Saturday 10th October 09

Up reasonably early as had to be ready for David to come round at 9.30am as he's doing the last of the photos for my new publicity leaflet. I really wanted to get a shot of the devilstick balanced on my nose, taken from above, looking down along it's length. So I got changed, got the big ladder out and took it down the garden to the orchard where there is a bit of open space. The light was perfect to begin with... diffuse and misty but 10 minutes later the sun burned through and the lighting got more difficult... a brighter sky meant I couldn't look up as easily without squinting. But, after a bit of manoeuvring and trial and error, we got some good shots.

Then we cycled down to the Novotel which has some good red walls which David really liked when he did the photos last Christmas, so we asked permission and moved pictures off walls and moved a light and tables to get to the right bit of wall. We spent over an hour there, and had a break with a coffee each after which we got some excellent shots.

I had a brief early lunch and got down to St Nicks for Apple Day, where I'd been booked to do Apple Juggling... and to help with announcing (I've a big voice which I can project) and operating the apple press. It was an excellent do, well attended and lots going on. Nettlefoot Kate did her storytelling, popular as ever, the 'Apple Olympics' had apple and spoon races, Andreas did a winning apple peel of about 180cm, and there were lots of some delicious cakes, crumbles and sauces... all made of apple. And juice... the St Nicks staff and volunteers had done a load in the morning and continued crushing and pressing apples all through the afternoon too.

Gill showed up with the boys plus their friend who is spending a lot of time with us, and there were lots of other lovely people there. It wound down around 4pm but I helped sort out various things and didn't leave til 5. I arrived home exhausted.

But after a brief sit down I did do a 45 minute session of compost loading before settling down to some lightweight telly and a delicious pasta-based tea.

A quiet evening... I did consider going to the Green Party music night, a band called Fusion with my drummer friend Keith Jackman, at the Winning Post on Bishopthorpe Road, but I was feeling like a quiet night in just playing Scrabble on Facebook, dealing with fruit on the racks, chatting with Gill etc etc. It was a good evening which couldn't have been better really.

Thursday 13th December 07

A really good day apart from a runny nose. I had been invited into school to do a lesson for year 4, my youngest son's class. So I signed in and arrived at the lines in the playground just before they went in. My 'lesson' started with an introduction as my lad's dad and told them I preferred to be known as John, not Mr Cossham, and that I was also called Professor Fiddlesticks when I was out earning my living.

I started with devilsticks, I love it when they all gasp with amazement when the stick goes up and it looks like it's done with magnets! I showed them how it worked with the centre line being a balance point and then how if it is balanced off-centre, it begins to fall down and it can be caught with the other stick, and it then starts to fall in the other direction. I then did the trick where I balance the stick on my nose (cries of 'awsome' and 'beautiful'!) and explained how this works, moving the base in the same direction that the top is starting to fall in. Then got a third of the class out to balance a peacock feather on their hand or finger for a few minutes, followed by the second third and then the final group.

Then moved from this easy skill to a more difficult one, juggling three balls. The children had been given homework before the weekend to make 3 balls from a filler (rice or other seeds) and three balloons per ball. I showed them my basic juggling skills and how the curved throw worked with the three forces (how much it is thrown vertically up, how hard it is thrown horizionally and how much gravity pulls it down. I then explained how they could learn, starting with one ball being thrown up with one hand and caught in the same hand, then to try that with the other hand. Then onto the 'rainbow shape' throw from one hand to the other, making sure that the catch was in a hand in front of their tummy or chest, and not reaching up to grab the ball or clutch it to their chest. The next stage is to spot the top (used the word 'apex') of the curve which shows the juggler when to throw the second ball, in the same 'rainbow' shape. I showed them the juggling pattern I didn't want them to do, which I call the 'schoolgirl pattern', which is a throw up with the same hand each time and a pass from the other hand into the throwing hand, a roughly circular shape. I knew quite a few of them would get stuck on this, and that relatively few would get to the 3 ball flash and the 3 ball cascade. I was delighted that one child did get the 3-ball flash, and others had seemingly got the idea at least. Th eteacher showed us his juggling prowess, slightly better than me. Then I finished off with a diabolo demonstration with my pet diabolo 'Derek'.

Then I went onto the next classroom, year 3, and they got a shorter demo, with devilstick, hands-on feather-balancing and the diabolo show. Finished at 11am, and was invited up to the staffroom. I had a conversation with a volunteer who is also a mum with children in our children's classes, and she was really happy and impressed with what Id just done. I don't think she'd seen my skills before. We also strayed into the subject of my recent diagnosis, and she said that she now felt she understood me a bit more now I was 'out' as having Aspergers Syndrome with Hyperactivity. She was really lovely and I felt warmed by her comments.

