Human Lifestyle

A really busy and well organised day, hardly a minute to spare.

I got up at 7, breakfasted, and put all my circus and balloon stuff in the trailer and panniers, and set off at 8.10, first to place my votes (voting for myself and Luke Capps, the other Green candidate, and YES in the AV Referendum) and then on to Huntington, Strensall, Sherriff Hutton and to the bottom of Terrington Bank, a really steep hill.  This 14.5 mile cycle took one hour ten minutes.  The last half mile, up the bank and into Terrington, took 15 minutes.

I'd been booked by the tiny C of E primary school in Terrington, with their sister school Foston.  The idea was that I'd perform in the village hall.  However, as the election was taking up the village hall, Terrington asked the nearby private Prep school if they could use their new sports hall.  The prep school said yes... but could they add a class of children too.  So, I had 70 children, aged 3 to about 7.

I was taken down to the venue and got the hall right for the gig, with drapes pulled across the walls to reduce echo, and one area curtained off to create a performance space.  I got changed, blew up balloons for the afternoon gig, and waited for my audience.

The show went really well... although it overran, as one group were late, so I couldn't do the unicycle workshop at the end.  But it was a good show.  The children and teachers loved it.  I went back to the small school for lunch, but soon back to the venue to continue blowing up 70+ balloons.

The second show also went well, despite the children being young and lots of them.  I was finished by 2.10, and quickly got changed and loaded up to return, stopping briefly to give in an invoice to the school to trigger payment.

The trip back was slower, despite having more downhill, as it was into the wind.  It took me an hour and a half, getting in at 4.10.

I had a few minutes sit-down and then at 4.45, I set out for St Lawrence's Church to be a Green Party 'teller', collecting poll numbers so that voters who had promised to vote Green could be contacted before the polls closed if they had forgotten to vote. I chatted with the Labour Party teller Lesley, who was very pleasant. In the two hours we were there we had over 100 voters come in... the post working-day rush.

So, I was relieved at 7pm by Alison, and I cycled home.  Gill had prepared a plate of pasta.  At 7.45 I cycled off to David's as he had booked me to take him to vote at 8pm.

I walked him over to Marygate where he placed his votes, and back to his house.  I left him at 9.30 and walked along Stonegate to the Yorkshire Terrier where a group of Green Party folks were due to gather.  Stewart was already there, and soon another 10 or so joined us.  I had TWO bottles of Pear Cider, which is a lot for me... I usually stick to just one.  But a good finish to the day.

I look forward to the count tomorrow.

A really lovely day... doing one of my favourite activities, working in a 'special school'.

So I had a small lie-in but got up before 10 and packed up all my gear, my backpack with costume, balloons, feathers, 4 wheel and 2 wheel unicycles, my kit bag with sticks, juggling balls and diabolos, my small unicycle and big unicycle, plus my 'handbag' with reading matter, diary, and sandwiches.  Gill plaited my hair, which I washed last night so it was lovely and shiny.

Packed the bike and headed to the station at about 11, as I needed to get my tickets for my trip to London at the end of March.  I am travelling down on the Friday morning and back on Saturday evening; my talk is Saturday afternoon.  I got my ticket to Brough too, and headed to platform 7 for the 11.53 train.  I'd ordered a taxi last night to pick me up from Brough and take me to St Anne's School, and it was waiting for me.

I was ready to do my show by 1.10, and I had about 20 children come along, with a good number of adults with them, as many of them needed support and help; some needed preventing from coming out of the audience area and interfering with the equipment behind me.  However, a core group were happy to watch and interact, I got 4 children up to do devilsticks, maybe 10 to balance feathers, they loved 'Derek the Diabolo' especially when I had to tell him off for misbehaviour, and several volunteers had a go on the 4 wheel unicycle.  The balloon show and workshop was fun too.  We finished sometime after 3pm, I got changed again and Kay sorted out my paperwork, and I got a lift with Carol who was going back into Brough.  I had to wait for the 4.22 but I read my NewScientist. On the train, though, I dozed.

I had been invited to go and see Caroline Lucas on her flying visit to York, scheduled to be at 4.45 at the library.  I knew my train wasn't supposed to get in til 5.15, so I thought I'd miss half of her talk.  We got in early at 5.08, i loaded my trailer and cycled like the wind along to the library, locked up, gathered all my clobber, and as I walked in, Caroline was just walking through the library into the side room where the Green Party meeting was.  She'd just finished giving an interview with Radio York (interview here, 2 hours 6 minutes in).  She spoke very eloquently to the group who had come to hear her speak, about the Green alternative to the ConDem cuts.  The Greens would invest in green jobs, such as the 100 jobs created in Kirklees, insulating peoples' houses and fitting energy efficiency measures, which help people keep warmer for less money.  These workers pay tax and their income means they are able to buy goods, which also raises revenue... the work they are doing cuts carbon emissions and improves quality of life.  This scheme was brought in by Green Councillors.  There are countless other green jobs.... for instance, we have one of the World's best wind and wave resources, and we could be heading towards energy security if we invested heavily.  The Greens would not renew the nuclear submarine Trident scheme, saving £100 billion over 30 years, and would introduce the 'Robin Hood Tax' which wouldn't take away from ordinary people at all, but big financial transactions between banks and traders would have a very very tiny tax slapped on.... raising £20 billion a year, just in this country! 

In the questions at the end, I asked about whether she thought that in the referendum about electoral reform, whether the Alternative Vote system would help the Greens.  Her answer was that it might, to a limited extent, but that if we get AV this time, we are far more likely to get proper fair Proportional Representation in the future.  So I'll be voting for change, for AV, despite not liking AV that much, as it is not nearly as good as PR... but we haven't been given the choice of voting for that.

