Thursday 12th April 07

Up early again, and I have to go to Abbey to sort out the problen they're causing for YorkLETS. I was dealt with swiftly this time, and by an efficient person who understood the problem and hopefully managed to sort it out. Although she was able to provide the paperwork which will enable us to open our Co-op account, she wasn't able to give the passbook back or pay the closing balance, and she said that head office had no record of the passbook being sent to them. I'm afraid I will have to write to the Financial Services Authority about their appalling service. I will do this to try to protect other community groups falling foul of the same poor service and inconvenience and waste of volunteer time.

Anyway, left Abbey with some paperwork to pass onto Co-op. I visited another organisation's office about a book I'm writing (sorry this has to remain secret, but it's too sensative an issue to share in a public diary YET... when published though, it will be public!) After this visit I popped into Out of This World to pick up some items left yesterday, and onto Liz from LETS to drop off the Abbey info, but she wasn't in so I just left it for her.

Then I dropped into Miller's Yard where Dylan and Claire were just opening up. We discussed composting and other aspects of life, and I had a coffee mocha which was nice. The healthy living centre cafe sells Belu bottled water, which I met first at last year's Big Green Gathering. the bottles are made of a biodegradable plastic called PLA, I think polymerised lactic acid, which will rot in 'commercial' heaps which stay warm for ages. I am trying to compost one in my Compostumbler, which does get hot for weeks at a time. I won't be taking the Miller's Yard Belu bottles though, but I did offer to see if I could broker a deal between Yorwaste and Dylan, as I'd have thought that Yorwaste would like to do a trial in their big hot heaps.

Got home and took the compostables down to their destination and had lunch. Had a visit from a Freecycler I'm doing a swap with, he (David) had some blue storage jars and wanted some compost to add to soil to grow some salad in. Freecycle is rapidly becoming a social networking tool! He enjoyed the tour of the garden and we had some interesting chats.

I had to prepare some paperwork for tonight's CrUST meeting, and then go to an anti incinerator demonstration organised by YRAIN, York Residents Against Incineration who are lobbying the City of York Council and North Yorkshire County Council not to put in a PFI bid to build a waste incinerator. We stood next to a scaled-down chimney and I had supplied smoke pellets (from my environmental health training days) and the Press took photos. I personally don't want an incinerator built as they burn fossil fuel (plastics) which should be recycled and conserved for future generations and not added to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. I also think there is more than a chance that human error or mechanical breakdown will allow dioxins to get into the air we all breathe, and we don't need any more carcinogens around us. Finally, having an incinerator alters the economics for recycling, making it less likely that there would be investment in materials recycling. As I'm pro-composting, I feel that putting compostable materials in with the plastics is a waste, and there is still a landfillable proportion left after the incinerator has done its work.

This demo only took 10 minutes, so I bombed off down the Tadcaster Road to pick up more Freecycled stuff, this time some plastic planters from Felicity. They'll be good for tomatoes and other crops.

Got home across the Racecourse, Millennium Bridge and Low Moor for ten to seven, gathered my CrUST stuff together and got to Space 109 on Walmgte for about seven fifteen, just one minute before Tracy who had arranged the venue and had the keys. The meeting went very well, Tracy chaired and there were several new faces and lots of contributions.

Friday 23rd March 07

Gill wasn't feeling brilliant last night so I offered to take the boys to school if she wasn't feeling up to it, so at 8 she woke me gingerly and asked gently.... so at 8.30, post muesli, I cycled in with them. Well now I was up and it was a lovely day so I got going... and as keeping the house warm is a priority, I continued building the woodpile on the side of the door. Then came in and wrote some letters... on the back of previously used paper, as usual. I haven't used a new piece of paper for years and years, I always use a 'printed on one side' bit. I've only ever had one complaint, an old fella who thought it was disrespectful. Well I think it's disrespectful to use a new piece when a reused one would do, disrespectful to the planet!

I wrote a covering note to Roger at Unicycle.com and put my cheque in with it. Also wrote a letter of complaint to Abbey re the lost passbook. In today's post there was some very good news, York Rotters (the home composting education group I started) has recieved another years funding, the third from City of York Council. Our work reduces the weight of biodegradables that are collected by the council for landfilling by several hundreds of tonnes per year, and reduces peat extraction and use as householders won't need it as they can produce their own growing media. So I went to congratulate Keely our employee, as she negotiated the funding and she keeps her job for another year. I met the new Rotters volunteer Inge, who has revamped the compost bin demonstration area and is helping Keely in the office.

