Human Lifestyle

I had a bit of a lie-in as the boys were happy with the few presents they had in their 'Santa's sack' which Gill and I quietly slipped into their room last night.

When I came down, they didn't want to dive into their presents immediately, so I had my usual bran flakes and muesli and did my emails and had a few goes on facebook Scrabble.

Them before lunch we all gathered in the front room and the boys had their presents... lots of books mainly.  I gave Gill and the boys a York Monopoly as Gill's been mentioning it for ages, and I got mine from Our Celebration, which is mentioned in the game (I think in 'Community Chest') as they were offering a limited number for £20, cheaper than the advertised £25.  I hope they got them given as a fundraiser.   I was very happy to get 6 pairs of good quality socks and 3 handkerchiefs.  Excellent presents!

Because one present required batteries, I suggested that I walk down to Freshways (which is open, as it's run by people who don't celebrate Christmas) and as the boys don't get enough exercise, I said that one or both of them had to come with me.  Eventually, both of them AND Gill came down with me, a nice family walk, just 20 minutes or so, but it was nice.

I went out after a sandwich lunch and stacked logs... the very cold weather means we are racing through the supplies but there is still enough for several weeks more of the same.  I had offered to make a nutloaf for Christmas tea but the boys wanted pasta... so that's what they had, and I didn't need to cook.

I popped round to see Debbie, and had a pear cider there whilst chatting and she showed me some family photos from when her children were little.

When I got back, one of the children had walked past the back room telly with the magnetic darts board that someone gave them, and the red colour had disappeared from the screen, leaving it very greeny blue.  Apparently the darts had not been put onto the screen, but they contain super strong neodymium magnets and they only need to get near a sensitive object to affect it.  I wonder if the full colour will come back?

My Christmas tea was interesting: a few more onion bhajis thrown away by my friends at the greengrocer's, a couple of waste parsnips, some new potatoes left over form a couple of days ago... these all roasted for 20 minutes in the gas oven, with a small pile of pasta and a tomato sauce Gill made from some tomatoes which had become frozen whilst on display, thrown away, and rescued by me.  An incredibly cheap meal, with the only major ingredient purchased being the pasta, plus 20 minutes in the gas cooker.  But an unusual Christmas meal... or not, as I don't really celebrate Christmas.  If I didn't have children, I wouldn't bother. Not sure why they like to celebrate it, really.  It's mainly Gill who likes the tradition.

Anyway, the family watched telly in the front room, stuff I didn't want to watch, so I chatted with friends, played Scrabble, peeled and sliced melons for drying and had a quiet few hours.  I sent a few e-cards by Anita Sancha to friends, wishing people a 'Happy Winterlude'!  Later, I had a bath, with both big bathwater cans heated on the back room stove and it was a luxurious bath, very deep, very hot, and I must have spent a good half hour in it.  Lovely! I needed it as I've slept in the same clothes for a couple of nights and was feeling a bit grubby. 

Quite a tough day, without Gilly around.  She rang before we got up from a payphone in the hospital, as her mobile was out of power.  Later, I rang the ward and then she rang back.  She had eaten and was feeling well, and awaiting some tests.

I made porridge for the first time in, well, decades, as it was requested by our youngest.  Apparently it was very good!

I asked the boys if they would go and buy some bread, cereal and goats milk from the Co-op, and with a bit of persuasion, they did.  Later I did a quick trip to Country Fresh where I got fruit and vegetables and 2 sacks of recyclables.

I had a short time on the computer and got a telling off from our niece for mentioning that Gill was in hospital, but I said that I'd not mentioned any gruesome details and it was the best way to tell people what was happening (and why I couldn't do several things I'd planned to do today) and also, the status privacy was limited to friends only.  She later apologised for her outburst, but I'm glad she cares so much about her Auntie. Maybe she doesn't realise that some people share all sorts of stories on facebook, like this sad and moving one.  I did get dozens of messages wishing Gill well, people saying that they were thinking of her, praying for her, keeping her 'in the light' and sending hugs, best wishes and all manner of positivity.  Let's hope it works!

