I had a lie-in which was really welcome, and because of this, I didn't get up to Hartrigg Oaks for the midday lunch with my friends from AVP, some of whom had already had a Facilitators meeting. I'm a volunteer with AVP North East and East Midlands... my only official role is the Health and Safety person. This afternoon's meeting was 1.30 til 4, and I got there just in time. I was really pleased to see so many people around the table, a baker's dozen of us. There were attendees from Lincoln, Sheffield, Harrogate, Scarborough and of course, quite a few of us from York, and one from Manchester. NEEM members are responsible for putting on, overseeing or managing AVP workshops in Doncaster, York, and Newcastle, and there are plans for more. Our Facilitators work all over the UK and several people in the room are active within various parts of AVP Britain.
One of the things we discussed was the possibility that we should employ someone to manage the group... several other AVP regions have a paid manager and our region has now got the level of support and activity to merit a paid worker. I volunteered to help prepare an initial proposal to start the process, and I'll be working with a chap I don't know at all, Colin, from Wakefield. I'm looking forward to that. I also volunteered to look at publicity and social networking with Cecile, whom I've also not worked with before.
The meeting finished on the dot of 4pm and I stayed a while to sort out the meetings I need to attend. On the way home I collected some sticks from a hedge in New Earswick, and then on the cycle path near Haxby Road there was a pile of freshly dumped Elder logs, so they just managed to fit on the pannier rack.
I was pleased to get back and have a coffee, but at about 5.45pm I went outside to do a bit of log stacking and then chainsawing... not a lot, less than an hour, but the front garden is looking a bit full, so it needs sorting.
I came in before 7 and as there was too much Strictly Cum Dancing on the telly, I went upstairs and listened to Tracey Smith doing her weekly radio show on Apple AM. I like her sense of humour, also her interests overlap with mine... for instance, she visited a landfill site recently and is thinking of doing a programme about it.
I had my evening meal at 9pm and had a fairly relaxing evening, although there was a mountain of washing up and I got through some of it.
Showing posts with label volunteering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label volunteering. Show all posts
I got up fairly early as I wanted to get to Rowntree Park before 11, when the Festival officially started. I turned out the flapjack, and had a piece... it was DELICIOUS! Most of that went into a cake tin and into a pannier. I took my devlstick, in case of some good music to twiddle to, and balloons in case of kids in need... I took two cans of cider, just in case I felt like relaxing with a drink later on.
I got to the site before 11 and reported to the Festival Central tent, as Dylan had suggested that I might be useful as a steward. However, I wasn't needed but was asked to report back at midday. I went to the nearby stage where my Falling Spikes friend Moz was playing in a dub reggae band, and his band member and friend Richard, of Country Fresh fame, was coping with it pretty well. Rich doesn't like dub. And soon after the dub finished, Rich had to head off to work.... and apparently would be back at 5.30!
I had a wander round, down to the main stage, the healing and chill out area, with the nearby cabaret stage just getting going.
I met absolutely loads of my friends old and new. I met people whose names I didn't know, like two friendly characters Lorraine and Catherine. I spotted Rachel whom I wanted to say hello to but I was chatting to Laurie the poet and she'd gone by the time I'd finished that conversation. I really enjoyed the social aspect to this event, which was good as I felt a bit 'lost' as I wasn't an organiser, a volunteer, a paid worker... I was just a punter. I helped Rakesh with getting some water, and then queued with Kate Lock to have lunch. Janie and her son came from Manchester to be here, and it was lovely to see them. I did some devilsticking to some funky music, and several people with children stopped and asked about it, and I was able to give out my business card.
Later on, I collected what started as 7 boxes of orange halves, which I compressed into 4 boxes and a bag. This filled my bike trailer, but will be a good dose for one of my tumblers.
As the event came to a close, I had one of my cans of cider, and then spent well over an hour picking up litter... mainly cigarette butts, hundreds and hundreds of them. Disgusting smokers.
Right at the end I was rewarded with a fruit scone, but I needed to get back as I was tired. I got home at about 9 pm. I had sandwiches for tea.
