the same day, or as the date get nearer, to check that the client still wants me.  Well this person was playing hard to get.... a phone number with either an answerphone, or engaged.  And then they left a garbled message on my answerphone with no phone number to ring and a very indistinct email address which neither Gill or I could work out what letters were being said.  However, this evening, the client rang and I spoke to him!  Hooray!  Except he cancelled the booking.  He sounded shifty about what had happened... first saying he'd booked me and the event was going ahead, then saying he'd booked another entertainer, then saying the event was cancelled.  I have no idea what the truth was, but I'd rather not work for someone so disorganised, and, to my mind, untruthful.  It would have been far better if he'd said that he had made a mistake, which is what I think the truth was.

So then I went to work and got to David's on the dot of 6pm.  We had a little chat and then I took him to City Screen, and after that to the Envisions light show (Illuminating York) which was at the Castle Museum.  This was mindblowing, really good.  Neither of us expected it to be so powerful and enjoyable.  We got a really good place right in the centre, and saw the whole sequence right from the start.

I got him back to his place and made some food and was finished by 8.10.  I rang Gill to suggest that if one or both of the boys were ready to go out with me when I got back, I'd take them to see the show.  I was really pleased that our eldest was up for this, so I got his bike and we went the quiet way down to the Eye of York and waited about 10 minutes for the show to get to the change over time, and took our blanket thing and sat down right in the middle, at the front.  It was well worth it.  Here's one YouTube video of it, but there are plenty of others.

Friday 21st October 11

Had a lie-in til after 9 which was good, came downstairs to a very quiet house as Gill had gone to a meeting with other Steiner shop volunteers.  I had nothing happening until Marion came round with the fruit press and a good load of spare apples, which I'll give to Olly as a thank you for re-engineering the malfunctioning O-ring thing on the top of the screw-thread.

Marion chatted to me about her plans for an Apple Day at her church next year, and paid me the hire fee for the apple press yesterday, and sampled some dried fruit, and had a quick tour down the garden.

When she'd gone I messaged Olly to find out when he'd be able to pick the press etc up, and it'll be tomorrow, so I put it all away.  It needed a bit more cleaning, which I did with the watering can.

I took the wheel off the wheelbarrow as it has become deflated, and brought it in and re-inflated it... no sign of a puncture, so I put it back on and took a load of stuff down to the compost heaps.

Before work I popped down to Country Fresh, did some shopping and brought back a trailer-load of recycling, then got cleaned up and went to see David for 6pm.  I took him to City Screen and we met Trish and one of her friends, and Elizabeth, and Dave Taylor gave me some fliers for the forthcoming Green Party fundraiser.

We didn't spend that long at City Screen and when we got back to David's house, I made him his meal and drinks and got away for 7.45, and zoomed over to Peter's for a York in Transition Thermal Imaging Camera meeting.  We looked through our Awards For All application for funding and decided a few things about that.  I'm expecting to proof read it in the next few days, before it goes to Barry Graham as it's in his name.

Gill had made a stew and a lovely loaf, so that's what I had for tea at about 9pm when I got in.  

Thursday 20th October 11 Apple Day at Dringhouses School

A very satisfying but tough day.  I woke at 7 after less than 5 hours sleep and got myself ready, with the screw thread part and the spare ratchet bolt, and a couple of sacks of small apples which I'd either been given or foraged from somewhere, and some good examples of Bramley's Seedling and James Grieve to put on an example table, and set off at 7.50.

Gill left earlier, by bus (using a family day rover ticket) with both boys to the station, where she dropped our eldest off as he was having a school trip to London, and then on another bus to the Steiner School to drop off our youngest, and a bus back to the station where she got a train to Leeds to see her sister who's broken a bone in her hand so she wanted to go and see her.  Funny how injury brings out the best in people!

I arrived at Dringhouses Primary School at about 8.20 and helped move stuff into the hall where the press was already set up.  The children and their families had brought LOADS of apples in.... It looked like we'd never get through them.  There were two mums who were chopping the apples in half and checking for soft brown rot (which contains a toxin called patulin and shouldn't be put in to make apple juice, but is OK for cider as I think it's destroyed by fermentation.)  I started the first grinding and at 8.50 we had our first class... and I managed to do a full press full and got quite a few jugs of juice for them to try, just half a cup each at first, and then a top-up for those who liked it, which was most of them.

During the day I worked with 10 classes and did a grind and press for each class.  I imagine I got approximately 15 litres of juice out of each pressing, as the press can hold 36 litres of pulp.  As I did the grinding, the children came in twos to see the machine, as it has impressive toothed rollers which 'eat' or 'kill' the halved apples.  The smaller children stood on a little platform to see into the hopper.  As I was expressing the juice, they were able to ask questions, most of which I could answer.

