Human Lifestyle

Busy busy day... although a fairly relaxed morning.

I had to decide whether to do a gig in Haxby in aid of SNAPPY.. I'd been invited to go but the organiser rang back saying they couldn't afford to pay me even my (officially) lowest charity fundraiser fee. But I sometimes do my Fiddlesticks work for nothing and I said if the weather was ok, I could go up and do some balloon modelling to add fun and colour and perhaps make a few pounds on donations for the balloon models. Chris my contact said if I did go up and do that, he'd give me an 'expenses' type cheque, but I wasn't contracted to go up, and he wouldn't expect to see me if the weather was poor.

So as the weather was good I got myself into costume and at midday was ready to go to the charity football match on the Ethel Ward Memorial Playing Fields in Haxby, 5 miles North of York. The spot I had to work in was tiny, a bit of hard-standing in front of the changing rooms, but enough space to do some devilstick workshops and juggling, but only one person wanted a balloon model so I found Chris and told him I'd go. Everybody was there for the football!

I came home and decided to go to Anna's Street Party in aid if 20's Plenty and York in Transition with my colourful Fiddlesticks costume on, and taking my entertainment stuff with me. However, I knew that the City of York Council were installing their wind turbine at the eco-depot, something they've had planned for well over a year. The eco-depot is the biggest straw-bale building around (not sure if that's just UK, Europe or in the World, but it is big) and has a huge array of photovolteic cells on the roof. The wind turbine was planned to complement this design. When I arrived I met Kristina P, the ex-sustainability officer who has moved on to work for another authority and responsible for the installation. 'Twas good to see her again, she still lives in York but now commutes by train. The turbine is 15 metres tall to the nacelle (where the blades are attached) and will be 3 or 4 metres higher than the surrounding buildings. It has a maximum output of 15 Kw, and using electricity prices from a year and a half ago, was due to pay back it's financial cost in 16 to 20 years, based on the measured wind speeds at the site. But if it gets windier or electricity prices go up, this payback time will come down. And of course, it's giving us carbon neutral electricity (once the equivalent of it's embodied energy has been generated) and helps us reduce our carbon footprint. Excellent stuff.... I want one!

And so on to Anna's street party which turned out to be excellent, a big turn-out, lots of people watched the film The Power of Community and heard Edward Harland speak about the Transition movement and York in Transition in particular. The children had a fun time drawing in chalk on the road, and cycling up and down. Two police officers attended and gave out some information to help residents avoid being burgled. I unicycled and blew up balloon models for a donation to YiT... raising more than the SNAPPY event this morning! The event was supposed to be 4pm til 6, but I didn't leave til 6.45, when the rainclouds were ominously gathering...

Later in the evening, I spoke to my good friend Jonathan who I hardly ever see anymore and he invited me round to spend a couple of hours with him. I watched a couple of programmeswith my eldest son about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN on the French/Swiss border which is due to go live this week, and at 9.45 headed off to see my buddy. He earns his living as a nurse but has ambitions to be an artist, which seem to be coming true. There's lots of interest in his work, which aims to help people reminisce and remember their past. He's known as Dexter in the art world and his fun website can be seen here.

Had a lovely chat and a can of cider, got back soon after midnight.

A lovely lazy morning, read quite a chunk of NewScientist and did emails, lots of York Green Festival stuff going on, as it's only just over a week away.

Got up at lunchtime and had a small lunch then went out into the garden to clear up the hedge cuttings and some woody bits which have been dumped in the front garden. It's a continuous job to try to keep the front reasonably tidy... like the painting of the Forth Bridge. As soon as there's any space, it gets filled with new material ready for processing.

I had an early tea..... Gill put it together.. cauliflower and nutloaf, and by 5.30 I was getting ready to cycle out along the Wigginton Road to Creepy Crawlies where the 'Snappy Beach Party' was taking place... and I was due to perform at this fundraiser. This was the first time I'd been to Creepy Crawlies, and it's an impressive space with good facilities.

I was shown a good place for my activity, which when I arrived was being used by a singer and pianist. I parked my bike and trailer up and waited for them to finish and move, and my friend Ali arrived with her daughter and carer, all the way from Sheffield. It had been quite an interesting journey for them... the little one's first train journey, and as the wheelchair space in standard class was occupied, they had to go in first class. They'd pre-booked, including seats for the carer and child, but there was a besuited NHS chap with laptop in this pair of seats who refused to move when asked, even though they had seat reservations. A bit later, when the ticket inspector asked where Ali was going, she said where and told him about the SNAPPY charity fundraiser, as the charity had had it's funding pulled by the Council and the NHS. The NHS man visibly bristled! This made Ali feel a little bit better about his refusal to vacate the seat!

At about 6.45 the singer/painist duo moved and I got myself unpacked and ready to go... the space was not ideal, rather cramped but the show went quite well, despite competing demands from other distractions, people walking through the stage area, loud amplified announcements, etc. I suppose you can't have chips with everything! I was glad to get that part of the evening finished and do some balloon modelling, much easier in the circumstances, and this activity raised some money for SNAPPY too.

I was able to spend a bit of time with Ali before she went to get in her awaiting charriot, and at 9pm I cycled home.