So, a brilliant day, one of the best local festivals I've been to... lots more people there than at the last Green Festival. I take my hat off to Dylan, Mick, Ali and all the other volunteers who made this happen. Most of all I thank my friends who enrich my life so much. I am a very lucky man.
I got to the site before 11 and reported to the Festival Central tent, as Dylan had suggested that I might be useful as a steward. However, I wasn't needed but was asked to report back at midday. I went to the nearby stage where my Falling Spikes friend Moz was playing in a dub reggae band, and his band member and friend Richard, of Country Fresh fame, was coping with it pretty well. Rich doesn't like dub. And soon after the dub finished, Rich had to head off to work.... and apparently would be back at 5.30!
I had a wander round, down to the main stage, the healing and chill out area, with the nearby cabaret stage just getting going.
I met absolutely loads of my friends old and new. I met people whose names I didn't know, like two friendly characters Lorraine and Catherine. I spotted Rachel whom I wanted to say hello to but I was chatting to Laurie the poet and she'd gone by the time I'd finished that conversation. I really enjoyed the social aspect to this event, which was good as I felt a bit 'lost' as I wasn't an organiser, a volunteer, a paid worker... I was just a punter. I helped Rakesh with getting some water, and then queued with Kate Lock to have lunch. Janie and her son came from Manchester to be here, and it was lovely to see them. I did some devilsticking to some funky music, and several people with children stopped and asked about it, and I was able to give out my business card.
Later on, I collected what started as 7 boxes of orange halves, which I compressed into 4 boxes and a bag. This filled my bike trailer, but will be a good dose for one of my tumblers.
As the event came to a close, I had one of my cans of cider, and then spent well over an hour picking up litter... mainly cigarette butts, hundreds and hundreds of them. Disgusting smokers.
Right at the end I was rewarded with a fruit scone, but I needed to get back as I was tired. I got home at about 9 pm. I had sandwiches for tea.
So, a brilliant day, one of the best local festivals I've been to... lots more people there than at the last Green Festival. I take my hat off to Dylan, Mick, Ali and all the other volunteers who made this happen. Most of all I thank my friends who enrich my life so much. I am a very lucky man.
Up at a reasonable time so that I could get to St Nicks for soon after 10am, as I'd promised to dig out the compost bay which is over-full, and it needed turning into the next bay.
I took my fork and spade down in the trailer and fully expected to have a couple of hours work by myself... peace and quiet, with the birds singing around me and an occasional dog walker passing by.
There was a lot of work to do; the composting area is a concrete base with 4 walls of breeze blocks, about 6 metres long, a metre high and about a metre between each wall. Each bay therefore is about 6 cubic metres of space. A pet shop regularly drops off sacks of sawdust and pet bedding, and this makes up the majority of the material, but I have on occasion added stuff and other people probably do too. But no-one is completely in charge or responsible.
So, I started getting the second bay ready for the contents of the first, and did about half an hour, with a short chat to Sue the Priest, out walking her dog, and anticipating the service in Doncaster this afternoon. Then I was joined by a 20 year old student, who offered to help and I let her have the fork, which is easier to use, and she worked at one end of the pile and I started towards the other, but in the middle whilst standing in the empty bay and adding to the pile that she was also adding to. We talked about all sorts of things, her history degree, her half Chinese ancestry and peoples' attitudes to race, lots of other subjects. We worked together for well over an hour. I think we shifted about a quarter or a fifth of the compost. Lots more needs doing!
I went into the Environment Centre at about 12.30 and the Eco-Active volunteers were all having lunch, and John invited me to have lunch too. I did, and chatted to a nice Chilean guy and a female student from Minnesota.
Home to a peaceful house... our youngest had gone to a birthday party and wasn't due back til 7pm. I busied myself in the front, trying to tidy up after the unwanted planks and packing wood had been almost tossed everywhere after yesterday's sorting of good from bad. I chainsawed up quite a bit more and built a good stack on the right of the door.
When I came in for a coffee I chopped up two huge onions, rejects because of surface blemishes, and slow-fried them on the stove, hoping that they would come in useful for tonight's meal.
