Tuesday 8th November 11

Well whoops, I was due to be at Seacroft Hospital to donate platelets at 10.50 and I woke at 10.30.  I rang the hospital and rebooked for Thursday.  They thanked me for ringing.

So, a bit of an unexpected morning as I thought I'd be woken at 8 and be leaving the house at sometime after 9 to get on a bus to Leeds.  As it was I just did some more fruit and got the dried fruit ready for Scoop tomorrow.  I was surprised how light apple rings are, and how many jars of them it took to make just half a kilo.  The pears are much denser, and I easily got a kilo from about 3 and a half jars.  However, the student price I agreed is quite a lot less than I get if I sell some privately, a jar full (used to contain 700g peanut butter) goes for about £4, but the student price is £7 for 3.5 jars of pears and I think I put about 4 jars of apple into a bag and that only weighed 500g, or £3.50 student price.  The fresh ones are looking like a better deal, as there's no processing, just several days up trees, and I'm getting £1.70/kg for them.  Anyway, I'll get a bit of money and the lovely Scoop-ers will get some delicious and fairly cheap dried fruit!

I used the afternoon to do some chainsawing and splitting as I've started collecting logs again. 

Then at 7pm I headed over to the University to attend the New Generation Society (affectionately known as 'Thinking and Drinking'!), a presentation by Ieuan Ferrer called 'Why Meat is (usually) Murder'. This was good, quite thought-provoking and very well put over.  The argument was based on the premise that eating meat increases the demand for food (as the food animals eat a third of the food grown, which could be eaten directly by people, and are inefficient processors, converting only a small percentage of the grain/soya or whatever into meat), and suppresses the supply of food (same reason) and increases the cost of food, all of which contribute to some of the problems regarding our global diet... malnutrition in some areas and in some communities, obesity in others. There was a debate afterwards which I contributed to, after which I came home via a logpile.

Monday 7th November 11

Gill woke me up at 9.30 with a chap on the phone who wouldn't explain what he wanted to her, and when the handset was given to me, he spoke so fast that I couldn't understand him, so I asked him to repeat what he'd said... and he put the phone down!

However, it got me up and I got busy with some admin/paperwork, and found most of what I was looking for, and put several letters and cheques in envelopes, and before lunch cycled down to the post office on Melrosegate and put stamps on the ones which needed them, and sent them off.

I had lunch and washed up, and then went into the garden for the first time in a while and dug out a compost heap in order to refill it.

At 5 I put our eldest's bike on my trailer and cycled down to The Stables to pick him up. He'd started and evening class to work towards a GCSE English.  We came back via the logpile and Heslington.

In the evening I went to the LETS meeting which had changed venue, and was at the Priory Street Centre.  Melody was on good form and Sue was there too. Sue came with me to see Rory Motion at City Screen after the LETS meeting.  Rory was on fabulous form, and I really enjoyed the event, and it raised some money for York Green Party.  I walked Sue back to her van afterwards before cycling home.

Sunday 6th November Our Wedding Anniversary, and Fiddlesticking at Eid Celebrations.

Up early, to get the 9.52 to Leeds, in order to get the 10.45 replacement bus to Batley.  However, the 9.52 stopping train was late, and I was told that the 10.15 express would arrive 2 minutes earlier than the late stopper, so I waited and got into Leeds with less than 5 minutes to spare before the bus.

But I enjoyed this bus journey and at 11.20 I was delivered to Batley station, my unicycles and juggling stuff disgorged from the boot of the bus. I only had to wait a few minutes for Priya, my hostess, to arrive, and take me to the mosque and meeting space, which the Shia Muslims call a Jama'at-Khana.

I was given a tour of the Jama'at-Khana by a confident teen girl, whom I think was the daughter of one of the leaders of the community. She told me about the Ismaili community, who certainly came across as very friendly.  They are from Uganda, India and Afghanistan, and consider themselves as modern and forward-looking compared to some of the more traditional Muslims.  In this country there is fortunately little or no conflict between the Shia and Sunni Muslim groups. The Ismailis also do a lot of charitable work, and give 1/8th of their income to charity.

My role today was to help them celebrate Eid, one of their holy days, when they have a feast and entertainment.  They invited me to have some food, which was lovely, and then I got changed and did my Professor Fiddlesticks circus show for them.  This was followed by various performances by many of the children, which I enjoyed watching... and I did some balloons after this.  It all went really well.

This was a really enjoyable day, as I love learning about different cultures, and these people were most welcoming and easy to get along with.

