Monday 19th October 09

A bit of an unusual day as our youngest is heading off to Todmorden to have three days of fieldtrip. So Gill and our little one headed off at 7.50am, on foot, to get to school by 8.15. I spent time with our eldest, and chatted carefully about things which I hoped wouldn't piss him off, and he got out of the house at the normal time.

So at 8.45 I was out in the garden finishing off the shredding of the twiggy bits of hedge... and completed this job! Hooray!

I also unloaded a couple of sacks of compostables from either Country Fresh or Freshways and found a large stash of tomatoes, of which about 25% were compostable and the rest washable and I therefore brought them in and washed them, fried an onion on the stove (in a pan, lol) and added about 40 small to medium tomatoes and a stick of celery, and cooked that up on the stove top to make a delicious soup.

Then I made sandwiches and had them before cycling off to the station to get on the 13.11 to Harrogate for my last acupuncture session with Karen. I fell asleep on the train and again on the acupuncture table. I asked her quite a few questions today, about what she was doing. Few of her answers made any sense to me, but I do come from 'Western medicine' background. I decided not to take her up on a further two sessions as although I've enjoyed this experiment, I haven't really got anything positive out of it. I agreed to fill in her questionnaire at the end of this week.

I cycled quickly back to Harrogate station and got the train to Knaresborough, and then mooched around the tile and stove shop whilst waiting for the York train. I had a fiddle with a Dovre stove and chatted to the shop assistant about flat irons and stoves. Then the York train came and took me and my bike home.

Gill had taken a phone call from a Dave on Windmill Lane, who's taken down a cherry tree and has offered me the branches. He wanted me to go round after 6pm, so I did and picked up a trailer and panniers full of freshly chopped cherry logs. He hadn't managed to take down the trunk and asked me if I had a chainsaw and could do it? So I'll go round in the next few days to help him out. Then I popped down to see Raj as he had asked me to help him with something, and after I'd spent half an hour with him, he gave me two veggie samosas.

Then I came home for tea, at about 7pm. Once again, a good tea... tomato soup followed by cauliflower, macaroni, potatoes, quiche, salad, olives... yummy!

Enjoyed some telly and tried to catch up with emails which are again building up...

Monday 12th October 09

A good day... got the paperwork for the new quote for solar panels, using Solartwin. My friend's worries about the photovoltaic-powered pump being from a car windscreen washing device are unfounded, and the reports from another nearby installation are really good, so we're going for Solartwin. Harris Builders are using the Solartwin installers, and Harris will provide the scaffolding, take down the unused chimney and make good the roof and re-do the fascia boards.

We are pleased we've made this decision. It will fulfill our desire to reduce our already low carbon footprint yet further. We will get some cash back from the Government for putting it in, and also will qualify for a small amount of money off our gas/electric bill from Good Energy. I don't know how much this will be.

So, after dealing with this paperwork, I spent quite a bit of time doing the shredding of the hedge that I've removed so far. Last time I took a load of hedge out, I left all the twiggy bits to the end, and then spent AGES processing them. This time I'm removing hedge, passing the roots on to people who want a Privet hedge, and processing the tops as I go. Much more sensible.

I came in for lunch at 1pm, as usual, and then at about 1.45 cycled down to the station minus my trailer so I could put the bike on the train to Harrogate, and cycle over to Karen who is using me as a subject for her Masters degree on acupuncture and ADHD.

As I experienced in the previous two sessions, I found the lying down on the treatment table to be most relaxing. I'm not sure why this is... proponents of Traditional Chinese Medicine would say something to do with Qi and energies, but I'm not sure. I wonder if it's because I rarely get a chance to lie down in the middle of the afternoon, and usually get only 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night?

Anyway, I'm enjoying the experience. I haven't felt any changes in my energy levels though, nor am I any tidier! Karen thinks I might need 15 to 30 sessions to get any lasting effect.

I got the 5pm train home and was home by 6 via Freshways... and went straight into the garden to do another hour of hedge processing. Beautiful sunset.

Pasta tea. Lover lea.

Quiet evening, did some more plums.

Monday 28th September 09

Up early as I needed to do the minutes of last week's Transition meeting... and got an invitation to put my blog on http://blogs.gogreen.vc/.

I got the minutes done and sent them off to Peter for sending out. I spent half an hour in the garden shredding some brambles which Gill has removed.