Then on to Abbey where I gave in my complaint letter and on to Out Of This World to pick up 2 sacks of compostables. Then to the Co-op Bank to pay the phone bill, and admired the new layout and decor, as the office is now an eco-office, ie recycled content furniture, organic paint with low VOC emissions, low energy lighting, electricity from renewable sources and very happy and friendly staff. Nice! I also got enough money out to pay half our annual council tax, and went and paid that.

On the road near the council tax office a motorcyclist was in the green coloured bicycle box at the front of the queue of traffic behind the traffic lights. As I cannot help myself as a radical cyclist and anti motor person, I said excuse me, if a policeman stops you for disobeying the road markings, you could get points on your licence. He was polite enough to thank me. About one in ten motor vehicle drivers thank me, about 3 tell me to fuck off or worse, about 4 make an excuse for being in the cycle box and two ignore me or don't respond. I will continue telling drivers this, even though I risk being run over or aggressed by the small percentage who take it personally. Fortunately I'm a very fast cyclist and have been able to outcycle an irate (young male) car driver on several occasions. What I have to try to control is my anger at their attitude, as several times I have spat at their metal monster and this doesn't really help the situation. I wish I was a bit more laid-back about it all....

Then delivered the SUMA catalogue to one of the participants in our food co-op, as we'll do an order next week. Then to Sainsbury's where I get a few groceries, including cheese. On many previous occasions I have bought cheese off the deli counter and asked for no extra packaging, and this has been possible. Then a fortnight ago I was told that the film-wrapped block of cheese had to have a bag put on it before the sticky label was applied. I complained. A week ago the same thing happened and I kicked up a big fuss, explaining that I would unwrap it at home and put it in my cheese box, so the extra bag was a waste. They said the film plastic might tear and allow the cheese to become contaminated or to contaminate the belt. I said I wasn't too worried about 'contaminating my cheese' (after all I'm a composter and my fingernails are never completely clean!) and if the film was intact it wouldn't harm the conveyor. Anyway when I went in today, the deli counter staff told me that they'd had a meeting with the management, and they'd agreed with me. HOORAY, a victory for common sense and waste minimisation. I went to the info counte and the lady I'd complained to twice before looked alarmed to see me... but I just wanted her to pass on thanks to the management for allowing me to buy cheese in one layer of wrapping.... the customer is always right!

Home for lunch. Did some logging and compost management in the afternoon, before collecting the boys. Then visited the Hes Rd Greengrocers who now have a good system for separating their heavy biodegradables and I came away with 3 sacks, about 60 kg.

These sacks contained tea... some tomatoes which had two mouldy ones (on average) per punnett, and four good ones. I sorted through and made a lovely tomato sauce on the woodstove which I had with pasta. Delicious and satisfying and cheap. I feel lucky.

Weds 21st March 07

A busy day as we're having the BBC round tomorrow, so Gill spent lots of time and energy sorting out the house, and I got the garden ready... digging out the bay-window radiator raised bed which will be a composter tomorrow and will be an Ethical Coffin...

I got the children from school and as soon as I got home had recieved a call from the Abbey National. So rang back the pleasant woman from the complaints department, and had to wait ANOTHER 20 minutes to speak to her. The simple but infuriating message was that she'd been in contact with the York office and they couldn't find any record of our account. They've lost it. She suggested going in to the shop and giving them my date of birth as this might help them trace the passbook which they've supposed to have sent back to me. Without it, YorkLETS cannot open its new Co-op Bank account, so it's really important I get it back. I will write to them and hand deliver the letter, as I don't want to wait in the shop for 15 minutes like last time. I may also send a copy to the Financial Services Authority as I'm really annoyed by Abbey's cock-up, and I don't want other organisations to be inconvenienced like we are being. I might email BBC Watchdog too, watch this space....

I then cycled to Out Of This World for my midweek compostables pick-up, via my reliable Building Society, Nationwide, who have my Fiddlesticks account, and got a cheque made out to Unicycle .com for the repair. Mustn't forget to send it off!

Worked in the garden until about 7pm, then had a large slice of Gill's nutloaf.

Emails this evening included confirmation from Community Care Magazine that they'd like me to be their new green columnist. The Editor had done a fab job of editing my long column into a shorter one to fit the available space. The mag has 64000 subscribers and is a weekly. I have been offered a column every 3rd week plus a weekly blog, so I had a few questions for the Editor, Graham. I'm not getting too excited but I am very pleased.

