Lissa ([info]oreouk) wrote,
@ 2008-02-29 11:25:00
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Current mood: happy

A life update
The future is interesting an uncertain inplaces, what with Phil taking a job down in Farnborough that will eventually relocate to Portsmouth, but as I said to him, it will be worth it for him to have a job where he is given work and is active and involved and not being driven buggy by the same level of broken promises. Besides, life is change, and it could be a lot worse.

Apart from that life is good.
I am going to be getting a CD with a song about lemurs on it real soon now (Graham Leathers having been overrun by Lemurs when I suggested them as a song topic)
I have fish shoes,
Alex has asked if we can go to the park more often and I've bought us a football to go with
There have been several sunny days this week that make one feel good just to be walking along, even if the end of the walk is the office
I shall be doing gaming tonight with Phil and Rick
I love my new laptop
Alex is a lot better behaved that this time last year (or maybe I've learned how to manage him better, or maybe a bit of both)
Alex has learned how to make toast (even if he is a bit generous with the honey) and on Wednesday he took Amy downstairs and made them breakfast with no parental involvement.

What's making you happy at the moment?


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[info]telynor
2008-02-29 11:50 am UTC (link)
I fixed my sink tap! It cost under £20!

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[info]oreouk
2008-02-29 02:37 pm UTC (link)
Go you!

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[info]filkerdave
2008-02-29 11:55 am UTC (link)
Fish shoes?

It's brilliantly sunny, even if it's cold :)

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[info]oreouk
2008-02-29 12:13 pm UTC (link)
http://www.thisnext.com/item/D0BEAE5D/Vans-Koi-Fish-Slip-On

Fish shoes. They are very comfy and they make me ridiculously happy.

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[info]stevieannie
2008-02-29 12:15 pm UTC (link)
They are totally mad. So very, very you! :-)

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[info]filkerdave
2008-02-29 12:16 pm UTC (link)
Oh, they look fun :)

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[info]stevieannie
2008-02-29 12:04 pm UTC (link)
I've just been told that I can run a diesel car on heating oil, even when it's cold, unlike the vegetable oil fix I've been doing.

Diesel = £1.09 a litre
Fuel Oil = £0.46 a litre

Yay!

And my concrete floor got delivered today, and will be installed on Tuesday! Hurrah!

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[info]bardling
2008-02-29 12:10 pm UTC (link)
Wheee, concrete floor & fuel savings, yay!

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[info]filkerdave
2008-02-29 12:16 pm UTC (link)
Excellent :)

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[info]demoneyes
2008-02-29 01:44 pm UTC (link)
Hm. I can't help thinking if it were that easy, the taxman would want a bite (or indeed the whole mouthful) of that saving?

(Or is this is simply a case of what the taxman can't prove, he can't complain about? :) )

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[info]stevieannie
2008-02-29 03:19 pm UTC (link)
Well, apparently, after a little research, it's all much the same in terms of what it actually *is*:

Red diesel (for use in agricultural machinery, very low road tax)
Normal diesel (for use in your car, very high road tax)
Fuel oil (for use in your central heating, fuel tax)
Biodiesel (Can be used for all of the above, no tax up to 2500 litres if used in road vehicle, normal road tax afterwards)

Essentially they are all the same, but if you want to burn biodiesel in your boiler, you need to get the jets adjusted from a ".32 burn" to a ".28 burn" (I've no idea what that means, but it stops your fuel jets getting coked up and working less efficiently, apparently.) Otherwise, all are interchangeable.

You shouldn't put red diesel in your car because if you get stopped and tank-dipped, there is red dye in the fuel and they know that you've avoided paying duty. This is extremely common up here - lots of farmers being screwed over by the government, they tend not to worry about a little tax here and there.

However, you *can* put heating oil in your car and run it perfectly well. If they dip you, there is no dye, so it doesn't show up. Essentially, once it's in the car, there's no way to tell if it's diesel or fuel oil. Of course, it *is* strictly speaking illegal... I've never done it, but I find the concept very intriguing! I'm more likely to go the other route and make my own biodiesel, which works out at 6p a litre and put that through my central heating and cars, which is perfectly legal up to 2500 litres.

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[info]oreouk
2008-02-29 03:43 pm UTC (link)
Cash cheap but time expensive (relatively), one assumes. Not that I'm dissing that, just that there is usually a cost to be factored in somewhere, even if the cost is not in cash. The question then becomes 'does it eat up time that would otherwise be spent doing things that make you more money than it saves you?' Or possibly even time that you would otherwise spend in a way that benefits you in less tangible ways more than the cash saving.

