Thursday 16 June 2011

Wednesday 15th June 11

I was woken with a phone call just after 9 from my friend Gary Haq, who had been rung up by Radio 5 Live, who wanted to interview activists who had an opinion about Mark Kennedy, the undercover policeman who as Mark Stone, got rather too involved in the Climate Camp... and his role caused the trial of some people allegedly planning to shut down a coal-fired power station to collapse.  Gary said that when he spoke to the researcher, he thought of me, and he offered to pass my phone number to the researcher.  A few minutes later, she rang me, and we had a few minutes chat.  However, my views about him were not polarised enough to warrant them ringing me back for the show at 10.

I listened to the show; they had an interview with Mark Kennedy which was interesting, and several people who had known him, and a selection of people who were either damning him or praising him.  Our son listened to the programme with me, and learned about various legal acronyms and other words.

However, I was due to be at David's at 12.15 so I couldn't stay and listen to the whole programme, but what I heard was interesting.  I cycled down to town and met Alanah at David's, another of his PAs, who had got him breakfast and ready to go to the organ recital by Francis Jackson.  He is one of York's best known organists, and David's been looking forward to it for weeks and weeks.

I took him to St Helen's Church and we were almost the first there, and positioned ourselves in a good position to watch Francis doing his thing.  The church filled up, as he's very popular.  Francis is 94 years old and has been involved in making music in York for 83 years, since he was a chorister in York Minster. He played some Bach, Vaughan Williams and a piece he wrote himself as a retirement present for a colleague.  He didn't just play, he introduced some of the pieces and was quite a character.  In one of the last pieces, something by Karg-Elert, he made a mistake right at the end, and he got up and said, 'I'll do that again' and he played the last few chords again.  He came across as a really lovely chap.  And David's seen him perform on numerous occasions and spoke with him afterwards, which was nice.

Then we went to the bank, and to the Library where we filled in a questionnaire about eye health, and then back to David's home.  I made him some toast and got away at 3pm.

Lynn had asked me to come and visit, and give her the caffeine-free coffee we'd been given, so I had a late lunch and then went round for a proper coffee (ie with caffeine!) and a good chat; it's been ages since we spent any time together. I took her some climbing beans as a present and we caught up with each other's news.    I went from here to a Freecycler called Tim who'd advertised a Le Creuset lid, 24 cm across.  I'd measured the pan I found in a skip in 1999, and have been using all this time with an ill-fitting aluminium lid with a plastic Marmite lid on top, which allowed me to balance trays of fruit on top.  I emailed and said that I thought it might fit, but if it didn't, I'd put it back on Freecycle. When i got home and tried it, I was hugely delighted that it fitted PERFECTLY!!!! Gill and I were so pleased!  Tim had the lid spare as he'd dropped his pan and it had shattered, as they are fairly brittle cast iron with enamel on.  At least the lid has another new life!

At 7 I'd agreed to go and visit Sherry, Melody and Simon's lodger, who wanted to make use of our Suma order.  I cycled down there and she got about £10 worth of dried fruit.  I came back via a logpile.

Then I spent some while chopping up the sticks given to me yesterday, and dealing with a load more kindling-style stuff, putting it neatly into fruit boxes.

A nice simple tea... potato, bought pizza, asparagus.

And a fairly good evening, trying to catch up on some writing tasks which are outstanding.  Bed at 3am.

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