Rambling before we're off

It's the preflight check before the LG ghoulish party with bangs Tomorrow  here making sure I do have everything I need cos with missing last years with you know what  it doesn't take a lot for me to forget something essential.

That means less time to do other stuff while I remember to take the food out to defrost this evening so it'll be all ready for tomorrow early evening and leaving notes regarding delayed orders coming.

You can almost guarantee it if you plan your orders to come before some major incident occurs and they get delayed and obviously I miss Lil Jennies Halloween story time which is to feature Peanuts which would be on Sunday as I'm making my way toward the rail replacement bus.

Bye for now!

Less heat, more column inches

It's a very wet and windy day as I type this to the point I even heard *something* move in the loft space above me this morning which is a bit disconcerting.

One of the things there's been much talk about in the last few days as part of the build up to COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland is heat pumps.

The thing is the Heat Pump promotion bearing in mind the UK's climate and relatively poorly insulated homes many of which are over thirty years old simple will not work effectively because the output is lower overall so you need to trap that in the property.

The other issue is any hot water is also lower in temperature typically 40 degrees compared to around 60 in a gas or electric heated boiler which is insufficient for a shower or bath on cold day being lukewarm and makes serious bacterial infections such as Legionnaire's disease more likely as it don't kill the bugs off.

Toss in the need to rip the floorboards up to fit much wider pipes, put in bigger radiators that give out less heat and lose a big chink of your garden to sink the Heat Exchange unit with trench into and I can't see it happening.

It's a bit like Caroline Lucas the Green Party M.P. said "making tea in a broken teapot"

Tuning out and maybe solving problems

 

I think to be up in the sky hitching a ride on the Moon isn't a bad place to be as at least the stars are still transmitting radio waves unlike the 3 Mobile network which as I type this is down aka not working for it's millions of users on top of the continuing supply and energy crisis were going through.

The only kind of silver lining to this week is the EU appear prepared to make some major concessions around how the conundrum that is how the avoidance of borders across the Island of Ireland that apparently is set in stone in the Good Friday Agreement can be reconciled to the problem of placing a border between the Island of Great Britain and Northern Ireland that are politically a part of the United Kingdom.

This had been causing huge problems and gaps in the shelves in Northern Ireland's shops so  for instance some Christmas speciality foodstuffs from Marks and Spencers would not be available in Northern Ireland because of all the additional paperwork involved.

If I buy say a blank tape from Northern Ireland I have to have a customs declaration on the invoice to make legal to enter Great Britain where I am even though it's come from the United Kingdom which Northern Ireland is most certainly a part of. 

As I said at the time on here, that whole issue was massive and under appreciated at the time of the Referendum, not that there's any going back to that and really the question of how to make the paperwork that is necessary between the EU and the UK in general the least time consuming and simpler is really the big thing.

It may be true to say "You knew what to expect when you left" but does it do either party any real good to make things harder than they need to be when all our economies are suffering with both the pandemic and this energy crisis?  

Falling apart at the seams?

The week at least weather wise appears to be recovering more to where it normally would be for this time of the year here

We're having major grump worthy problems here like next to no newspapers save a handful of copies of the Daily Mail and nothing else at the local store that supplies the satellite of GHS with our needs.

I can't recall that even in the height of strikemania in '78/9 where it appeared the nation was having a nervous breakdown following all the business a few years before with coal strikes, the "Three Day week" and having to plan watching tv and cooking around a list of what areas could have electricity when.

My suspicion is some issue between his suppliers either Menzies or W H Smiths  and him following a take over (or "running it for Mr.x" in which instance legally the contracts don't change as Mr. x still is the owner) is behind it.

It may be him not realizing he'd need to remake them if it was a take over with a new contract which would have the order and billing arrangements so the previous arrangement terminates after so many weeks or possibly an unpaid bill.

It's just as well things like my Beano Christmas special and regular comics all come through the post from the publishers otherwise even I would have nothing to read this week but this doesn't bold well for the corner shop which prior to this had done very well on the back of Covid travel restrictions and the tendency for more people to work from home and so buy stuff from him during breaks.

A note from within

As I am sat at my desk working this afternoon it is raining really hard rather putting pay to lunchtime and afternoon recess here  so we have more study which is unfortunate.

I was asked to write some thoughts about what is concerning the grown ups.

The grown ups are getting in rather a tizzy about the fuel they put into their cars sometimes acting rather like silly boys fighting over it even though there is enough for everyone if we don't take it all for ourselves.

It's like sweets. If we share them there will be enough to meet out needs but if someone just takes six big paper bags filling them that leaves little for all of us who are left and that person may not use them all either!

l think naughty adults who take more than there fair share should have to apologize to people for being beastly greedy guts.

When I put the radio on the Home Service, the announcer said the Army may be used to get the fuel from the place the get the diesel from it to the petrol stations because there isn't enough grown ups driving the tankers.

That's a jolly whizz idea as it will mean if people put their thinking caps on they will have a bit more in parts of the country where there are particular problems such as the Home Counties as would guaranteeing supplies for important people like those who care for people. 

Caroline Joanne R (Miss) aged 12