I tried last year to do without a fridge deciding to make a pot in a pot cooler for the milk and butter etc. Primarily this was an eco thing and a desire to go back to the pantry system and daily shopping to get the freshest food and save money and CO2 by not consuming as much electricity. Although this worked I was having to shop daily and this was taking it's toll on my chronic back problems so this more or less died a death quite quick but about 5 weeks ago both the fridge and freezer blew up so we have now been fridgeless and freezerless for the last 5 weeks and with no money to replace them we have had to manage.....!!
These last 5 weeks have been darn hard for the above mentioned problems but we have had the car available to do shopping when my back has been far too bad to use the bus but this has an ipact on my personal CO2 production. On the matter of CO2 production we have saved over 119kg of CO2 from the electric used to power the FF. Some of this will have been used by the car and buses but I've not assertained how much yet.
I don't know how long this will continue but with no money available it may be a fair while, lol. which brings me to another point, Sell by dates. The government is going to do away with the sell by dates and the use by dates because 1000's of tonnes of food that is perfectly good to eat is thrown away because it is not used by these dates. Good for the reduction of waste food but this also means more profit for the supermarkets as they will be able to leave produce on the shelves longer and there will be less food marked down for quick sale wich will mean many people will have less to eat because they need to use the marked down products to eek out a food budget.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Why is it......
...... a policy of the local (?) government to insist on putting your local election number on the counterfoil of the ballot papers before you vote ?
In Hartlepool when you give them your election register number they write this on the counterfoil " so that if there is any fraud they can check who voted" . What it actually means is that if you dare to vote for a minority party, say the BNP or UKIP for example then the likes of special Branch can keep an eye on you !!
Paranoid... you bet I am.
In Hartlepool when you give them your election register number they write this on the counterfoil " so that if there is any fraud they can check who voted" . What it actually means is that if you dare to vote for a minority party, say the BNP or UKIP for example then the likes of special Branch can keep an eye on you !!
Paranoid... you bet I am.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
At cost energy
Saw this piece about a new energy company on the Tonight programme today and thought I'd mention the link here.
Basically it is a millionaire who is setting up an energy supply company [ like BG, EDF, Eon etc] but he plans to charge the consumer the at cost price he pays, I.E. no profit for him.
It is planned for late autum 2010 but you can read all about it at http://www.atcostenergy.com
The less we pay for our energy the more we can spend on heating our homes........
Basically it is a millionaire who is setting up an energy supply company [ like BG, EDF, Eon etc] but he plans to charge the consumer the at cost price he pays, I.E. no profit for him.
It is planned for late autum 2010 but you can read all about it at http://www.atcostenergy.com
The less we pay for our energy the more we can spend on heating our homes........
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Chilli heads
I've been making chilli sauces for a while now but never really got the right one. Today I made one that is more or less there. I bit too much ginger but I can correct that in my next version. Ready for testing so if anyone out there is a chilli head and would like to sample a bit of my rather hot sauces then contact me but remember I need a disclaimer signing first.....
25th of February 2010
Number two version done today and boy does it blow your eyeballs out and then scorch your sockets.... loverly...........
13th of April 2010
Version three made today and I'm becoming a dab hand at this chilli sauce lark now, lol. 40 birds eye chillis, 5 narga moriche chillis and 2 tablespoons of narga moriche chilli paste (70% chillis). This one is really hot. I mean bloody hot, so hot my wife thought my head was going to burst as it was cherry red like a tomato!!
I'll have to re evaluate the idea of scorching my sockets as this one has done the job better.
Still it tasted nice....
25th of February 2010
Number two version done today and boy does it blow your eyeballs out and then scorch your sockets.... loverly...........
13th of April 2010
Version three made today and I'm becoming a dab hand at this chilli sauce lark now, lol. 40 birds eye chillis, 5 narga moriche chillis and 2 tablespoons of narga moriche chilli paste (70% chillis). This one is really hot. I mean bloody hot, so hot my wife thought my head was going to burst as it was cherry red like a tomato!!
I'll have to re evaluate the idea of scorching my sockets as this one has done the job better.
Still it tasted nice....
Friday, February 5, 2010
Quilting
I have always loved the feel of a good big quilt and the artistry involved. I've wanted to have a go for years now but thought it was too difficult. Well now i've had a go and I'm hooked or should that be wuillted,lol. It also came as a bit of a surprise when afriend said she was a quilter but she is far more accoumplished than I am and probably ever will be. Why not check out her site here perfect patchwork and have a look at all her glorious items.
google adsense
Just a quick plea to ask if anyone reading this blog can click on some of the adverts that appear on this blog. I have an adsense account and all last year I earned £2.03 so i ain't retiring just yet but every little helps so they say.
Take care,
Alan
Take care,
Alan
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Happy new year and surviving the weather
So tis the time of the year when we all, well many of us say Happy new year to each other. I hope you all have a really happy new year and that it continues through the whole year of 2010.
