Human Lifestyle

As it was raining all day, I did relatively little outside.  I was awake early and did a fair bit of sorting things out around the house... but spent a lot of time on the computer.

The 10:10 organisation, which I'm proud to be a supporter of, had announced last night that in the morning there was to be a new mini-movie released, and I posted the message onto facebook to suggest to people that in the morning they should check it out.  I got an email to say it was released, and I watched No Pressure... and was really shocked and horrified.  It depicted a teacher and a class of children, talking about climate change and the teacher asked who was doing the 10:10 carbon reduction, to which all but two put their hands up.  The two who weren't doing anything were asked to confirm that they weren't bothering... and then the teacher pushed a red button and blew them up; lots of strawberry jam and ketchup splattered all over the other children.  The scene switched to a workplace with a boss talking to his workforce, similar situation with two people saying they weren't bothering.  The boss was handed a red button and pushed it, exploding the two non-participants.  Then there was a scene at a football pitch with an iconic footballer saying he wasn't interested in 10:10, and he was similarly blown up.  The final 'victim' was a voice over person finishing a take, and in answer to the question 'and what are you doing personally to reduce your carbon emissions?' she answered that she thought that doing the voice over was enough.  The interviewer then pushed the red button, splattering the studio glass with the pretend blood and guts.

I found this horrible and very negative, nasty to watch, and the wrong message to put across.  I would never advocate killing someone who wasn't getting involved in reducing their emissions... nor would I joke about it, suggest it or even think about it.  Sure, I get angry with frequent flyers, indulgent meat-eating gluttons, petrol heads driving everywhere and other people not behaving responsibly in the light of the climate emergency... but they don't deserve to be killed!  I feel that there is enough anger about the issues for some people to consider environmental terrorism... after all, some people believe what they believe so strongly they become suicide bombers or plant IEDs to kill and maim their enemies.  We don't need this behaviour transferring into the environmental movement.  Also this film could be used to portray us eco activists as over the top, wacky, etc, and I think it is unhelpful to 'our cause'.  I found the 10:10 contact details and rang them, spoke to a nice person called Harriet, and explained my feelings and asked them to remove it from the website. 

There was a lot of comment, on the Guardian website and on facebook, with at least one well-known supporter of 10:10 saying he'd taken off the tag and was parting company from that arm of the sustainability movement henceforth.  Many people said they disliked the film, thought it was horrible, did the cause no favours.  Other commentators thought the film was funny, or might shock some people into action.  It was fascinating to see the comments coming in, and to follow this story.  I don't know what time it was, but some time in the afternoon, sense prevailed and 10:10 took the video off their website and offered an apology.  I rang Harriet again and thanked them. I'm glad that people power isn't dead!

I didn't spend all day on the computer.  I visited Debbie over the road mid morning as it was her birthday, and gave her one of Gill's home made cards and chatted with her for 20 minutes.  I did a bit of work in the garden late afternoon dumping a sack of gubbins onto a heap, and collecting the crop of windfalls.  I got a trailer load of logs together for Ann's party, as she'd asked if I could bring some as a birthday present.  I also got a small bag of dried fruit together, and a small nut selection too, as I thought she'd appreciate these.

So I had a bite to eat at 5pm but at 730ish set out to go to Ann's on the other side of the river.  It was still raining.  I really enjoyed this party, and had good conversations with new friends Penny and Kate, current friends Sarah, David, Will and Helen, and old friends Jonathan, Belinda, Jadzia and Keith.  I had a super time... I love parties, and haven't been to as good a one as this for quite a while.  Almost at the end I did a few balloon models, and left at midnight, taking less than 15 minutes to get home.

I woke at about 9.50 and realised I was supposed to be at St Nicks at 10.  Whoops!  So I quickly got washed and dressed, shovelled down a pile of bran flakes and muesli, and got to St Nicks at about 10.25.

Fortunately, people were still gathering and Edwards York in Transition workshop about Eco Renovation hadn't started. So I chatted with Peter and JayZee, and within a few minutes there were 10 people sitting down to listen to Edward's presentation.  He explained how he came to write his book, and then briefly went through each section, covering a few areas in more detail.  There were some good discussions.

Afterwards I chatted with someone I knew from years ago, Anne Leggett, who's getting involved in a project to make the local pond more 'community friendly'.  We had quite a long conversation.

I came home via a log pile and Freshways, the chemist to get a tidy-looking covering for my forehead and the Co-op for cereals.  After a late lunch I had a busy afternoon in the garden, and just before 5pm cycled down to Country Fresh where Rich had several boxes for me, just before he closed.

I came back and had a bath, Gill carefully washed my hair as it had iodine in it, from the operation.  I'd been told not to get the wound wet.  Then at 6.30 I zoomed off to Clements Hall where Isobel had organised a surprise 60th birthday party for Hugh Bernays, her husband.  I've known Hugh and Isobel for 20 years or so, and I'm very fond of them both.  Their children knew me as Professor Fiddlesticks from when they were very young... but Emily, the eldest, is now a beautiful young woman and working as a hotel receptionist.

