Human Lifestyle

Gill woke me by coming and turning the radio on in the bedroom as our friend Anneliese Emmans-Dean was on Woman's Hour, with some of her wonderful poetry (hear it here from about 14 mins 20 seconds in) so after that I got up and before breakfast, went to buy bread at Thomas's. 

A bit later I did a round trip to Hazel Court, disposing of wet carpet, some electrical equipment I found in a skip and I put it in the WEEE skip for recycling, some metal in the metals skip, and 3 sacks of drinks cartons.  I had no hassle whatsoever from anyone... in fact I had 2 nice conversations, one with a pet-fancier (rabbits?) who gave me his old straw bedding and another chap called Jeff whom I had a 10 or 15 minute chat with!  From here I went on to Country Fresh to see Richard and pick up some veg for us and for Debbie, and quite a lot of compostables.

Delivered Debbie's veg, home to deal with ours and before the light went, loaded some gubbins into the Compostumbler and then helped Gill prepare some sprouts for tea.  The sprouts were a bit bitter, (and we'd stir-fried them) so we added a tiny bit of sugar, some bouillon, herbs and sesame seeds... this made them delicious!  I had this with the second half of the rice/stuffing mix, and a bit of celery soup on top.  It was a good meal.

I'd been invited to Andy D'Agorne and Denise Craghill's New Year's Eve party, so I set off at about 8 and delivered Anna's TENS machine back to her... which wasn't really any use to Gill as TENS is good at localised pain, not the all-over type.  But good to know that Anna hires them out.  She was just setting off to the party, with her neighbour Pauline.  I cycled along to Broadway and was pleased to find quite a few people already partying, including a photo quiz which was fun.

I especially enjoyed talking to Will whom I know from the Green Party and his 12 year old son who was very bright and politically opinionated!  My friend Tracy, from York Green Festival days, was there with one of her friends. Guy was there, and Catherine who's voice I like, and Dave Taylor...although I didn't have a chance to speak to his partner Chris who people speak highly of, but I've never really got to know her.  There were others too... a buzzing party.  I left at about 11and cycled home via a collectible waste wooden structure which only just fitted on my bike trailer, but will make excellent kindling.

Saw the New Year in with Gill and the boys, which was really nice, lots of hugs all round. 

Up early... woke up having a dream that my eldest son was pulling my duvet off me telling me to get up.  He wasn't, but I did.

And had a good day.... did some tidying by taking compostables down the garden, and decided to dig out the Compostumbler, as I had a bit of cooked food to put in which I didn't want to put in an open heap.... as it attracts rodents.  So, I decanted about half of the Compostumbler contents into a dalek, and was delighted to find the centre was full of live compost worms.... not moving much, as some of the rest of the tumbler contents was frozen solid, but the middle had a healthy population of living but slow-moving worms.  Oh joy!  Anyway, I added the 2 bags of paper plates and party food from the home schoolers party, which has been sitting quite happily in the studio... some of the time at sub-zero temperatures. I also had a 20kg sack of chapati flour which had got wet with the studio pipe-burst, so I put quite a bit of that in the tumbler as well.

Anyway, we'd been invited to Jane's Scrabble Tournament, but Gill had said that she couldn't imagine our boys enjoying it and so she wanted to stay at home and I could go and play Scrabble.  So at about 3pm i cycled down to town with the cheque which arrived yesterday, for the 5 days of Santa in Kirklees.  I was glad to get that into my account!

Then onto Fishergate for an afternoon of Scrabble.  I arrived at the same time as Andy D'Agorne and the house was already full of a whole load of Jane's Mum's friends (Jane inherited the house when her Mum died) and our other Green councillor, Dave Taylor.  I was pleased to meet Jane's partner Dave, who's from Hull.  Later, Jennifer and Jamie arrived, and Peter, who lives less than a minute's walk away.

After a bit of chat, including talking sculptures with Jane's Dave, I had the first of two games... the first was against Jane's Dave, who won, Jamie and Tracey, and the second was against Dave Taylor (the winner), Peter and Jennifer.  I came third in both games.  Not my usual standard... but I really enjoyed the games.

There was one other Scrabble game going on, plus something similar called Upwords which I'd love to have a go with.  Looks really good!

Jane had done a load of lovely baking... apparently a new skill, or art, as actually she's an artist, and so we all got fed, and there was plenty to drink, and stimulating conversation.  A really good event.

