A good day, got a lot done. I had a slow start, with emails and stuff, but at 11 went to buy bread from Thomas' 'Yesterbake' (actually Saturday's bake) and got (fresh) veggie pasties too, to make tea easier.
I did quite a bit of work in the garden... pruned back all the fruited loganberries and chopped them down to thin bits for composting and the thicker straight lengths all went into a wooden fruit-box to dry off and become kindling for the stove next winter.
Then I tied-in the loganberry shoots which grew last year and will fruit this year. It looks really tidy now, a good job done.
The large sack of smaller twiggy bits made a good thick layer on the new compost heap which I started yesterday. I added another huge load of greengrocer stuff on top of it, surrounded by flattened cardboard boxes to keep the material from falling out of the pallet-sided cube.
At about half five Gill came down and reminded me that I had taken her bike to Cycle Heaven yesterday to have the back wheel repaired. I'd said to them that if the wheel was not repairable, they could replace it, so we rang to find out what they had done and the cost. They had replaced the wheel and the tyre and done some other work... costing £56... sharp intake of breath!
We hadn't actually got that amount of cash between us, so one of our sons offered to go and look in his piggy bank equivalent, and found £40 to lend us, mainly in coins. I took this and hopped on my bike and scooted off down to Bishopthorpe Road. Very soon I was cycling back towards town with Gill's bike wheeling along next to me, and I decided to pick up a film ticket for the weekend, and then onto Millers Yard to pick up orange halves. Dylan gave me two nice pine chairs which he said were surplus to requirement, so I loaded these onto the trailer too. If we don't need them, I'll put them on Freecycle.
Home with the two bikes, two chairs and about 60kg of compostable oranges. Slowly.
Gill was glad to see me, and her bike, and I came in to help.
She had made some leek and potato and cheese sauce thing to go with the pasties, which was good. I had to head off to the other side of the Racecourse then for a York in Transition Directors meeting. Four of us attended, and we have just about finished the structure we need before we can ask for a volunteer Treasurer. We need quite a few policies in place, but when these are sorted, we'll be in a much better place to get funding for projects. It was a good meeting, and our host had worked really hard getting the different policies written. Some changes were suggested, these will be incorporated and then the documents sent round for comments and then adopting.
When I got in, Gill was once again very glad to see me. I assisted in getting the children off to bed.
Later, had my first googletalk conversation with my Canadian colleague about the website we are doing. And after that, whilst on facebook, Gill's nephew Jonny who is in Australia was on the chat function, and Gill had a nice conversation with him. I wonder if Gill will consider joining facebook?
Showing posts with label bike repair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bike repair. Show all posts
I woke up later than I would have liked to, but got into town in good time.
I gave my bike in to Cycle Heaven to have new disc brake pads fitted. These are expensive, about £15 each, plus fitting, but the chap sorted my dynamo out too, which had been malfunctioning occasionally, needing a wriggle of the wires underneath the generator to make it work. I walked round town to spend an hour waiting for the bike to be done, as I didn't want to have to come down later in the day.
I got out some Euros to pay for my questionnaire to continue to be hosted til next January, need to send this off asap!
Home at midday and went round to Lynn's to deliver some beetroot to her, as she wants to make some borscht. I also disposed of a sackful of compostables in her compost bin. Glad to have another outlet for them, and she's grateful which is good!
Home for lunch, and all too soon it was 3pm and time for me to go to the Fishergate Ward meeting with my York Rotters hat on (teeshirt actually) as there was a Rotters stall and fabric compost bin giveaway. We spoke to 20 people, most of whom were already composting but wanted to compost more. Anna was there and she took two composters for the two rented houses she looks after. But as she was not able to carry them, I delivered these to Anna's house and came home.
I had borscht with some pasta and green beans in it. Gill had made a Swiss Roll and a jelly so I had some of that too... but soon after 7 I had to go to the York Green Festival meeting at St Johns. I chaired and it was a reasonably good meeting, despite several of the key people not turning up.
I popped in on Anita on the way home and met her dog Max for the first time. Anita and Bruno looked very happy together, and they'd had a good time at Glastonbury. Infact, Anita came across as an excited teenager! I'll deliver the Suma catalogue tomorrow as we've an order coming up.