Mid afternoon I told the boys they had to come off the computers to do some physical activity, and gave them ample warning of the time to get off by and said if they weren't off by that time, they wouldn't be allowed on after tea.  This worked.  We spent quite a bit of time with two spades breaking up the ice off the pavement in front of our house, and also Dave and Marion's next door.  I tried to get them started on the pavement in front of Ken and Di's but they weren't having it.  Several pedestrians walked past and thanked us, so we knew it was a worthwhile thing to do.

The boys then read quietly and I split a few logs and stacked for a bit, until it was too dark to continue.  Then I came in and sorted tea.  I fried sweet potato slices on the stove, and a large ordinary potato too, made a toastie for one of them and eggy bread for the other.  I had a thrown-away instant couscous thing someone gave me plus a (frozen) pastie that someone gave me, cooked on the stove.

At about 8pm I took bathwater upstairs for one of the boys and had a bit of a to-do, then realised I'd left one of the big cans filling up downstairs, and it had overflowed.  Not too badly though.  And then the sink wouldn't empty.  I couldn't find the plunger and my cupped hand wouldn't shift it.  I tried a wire, no joy.  Eventually I found a slim siphon tube which I slipped as far down as possible and blew hard.  This caused a black fountain to come out of the overflow.  So then I covered the overflow and the plughole as best as I could and blew hard... and bingo!  It worked.  A bit later I poured a load of boiling water down the hole to shift any grease and loose biofilm.  I could have done without this hassle today.

Gill had got herself a hire phone next to her bed (I think) and we all had a chat with her.  She'd had some investigations and nothing had been found, so she'll be released tomorrow, but will go in again as an outpatient soon to have more investigations.

So a really busy day, on the go most the time, and missed Gill... her company and her contributions to managing the house.

An earlyish start as I was due to take our eldest round to Maria, our biochemist friend who coaches and teaches, and has agreed to do science for an hour a week as part of his home schooling.  I had told him that I'd be happy to go round with him, to sit in with him if he wanted, or to stay in Maria's house.  In the end, I sat downstairs for the hour, read my NewScientist and dozed.  Our lad had a good session, mainly planning the forthcoming weeks.

I went into town to meet my new friend Lisa, whom I've had loads of chats with on facebook, and we have a shared music taste (Talking Heads, dance music, etc) but we'd never met, until today. So we went to El Piano and after that, I parked my bike and we walked down to the Millennium Bridge, and then back into town the other side of the river.  I was really pleased to meet her, and I'm happy to have found another friend.

I cycled home for a late lunch via Country Fresh, and then realised I'd forgotten to do one of the jobs I'd meant to do in town; paying in a cheque and some cash o our Suma account, as we're doing an order next week. So I cycled back into town, did the Co-op bank stuff, then went to Alligator to pick up their compostables, and by the time I got home it was dark. 

My next thing was to walk down to Heslington with our eldest, as Simon had offered to do a regular class about computer graphics, whilst his son is out at Scouts.  I came back via a logpile a student had alerted me to, and then I did another trip to it, before going to get our son at 8.  He had really enjoyed the computer graphics workshop.  He has a real aptitude for the subject, apparently.  We walked up to the logpile and collected a third trailer load, and walked home, chatting.  Nice.

Later, I collected a fourth load, then had a wood-fired bath and found my train times and destination for tomorrow.  Early start, so a bit earlier to bed than usual.

A funny day for our 11th Wedding Anniversary!  I slept for 9 hours, woken by Gill at 11am, with a phone call from Candy, offering to come and look at the bathroom lights for us.  So she said she'd come round at 1pm, with her son who is friends with ours. 

