getting even

london
So many things in life u can simply cut out of your life. I say this because I got something posted to me that reminded me that that is how my life is now.
i got an estimated bill by british gas for my gas consumption. They estimated i had used 1 metric unit and charged me 74p for it.
But i have used 0 units. hahaheeheeee.....
i had tried to tell them of my reading using their online site, but it refused to accept the reading because it was the same as the last time.
now i had a good look at the paper bill , and saw a 0800 number to call and so i was able to ring that number and gave the reading to them.
Such sweet satisfaction in getting even... it is a dish best served cold, like revenge. haha. though i dont do revenge. too destructive on my wellbeing. i feel it is bad on my wellbeing to harbour thoughts of revenge, but getting even i wholeheartedly advocate.

And it was really their own doing that make me stop using gas. Normally, if they had not raised their tariff, i would have carried on out of habit to leave the pilot light on. Two pilot lights actually, one for the hot air heater, the other for the gas hot water boiler. I would leave them on even all year round.
With it on, i used about £18 a quarter. What a waste of money...and then i found out even with it off, a small amount leaks fr the pipes. Now i dont use any gas at all as i have switched off the gas at the mains.
And in the process, I found out i dont need to use gas at all.

I found out i dont need the gas heater on as i am perfectly comfortable in the flat, even when the temperature outside is -3C as indicated in the temperature websites. Fleeze is such a super warm material.
And i dont need hot water from the boiler in the bathroom as i can just heat up water in the kettle. Faster and more efficient too. Not that i need to because i found that it is quicker to heat up a mug of water in the microwave to brush my teeth.
I found out i dont use the electric shower anymore, as i shower in my gym. You could say i have paid £26 a month for that and that must be more than any shower bill, but of course, going to the gym gives a lot of extras. It is a leisure activity that gets me out of the flat, gives me a daily paper to read, as well as let me exercise and keep the muscles in shape, as well as indulge in a sauna everyday and make friends.
Life is so much less complicated now.
Added. After reading the above, i cannot help laughing because it did seem illogical to pay £26 a month whilst trying to save by not using the electric shower at home. but it just goes to show we all have our priorities and desires. My soul wants it. it seems i rather pay that money every month rather than stay at home and save that money. it can be rather boring staying at home all the time. that is why i think people spend money going out to the disco clubs, to eat out, to see pictures, or to the theatre, it is just so they have something to do rather than stay at home all the time watching tv.
It is the same illogical reasoning that makes me pay £12.50 a month for a landline just to be able to get the £7 a month call package that gives me free broadband. That broadband is not really free after all that. but the desire to have broadband at home all the time is too strong an attraction for me. when the soulwants it , it will get it.
Added 30.10/11 a year later the line rental is now £9.30 and the broadband package is £3 a month. It is strange how circumstances changed and which u think will make life more difficult, like increased gas and electricity tariffs,or giving up the car, or giving up work, drinking tap water instead of bottled water, eating porridge instead of eating cereals, using tea leaves instead of tea bags, stop drinking milk, no more suger, and much reduced salt in foods, getting all my clothes and things from recycling bins free, buying reduced sell by date foods, stop buying presents for christmas, sending emails instead of using stamps, etc can make u rethink your priorities and open out a life that is much simpler and fulfilling.
Changing attitudes and beliefs helps too. For eg, someone said if u have to do something, do it well. I think that is a nonsense. You dont need to do anything well to enjoy it.
And another belief, your life must be meaningful and have a purpose. Why? its a nonsense belief that.

no complaints

london
It's a nice life. Though if u read the papers, u would think everything is terrible.
take for eg, all this horror headlines of the coldest winter night -17C in wales. Well tough shit for those in wales, but here in london it is only -3C and to show how it affects me, i did not even notice it. I dont have the heating on and have no intentions of starting it.
(I would even caution against putting too much significance on that -17C statistic. it is most probably recorded on a remote gauge high up in the mountains, where no one lives and it is read remotely and sent to a station somewhere else.)
I am beginning to realise that i have been brainwashed to thinking 0C is cold. now i have experienced -3C and think nothing of it, i am quite prepared to say even if it is -10C outside, in the protected and sheltered flat even without the heating on it will be bearable.
So really nothing to worry about certainly never have to worry about the heating bill.

