A lovely day... not only the turning of the year but really sunny and I enjoyed myself. Got up just in time to wish the boys a happy solstice before they rushed off to school.
I had a morning doing a report for the York World Naked bike Ride, as we had issues with the police on the ride, who said they were only there to observe, but they prevented some of our marshalls from keeping the ride safe by 'corking' a junction where it would have been dangerous for a motor vehicle to split the group... but later they did some traffic management themselves. Ideally we need a situation like in Manchester where we had police outriders keeping the riders safe.
Gill and I spent some time together over lunch and after lunch I hopped on my bike and cycled over to Kutters/Shannons to get my new chainsaw chain, which cost me £21, but rejuvenates my chainsaw.
On the way back I went to Nationwide, which is the Building Society where I have two accounts, my Fiddlesticks/Composter account, and my savings. Last week I saw a poster which said that my savings account, a 'cashbuilder' was changing, and that any cheque I had made out to a third party would cost me an extra £10, which is ridiculous. So today I asked what the options were to make this situation better, and I had a meeting with a nice guy called Ross who worked out that the account I needed was a Bonus 30. This allows me to make one withdrawal per month, and if I don't make any withdrawals for a year I get some kind of bonus payment... but as I'm not that bothered about a bonus, this doesn't really matter. I might use this purely for savings and see if the Credit Union has a better deal for the occasional withdrawals I make to get magazine subscriptions and the various other things I use this account for.
Anyway, Ross was nice and we got the paperwork sorted, and I came home. I wanted to see if my chainsaw was any good so I got the electrics sorted out and chopped up quite a lot of logs, and split some, and stacked too. A good session... very hot and sweaty but good honest hard work. The chainsaw is working well.
Gill made a quiche for tea. She is the best quiche maker in the World.
Later I sorted out some compostables and found that for some reason one of the shops had thrown out more or less a whole sack of new potatoes, possibly because some fruit or veg had leaked onto them and some of them were damp. So we'll be eating new potatoes for quite a while!
Showing posts with label Nationwide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nationwide. Show all posts
Up early as got a lot to try to do today. First had a hunt through various bags and piles of paper, to try to find my Oyster Card, for travelling in London. Did find my London map, though, which is good.
Gill took our youngest to school and went on to the dentist, I went down to the Nationwide to get a cheque cancelled. I had to wait quite a long time, but did eventually get this done. On the way out of there, I met my friend John Forrester from the Stockholm Environment Institute and had a nice chat, then off to Bishopthorpe to the Brunswick Organic Nursery to spend my vouchers (for volunteering with York Rotters) and when there met my friend Marit, and again, had a good chat. She's building an accessible allotment at the Glen Allotments in Tang Hall, a good project.
I found a range of veg plants; squashes, courgettes, cucumbers, calabrese, cauliflowers and tomatoes, just enough to fully pack-out my trailer, even so I cycled slowly home so not to bounce them around too much.
Home for just after 1pm, enjoyed lunch and did a quick email before getting on with sorting stuff out and getting ready for my trip this afternoon/evening.
I left the house soon after 3 and got to the station in very good time to get the 3.54 to London. Had a nice chat to an inorganic chemistry student called Michaela, and then to a chap involved in railway signalling, and soon we were in King's Cross. Thameslink was easy to find ad I got the 6.24 to Crofton Park, and chatted to a researcher in mental health. At Nunhead, a drunk with an aggression problem caused a 20 minute delay, but there was general good humour in the carriage about it. I found Lisa's house very easily, having used Googlemaps yesterday to check it out. Good for 'Streetview'!
Lisa's 15 year old son had made a lasagne, I'd taken some squash soup down, as well as gifts of home made sweet red pepper paprika, pea beans to grow and some dried fruit. I did a little balloon workshop with Lisa's 7 year old daughter, and had a very pleasant evening. One of the things we did was to go out into the back garden and Lisa watered some recently installed plants, and behind the house is some railway land, on the edge of a cutting, covered in trees... a pretty wild area, which her son and his mates use to escape from Mum... a clearing for a campfire, lots of dead wood around. Whilst we were there, we heard a lot of squarking and I spotted a colourful (Green?) Woodpecker leaving a hole in a dead tree, and obviously the noise was a clutch of babies. They've also seen foxes there. A lovely resource to have access to.
