Human Lifestyle

Oops, overslept, and woke at 9.33, realising I had agreed to meet Tony at 9.45 outside Alligators.  I washed, dressed, got a cereal bar and a banana and jumped on my bike.... and got to Alligators only a few minutes late.

We'd got an appointment at the Police Station to talk through the World Naked Bike Ride risk assessment.  The Police in North Yorkshire have a policy not to do any traffic management, so our 'how to reduce risk' section, which included references to 'police escort' didn't go down too well, but we included it as it was the obvious way to make the ride safer.  However, in the end, the officer who saw us gave us two possible ways to deal with the junctions and the problem of the peloton getting split.

So I regarded the meeting as a reasonable success, and Tony and I had a brief chat afterwards before I cycled into town to deal with David's water ingress problem.  I arranged to meet up with someone who uses the space under David's flat, to see where the water had got in recently, just to confirm which wall had the problem.  I then went to see David who had Richard with him, and Richard's friend John.  Gill messaged me; she'd brought the bike lock key into town so I could pick up our youngest at 3.30.  She popped in to see David, as she hadn't seen where he lives, or met him.  I was pleased they've now met.

I then took David to St Martin's Church, on Coney Street, next to City Screen, to hear the lunchtime organ concert, today being performed by Robert Sharpe, who's the Director of Music at York Minster.  The organ was a simple one, no foot pedals, and the pieces played included some Camidge, J.S. Bach, John Stanley and Mozart.  I enjoyed Samuel Wesley's 'Hornpipe' most, I think, but found all the pieces very simple (ie a keyboard played with one pair of hands), a bit boring and a bit comical.  The sound of the organ reminded me of steam-powered fairground organs.  But there was nothing I disliked, and I'd be happy to take him again; indeed, I am booked to do so! David enjoyed it very much, I was glad to learn.

I took him to Browns with Richard and John, and they met with Carolyn.  I went back to David's flat and met the person who has access to the space under it, so i could see the offending wall.  This will help me describe the situation to the Environmental Health when I speak to them.  I went back to Browns and John bought be a sandwich and coffee.

I had a quick look around the cellar with Richard and we found another source of moisture from the soil pipe from the upstairs toilet.  That can be fixed fairly easily, I think.

I then got off to go to the Steiner School to pick up our son and 3 outers of soya milk.  And a log on the way home.  Our son pedalled so hard on one section on the way home that he broke his chain.  We phoned Cycleworks to find if they could do it.... no, had to wait til Thursday.  We phoned Cycle Heaven and yes, they could do it in half an hour.  I loaded up his bike onto my trailer and took it to Cycle Heaven; Ash sorted it in 5 minutes and didn't charge me much.  I love Cycle Heaven, it's the best bike shop in York.

I got home and did a bit of chainsawing... some nice offcuts rescued from a skip recently.  Then I came in and flopped.  What a day!

Up early as had to be at Mill House on North Street for 10am, and as it was very windy, I set off in good time as when it's windy... and blowing from the direction you're travelling in, it really slows you down.  But when I reached town, I saw I had 15 minutes to spare, and then I saw a skip with assorted pots and planters in it, so I rescued some of them, and got to the meeting with 5 minutes to spare.

The meeting was with the Council's Event's Officer, Liz Topi, the Police, Licencing and Highways, and was to discuss the forthcoming York World Naked Cycle Ride.  What the organisers would like is for the ride to go ahead with a Police escort, to 'cork' junctions and allow the group of 100 or so riders to stay as one group, rather than being split at traffic lights and other junctions, and risk getting motorists in the middle of the cyclists, which we feel is unsafe.  However, in York, the Police have decided that they are not responsible for managing traffic, and this is left to the Council.  So, if we wanted to be an official event with a Council Traffic Order, and junctions controlling, this would apparently cost thousands of pounds.  If we requested the Police do it, they too would charge for the service, if they were allowed to do it.

So, we are going to go ahead with the less safe situation of the riders obeying the rules of the road, but getting split up in the process, and having to stop on the highway to regroup.  Far from ideal.  In Manchester and Sheffield, the Police look after the riders and ensure motorists don't get tangled up with the cyclists.  We had lots more discussion, about a risk assessment, insurance, a change of route to avoid the Carnival, which Liz says will have 800 children there and she doesn't want the cyclists to 'upset' them.  But the organisers' main concern is that the ride goes ahead and is safe and fun for all, and makes the point about our vulnerability on today's car-infested roads. 

Right towards the end of the meeting there was a fire alarm, so we concluded the meeting outside.

I cycled home and wrote up the notes from the meeting and emailed them to all concerned.

I got an email from Chloe at Edible York confirming that they'd like another 15 sacks of compost for the Barbican raised beds.  To be collected on Sunday.  I'm very pleased to get such a big order, and even more so that the beds will be used to grow food.

I did a bit of moving stuff around; sawdust down the garden, compost up the garden, vegetables down the garden.... logs down to the woodshed. 

I came in at about 6... Gill had made some celery and sweet potato soup, so I had that and went out to Central Hall at the University to see Greg Dyke talking about the Yes campaign to reform our voting system.  This was good, and I'll be voting Yes to introduce AV, which is a first step towards Proportional Representation, my preferred method of electing representatives.

I chatted with Charles afterwards, and collected all the burst balloons, and then on the way home... found a pile of logs!