Human Lifestyle: walking with my son

Showing posts with label walking with my son. Show all posts

Wednesday 1st June 11

A good day, with a reasonably late start but once I'd got going, I got quite busy in the garden for a short time.

However, I had a decision to make... I need to go to Brunswick Organic Nursery, town to pay David's cheque in, pay my cheque in, pick up from Richard, take 3 sacks of clothes to a charity shop and go and buy a second pair of shorts from the Woodlands shop... Gill bought one pair yesterday and they fit perfectly, and there was a second pair there which Gill suggested I might like... or need...

So... I took the clothes to the Woodlands MS Respite shop and bought the shorts, for £1.50. Then zoomed down to the Council office to pay David's cheque in. Then to my Building Society to pay my cheque in. Then via the lemon stall (donation of lemon halves) to Country Fresh where I did a little bit of shopping and loaded up my trailer and pannier rack with biodegradables. I came home and took some of the stuff down to the current heap.

I decided that there wasn't time to go to Brunswick, so I'll do that tomorrow. After tea I walked to town with our eldest to attend the monthly Cafe Scientifique, which was a short talk from Professor Jonathan Reece, on various aspects of the subject of skin. It included a bit about the genetics of skin and hair colour, and the way that DNA analysis allows us to see where people came from and where they travelled after leaving Africa. A bit about sweating and body hair. Quite a bit about UV radiation and skin damage, Vitamin D production and more. It wasn't the best talk we've been to but it was still worth going.

Graham delivered the megaphone and walkie talkies to City Screen and I picked them up after the talk, and my son and I had some good conversations on the way home.

When I arrived home, Tony rang and we discussed the latest developments re the World Naked Bike Ride on Saturday. I then wrote a letter to a participant who had contacted us, and did a variety of other bits and bobs.

Thursday 19th May 11

A mixed day, with some boring bits, exciting bits, slightly annoyed bits and happy chilled bits.

So, up at about 9 and I spent the whole morning doing assorted paperwork. I'm very slow at this. I also had several phone calls, one booking Professor Fiddlesticks for Spofforth Gala and another booking for a charity event to raise money for building an extension (I think!) to an orphanage in Uganda. I was really torn with this one,as it's on the same evening as the Manchester World Naked Bike Ride, which I really enjoyed last year, but the charity event looks good. It is in the style of the 'Generation Game'; a 1970's TV programme where teams of participants did various games, including getting taught by an expert how to do something and then doing it, and the expert judging their efforts. So I'll be the balloon modelling expert and teacher.... Yup, sounds like fun, different sort of fun to the WNBR. They persuaded me with a small fee... again, I was torn, as I'd have liked to do it for nothing, but I was told that I was exactly what they wanted, and as I'm missing one of my favourite annual events, I don't feel quite so bad saying yes to this.

I'd got enough paperwork done to go to town and get a cheque out and post that to where it needed to be, and to get another one and bring it home as I haven't sorted the envelope for that, and get some money out to pay our first 2 months of Council Tax this year. I went to Library Square to pay this but was told that it was only at St Leonard's Place where I could pay cash. So there I also asked about water ingress into ancient cellars. I spoke to someone from Environmental Health on the phone, who suggested talking to a drainage expert at the EcoDepot.

I said I'd go to the EcoDepot within the hour. I called in on Miller's Yard, but Dylan wasn't there, but I did take 2 sacks of biodegradables. The drainage expert, Brian, told me about the history of the area (drainage-wise!) and advised me to get Yorkshire Water out first.

When I came in, I rang them and got an appointment. I think David will be pleased.

I visited Country Fresh, picked up 2 sacks of stuff, plus 20 potato sacks which I'll put on Freecycle. I came back home and spent some time loading materials into the Compostumbler and the sit and wait heap.

I came in for a plate of pasta and our eldest decided that he wanted to go with me to the new 'thinking person's cabaret', Bright Club, which this month was at the Black Swan. I'd enquired about it's suitability for young teens, and yes, it is OK. So we set out a bit before 7pm, through St Nicks where I spotted a beautiful male pheasant. Our son had never seen one before and was entranced! As we approached the Black Swan, we crossed over to see the Edible York Raised Bed, and Bill Eve was doing some weeding! Good to see him.

The Bright Club was in the downstairs room, and it was crowded and smelled of fish and chips. My son couldn't cope with the smell, crowd and darkness so we went. I was a bit annoyed but continued chatting on the way back, but as soon as we reached home, I shot off on my bike to the York in Transition meeting at Peter's house, where I slowly forgot the traumas of attempting to be a good parent, and cheered up. We had a good meeting. I gave myself jobs to do. Here I can be effective, useful, successful. We had the meeting outside, sitting around Peter's washing machine drum fire-pit, which was good. Tomas and Eleanor arrived, and had brought a small bottle of cider, as if they knew I'd be there and needing something. I was so grateful!

