Up early as I needed to be out of the house at 9am, to get on the 9.28 to Sheffield so I could be in good time for the start of the Sheffield Green Fair at St Mary's, a church more or less in the middle of Sheffield. I left the house feeling low as there was grumpiness and rudeness all around, but the ride to the station and then nearly an hour of reading NewScientist cheered me up, and by the time I got to the venue, I was happy. I expect this is partly because I love what I do, and this is one of the best gigs of the year; I'm amongst friends and people who share similar political views to me.
I got changed and was ready to roll before 11, which is when it officially opened. I was pleased to see my sister Anna on the Sheffield Freegle stall (very similar to Freecycle) and Douglas, who was as usual, looking dapper and lovely with a well-trimmed beard. I did some unicycling round, but the ground is pretty uneven and I came off a couple of times. I suppose this ought to have been a bit of a warning... because at about 12.30, I had just done a unicycle round the site and I arrived back at my performance area, which is right next to the church and is flagged with gravestones and they are sloping and not very even. I hopped off but somehow I went over on my ankle, there was an audible crack and searing pain. I fell on the ground and within about 5 seconds I was experiencing the most excruciating pain I've had for a long time, if not ever. I felt myself beginning to slip out of consciousness with it... everything started going white and I went dizzy, and had to go and sit down, then lie down on some table-like gravestones where people had been sitting watching me. Some people came to my aid, including a first aid person who I think was a Doctor... she prodded my ankle a bit and decided that I probably hadn't broken it, 'just' sprained. The loud crack would have been a tendon snapping.
I've done this twice before, same ankle. The first time was in Devonshire Green in Sheffield, about 10 years ago, and I, yes, hopped off my unicycle and misjudged the landing and went over on it. I was convinced that I'd broken it. I went to Sheffield hospital where X rays showed my Navicular bone was in two pieces, so they put it in a cast, gave me the X-ray images and sent me back to York, saying to present myself to York hospital on the Monday. The surgeon there took one look at my foot and the X-rays and told me I had an 'accessory Navicular', not a fracture, and the pot was cut off. My sprained ankle slowly got better. The next time, I was in Bradford and walking along to a Permaculture place, and I slipped off the kerb and turned my ankle, and fell into the road. So I have a known weakness there.
So, I was given ice in paper towels and someone gave me paracetamol and Ibuprofen, and a few minutes later I went inside out of the sun and had some lunch with Anna my sister and Ali and her daughter. After this, I decided that I ought to continue working to the best of my ability so I got a chair and blew up some balloons, stuck them in my uni spokes and before long had kids all around clamouring for balloon models. I did this for an hour and then my friend Tannis turned up. She's from Canada and she found me through my blog, she was interested in the composting, and some of the community development that I do. So we'd chatted on facebook and I was glad to meet her. We went for a coffee, and then it was time for me to prepare for my Balloon Workshop by blowing up a whole wheel full of modelling balloons. That show was at 4pm and it went really well.
I went to get paid after this, and as I hobbled back, I turned on my ankle again.... more uneven ground and a yelp of pain. But I was determined not to let this stop me doing what I'd planned, which was to walk back to the station and have a drink with Tannis, so we did walk, very slowly, to the station, where we met Andy (Sheffield World Naked Bike Ride) and Keith, and we all four had a really nice hour and a half, pint and a half, chat and a half.... mainly suggesting places that Tannis should not miss visiting whilst in the UK.
But towards 8pm I had to peel off and go and get the train home, and I found cycling not a problem, so was home at about 9pm. Gill gave me a bag of frozen peas to put onto the affected area to help reduce the swelling, but said that I really ought to go and get it X-rayed. But Graeme off facebook reminded me that casualty on Saturday night should be avoided, and a Sunday morning trip would be more sensible.
So I sat and enjoyed Glastonbury on BBC3 and put my foot up to help the swelling go down. The bruise is beginning to show, it looks disgusting.
Showing posts with label Sheffield Green Fair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sheffield Green Fair. Show all posts
Woke late... Ali had said there was no chance of oversleeping as her daughter is always up early, but today she slept in til 9.20, went in to see her Mummy, Mum realised the time and told her to go and wake me up and the overnight PA, Kaisa.
I had a fast bowl of cereal and got myself ready for work, and Ali got herself together in record time... went to get the bus soon after 10 and got to the Green Fair venue really quickly, at about 10.30... so woke up late and got there early!
Had a quick mooch around and just before 11 went to get my Fiddlesticks clothes on, and by 11 was up on the unicycle and livening the place up a bit!