What else has been in the news...? tomorrow's tube strike for two days. and the increase in transport fares from january. it seems it is about £3000+ a year to commute from brighton to london and even a 10% rise will mean an extra £300 on it.
(The tube strike does not affect all services. I was at the charity session today, and my driver says the northern line was working in all the tube strikes before).
But those who do pay that money must earn a lot to even think of commuting that long way, so i doubt we need to give them our sympathies. No one is forced to make that long commute so if they do, they must earn a lot of money.
The papers always highlight the costs, but lets face it, if u earn a lot of money at your job, what is £3000 a year? its all relative. If they dont like to pay it, then come rent a place in central london and get rid of that long commute. or find a job nearer to where they live. it is their choice.

Christmas is not long away and so those who want to bother with it will be buying presents and stocking up on food. Those like me who dont want to bother will have an enjoyable time looking at the festive decorations and seeing others going mad doing the present buying frenzy.
I dont suppose they will ever go to just giving money as gifts, like the chinese do with chinese new year angpows(red packets containing money in pairs). giving money is so practical, and can be geared to any budget,usually people give $1 and a 10cent coin, and the recipient can accummulate all the money to save or spend as they wish.
Not giving any presents at all my way means u dont look on christmas with dread.
Just as u dont care how low the temperature gets.

chipped my mug that the gym gave me

london
Lots of things happened, but they were just sex meetings with other people and though it is nice to experience, it can be boring to hear about it. so havent felt the need to write a post for some time until now.
So why now?
because i was walking about in the supermarket when a lady told me my knapsack had sprung open and my things were falling out.
the cup fell out as i took the bag off my shoulders, and it was later that I noticed the rim was chipped.
That is the danger when u have knapsacks that zip all round the bag. I remember once it happened to john G when he was carrying a 2litre bottle of milk, and it smashed down onto the pavement and burst open, spilling all the milk. Rather a bother that.
When you zip it up u must bring the zip to the side and not let it meet at the top otherwise the weight of the things in the bag will pull the zips apart and open the bag.

Anyway, i shall continue to use the mug,as it is still useable.
Added 24.11.10 2.15pm when i poured coffee into the mug, i discovered it leaked. and then i saw a thin crack running from rim to bottom of the cup. So i had to throw it away. my soul obviously dont want me to use it. ah.


Are you still buying bottled water? The reason i ask is because i am watching a tv program now about bottle water.
I am glad i have regained my reason and stopped buying bottled water long ago.

my gym presented me with my own mug

the mug which my gym gave me this morning

london

I was in the gym as usual, reading the newspaper, when the receptionist came up and gave me a mug, saying u have come very morning so we decided to give u this...

well, i must say that was a surprise. later i saw this chap who i have come to know who hangs around the place too and he was drinking from a mug of the same pattern, and i asked him if reception gave it to him too. it did.

Well, i would have liked them to give me the old small cups they had before they got rid of it and used paper cups instead. And i saw such a cup on the table, with no one using it. i was sorely tempted to ask reception if i could swap.haha. but i did not.

Well, we all know about present giving... seldom do u get what u really want. haha.

still, it was rather nice of them to give me a mug to drink the coffee from. much nicer than the paper cups they provide.

books, sausages, bike saddle,

london

I saw a bike mainframe in the recycling area this morning. I cannibalise the saddle, and the clamp that fix it to the bike. This is because mine is getting worn.

