Friday 16th December 11

A very early start.  I had to be in Meltham near Huddersfield before 10am... meant I left the house at 7.30 to get the 7.55 train which got into Huddersfield at 8.44, and I then got the Number 324 bus to Meltham at 9am.  It all went very smoothly, which is pretty normal for public transport.

I found the venue for the Pre-School Playgroup building, a Church Hall, very easily but couldn't find the door as two seemed sealed shut and one was locked.  However, the locked one was eventually unlocked and I was let in.  I talked through what I was going to do and what their timings were before getting changed.  I had only agreed to do the circus show for them but I thought that for the money they were giving me, they could have the balloons too, and they were pleased with this.  My only deadline was to be finished for 11.45 for Father Christmas to visit.

The shows went well, although they weren't easy as the children were very young and that has it's difficulties when you've a circus workshop show and a balloon workshop... however, the grown-ups seemed happy, no child burst into tears and nothing went wrong.  And I finished on time, got paid, and was waiting for the bus back to Huddersfield by 12.10.  The train came 10 minutes after I got to the station and I was home before 2pm.

I then got busy with the chainsaw as I really want to clear the front garden, as I'm expecting to get more logs over the winter, and I need to make space.

I made some tomato, onion and red pepper soup when it got dark at 4ish, and at 6 the family had that, along with bread.  Delicious. 

Monday 20th December 10

Another early start as had to be in Huddersfield by about 10am, so I got the 9am train, and had a fairly quiet journey. I did chat initially to the people sitting opposite me but they were what I used to call 'plastic people', as they were sad fashion victims going from Sunderland to Manchester to go shopping... ugh.  They had nothing to say, empty lives.

Anyway, I got to Huddersfield and briskly walked to the market hall where I had first been sent a few weeks back and as I approached the office, a market official sped out clutching the Santa sacks, recognised me and said to go with him to the other market hall where I'd be working today.  We got in his car and had a 5 minute drive to the market very close to the railway station, which is covered but not enclosed, so it was bitterly cold.

I had a walk round with the head of the market and then went to get changed and get walking round with my sack of tiny chocolate footballs and mini chocolate Santas.  I enjoyed this a lot... banter and humour and fun, but I was glad to get back to the office at midday and have my sandwiches.  I got going again at 12.30 and worked til 1.45 when i had a quick coffee before going to the reindeer enclosure, this time the two reindeer were from Reindeer For Christmas, and they had a sleigh (on casters) which I sat in, and the reindeer pulled it around to different areas of the market.  This was quite memorable!  When the sleigh came to a halt, various children were placed in the sleigh with me for photo opportunities, and I met a nice lass called Joanne who was really keen on the reindeer and very extrovert.

I did another half hour giving out chocolate balls after this and finished at 3.35, and was soon walking up to the station dressed as John, with no-one taking any notice of me.

There was a train soon after 4pm, and I dozed all the way to York.  I took the Cycle Heaven bike down to the shop on Bishopthorpe Road where my mended bike was waiting.  However, I was a little shocked at the bill... I'd had my chain de-kinked and lubed, a new mudguard put on, a new pannier rack and new rear tyre... the cost was £113.  I had just £115 in notes on me, so I had just enough to pay them.  But it was lovely to have my bike back, and on the way back I popped in to Freshways and picked up a sack of tropical veg which was too limp or otherwise unsaleable.

It was good to get home, as I was frozen.  I cannot remember being so cold, ever!  I'd had a text from Sue asking if she could come round and collect some dried fruit before travelling South for her Christmas break, so she appeared after tea and was really quite entertaining with her stories and recounting of incidents from her past.  She stayed til nearly 10pm. 

I got on with washing up and a few other bits but generally relaxed.  The boys slept downstairs in the front room as it was the warmest place.  I wondered whether I'd be able to get up early enough to see the eclipse of the moon in the morning...

Saturday 27th November 10

Up early as had to be in Huddersfield working by 10am, so I left the house at 8, cycled slowly though the snow and ice down to the station and got the 8.27 towards Manchester.  I met two nice women on he train who were heading to Manchester to meet some old friends, flying in to go shopping.  Both were interested in green issues, one had even trained as a York Rotter, but were seemingly not able to convert their concern into significant action.  This is not uncommon, and is partly due to lack of knowledge.  Hence my blog...see How do I do 'low carbon'?

Anyway, Huddersfield stopped the conversation and I had memorised my route to the market office, and it took me less then 10 minutes to get there.  The market office people had purchased a posh Santa outfit last year for the leader of the Council to wear, and they asked me to wear it.  I kept my own trousers, red dungarees, and had a tabard thing with a stuffed front, for belly-mass, and then a really nice cloak with hood.  And a beard/moustache with two elastics to hold it on, a big improvement on the single elastic that my Santa beard has, which does not stay on very well.  They had some welly-boot covers with bells on which were a great idea too.

My role was to walk round the French Market and greet the public and give out Christmassy Chocolate eggs.  Before starting I wasn't looking forward to this that much, but as I got down to it, I began to really enjoy it.  I especially enjoyed the genuine wide-eyed wonder of some of the children, the play-along-with-it make believe of some of the older children, including teenagers, and helping to overcome the shyness of another group of mainly young children.  Only twice did someone say they didn't believe in Father Christmas, shouted at me by a teen, and one lad tried to pull my beard.  But the overwhelming response was very positive.  I didn't feel the need to alter my voice, and I was able use my verbal humour to make people laugh, which I was pleased with.