I had a busy day... lots of fairly unstructured circus workshops, reacting to the audience's needs and requests, and one particular chap stood out, a pre-teen who I'm proud to give a plug to; Kyle P. who started the day as a non-unicyclist and finished the day being able to unicycle about 10 metres. Brilliant! I think he should get along to Green Top Circus and learn more, he'll go far if he continues practising with the dedication he put into the unicycle today.
Was glad to meet my sister and brother in law too, and Anna had some good chats with Ali, which I was glad about. Douglas watched quite a bit of one of my workshops but I think he fell asleep a couple of times, it was that exciting!
At 1.30 I had been timetabled to go and speak on the main outdoor stage about low carbon living, so I had 10 minutes in which to explain about measuring carbon footprints and what makes up the biggest chunks of it, and therefore which bits to try to cut...
Ali volunteered on the gate and somewhere else for a couple of hours. Kaisa and 'Littleboo' arrived and my biggest fan spent a lot of the rest of the day with me, her disability not stopping her trying as many of the activities as possible. She's even found a way to hold the devilstick handstick in her hand which doesn't do as it's told... I'm really impressed by her desire to just get on with it!
Soon my last timetabled slot arrived, a 3.45 balloon modelling show/workshop inside St Mary's Church, this was well attended and loads of fun.
At 5, the finish time, I found my handler and got paid, and all four of us trundled down to the station where a Newcastle-bound train was waiting and I managed to get on it just as the doors were closing. There was a jolly and drunk chap Tony whom I chatted to, he was very amused by the Professor Fiddlesticks name.
I got home via Country Fresh, soon after 8pm. Had a mellow evening playing Scrabble with Gill and enjoying Glastonbury on TV. I beat her by just one point.
I had a fast bowl of cereal and got myself ready for work, and Ali got herself together in record time... went to get the bus soon after 10 and got to the Green Fair venue really quickly, at about 10.30... so woke up late and got there early!
Had a quick mooch around and just before 11 went to get my Fiddlesticks clothes on, and by 11 was up on the unicycle and livening the place up a bit!
I had a busy day... lots of fairly unstructured circus workshops, reacting to the audience's needs and requests, and one particular chap stood out, a pre-teen who I'm proud to give a plug to; Kyle P. who started the day as a non-unicyclist and finished the day being able to unicycle about 10 metres. Brilliant! I think he should get along to Green Top Circus and learn more, he'll go far if he continues practising with the dedication he put into the unicycle today.
Was glad to meet my sister and brother in law too, and Anna had some good chats with Ali, which I was glad about. Douglas watched quite a bit of one of my workshops but I think he fell asleep a couple of times, it was that exciting!
At 1.30 I had been timetabled to go and speak on the main outdoor stage about low carbon living, so I had 10 minutes in which to explain about measuring carbon footprints and what makes up the biggest chunks of it, and therefore which bits to try to cut...
Ali volunteered on the gate and somewhere else for a couple of hours. Kaisa and 'Littleboo' arrived and my biggest fan spent a lot of the rest of the day with me, her disability not stopping her trying as many of the activities as possible. She's even found a way to hold the devilstick handstick in her hand which doesn't do as it's told... I'm really impressed by her desire to just get on with it!
Soon my last timetabled slot arrived, a 3.45 balloon modelling show/workshop inside St Mary's Church, this was well attended and loads of fun.
At 5, the finish time, I found my handler and got paid, and all four of us trundled down to the station where a Newcastle-bound train was waiting and I managed to get on it just as the doors were closing. There was a jolly and drunk chap Tony whom I chatted to, he was very amused by the Professor Fiddlesticks name.
I got home via Country Fresh, soon after 8pm. Had a mellow evening playing Scrabble with Gill and enjoying Glastonbury on TV. I beat her by just one point.
Up ridiculously early as a very early meeting in Sheffield this morning... so up before the boys, breakfast, got various Fiddlesticksy things packed, loaded the bike and trailer, and woke the boys up to say bye... and down to the station to buy tickets and get the 7.44 train.
First part of the journey I just quietly read my NewScientist, but then chatted with a future student who was off to Birmingham University Open Day (some good chats about his hippy parents!) and a banker going for interview in Cheltenham to re-apply for his job, as the bank have slimmed down by half and everyone has to reapply. He seemed confident, and curious about cutting his oily footprint, since his job involved oil futures markets, and he was aware of 'peak oil' and Hibbert's Peak.