So, after breakfast (!) Candy arrived and after a coffee, she came up to the bathroom and when I got a stepladder tall enough, and turned off the upstairs lighting main, she extracted the existing halogen downlighters, and told us the good news, they are the sort which run off the normal 240 volt supply; there are no transformers to 12 volt bulbs.  This was good as she had with her two new Supalite Mini GU10 7 Watt lamps, which replace the 60W halogen GU10s which gobble up the power, wasting most of it as heat. This will save us quite a bit of electricity in the long run... we don't spend a long time in the bathroom, but over the years, the savings will mount up.

Candy had bought these lamps for between £9 and £10 each, for use in her own house, but I think they were surplus to requirements.  We gave her £20 for them, and an old brass and cast iron kitchen balance which we were going to freecycle or take to a charity shop, and she was really happy to be given that.  She stayed with us as her lad was enjoying the company of our two plus another of their friends, and she chatted to me as I made a log wall, and a bit later, as I filled sacks with the last of the leafmould collected in 2009.  She was happy to spend the afternoon with us as her husband was with a friend, and showing her round the City walls as a touristy experience.

Later on, after tea, our boys had another visitor and he stayed til after 9pm.  I listened to Tracey Smith's Slow Down and Green Up show and did the washing up.

Later, I went out on my bike to collect leaves for the recently emptied leafmould enclosure.  I have a good way of doing this... using my Wellington boot-clad foot I scrape up a load of leaves from the gutter by riding fast towards the leafy gutter, and then putting my boot into it, aiming to get a large pile by the time I come to a stop.  So I collected 9 bin-bags full... and then went to pick up a trailer load of hazel logs too, getting in at half ten.

I had a bath and washed my hair, as I'm working tomorrow and want to look clean.

Woken early and a dreadful start to the day, but despite the headache the day got better.  I gathered paperwork together and headed for town to put in a cheque, get out a cheque and pay a bill.  I went via Heslington via a gent who offered a couple of rhubarb roots on Freecycle.  I took him a sack of compost as a present. 

I came back home via the almond tree, which had given up more of it's bounty, and then passed a large skip brimming with logs and mature privet.  I knew I'd be revisiting this later.  I had lunch and did some work preparing stuff for tomorrow.  Then I went back to the skip and there was no problem... a garden clearance with several lilacs, laburnums and cherry trees.  I took six trailer loads, including some thick privet trunks which I chopped down with loppers.  This made me very happy.

Back at home during the evening I chopped the membrillo into cubes and boxed it up in a plastic tub.  Both boys tried some and loved it... it will be an occasional treat, as it's 50% sugar.

I've been thinking long and hard about the upset I partly caused earlier in the week and this evening I sent a carefully worded apology to the two family members involved.  I'm hoping that polite and friendly relations can be regained.  I don't set out to cause problems.

I had a bath as I need to be shiny and fresh tomorrow.

Woke at 9ish feeling somewhat better and mid morning I'd got both the large cans of water warm enough for a bath... the first one in some while! Shave, hair wash, lovely!

I felt much better after this, not that low mood is necessarily connected with grubbiness...

I did lots of washing up after this and after lunch, did some work in the garden, including a job I've been wanting to do for a while but not had the enthusiasm. I've been chainsawing logs on the front garden on top of a large tarpaulin sheet, to catch the sawdust and other bits... the sawdust is my compost toilet cover material, the largest bits and bobs are bagged up and dried for kindling, and the medium sized bits, wet bark and small twigs etc are a useful 'carbon rich' constituent of my compost heaps. So I got the large flat riddle up to the front garden and put it on a bedsheet, and started riddling the large pile of sawdusty twiggy barky stuff... I filled two paper potato sacks with kindling-sized bits, 3 plastic sacks of sawdust and 3 plastic sacks of compost additives. I am perhaps a quarter of the way through the job, but there is several months worth of cutting and splitting frass which needs putting to good use. Anyone want a sack or two of compost toilet cover material?