It's snowing really hard here today, like 2" this morning and the likes of which we haven't seen for many a year but then I can just about remember the last really bad winter we had in 1963. Admittedly it is only by photographs of me playing in the snow as a toddler but the family stories of having to dig the house out of snow drifts are still well remembered. Digging the house out was in fact a truth. The snow was so hard and fast in laying and drifting that it was up above the downstairs windows so when we opened the curtains we could not see anything as the light was blocked out by the snow. Aparently my brother was able to open the front door and had to shovel snow into the house just ot get started to dig his way upwards and outwards.
Probably a bit of a long story but it still does the rounds. It will pay dividends to take a bit of thought to your health and safety whilst we have these difficult weather conditions with us. I say difficult because we in general have not had to endure bad weather in theUK for many a years except for short 3 day jobbies.
Still, as many of us work many miles away from home and transport is a necessity whichever form you use it becomes relevant to tae a few minutes to think of your H&S. My website has some tips on it if oyu are stranded so click on the title of this post to be taken to the site.
I hope it is og some help.
It's snowing really hard here today, like 2" this morning and the likes of which we haven't seen for many a year but then I can just about remember the last really bad winter we had in 1963. Admittedly it is only by photographs of me playing in the snow as a toddler but the family stories of having to dig the house out of snow drifts are still well remembered. Digging the house out was in fact a truth. The snow was so hard and fast in laying and drifting that it was up above the downstairs windows so when we opened the curtains we could not see anything as the light was blocked out by the snow. Aparently my brother was able to open the front door and had to shovel snow into the house just ot get started to dig his way upwards and outwards.
Probably a bit of a long story but it still does the rounds. It will pay dividends to take a bit of thought to your health and safety whilst we have these difficult weather conditions with us. I say difficult because we in general have not had to endure bad weather in theUK for many a years except for short 3 day jobbies.
Still, as many of us work many miles away from home and transport is a necessity whichever form you use it becomes relevant to tae a few minutes to think of your H&S. My website has some tips on it if oyu are stranded so click on the title of this post to be taken to the site.
I hope it is og some help.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
how low will you shop ?
previously on this blog I've had occasional month long (or even longer like the car and plastic experiments.) trials to test me out so I thought that it's time for a new one forNovember.
I shop at Asda a lot and they have the whoopsie / yellow label reduced items that are due to come to their sell by date.
I am good at making up meals from nothing or various different things so i thought this challenge would be to cater for my wife, myself sand occasional uni visotor my son from what is available in the yellow label items.
Of course there are a lot of items available in the early moring around 9.30 in my local asda but the better deals are generally fewer in quantity but better in rpice, like 1p for 2 salmon fishcakes reduced from £3.00 or bread for 2p reduced from £1.80 but these are available after 2300 hrs.
I wonder how many times I'll be down at the shops at 11 pm or after but that is the test for this month of November, 2009.
One note of caution is that these yellow label deals will soon be coming to an end as the government, in their wisdon has decided to do away with the sell by/ best before/ use before date labels to encourage more food useage and less going to landfill. all well and good for the reduction of methane and CO2 etc but what about the thousands of people who, like me use these low price deals for basic living from day to day ?
November 14 update.
been doing this test but not religeously. Started off ok with a few buys in the last few days of october in order to have food on the table in november but I forgot to continue after about the 3rd of November and went shopping withoutr thinking so this is something that could easily be done ... if I remember that is....
I shop at Asda a lot and they have the whoopsie / yellow label reduced items that are due to come to their sell by date.
I am good at making up meals from nothing or various different things so i thought this challenge would be to cater for my wife, myself sand occasional uni visotor my son from what is available in the yellow label items.
Of course there are a lot of items available in the early moring around 9.30 in my local asda but the better deals are generally fewer in quantity but better in rpice, like 1p for 2 salmon fishcakes reduced from £3.00 or bread for 2p reduced from £1.80 but these are available after 2300 hrs.
I wonder how many times I'll be down at the shops at 11 pm or after but that is the test for this month of November, 2009.
One note of caution is that these yellow label deals will soon be coming to an end as the government, in their wisdon has decided to do away with the sell by/ best before/ use before date labels to encourage more food useage and less going to landfill. all well and good for the reduction of methane and CO2 etc but what about the thousands of people who, like me use these low price deals for basic living from day to day ?
November 14 update.
been doing this test but not religeously. Started off ok with a few buys in the last few days of october in order to have food on the table in november but I forgot to continue after about the 3rd of November and went shopping withoutr thinking so this is something that could easily be done ... if I remember that is....
Thursday, September 24, 2009
T'computer and tings
by you can't live with them and you can't live without them... wives I mean... sorry computers I mean... Ours decided to play silly blighters so I decided to show it the ultimate revenge and got it reformatted... well it's working better now...
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