I had an easy journey back, the trains had resumed normal service and I got back to a happy house.  Gill and I did acknowledge that we'd been married 12 years, and that we've been 'romantically entangled' for 18.  Ah, lovely!

Saturday 5th November 11

A pretty low key day for me.  Gill and I did quite a bit of sorting out, going through piles of paperwork and trying to find our TV licence demand.  It is overdue.  I got a phone call from Ben who once again had come to the rescue and helped with my laptop woes.  Ages ago the power jack had come loose and recently there was only an occasional connection, and my battery was only lasting 20 minutes (it is an old laptop), so he'd attempted to mend the jack but had been unsuccessful.  So I asked if he'd be prepared to find a new power supply and battery pack.  Today these had been delivered to him, so I went round to pick them up.  The battery looks like it has twice the staying power of the old one did when new, and the jack fits snugly.  I paid him and came back home.

After lunch I went down to town to take money out of the building society and put it into the bank so we could pay electronically, but the bank was shut so I couldn't top up our account (depleted because of the washing machine).  However, I did check out the Big Green Market and had a nice chat with the organiser, Jane, and discussed its green credentials, as I had seen loads of things with a massive carbon impact (metalwork, ceramics, meat) and imported things, and gifts and extras which are most definitely wants not needs.  If we're to achieve an 80% reduction in carbon emissions and resource use, we really have to stop consuming many of the things being offered at this 'green' market.  However, I like the fact that they champion fair trade, and artisan crafts, and have over the years stopped some stallholders re-booking because they didn't fit the criteria.

I cycled home and on a short cycle path (Dixon Lane) between Piccadilly and 
George St, there were 3 women walking up in the same direction as me, one on the footpath and the other two, one with a pushchair, in the cycle path.  I used my bell and they heard me and moved to get out of the way, but quite slowly, so I braked and stopped to let them get onto the pedestrian path.  As I cycled away, I got a torrent of abuse; saying 'slow down' and 'f***ing maniac', and worse, so I stopped and got off my bike and told them that I was going slow enough to stop in time, and actually they shouldn't have been in the cycle lane.  The all started shouting at me and verbally abusing me, and I answered, probably more loudly than was necessary, and the oldest hag then said she was ringing the police as I was causing a disturbance. She did something with her mobile phone and then either spoke to the police, or more likely pretended to.  What I should have done, in retrospect, was to stay with them and wait for the police, as it was they who started the commotion by shouting abuse at me as I accelerated away from them after stopping to let them go onto the pavement. But I cycled away, not wanting to have more cat calls.

The remainder of the day was fine, lots more housework, cooking, fruit drying and the like.  The boys went out with a friend to a bonfire/fireworks do. Gill cuddled guinea pigs.  I had 15 minutes watching fireworks and Chinese lanterns from the loft window, before making tomato soup for tomorrow.

Friday 4th November 11

Well I got up at 8am as Gill went out with the boys on the bus, and as we were expecting the washing machine delivery between 8.17 and 9.37 (they offer an accurate 90 minute delivery window!) I was ready to get the delivery at quarter past.  However, they were a bit later than that, sometime before 9.  They took the old one away and also the polystyrene packaging from the new one.

I then got ready to go to Ginnie's to finish off the coal-hole job.  It was raining but still a nice enough day, and I enjoyed the cycle there apart from one idiot outside the Minster who wasn't looking where he was driving and looked shocked when he saw me almost too late.

I didn't have much more scraping and shovelling to do in the coal hole, but I did have a load to take back so I did that.  I got back at midday and after unloading I went straight back and got the final load, which included a wooden ladder which had rungs missing and Ginnie said was only fit for firewood.

I had lunch on the dot of 1pm.  I'm not sure what else I did today, apart from get the washing machine installed, which involved removing some bolts which stop things moving around during transit, and fixing hoses etc.

Thursday 3rd November 11

Quite a good day... although it started badly with a lot of teenage shouting downstairs, and I had to get up quickly and jump on my bike before eating breakfast and cycle to school with our youngest, who is an excellent cyclist but not yet completely comfortable crossing the one difficult road on his journey to school.  I gave him a couple of suggestions about how this could be made easier and safer, but did go all the way to school with him, and came back via a good big logpile I've discovered.

I enjoyed breakfast.  A lot.  Lovely home-made muesli.  Gill put the washing machine on last night and when she opened it, the stuff was still wet and hadn't washed.  She tried to make the machine work and it just wouldn't.  It has been misbehaving for months.... which isn't surprising as it is over 20 years old.  We'd already done some research about washing machines when it started preparing to die, but now was the time to finish that research and make a decision.  Despite being broke.