This was my first time 'out and about' as Father Christmas... the previous occasions were in a hotel just giving a present or pile of presents to guests at the lunch table, whereas in the street it was a bit more of a natural situation with lots of different sorts of possible meetings.  About half a dozen children wanted to hug me (well, my legs!) and quite a few wanted me to pose for a photo with them.  I did two and a half hours before I was too cold to continue, and went back to the office for lunch. 

I enjoyed the sandwiches Gill made for me and defrosted, and then went out for a 3 hour stint of more of the same.  I almost didn't want to finish, but I got back to the office just after 4pm and quickly disrobed, put my fleece back on and got back to the station for the 4.26 train.

When I got back to York and cycled away from the station, my bike lights weren't working very well, in fact the front one wasn't working at all.  So I cycled down to Cycle Heaven and a few minutes fiddling revealed that my dynamo had worn out, or gone wrong due to overuse, so I spent £25 on a new one to replace it, and cycled away extremely well lit - much better.

I got in and Gill and the boys were very focused on some telly nonsense (a dancing competition, I think) so I made myself some tea; home grown beans mixed with a bit of tomato soup and cheese, to make a sauce to pour over a big pile of broccoli, all cooked on the woodstove.

I had an extended facebook Scrabble session, playing for over an hour, and enjoyed watching some lightweight TV nonsense... just different nonsense to what the others were into.

Sunday 31st May 09

Lovely morning, lie in with Gill, then a bath... in gas-heated water... the first time this year I've needed to use gas for a bath.

But I cannot go to work dirty!

I left for work clean, hair washed and shiny, plaited by Gill. Left at midday, bike trailer loaded up with bag-o-tricks and unicycles, with my back pack of costume, feathers and balloons on my back. My reading matter, party contact details and sandwiches were in a pannier.

I got my ticket and waited 10 minutes for the train to Huddersfield, chatting to a nice older woman called Jo who was visiting her very old parents in Liverpool. She and I chatted on the platform and then she chose to sit next to me on the train and we had a good chat... no time for me to eat my sandwiches or read, but she was good company.

Nigel, the birthday boy's Dad, met me at Huddersfield, and drove me to the party place, a little village hall in very scenic hill country near Holmfirth. I entertained at their wedding 5 years ago, when their child was nearly 2. So this was his 7th birthday... and he'd invited the whole class.

The party went completely as expected, and I got the 5.30 train back to York. I dozed.

Gill had taken the boys to see a film at City Screen, so I had pasta for tea and went into the garden to muck around there for a bit. The family came in and Gill was exhausted after a trying and difficult day. I got my stuff ready for tomorrow, a playscheme where I'm doing composting etc, so I have to take assorted samples!

I had a peaceful evening, watched a bit of telly and played Scrabble on Facebook.

Wednesday 4th June 08

Both went down to school with the boys and had a meeting with the head. This was regarding an incident at school yesterday. The teachers and head were very sympathetic and understanding and have come up with some possible solutions.

The rest of the day was quite quiet, and I picked the boys up at hometime.

After school went to Huddersfield to meet up with a group of people all members of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (of which I'm a member too) to do a talk on 'my version of green', or selected topics re climate change, ethical lifestyles etc etc.

I started by telling them why I did an Environmental Health degree and about finding out about Agenda 21 in the last term, and putting on a talk about LA21 in the last week I was at Leeds Met, and then helping to get York LA21 going and us successfully lobbying City of York Council to employ an LA21 officer. I then told them why I didn't become an EHO... discovering circus skills and going self employed, and my involvement with LETS which led to me getting York Credit Union going.

I then very enthusiastically explained about my involvement with composting and my starting York Rotters, and how my compost toilet led to me working with BBC Newsnight's 'Ethical Man' and how this led to my getting a column and blog in a magazine. Then I said about last year's start-up of CRAG, the Green Festival, and this spring's Oxfam low-carbon-footprint competition with subsequent visit to Hilary Benn and other MPs.

Of course I was able to put lots of extra facts and lifestyle info into this framework, and in the Q and A session afterwards I talked about compost toilets (again!), Energy Performance Certificates, greening your building and a bit more about successful composting and Master Compost groups. The whole thing took nearly an hour. I enjoyed it very much.

I was given a cheque to cover my travelling expenses plus a bit extra, and taken back to the railway station. I got into the house at about 9.30, just in time to see the latest chunk of 'Ideal' on BBC3 which was very funny. After this I prepared a load of cherry tomatoes and red onions (both thrown out by the wholesaler... the onions are sprouting - for me this shows they are alive but it means that some people won't buy them because they're not quite as firm as dormant onions... the tomatoes were in 9 punnets, each punnet having one or two mouldy tomatoes but 7 or 8 good ones!) and made soup on the woodstove, whilst half watching something on the telly with Gill and doing emails and chatting on the computer with two of my friends all at once. I like this kind of productive evening, I find it very difficult to concentrate on just one thing at once, and much prefer to be bobbing around, doing this and that, shifting my concentration from one thing to another. However it can be difficult for some of the people I know who have a different way of 'working best' and are able (or prefer) to concentrate on one thing at a time. But hey, this makes for a diverse world and this is how I like it!