Monday 30th May 11 Poppleton Children's Sports Day

I had a really good start to the day, a phone call from my friend who'd been in crisis last night telling me that things were better this morning.  I was very relieved to hear this.

I got myself slowly ready to go to work.  I left soon after 12 with my full kit, minus feathers which are useless outside.  I cycled through town and up Boroughbridge Road and stopped briefly at Shannons to deliver some WNBR leaflets. Then on to Poppleton for the annual 'do' which is really well organised, the Poppleton Children's Sports Day.  I found one of the organisers and explained that because it was raining, I'd be a bit restricted with my activities, just unicycling and balloon modelling.

I went to see the plant stall first and bought two courgette plants and 3 tomatoes, costing just £2.  Then I quickly went to get changed and immediately got busy, unicycling round at first then walking round and making balloon models for anyone who wanted them.

During the last half hour it stopped raining and I was able to do some devilsticking, but during the day I must have made nearly 100 balloon animals.  I even taught a young magician how to do a basic dog!

I overshot my 4pm 'official finish' time by over half an hour and went to pick up my payment and then got changed, and was home by 5.15.

I had tea and then did a bit more work in the garden, planted two sweetcorn and pulled a load of weeds out in the front, and pruned some encroaching shrubs in the shared alleyway.

So a busy day, hard work in the poor weather but a success anyway.

Sunday 29th May 11

A lovely day with a leisurely late start. I didn't do much til after Gardener's Question time, when I went outside to do some real gardening of my own.

I first spent quite a while cutting back a load of shrubs which form a boundary between ours and next door... it's not really a hedge, more a border with assorted small trees, brambles, ground elder, Vinca and Alkanet.  I ripped and cut loads out, including a large Hebe which died over winter.

This made space for me to get to the back of the raised bed where I replaced a bean wigwam which had been in 2 years and was getting brittle. I wired together 3 long branches and made another.  Then I planted out quite a few of the Pea Beans in toilet rolls, two plants per leg of the wigwam.  I also planted out 9 curly kale plants, 6 sweetcorn, and got a load of seedling American Land Cress and Perpetual Spinach put in the pots they vacated and I'll either sell them down at Country Fresh or at some charity event.

So I was happy to have got some planting done.  In the evening I signed up to use eBay as I have a few things to sell, and spent some time getting a free business card deal together.  The company even offer an online version.

A very late evening as one of my friends was in crisis and I spent some time on the phone, after 2am.

Saturday 28th May 11 The Crucible at The Theatre Royal

A good day, I woke at 9.30 and had a fairly lazy morning, watching YouTube videos of Gil Scott Heron, Rest In Peace, and thinking about an artwork that I'd like Dexter to do, based on a list of words from my first 40 years. Explored word clouds and typography.  Oh, and a little bit in the garden and chopped up a bit of fruit.

But my main appointment was at 1pm at David's, for lunch with him and Lotte. I'd received a message during the morning about the Green Day at York Minster, so I went early to say hello to assorted friends... Mark and Bernie at Bikerescue, Kate on the Rowntree Park stall, Jenny Hartland, and Ben from Freecycle, others from York Rotters and St Nicks.

I couldn't spend long there as I needed to visit the shop on Stonegate to explain about the bill for cleaning the inspection chamber, and then on to David's.  The owners of the Stonegate gun and knife shop wee OK, didn't attack me.  The chap said that he'd find out the ownership of the lane behind his yard, which he thought was a shared ownership. I'll go in next week to find out what he's decided.

Lotte had made a thing she called a tortilla.but I would have called a Spanish Omlette.  It was chunks of potato, asparagus and peas in a load of whisked egg... cooked in a circle like a quiche (although I suppose quiche can be in any shape!) which is what I originally thought it was.  We had this with some slices of ciabatta bread.