I left at 9ish, not sure exactly, and cycled home, collecting nothing at all.  Gill and the boys were happy, they hadn't done anything, but were fine.

Up early to get some riddled compost ready for Glenda, who asked me yesterday if I could come and sort out her Bokashi bins, and take the bokashi-ed stuff away, as she does not compost...

I cycled 3 carrier bags of recently riddled compost over, plus a sack of riddled last year. She was delighted, and also that I took away her 3 bokashi bins-worth. I'll help her set up a compost bin next time I visit.

Then went on to another friend who wasn't in but had left a Freecycle gift (a sewing machine!) and had asked me to break up an old bed. This didn't take long but then I got involved in a discussion with a neighbour, who seemed good at giving responsibility for sorting out the world's mess to everybody else but herself... corporations, governments, and she said twice that it was better to make little changes rather than not make any at all... which I agreed with, but then said that little changes were not enough. She got a bit pissed off with me. But then another neighbour came out, and saw my load of wood on the trailer and offered me some more, and was very very positive about what I'm doing as we loaded up even more stuff into my panniers etc.

So I came home with a huge load of bokashi-ed gunk, wood and sewing machine.

I processed some of the wood, enjoyed lunch did more stuff outside, washed up as Gill was preparing tea, and at about 4 Lorna turned up. She had really wanted to come on the World Naked Bike Ride, after participating in the Spencer Tunick photos over at Blarney Castle.

So we got ourselves ready, Lorna borrowed Gill's bike and we cycled into town, popping into Waterstones for a voucher for a birthday present and then the pastie shop before having a sit down in Museum Gardens awaiting the other naked riders. People started trickling in, painted up, or were painted by friends there and then. Lorna put my slogan 'No Fossil Fumes' and an arrow pointing downwards on my back, and she asked me to put 'I (heart) bikes' on hers.

Dave Taylor, Green Councillor sent us on our way, and the police escort was good. There were 100 people on the ride, 30 more than last year, and we cycled very slowly for about 90 minutes, about 6.5 miles, according to several people with mileometers on their bikes.

Lorna and I went via St Nicks on the way back, and then onto home where we warmed up and chatted with Gill, Lorna leaving at 8.30.

What a lovely day. Very enjoyable.

Got up early to try to write a letter but didn't get very far. As soon as Gill came back from the 'school run' (on her bike of course!) I cycled over to Acomb where the count was taking place. The count was in a large sports hall, with all the workers in the centre and the candidates and agents and observers around the outside, watching what was going on. It's quite an exciting process in some ways, and very boring in others, but I enjoy being there and participating in it.

The ballot papers were first sorted into block votes and split votes, these where there were two or three councillors to be voted in. Where someone had voted for both or all 3 of one party's candidates, they were placed in piles for counting. Where a voter had voted for 2 or 3 different parties, these were gone thruogh one by one and the names of the candidate voted for read out and a second election worker marked them off on a special sheet.

When all these figures were added up and ready to be announced, the candidates and agents were asked to come into a corner together and look at the disputed and spoiled ballots, and they were either agreed as good or spoiled or not filled in.

One of the first to be called was Bishopthorpe, where John Galvin (Conservative) had been voted out of last election, and soon after that, I had collared him and asked him if he would be the chair of York Credit Union Study Group. In this role I had got to know him quite well, and had grown to respect and like him, not his party politics, John as a person. So i was happy that this time he was elected back ono the council, the first of 8 Tory councillors, all new after a Tory-free term. Labour did quite well, and the Lib-Dems didn't, as they have generally been viewed as having cocked up badly this term. Fortunately the Fishergate Greens both got elected, Andy D'Agorne for a second term and Dave Taylor for his first, replacing Mark Hill.

We did quite well in some other wards, including increasing our share in my ward, Hull Road, where Andrew Collingwood and I got about 15%. Two Labour councillors got in here.

I went to see the media students during the count and after my result was announced, i think they enjoyed the process and were glad to have got involved, or at least observed it.

I cycled home via my usual compostables collection route and got hiome in time to go and get the boys. Felt quite deflated and down, as not getting in always leaves me feeling like this, even if I don't expect to get in. Also, as the phone still wasn't working, so I was unable to ring from home or do my emails. Gill spent much of the day trying to get it fixed, by going to the public call box round the corner and having to deal with automated messages...

In the evening I went round to a friend's house and used their phone to download emails and let people know what had happened, re electoral stuff and lack of phone stuff.