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[info]stevieannie
2008-02-29 04:02 pm UTC (link)
From what I've read, it doesn't take much time, but you do need to be *there* to do the little stages on a fairly strict timescale. So not so much time input, but a lot of *being there*. And, of course, somewhere to put it - garage, secure shed etc. So yes, there are downsides, but cheap fuel is always good :-)

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[info]demoneyes
2008-02-29 04:22 pm UTC (link)
A very quick search found one comment claiming some manufacturers have started putting yellow dye in heating oil - so same consequences as red diesel if you get dipped (which some rural posters said was happening to them 4 times per year - which may show the scale of the abuse!).

Several other commenters suggested fuel oil burns at a higher temperature so consequences could potentially be expensive down the line. Or that it might be prudent to mix it with regular derv or veg oil 50/50.

All information taken from the internet so it must be true. Or not. :)

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[info]stevieannie
2008-02-29 04:37 pm UTC (link)
Ours is currently clear, but I'll look next time I have a chance. The chap who told me about it said that it was best to run it 50/50 with diesel.

I've also always been very clear that I'm happy to experiment with different fuels because my car is very old and a bit knackered :-) There's no way I'd recommend anyone with a nice car should do this without expert advice!

The scale of the abuse doesn't surprise me - I read a report recently which said that 70p of every pound spent on fuel is pure tax. Faced with economics like that, no wonder people feel little compunction about cheating where they can...

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[info]plaid_dragon
2008-02-29 01:54 pm UTC (link)
Is that allowed? Dave is on oil heating and we have commented that it is a pity a) that we don't have diesel cars and b) that we're not allowed to run them on the heating oil even if we did.

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[info]plaid_dragon
2008-02-29 01:55 pm UTC (link)
Additional from Dave - his heating oil delivery form specifies "Not to be used for vehicle fuel" on it.

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[info]stevieannie
2008-02-29 03:22 pm UTC (link)
Is it allowed? Strictly speaking... not so much. But in real terms they have no way of telling... Depends on your attitude to taxes as laws, I suppose.

I'm very happy that this can be done, but as I said to Phil above, I'm *more* likely to buy a biodiesel reactor and make it myself to power both car and boiler for 6p a litre :-) Completely legal up to 2500 litres! (Which would cover me for a year quite happily).

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[info]plaid_dragon
2008-02-29 03:44 pm UTC (link)
6p a litre?!!! That certainly merits looking into!

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[info]stevieannie
2008-02-29 03:56 pm UTC (link)
The reactor costs between £750 and £2K in the first instance, but as long as you can get free waste oil (most chippys etc. pay to have it taken away, it works out at that...

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[info]bardling
2008-02-29 12:10 pm UTC (link)
Yay for better Alex behavior/managing! :)
Wish I could join you for the gaming, but I'm having lunchbreak/evening fun with the online Settlers/Carcassonne site Phil pointed me at, at least. Good luck with the upcoming changes - I'm right with you that on the whole, while bringing some challenges, it's likely to be well worth it.

As for me - I enjoyed the sunny days just as much as you did. I am pleased at having managed to stick with my yoga regularly twice a week since the break around the filkcon & am looking forward to watching some German movies sometime soon with my yoga teacher. Hopefully, a friendship in the making there. I'm using the tie-dye bag as my carry-small-craft-project bag, which means I've been made to smile by looking at it on the way to & from yoga. (Short bus ride, but long enough to get a few rows of a dishcloth knitted, especially when one includes the waiting-for-the-bus bits. :)
Plus, I'm making slow but steady progress on getting the house back into a better state after the pre-filkcon chore-activity drop.

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[info]clothsprogs
2008-02-29 12:42 pm UTC (link)
What's making you happy at the moment?

Having reached the gents without crapping myself.

Yesterday morning it was reachign the toilet on the train, managing to get off said train at a station with a toilet adjacent to the
platform and catching a train home that had functioning toilets.

It's amazing how circumstances can make these thing top of your list of what'a making you happy.

This stomach but, however, is not anywhere near the top of the list.

Teddy

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[info]oreouk
2008-02-29 12:59 pm UTC (link)
:-(

Poor Teddy.

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[info]clothsprogs
2008-02-29 01:04 pm UTC (link)
I'll survive.