Later, Gill decided to treat our eldest to a DVD from Blockbusters and a bag of chips from the Chinese takeaway just beyond it. So they ate together and I made myself a meal based on the onions. I had couscous (free as the bag had split), sweet red pepper paprika (made from thrown-away peppers) cooked in marmite water (to clean out the nearly empty jar) and a couple of, shock horror, bought mushrooms. Oh, and there was a 'crust' of Edam cheese left in the fridge because Gill cuts this cheese parallel to the rind, leaving a half centimetre of wasted cheese..... but not if I can help it, so I chopped that into small cubes and mixed them in just before I plonked it on my plate. Delicious! And 90% free materials... only the olive oil, mushrooms and cheese was paid-for. Even the heat to cook it was free. I really like meals like this!
A nothingy evening followed... bit of telly, kept the stove going as it's another cold night, played on the laptop for ages.
I took my fork and spade down in the trailer and fully expected to have a couple of hours work by myself... peace and quiet, with the birds singing around me and an occasional dog walker passing by.
There was a lot of work to do; the composting area is a concrete base with 4 walls of breeze blocks, about 6 metres long, a metre high and about a metre between each wall. Each bay therefore is about 6 cubic metres of space. A pet shop regularly drops off sacks of sawdust and pet bedding, and this makes up the majority of the material, but I have on occasion added stuff and other people probably do too. But no-one is completely in charge or responsible.
So, I started getting the second bay ready for the contents of the first, and did about half an hour, with a short chat to Sue the Priest, out walking her dog, and anticipating the service in Doncaster this afternoon. Then I was joined by a 20 year old student, who offered to help and I let her have the fork, which is easier to use, and she worked at one end of the pile and I started towards the other, but in the middle whilst standing in the empty bay and adding to the pile that she was also adding to. We talked about all sorts of things, her history degree, her half Chinese ancestry and peoples' attitudes to race, lots of other subjects. We worked together for well over an hour. I think we shifted about a quarter or a fifth of the compost. Lots more needs doing!
I went into the Environment Centre at about 12.30 and the Eco-Active volunteers were all having lunch, and John invited me to have lunch too. I did, and chatted to a nice Chilean guy and a female student from Minnesota.
Home to a peaceful house... our youngest had gone to a birthday party and wasn't due back til 7pm. I busied myself in the front, trying to tidy up after the unwanted planks and packing wood had been almost tossed everywhere after yesterday's sorting of good from bad. I chainsawed up quite a bit more and built a good stack on the right of the door.
When I came in for a coffee I chopped up two huge onions, rejects because of surface blemishes, and slow-fried them on the stove, hoping that they would come in useful for tonight's meal.
Later, Gill decided to treat our eldest to a DVD from Blockbusters and a bag of chips from the Chinese takeaway just beyond it. So they ate together and I made myself a meal based on the onions. I had couscous (free as the bag had split), sweet red pepper paprika (made from thrown-away peppers) cooked in marmite water (to clean out the nearly empty jar) and a couple of, shock horror, bought mushrooms. Oh, and there was a 'crust' of Edam cheese left in the fridge because Gill cuts this cheese parallel to the rind, leaving a half centimetre of wasted cheese..... but not if I can help it, so I chopped that into small cubes and mixed them in just before I plonked it on my plate. Delicious! And 90% free materials... only the olive oil, mushrooms and cheese was paid-for. Even the heat to cook it was free. I really like meals like this!
A nothingy evening followed... bit of telly, kept the stove going as it's another cold night, played on the laptop for ages.
Up at 7am so I could get to Rowntree Park by soon after 8 to get ready for one of the most important dates of my year, York Green Festival. I took my bike trailer and panniers full of toilet rolls, 50m of electric cable on a roll, dried apple for the LETS stall, my Professor Fiddlesticks hat and a bag of modelling balloons and some used but reusable bin bags which I felt would probably come in useful at the end of the event.
I wasn't the first on site, and several of the marquees and gazebos had already been put up the previous day. My role was to hover around the Terry Avenue entrance and direct people coming into the park to set up stalls to the right place. I also did quite a bit of running around getting bits and pieces and 'gophering', either on foot or on my bike.