I took Hugh a jar of my best dried apple rings and one of Gill's home-made cards.  As the time came for Hugh to arrive I got a bottle of bubbly (all with Isobel's blessing, of course) and a couple of minutes after the shout of 'SURPRISE' and the singing of Happy Birthday, I poured him and Isobel a glass.  Then I headed for the food!  Yummy party food!  I chatted with loads of people I knew, and met a few people I didn't.  I was very pleased to see Andy Chase, Simon Brerton and Pauline, all of whom have been involved with the Clements Hall project.  I met the architect.  Andy gave me a short tour.  I got on well with Hugh's brother Peter, and he's coming to visit on Monday afternoon.  I specially enjoyed listening to David Ward Maclean singing.  Then Don Walls with some poetry.  When the birthday cake came in, instead of a speech, Hugh played a tune on his Jews Harps, and David joined in with singing, and Milladio with the tomtoms.  It was lovely!

But I left at about 9.40 and got home, had washing up to do and fruit to dry. And work tomorrow.

However, last thing I made a big pan of carrot soup with waste carrots, and left it on the woodstove overnight.

A late morning but as slept on a spare bed had a better night's sleep.

I went with Ian on the tube to his house in South London and had lunch there, and then to the playbarn place where his and Lisa's daughter, who has just turned 8, was having a party.

I did a little minishow of circus tricks straight after their tea, and then whilst they were playing in the last half hour, I made all the partygoers a balloon animal.

I got the 5pm train back to Victoria, and a tube to Kings Cross, and was in good time for the 6.20 Grand Central train home.

The train journey back home was good, sitting with three sisters who had been to see a musical and were celebrating with a bottle of wine, and were quite jolly and chatty.

The train was a bit slow on one part of the journey (it apparently 'got cautioned') and got into York at 8.30, so I got home at 9pm, very tired but happy to see my little ones and my wife, and a harmonious house.

A fairly relaxed day... spent most of the morning writing my last Community Care blog, and doing other computery stuff. I went to buy bread, visited several ripe skips, had lunch and spent some time in the garden. Raj rang and I went down to Freshways. I planted more squash plants, some in the remaining spaces in the raised beds and others in containers.

Gill went to pick up our youngest and I cooked tea. I harvested the Chicken of the Woods mushroom, cleaned it up (it incorporates bits of wood etc into it's surface) and cubed it quite small. Fried onion, rescued peppers and cubed a squash which again, was a freegan find. Added the cubed Chicken of the Woods. Then chopped up 3 tomatoes and put them into the frying veg, and added some of the new season basil out of the conservatory. Finally, added a tin of cannelini beans to this. Gill then fried some already cooked potatoes in extra virgin olive oil, and we all had this, with the last of yesterday's asparagus quiche. The mushroom/pepper/bean thing was the best meal I'd had for ages, and I always like Gill's quiche. Lovely meal, everybody loved it!

I made a phone call at 7 to my Sister who knows more about Runescape and billing than I do; we did make a payment for our son to be a paid-up member of this a month or two ago, but the other day this level of access stopped, so I turned to Anna for advice. With her help, I resubscribed to a small monthly payment.

At 8 zoomed round to Lynn's to help her celebrate her 45th Birthday. Glad to see so many friendly old faces, Will, Phil, Helen, Stephen and Alison, and new friends Tony and Sharon.

I got home soon after 10.30 and settled down to try to empty my perennially over-full inbox, write this, and get some water warmed up to do the washing up...

Kids at school today, Gill making a cake for Tony who is 65 today. She made it in the shape of a narrow boat, as Tony is very keen on canals. She spent ages icing it, making it look pretty and , well, rustic (not rusty).

I did more clearing up in the garden, went to the bakers and the Co-op, made carrot soup out of some very large and mysteriously thrown out carrots (I really don't know what's wrong with them!) and some tomato/onion base for tonight's tea, spaghetti.

But yet again, I didn't get to the allotment to plant onion sets or potatoes. It is getting rather late!

Our eldest did his cycling proficiency training today, but left his bike at school by accident, so after he came home, I cycled up to school and picked it up and cycled back with it.

I really enjoyed the Green Party Euro Election broadcast... if you missed it, here it is:



At about half 7 I loaded the cake carefully onto my bike rack, and the two quiches (one with home-grown broccoli in) and headed off to Tony Martin's birthday party in Clementhorpe. This was a fairly small affair... a Planning Panel member called Dave, John, an ex head-teacher and Labour Party member since the age of 17, now 71, my old friends Rowena and Adrian, Isobel, and Andy Chase... so, not that crowded, but good people to chat with. Tony had organised a curry delivery, and this went well with the quiches. (I thought so, anyway!)

The cake was admired, photographed and devoured, well, most of it!

Another good day, although was awoken early by a child wailing as he hadn't got a handkerchief and had got something to put into one... the joys of parenting!

