Friday 26th August 11, Galtres Festival

The day started off well, with pasties for breakfast!  Soon I got going and got more pallets and started to build the second bin.  I got some cardboard and lined the first one and started to fill it with a few paper plates and assorted biodegradables.  The site got progressively busier and busier, and officially opened to the public at 4pm.

I got my assorted wristbands... one saying I was over 18, so I could buy alcoholic drinks, one saying I had a weekend ticket, the other saying I was a performer and could therefore go to the backstage area where I was camping, and of course, making the compost bins.  I was given 5x £15 beer and food tokens, two for the two days I was working as Professor Fiddlesticks, and three for the three days I was working as a waste management person.  The books of tickets are a good idea, I think.  Each £15 book has 10x £1.50 tokens, which can be exchanged for drinks and food.  So a pint of beer or cider is two tokens, most meals are 2 or 3 tokens, apart from the pizzas which are 4. When the retailer has collected a big pile of these tokens, they can cash them in with the festival organiser, who gives them 80% of their value... with the remaining 20% going to charity.  There are little cabins where the books of tokens can be bought.  I met one caterer who didn't like the 'multiples of £1.50' idea, and about 5 who did.  One caterer had produced their own 50p token to give as change for one meal which they had worked out was worth £2, with the 50p token spendable at their stall. 

It rained and rained.  The site got very muddy. But it was good to be at a festival again.

Today's highlight was the cider and perry tasting.  I can't remember what happened after that.

Thursday 7th May 09, my birthday..

My children came into the bedroom as I was waking up singing Happy Birthday, and gave me a card and a little present... a plastic liquid-filled tower which when turned has bubbles of air bubbling up and globules of liquid dripping downwards, either side of a spiral barrier. I do wish they hadn't bothered! But birthdays aren't just for the celebrant, they are partly for the people celebrating your life. I was sensible enough just to thank them, not to go on about green issues then! I later learnt that my youngest had bought this for himself, and then had realised that I hadn't got a present, so he I think volunteered to give it to me. How sweet are my children?

Anyway, a normal morning ensued, Gill again took our youngest to school and came home and we had a nice hour together, before the first visitor of the day. This was in fact two people, Margaret and her daughter, to collect a load of jam jars for marmalade and other preservation. They were fascinated with the stove and dried fruit, and had a tour of the garden. Lots of opportunities to give then info about green choices... which Margaret had indicated she was interested in talking to me about.

Our second visitor arrived before the first ones went, it was Tony who had left his walking stick here when he came to help bury Andy's cat. Tony drank some tea, chatted and went... with his stick!

Gill and I had lunch, and after lunch Gill did some transplanting of aquilegias which had grown in the wrong place, and I cycled to Oxfam for coffee and Sainsburys for assorted groceries.

At 3.45, our next visitor arrived, Tim, who was picking up our old front door for a project at Poppleton Station where a group of volunteers are rejuvenating the old nursery and are going to use it as horticultural therapy, mainly for people involved with Bootham Hospital. Excellent idea! I of course offered my services as a compost enthuser! (If that's a job title, or even a word...?) Anyway, good to see the back of the jars and door.

As the boys came home, the charity walkers from Meningitis UK came by, so we put some money in their bucket and Gill took a couple of photos. They are walking from Blackpool to Bridlington! Respect!

Birthday tea was rice and veg, and then I gathered myself together to go to St John's to the York Green Festival meeting.

After which we went to the Olde Starre Inn on Stonegate and had a leaving do for Anika, who's moving to Derby. Had some excellent chats, with a film and TV lecturer, my friends Baz, Rich and Martin, and some other of Anika's friends. I had three pints of pear cider, which is a lot for me... my usual consumption is a single pint. But, when people offer you a drink on your birthday, it would be churlish to say no and go home early. So got home at midnight, tipsy but happy.