Sheffield came soon, and I didn't have long to wait until Ali rolled up with a car-full of PAs all helping her prepare to interview another batch of prospective Personal Assistants. The interviews were in the Friends Meeting House, 9 were scheduled but 2 didn't turn up, and in my opinion, all 7 who had been shortlisted for interview were very capable of doing the job. Three stood out as definites and one, a summer-only temporary was taken on there and then. Ali will have to work out timetabling to see how many of the others she invites to work for her. She has a 'Direct Payment' scheme which means she and her daughter are allocated a certain number of hours care per week, give a budget and told to get on with it! Well, almost!
We had a break for lunch, extended by one of the no-shows, and went on til after 4, and we left the building on the dot of 5pm. We then collected Ali's daughter from after school club and went home, where there were four local pre-teen girls waiting to play with her. One was Polish and chatted away to Ali's Polish PA. I did a bit of unicycling at their request, and let them do some devilsticking, then made them all a balloon model as a present.
Ali decided to take us to the Norton Pub for eats which was nice, I had veggie lasagne, chips and onion rings. And a Koppaberg Pear Cider, yummy!
Arrived home in time to watch Glastonbury on't elly. Ali and I both miss John Peel.
Tried to have not too late a night as I'm performing at Sheffield Green Fair tomorrow.
First part of the journey I just quietly read my NewScientist, but then chatted with a future student who was off to Birmingham University Open Day (some good chats about his hippy parents!) and a banker going for interview in Cheltenham to re-apply for his job, as the bank have slimmed down by half and everyone has to reapply. He seemed confident, and curious about cutting his oily footprint, since his job involved oil futures markets, and he was aware of 'peak oil' and Hibbert's Peak.
Sheffield came soon, and I didn't have long to wait until Ali rolled up with a car-full of PAs all helping her prepare to interview another batch of prospective Personal Assistants. The interviews were in the Friends Meeting House, 9 were scheduled but 2 didn't turn up, and in my opinion, all 7 who had been shortlisted for interview were very capable of doing the job. Three stood out as definites and one, a summer-only temporary was taken on there and then. Ali will have to work out timetabling to see how many of the others she invites to work for her. She has a 'Direct Payment' scheme which means she and her daughter are allocated a certain number of hours care per week, give a budget and told to get on with it! Well, almost!
We had a break for lunch, extended by one of the no-shows, and went on til after 4, and we left the building on the dot of 5pm. We then collected Ali's daughter from after school club and went home, where there were four local pre-teen girls waiting to play with her. One was Polish and chatted away to Ali's Polish PA. I did a bit of unicycling at their request, and let them do some devilsticking, then made them all a balloon model as a present.
Ali decided to take us to the Norton Pub for eats which was nice, I had veggie lasagne, chips and onion rings. And a Koppaberg Pear Cider, yummy!
Arrived home in time to watch Glastonbury on't elly. Ali and I both miss John Peel.
Tried to have not too late a night as I'm performing at Sheffield Green Fair tomorrow.
Sheffield Green Fair, 11 til 5.
I did a good 'busk' show, a timetabled show and an indoor balloon show.
Lots of family members turned up, was lovely.
Went back to the folks afterwards for a bowl of soup, sandwich and look round the house and garden which is coming together well.
Got the 18.48 train back and was back home by 8pm, with a box and a sack of compostables too!
Game of Scrabble with Gill late on... I won.
I did a good 'busk' show, a timetabled show and an indoor balloon show.
Lots of family members turned up, was lovely.
Went back to the folks afterwards for a bowl of soup, sandwich and look round the house and garden which is coming together well.
Got the 18.48 train back and was back home by 8pm, with a box and a sack of compostables too!
Game of Scrabble with Gill late on... I won.
Quite an early start, as going to the Sheffield Green Fair today. Cycled to the station well loaded up and got my ticket before getting the 9.44 (I think!) to Sheffield. I sat next to a pretty young woman and chatted to her. Jane from Newcasle was off to a wedding in Birmingham, a Muslim friend, she worked as a lorry driver. An interesting and unusual woman, we enjoyed the hour we spent together. When got to Sheffers, walked for 15 mins to get to St Mary's, Bramhall Lane, arriving there at about 11am. The event was supposed to start at 12, so I had a good wander round and was happy to meet Jude on a composting stall who has helped John from St Nicks with a funding bid, and reccomended St Nicks for an award, which it got along with £2500!
Other composters there too, including a WRAP chap who works with Isobel Bloomfield, and the gent Richard Clare, who several years ago sold me the Jack Edwards Climbing Pea Beans which I have distributed widely. I told him the story of my Dad, who grudgingly took some dried Pea Beans from me, saying they won't be as good as Runner Beans, but would try them anyway. That year he agreed they grew well and tasted good.. A subsequent year it was too dry for his runners to do well and the Pea Beans did very well, and he was converted, and now grows fewer Runners and more Pea Beans, and he's been distributing them amongst friends and neighbours. This little story made Richard's day, apparently! I bought several more types of self-saved seed from him, which I look forward to trying out.