So, I rang the Co-op electrical people and bought a £400 washing machine.  It will be delivered tomorrow.  It's an A+++ rated one.

I worked for David at 6pm.

Wednesday 2nd November 11

What a wonderful day.  Although I was woken by teenage shouting, and I came downstairs at 8, the day got better.  Gill took the boys to school on the bus and I had breakfast and my usual diet of facebook and emails.  Gill came back and I spent some time with Gill before she went out to the Dentist.

I had to stay in as I was expecting the Yellow Pages chap; I'd said to him last week that I needed to spend less on advertising as I was earning less as during a recession, people spend less on entertainment than when there's more spare cash around.  So he came and sorted out a package with me which he said would double the amount of work I was getting, but would cost more.  He said it would more than pay for itself.  I said I needed to check it over with Gill, and was unable to sign for that package there and then, and I wasn't happy that although I said I needed to spend less, he'd actually given me a more expensive package.

Anyway, he came back today and spent some time re-doing my advertising so it was reduced in size and cost less, and I signed for it.  The chap was interested to see the garden so I quickly took him down... I think he was a bit mithered about his posh shoes getting a bit of mud on them!  Nice enough guy though.

Anyway, I then could think about planning the rest of my day.  I needed to take my bike into Cycle Heaven again, as the dynamo stopped working, or rather didn't work when I got on it at Ginnie's yesterday night.  I needed to be at CVS for 3pm as Melody had asked me to be there to accept an award for YorkLETS.  And then I needed to be at the Scoop Shop at Wentworth College at 6pm.  I decided to have lunch and take my bike into Cycle Heaven and leave it there whilst I was at Priory Street.

Over lunch I got 3 phone calls, all Fiddlesticks bookings.  One was from a woman at a Mosque in Batley, wanting to book me for a show this Sunday for Eid.  She also invited me for lunch.  Then I got a December booking for a nursery party in Meltham, near Huddersfield.  Finally, a chap whom I'd met on a train rang me and said he wanted to book me for a private workshop with him and his girlfriend, learning basic balloon modelling.  He too was in Huddersfield.  Oh, and Rob from Robin Hood's Bay rang and I confirmed that I was able to go up with the family for their Victorian Christmas event, in exchange for 3 nights B+B in a hotel. So a flurry of pre-Christmas bookings which is good.

I went out at about 2.15 to take my bike to Cycle Heaven, so Ash could try to solve the 'spooky dynamo' problem.  I walked up to Priory St and waited for Melody at CVS, and at 3 went to find her in the big room, which was hosting the Annual General Meeting.  One of the items on the Agenda was the Colin Stroud Award.  Colin was the Chief Executive at CVS for 23 years until last year when he stepped down, and the staff wanted to do something to acknowledge his input and dedication.  So they decided to have a weekly or monthly collection of a few coins from all the staff, and then present this money to a worthy cause at the AGM.  YorkLETS had been suggested as a worthy recipient and it was chosen to receive £500 to spend on anything it wanted to! Amazing!  The chair introduced the award and Colin said a bit about YorkLETS, and then handed me the cheque and shook my hand. I thanked the meeting, and said I was especially moved by this as the money didn't come from a big donor giving out £500 here, £10,000 there, but was from the staff and others connected with CVS, and in my eyes, was all the more valuable because of this.

I walked back to Cycle Heaven after this, picking up several aluminium cans to take to the metal merchants when I eventually go.  Ash had found the source of the problem: a wire had worked itself free of some insulation and was shorting on the frame.  The dynamo was fixed!

And I needed it as my next trip out was to the University at 5.45, to be at the Scoop (Student Co-op) meeting at 6, with a sample tray of pears and dried apple and dried pears. The meeting was to decide how best to sell this produce, and the price.  After quite a bit of discussion, a price of £1.70/kg of fresh pears was agreed, and 70p/100g for the dried fruit, and Scoop will add 5p to that to help them cover breakages, leakages and food that they're unable to sell (for instance if it goes out of date).  These prices were based on a bit of research I'd done in Country Fresh and Alligator, and my desire to give the students the best price possible. At the end of the meeting, all the remaining pears and dried fruit was sold, and I'll take a load in next Wednesday morning.  I'm really pleased with this as there's no way I can eat all the pears myself... even if family members join in!

Which for tea, they did!  I had some soup, garlic bread and veggie sausages followed by a fruit art explosion made by our eldest.  We all had a bowl of carved orange slices, pear, ginger biscuit and chocolate drops.  Nice!

I had a nice evening after this doing more fruit, watching telly and chatting.