Today with the family I went to the Peace Festival in York. It was a most beautiful experience. I had let a friend of mine from the 80's, Sybil Wood, know that I was coming to see her and her husbands band Digital Earth sometime over the summer but we couldn't do this so when I realised last week the York Peace Festival was a good place to meet I was very pleased. When we got to Rowntrees Park I saw Sybil and her husband almost immediately but there were a lot of people with them and they were getting stuck into scones and cream , I found out later , so rather than impulsively barging in I decided to wait for a bit of space. So, we went to the main part of the park where a lot of organisations and causes tents were and we ran into Margie Vernon a very lovely lady I had seen around York since about 1982 but didn't meet until 1990 when I was married and living at Stamford Bridge which is 5 miles from Pocklington where Margie lived . Around 1990 we got to know Margie and John her husband , a chemistry lecturer at York Uni. really well and saw them several times over a 4 year period where we visited each others homes and had many great discussions. Margie is a passionate supporter and exponent of many good causes and her husband is a fascinatingly warm , sharp and intelligent man to talk to. I really admired him. It was great to see her and she was as trim, fit and mentally sharp as ever, she is in her 70's and still riding her bike and after some very warm discussion she was talking about what she was currently interested in as if we had seen her for the last 14 years and not the other way 'round. The people I love the best are those that you just see again after a long period of time and it doesn't matter it is as if you had seen them yesterday and the relationship is as fresh and warm . Well after talking with Margie we headed into York centre for a walk , came back to the main stage area and ran straight into Sybil and it was the same experience as it was with Margie. That was an amazing experience for me because I had not spoke to her since around 84' 85' I think, although I did see her pushing a pram around the town sometime in the 90's. Sybil was one of a few people in York at the time who I paid attention to in terms of pulling my life together because of her wise words, but best of all her kind, well intentioned manner which basically said to me that not only I could do better but I would do better. I was having a pretty wild life at the time but I knew I wanted to change and would indeed have to change . I did. 2 years later I was in York Uni. got into the Bahai Faith and had got married to a fine Bahai lady the lovely Fiona. I had straightened every tiny bit of my life out. Good for me good for the world. With me kindness and intelligent straightforwardness pay off and I was privileged to get this from several people in York in the 1980's Sybil being one of them.

It was lovely seeing Sybil talk to my wife and children , she is just so good at immediately relating to people, something I can now at last do this myself and I had had a great and thoughtful chat with her friend the wife of one of Digital Earths keyboard players. A very nice lady who gave our lads some free CDs which I insisted on paying for but she said no, but I am going to buy them off Itunes anyway because I believe that a band that is good as Digital earth should be supported financially because they are really that good . Buy there stuff folks it is really good and I think they are going to get even better in the near future. Another of Sybils friends , a very kind lady , offered us some cream and scones and we really enjoyed those.

We had a nice walk into the town as usual prior to seeing Sybil and Miles and Clifford climbed their favourite tree in the Minster Gardens and we had a nice cup of coffee at Costas or Costa-a-lot of money as I call it !

Back at Rowntrees Park Digital Earth were a very good band who sounded excellent live. My lads loved it and will be doing their maths to the two CDs tomorrow no doubt. I used to play the trumpet and went to music college in 1974 and taught the trumpet as well as working semi-professionally and Jon Wood , Digital Earths flugal horn player and Sybils husband was most excellent. He plays really well and I loved the way he integrated his fine horn sound into the rappy, souly , rocky music. I was a little bit jealous I must admit it ! He is very good. As we were heading off for home we spoke with John for a few minutes and he is a really nice man who I hope I will see sooner than later. I love big bluff blokes who know what they mean and say it. And he is a fine horn man as well.

After a great afternoon we headed back home and watched Star Trek. One of the best days of the year for me and God bless, Sybil, Jon and their family, Digital Earth and the York Peace Festival. We will be going again next year and we will be doing a Bahai stall as well!

Nice day yesterday. No walking for once . The lads had a good thrash around RKade skate park , they were energetic and pretty awesome ,I was really into a good reading session so got into Sense and Sensibility and some maths and Fo headed off for a shopping trip in the centre of Redcar.I only do shopping with her when she needs my help and that is usually when she attempts to chose clothes! In spite of doing no walking we still had our biscuit break : habits die hard in our family . Home and a couple of episodes of Star Trek . An uneventful but pleasant day. This is one of the things I like about family life : even when we don't do that much it is still good fun and interesting and there is always room to do something different which in this case meant not doing much . Because we went to a later session than we normally do , we usually do the 10-12 one, the skate park was full of kids and our lads really enjoyed that . Instead of doing there own thing they got in with some of the others like the most excellent skate boarder Sam. He is really good. There were a lot of scooters there and it is good to see that youngsters are keeping that going . Good for them and for the skate park. Most of them have picked up on the park discipline and are not bumping into themselves ,BMXers and skateboarders like they used to . Contrary to what most oldies think skate boarding , blades, scootering and BMXing are very cooperative and disciplined activities. Together and individually youngies and not so youngies like the middle aged shredder bunch (MAS), older guys who used to skate in the 70's who took it up again today, take decisions and then do it when there are very real risks involved. I am always inspired and amazed at the amount of diligence and determination they all put into it .