Gill took our youngest to school and went on to the dentist, I went down to the Nationwide to get a cheque cancelled. I had to wait quite a long time, but did eventually get this done. On the way out of there, I met my friend John Forrester from the Stockholm Environment Institute and had a nice chat, then off to Bishopthorpe to the Brunswick Organic Nursery to spend my vouchers (for volunteering with York Rotters) and when there met my friend Marit, and again, had a good chat. She's building an accessible allotment at the Glen Allotments in Tang Hall, a good project.
I found a range of veg plants; squashes, courgettes, cucumbers, calabrese, cauliflowers and tomatoes, just enough to fully pack-out my trailer, even so I cycled slowly home so not to bounce them around too much.
Home for just after 1pm, enjoyed lunch and did a quick email before getting on with sorting stuff out and getting ready for my trip this afternoon/evening.
I left the house soon after 3 and got to the station in very good time to get the 3.54 to London. Had a nice chat to an inorganic chemistry student called Michaela, and then to a chap involved in railway signalling, and soon we were in King's Cross. Thameslink was easy to find ad I got the 6.24 to Crofton Park, and chatted to a researcher in mental health. At Nunhead, a drunk with an aggression problem caused a 20 minute delay, but there was general good humour in the carriage about it. I found Lisa's house very easily, having used Googlemaps yesterday to check it out. Good for 'Streetview'!
Lisa's 15 year old son had made a lasagne, I'd taken some squash soup down, as well as gifts of home made sweet red pepper paprika, pea beans to grow and some dried fruit. I did a little balloon workshop with Lisa's 7 year old daughter, and had a very pleasant evening. One of the things we did was to go out into the back garden and Lisa watered some recently installed plants, and behind the house is some railway land, on the edge of a cutting, covered in trees... a pretty wild area, which her son and his mates use to escape from Mum... a clearing for a campfire, lots of dead wood around. Whilst we were there, we heard a lot of squarking and I spotted a colourful (Green?) Woodpecker leaving a hole in a dead tree, and obviously the noise was a clutch of babies. They've also seen foxes there. A lovely resource to have access to.
Cycled into town as I had a dental appointment, a check-up and spring clean... I was very pleased as I like making my dentist happy... and I did today as my teeth are much cleaner than they used to be and my gums don't bleed anymore. It is also much nicer for me as there's much less scraping and ultrasounding. I'm obviously doing the right thing!
After this I went to the railway station to get tickets for the trip to London later this month and for my gig tomorrow in Malton. Then went to Building Society to pay cheques in and get a cheque and cash out, and then came home via Freshways who had one sack of compostables for me and a box of green potatoes.
Did a bit more paperwork and washing up then headed into the garden. When I came in I had a message from Ali saying she really needed some help this evening and could I come over?
Gill was fine about me going over to do some 'emergency PA work', due to Ali being unwell and having a hole in her care package at the moment, as Sarah has just left to go and live in Leeds.
I agreed to get there by 8pm , so got the 6 something to Sheffield, and the tram up to Ali's. On the train I chatted to a lovely old chap form Stratford upon Avon who was a keen train enthusiast and as now retired, travels all over the place, often with his 'our kid' brother, and he had assorted stories and anecdotes about his mini-breaks.
I was able to help a bit, I don't know how useful I actually was but I guess it would have been much more difficult for Ali to get her little daughter (who also has a disability) ready in the morning. I slept on a sleeping bag on the couch, not as uncomfortable as it might have looked!
After this I went to the railway station to get tickets for the trip to London later this month and for my gig tomorrow in Malton. Then went to Building Society to pay cheques in and get a cheque and cash out, and then came home via Freshways who had one sack of compostables for me and a box of green potatoes.
Did a bit more paperwork and washing up then headed into the garden. When I came in I had a message from Ali saying she really needed some help this evening and could I come over?
Gill was fine about me going over to do some 'emergency PA work', due to Ali being unwell and having a hole in her care package at the moment, as Sarah has just left to go and live in Leeds.
I agreed to get there by 8pm , so got the 6 something to Sheffield, and the tram up to Ali's. On the train I chatted to a lovely old chap form Stratford upon Avon who was a keen train enthusiast and as now retired, travels all over the place, often with his 'our kid' brother, and he had assorted stories and anecdotes about his mini-breaks.