Immediately after lunch I wend down to the station with my bike minus trailer, got a ticket to Hornbeam Park and took my bike on the train so I could easily get from the station to the 'Family Chiropractic Clinic' where Karen hires a room to do her acupuncture. She had booked the room from 2pm so she could continue her research about ADHD and acupuncture. I arrived before 2pm and she was waiting outside, no sign at all of anyone within, just a little sign saying 'lunch 1-2' and Karen had already rang their number, and it was on answerphone. Banging on the door and ringing the bell made no difference either. She got reasonably agitated about this and by 2.10, went to ask a nearby shop owner if they had seen any movement at the Clinic this morning. And then the person bothered to come down and open the Clinic door. I was a bit angry about this late start... as I had hoped to get the 3pm train back to York. She told me that they opened the shop at 2.15. I hope they change the note on the door... and give Karen a key so she can get in and get prepared for her clients.

She took a little while to get ready, and then did her pre-acupuncture routine which involves looking at my tongue and asking various questions and taking my pulse. We discussed my diet and food routine. Then I had the rather nice experience of having the needles put into my skin (most of them I couldn't feel, some I felt a tiny pinprick, one was uncomfortable for a couple of minutes) and then lying there for 45 minutes or so. I felt very relaxed and calm, almost knocked out, and I might have even drifted off to sleep at one stage. It is most curious. But at 3.20 I had the needles removed and I had another conversation about my carbohydrate-rich diet and four to six cups of coffee a day.

I cycled into Harrogate and popped into Waitrose to get some goats milk which Gill had asked me to buy, and onto the station where I got the 4.05 train back to York, along with 2 other cyclists.

I called in on Freshways and picked up a small box of recyclables, and headed home.

I did about an hour of loading a heap with shredded brambles and food 'resources'. For tea I had a sandwich with two small home-made veggie burgers from a couple of days ago (basically a nutloaf mix cooked in small patties in a frying pan) and some salad and potatoes.

At half six I went out to the Theatre Royal to see what I thought was a play by my friend Kate Lock. 'Script Factor' was in fact a weird concept... five new scripts or mini-plays, read unseen by volunteer audience members, the script writer/playwright answering a few questions, and then at the end, voting for the one you wanted to win. I liked Kate's play which was based on one of her early journalistic experiences, and the winning play which was by Charlotte Court, called 'Bus Stop 21', about a conversation between 3 women of different ages. Age, specifically youth, was a recurring theme in all the scripts, as the Theatre Royal is in the midst of a 'youth take-over' with a bunch of under-26 year olds in control, and free tickets for people under 26. The winner of tonight's Script Factor certainly looked younger than 26, and it was her first play ever read out to an audience. I think she deserved to win, as her idea was so simple and elegant. Kate's was more entertaining though... a play within a play, someone having a seizure during a sex scene, a sexist critic choking to death on a scone after being assaulted with a lucky Buddha... all good dramatic stuff... darkly humorous...

I left at about 9.30 and was home 10 minutes later. Enjoyed watching 'The Cell' on BBC4.

Monday 21st September 09

A very busy busy busy day.

But I didn't have to actually get up until just before 11, although I did do a bit of housework in my dressing gown after breakfast.

At 11am the replacement solar panel surveyor man arrived. The chap who looked round a few weeks ago has hurt his back, so someone else has taken over. Alan was a young and enthusiastic chap, and we had some lively conversations whilst he looked at the outside of the house, the boiler in the bathroom and the roof space. I also showed him the solar panel on the house down the road which has an integral photovoltaic panel which runs the pump. That's what I want. Not a 60w pump wired in and using mains power all the time... sort of defeats the object of the exercise.

Then shortly before midday I bombed into town to attend the Avaaz 'Wake Up Call' flashmob which was aiming to give world leaders the message that there are a lot of us who think that the forthcoming Copenhagen talks are possibly the last chance to set firm and binding targets to reduce CO2 emissions. The York Press photographer was there, and BBC Radio York, and I was able to inform listeners that Gordon Brown, our Prime Minister, had decided to attend Copenhagen himself, demonstrating how important he realises it is. This decision is partly due to the rising clamour about this event. Today, people were given Gordon Brown's phone number and asked to ring him up. What good this will do I don't know, but it's worth trying.

Very soon after this I walked my bike through town and as soon as out of the pedestrian zone, cycled quickly to St Nicks where the load-carrying trike was waiting for me. Tom gave me the key to the lock and told me he wanted it back within the hour. It was not easy to ride, as it hugs the road camber and doesn't lean into corners, but I got the hang of it and plodded up to B+Q, parked up, locked it and went to find someone in the gardening section. There was no-one there. I wandered around and found a B+Q staff member in the paint section. I asked her if I could ask her a question and she looked terrified and said that she was on her lunch hour and actually buying paint. I said that I just wanted to know where I could pick up the turf and she smiled and said she was responsible for the garden bit and would take me to the turf waiting for me. She had looked terrified as she thought I was going to ask a technical question about paint!

I loaded up the 12 rolls of turf onto a trolley whilst she did the paperwork, and I scooted it all outside to the tricycle. It was a heavy and slow cycle back to St Nicks, but the whole trip took just 45 minutes.