At about 4pm I loaded up my trailer with our old television which has been going on the blink over the past few days, and has finally stopped working. I took it down to the repository for dead electrical equipment, the 'WEEE table' at Hazel Court. I also took two loudspeakers that I rescued months ago and didn't find a taker for, and a plastic bag of metalwork from the stove (mainly nails from pallets) and some metal from various street-skips. I had no hassle whatsoever from the nice skip-site workers, who obviously don't give a damn that i use my bike trailer to deliver recyclables to the right place. I approve of this attitude.

From here I picked up a few logs from where tree surgeons had dumped stuff and also a sack of compostables from Freshways.

After tea I cycled round to my Freecycling (and soon to be unicycling!) friend Mark, who had responded to my Freecycle request for a TV. His Mother in Law had upgraded her system and was going to chuck out her old TV and freeview box... so he said, no, I'll put it on Freecycle and someone will be very happy with it. And indeed we are. It is slightly bigger than our previous one, which was £20 from Woodlands MS Respite Care Centre, and had a scratched screen. This one has a really clear picture, good colour and no scratch! Brilliant, thanks Mark. One unicycling lesson as and when you want it!

After I delivered this home, for Gill to install, I went to a friend on Melrosegate who had some sticks for me,and I brought those back home. And I did some more after-dark riddling too, before coming in and sorting out hot water for yet more washing up....

A mixed day... peaceful morning but later I was only too happy to go out to leave things to calm down, as my existence just seemed to cause problems.

As pre-arranged with Helen, I cycled round with several bunches of bananas which it seems she's a bit of a fan of, and I spent a couple of peaceful hours chatting and drinking coffee. Her housemate came in and it was good to meet him, and I cycled back in the snow. Bumped into Graham and chatted with him for a short while, and then back home via Freshways.

And my going out had worked... all was back to normal and smiles all round! Great!

Gill and I watched a film about Margot Fonteyn which was quite relaxing too. I had a wonderful hot bath with both cans off the stove, trimmed my beard and washed my hair... very nice!

Up at 9am and had a bath with the two big cans of water I heated on the stove last night. I washed my hair as I like to be clean and shiny when I work...

So, was ready to roll by 11.45am, and got to the station and bought my ticket by just after 12, easily catching the 12.15 to Leeds. I ate my sandwiches whilst sitting at the pick-up turning circle behind Leeds station, where I was due to be picked up by Allan and taken to Middleton Park, for the second time this year.

For me, this was a rather special occasion, as last time I worked with an 8 year-old girl and made quite an impression on her, so much that she has bought a flower stick (like a devilstick but with tassels on each end) and she, her mum Christine and dad Paul have all made me facebook friends! I'm even playing Scrabble with Mother and Daughter... So I was looking forward to meeting them. The daughter has been inventing tricks and was looking forward to showing me what she could do.

The venue was just being set up and I had a coffee before I got changed and got going with a little workshop followed by a show. My new friend turned up; she hasn't had a teacher with her flowersticks and has therefore invented a range of moves which are completely original and unique, tricks which although weren't well-polished, were completely new to me and I was very impressed. Not bad for a 8 year old!

The day went smoothly, everybody seemed to enjoy themselves and the light rain didn't dampen spirits unduly. I finished with loads of balloon give-aways and all-too-soon it was 4pm and time to get changed back into my 'John' costume (!) and get a lift back to the station, where I got the 5.15 train back home.

And a quiet evening, delicious meal, lit the stove so I could wash up and dry fruit, also made carrot soup on the stove too. Lots of York Green Festival stuff to attend to.

A lovely late start to the day, and after breakfast, the others went out and I spent some time in the garden, putting a load of stuff in the old Compostumbler (I love having two!) and then I did my emails and Rich told the YGF Crew that the posters and flyers were ready. I rang him and said I could come and collect at 2pm, but I went outside after the call and noticed that somehow there were loads of wasps outside the glass dome. I decided some more compost and water was a good idea to try to stop them, and I also used a long bamboo to prod under the soil into the cave they had excavated, letting it flood with compost and water, which hopefully will make it more difficult for them to keep going.