It was missing its back wheel and pedals. It is a mystery to me why it was left there. If someone knows about bikes it should be easy to make it roadworthy again. I have more bikes than i need and i m not good with diy anyway. So i left the rest of it to be taken by the council workers who happened to arrive just when i finished with it. (in fact, i walked away at first and only after i thought about it and realised i need a saddle that i turned round and got back to it).

last night I went foraging, and was in time to see the sainsbury sales person reducing everything. it was 9pm so it was final reductions, and i got eight 8pack pork sausages for 20p each. and 2 pack of chicken livers 20p each. lamb £1 fr £6.75.Earlier i was at the tesco and bought a 8pack sausage for 49p. After i saw the 20p ones, i thought i made a mistake buying the tesco sausage, but just now i cooked it and found they are beef sausages which is a rare find. Not only are they difficult to get at normal prices,(£1.97 according to the label, same price as the pork sausages, but the beef ones are more worth it; not that i will buy them normal priced.haha) but i have not ever bought any at this reduced price. i much prefer beef sausages actually. there is hardly any fat from it and it is full of beefy flavour unlike the pork sausages which dont have any flavour at all.
I can remember a time when most sausages sold were beef sausages. Then came the mad cow scare and they all disappeared.

I bought darjeeling tea leaves, sainsburys own brand, for£1.25 for 125mg. No reductions, but the tea bags version were reduced. But i wanted tea leaves ( I dont buy tea bags anymore) and thought i shall see what the fuss is about these tea leaves from that area of india. At first when i brewed them i thought they were too weak, but i have since left them to seep and the tea got stronger and stronger, so i m quite pleased with them. They are not bitter, unlike the ordinary tea leaves frm sainsburys red label. And the leaves unfold into quite a bulky amount. And since i was using a tea pot with holes in it, it acted as a strainer so no need to use a separate strainer.
The teapot i used is one of those metal ones that u see in workmen's cafes, with a lid on a hinge. They are v useful, and is one of my favourite charity buys , only 50p too.

Been reading this book which i borrowed from the library called the red pyramid, by rick riordan. it is an adventure book, which i find i like to read nowadays. not for me the books about relationships. I get bored with that, but this kind of helter skelter mad cap rushing about fighting egyptian magicians and ancient gods is just perfect for an easy read.

google has translated my posts into chinese

london
Blogger which runs my blog has a stats page. And in there u can see which website has brought readers to your blog. One of them was this
I was surprised that it was a google page of my weblog in chinese.
Amazing what they can do these days. Not sure if the translation was a good one or not.
I have used yahoo babal, and sometimes the translation is hilarious, sometimes nonsensical.

musings

london
You know most of us , if not all of us, see our lives from our own perspective. we notice other things in order to see how ,or if, it impinges on our lives and affect us.

for those who object to this saying 'no', that they read the papers and have friends and they take note of what is happening to them too because they are concerned for their friends; and not purely for selfish reasons of only finding out how it will affect them, I can only say that is because those people dont like to think of themselves as being selfish.
I think it is a false belief to think u r selfish just because u put yourself first.

but if u dont believe it wrong to be selfish and please yourself first before others, u will come to realise that we are interested in other things in the world only so we can see how they will affect us.
this is not surprising, as of course we all are most interested in our lives and anything else is only interesting to us when it impinges on us and affect our lives.

take for eg ... i was recently having a naked meet up in a person's flat in Elephant and Castle.(it is in south london near to waterloo.)
He rents it, but is buying another in croydon.

It is a small flat but has 2 good size bedrooms, large kitchen. quite nice actually which he says costs about £200,000 to buy, which surprised me because it is rare to get a 2bdroom for that price in london. but maybe the area is very council estate. He is renting for £1200 unfurnished. the landlord has put in new kitchen and wooden floors. (Typical buy to let decoration, laminate wooden floors are so much cheaper than carpets which can get dirty easily and look ghastly after some time). He has been there for 2yrs.
he is in the process of buying a large 2bdroom flat in croydon for slightly more. He says he wants the space.
Well, as i have said that we look at information from others only to see if they have new ideas for us to use in our lives or we look at their plans and realise we are not attracted to it. Well, in this case, the latter applies because i was not attracted to his plan.
i prefer to have a small flat in central london than a big one in croydon. He works in central london so will have to commute. At times like these when rail fares are predictably going to rise every year it is folly.
But people will lead their lives they want. Perhaps it might turn out great, or rather having made the decision he accepts it and makes the best of it, or he might regret it.

