Sunday 14th December 08

An early start this morning as working in Bradford.

I'd bought my tickets yesterday so arrived at the station with just 5 minutes to spare, and got the 8.40 to Leeds. I was due to get the 9.32 to Bradford Forster Square and be collected there at 10ish, but that train had been cancelled. I immediately went to the Leeds Station Office and asked if there was another train to Bradford, and was advised the 9.23 to Bradford Interchange, and I tried to ring my contact at the gig, but she wasn't picking up...

Went to get the 9.23 but it wouldn't start! The driver rang the Station Office to see if another train could be held for 2 mins to allow the passengers to get that but it went, just as I got to that platform.... so I decided to visit the Station Office once more, try to ring my contact again, and see what to do then. Fortunately, she picked up this time and told me the road name for the venue, and I went to get a taxi from outside Leeds Station, and helped the taxi driver put the road name into his TomTom guide thingy which he proceeded to ignore until he reached the centre of Bradford, when it directed us to the venue pretty well. This extra journey cost me £20, which I will try to claim back from the rail people (I'm not expecting this to work, but if you don't try, you don't get, so it's worth a polite letter!)

So, work today was at the Abundant Life Ministries, a Christian church based in an enormous warehouse and other buildings nearby. They have a congregation of two thousand or so, and plenty of activities for children and teenagers. It reminded me of some of the huge American churches in it's scale and approach. My role was to provide the Christmas party entertainment... a one-hour show for the 4 year olds to young teens, followed by a half hour show with the 1 to 3 year olds in a different venue. These both went well and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves... including me, as usual! I was given a lift back to the Interchange and got a train to Leeds and then one back to York, getting home just before 3pm.

Had a quick coffee and then finished off building the logpile to the right of the door, looking out.

The boys were engrossed in Spore and Gill, who's quite a bit better, went to the shops briefly.

Tea was soup followed by remains of pizza for me with baked beans and mushrooms, the boys had soup and cheese toasties with beans and mushrooms.

The boys went to bed without a hitch and I sliced apples and filled another rack for drying, then washed and graded 5 bags of grapes, blanched them and put them on a non-stick tray on top of one of the lids of the cans of water on the stove, so that within maybe three days, they'll be raisins.

Friday 5th December 08

Not that good a morning... yesterday's lack of effort with homework meant that the person who hadn't done it was threatening not to go to school. I offered an ultimatum which worked... Anita had told me that if we rang the school and asked them to come and pick up the child refusing to go, they would do that. Now I have no idea if that is actually true, but the threat worked a treat and the little darling left only 10 minutes after he usually does.

I cannot remember what I did in the morning, because of the busyness and interest during the latter half of the day.

I got a rain at 2 something over to Manchester and had a pleasant chat to a car dealer who got off in Huddersfield. Nice chap. There was a quick change in Manchester Piccadilly onto the Euston train which stopped at Macclesfield, where I was due to meet my handler at 4.45, to start a show in a school at 6pm. The lovely Virgin Pendolino drew into Macclesfield and the lights went on for the door to be opened... but it wouldn't, and as about a dozen of us were at the end carriage, there was no nearby door we could use. The button to speak to the driver didn't work either, and the train doors bleeped to close and we slid out of the station heading for Stoke on Trent. I asked a fellow passenger if I could borrow a mobile phone but it didn't work. The conductor on the train was helpful and told us we'd be able to get the 5.07 train from Stoke back up to Macclesfield. I managed to ring Gill and explain what had happened in case the school rang up. Got back into Macclesfield for 5.21 where my handler was patiently waiting with his 'Professor Fiddlesticks For Bollington Cross School' notice. We both breathed a sigh of relief!

So I got to the school at 5.35, got changed and ate some of the pasta, green pepper and carrot salad Gill had given me for tea, and was ready to start the entertainment for 5.55pm, phew!

I did some unicycle-about, chasing the children which they loved, and at 6.30 the DJ announced me over the PA system... and when I announced myself it was louder hahahaha and got a really good, if a bit noisy crowd, and did a fast-moving 40 minute show which went very well. Then I got a chair and proceeded to blow up one balloon after another and made a succession of dogs, birds, giraffes, kangaroos, fighting worms, rabbits and one cat. I asked for a donation for each one and I reckon there would have been about £20 in the pot by 8pm which is when the queue stopped and I also needed to stop, to be ferried back to the station where I got the 8.23 back to Manchester, in costume.

A very easy and normal journey home, getting into York at nearly 11pm and very happy to be back home 15 minutes later. Ali had rung Gill saying she wouldn't be in email contact for a bit as she'd spilt a drink on her laptop, so I rang her and had a little chat, which was nice as we most often just message each other on Skype-type.