Wednesday 30th March 11

I got up early as I was due to cycle into school with our youngest, and was ready for 8.30 with his bike waiting out at the front.  I waited for well over half an hour and he didn't get himself ready... eventually Gill told me to go on to  Edwina's without him, as he wasn't well enough to go to school.  This all put me in a grumpy mood.  When I was young I went to school whatever I was feeling like... I had to be REALLY ill to miss school.

I had strapped my wrecking bar to my bike frame, and checked with Edwina that the garage was open for me.  I got to hers at what I thought was 9.40, but I hadn't altered my phone time so in reality it was 10.40.

Anyway, I got busy and started demolishing the little wall which Edwina wanted out, it was a tough job, and I interspersed this with pulling out weeds and chopping up brambles into the new compost bin, which is in a temporary place.  This work cheered me up, as the weather was nice and I enjoyed the work, despite it being difficult.

Edwina was in but not feeling well, so I worked solidly for 3 hours, finishing at what I thought was 12.40.  I was due to meet Richard at David's flat at 2pm, so I had a bit of a slow lunch in town, and went to David's at what I thought was 1.45... but I realised much later that my phone didn't automatically change last weekend, so I was late to this meeting.  Linda, David's friend and cleaner, was there to meet me and to sort out times that we're working for David when Richard goes to France, in 2 weeks.  We've met before, at St Nicks, apparently!

And then I visited Barnitts to look at chainsaws, and then to Country Fresh, and then home.

I was feeling very achy and tired, but did another couple of hours after tea in the garden.  Gill had a bath and the water was still hot so I had a soak after her, to see if that helped my aches.  I came down at 10 and my phone went; it was Lisa saying that Liam, her son, was at York Station and was I going to meet him?  I'd been expecting him tomorrow night, not tonight!  I texted Liam with our address and said to get a taxi.

Was good to see him, and we chatted about interviews etc, as he's got an interview for a University place tomorrow.  He bedded down on the futon in the front room at about midnight, and asked to be got up at 7 tomorrow, to get a train soon after 8.

Tuesday 29th March 11

A mixed day... our youngest went to school in a taxi all by himself for the first time and I got ready to go to John Bibby's to continue chopping up his huge log.  I delivered a rhubarb root, sprouting several leaves, to Keith as a thank you for fixing the chainsaw, and then delivered a receipt of payment to a gent who lives near John.

I soon got busy with the log, cutting it with the saw and then using the maul effectively to break chunks off.  I filled their car and just as I was getting to the end of my stint, the chainsaw broke... the motor was able to go round but the chain didn't.  Bummer.

I had a coffee with Shirley and then also John joined us, and Shirley told me about what they'd experienced in Palestine on their recent visit.

I then cycled home and 20 minutes later, John arrived in his car and I unloaded the chunks into the builders bag ready for splitting.

Had lunch, can't remember what I did after lunch but at about 3pm I took our youngest's bike down to the Steiner School on my trailer and we cycled home together.

I had a difficult phone call with my agent who's got hold of the wrong end of the stick about something and I'm not very happy with the outcome, but will go along with it to 'keep the peace'.

I had a cycle around the neighbourhood to collect signatures for the nominations papers for me and Luke, who's my running mate in the forthcoming elections. Will D then came round and collected them, and at 8.15 I went to visit Jane, as she wanted some help with doing an event page for a dance event she's organising.  So that was pretty straightforward, and we had a good chat.  I got back at about 11pm with two pallets.  Whilst rescuing the pallets from a skip, I witnessed an argument between a male and a female and when he hit her, I ran over towards them shouting 'stop that' and said I'd ring the police.  She begged me not to and urged the male to go with her, but she twice called out thank you to me.  Sad to see that sort of thing going on.

Monday 28th March 11

Up early as I took our youngest to school.. well, he cycled himself, mostly, with gentle pushes up the hilly bits and a few other places.  Got to school in about 20 minutes.

I then cycled back and got a message that our son's Maths tutor wasn't well and had called off.  I had a busy morning doing assorted admin and paperwork, but at midday went out to The Maltings to see my Green Gathering friend Stu Oolong for possibly the last time, as he's moving to Los Angeles with his partner Shaari, and although he might come back to the UK occasionally, his family is 'down south' so trips to 'oop narth' might be few and far between.  He was chatting with Lou and Rich; was good to see them again, and I spent over an hour there.  Stu gave me some vinyl records that he wanted to offload before the trip... I'll have to get my amplifier sorted out to listen to them!