Last night the family watched "As good as it gets" starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt. Super dialogue, moving and very funny. I thought that would be the end of films for the night but Fo I just left the telly on and Miles wandered through saying "What are you to doing , just staring at the tube!". Yep, but then Sense and Sensibility came on and Fo really wanted to watch it so we did . Most excellent although she made several dark comments about scenes that were not in the book. Today after the shock and surprise of watching this movie she got the book out for me so I suppose I have got to read it. This morning I did some maths, listening to the band "Temper Trap". A total blast and I first heard the band in the Works skatepark cafe in Leeds last winter. Very atmospheric. Totally recommended.

Yesterday with the family we walked in Upper Swaledale around Muker and up into Swinnergill Kirk a small gorge but great fun to walk through. The Kirk bit indicates that repressed Catholics back in the 17th century used to hold their religious gatherings in a cave just above the gorge. We saw the Yoredale series of rock in all it's glory , a sequence of limestone sandstone and shale like a rock sandwich. The gorge had changed from when we were there a few years back and it had a great feeling of instability because of the rock falls that had occurred. Clifford put his hand on one large boulder as he steadied himself and it started to slide down so he got out of the way pretty quickly. Clambering through the gorge was fun and we saw the two shells of a small bivalve fossil sticking out of the limestone when we climbed over the waterfall. We walked back high up on the East side of the valley a walk I had never done before in all of my 40 years of going up there. Taking care seemed to be the order of the day because the path went straight to a 30 foot drop into another hidden gorge on the hillside . Well, at least I know that Miles always takes care when he is leading. A good responsibility for him. Coffee and ice cream followed at Muker , Fish n chips at Richmond and double Star Trek when we got home. A great walk and a good end to the holiday.

Yesterday with the family I had a great 10.5 mile walk in the Howgills up to the highest point: The Calf. The well rounded hills were as beautiful as ever and there had been more erosion since we were last there . Some of the ripples of soil creep down the hills, like long steps banding around the hillside had lost their topsoil and the millions of small rocks contained within the soil had just fallen vertically retaining the terraced shape of the original soil creep. Very interesting and I am going back up there soon to inspect these features and because some of them are just losing their topsoil so I can get photos of the gradations of erosion . Drift geology is a blast! After this we visited Fo's Mum at her home and went out for a meal to the "Stagger Inn" , to celebrate her 86th birthday and Fo's sister and her husband and daughter came as well. Home and an episode of Star Trek to finish a gorgeous day.

After asking the the family I'd like it if they came they wanted to stay in so I had a good 8 mile walk around York today all on my lonesome.Had a nice coffee in the Minister Gardens and then bought Call of Duty 3 for the PS3 and "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest " for Clifford mostly because I love him to bits but also as a reward for doing well in his GCSE's. Hey: a bit worrying about GCSE's :Longfield School mistakenly put him in for a Science paper, he's supposed to do it next year when they have done the course work , and he got a C anyway! The "21st Century Science Syllabus , developed at York by the way , should be binned! Its way to easy. So, after a pleasant sojourn at Waterstones book shop I headed back to Parliament St. to listen to "Rob and Ric " a slide guitar and drum kit duo. Totally excellent the only way they could be better would be to get me on chromatic harp. I love slide guitar and the way Rob or Ric was playing it . Definitly going to look them up. Hope they are local, I want to play with them! Headed off for York Uni. to have a look at birds and strecth my legs and saw one of the Great Crested Grebes on the Lake next to Central Hall and most amazing of all a heron perched on a post in the middle of the water lilies at Derwent college lake. At first I didn't know what it was because it was stooped over attempting to catch fish and I was actually looking at it from the front and could see only its back and tail feathers. It was 20 metres away and completely unconcerned with me staring at it with binoculars or the occasional person going by. It was a full grown adult and it's beak was nearly a foot long . Totally brilliant. Well, back into town and finished my Coke at the Minister Gardens, woofed a single cone and had a quick discussion with a teenager skateboarder in Rowntrees Park about the virtues of skate boarding as a way to keep fit and have fun. This lad had also been to RKade at Redcar and he thought my lads were lucky being able to go three times a week. Back home to the lovely Fo and doggies , Clifford being over the moon with his gifts. At York nearly bought Fo a necklace , it was made out of sedimentary and igneous rocks flat and polished but after some quite vocal umming and ahhing the shop lady said it might be best to bring your wife in to have look first. I said " That would be safest!" Throughout my life I have consistently found women to be wiser and have more common sense than men. Then again some of the best things in life don't require either! " Its a mans world but it don't mean nothing without a women" Right on!

The lads had a good time in the skatepark ar Redcar tonight. A mum brought two very young children in on their scooters but they were overwhelmed with all the big lads belting about so I suggested to her that she take them to a big half pipe in the far corner where none of the wild bunch were rushing around . It's great she brings such young ones to the park and once they were out of the line of fire they started to scoot and have fun. A dad came in with his three lads , he is a regular and it is obvious every time that he has just finished work ,he's in his overalls and taken his lads to the skate park. Total respect because I think the nation needs more parents that don't so much get involved with their kids but get them to activities that they can get involved in . The dad just sits quite for about 90 minutes quitetly recuperating . A nice night and I had a good read. Our youngest Clifford did well with his GCSEs today specifically getting an A at his maths which means he can go on to do Further maths at the 6th form in a years time without having to do any resits. He can just concentrate on his A Level work this year which will take the sting out of the maths next year. In maths forewarned is forarmed with knowledge .