Caroline left to go and visit Leeds and Wakefield, and after a bit of chatting, loaded up my bike again and cycled over to Bishophill to meet a Freecycler, Tracy, who'd offered a packet of dried kidney beans.  I'd been chosen as the lucky recipient... her reason for giving it away was that whenever she thought to have them, they needed soaking first, and she never got around to doing this the previous day!  Well Gill and I often plan meals a day or two in advance, so this won't be a problem for us.  Thank you Tracy!

Then I came home, via 2 sacks of recycling from Freshways, getting in at 7pm.  For tea I had some rissoles Gill had made from the remains of yesterday's rice, some new potatoes, and the unusual mushrooms found thrown away on Friday night.  They were quite nice.... the texture was rather soft, and I wouldn't buy them, although rescuing them from a bin is a completely different matter!

A happy evening; my New Zealand relative Wendy hasn't been squashed in an earthquake, and I'm deeply saddened for those who have, or rather their families and friends.  So I watched YouTube vids of that quake and the devastation (for instance, this), and other online things, and then caught a programme about David Nash, a sculptor who works in wood, and I think he probably becomes my 3rd favourite sculptor, after Peter Randall-Page and Andy Goldsworthy.

Up early, at about 8, in order to go round to Maria's with our eldest, as Maria had asked if I would help with emptying one of her 3 compost bins in return for teaching our boy science.  Gill went to school in a taxi again, as getting our youngest on a bike first thing in the morning or on a bus even earlier is neigh on impossible.  Gill stayed at school to learn how to run the shop.  She came back after her 9 til 10 shift.

I spent 90 minutes digging out the compost heap, sorting out uncomposted sticks to put on the current pile, and uncomposted bits and bobs like twist-ties, nylon pyramidal tea bags and assorted other plastic, and a few stones, and some broken pottery too.  I filled 13 sacks, but have another half of the cubic metre of compost to do, perhaps next week.

At 10.30 we walked back, talking about energy, today's subject.  I cleaned up and at about 11.10 set off to go to town to meet James Houston in El Piano.  He wanted to talk to me about two aspects of
The Galtres Festival... the possibilities re composting, and what Professor Fiddlesticks could add to the event.  I heard what has happened about waste and recycling in the past, and then outlined four scenarios for what could happen.  The Fiddlesticks chat was a lot simpler and shorter, but it looks like I'm going to be booked to do one or both roles. However, I've got to write an email summarising the compost options.

I cycled home via Alligator and picked up a trailer load of goodies... including a huge butternut squash which had a couple of small patches of rot, so later I washed it, cut those out and made a big pan of butternut squash soup.  I was planning on attending a campaigning workshop with Adrian Ramsay, the deputy leader of The Green Party, but there was such a huge pile of washing up after my being away yesterday that I lit the stove, washed up, did the butternut soup, and made a nutloaf instead.  I had that all done by 5.30, so I then went to the University to hear Adrian Ramsay give a talk on what the Greens would do instead of the awfully damaging ConDem cuts. 

I was pleased to meet Adrian, who was just finishing off his evening meal in the canteen, and I told him about Jillian Creasy's comment about how Mozaz always challenged people, including her, and that this was a valuable role that gritty irritating people had.  We then walked over to the lecture theatre and I was pleased to see Kate Lock, so I sat with her, but there were quite a few of my Green Party friends, and People and Planet friends, and the meeting was well attended.

Adrian was a good speaker, and presented a fairly short overview of what the Greens would do if they had the chance, and then there were a wide range of questions.  This easily filled the hour allotted.

I came home and had a slice of nutloaf with baked beans and some slices of fried home-grown squash left over from a few days ago.

Later in the evening, I had a long phone call (one hour forty one minutes, according to our phone!) with Emily who was Mozaz' friend.  We'd chatted a bit on facebook but the chat thing wasn't working too well so I said she could ring me if she wanted.  What a lovely person, I think I've got another friend there.

Well the day started really badly; I was going to cycle to school with our youngest but it didn't happen, left me feeling like a completely rubbish Dad.  Gill took him in, and also collected him at the end of the school day.

I had a compost order so I took two medium sacks of unriddled compost in my trailer to St Nicks, participated in the Rotters meeting and then went to deliver the compost to Bronwen, who has converted a bit of lawn into a growing area.  She's a LETS member so I'll get paid Yorkys.

After lunch I went round to Debbie, as agreed yesterday, with the bag of 'Green Light' leaflets... the regular Green Party communication which I deliver... and Debbie always enjoys the walk round too; it usually takes about an hour.

When I got in I did a bit of wood management, and started rebuilding the logpile on the left of the front door (looking out of the house).  When Gill got in she told me about going into Archbishop Holgate's School to pick up various things left by our youngest, and to deliver the letter saying he was now no longer a pupil there.  She spoke to someone there and heard about a recent incident where one child was stamping on the head of another and there were Police and an ambulance, with the victim going to hospital.  We know we've done the right thing taking our boys out as we don't want either of them ending up injured.

We had pasta for tea, plus broccoli and carrot, but the pasta was overcooked and it was really soft and I didn't like it.  I cannot remember not liking something we've cooked for ages... maybe since I tried to eat a stinkhorn mushroom 'egg' which are allegedly edible but utterly disgusting.  I did eat the pasta but I only did so as I didn't want to waste it.

I watched a TV programme on 'The Human Planet' about people living in the Arctic, and then went out to a Green Party party, launching Caleb Wooding's candidacy in Heslington Ward for the May Local Elections.  I met lots of interesting people, most of them had seen me speak at the sit-in, or had met me before, but tonight I got a chance to get to know them better.  Lovely.  I came back after midnight.