I then went to the building society to get out a cheque for the cost of replacing my brakes with better bigger ones, and the chain-set, block and sprocket.  I was a bit gobsmacked at the cost but I hope the new bits will keep me safe...  I picked up my bike and refitted the trailer and came home, via a pallet pile and a Freshways donation...

Did some log stacking as we've used up the stack to the left of the front door (looking out).  I collected our youngest too, at 4.15 as he's having extra French lessons to catch up with the rest of the class.

After a small tea I cycled to the Hospital to see David and amongst other things, we discussed when I was going to go back to work with him.  Collected logs on the way home.

I wonder how many miles I've cycled today?

Sunday 27th March 11

I had a bit of a lie-in which was good, and when I came down I filled in the Census form, although I found it complicated and had to make a few corrections, crossings out, explanations, and I accidentally spilled some coffee on it. Whoops.  Methinks the American arms manufacturer who has won the contract might not make any profit on our form.  The boys filled in their sections, and then Gill did hers; she too had to help the form administrators understand what she was putting.  It's nice to know a real person will be dealing with our information, not some faceless computer.

However, as it was lovely outside I got out into the garden as I still had more compost stuff to sort out, and I got quite a bit done.

But then after lunch I remembered I was supposed to take my bike to Cycle Heaven to get the new disc brakes fitted, as the original ones wear down really quickly and the little plastic wheel used to tighten the pad has broken off and the mechanism gets too difficult to tighten up even with pliers.  Very unsatisfactory.  So, at some expense, I'm having disc brakes fitted with pads which are twice as big, and hopefully will wear down half as fast!  I also need a new front chain wheel, or sprocket, but the stainless steel one hasn't arrived yet so I'm having an ordinary one fitted to make the bike safe, and if/when the more resilient one arrives, that will replace the one being put on today.  So I cycled down and left my bike and trailer there, and came home on a replacement bike, which doesn't have all the three gears working. 

I popped in on Rich at Country Fresh and bought some fruit and veg, and loaded a box and a bag of recyclable materials on the rack, and came home and continued my work in the garden.

Gill came down the garden at about 7pm and suggested I come in and watch Countryfile and have tea, which was pasta and mushrooms.

I was glad to come and sit down as I have been very busy today, and I watched a programme about the Japanese Earthquake and then a Brian Cox offering about light whilst playing Scrabble.

Saturday 26th March 11 - UK Aware 2011 day two AND London protests

I woke up fairly early and spent some time with Lisa before breakfast and getting ready to go into London.  Lisa and her son Liam were going into London for the anti-cuts demonstration, whereas Ian was staying at home and taking their daughter to her dance lesson.

So Liam and I walked along to Honor Oak Park station and Lisa (who went back to collect song sheets) joined me on the platform, and we travelled into London Bridge together, and were joined by more flag-bearing protesters, and some of Lisa's choir too, the Strawberry Thieves.  I said goodbye to Lisa at London Bridge and got the Jubilee Line to Westminster, so I could go to West Kensington.  As I was waiting on the platform for the Westbound District Line train, there was an announcement that the station was now closed, so please leave the station.  The train drew into the platform, and I thought, great, leave the station.... but then the train sped up again and didn't stop.  So, went up to the surface where protesters were already gathering, and apparently this was why the station was closed, as the authorities didn't want crowds of people coming up out of the station into even larger crowds next to Parliament.  I asked a policeman about getting to Kensington, he suggested walking to St James's Park and continuing Westwards from there.  I enjoyed this walk as there was no motor traffic, just people milling around and getting ready for the march.

So, walked from West Kensington up to Olympia, got a £1.20 pastie for lunch as the food at the UK Aware was so expensive.  I made contact with Philippa to let her know I was here on the day I was supposed to be talking, and went to have a wander around.  I decided to spend my very limited amount of money on two things... a packet of two USB rechargeable batteries for Gill's portable clock radio and a small salt crystal deodorant which will replace my pitrok when that wears out or is dropped and shatters; the crystal I bought is entirely natural and is from the Sahara.  Both these reduce waste.  The rechargeable batteries don't need a special charger, they plug into the USB port of any computer and take a tiny amount of electric current to charge up, and can then replace ordinary batteries.  They'll recharge 500 times.

I had my lunch and chatted to people, then went to see Brigit Strawbridge's talk on bees.

tbc

Friday 25th March 11 - UK Aware 2011, day one

A very early bleary start at about 6.30am (yawn) as had to be on the 08.11 train to London, and I hadn't got all my stuff together last night.

