Tuesday 3s1t May 11

A good day, messing around with my little camera which by sundown I'd got sorted.... using a pair of cable ties to allow it to be mounted onto my tri-bars, although with the test ride, the camera fell out of it's holder (which stayed secure on the bike) and onto the road..... and kept working.

I also repotted the tomato plants from the Sports Day yesterday, and the courgettes.  I bunged a huge pile of weeds onto a compost heap.  I met Abul as he came to borrow some drain rods. I chopped up two pineapples into slices for drying and cubes for a fruit salad. I filled in a questionnaire with Gill about 'car free developments' for a friend of ours who's researching the subject, and dealt with several phone enquiries.

At 5pm I cycled down to town to meet with Tony Wood, a Structural Engineer, who inspected the steel joist in David's cellar and said the small amount of corrosion was nothing to be worried about.  I also visited the gun and knife shop, where the owner said he'd got nowhere with persuading the other shop owners to contribute to the cost of unblocking the inspection chamber, so he offered to pay half, and paid me cash there and then, which I signed for and went to give David.  David gave me a cheque for the whole amount to pay the Council.

For those REALLY interested in the video I made, just a short cycle around the block, it's on You Tube.

Wednesday 25th May 11

Well a somewhat frustrating day but some good bits.  I was woken before 9 by what sounded like gunshots but I worked out was a nail gun or similar being used on a house nearby.  So I got up as it's impossible to snooze through repeated loud bangs.

Gill took our youngest to school.  I did some work with my dried fruit leather... labour intensive but the only way to deal with the problem that the banana and orange leather is drying nicely but sticking to the sheet I put under it.  Both the tray with the plastic bag and the tray with some allegedly 'non-stick' aluminium had the fruit leather sticking to it, and really difficult to peel off.  But I managed to peel and tear some off and was able to fashion it into a little ball, which I put on a plate to dry, as a 'sweetie' type thing.  I did a plateful of little banana and orange balls before I went out.

I'd said to Sue that I'd come and check out her fence area before saying whether I'd be able to make the pallets I sourced for her into a fence.  So I decided to try out the helmet camera again and I got it going before I left and just left it going all the while, even when exploring Sue's garden.  In order to do anything with the fence which needs replacing in some areas and re-instating in others, a large amount of stuff will have to be removed.  I offered to do some sorting out for her before we either do the fence ourselves, or get someone else in to do the fence.

I called in on Robin on the way back and had a coffee with him and his Mum who was helping out.  We had some good conversations but at 12.45 I left, doing another film.  When I got in, I tried to download the material I'd recorded, but my laptop told me that I didn't have enough disc space, and I was unable to watch the first film, the one with Sue's garden, so I deleted it, but the one from Robin's to home was OK... but the camera was angled towards the road too much so lots of footage of tarmac.  I deleted that too.

After lunch I did another test film, a 5 minute walk down the garden, which I was able to upload , and put on facebook to show my friend Anzir, who's considering buying something similar.  I sorted out our train tickets for our holiday down to St Austell... and the way back.  I was pleased with the advance ticket price, as it all worked out as just £22.50 per person per journey, which I think is good value.

I did more banana balls.  I spent some nice times in the garden, weeding a raised bed and pulling out more ground elder. I did another big wash up. I splayed out the pineapple slices into the 'angel' shape I like to cut them into.  I popped over to see Debbie as she'd asked me to go and see her, but she was watching some sort of Murder Mystery thing so I didn't stay long.