For 2pm we headed down Stonegate, saying hello to Purpleman, and went to the Theatre Royal.  We made ourselves known to the staff... as we needed to be taken round the back to get to the Theatre in the Round Stage.  We waited, David bought a programme and I read it.  I knew nothing about The Crucible, but the programme was a basic introduction to the Salem Witch Trials, which I did know a little bit about.

A lovely lady took us to the rear entrance which is wheelchair accessible and our seats were right on the edge of the stage.  I was very impressed with the production; it was very well done.  The story, especially at the end, left me thinking about injustice and the ridiculousness of religion and dogma.  At the end I was quite shocked and emotional.

It finished at 5.30 and I took David home, made him some tea (OK, microwaved a meal!) and we worked out my May hours.  He felt like going out so I took him to City Screen where he met a nice couple from London whilst I was getting him a coffee. We didn't stay long, went back, he gave me my cheque and I cycled home, getting in at 8pm.

I had difficulty loading and playing the little films I'd made with the headcam, although the position on the cables on my handlebars is better.  The sound and images don't match, with the images going slower than the acoustic track.  Also, the files no longer load onto the computer as I'm allegedly missing some sort of codec and it closes down on me.  BUT I can go to 'My Computer', click on Removable Disc E and find them there, and then copy them to a file in My Videos.  So, do-able but not brilliant.

A peaceful evening, with a really rubbish film on TV which I didn't understand.

Friday 27th May 11

Up quite early as Gill went to school to do her stint in the shop, and I got up as I didn't want to go back to sleep and miss my 10am appointment in town.  I made up my muesli and got myself awake... rang the Council bod at 9.30 and then cycled down to town.

I tried putting my little camera in a different place... clipped onto the brake cables on my handlebars.  I was glad to have the camera this time as a car driver pulled out on me, forcing me to stop.  I told her she was being recorded and I got her registration.  To her credit, she realised she had pulled out too far and stopped, so that I could have swerved out into the road to get past her... but that would have been dangerous if another road user had been following me.

I got to David's with no further problems and went to see if the gate to the yard with the full inspection chamber was open... it had been bolted last night and it still was.  The Council chaps arrived and saw that they needed their van to be in Stonegate not Grape Lane, so I waited there until the van appeared.... I spotted a friend from Heslington and I asked if she knew about Barley Hall.  She didn't so I showed her and she was delighted.

The sewer van came and the shop still wasn't open so the Council chap got a step ladder and hoisted himself over the wall and unlocked the gate which was just bolted.  The inspection chamber was full, and the crust on top indicated it had been like that for months.  This was therefore the cause of the pool of water in the cellar, as water can soak through ordinary bricks.  The chaps used a couple of plungers to unblock the drain and within seconds it all disappeared.  Job done, or indeed, jobbies gone!

I signed a sheet of paper which means the Council will demand £96, but the chaps told me to claim it back from the shop owner as the drain was on his property.

I went to tell David the good news about the unblocked drain, and then went to see the shop owner (the owner will be there tomorrow) and the Theatre Royal, about access for wheelchairs tomorrow, and the Council to ask about a structural engineer to inspect the steel joist which is corroded at the wet end, and might, or might not, need shoring up.  I was given a phone number to try later, as the person wasn't in.

Eventually I came home, via Country Fresh and a nice big trailer full of compost materials.

During the afternoon I tried to work out how to solve the router problem.  The job wasn't made any easier by the paid-for 24 hours of BT Fon repeatedly going off, and the signal disappearing.  Very frustrating.

Neither our son, responsible for the router difficulty, or I could work out what to do.  But Gill, whilst down at the Steiner School, chatted about it to Jim Semlyen, who said either find a male to male connector to link the router to the computer, or take it to the computer shop over the road.  So I started to get the router untangled to take it over the road... and found a male to male lead dangling from the back of it, not attached to anything on the free end.  My son immediately knew what to do and plugged it into the laptop he uses and within a couple of minutes had switched it back to WPA from WEP which he'd switched it to yesterday, wirelessly, so causing the wireless connection between the router and laptops to fail.