I was able to help a bit, I don't know how useful I actually was but I guess it would have been much more difficult for Ali to get her little daughter (who also has a disability) ready in the morning. I slept on a sleeping bag on the couch, not as uncomfortable as it might have looked!
Felt like a real holiday day today! Lie-in til 9, kids quiet, all had breakfast together and then they went to play in the loft, with the model railway, so we were able to slip back to bed...
Got up an hour later and very soon there was a huge rumpus upstairs, our eldest had broken the 'Virgin' passenger carriage which his brother had bought with his birthday money. This behaviour and noise completely spoilt the good levels of endorphins we had been experiencing beforehand. DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT CENSORED. I asked the younger one to wait upstairs and eventually got up there and mended his carriage, which fortunately wasn't broken, just popped apart.
When all was settled, I went to the Co-op to get some groceries, and came back via a ripe skip which yielded a pasting table, a wine rack and an unopened box of polyfiller compound, as well as some burnable wood and reusable wood.
After lunch I did some emailing and booked a cottage in Wales for the first week of October, which is a little holiday I'm having with my friend from America. Makes it more real, she's already got her ticket, and I'm already feeling guilty about contributing to a plane journey. However, the next thing I'll do is to look at offsetting (whether it's worthwhile or not) as it will reduce my off-green conscience. I do have such a low carbon footprint, that the carbon cost of half the plane trip won't make my annual footprint as high as the average in the UK (which is apparently 11 tonnes, mine's part of the household footprint of 1.4 tonnes, ie about 0.7 tonnes). But still feel bad about it, but will enjoy seeing my friend again.
After this, Cycled to town and popped in on Cycle Heaven to check on the progress of my new bike, then to CVS to book the room in September for our CRAG meeting on transport, and the one in November on insulation and home heating. Then to collect recyclables from Out Of This World, and posted some letters before popping in to my building society. There was a problem here, as my two books had been sitting next to each other in my bum-bag, and thir numbers had got mixed up when the computer scanned them. Weird, and it took a long time to get it sorted out.
Home via another 2 boxes of compostables from Martin's Urban Perishables.
Put them on the current heap, picked the first of the Bramley apples for making blackberry jam, and windfall James Grieves apples for drying on the stove. Made mixed veg soup, mostly on the stove... carrots, pumpkin, onion, celery... the only thing which was paid-for was the celery.
A warm evening making jam and drying assorted fruit.
Got up an hour later and very soon there was a huge rumpus upstairs, our eldest had broken the 'Virgin' passenger carriage which his brother had bought with his birthday money. This behaviour and noise completely spoilt the good levels of endorphins we had been experiencing beforehand. DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT CENSORED. I asked the younger one to wait upstairs and eventually got up there and mended his carriage, which fortunately wasn't broken, just popped apart.
When all was settled, I went to the Co-op to get some groceries, and came back via a ripe skip which yielded a pasting table, a wine rack and an unopened box of polyfiller compound, as well as some burnable wood and reusable wood.
After lunch I did some emailing and booked a cottage in Wales for the first week of October, which is a little holiday I'm having with my friend from America. Makes it more real, she's already got her ticket, and I'm already feeling guilty about contributing to a plane journey. However, the next thing I'll do is to look at offsetting (whether it's worthwhile or not) as it will reduce my off-green conscience. I do have such a low carbon footprint, that the carbon cost of half the plane trip won't make my annual footprint as high as the average in the UK (which is apparently 11 tonnes, mine's part of the household footprint of 1.4 tonnes, ie about 0.7 tonnes). But still feel bad about it, but will enjoy seeing my friend again.
After this, Cycled to town and popped in on Cycle Heaven to check on the progress of my new bike, then to CVS to book the room in September for our CRAG meeting on transport, and the one in November on insulation and home heating. Then to collect recyclables from Out Of This World, and posted some letters before popping in to my building society. There was a problem here, as my two books had been sitting next to each other in my bum-bag, and thir numbers had got mixed up when the computer scanned them. Weird, and it took a long time to get it sorted out.
Home via another 2 boxes of compostables from Martin's Urban Perishables.
Put them on the current heap, picked the first of the Bramley apples for making blackberry jam, and windfall James Grieves apples for drying on the stove. Made mixed veg soup, mostly on the stove... carrots, pumpkin, onion, celery... the only thing which was paid-for was the celery.
A warm evening making jam and drying assorted fruit.