I got a bit engrossed in this and left the house to go and get the posters at 2.15... but it only takes me 5 minutes to get to the office where the risograph is, and I got a single two-colour A3 poster, a few A4 two-tone posters and a pile of two-tone flyers. The big poster went up in Country Fresh where I left some flyers (and picked up three sacks of compostables!)... and back home via Freshways who had one bag of resources for me.

I then got secateurs and fork and cycled off to the allotment... the first time in yonks I've been there. I knew the potatoes would be done and ready to dig... so I did a bit of bramble pruning, weeding and dug up three rows of spuds. There weren't many but I dug them all up... the best crop was the Pink Fir Apple.

I got back at about 7pm and Gill had made a kind of Shepherd's Pie with the tomato base I made a day or two ago, some green beans I picked today, and mashed potato (using the potatoes I swapped for apple logs) which was nice and filling.

I lit the stove as I'm working tomorrow and need to wash my hair and trim my beard... and of course, the washing up is a constant chore, one I prefer to do with water heated on the woodstove not gas.

A quite relaxing day, in many ways. Gill went to Art and I eventually went to the allotment with some chitted potatoes and got two rows in! Hurrah! I also pulled out more nettles, by hand (there really isn't any point wearing gloves as part of the love of gardening is being in contact with the soil and plants) and deconstructed a compost heap which fertilised the potato rows.

Home for lunch and then spent the afternoon with Gill, before she went out to have a stitch removed, left from her gall-bladder removal, this one got left behind! I went to school to get our youngest, and took a large plastic sack to collect a dose of school fruit waste. Came back with over 30Kg... would have been thrown away if I didn't rescue it. I wonder when they are going to address the composting situation? I've heard nothing since a 'Health and Safety' **** said 'composting isn't allowed in schools' and my working compost bin was removed.

Gill came home, minus a 1cm long piece of thread in a jar. Greatly relieved! She skimmed the small ads in the Press and saw someone was selling a unicycle for £15, so I rang up and it sounded fine... except it was up in Wigginton, about 5 miles North of here. I decided to go and get it, so cycled up through Haxby, popped into the Cemetery to see a tree I planted in memory of a friend Lin. The tree and plaque I bought were not there. I was a bit upset, but wrote down the details of the people to contact, and will write to them both, just to see if it has been moved...

I then cycled on to where the young man was selling the unicycle. He'd bought a bigger one, with handles on the saddle, to catch when falling or jumping off. I chatted with the whole family, and demonstrated unicycling backwards, paid the asking price (a bargain!) and cycled away with it in my trailer, down the Wigginton Road this time. Near Clifton Moor I found a pallet in the hedge (a rather larger piece of litter than most I pick up!) so brought that back too, coming along the cycle track from near the Hospital all the way to Hull Road, where I picked up a sack of biodegradables from Freshways, and as usual, some friendly banter with the gentlemen who work there.

Home for some squash soup, which was delicious! Had a couple of bread rolls with it... and that was a perfect tea. A relaxing evening, but starting to get ready for going away tomorrow.

Nice bath with woodstove water.... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Quite an early start, and a trip into town with Gill and our eldest. Ended up going to Millers Yard for a mocha and coffee, and Waterstones to get Asterix books, the current favourite with our boys. Enjoyed the walk back home with son beside me.

And a good day followed too, I did quite a bit of work outside, and finished my arty logpile.

I tidied up some more stuff down the garden, shredded the ivy delivered a day or to ago, with help from one of our youngest son's friends, which was nice.

At 7pm, headed off to St John's to a York Green Festival meeting, Rand chaired and I took notes. It was a good meeting, lots of energy and enthusiasm.

Came home via the cycle track and just manhandled a large tree stump onto my trailer, I took the plastic box out and put that on my pannier rack, filled with woodchips from the shredding the tree surgeons did. A good haul!

Emailing as usual until late, interspersed with a bath as working tomorrow, and no-one likes a smelly entertainer!