Gill was out in town when I got back, I went on the computer to do emails and after lunch did a stint if splitting logs with my hydraulic/electric splitter, as I have been unable to do these rounds from Woodlands with my axe, the wood is too tough. Some logs split really easily, these don't.

I brought the children home, my eldest was too tired to go to cubs. I, amazingly, fell asleep after tea... this is a rare event! Only for 30 minutes though, and woke to make the kids their supper and put them to bed.

Saturday 15th September 07

I slept well and was woken by a shout from Meg as I'd asked, at 8am, and had a pleasent breakfast. Meg was helping with a Farmers Market at her church, St Michaels, which is just 2 minutes walk from their house. The bus stop is right next to the church and the bus came very soon, dropping me off near Adelphi Street, which is where the University of Central Lancashire centres around.

I easily found the Harrington Building and waited for the person who was our named contact. Various other entertainers rolled in, including my friend Robin Ellwood, who does 'Visitation Productions', playing various characters including today, Madge the Cleaning Lady. Robin is a very big guy, perhaps 6 foot 6 tall, and almost as wide (I jest!) so he makes quite an impact in drag and being very OTT. He also does a robot character but I didn't see him do this during this weekend. My friend Hugh Barwell the accordion player came, he's got a new digital accordion and it does an impressive array of different sounds, including trombone and trumpet, Scottish accordion, saxaphone and double bass. It is truly a lovely instrument, and Hugh is so good at it, he has a vast repetoir and a good style. (http://anaccordionist.co.uk/) Then 'The Wonderful Stevie' arrived, who does contact juggling and some other circussy stuff, and a pair I didn't know so well, Muttonchops and Mark Wazzjazz, who play drunken strolling players with a wide knowledge of tunes on a banjo and tiny saxophone. They started the day with a can of lager each! There were some other entertainers too, but I didn't see them until I had started working.

I was placed outside the Harrington Building and so was Hugh, which was excellent as I had some lovely music to twiddle my devilstick to, and it was fairly quiet, audience-wise, certainly for participation. However I did engage with a group of six chinese students, one of whom displayed quite a talent with the devilsticks, so I suggested that I taught them to juggle. This particular young woman learned the 3-ball cascade in about 5 minutes, and was well pleased with herself. I was also extremely pleased, as it kind of justified my being there and having a generally quiet day.

At about 4pm I gathered myself up and strolled into town and caught the No 25 bus, back to Ashton, and as I was still in costume, some of the bus passengers had a giggle, which was good.

And as I was still in costume when I got back to Meg's, I did a mini show for her neighbours, then we walked the 10 minutes along to her son John's house, as he had never seen my skills, and she thought he would be intrigued. He was pleased to see me and remembered that I'd sent him a letter following his Countdown success. I demonstrated the various tricks I do outside his terraced house, and some neighbour's children came to watch. I finished by making them some balloon models, it was good to have an appreciative audience. The taxi-driver was right, it is lovely to bring fun and colour into peoples' lives, I feel very lucky to be someone who can do that.
When we got back to Meg's, I picked some apples for her, using a step-ladder, and she got a stew together for when Stephen was due in after 8pm. We then settled down with a drink each and watched some overacted 'Casualty' until Stephen arrived home. I was very happy to see him again, and we had the aubergine-based stew together before retiring to bed.

Thursday 3rd May 2007 Local Elections Day

Woke feeling quite excited as the elections are always reasonably exciting, even if I don't have much chance of getting elected, which would be just amazing since I've done no leafletting or canvassing in my ward.

I took the kids to school as Gill wasn't feeling good, and towards 10am the media students arrived, as planned, to film some of the election stuff, me going into the polling station with Gill, and they also wanted to find out how I earned my living so I did some Professor Fiddlesticks practice in the garden, and some of the crew had a go at devilstick, diabolo and 3 ball juggling. Fun!

They left by lunchtime and after lunch, whilst Gill went and sat in the poling station in Fishergate, I went to town and picked up my 'wednesday' composting... which I didn't do yesterday, and also popped in on Miller's Yard, Claire was delighted to give me 3 trays of oranges which she described as sour, and unsuitable to put in their orange squeezing machine. However I had some when I got home and found them just fine, and probably good for making marmalade.