In these days, house prices will fall, and it is the chance to get a central london flat cheap. and the best ones are ex council flats.
though i was at another place yesterday, this time for a gay naked birthday party and during our visit, one of the guests noticed a crack in the paint running across the ceiling and mentioned he had a leak from upstairs.
the host told us a sorry tale of a very selfish upstairs neighbour who is a council tenant. He mentioned how unreasonable she was ,(though part of the tale involved askng her to let in the plumber at 4am. I did not ask why that ungodly hour for which anyone would refuse entry ... so i guess i m only hearing one side of the story) and the usual tales of woe about children playing ball outside, and breaking his kitchen window, and littering the common hallway with their stuff. so i guess u can get trouble in ex council flats.
I noticed a milldewed corner in the living room... so the upstairs flat is leaking water down his flat. not a good sign.
People dont realise that the upstairs neighbour of a flat can really affect your property below.
I think this is because his place has a lot of council tenants, and it is because it is way out in the sticks, canning town E16, and so many of those flats are not sold off.
More central areas have a higher proportion of private flats.

I will have lots of chances of looking at other people's flats because i m going naked visiting. i seem to have got into a website that have people wanting to socialise naked...

the other one i was at on another day, was a very nice two storey ground floor flat. 2 bedrooms upstairs and a small garden downstairs. large kitchen and lounge and it is near lambeth north tube station. very nice and central locality.

well, i always assumed nakedness and heating for warmth go together, u would think that u have to put up the heating... but i have noticed it is not necessary. funny how i too thought that it is not possible to be naked and not heat the flat. But i have been getting naked and the secret is put a hot water bottle in the duvet and go under it. and a dressing gown handy nearby. haha.

so i was able to get naked when i get online in a website that is for male naturists only. I have been wishing for one like that for ages. this one i was surprised to find allows pictures with cocks erect. i am really pleased about that because the other sites are full of so called naturists who dont want others to see them naked... a contradiction if ever I see one. so i m hoping all the guys in this all male naturist website will be at ease about being naked, not bothered about erections and just be men for heaven's sake.

But then, everyone is learning to get rid of inhibitions and age old beliefs. so u will bound to get guys who are at the early stages of getting rid of inhibitions.
thus, u get gay sites and forums full of guys asking about coming out, or finding the only one lover for life, or is it better to be a top or a bottom. or saying i m straight acting. i find i m attracted to other gays who find all these questions not worth bothering with.haha. we have gone beyond them.
so the same case with naturists who still ask about them being embarrassed to get an erection...

I was told of this all male naturist site by someone i was chatting to online in another naturist website that is very restrictive... so it goes to show that strange places that u go to and find not to your liking , can yield good results by letting u find out other places that u will like.

well, all this activity is for something to enjoy while being happy to be alive.

I am sure i shall enjoy this for a bit, and then find other things to enjoy or enjoy them in conjunction with other bits.

Added. In all this giving of my opinion, i m conscious that all this is within the narrow confines of my own perspective.
and i m sure there is a lot that others will find to disagree with my view of life. and thank goodness it is not necessary that people agree with you for you to have a great life living it however you want.