So, success.... well, some success, as my email wouldn't work, initially, but when Simon came and sat next to me, it started to work again... his 'computer-literate aura', perhaps.  Gill was very pleased with how we'd both dealt with this, in a calm and practical manner.

I phoned one of the engineers that had worked on some Council projects and he agreed to come and look at the cellar next week.

I dealt with a small backlog of emails and then went outside to put a pile of stuff on the heaps.  Tea was noodles.... very tasty.... and then I went back out to do more work in the garden, ended up doing some weeding, pulling docks out and more ground elder.

A good day, constructive and seemed to get quite a bit done.

Thursday 26th May 11

Oh, up FAR too early for someone who goes to bed so late!!!  However, Gill couldn't face cycling to school this morning as she'd run out of painkillers and was in great pain.  So she woke me at 8 and asked me if I could cycle in and she'd fetch him back this afternoon when I'm at work.

So I took the opportunity to visit a number of cycle shops with the World Naked Bike Ride flyers.  However, before this I asked the school if they'd like me to shred their decorations from the Fair... a large pile of branches and foliage.  They were happy with this and I said I'd bring my shredder in soon.  I put WNBR flyers on some of the adult bikes parked at the Steiner school.  Then I went to Alligator and left some flyers there, then Cycle Heaven who were also happy to have some, then I cycled across town to Bob Trotters and asked about bike hire for the WNBR weekend, and they took some flyers.  Here I switched on my helmet cam to do another test, and cycled up to Heworth to Cycle Street to give them flyers.  Then I went to buy bread and came home.

I had uneventful rides, so I deleted the videos I made, but I'm not sure my bike helmet is the right place for the camera.  I might try to mount it on the handlebars.  I then had a session of removing videos I've downloaded, to make space on my disc for any future videos....

So, lunch, and tried to get on with some paperwork but mainly failed.

I had my next appointment at 4, down at David's, It was with a chap from Yorkshire Water, who came out to listen for water leaks.  There is a little patch of moisture on one wall of his cellar and it might be a mains water leak.  So I showed him the leak and he had a listen to the wall, and then the RSJ beam with a very simple device, a metal stick with a point at one end and an earpiece on the other.  Water leaks have a telltale sound which is transmitted through pipes and other materials.  He described the tiny amount of water on the wall as a 'seep' rather than a leak!

We went on a wander round to look for 'stopcocks' and water meters. These have taps which the listening device can be placed on, and on one, with a water meter, there was a slow continuous passage of water, indicating a leak.  However, it seemed unlikely that the leak attached to this meter was affecting David's property.  After a good thorough look around, the Yorkshire Water chap concluded that the leak/seep was so small, and the source of it so difficult to find, that nothing further could be done.  He suggested that sorting out the other problem might make a difference.  I went back in to tell David the news and rang Brian at the Council about the full sewer/inspection chamber which I think is causing the other water ingress.  Brian asked if he could send some chaps down immediately?  Well, this sounded good, and within half an hour, they arrived.

I showed them the pool of water in the cellar and they said they'd like to check the inspection chamber... but unfortunately it was past 5.30pm and the shop had closed and locked it's yard door.  I spoke to Brian and he said he'd meet me tomorrow at 10am.

I cycled home and had a race with some racing or touring cyclists.  They were just a bit quicker than me.

When I got back, I had a quick peep at the robin's nest in the woodpile, and the eggs have hatched.  How lovely!

I put on my laptop and asked if the WiFi had been switched off.  There was a loud wail from the front room.  Our eldest had been trying to connect his Nintendo DS to the WiFi and been getting an error code.  He looked on the website for Nintendo DS and it suggested switching the WiFi Router settings.  He thought he's try it for a few minutes, to see if the game he wanted to play became accessible.  Unfortunately, this rendered the WiFi unusable... from my laptop too!