Less pleased with my email package 'Outlook Express' which keeps on going dead on me and 'not responding'. Not sure what to do as 'Windows Defender' I downnloaded hasn't seemed to sort the problem. I'll have to ask my friend Simon, he can fix any computer problem! Thank goodness I know an expert I can bribe to come and help me.

Tuesday 20th March 07

Gill took the boys to school in the snow and wind, I lit both stoves and as Gill's got a dental appointment, got on with some housework. My big 'DM' Unicycle was delivered back from my friend Roger who runs Unicycle.com, and it has new cranks, pedals and saddle. An upgrade for fifty quid... the first time I've spent money on it in about 10 years. Listened to Womens Hour on Radio 4 and washed up.

Spent much of the day inside as so cold and loads to do, although loads to do outside too! During the afternoon I got a phonecall from Justin, BBC's Ethical Man, saying he had been contacted by a magazine who wanted him to do a column. As he didn't want to do it, he rang me and asked if I'd be interested.... well, a second chance of a column to promote sustainable lifestyles would be great. So he contacted the mag and I soon got a call from the Editor, I think. It is a weekly with 64, 000 subscriptions and they wondered if I would write 400 words once every 3 weeks. I offered to send my original column, unchanged from the 600+ words that the Yorks Post had asked me for. I did this in the evening.

I did go out... to pick up the boys and later, to try and get some signatures for my nomination form, and Andy's. Only one person was in, so several more folks to visit to get this sorted.

I did have one very irritating experience during the afternoon. I am waiting for the Abbey National to send the YorkLETS account book back to me as we have changed our bank to the Co-op as it's more ethical and, since I've been a customer, over 22 years, they've never made a mistake or done anything bad. So I rang the national complaints number for the Abbey and waited over 20 minutes for it to be answered. When they did bother to answer they couldn't help, and promised to ring back at 3.45 with the answer. They didn't. What a wunch of bankers!

Tuesday 6th March 07

A houseworky morning, with a rude awakening at 8am by my sister Anna on the phone saying can she visit this afternoon? Gill took the boys to school and I got on with lighting the stove, having breakfast, doing the washing up, attending to various post including the lovely Student Loan Company and sending Justin the Ethical Man the Yorkshire Post article.

I had a Green Party election paperwork thing to give in by today, so after an early lunch I bombed over to Bishophill to deliver that and popped into Cycle Heaven to ask about rebuilding my front wheel, which is wearing through at the rim, like the rear was. My personal assistant responsible for my bike wasn't in, so they said could I go in tomorrow. I also popped into Abbey National, who are not YorkLETS bankers anymore, and they're being very slow to send the account book back to me and the closing cheque. We have started the process of opening an account with the Co-operative Bank who have an ethical investment policy, but they need the details of our last account. We left the Abbey because they were inept and made several silly and annoying mistakes. I got home in time to cycle to school and pick up the kids, and whilst there, I pruned some sprawling mallow shrubs that I'd been given permission to do. The alternative is the school (or Education Authority?) employs a company based in Leeds, who come and do grounds work, and take prunings away in a lorry back to Leeds. Ridiculous! All the grounds management waste could be composted on site, helping to compost the volumes of fruit and veg stuff which STILL gets put in the playground bins. I am past angry about this, so I take the fruit, veg and paper out of the bins on a daily basis and pop it in the plastic box provided for compostables (only some of the kids use it, and the kitchen staff, fortunately) and put it all in one of the 3 'dalek' bins I've installed and manage. I'd prefer a larger 'New Zealand Box' system which would take more of the cardboard which clogs up the landfill-destined bins, as well as grounds materials. I cannot get the school to move on this, and the Director of Education at City of York Council hasn't replied to me either. I feel another letter coming, it's one way to release my anger about unsustainable stick-in-the-muds. It sometimes helps get things changed, too.

I cycled back with all the Mallow, and will compost it at home. I soon found it doesn't shred well, as it's mucilaginous and stringy, clogging my favourite 'quiet shredder'. I'll do the rest on a 'sit and wait heap' rather than a fast shred and tumble and turn hot heap. Whilst unclogging the shredder Anna (my younger sister) and her hubby Douglas arrived, by car from Sheffield. They haven't been 'up North' for long and one reason the moved was to be nearer family. It is lovely to see them and the boys are very fond of them. A nice tea-time, easy baked spuds and salad with a Gilly rice and bean loaf. We finished the Butternut soup too. They stayed til about 8, perhaps next time they'll be able to stay over. I've been to their new house in Sheffers but the rest of the family hasn't, so we ought to visit them next. They are conveniently close to the end of the tram line.