A good day... chilled morning watching The Big Questions and Countryfile, whilst playing Scrabble on Facebook and keeping the stove going. The bananas I loaded up yesterday are looking a lot smaller and soon I'll be able to move them to another cake rack to finally dry off. The banana glut has been caused by the heavy snow last week. Don't see the connection? Read on!

Every day, primary school children get a piece of fruit under the 'Fruit for Schools' scheme... it could be an orange or apple, banana or even a stick of carrot. This is a regular consumption pattern, so when the snow came, and a percentage of schools were shut for a few days, this meant that several hundred thousand pieces of fruit were left uneaten... and came back onto the market. So a box of bananas, which ordinarily might cost £15, became available for about £5. So, many fruit shops bought these and sold the bananas more cheaply than they usually do. But they go off quickly and some people don't like over-ripe bananas (I do though!) so that's why there are over 100 bananas still sitting in our hallway, waiting to have the chance to be rapidly air-dried, jarred up and bartered on the LETS, or given to friends as gifts, or even chopped up and put in my daily muesli.... or composted, which is what will happen to most of them.

So, Sunday afternoon was equally relaxed... did some wooding, visited Country Fresh on my bike which is just about on it's last legs (if that's not a misnomer) as the jumping drive cog is worse today... making it almost unrideable uphill with a load, but still OK on the flat or downhill...

Later, after tea, I made the same journey again, down to David's to see the photos he took down at the Residents' Festival and then last week down at the Museum Gardens. Some nice Fiddlesticks images, we think we almost have enough for David to start doing my new publicity leaflet.

During the evening I got both 5 gallon cans of bathwater hot so as I can have a bath tonight, as I'm doing some filming tomorrow up in Middlesborough, and although it's about frugal living (someone's trying to live on a pound per day, I think, and I've been asked to help and give some tips and advice), I do want to look clean and tidy... not as if I've been head down in a skip!

Had a bath and hair wash. Lovely!

Quite an early start, to get ready for the train home from Burton on Trent. Got the 10 something northwards and changed at Doncaster which saved half an hour, as the original train went to York via Leeds.

Back into York at 1pm, collected some veggies for home at Country Fresh and got home to find a relatively peaceful situation, although the previous evening hadn't been that way. And the afternoon wasn't too peaceful either, as the ever-present homework was causing problems and there was a lot of answering back, shouting at me to shut up, and at one stage, the child in question ripped my tee shirt. I decided the best policy was to remove myself from the hostility so I went and did my emails and researched a little task that Community Care has set me, to nominate my heroes and villains of this year. Not easy, I don't have many villains in my life!

Took bathwater upstairs for our youngest and had tea, on my own as I'm not watching 'Little Dorrit' but everybody else was. But trawled through over 100 emails and replied to a WRAP questioner about composting in schools. Tried to pull together my Community Care blog, which I want to do about my non-diagnosis. Might do that tomorrow.

Up quite early as our eldest is off school and I needed to say 'byeeee' to our youngest as I'm going to work in Normanton this afternoon/evening and then going onto Burton on Trent, coming back Sunday. Gill took our youngest to school and I swapped the water around on top of the stove so there's plenty of bathwater. Did the washing up as I didn't do it last night...

Had lunch and got myself together for a 2pm cycle-off, visiting the Post Office in Leeman Road first as I've had a note through the door saying there's post with unpaid postage waiting for me, so I go that. It was a letter from the Maudsley about how to get there (!) and some forms to fill in before my visit (!!) and it had no stamps of franks on whatsoever (!!!).