11am, the start time, came all too soon. There were still a couple of cars on the main field which I had to usher to the parking area, and there were various stalls which hadn't read the literature we provided and hadn't brought a table, and were therefore asking if we could provide them with one. We had problems getting the park keeper on the radio to see if he had a spare table in his building, but we did manage to get everybody sorted out. When the first band went on, I cycled round to the other side of the river, via the Millennium Bridge, to listen from near the potential sources of complaints. As I was listening to the band, a couple of boats passed and their sound was louder than what was going on in the park. I wrote down what I had heard, when and where.
As I cycled back into the park I became aware that the sun was out! Whoopee! A much better day than YGF08, when early in the afternoon it began to rain and gradually got worse and worse. Today the weather was really good, with a bit of a breeze, occasional sunshine and periods of being overcast... but the rain didn't start til about 5pm when we were due to finish.
As I was busy the time went quickly. I was really happy to see Gill and the boys; there was some doubt that they would make it as school starts tomorrow and there is still homework to be finished. I took a few minutes to sit down and have one of Azra's curries, with her homegrown potatoes, carrots and runner beans. This came with fair trade rice and a green lentil dahl. It was delicious.
At about 1.30 I asked Rory Motion to do an announcement between bands and say that I was going to do some balloon animals in kids area, and I had my silly hat on and blew one up and made a very quick elephant, giving it to one of the children in front of the stage. I then made my way to the kids area and did about 30 minutes of balloon model giveaways.
Then I did more soundchecks, one in the residential areas to the West of the park, where the main stage was pointing to, and another on the other side of the river when Thatcher's Bush were playing... perhaps a bit too loudly, and my radio message got them turned down a bit.
Quite late, maybe 4pm, Ali and her entourage turned up... a carer, a friend and her little daughter, and Ali's enthusiastic and excited daughter. Seize the Day were just starting... they are absolutely brilliant, very political, lovely music. Vibrant, upbeat, angry, positive. Perfect for our event. As we had overrun a bit, they finished soon after 5, and I got the chance to thank the audience and Seize the Day. I wished I had asked the audience to pick up their cigarette butts as I spent the next hour and a half litter picking, 90% of which was fag ends. I hung on til Baz came back with the van at 7.30 to help load up a very heavy marquee... and then I cycled round to Rich's to help unload it into his garage.
Despite my being very knackered by this time, I spotted a load of waste wood offcuts and so I stopped and loaded up some spare space in the trailer, a bin bag and a carrier bag full of these.
When I got back, Gill had some food ready and I lit the stove. After I ate, I fell asleep on the sofa for an hour as Gill was putting the children to bed... but after I had a coffee I perked up and did my emails, typed this and chatted to Gill about the people we'd seen, conversations we'd had, what the children did and other stuff, before she fell asleep whilst hemming trousers for tomorrow, the first day of term.
I am so glad that the only complaints the main council person made were that Seize the Day had a song lyric which included the word 'Bullshit' in it, whilst there were children around, and that there was no catering aimed at meat eaters. I hooted with laughter when i heard about this one... what an idiot, not realising that as we are a green festival, we are not going to promote the most polluting sort of diet. But a good result re this person. I wonder if any of the regular residential complainants from previous years complained this time, and if any complaints were upheld? Time will tell!
I am very happy tonight. Tired, but content.
I wasn't the first on site, and several of the marquees and gazebos had already been put up the previous day. My role was to hover around the Terry Avenue entrance and direct people coming into the park to set up stalls to the right place. I also did quite a bit of running around getting bits and pieces and 'gophering', either on foot or on my bike.
11am, the start time, came all too soon. There were still a couple of cars on the main field which I had to usher to the parking area, and there were various stalls which hadn't read the literature we provided and hadn't brought a table, and were therefore asking if we could provide them with one. We had problems getting the park keeper on the radio to see if he had a spare table in his building, but we did manage to get everybody sorted out. When the first band went on, I cycled round to the other side of the river, via the Millennium Bridge, to listen from near the potential sources of complaints. As I was listening to the band, a couple of boats passed and their sound was louder than what was going on in the park. I wrote down what I had heard, when and where.
