Sunday 13th November 11

Another goodly day; although woken by a phone call soon after 9, from Rob in Robin Hood's Bay, confirming my performances for the Victorian Weekend.

But I'm glad I got up as I had a relaxing morning before going to work in Haxby, I set off soon after 1pm, in costume, and cycled the 5 and a half miles to the Memorial Hall which was the venue for the party.  The 4 year old boy (about to turn 5 on Wednesday) was very excited, and had invited his whole class.

So about 25 children turned up, with them about 30 grown ups who nearly all stayed! So there was a fabulous audience and we had a really good show.  I really enjoyed it, and the balloon workshop went well too, with lots of adults getting involved in that.

I managed to finish on time... just... and soon got packed up and left.  I decided to visit someone in Wigginton whom I bought a unicycle from a few years ago... and they had emailed me months ago to ask if I wanted to buy another.  Their son had gone through a unicycle phase and out the other end, so there was a spare uni available.  I will probably pass this on to the Steiner School who are setting up a circus school.

So I came home with 3 unicycles on my trailer.  Once I'd got unloaded, I did very little during the rest of the evening, apart from some more pears, some washing up, and watched The Secret Millionaire on Channel 4.  It is a brilliant concept, and the end part of the programme makes me tearful without fail.

Thursday 7th July 11

Well a generally relaxed day, culminating in a fabulous gig in a youth club.

I got up slowly and gently and didn't need to do much during the morning, apart from reading and some computery stuff.

Gill went out with our eldest to Leeds to meet a friend who home-schools her son.

I dealt with the corn on the cobs and made a nutloaf so Gill didn't have to cook when she came in at 4pm.

At 3 I set out for school, with our youngest's bike on the trailer.  When he emerged, we cycled into town so I could collect my Fiddlesticks boots, which I have had re-soled for £12.99.

We cycled back and got in at about 4pm, Gill came in soon after. She's vowed never to go to the Royal Armouries ever again.  In fact, she said she'd never go to Leeds again!

At about 5.30 I loaded my bike with all my circus workshop gubbins, including 3 unicycles, two four-wheel unicycles and one two-wheeler.  I cycled up to Haxby to Oaken Grove Community Centre for a 2 hour gig with a youth club, 30 or so 9 to 16 year olds.  I did my show first, was quite tough as they were excited, noisy and cheeky.  Everything went well apart from when the largest chap in the group was trying the four wheel unicycle and one of the axles broke.  Very unfortunate, but quite funny.

This was followed by a 45 minute workshop, which was good... especially when several youngsters 'got' 3-ball juggling.  I love it when I show someone how to juggle and suddenly, they are a juggler!

It all finished at 8.30 and I cycled home, had a slice of nutloaf, and finished my evening's writing at 2am.

Saturday 4th July 09

Another work-day today. I had to be at Headlands School in Haxby by 11am, so I got ready to leave home by about 10.15, with trailer-full of circus gear, unicycles and modelling balloons. I decided to go in costume as it is sometimes easier to arrive and just get going rather than have to change into my performance clothes. It was only about 30 minutes cycle, so I was there in time for the start.

I'd been provided with a little gazebo as cover from sun or possible rain, on the edge of the playground. It was a usual 'school fete' type event... tombola, DJ, Army stall, crazy bike track, beekeeper... BEEKEEPER? That was a first for me... I've never seen a beekeeper at an event like that before! Nice! I had a very busy time, but a 20 minute break when the dance troupes did their performance, so that's when I had my sandwiches.

The rest of the afternoon went smoothly... I was impressed with the perseverance of a 10 year old lad who came to me pretty early on saying he wanted to learn the unicycle. I asked him to start on the 4 wheeler.. which he found very easy, and then the 2 wheel unicycle which he also balanced on really well. So I showed him how to get the pedals in the right position before trying to mount, and the best way to get started by hanging on to a window ledge on the side of the playground. He continued working at it, shared some of the time with another lad and for a short time a girl, but he kept on coming back to it. By 3pm he was unicycling across the playground! Awesome...