But as usual I managed to get to the station on time, and got myself nestled down into my booked seat.... and then blow me, who should come and sit opposite but my neighbour's son Joe, on the way down to some kind of induction into a Mariner's organisation on a ship moored on the Thames.  We chatted a bit but then he immersed himself in his Kindle or iPad or something.

Fortunately, a lovely Chinese lass came to sit next to me, Faye, who's at the University of York doing a Masters in Education, her aim is to teach English in China.  We got on really well, and covered many subjects, and I hope she'll contact me after her trip to China to see her family.

So, as there was intense conversation, the journey went quickly, and soon after 10am, we were on Platform 0 at King's Cross.  I'd worked out my route last night, and headed for the tube to Earl's Court.  What I hadn't known was that to get the train from Earl's Court to Olympia the Olympia trains have to be running, and they weren't.  The tannoy said to go to a station South of Earl's Court, so I got this train, with some nice folks with an ADHD son, heading to the Dr. Who Exhibition.  But I hadn't heard that from this we should get the overland train, and I said I was sure we were going in the wrong direction, and we all went back to Earl's Court.  Here we got the info that we should have taken the overland one North up to Olympia, so we went South again to catch that.  However, when we got to that overland train platform, there was a sign saying 'next train to Olympia, 55 minutes'.  So we asked the station person, and she said get the C1 bus.  We got this, a largish group of us by now, and by midday we were at Olympia 2, for UK Aware.

I was first confronted by a rather hyperactive photographer taking pictures of the people coming through the door, had a show guide booklet thrust into my hands, and went to the front desk to register.  As I'm a speaker, I was told to go and pick up my badge from the side desk, and here I met Philippa whom I'd had a lot of email contact. It was good to meet her, and hopefully she was able to mentally tick off one more thing to worry about from her list.... the urban composting presenter is safely in London and has found the venue!

The show area had a lot of cars, bicycles and funny looking scooter/motorbikes on the left, so I had a quick look there first.  The cars were the various electric ones, which cost a lot but only cost a few pennies per mile to run, and give out no 'tail pipe' emissions.  The motorbike-like things were more my cup of tea (apart from the retail cost, starting at £1500) but were being tried out on a test-track... they can accelerate up to 20mph really quickly.  These were from solstis bikes and Quantya bikes. 

Near these was a hydrogen-powered fuel cell van owned by Camden Council. A model of a new wind turbine with swept-back blades which make it completely silent was in front of a bus covered in astroturf, 'The Big Green Bus', doing a week-long tour of London to promote Climate Week, and it's green as it runs on waste vegetable oil.  The bus is also sponsored by Armadillo LED lighting, which had an impressive and powerful set of lights on show.

still tbc!

Thursday24th March 11

I worked late into the night using Lucy's laptop and WiFi to write up the past couple of days events, and went to sleep on their fold-out couch/bed well after 2am.

And was woken up at 7am as I was booked onto the 8.06 from Weston to Bristol.  I had some cereal and toast with the children, and Lucy was driving past the station anyway so she dropped me there and came onto the platform for a few minutes to see me off.

In Bristol the 9am train to London was waiting, I had got a cheap route via Reading... a longer journey but cheaper ticket, so got into Reading at just after 10 and then waited for the Newcastle train which came in at 10.35 and left 5 mins later, with me esconced on a reserved seat.  Got the laptop out and half dozed, half deleted emails, chatted to Ernie behind me at one stage of the journey, and a lady opposite too, who was interested in my dried fruit and swapped some for a bag of crisps.

The train was early into York, getting in just before 3, and I went down to Cycle Heaven to see if they'd got my bike parts.  The brakes had arrived but not the indestructable sprocket ring, and Ash had forgotten to book my bike in for Friday, so Ben dealt with it and said come in on Sunday. 

I was pleased to get home and people seemed pleased to see me.  I did my emails and had a couple of phone calls, including one from my brother Tom telling me that my Uncle Eddie Potok had died last night.  I rang Aunty Lizzie and we had a nice chat.

Gill made spaghetti with a nice mix of vegetables for tea, and later still I had a bath.  I spent quite a bit of time getting stuff together for going to London tomorrow, as I'm going to UK Aware. I'm staying with Lisa and Ian and looking forward to that, and may get to see my Oxfam Carbon Footprint friend Anna too.  Exciting times!