But the rest of the day was good.... I did a bit of wooding, a bit of composting, lunch, family chats... my eldest went to a party and we had a peaceful afternoon.

I visited David my photographer friend later on in the afternoon to see the pics he took on Christmas day, and to discuss how to deal with the inadequately filled-in 'Model Release Forms'. The photos had some really good ones in, certainly one or two suitable for my new flyer.

Made several phone calls in the evening, one to our friends Mark and Jennifer in Hebden Bridge, as their son has a birthday and our eldest is friends with him, and to our good friend Dawn in Sheffield and her nearly grown up son, and finally to my Dad who also has a birthday today, so the boys could sing to him. I expect this was a bit of a surprise!

A very quiet evening.... spent another hour or so peeling plastic off copper wire. It is a very tedious job, and I bet I'll only get a few quid for the stuff I've reclaimed!

Gill got me up as there were rumblings of dissent and talk of not going to school. This all stemmed from asking our more complicated child if he'd like to have a 'leaving party or birthday party combined'? He has been saying for a while that he didn't want any party, but this morning, the last day of school, he said he did want to do something with friends.

So Gill asked him what he wanted to do. This was too much for him, and there were shouts and crying 'I don't know WHAT I want to do' 'so I won't bother'. So Gill made a few suggestions, including going out somewhere, seeing a film, playing in the garden, playing at the Outgang (playing fields in Heslington) and he then shouted that he didn't want to be given suggestions. So we just cannot 'win' with this child. Impossible. Anyway, we between us eventually got to a situation of agreeing that he would invite some of his friends to the Outgang tomorrow at midday. Gill quietly asked me if I thought I could do some Professor Fiddlesticks activities at his party, and although I hate his aggressive behaviour and churlishness, I still love him and want to help him have a good time... so I asked him if he'd like that, and apparently he would. But minutes later he was having another paddy about writing some little invites and he threw punches and yelled a lot. God knows what our neighbours think we're doing to him! I just don't want to reward this crap behaviour but I do want to be a nice Daddy.

I took them to school. I came home. We both had a cry. We are wondering where we have gone wrong and are absolutely dreading the summer holidays. We haven't booked a holiday as we cannot face an experience like last summer. And this just punishes our other boy who is mild mannered, quite chilled and relatively well behaved, and gets ignored when the other one takes all our attention. Parenting is soooooo difficult!

Before lunch went to the tax office and asked about a couple of queries in our accounts, and was asked to chat to someone on the phone for 'technical advice' and it all seemed quite simple. I'm going to submit my income tax stuff electronically this year, for the first time. And possibly the last as we are going to get an accountant to do it next time! To not have that hassle will be lovely!

Then went to the Hazel Court/James Street skip site with a load of cartons for recycling, some more batteries which surfaced, and some electrical stuff including low-energy lightbulbs for the 'weee' collection. Then to St Nicks where I bought two dalek compost bins which folks have returned, for a tenner each, one of which will go to a lady in Windmill Lane who asked if I could get her one. Both went on my cycle trailer no problem. Then came home and had lunch and phoned up the tax credit people and re-applied for that over the phone.

Then did some washing up and washed my walnuts which have been in brine for a few weeks, and left them to air-dry in a cardboard box. Next stop, getting pickling jars ready, and assorted herby/spicy vinegar. I might co-pickle them with some early nasturtium seeds.. or even flower buds (which is what capers are, so I don't see why I shouldn't give 'nasturtium capers' a go!)

Did emails and blog, got ready for my last day bringing two boys home from school!

As soon as I arrived at school and my occasionally horrible child came out, he said, 'Dad, forget about this morning' so I replied 'why, what happened this morning?' with a smile and he gave me a hug. I collected quite a bit more end-of-term recycling/reusables and then the boys said they wanted to go to the Outgang with all their friends, so I told them they could but when Ulrich said it was time to go, they must cycle home together and be careful using and crossing roads. An hour after I got home, Ulrich arrived with his eldest son and 10 mins later, both mine arrived home happily and safely. Ulrich and I picked a load of loganberries, raspberries, redcurrants and a few gooseberries and then he went to collect his youngest from another friend's house.

I went to the Hull Road Planning Panel meeting for 6.30 and we dealt with 4 applications, one of which was really difficult to deal with as it was changing a student house with 5 bedrooms int a 'House of Multiple Occupation' with 8 bedrooms, and we all felt it was a bit crowded... but couldn't object on any planning grounds we knew of. Interesting! Home for 7.45 and had pizza, home grown potato salad with chives and some olives donated by Ulrich.

Woken very early by one of my children shouting about there being snow on the ground.

I lay in bed awake until about 8 when I got up and there was indeed snow. I had breakfast and went outside and did some more work outside.

Soon my sister and her Husband arrived. It's my sister's 40th birthday soon and today she is having a party and several of her friends have been invited as well as me and my family and my brother and his family.

So it wasn't long before a couple arrived from near Coventry, and then a couple from near Nottingham. We had some lunch and Anna opened her cards and presents. It was a really good celebration.