I often wonder why in those self improvement books, or self motivation courses, they always say u want to get the approval of other people, and have your achievements recognised by others. I wonder why that is desired. And they always have ceremonies where people come up and are recognised or make speeches about what they wish to do and the audience would cheer and clap. maybe i am different, but to me it does not matter really if others disagree with what i want to do. all i want is that they dont obstruct me, and leave me be, whilst i go round asking whether anyone would like what i like and join me.
that surely must be how everyone should live their lives.

trouble and strife around where i live, but i never see any of it.

london
I always believe that if your soul wants it, u will have trouble , if it does not, trouble could be just round the corner and u will never notice it.
Take for eg today.
i saw long traffic jams in my estate, the small roads clogged with cars, and trucks. the main vauxhall bridge road was a horror the queue stretching from the river up to victoria and beyond.
Then i read in the papers that students were demonstrating at millbank towers, just down the road from where i live.
and the tv news shows them wrecking the place.
Ah so that was why all the jams.
I saw some students coming out of a pub. and that was all the trouble i saw.hahaha.
Helicopters stuttering up in the sky too.

But all is peace and quiet all around me. And that is what my soul and i want. I strongly believe my soul can push all those drama things from me. I dont want to even see it.

I know a lot of bloggers would be there now with their cameras to record and write and make hay filling their blog with the latest reporting.
Not me.

It's bad luck for those starting their university education now. The banks were bailed out by the govt and now the students are paying for it, along with everyone else.

personally, i think the universities too were overselling themselves. the standards have dropped to let as many as possible to graduate. I think it is not worth going for any degree other than a professional degree. Though even that is risky. Doctors can also be out of work.

Maybe only plumbers, gas men, electricians will be guaranteed to be in work.

too happy to be arsed

london
Today I read this article by lucy kellaway in the financial times.
She cited a teenager she knows who is so lazy because he is perfectly happy with his situation and so could not be arsed to do anything. he says why bother to go to a lot of trouble getting to A, when it is just as nice and so much easier to get to B which may be second best but just as good.
U can click on the link above if u like, but not sure if u can read it. i can even though i am not subscribed, so maybe u can too inspite of their paywall.
Lucy calls it the EHS sydrome, the Excess Happiness Syndrome.
I am not sure the teenager is a good example.
others might just call it the lazy boy syndrome. haha.

I know myself that if u are happy, u dont really want to burst your guts doing things. If you are happy it is a sure fact that u are quite content with what u got.
That must be the biggest disincentive to do anything.
and lucy is quite right there... she asked 'if life is so thoroughly agreeable as it is, why should anyone lift a finger to change it?'

So she suggests that in job interviews u should allow ur insecurities to show. and employers to search out those who are insecure and dissatisfied with themselves rather than hire those who are happy.

I think there is a lot of sense in what she says.

I think she might have been inspired by the reference article she cited. An article in the harvard review by rosabeth kantor who asked whether mark zuckerberg who founded facebook was not a chap who cannot make friends easily and whether feelings of deprivation drives entrepreneurs.
facebook can only be invented by someone who cannot make friends easily and is filled with people who like to make friends but dont want to meet them. (Too harsh? haha. they are like lady grantham in the tv series downton abbey just ended, who said 'i have lots of friends i dont like'. haha.
btw the last episode of downton abbey was a real cracker. Fast paced because they have a lot of loose ends to tie up, unlike the ones before which drag out each bits. Each vignette ending in a surprise and cliff hanger.
I think the answer is obviously yes.
You dont need to look far.
For me i just look at those asian entrepreneurs, not the present day ones, but the olden days where a chinese towkay lands in malaysia, penniless, and finds a dynasty and he still eats salt fish and rice and lives like a beggar.
I think there is a degree of hoarding for money too in all this. The desire just to see money pile up. So none of them decide that is enough and hand the business over to someone else and walk away.

Those who read this might just say it is sour grapes. Poor people who cannot hope to be rich may console themselves that it is because they are happy that is why they are poor. Sadly this is one of those very common situations when if A=B, it is not necessary that B=A.
if you are rich you are a sad , insecure git. it does not follow that if u are a sad , insecure git you are rich. haha.
it just goes to show that maths(or logical deductions) cannot explain life situations. haha.

i hope everyone is happy

london
I guess with the nights coming early, and it getting colder, people will feel depressed. but don't be.
Take a cycle ride or walk in the woods. Even in the park. its v beautiful now. For some reason, the trees are showing a riot of colour. Unusual.