I came home on my bike, unhitched my trailer and made a sandwich to take down to the station, as I needed to get the 2.11 train to Hornbeam Park. I put my bike on the train, as when in Hornbeam Park I needed to get to the place on Leeds Road just outside Harrogate to meet Karen the acupuncturist for my first session. I got there at 2.55 and she was expecting me, so I was led to her treatment room. She had already done a full history on Saturday, so she just needed to check my tongue (why, I have no idea!) and pulse, then I lay down and she put about 6 pins in me, only one of which was slightly uncomfortable as it went in... the rest I didn't feel at all, just the pressure of the guide tube. The I lay still for between half an hour and 45 minutes which was LOVELY... being told not to move just felt great... and I felt totally relaxed, but I didn't fall asleep, though I think I could have let myself... The session was over all too soon and she took my pulse again (as before it had been racing as I'd just cycled quickly) and off I went, in the rain which had started. I got to Hornbeam Park with loads of time to spare, and waited in the rain feeling very calm and slightly elated.

It didn't take long to get back to York, and home via Sainsburys as I had forgotten to get Danish Pastries this morning from Thomas's Yesterbake for tomorrow's CarFreeDay picnic breakfast.

I came home via Country Fresh and Freshways.

When I got home, with the pastries, and a nice loaf and some cereal, I went straight out again, to the Co-op to get some more bits and bobs for tomorrow's event.

Tea was a pastie and roast potatoes and some sweet potatoes, rescued from the compostables. They had been thrown out as they were beginning to sprout... I cut of the sprouting ends and will try to grow them on, in the conservatory through the winter.

Then out again to a Transition meeting. I went via Lynn's to pick up a parasol for the CarFreeDay demo. The meeting was good as there were two new faces, but it was also a tough meeting as we had a bit of sorting out to do with regards which activities are 'core Transition' activities and which are 'community building' activities which pave the way for the core Transition activities to take place. I took minutes, and also agreed to work with Diane, to help set up a Huntington and New Earswick Transition Initiative.

Home quite tired but had a lot of typing to do, so to bed at the usual time of 2ish.

And here's what Rich filmed today (added a few days later)

Saturday 19th September 09

I got up just in time to have breakfast and get dressed and then receive my guest this morning.

Karen C is an acupuncturist and a colleague or friend of my friend June, and is doing some research into acupuncture and ADHD. June contacted me, knowing that I self diagnosed with ADHD yonks ago. I explained that the experts had told me that although I had probably had ADHD as a child, I did not have enough of, or severe enough symptoms of the condition to be diagnosed with it. However, as Karen was having difficulty finding enough diagnosed adults, she altered her research parameters to include people like me, who are on that spectrum but not 'bad enough'(!) to merit the full label...

So, soon after 10, Karen arrived to do my history, which is standard practice before doing any complimentary therapy. I have done this several times for different people and it does take some time, in this case, over two hours. But it is, for me, the most important part of the work of the complimentary therapists that I've experienced so far (and I confess to have only tried maybe 4 or 5) as 'normal' GPs don't ever have this time for their patients.

I've never had acupuncture, but Gill has and it helped her painful back. I tried homeopathy with a good friend who is a very experienced and well respected homeopath, but I had no response to it whatsoever. I told her in the history-taking that I was skeptical and didn't believe that there was any active ingredient in homeopathic medicines. She said that didn't matter. But my expectations were realised.

I've also tried a couple of types of massage therapies, of which Indian Head Massage was by far the most wonderful and deep tissue Swedish massage was the most horrible.

Anyway, Karen was happy with the info I gave her, and I agreed to go and see her four times in the next month (in Harrogate) to see if having acupuncture helps me either become tidier (!) or more organised, more relaxed or any other improvements.

She had a quick tour down the garden and took a bag of dried fruit, and I had lunch.

Then we all had a good time in the garden... the boys played on the trampoline and Gill and I pruned a large lilac tree... Gill directed, I went up the ladder and sawed the branches off, pollarding the tree for a second time since we moved here. I then spent quite a bit of time shredding the large pile of stuff which resulted from this massacre, and then loading a pallet bin with layers of this woody stuff with layers of vegetable and fruit, surrounded with flattened cardboard boxes up against the pallet sides.

I picked another load of stuff including a courgette, a tromboncino squash, some Jack Edwards climbing pea beans, runner beans invading our garden from next door, bramley apples, James Grieve apples and assorted pears. Tea time!

And tea time was lovely with lots of good fresh veg... much of the above but also tomatoes from the conservatory, all mixed with noodles.

I prepared quite a bit of food tonight, including potatoes and sweet potatoes, which will get eaten tomorrow.