How have rising fuel prices changed your behaviour?

Nada. It still takes the same time to walk to work. The extra
computers keep the house warm.

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

That was one thing I noticed in Oz that I wasn't particularly
aware of here, except for Tesco offering coupons for their own servos.
All the major supermarket chains offer discounts on their partner company's
petrol prices, typically 4 cents/litre; e.g. Woolworths partner with Shell
IIRC. With other inducements and customer cards, we got up to 8 c/l off
plus the extra cheapness of filling up in Queensland rather than down The
Bay. It noticeably influenced how the family sought and paid for petrol.
(Typical Gold Coast price was $1.239/litre before discount.)

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

How does it affect the thighs of steel?

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

In my play room at home I've got loads of things with mains plug
transformers powering them. Plus a gathering of printers audio stuff
linked into my PC plus stuff that has a stand-bye mode.

What I did was from a mains socket run a lead to a 15 amp relay powered
from the 12volts of my PC. The PC, cordless phone and broad band router
are powered from a non switched feed.

Turn off my PC and everything shuts down.

 

I was shopping for new at the time, maybe I should have considered a used
private sale.

 

Ah, right. I sometimes wonder where these cheap used small bikes come
from, since they're so expensive new I can't understand why anyone buys
them.

 

That is the best idea - however (and this will make you laugh) British
Waterways are actually not very keen on having horses on 'their' towpaths
(unless towpath also happens to be a bridleway which is rare). They make
you apply for special permission (and pay a charge) for each bit of
towpath you want to use.

We're on the River (Nene) and the halingway (river version of towpath)
has long since gone.

I really don't think that Darling is going to raise a lot of money to pay
off the national debt this way, but it does affect individuals quite a
lot.

There are more worrying things in the world than the loss of Red Diesel,
but it's just another bloody pain.

I wonder about converting the Pan to LPG - plenty of room for a tank
where the petrol tank lives.

 

Energy efficient lightbulbs (Megaman) in every room where I spend significant
amounts of time or need to leave lights on. Standard halogens in hallway
etc. where quick warm-up is important but light isn't needed for long.
High-power 2W LEDs replacing some 20W MR11 spotlights.

Woodburning stove to replace open fireplace - much more efficient than the
open fire, and stops heat escaping up the chimney when there's no fire lit.
Compressed sawdust logs seem to work nicely

Condensing boiler fitted last year

Bye-Bye Standby plugs on a/v kit

Got rid of desktop PC and now just use the laptop. Old PC that was acting as
a fileserver now replaced by Linksys NSLU2

 

Indeed, there is a big hole in the market for a light middleweight
commuter at a sensible price. I blame the licencing system for distorting
the UK market. In other places there are plenty, nobody bothers selling
them here.

 

The difference is negligible. The point is, or was, to turn off the
power supply, as this was found to have a higher risk of causing a fire
in standby mode than deemed acceptable by the authorities in charge of
analyzing fire hazards.
By switching off at the appliance you should run no higher risk for
fire than you do at any switch in an electric circuit.

 

Well, the 250cc class may make a comeback, but the Japanese seem to be
abandoning the cheap lightweight sector. It looks like they're being
driven out by the Chinese.

There are a fair few 200-250cc bikes from China, although I'd rather
look at Korean or Taiwanese machinery if I were in that market.

 

How was Bibury?

 

<cough> 18.28 yesterday

Someone else that doesn't read all of my posts?

<sob>

 

Do you actually do enough private mileage to off-set the tax on that,
though?

I've just opted out of private benefit - so I have to pay back private
use a month in arrears - however, with the current escalating costs of
diesel, the pay-back rate is lower than the cost / mile of the diesel
used.

 

Waiting to go in for a heart bypass - so he's not up
Ben Nevis today. He was told in was 'not advisable'!

Myself, I'm still keeping busy. Bought a couple of companies
last year, as an alternative to retiring! ;-)

How are you? Keeping well, I trust?

 

I wouldn't dream of using anything but public transport to go into
London and I use the bus to go from home into Bedford town centre
unless I'm collecting something heavy. Apart from those instances
public transport doesn't offer me much at all...

 

Yeah, fine. Nice to hear from you again. Regards to the Old Warrior.

 

I've made my point: it's expensive. The only time we use it is if we're
all going as a family into town, and we don't want to drive (Congestion
Charge etc etc). And that doesn't happen often.

I don't deny that as a means of getting around London, the Tube is
excellent. And the more bike bays that TFL (or whoever) keep filling in
the more I think I'll have to use it.

But for getting in and out of London, two wheels. Every time.

 

<VBG>

There, there. I've read this one.

 

It was replacing the use of *my* car, driven by *me*, to transport the
sprog with a FGW choo choo.