Picked up the kids and then went to the allotment to put in the final two varieties of first earlies, did some compost management and weeding too. Gill provided nice tea, including asparagus soup made from the tips of about 10 bunches picked up yesterday.... I prepared and cooked them at midnight to stop them deteriorating further, and Gill put celery and potato with them and made a good soup.

At 7pm I went to the Fishergate polling station to sit in it for a couple of hours and ask for peoples' electoral roll numbers so Green voters who had promised to vote for us but hadn't visited the polling station could be 'door knocked' and reminded that it was election day.

When I got back I was cold and was happy to sit by the stove and warm up. Watched some late night election tv coverage. Our telephone stopped working, no dialtone, so couldn't do any blogging or emails.

22 Feb 07

A busy day today, with a 'freecycle' meet-up, a 'Professor Fiddlesticks' gig and 2 social visits.

A few weeks ago, during the gales, a sheet of expanded polystyrene blew into our garden. It was too big to be called litter, so it didn't get tidied and put in the bin, it got put in the conservatory and we wondered what to do with it. Last week I was delighted to read on my 'Freecycle' email digest that someone wanted a sheet of polystyrene, so I offered it to him. Freecycle is great. You find your local Freecycle group on the net and sign up with your email address, and wait for the first emails. I wanted to get a block of up to 25 emails at once, and the messages are from people offering all kinds of things for free, and a few wanting free things. The aims are to stop items going into landfill which could be reused. All sorts of things are offered, from kitchen cabinets to childrens books, old computers suitable only for spares to as-yet-unwrapped (but unwanted) bathroom toiletries, and everything inbetween, and then some things you didn't think of!

So far I haven't recieved anything I've asked for, as other people are invariably online as the message is posted, but I've helped out several people with their wants... wood for repairing something, an electric toaster, and now the polystyrene sheet. The happy recipient said he could collect it by car on Wednesday, so I emailed back and suggested that I could deliver by bike on my way to my gig today. So at midday I met him at the Fox and handed over the polystyrene. He wanted it to place under a heated propagator for germinating seeds, to reduce heat being conducted away through the staging in his greenhouse.

I cycled on to the school I was working in, a lunchtime circus skills workshop with some slightly special-needs youngsters. This is the third in a series, today was focussing on 3 ball juggling. I earn my living as 'Professor Fiddlesticks' (www.kidspartysurvivalguide.com/fiddlesticks), an entertainer performing circus skills workshops and shows, and teaching balloon modelling. I've been doing this since 1992 and still love it! The youngsters all had a go with juggling and some suprised themselves by learning the basics. One lad was keen to show me his yoyo tricks, others are diabolo-mad. My favourite is devilsticks, it really grabs my attention and I love doing it. Seemingly I perform it well enough for others to enjoy watching me, and I'm a good teacher, patient and good at explaining 'how to'. Infact my science background and my ability to explain stuff means I have developed a show called 'Professor Fiddlesticks Fun Physics' which has key stage 1 and ks2 science in a fun interactive format. I'd like more gigs presenting this.

After my 45 minutes full-on circus teach-in, I visited my lovely old lady-friend Jean. She was 90 years old a week or two ago, and she resides in a care home. We have been friends for over 10 years and she's very unconventional and free-thinking. We can talk about anything, no subjects off-limits. She doesn't get a lot of physical contact anymore, so I always give her a foot massage which she finds very relaxing. Next week I'm going to visit and she'll dictate a couple of letters to people who sent her letters for her birthday. She got so many cards, quite a few were from people she couldn't remember or work out where she had met them. But in 90 years you must collect quite a few contacts, and by that age it must be easy to forget some of them!

So I had two hours with Jean and then nearly an hour with my good friend Pauline. She is a 'low carbon lifestyle' person, and is keen on her Clearview stove and her Freecycled kitchen. I met Pauline through a project which helped me when I was younger and angrier, AVP, Alternatives to Violence Project. They put on workshops to help people understand the conflicts in their life, and to help them resolve them creatively. It certainly helped me, as now I am able (most of the time!) to deal with my anger and to recognise my triggers. AVP puts on workshops in prisons and in the community, and I am still involved, helping to run 'AVP North-East And East Midlands', which is a member of AVP Britain. AVP runs worldwide and has helped so many people. One of the jobs I do is to phone up participants a month or two after the workshop and conduct some followup, to find if they found it useful. Most people say it has changed their lives and they have used what they've learnt in everyday situations. Pauline was the coordinator at one time. Then we worked together on the Local Agenda 21 group... but that's another blog!

Home to a big bowl of pumpkin, butternut and leek soup, cooked on the woodstove. Delicious!