I did a charity distribution of food today, and got a route that took my driver and i all the way to croydon and so we were able to pass through some really great autumnal scenery.

We are happy when we have something to anticipate. At least i noticed that in me. I found some naturist websites to join and anticipate some excitement with it. I know those of you who know this blog would say not again. You will recall that time when i joined a few naturist websites, got very excited about them, and then next thing you know, i have left them. haha.
But i am eternally optimistic , and so joined these two websites. We shall see how it turns out. Oneof them has webcam chat. it is too cold to be naked even indoors, so i dont know how useful it would be. naturists seems to like chatting on webcam and see each other naked. i suppose there is a bit of voyeurism involved and exhibitionism too. But i am patient, because i know the usefulness of something is not apparent quickly. it takes time for the mind to find use for it. it is a learning process, new neural pathways have to be created by the mind, and that takes time.

Today, the food was curry and so there was lots of it left over and i took them back. It would be nice to use the curry sauce to supplement the chicken i cooked.






Happiness for me is finding stuff in the recycling bins or just lying around on the pavement.
I found an aluminium ladder. I thought it will be long enough for me to reach my first floor windows of the flat, so that i can clean them easily; but when i got it back, it was too short. It is good for the inside if ever i want to paint the ceiling. So i dont know how useful it will be. however, i have kept it in the storeroom and see if the future will lead to some use of it.

On the way to the charity kitchen today, i saw a bicycle wheel. Not sure if it will be useful, but i took it anyway, otherwise it will be collected by council and disposed off. it was also near the shed that i was given after being on the waiting list for 10yrs after i applied when i first moved into this flat. (did i say i have a lot of patience?!!)

I am actually wanting to find an electric kettle. i threw my good one away by mistake and kept the spoilt one.

So now when i need a kettle for the bathroom i dont have one.

mindfulness

london
last night i could not sleep ( i had toothache from that tooth which i had filled some time ago; hope it will settle down , its not so achy now) and was watching tv, and saw an advert from Marks and Spencer for £2 chicken. Sounds too good to be true so i thought maybe i had fallen into another universe like before.
This morning, i woke late, and did not feel like going to the gym so went to M&S instead and saw the chicken were half priced. not exactly £2, (from £2 in their poster, though i never did see any small chicken that would cost £4). Most were in the £6 range, but it was still quite a good price so i bought 2 with my M&S gift card and they are now roasting in the oven.
Simon woke up, he has this amazing radar which can sniff out cooking even when asleep.haha. Anyway he wanted potatoes and all the trimmings. i said i m only roasting them, that is all. i could not be bothered with all that other stuff.
so he took out some frozen potatoes and i said boil the head of cauliflower and we can have that. (he asked me if i want the leaves as well, i said of course , dont throw them away.)
with simon taking over the cooking, i have given up all hopes of using as little electricity as possible. i was hoping to do all that roast chicken using minimal power. take for eg, he will use the highest setting to boil the cauliflower when simmering it on low is enough to cook it. Ah well, sometimes u have to accept these things.

So nice to have roast chicken.

I borrowed a book from the library called the mindful manifesto, by jonty heaversedge and it teaches people to meditate.
the buddhist calls it mindfulness and he was using buddhist teachings as a basis.
of course u dont need to do that, but for the beginner i suppose it gives it some structure and explanation.

you can work out your own meditation technic really.
and i daresay many of those who have done meditation long enough do so.

it disciplines the mind, so that u can observe your thoughts and not take too much heed of negative or anxiety inducing thoughts. all those what ifs, and might have beens, and 'be afraid' thoughts. you note them and ignore them , knowing what they are.

i had chinese spam in my email today. and i thought haha, i dont know how to read chinese so those spam people lost out. Serves them right .
That is one of those times when u r glad u dont know that language so u dont have to read such nonsense they sent you and can delete and block them immediately without bothering to read. Though nowadays even if it is in english, i automatically delete and block them without even reading them.
My hotmail live (it used to be outlook express)allows me to do so without opening the page in a separate window. When they are in the deleted box, u can read the message to make sure it is not legit mail, and then u can clik the 'delete and block' button.

late last night i was seeing on bbc 2 learning zone and they were showing china , teaching mandarin and using the local people to speak it whilst showing the culture.