So then went to the station and unloaded mt reduced Fiddlesticks gear (ie no children's unicycle, training unicycles etc) and got tickets to Burton On Trent via Leeds and Normanton, checking I could break my journey legally in Normanton. Then onto the train to Leeds and a fairly swift change onto the Sheffield train which goes through Normanton. Once there, I walked up the main street which had lots of fairground rides and candy floss/burger vans ready for the 'big switch on. Got to the Town Hall and met my handler Donna who showed me where to get changed and offered me a coffee and biscuits before getting started at 4.30, outside a closed shop very near the place where 'Father Christmas' and the Mayor would be switching on the lights. There were lots of crowds of teenagers in town, many of them bent on causing a nuisance and having fun, such as lighting aerosol cans to make jets of flame, and smoking fags guiltily, scrapping and swearing loudly at each other. However, I coped well with the situation, was my usual strict self but gave lots of goes on the devilstick and a couple of juggling workshops. It got crowded towards 6pm which is when the lights were due to be switched on, and then got quieter again, so I finished the entertainment at 6.40 and went back to the station.

Changed trains at Sheffield an hour later, and met an interesting woman carrying an engaging 2 year-old boy whom I chatted with all the way to Derby. Lynette claimed that she'd been on the station earlier, without her child who was with her Mother for a while, and she'd had a 'few drinks' and the police had taken her train ticket and purse off her, just for being tipsy! I find this difficult to believe but have no reason to disbelieve her. She was travelling down to Birmingham to meet the child's father, without a ticket, but with the knowledge of the train company. Most odd. I offered to lend/give her some cash if she needed it, but she declined.

I changed trains again at Derby and rang Gill to tell her all was well, and spoke briefly with both boys. It was only a short hop to Burton where Lorna was waiting for me in the car park. She drove us to her house near Swadlincote. It was really good to see her, she's a really good friend, and I was pleased to be able to spend a little time with her.

Woke at 3am with headache. Went downstairs for a lemsip (paracetamol) and put a log on the stove, and 10 mins later did a batch of washing up whilst waiting for the lemsip to kick in. Back to bed at 3.45 and slept til 8 when shouting downstairs awoke me. I went down to see if Gill needed any help... it was just our youngest being mightily resistant to putting on his socks and shoes! We all have our quirks, and he hates footwear..., putting on a sock and then off again, and on again, trying to get it 'just right'. Takes about 5 or 10 minutes per foot.....

When they'd gone I had breakfast and then went back to bed, with another lemsip to help me get better... I hope.

But nothing worked, headache all day, spent most of the day in bed. Gill is calling it 'Flu' but I don't think it is as Flu is a different set of symptoms and I had a Flu jab, so if it is Flu then it's a weird one.

The only good thing about today was that I got through quite a backlog of NewScientists! Oh, and a surprise visit from Damian and David, Gill's friends from the Arts Centre, who are back in York. Lovely to see them, but couldn't socialise much as feeling too poorly.

And I finished writing my column for Community Care, on reuse and repair plus Buy Nothing Day, which this year is on Saturday 29th November, just two days after the magazine comes out.

Spent some time trying to update Windows and when I got back on this blog, found my Bravenet Counter and Feedjit live stuff had gone... more than weird! However, my email to Feedjit was answered by Mark Maunder, the CEO/inventor of the tool, and he told me that the Live stats thingy was loading after the Bravenet counter, which was taking about 3 minutes. Also he explained a possible reason why the location/geographic database might be doing weird things, and told me he was developing a tool to allow users to confirm where they were. So that explains some of the weirdness...

Took bathwater up for our youngest and put the refilled can straight back on the stove so I could have one later, as if I'm going to try to go to work tomorrow, I might as well be clean but unwell rather than dirty and unwell...

Got up between 8 and 9 and lit the stove from the embers of last night, to give a little bit of extra heat to the two 6 gallon cans of bathwater which have been sitting on it overnight. Then had a shave, bath and hair wash as working this afternoon.

The gig went OK.... not an easy one as it was in a nursery, based at the DEFRA buildings alongside the River Foss. So lots of very young children, too young really to enjoy my show to the full, but still plenty of enthusiasm and participation. After the circus show they had a bit of a dance and then party tea... and I made all of them a balloon model.