Towards midday I got changed and did some unicycling around and then did parts of my show and workshop, stopping at 1, when my friend Lorna arrived. It was really good to see her, as she's going through some difficult times and needs the support. My long-term friend Dawn arrived, it's always lovely to see her, and she and Lorna chatted as I started work again and did another batch of circus workshopees. At 2.15 I did my full one-hour show, including working with a young girl with cerebral palsy, which was difficult but the audience gave her a big round of applause, and later in the show I got her back out to do the yoyo balls (Astrojax) which she was able to hold and do, getting more applause. When I got paid at the end of the event, this girl's Mum had told the organisers how pleased the yougster had been to be included, and she was really happy... therefore Mum was too, and thank you very much!
The circus show finished at 3.30, which is when I was due to start the Balloon Show inside, but the inside people were running late so there wasn't a problem, spant 15 mins blowing up balloons and then did about an hour of balloon modelling activities, also went down well (well, most of them stayed up, some popped, only two went down... hahahahaha!) and there was one Mum and daughter in the audience who appeared to really enjoy it, laughing and offering heckles, lovely to see. When I'd finished and walked to the station, they were there, and getting on the same train as Sophia, as Mum was called, lives in Crowle near Doncaster. We had a right laugh on the train, and chatted to another couple Lee and Jill who had been cycling a 300 mile Sustrans 30th anniversary journey near Bristol, and who were going back to Newcastle. They had 2 young kids who'd done the journey with them, so the 'quiet carriage' was actually full of chatter, laughter, childrens noises and eventually it all got too exciting and the children added crying to the noise. There was another person who joined in with the party, Alison from Chesterfield, off to Scarborough , and she also enjoyed the 'up' feel to the journey.
I cycled back home and arrived at about 7pm, Gill had created some cauliflower cheese and this was very welcome!
Enjoyed 'Live Earth' on the TV.
Other composters there too, including a WRAP chap who works with Isobel Bloomfield, and the gent Richard Clare, who several years ago sold me the Jack Edwards Climbing Pea Beans which I have distributed widely. I told him the story of my Dad, who grudgingly took some dried Pea Beans from me, saying they won't be as good as Runner Beans, but would try them anyway. That year he agreed they grew well and tasted good.. A subsequent year it was too dry for his runners to do well and the Pea Beans did very well, and he was converted, and now grows fewer Runners and more Pea Beans, and he's been distributing them amongst friends and neighbours. This little story made Richard's day, apparently! I bought several more types of self-saved seed from him, which I look forward to trying out.
Towards midday I got changed and did some unicycling around and then did parts of my show and workshop, stopping at 1, when my friend Lorna arrived. It was really good to see her, as she's going through some difficult times and needs the support. My long-term friend Dawn arrived, it's always lovely to see her, and she and Lorna chatted as I started work again and did another batch of circus workshopees. At 2.15 I did my full one-hour show, including working with a young girl with cerebral palsy, which was difficult but the audience gave her a big round of applause, and later in the show I got her back out to do the yoyo balls (Astrojax) which she was able to hold and do, getting more applause. When I got paid at the end of the event, this girl's Mum had told the organisers how pleased the yougster had been to be included, and she was really happy... therefore Mum was too, and thank you very much!
The circus show finished at 3.30, which is when I was due to start the Balloon Show inside, but the inside people were running late so there wasn't a problem, spant 15 mins blowing up balloons and then did about an hour of balloon modelling activities, also went down well (well, most of them stayed up, some popped, only two went down... hahahahaha!) and there was one Mum and daughter in the audience who appeared to really enjoy it, laughing and offering heckles, lovely to see. When I'd finished and walked to the station, they were there, and getting on the same train as Sophia, as Mum was called, lives in Crowle near Doncaster. We had a right laugh on the train, and chatted to another couple Lee and Jill who had been cycling a 300 mile Sustrans 30th anniversary journey near Bristol, and who were going back to Newcastle. They had 2 young kids who'd done the journey with them, so the 'quiet carriage' was actually full of chatter, laughter, childrens noises and eventually it all got too exciting and the children added crying to the noise. There was another person who joined in with the party, Alison from Chesterfield, off to Scarborough , and she also enjoyed the 'up' feel to the journey.
I cycled back home and arrived at about 7pm, Gill had created some cauliflower cheese and this was very welcome!
Enjoyed 'Live Earth' on the TV.