We supplied apple juice to the kitchen staff, and in return they gave us a poached egg sandwich.  At midday I went for a little walk to the school nature reserve, a small woodland with a scratty little pond, two compost piles and a ring of chopped logs to sit on, amongst a few trees.  I ate my sandwiches here and came back to school to get on with another grind and press, to supply apple juice for people to have with their lunch.

In the afternoon I did a load more, finishing just before 3pm, and then taking the equipment out into the playground, where someone would hopefully clean it up. One of the dads helped me carry it to near a hose, where I left it.

During the day I'd received a text from Pauline, one of David's PA's, asking me whether I could take him to a lecture this evening, as she had a bad cold.  And when I got home, there was a phone message from one of the Stables Staff offering to pick up our eldest from the station, so that meant I could say yes to working for David.

So I didn't have long before I was going out again and got to his place on the dot of 5.30pm.  We had our usual evening... lovely.

Sunday 16th October 11

Another good day.... did a successful if quite difficult gig and then had an interesting evening out with David.

So, the party was in Bishopthorpe at 2pm, so I set out at about 1.20 and got there at 1.45, got set up and over 40 children piled in and excitedly ran round and round, noisy and, well, as you would expect of 5 and 6 year olds.

The party went pretty much as expected, apart I had to be more strict than I like, as they were very excitable and restless, and then when I demonstrated the 4 wheel unicycle, one axle broke.  I must remember to take a spare in case that happens.  It didn't detract too much from the party and, actually, meant we finished that part of the show on time.  Birthday tea took quite a bit longer than average, leaving only 25 minutes for the balloon modelling, which usually takes 30 to 45 minutes, so I had to cut that short at the end.

Anyway, several parents said that it was a good party, and one requested a business card, and by 4.25 I was away, heading for home.

I didn't have long, though, before going out to David's, as he was going to a lecture at St John's University, held by the William Temple Association. The talk was by Gill Martin, who amongst other things works at The Haven Project in Hull and Solace in Leeds.

She spoke about the different sorts of refugees and asylum seekers... those who have been smuggled, and those who are trafficked.  They include families and lone children/minors, and come from the Congo, Zimbabwe, Eastern Europe (eg. Kossovo) and more recently, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. They face a number of stresses, including what they've left behind (maybe war, religious persecution), the journey and what they've experienced once here in the UK, where they may have been used as slaves or prostitutes, and may be having difficulties with racism, the cold weather, unfamiliar food, language, isolation and poor housing.

York did not put itself forward to take refugees in 2000 when the Government decided to locate them in other parts of the UK.  Hull, Sheffield, Leeds, Huddersfield all did, but York does now have some and therefore we now have Refugee Action York as well as YUMI.  Gill Martin works with various organisations, and provides counselling and psychotherapy, support and advice.

The talk was very illuminating, and shocking, and there was a bit of interesting discussion afterwards.  Following this there was a short Christian service called Compline, with prayers rattled off like nursery rhymes... I didn't know any of them or the format of the service.  So, a fascinating evening, and David enjoyed it a lot.

I took him home and soon after 9.30 I left, and headed to Walmgate Stray, where the People and Planet students were having a little bonfire.  I chatted with several of them, and showed them the whereabouts of the pile of brash the Council has said they're going to burn, and brought a few branches over for their bonfire.

I spent about an hour there and went soon after 10.30, and was up til well after 2 doing assorted things, including fruit and washing up.

Thursday 13th October 11

A good day, got up just before Gill went out, and I got quite a bit of writing done, and also took a phone call from a good friend who's going through some difficult times.  I got a letter from All Saints Hall in Poppleton with the invoice for the replacement of the window pane I put my hand through during the party there on 18th September.  That will cost £40.  I have to decide whether that's a business expense or not!

I did a lot of washing up and jarred up loads of apples and pears.

At about 4.30 I headed off to town to meet another friend who I haven't managed to have a chat to for ages (outside of committee meetings anyway) and I had a hot chocolate with him; he too is going through some difficult personal times but trying to remain positive.  At 6 I went along to David's and after a bit of chat, he asked to be taken to City Screen and we had a coffee and read papers, chatted to a few people, and spent an hour there.  I took him back home and made him his evening meal, drinks and left at 8pm.

Cycled up to Andreas' house and we talked about the management of York in Transition and the current project, the Thermal Imaging Camera.

I got back home after 10pm and was up til after 2am, as usual.

Sunday 9th October 11

Yay!  A lie in til after 10am, which was a real treat!  I watched most of Country Tracks and did assorted stuff on the computer, and in the afternoon did a lot of compost clearance, as stuff has been piling up, and I've been too busy to deal with it.

At 5.30 I got myself sorted to go and work for David, arriving at 5.50 and than taking him to City Screen.  We had a jolly time, very social.