I got home before 10 and collected two wheelbarrow's worth of logs from Woodlands where another two trees have been cut down. I estimate there are another 15 wheelbarrow's worth of logs there. Maybe a tonne. But, the trees which have died and been cut down are not good splitters... the rounds are very difficult to split, so I don't feel 100% enthusiastic about them as to get these into usable logs I'll have to do a lot of work.
Came in at 10.15 and settled down to do emails, blog, facebook, more emails and finally, washing up!
I gave my bike in to Cycle Heaven to have new disc brake pads fitted. These are expensive, about £15 each, plus fitting, but the chap sorted my dynamo out too, which had been malfunctioning occasionally, needing a wriggle of the wires underneath the generator to make it work. I walked round town to spend an hour waiting for the bike to be done, as I didn't want to have to come down later in the day.
I got out some Euros to pay for my questionnaire to continue to be hosted til next January, need to send this off asap!
Home at midday and went round to Lynn's to deliver some beetroot to her, as she wants to make some borscht. I also disposed of a sackful of compostables in her compost bin. Glad to have another outlet for them, and she's grateful which is good!
Home for lunch, and all too soon it was 3pm and time for me to go to the Fishergate Ward meeting with my York Rotters hat on (teeshirt actually) as there was a Rotters stall and fabric compost bin giveaway. We spoke to 20 people, most of whom were already composting but wanted to compost more. Anna was there and she took two composters for the two rented houses she looks after. But as she was not able to carry them, I delivered these to Anna's house and came home.
I had borscht with some pasta and green beans in it. Gill had made a Swiss Roll and a jelly so I had some of that too... but soon after 7 I had to go to the York Green Festival meeting at St Johns. I chaired and it was a reasonably good meeting, despite several of the key people not turning up.
I popped in on Anita on the way home and met her dog Max for the first time. Anita and Bruno looked very happy together, and they'd had a good time at Glastonbury. Infact, Anita came across as an excited teenager! I'll deliver the Suma catalogue tomorrow as we've an order coming up.
I got home before 10 and collected two wheelbarrow's worth of logs from Woodlands where another two trees have been cut down. I estimate there are another 15 wheelbarrow's worth of logs there. Maybe a tonne. But, the trees which have died and been cut down are not good splitters... the rounds are very difficult to split, so I don't feel 100% enthusiastic about them as to get these into usable logs I'll have to do a lot of work.
Came in at 10.15 and settled down to do emails, blog, facebook, more emails and finally, washing up!
A swift start to the day, as had to take my bike into Cycle Heaven for an overhaul and then get to the station for soon after 10.
My bike needed coaxing down to town... no acceleration at all... a real problem! But I did slowly get to the shop and showed them the problem. The front cog teeth were worn down into spikes, meaning a new cog and chain were necessary. I had noticed a loose spoke.. on closer inspection, it was obvious that it had pulled free of the wheel hub, which had broken... How DO I do it? However, the hub is under warranty and they'll send it back to the manufacturers who will (probably and hopefully) decide to replace it. So I left it there in good hands and walked up to the station.
I got the 10.26 to Middlesbrough, and at 11.30, met Andy from the BBC, who is doing the Inside Out segment on an experiment to see if someone could live on £1 a day for a week. The subject of the experiment is John Foster who is a radio presenter on BBC Tees, and I met him next, the meeting being filmed by the same cameraman who did the Yorkshire Inside Out piece in 2007. We then headed to a Thomas the Baker shop which does the reduced price bread, known as Yesterbake, where we did some filming, and then onto a veg shop where John was unable to get any cheap veg, so no filming there. Onto a park where I was lucky enough to find some edible mushrooms and John and I did an interview about the connections between his experiment and low carbon living.
Then John went home (on his bike... actually a borrowed bike as he hasn't got one!) and I went with the two Inside Out chaps to a noodle bar for a late lunch.
I got the 3.50 train back to York... I slept on the train, headache throbbing, very tired.
Collected my bike from Cycle Heaven and cycled home... lovely to have such a responsive bike again!
I went straight to bed as I felt very tired and unwell. Slept til after 8 and came down to spend some time with the family but I don't think I was much company. Headache all evening. Didn't eat as felt sick. Dosed up on painkillers, which didn't work.
Good to see Justin Rowlatt back doing Ethical Man on Newsnight... he's off to the US to 'save the world' apparently! Good luck to him!