At 2ish I scaled down my devilstick tuition and juggling workshops and got the DJ to announce that I'd be making balloon animals for a small donation to Headlands. I had a busy hour and generated over £10 for the school. They were delighted and I was knackered and hot. I was given my cheque, packed and cycled off, stopping by Freshways to load a very heavy sack of compostables onto my pannier rack.

Home at 4pm and Gill announced that the boys had been taken to the cinema by Ros and would be back at 6.30... wow, freedom at the weekend, so Gill and I made best use of the space.

So a happy evening, boys post Ice Age 3 and us feeling contented, a nice tea of cold Bulgar wheat 'salad' with added feta cheese, olives, broad beans. Lovely.

Saturday 6th September 08

Busy busy day... although a fairly relaxed morning.

I had to decide whether to do a gig in Haxby in aid of SNAPPY.. I'd been invited to go but the organiser rang back saying they couldn't afford to pay me even my (officially) lowest charity fundraiser fee. But I sometimes do my Fiddlesticks work for nothing and I said if the weather was ok, I could go up and do some balloon modelling to add fun and colour and perhaps make a few pounds on donations for the balloon models. Chris my contact said if I did go up and do that, he'd give me an 'expenses' type cheque, but I wasn't contracted to go up, and he wouldn't expect to see me if the weather was poor.

So as the weather was good I got myself into costume and at midday was ready to go to the charity football match on the Ethel Ward Memorial Playing Fields in Haxby, 5 miles North of York. The spot I had to work in was tiny, a bit of hard-standing in front of the changing rooms, but enough space to do some devilstick workshops and juggling, but only one person wanted a balloon model so I found Chris and told him I'd go. Everybody was there for the football!

I came home and decided to go to Anna's Street Party in aid if 20's Plenty and York in Transition with my colourful Fiddlesticks costume on, and taking my entertainment stuff with me. However, I knew that the City of York Council were installing their wind turbine at the eco-depot, something they've had planned for well over a year. The eco-depot is the biggest straw-bale building around (not sure if that's just UK, Europe or in the World, but it is big) and has a huge array of photovolteic cells on the roof. The wind turbine was planned to complement this design. When I arrived I met Kristina P, the ex-sustainability officer who has moved on to work for another authority and responsible for the installation. 'Twas good to see her again, she still lives in York but now commutes by train. The turbine is 15 metres tall to the nacelle (where the blades are attached) and will be 3 or 4 metres higher than the surrounding buildings. It has a maximum output of 15 Kw, and using electricity prices from a year and a half ago, was due to pay back it's financial cost in 16 to 20 years, based on the measured wind speeds at the site. But if it gets windier or electricity prices go up, this payback time will come down. And of course, it's giving us carbon neutral electricity (once the equivalent of it's embodied energy has been generated) and helps us reduce our carbon footprint. Excellent stuff.... I want one!

And so on to Anna's street party which turned out to be excellent, a big turn-out, lots of people watched the film The Power of Community and heard Edward Harland speak about the Transition movement and York in Transition in particular. The children had a fun time drawing in chalk on the road, and cycling up and down. Two police officers attended and gave out some information to help residents avoid being burgled. I unicycled and blew up balloon models for a donation to YiT... raising more than the SNAPPY event this morning! The event was supposed to be 4pm til 6, but I didn't leave til 6.45, when the rainclouds were ominously gathering...

Later in the evening, I spoke to my good friend Jonathan who I hardly ever see anymore and he invited me round to spend a couple of hours with him. I watched a couple of programmeswith my eldest son about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN on the French/Swiss border which is due to go live this week, and at 9.45 headed off to see my buddy. He earns his living as a nurse but has ambitions to be an artist, which seem to be coming true. There's lots of interest in his work, which aims to help people reminisce and remember their past. He's known as Dexter in the art world and his fun website can be seen here.

Had a lovely chat and a can of cider, got back soon after midnight.