I cycled to the Seahorse Hotel to book the little room for the Cosy Homes project meeting. Good to meet an old friend, Jan, whom I worked with in Pizzaland in the 1980s! Then came home to settle down to doing more dried apple, washing up. chat on facebook with other Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome people, wrote blog and got to bed after 3.

Friday 21st January 11

Up early but I'd have liked a lie-in, but as Gill was taking our youngest to school, I got up and ensured that our home-educated child got to Maria's on time for his science lesson with her. Once Gill came back, I went to the bread shop for £4 worth of yesterbake bread (2 big loaves, 4 bags of assorted rolls, 4 iced spirals and 2 bags of flapjack offcuts) and I posted a big parcel of home made dried fruit to Tracey Smith, in swap for her book 'The Book of Rubbish Ideas' which she sent to me to review here! I haven't started reading it yet, but hope to get around to it soon.

I also read our gas and electricity meters, as I'd received a gas bill and the last two readings were estimates. I buy both gas and electricity from Good Energy, which supplies 100% renewable electricity, and the gas bill helps pay ROCs to people with solar panels. The way I pay my bills is to pay a whole year annually in advance, and this means I can easily work out our annual consumption. So, over the past 12 months, this household of 4 people has used 65 cubic metres of gas, which equates to 726kwh, and cost £65, with £40 standing charge... so our annual gas bill is £111.61. We use more electricity than gas, 2009kwh last year, which is 5.5kw per day. The national average is 10 to 28kw/day I was told. This makes our annual electricity bill £342.84. I will pay by bank transfer next week.

I enjoyed lunch, and after this bagged up some very well rotted (and dry and powdery!) compost from a rotating barrel tumbler. It will need riddling but the majority of it is really lovely stuff.

Gill had already gone down to town by bus and then out to the Steiner School, and was awaiting an interview with the class teacher and anther staff member. I cycled down, getting there just in time for the 3.45 interview. It seems that our boy has settled in to this new school well, and has made friends and is already pretty well integrated into his class. We need to fill in a form and work out our gross income to work out our financial contribution, but this should be relatively simple. We were away by 5pm, Gill and Junior got the bus and I cycled quickly home and put the oven on, as Gill rang and said she'd bought oven chips in Iceland. We don't have chips very often... maybe once a month, but now and again it's quick and easy.

At 6.45 I took our eldest down to Heslington for his computer graphics lesson. I picked up 2 loads of wood in the intervening hour and then walked back with him after 8.

I'd been invited to a party this evening but I decided to stay in, and was glad I did as my authority was welcomed when some behaviour happened which merited intervention. So another busy and full day.

Friday 7th January 11

A fairly quiet day, no particular highlights other than visiting Richard at Country Fresh at about midday, and picking up a load of stuff from him, and then going on to Alligator, as Gill had asked me to get some jelly, and they do a good vegetarian jelly. I had space for 3 bags of their biodegradable resources, and will collect more on Monday I expect.

I enjoyed some sorting out down the garden... there's still a bit of a backlog, so today's stuff stayed in the wheelbarrow but I loaded up more into the Compostumbler, and filled a couple of sacks of mature compost which a rodent had excavated from the base of one of the last heaps to be sitting on the ground. Most are now up on top of pallets, to reduce the ability of rodents to nest in the heap. They can still get in from the top, but a quick poke with the CompostMate means any tunnels collapse and they seek refuge elsewhere. So this heap will be bagged up and then the pallets raised up off the ground so it's slightly less rodent-friendly.

I had an early tea, at about 6pm, just a bowl of soup plus an avocado sandwich, and at 6.30 walked down to Heslington with our eldest, so he could have his computer graphics lesson with Simon. I chatted with Melody and shelled pumpkin seeds and read Resource Magazine. Melody told me she too had heard of a horror story about Andy S. taking advantage of a kind and generous person, and I asked her to pass on the message to this (so far) anonymous person that if she wanted to contact me, I was putting together a dossier to try to get him stopped. If any of the readers of this blog recognise the character I refer to, and has a story of him borrowing money and not paying it back, or using someone's credit card without permission, please do contact me.

On the way back home I learned about my son's adventures on Blender, and we talked about animations and some of the things we've enjoyed.

A quiet evening... blanched a load of grapes and put them to dry, watched a nice programme about Tom Petty, a musician I don't know a lot about. Liked his music though...