As I cycled back into the park I became aware that the sun was out! Whoopee! A much better day than YGF08, when early in the afternoon it began to rain and gradually got worse and worse. Today the weather was really good, with a bit of a breeze, occasional sunshine and periods of being overcast... but the rain didn't start til about 5pm when we were due to finish.
As I was busy the time went quickly. I was really happy to see Gill and the boys; there was some doubt that they would make it as school starts tomorrow and there is still homework to be finished. I took a few minutes to sit down and have one of Azra's curries, with her homegrown potatoes, carrots and runner beans. This came with fair trade rice and a green lentil dahl. It was delicious.
At about 1.30 I asked Rory Motion to do an announcement between bands and say that I was going to do some balloon animals in kids area, and I had my silly hat on and blew one up and made a very quick elephant, giving it to one of the children in front of the stage. I then made my way to the kids area and did about 30 minutes of balloon model giveaways.
Then I did more soundchecks, one in the residential areas to the West of the park, where the main stage was pointing to, and another on the other side of the river when Thatcher's Bush were playing... perhaps a bit too loudly, and my radio message got them turned down a bit.
Quite late, maybe 4pm, Ali and her entourage turned up... a carer, a friend and her little daughter, and Ali's enthusiastic and excited daughter. Seize the Day were just starting... they are absolutely brilliant, very political, lovely music. Vibrant, upbeat, angry, positive. Perfect for our event. As we had overrun a bit, they finished soon after 5, and I got the chance to thank the audience and Seize the Day. I wished I had asked the audience to pick up their cigarette butts as I spent the next hour and a half litter picking, 90% of which was fag ends. I hung on til Baz came back with the van at 7.30 to help load up a very heavy marquee... and then I cycled round to Rich's to help unload it into his garage.
Despite my being very knackered by this time, I spotted a load of waste wood offcuts and so I stopped and loaded up some spare space in the trailer, a bin bag and a carrier bag full of these.
When I got back, Gill had some food ready and I lit the stove. After I ate, I fell asleep on the sofa for an hour as Gill was putting the children to bed... but after I had a coffee I perked up and did my emails, typed this and chatted to Gill about the people we'd seen, conversations we'd had, what the children did and other stuff, before she fell asleep whilst hemming trousers for tomorrow, the first day of term.
I am so glad that the only complaints the main council person made were that Seize the Day had a song lyric which included the word 'Bullshit' in it, whilst there were children around, and that there was no catering aimed at meat eaters. I hooted with laughter when i heard about this one... what an idiot, not realising that as we are a green festival, we are not going to promote the most polluting sort of diet. But a good result re this person. I wonder if any of the regular residential complainants from previous years complained this time, and if any complaints were upheld? Time will tell!
I am very happy tonight. Tired, but content.
Well a very early start as I had to be at Rowntree Park by about 8am... but arrived so early that only one gate was open but soon others started to trickle in and I helped put together a marquee.
I was in charge of the stalls area and my role was to direct the various stallholders to their pitches and show them where to park their cars. The BBC bus came and eventually got parked up in the right place. Lots of other activity. I was working with a steward called Qing (pronounced 'Ting') and we walked round the stalls as she was doing photographs and wanted to know about each stall. I wasn't aware of the time, just that there was loads happening... and then there was a call on the walkie talkie for me to go to the BBC bus, so I went up there and they wanted to interview me about green lifestyles and the festival and my bike...
They had a clock and I noticed it had just turned 11... the festival had officially started! The interview didn't take long and I was able to get back to the stalls area. Various family and friends arrived, including Gill and the boys and Ali and Ruthie.
The park started to fill up and at one moment the sun came out... but it was still overcast and potentially wet. The Environmental Health Food Hygiene person came and then radioed through to say she was happy with everything. Before long it was approaching 1pm when I was due to present a balloon modelling workshop so I went to the kids area and blew up a whole unicycle's worth of balloons (I put them into the spokes to hold them) and the marquee filled up... loads of children, and as I was doing the workshop, more and more came.... So I did an hour's worth of balloons, an almost endless queue of expectant children all wanting a balloon of their choice. I was glad when there were no more and I could get back to my Festival organiser duties and by this time it had started raining. But the Festival went on and there was lots to do... a very busy few hours.