It is really difficult to make out what is said. mandarin sounds the same to me... even with the subtitles i could not make out what was said by the locals. there are a lot of 'r' sounds. and a lot of 'shi', sounds. my tongue used to english cannot pronounce them and my ear cannot differentiate them.

Interesting for its insight into the new china, some parts of it reminds me of malaysia , singapore, the eating out especially, the mixing of traditional(angpows, banquets) with western practises (white wedding dress)in the marriage celebration. the razing of old housing(hutongs) for tower blocks flats. The modern buildings and conspicous consumption. The traffic. the rise of pubs and western style drinking places.
but the other bits are foreign, like the one child families, the morning tai chi exercises.

Naturally, they show positive aspects of china and that is no bad thing really. the people must be really glad the olden days of culture cleansing is gone. But all this emphasis on money will produce losers and they will be trampled on in the rush to make money.

But that is the way of the world. If you are mindful , you accept it as part and parcel of life, and it is neither good nor bad. Each soul shall live the way it wants, and go when it wants and attract others to join it or not.
You might lament the loss of the hutongs, but they were really run down and slummy, and require huge amounts of money to restore. and they don't accommodate many people, unlike residential blocks of flats.
Sometimes u might have to let go of a way of living and embrace the new.

some of us our souls may want to keep this old ways, and we will find a way of sidestepping the inevitable.

so there were some families featured who still live happily in the hutongs. but u can tell their descendants will succomb to the money by selling...

Well, here in london, i do live in a old ex council flat still in its original state. And i hope to keep it that way, though i can see the slow creep of modernisation. Old boilers break down and even though i m doing a rear guard action in delaying the inevitable, i am sure one day i will have to replace it.
as for central heating, i cling to my old hot air system, but inevitably it will be replaced.

but in the meantime, i shall enjoy not having them, haha.



I see all these adverts saying pay £15 a month promising to come immediately if your boiler goes wrong, and i thought what a strange thing that everyone accepts these boilers to go wrong, It is the 21st century, so why boilers go wrong so easily??
For the price of them, i want them to last ages with minimal maintainance, or i shall want to know why!!!
why dont the manufacturers have a built in system that will soften the water so that limescale do not clog up the insides of the boilers and give trouble?? it makes me think that it is deliberate so that it keeps them in business.
And you all know central heating systems using water is a bane, as the insides get clogged up with limescale u will have trouble with it and have to replace it. So why is it still being used?
Now u know why i am reluctant to go down that route of installing central heating using hot water system.
in the past there used to be an oil system, but i dont hear of it anymore.
added. I was thinking of oil in the pipes and radiators instead of water, but it seems there is none available. googling oil systems gave me those using oil as a fuel.
There must be a better more efficient central heating system.
ADDed.Dredging some knowledge of physics from my school days, it seems i should find out the coefficient of energy of air, water and oil, that way it would tell me which takes less energy to heat up.
i would guess air is easiest to heat up, water the most difficult.
well, i googled asking is oil easier to heat up than water? the answer is yes. so that might account for olden day central heating using oil.
i guess nowadays oil is expensive and so it is more expensive to fill up the pipes and radiators of the central heating with oil instead of water. that is why there are no more of those types of heating system.

aug-sept-oct 2010 elect bill

london
I post my gas/elec bill here for my own reference, and also for others to compare if they wish.
I have no gas bill as i used 0 gas.
the electric bill is as follows

21jul-28oct 325kwh used over 100 days.
first 137kwh x22.378p = £30.66
next 188kwh x10.636p = £20.00
total £50.66
vat £2.35
= £53.01
discount for duel fuel, £3.52

looks like i use about 3.25kwh a day. about 50p a day.