Wednesday 5th January 11

I got up early as it was the first day of term and I had to be around to help. However, our youngest decided to not try going back to Archbishop Holgate's, and will therefore start a two week trial at the Steiner School next Monday.

However, as we had not had a reply from the Head, I wrote a letter to him asking him if he'd had it, and if so, he had anything to say about the issues. I hand delivered this. Later, we got a phone call saying they hadn't received the first letter. Gill rang the LEA, and they had been sent a Fax of it, so there are obviously major communication breakdowns at that school. We'll be invited to an interview there next week, apparently. I am very angry with the way our children have been treated, and I'm not going to back down and accept that it was all a big mistake. I believe that the school are denying that they have a problem with bullying as if they admitted to it, they'd be obliged to do something about it. And that's tough, in a culture which likes bullying behaviour and condones the belittling of people.

So both boys were at home and working, reading, and had a quiet and sedentary day.

I went on the HMRC website and submitted my tax returns. It took a couple of hours, but ended up with a calculation with them owing me 25 pence. My earnings have gone right down, so this is the first year I've not had to pay tax for well over a decade.

Got a booking for a Charity Cabaret for mainly retired and elderly folks in February, in Fulford. Should be interesting... I'll adapt my Woodlands MS Respite Care Centre show for them!

I made soup for tea... pumpkin and parsnip, as suggested by my dear mother who left a comment on yesterday's post. I was considering soup but was also considering a nutloaf. Nutloaf tomorrow... will contain some soup!

At about 6.30, I set off walking into town with our eldest son, to attend the Cafe Scientifique at City Screen. The talk was by Tim Clarke, from the Department of Electronics at the University of York, and was called 'Control: A Fundamental For Life and Living'. He's a control engineer, and gave lots of interesting examples of different sorts of controls... from genetic controls with genes being switched on and off, biological controls in homeostasis, keeping our body temperature constant, and biochemical controls, such as insulin and it's role in the management of blood sugar. It was quite an unusual talk, very wide ranging, from inverted pendulums to flocks of birds through to robots. For instance, check out this video of the Big Dog Robot. Really amazing. At one stage, Tim wanted a volunteer from the audience to demonstrate something, and as there were no other volunteers, I put my hand up. What he wanted me to do was to balance a stick on my hand... he couldn't have chosen a better person to use, as I was able to not only do it but describe what I was doing.

So, a good talk, I'm not sure I learned a lot of new stuff, but it was good to learn the meme of 'control' and put all these various things into it. Enjoyed the walk home and the discussions with my son.

My Feedjit widget tells me that over the past couple of days I've had a visitor on here from Buckingham (maybe, it's not always accurate!) who's been poring over this blog, viewing all sorts of links and spending more time than most do here! Makes me curious! So hello Person from Buckingham, on Internet Explorer 8.0 and using Windows Vista! Glad you're exploring! Do say hello!

Friday 20th August 10

I was woken by thunder. The view across the bay was spectacular... ie no view, just dense rain.

When it calmed down a bit I went into Mumbles to buy some pasties, broccoli, rolls and soya milk, and got some sweetcorn as well. But I did come back quite damp.

In the afternoon I took the family exploring the path behind the house; it led into a housing estate and we asked a local person which way to go at one junction, and we decided to go to Langlands Corner. But a minute later, the boys decided they were tired so they and Gill went back, and I walked to Langlands Corner and from there, down to Rotherslade Bay.

I bought an ice cream and when I'd finished this, climbed up the rock in the middle of the bay and watched the tide come in. Then I moved to the east side of the bay where I could see the waves crash against the rocks a bit better, and stayed here til about 4pm, which was high tide. Then I walked slowly back to Bryn Terrace, collecting blackberries on the way.

Gill and the boys had come back and Gill had boiled the rest of the potatoes and then cooked the sweetcorn in that water. The potatoes she roasted and then heated the pasties in the oven, and this plus the broccoli made a good last meal here.

After this, I went on a walk with our eldest down to the promenade, and along to the pier, and as the tide was going out, we tried to get to the lighthouse. However, the channel between the first and second island had still got deep water in it, and it had started raining again, so we turned tail and walked home, past Bracelet Bay and up the hill and back to Bryn Terrace. We got back soaked but happy we'd had a nice walk together.

I lit the stove to dry off our wet clothing. At intervals through the evening we were getting our bits together.... I stewed the balckberries on the stove and filled two peanut butter jars with it, which will go back to York with us.

Whilst we were cleaning under one of the sofa we found a pair of socks left by the last visitors... or maybe the ones before that, who knows?

Human Lifestyle