Saturday 17th April 10

Woke feeling a small amount of joy and slightly more anticipation... I'm helping with some research to see if there's any correlation between waking and dream emotions, in fact I'm not sure what it's about, but it's a student from University of York and I have to fill in an emotions thing when I wake up and just before I go to sleep. I found out about it through a facebook friend and I messaged the person and she sent me the forms in yesterday's post.

So my anticipation levels are quite high.

I got a phone call in the morning from Rich at Country Fresh, as all but one of the bags of compost have gone, so he requested some more.

I went down to town after an early lunch (via Country Fresh, to deliver compost and met 2 delightful young ladies, called Chloe and Gita) to try to find the beer that Pugwash Convention have requested for this evening, but couldn't find it. I did get coffee from Oxfam and some nice bread at Sainsbury's, and the wine the band wanted.


A lovely day, warm and sunny. Wish I wasn't rushing around!

I went on the net to find the York Beer Shop's contact details, as they might have had Cropton Real Ale. They didn't. I went on the Cropton Brewery website and rang them to ask where the nearest place was that I could buy some of their bottled goodies. Apparently it is on sale in Tesco. My heart sank... Tesco is a place I don't really want to go to (here's why) and it's the other side of town. But I really wanted to get the beer the band wanted, so I found the Tesco website and rang them... they said yes, Tesco at Askham Bar had it in. I then rang Tesco at Askham Bar to check that they did have it in and I asked them if I'd be able to collect 8 bottles from somewhere easy to get in the store... and they helpfully said yes, come to Customer Services and it's £2.08 a bottle.

The time soon arrived when I had to pack everything up and zoom off to the other side of town to pick up this expensive beer. I got to Tesco at 5.35 and back to Priory St at 5.55... and I didn't have to open up as John the Caretaker, who's quite a character, was already there and sorting the place out.

The next hour was quite hectic... moving tables, setting out chairs, welcoming the band, welcoming stallholders... and quite soon, people started arriving so I was on the door, checking names against a long list who pre booked (£3) and those who just turned up (£4, £3 concessions), and telling people about where the film was and inviting them to buy a raffle ticket or a strip of tickets, or to leave their contact details if they wanted to get our newsletter online....

I was surprised by the numbers of people who came, and not 'the usual suspects' but ordinary people here for a dance. The band got started and yet more people came to get in. If anything, we had too many people... a far better problem than too few! I took a break and had some of the food that the Steiner School had brought.. a nice couscous salad with a bread roll and a veggie sausage, for £2.50. Reasonable, and what I needed. I had a piece of cake afterwards and then went back to my 'organiser' duties.

At one stage, when the band were taking a break, I did a little bit of balloon modelling as there were a handful of children there, and some older folks had one too, including a nice lass called Rachel who I keep bumping into and she is very friendly with me... well she seems to laugh at me a lot. That's OK... far better to laugh at me than to growl and frown....

Towards the end of the break we did the raffle and that seemed to go down well... there were loads of prizes so lots of people happy.

I kept busy during the second half, clearing up bottles and cans and cups and paper plates... everything recyclable I collected to take home. This ended up as two sacks of cans and bottles, a large box of the same, a bag of paper plates, serviettes and food, and a few other things too.

Id taken some compost down for sale on the LETS stall but it didn't sell so i gave it away at the end as I didn't have space in the trailer to bring it back.

Right at the end, when we had cleared up, and after we'd left the building, I had a discussion with a woman called Vicky who seemed to not like 'labels', and I got a bit annoyed trying to explain that I was comfortable with the sciency way of describing things, but I just think she was trying to antagonise me. She succeeded. I cycled home hoping that my bedtime filling-in of my mood forms wouldn't include the negative emotions I was having about the conversation I'd just had... and seeing Gill again did put that all behind me. She'd had a quiet and peaceful evening thank goodness, and was happy to see me.

I was happy that we'd had such a successful event and that everybody had enjoyed themselves so much, and that we raised awareness about Transition and quite a bit of money. I think we ought to do that sort of thing more often.

Sunday 13th September 09

I woke at about 8.30 and had my breakfast with a nice old Welsh guy (aged 88) on a walking holiday. I think his name was Gwilym and he was very nice. However, i couldn't stop and chat for long as I knew ideally I should be at UCLAN by 10am. I also knew I'd probably have to walk into town. So I got changed into Fiddlesticks clothes (minus hat!) and packed my rucksack and walked into town. The bus shelters confirmed my suspicions that Sunday morning bus services in Preston are few and far between...

But I got to the Harrington Building by about 10am and there was a lot happening there, so i went to get myself ready and was throwing my devilstick around in my usual arty way by ten-past.

I had a lovely day, working almost continuously. Towards lunchtime though, the Facilites Manager Phil, whom I'd had a discussion with last year about recycling I think, took me to the nearby Students Union Building to see the huge array of solar photovoltaic panels and the real-time readout in the building. You can read about this in more detail in this pdf newsletter (scroll down to page 3 'Solar Signpost') and the latest developments with more solar electricity and wind turbines coming on stream with this pdf, first page. I was very impressed, although the real-time monitors needed some explanation as to what the numbers actually mean.

I enjoyed lunch and the afternoon session even more, especially as Zoot showed me how to use a 'walking ladder'. I wasn't very good but I reckon I could be if I practiced! I also enjoyed watching The Wonderful Stevie with contact juggling and bubbles.

And all too soon (!) my enjoyment of Pugwash Convention and the Red Rose Brass Band came to a close as Stevie and I were offered a lift down to the station so we could get the 4.30 train.

I got changed at the station and our train was on time. However, there were quite a few children on the train, some of whom were fascinated by Stevie's constant contact juggling (see
this YouTube vid for one style of this, and this one and this one for more amazing manipulations!) I made a few balloon animals but Stevie really got their attention with a contact juggling workshop followed by plate spinning... it was a lovely sight to see, and one of the best train journeys I've had! Stevie doesn't have a website (yet) but if anyone wants to book him, you can ring 0113 261 0057 or email raw_raw_inexpert (at) yahoo.co.uk.

He got off in Leeds and then did a load of huge bubbles on the station platform, much to the delight of the children (and their parents!) I had another half hour to York and got home to my family at about 7pm.

What a weekend!

I did my blog and emails late on, and received the very sad news that my friend Austin Wilson died last weekend, very suddenly after the Green Festival. I talked to his widow Azra on the phone and she told me what had happened. I know them because they have provided fantastic Indian food at YGF since we started three years ago. They had been married 30 years and were a lovely couple. I am very upset and will attend the funeral on Friday.