Saturday 9th January 10

A reasonable day... Gill was getting ready to take our two and a friend to see Avatar, so I went to the baker and the Co-op and by the time I got back they were gone.

I did a bit on the computer and had lunch, and washed up, then went outside and did more woodpile. Also started to dig out a semi-finished pallet-bin and turn it into it's neighbour, to make way for the stuff which is currently awaiting it's final resting place alongside sawdust, hedge trimmings, straw and cardboard, and some warmer weather! I got very cold and was glad to come back in.

Gill had made a pizza dough before going out and when I got in, she was in the middle of cooking a pizza for the children. All of them had enjoyed Avatar, though the glasses had made Gill's eyes water.

So, a nice pizza for tea, with home-made baked beans. I'd done these earlier today: beans from the garden, soaked and boiled, then drained and put with a litre of out of date tomato juice, and brought to the boil again and left on the stove for a couple of hours simmering. Not bad at all!

The boys watched The Simpsons Movie on TV whilst I played Scrabble on facebook and waited for the bathwater to heat up enough on the stove for my bath.

Through facebook I was pleased to learn about the latest news from Georgina Downs' campaign to prevent pesticides being sprayed near where people live. She won in the High Court and the Government appealed and her victory was overturned. So she's taking the case to the European Court, and I hope she wins. See here for today's article in The Ecologist . The other thing I found was that the Royal Mail, apparently, are going to reduce the number of posties who use bicycles, and replace them with vans. How stupid is that? If you feel the same as me, and live in the UK, you can sign this 'Number 10' petition to the Prime Minister: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Royalmailbikes/

Wednesday 6th January 10

How lovely to have some time with Gill and both children at school! We had some quiet quality time which was so welcome.

So, the afternoon was pretty quiet too, and short as our eldest came away from school an hour early. I mended a puncture in one of my trailer wheels and kept the stoves going...

At tea time my friend Mark Richards rang me and told me that he'd got four special-deal tickets for Avatar at City Screen, and one of his friends had dropped out, so would I like to come to it?

So I had tea (Gill wanted to do something simple... oven chips, veggie sausage, baked beans, fried mushrooms) and cycled down to City Screen for 7.30. Mark rolled in at 7.45 and we got a row of 4 seats all together. Mark is really good at hospitality... and had got popcorn, ice creams and orange drink! The film was awesome, just amazing. The 3D effects are far superior than the old-fashioned two-colour system, yet the film doesn't 'milk' the effects, it just adds to the film in a really 'natural' way (if that's appropriate for a film based on an alien life-form!). I do reccommend the film... I'm not a big cinema goer, but it's got a nice environmental message, as is indicated in this article. It is a long film, and we had a false start as the sound failed 3 minutes in, so I didn't get home til after 11.30pm.

So, an interesting day.