At about 3.40 I went to the main stage as my favourite band were due to be on, but everything was running late and The Falling Spikes weren't due to be on for at least half an hour. I knew that the music would overrun so I went to find Baz to discuss this with him and he suggested that the music could continue til 5.30, which I wasn't too happy with as this would probably breach our consent. But I didn't argue for a 5pm finish as the audience were still enjoying the music and were resolutely ignoring the rain.
I started doing some litter duties, sorting out different waste streams into different bags, and taking the paper plates/food for composting and the aluminium cans for recycling. The Falling Spikes just did two, possibly three numbers and finished at 5.30 and the park soon became a lot emptier... but I stayed there til 7, doing assorted tidying duties, litter-picking the main lawn and helping John and Len the park-keepers sort out the last of the mess.
I came home very slowly as my trailer was overloaded but got home shortly before 8 and Gill had some home-grown potato chips ready for me, to which I added a couple of yummy things from Azra's curry stall.
Boys overtired and grouchy but they did eventually get to bed and I watched a brilliant programme on Sculpture on C4+1...
Later collected emails and wrote up this blog.
I was in charge of the stalls area and my role was to direct the various stallholders to their pitches and show them where to park their cars. The BBC bus came and eventually got parked up in the right place. Lots of other activity. I was working with a steward called Qing (pronounced 'Ting') and we walked round the stalls as she was doing photographs and wanted to know about each stall. I wasn't aware of the time, just that there was loads happening... and then there was a call on the walkie talkie for me to go to the BBC bus, so I went up there and they wanted to interview me about green lifestyles and the festival and my bike...
They had a clock and I noticed it had just turned 11... the festival had officially started! The interview didn't take long and I was able to get back to the stalls area. Various family and friends arrived, including Gill and the boys and Ali and Ruthie.
The park started to fill up and at one moment the sun came out... but it was still overcast and potentially wet. The Environmental Health Food Hygiene person came and then radioed through to say she was happy with everything. Before long it was approaching 1pm when I was due to present a balloon modelling workshop so I went to the kids area and blew up a whole unicycle's worth of balloons (I put them into the spokes to hold them) and the marquee filled up... loads of children, and as I was doing the workshop, more and more came.... So I did an hour's worth of balloons, an almost endless queue of expectant children all wanting a balloon of their choice. I was glad when there were no more and I could get back to my Festival organiser duties and by this time it had started raining. But the Festival went on and there was lots to do... a very busy few hours.
At about 3.40 I went to the main stage as my favourite band were due to be on, but everything was running late and The Falling Spikes weren't due to be on for at least half an hour. I knew that the music would overrun so I went to find Baz to discuss this with him and he suggested that the music could continue til 5.30, which I wasn't too happy with as this would probably breach our consent. But I didn't argue for a 5pm finish as the audience were still enjoying the music and were resolutely ignoring the rain.
I started doing some litter duties, sorting out different waste streams into different bags, and taking the paper plates/food for composting and the aluminium cans for recycling. The Falling Spikes just did two, possibly three numbers and finished at 5.30 and the park soon became a lot emptier... but I stayed there til 7, doing assorted tidying duties, litter-picking the main lawn and helping John and Len the park-keepers sort out the last of the mess.
I came home very slowly as my trailer was overloaded but got home shortly before 8 and Gill had some home-grown potato chips ready for me, to which I added a couple of yummy things from Azra's curry stall.
Boys overtired and grouchy but they did eventually get to bed and I watched a brilliant programme on Sculpture on C4+1...
Later collected emails and wrote up this blog.