My bike needed coaxing down to town... no acceleration at all... a real problem! But I did slowly get to the shop and showed them the problem. The front cog teeth were worn down into spikes, meaning a new cog and chain were necessary. I had noticed a loose spoke.. on closer inspection, it was obvious that it had pulled free of the wheel hub, which had broken... How DO I do it? However, the hub is under warranty and they'll send it back to the manufacturers who will (probably and hopefully) decide to replace it. So I left it there in good hands and walked up to the station.
I got the 10.26 to Middlesbrough, and at 11.30, met Andy from the BBC, who is doing the Inside Out segment on an experiment to see if someone could live on £1 a day for a week. The subject of the experiment is John Foster who is a radio presenter on BBC Tees, and I met him next, the meeting being filmed by the same cameraman who did the Yorkshire Inside Out piece in 2007. We then headed to a Thomas the Baker shop which does the reduced price bread, known as Yesterbake, where we did some filming, and then onto a veg shop where John was unable to get any cheap veg, so no filming there. Onto a park where I was lucky enough to find some edible mushrooms and John and I did an interview about the connections between his experiment and low carbon living.
Then John went home (on his bike... actually a borrowed bike as he hasn't got one!) and I went with the two Inside Out chaps to a noodle bar for a late lunch.
I got the 3.50 train back to York... I slept on the train, headache throbbing, very tired.
Collected my bike from Cycle Heaven and cycled home... lovely to have such a responsive bike again!
I went straight to bed as I felt very tired and unwell. Slept til after 8 and came down to spend some time with the family but I don't think I was much company. Headache all evening. Didn't eat as felt sick. Dosed up on painkillers, which didn't work.
Good to see Justin Rowlatt back doing Ethical Man on Newsnight... he's off to the US to 'save the world' apparently! Good luck to him!
Firstly, would Sabine please ring us again and leave a phone number, or leave a contact email using the comment facility on this blog, I won't publish your details Sabine. Thank you from Gill and John. x
Had a busy day inside mostly... I took the boys to school and then did various research about something I want to write about in my paid blog, and mid morning, went up to Archies to sign a form booking the library quiet room for the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel. On the way out of Archies, my bike suffered a 'catastrophic failure' and the back axel broke. I was due to go up to B+Q to get a sheet of plywood for our youngest son's train layout, but instead came home to ring Cycle Heaven who kindly offered to do a repair after lunch. I then half walked, half gingerly cycled to Bishy Road and they were able to get it sorted... many thanks Ash for swift and expert service. Came home via the body-repair shop place in the Raylor Centre on James St which does welding, as my trailer has suffered another fracture too! What a day!
More research, and the developer of NET.MESOMOCO CIC contacted me to tell me he had a meeting in York tomorrow and could come to see me too. I picked up the boys and then went to pick up my trailer, which was easily fixed.
At 6.15 got myself ready to go to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel meeting at Archies... but the front door wasn't unlocked for us, nor was the library or the library quiet room, but a cleaner unlocked them for us. A good meeting, quite a lot to do, and we used the whole hour.
Came home and did a bit of work in the garden as it was a lovely evening.
Had a busy day inside mostly... I took the boys to school and then did various research about something I want to write about in my paid blog, and mid morning, went up to Archies to sign a form booking the library quiet room for the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel. On the way out of Archies, my bike suffered a 'catastrophic failure' and the back axel broke. I was due to go up to B+Q to get a sheet of plywood for our youngest son's train layout, but instead came home to ring Cycle Heaven who kindly offered to do a repair after lunch. I then half walked, half gingerly cycled to Bishy Road and they were able to get it sorted... many thanks Ash for swift and expert service. Came home via the body-repair shop place in the Raylor Centre on James St which does welding, as my trailer has suffered another fracture too! What a day!
More research, and the developer of NET.MESOMOCO CIC contacted me to tell me he had a meeting in York tomorrow and could come to see me too. I picked up the boys and then went to pick up my trailer, which was easily fixed.
At 6.15 got myself ready to go to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel meeting at Archies... but the front door wasn't unlocked for us, nor was the library or the library quiet room, but a cleaner unlocked them for us. A good meeting, quite a lot to do, and we used the whole hour.
Came home and did a bit of work in the garden as it was a lovely evening.