Was back soon after 4pm, via Country Fresh, to a relatively peaceful house. Gill had made pumpkin pasties for tonight's party that the boys have been invited to.

Our youngest wasn't feeling very well and I don't like Trick or Treating, and these days I'm not much into parties either, so I stayed in with him and Gill went out with our eldest. They had a lovely time and we had a quiet but fine time.

Quite an early start, to go into town to help Ali get off back home, so got to the station at about 11 and she got the 11.28, and I came back home.

Tried to use my computer to do a variety of things and and some seemed to have stopped working, which is annoying... but not the blog which I'm happy about.

Had lunch and started to get ready for work. My gig today was a 6yr old's birthday party in the cafe at Rowntree Park... just my circus skills show, no balloons today. As usual, the show went well despite a couple of mistakes... the ceiling is almost too low for me to balance a devilstick on my nose so I had to stoop slightly to do the trick and it is hugely more difficult like that.... but as the trick is a crucial part of the show, I have to do it.... and managed third time around.

After that, went to the Winning Post to get my deposit money back from the Transition event a couple of weekends ago, and came home via Country Fresh to pick up a fairly small dose of compostables.... luckily as I couldn't carry much more!

I had a few minutes relaxation inside before getting changed and went down to the leafmold enclosure to finish digging it out and putting last year's leaves in plastic sacks, so the chicken wire enclosure is ready for this year's harvest. I had already got about 5 sacks of autumn leaves ready for it, so they went straight in, half filling it up. They will bed down to a much smaller volume, and I'll probably be able to put in between 6 to 10 times as many before the enclosure is full.

Did a bit of stacking logs before being called in to have tea and try to help the boys with their homework. I did bathwater fot our youngest and a relatively peaceful evening ensued.

Maria sent me this link
http://3rings.designerpages.com/2008/02/26/dutchtub/
wow!
Want one!!!

Quite a relaxing morning... woke up dreaming of redcurrants and raspberries, weird! Anyway, lit the stove to get some hot water, as some of our electrics are not working and this means our 'instant' hot water (using gas) isn't working either... so had a bath before going to work in just one 5 gal pan of hot water, washed hair and got tidy. So then straight after lunch, as was just about to go, Gill's sister Jane and her husband Mike turned up, unexpectedly, after dropping off Linda at York station. I had to go anyway... to Mike's old Railway Institute Rugby Club on Hamilton Drive to do a party which was booked just a couple of days ago.

I only just got my bike in, and the group of about 17 six-year olds were in a lively mood,and it was quite a tough party to do. At one stage, half a dozen of them all went to the loo, one came back crying as he'd dropped the loo seat onto his hand... I had to ask them to quieten down perhaps 20 times, and not to talk through the show, and to please sit down, and to stop fighting... all in all it was one of the more difficult groups I'd had to deal with. However, at the end, the grateful parents told me that last year, they'd invited 33 children and the female entertainer they invited (no names given!) just couldn't cope at all so they were happy that I did manage to do my show, and all of the children participated in something. But I was happy that they only booked me for the one show, and at 3.15 I left in a hurry to get to my next appointment.

This was at Edward's house to discuss next Wednesday's 'York in Transition' Co-ordinating group meeting, and to get an agenda together. Peter turned up and we had quite a jolly and good-humoured meeting, sorting out a lot of issues and all 'getting up to speed'. Back home at about 6 after picking up a sack from Country Fresh.

Our eldest child had been to a leaving party and came back having had a good time. Gill asked me to go to the shops as our youngest had refused point-blank to go with Gill, and on the way back I found a good stash of aluminium cans in a skip plus some electrical wire which I brought home to strip of it's plastic insulation and ended up with quite a lot of recyclable copper wire. Will add this to the copper pipe I've accumulated bit by bit and small bits of lead, and will pay another visit to the metal merchants soon.

A quiet evening, Gill made tea (more broad beans!) and I refilled a compost heap with the turned compost and another load of potatoes which I hope will be ready in the autumn.