I did a bit of compost heap management but at 7.30, Gill rang me on my mobile(!) and said Sue was here, as she'd asked for more dried fruit and I'd said yes to this evening.  So I came in and washed my hands and got a kilo of mixed dried fruit for her.

After tea, my son and I walked round to Ben's, who wasn't there.  We rang Simon, who was busy.  I really needed to go online so I paid £5 to BT Fon to get 24 hours access to the internet.

I had quite a bit to do, but also kept the stove going to try to dry the banana and orange leather (final tray-full)  and did washing up.

Wednesday 25th May 11

Well a somewhat frustrating day but some good bits.  I was woken before 9 by what sounded like gunshots but I worked out was a nail gun or similar being used on a house nearby.  So I got up as it's impossible to snooze through repeated loud bangs.

Gill took our youngest to school.  I did some work with my dried fruit leather... labour intensive but the only way to deal with the problem that the banana and orange leather is drying nicely but sticking to the sheet I put under it.  Both the tray with the plastic bag and the tray with some allegedly 'non-stick' aluminium had the fruit leather sticking to it, and really difficult to peel off.  But I managed to peel and tear some off and was able to fashion it into a little ball, which I put on a plate to dry, as a 'sweetie' type thing.  I did a plateful of little banana and orange balls before I went out.

I'd said to Sue that I'd come and check out her fence area before saying whether I'd be able to make the pallets I sourced for her into a fence.  So I decided to try out the helmet camera again and I got it going before I left and just left it going all the while, even when exploring Sue's garden.  In order to do anything with the fence which needs replacing in some areas and re-instating in others, a large amount of stuff will have to be removed.  I offered to do some sorting out for her before we either do the fence ourselves, or get someone else in to do the fence.

I called in on Robin on the way back and had a coffee with him and his Mum who was helping out.  We had some good conversations but at 12.45 I left, doing another film.  When I got in, I tried to download the material I'd recorded, but my laptop told me that I didn't have enough disc space, and I was unable to watch the first film, the one with Sue's garden, so I deleted it, but the one from Robin's to home was OK... but the camera was angled towards the road too much so lots of footage of tarmac.  I deleted that too.

After lunch I did another test film, a 5 minute walk down the garden, which I was able to upload , and put on facebook to show my friend Anzir, who's considering buying something similar.  I sorted out our train tickets for our holiday down to St Austell... and the way back.  I was pleased with the advance ticket price, as it all worked out as just £22.50 per person per journey, which I think is good value.

I did more banana balls.  I spent some nice times in the garden, weeding a raised bed and pulling out more ground elder. I did another big wash up. I splayed out the pineapple slices into the 'angel' shape I like to cut them into.  I popped over to see Debbie as she'd asked me to go and see her, but she was watching some sort of Murder Mystery thing so I didn't stay long.

Tuesday 24th May 11

Woke fairly late and didn't get gong very quickly. However, did do a load of washing up and sorted out the big pile of dried fruit which has built up.  I need to do a 'red pepper paprika' make soon, as I've got several jars full of dried sweet red pepper slices, which I'll render into dust in the liquidiser and knock through a fine sieve, the bigger lumps are good for stews and the powder is lovely for soup.

I jarred up 2 big jars of apples and one of pineapple.  I chopped up 3 pineapples out of 8 which were thrown away and came my way.  I peeled some banana and orange leather off it's plastic bag backing in a baking tray and made a load of little balls out of this, as it's very sticky and I think it'll dry better in spheres. They are now drying on a plate on the drying rack.

Later I potted up two tomato plants, ones from Country Fresh, and put them into their final large planters.  I also potted up the cucumber plant, and some climbing beans.  I did a little bit of composting work, and earthed up the potatoes..

Gill wasn't feeling brilliant so I went to the Co-op for her and got some bits and pieces. Later in the evening I liquidised some bananas and added them to the remaining reduced orange juice and put the resultant slop to dry.

So a fairly non-eventful day.