{mutter, mutter, grumble, grumble, complain}

Teddy

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[info]clothsprogs
2008-02-29 01:04 pm UTC (link)
Having reached the gents without crapping myself.

Spoke too soon.

Serves me right for tempting fate, I suppose.

Good thing the soap and the hand dryers in our disabled toilet are both very strong.

Teddy

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[info]oreouk
2008-02-29 01:31 pm UTC (link)
Even for me it's quite possible that this set of posts comes in under the heading of TMI, possibly even MMTMI!! :-)

Good thing I'm a parent and of strong constitution...

I hope you get well soon, and given you haven't replied to me yet, you might want to check your spam trap and see if it's eaten another e-mail from me. Sigh!

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[info]janewilliams20
2008-02-29 01:13 pm UTC (link)
Making me happy? Today?

Lunch was nice. Canteen fish pie.

Somone posted a notice on the work "for sale" board that said "Large white building for sale: Bedford. Make us an offer!" That made us laugh.

Half an hour later, some managerial muppet with no sense of humour and no idea how to help morale insisted that the advert was deleted. Can't have people laughing and being cheerful when you've just told them you're closing their site, oh no. Wouldn't do at all.

In just over 2 hours, I can go home.

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[info]kathy_songbird
2008-02-29 01:51 pm UTC (link)
Well first of all I have no students in my 12.00pm workshop so can catch up with admin bits and pieces. Also am able to browse friends page and catch up.

Also have started doing *something* for my final PGCE assignment - which currently involves just playing on any site which has material on Moodle VLEs. I love playing and just wandering around from site to site clicking randomly on links that take my fancy.

Having a chat with friendly interesting people around college and having a coffee break with K who is also doing the PGCE - we bond over our gentle moaning and whining about the assignment.

Happy sigh! I have A Town Called Eureka on tape and I can watch it when I get home OR not!

Plus it is Acoustic Night at the Trout Inn near Lechlade - yippee! I must practice 2 songs as I stay for the whole evenings.

I could go on but you get the general idea.

Oh, BTW glad to hear your parenting strategy (sounds goods doesn't it) is going well with Alex. Love the thought of him making breakfast for Amy - that is so brilliant!!!!

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[info]plaid_dragon
2008-02-29 01:57 pm UTC (link)
Making me happy?

- It's sunny.

- The days are getting longer and I am waking up in the daylight and only just needing the lights on to go home.

- This time next week I will be in Switzerland for snowboarding.

- I have a stealthgoth coming for the weekend, and we will be gaming and geocaching.

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[info]oreouk
2008-02-29 11:26 pm UTC (link)
All good things indeed. I really miss skiing holidays, and yearn to have one again, but the econimoics of it both in cash and time just don't work right now.

Have a good time with Albert - even if you are stealing one of our regular gaming members!!

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[info]allisona
2008-02-29 02:23 pm UTC (link)
- the fact that we're a week away from March Break.
- some of UT's new arrangements for FKO.
- re-watching Babylon 5.
- finally getting the new stitches I'm learning on my knitting loom.
- it's FRIDAY.

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[info]armb
2008-02-29 03:44 pm UTC (link)
My family.
Finished a project at work on time for the Server 2008 launch, and, while there might be some last minute bug fixes, I will be glad to see the back of it. Started a new project which is more interesting.
Had an approach from a recruiter which could be very interesting. I'm not at all sure I want to relocate to Dublin (and fairly sure I don't want to relocate to the USA), but it's nice to feel wanted.
The weather is improving, I've started cycling occasionally again, the electric bike kit people claim to have a shipping date for the batteries and I hope to use the car less after that.
We have a plan for rebuilding Pam's shower. I haven't finished the central heating yet, but never mind....
Whiskers on kittens.

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[info]were_gopher
2008-03-01 10:22 am UTC (link)
Finally getting all of Hal's schooling and benefits sorted. Now if only I could find a way of making him a better traveller without having to feed him travel pills every day it would be perfect.

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[info]pbristow
2008-03-01 07:44 pm UTC (link)
"Finally getting all of Hal's schooling and benefits sorted. "

Oh, that's good news! =:o}

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[info]pbristow
2008-03-01 07:42 pm UTC (link)
The huge outpouring of support, sympathy, and actual *outrage* from our customers, in light if the news that not only our shop but also the Gloucester branch is closing.

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[info]meritmaat
2008-03-02 07:33 am UTC (link)
Being in Budapest!
(and going home tonight)

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