Added. it is 14C now. 10.20pm. the highest temp today was 14.9C at 3.30pm.
what a strange weather we are having. it seems to be rising, it was 13.5C at 9pm.
the tube strike is on tonight. for one day, and so making it as disruptive as possible without the strikers losing pay.
firemen will go on strike too.
Ah well, they did warn that there will be a lot of strikes as the austerity measures start to bite.
Maybe it will encourage a lot of people to move back to the centre of london and that would be good for those of us who live within the boris bike area who are letting out flats or rooms. Maybe more will take up cycling too.
people who live in rented rooms may well find that even if the room rent in the centre is higher than in the suburbs, after u include cost of transport into the centre to work, and the time spent, and the agro with tube or bus strikes, u will be better off finding a room in the centre.
Added 3.11.10. read in the papers today that food prices went up the highest in oct since june 2009. i had noticed rapeseed veg oil is £1.18 for 1litre; used to be less than £1. costs the same as sunflower oil now. price of sunflower oil is the same.
Tesco used to sell porridge 57p for 1kg. not any more now they are more expensive than sainsburys.

i dont notice the rise in prices in other goods because i never buy the normal prices anymore. haha.
i buy when it is reduced price.

You may well ask how i manage to do it, how do i avoid the basics. it is because i stop buying coffee, or tea, or fresh milk or suger which to many people constitute basic foodstuffs.
i buy tea leaves and one pack lasts me a long time. This is because i dont use fresh lot of tea leaves but top it with hot water in the pot throughout the day like we chinese used to do and did when i was growing up in my home.
I am so used to drinking weak tea without milk or suger like i did when i was growing up that i dont like it any other way now. it is like i have gone full circle back to childhood practises.

and i have enough of coffee from my gym, so i never want to drink coffee at home.

i stopped buying butter, or margarine. jam is enough and it lasts me a long time.
sometimes i buy peanut butter but not often as it is so sweet.

veg i buy when there is a special offer, like tesco now selling two cauliflowers for £1.
that should last me a long time.

their basic eggs are still £1.45 for 15.
As for bread, i never buy the full price. wait till they reduce it to 6p. haha. or 30 or 40p. i think bread is not very healthy,its the gluten... i think the body finds it hard to digest it that is why u get people being gluten resistent. too much carbohydrate is not good for you anyway esp in the form of bread. Rice is ok or potatoes,but go easy on them. i know a lot of people will disagree with me about carbohydrates being bad for us.
So if i dont get any bread reduced to that price, then i run out of bread, and it is a good thing that i dont have any bread to eat. i find it is addictive, and if i have it, i tend to eat it. so if i dont have it because there are no reduced priced breads so much the better i think .
( in the past, before i knew to freeze bread, it can go bad if it is not eaten. that is why i developed this habit of eating it quick as i dont like throwing away food. Now, it is just as quick to toast it straight from frozen so now i leave the bread in the freezer and take out just the exact amount i need. simon can finish it fast, that is why sometimes when i want to eat bread, there is no more left. it stops me from eating too much of it.)
i hear that the tramps are hanging around the bread shops to get their sandwiches when they throw it away at the end of the day. those sandwiches are full of salt , or suger... so i m not sure it is the most healthy food for these down and outs to be eating. it might be a mixed blessing to eat those thrown away sandwiches.


I saw a picture in the paper this morning, about the tomato fight in london yesterday, mimicking the spanish tomato fights. what a waste of tomatoes. Wish they would let us have it free instead of wasting it like that.
Tomatoes are so impossible to buy cheap and ripe anymore. And yet they are perfect for making pasta tomato sauces.