Up quite early as at 10 I had agreed to take the children to St Nicks to do some 'Balsam Bashing' as part of the Eco-Active Days programme. They were both keen, despite the wet weather. We got there before 10 and met up with half a dozen other volunteers, all happy to pull up Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed as these are both invasive foreign species. The balsam is an annual and in winter, it leaves bare soil on the sides of watercourses, which erodes very easily. So the idea is to pull it up to allow other species to grow, which may have better root systems, which can keep the soil in situ. The knotweed is very invasive and potentially destructive, and it needs removing if at all possible, and pulling it up helps keep it under control.
So we spent an hour and a half of pulling up nettles from around newly planted trees, balsam and knotweed, piling up all the vegetation in the same place to rot down. Hwever, the rain got very heavy and a bit much for my two boys, and we three went back to the Environment Centre building. The rest of the team followed us within half an hour.
Our reward was a lovely lunch of tomato soup and bread... with good humoured company. I chatted to two new volunteers who are going to be there on Saturdays, one a physicist, the other a speech and conversation expert. Fascinating stuff!
Gill had had a quiet and pleasent morning, and was glad that we'd all enjoyed the work, lunch and each other's company.
The rain got very heavy during the afternoon, but I did some work in the garden anyway... but lit the stove to dry stuff off.
So we spent an hour and a half of pulling up nettles from around newly planted trees, balsam and knotweed, piling up all the vegetation in the same place to rot down. Hwever, the rain got very heavy and a bit much for my two boys, and we three went back to the Environment Centre building. The rest of the team followed us within half an hour.
Our reward was a lovely lunch of tomato soup and bread... with good humoured company. I chatted to two new volunteers who are going to be there on Saturdays, one a physicist, the other a speech and conversation expert. Fascinating stuff!
Gill had had a quiet and pleasent morning, and was glad that we'd all enjoyed the work, lunch and each other's company.
The rain got very heavy during the afternoon, but I did some work in the garden anyway... but lit the stove to dry stuff off.
I took the boys into school and then went back to bed as exhausted.
Got up as I couldn't sleep and wasn't feeling restful, rested or restable, infact I had to go and check the emails to see if any of my friends/colleagues had sent me anything to assist in the making of the Green Festival Document to make it better and more likely to be accepted by the council.
There was one email, from Tim the council person who'd volunteered to take responsibility for organising the children's festival area, and he was pulling out. I felt depressed, rats leaving a sinking ship crosses my mind. Anyway, emailed my friends who are still supportive, I think, and asked for help.
Then it was lunchtime and after that I popped into town to put a pile of cheques in and visit Dylan at Miller's Yard and the tax office, to discuss how I deal with the impending purchase of my next bike, which will be used for Fiddlesticks, 'John the Composter' and for non-work rides. Over a phone helpline the system was explained about 'capital allowances' and how some purchases aren't considered simple expenses, but are treated a bit differently for taxation reasons. It is complicated but we'll cope!
Came back via Hes Rd Veg, Martin's Rotten Old Gunk shop and arrived back just at 3pm, in time to pick up the boys... all go... never stops!
In the evening I went to the St Nicks Volunteers event, to discuss volunteer policies and have a social. A good time was had.
Got up as I couldn't sleep and wasn't feeling restful, rested or restable, infact I had to go and check the emails to see if any of my friends/colleagues had sent me anything to assist in the making of the Green Festival Document to make it better and more likely to be accepted by the council.
There was one email, from Tim the council person who'd volunteered to take responsibility for organising the children's festival area, and he was pulling out. I felt depressed, rats leaving a sinking ship crosses my mind. Anyway, emailed my friends who are still supportive, I think, and asked for help.
Then it was lunchtime and after that I popped into town to put a pile of cheques in and visit Dylan at Miller's Yard and the tax office, to discuss how I deal with the impending purchase of my next bike, which will be used for Fiddlesticks, 'John the Composter' and for non-work rides. Over a phone helpline the system was explained about 'capital allowances' and how some purchases aren't considered simple expenses, but are treated a bit differently for taxation reasons. It is complicated but we'll cope!
Came back via Hes Rd Veg, Martin's Rotten Old Gunk shop and arrived back just at 3pm, in time to pick up the boys... all go... never stops!
In the evening I went to the St Nicks Volunteers event, to discuss volunteer policies and have a social. A good time was had.
