Saving the planet with minimal effort
I’m not exactly a poster-child for saving the planet: I use a car instead of public transport; waste far too much electricity running various gadgets; occasionally put washing in the tumble dryer even on clear days… you get the idea. However, despite this I’m still the most energy-conscious person I know, which is kind of worrying (or maybe an indication that I don’t know that many people).
I recently read an interesting article on the BBC News web site, Lighting the key to energy saving. Apparently, a study from the International Energy Agency has concluded that “a global switch to efficient lighting systems would trim the world’s electricity bill by nearly one-tenth.” A linked article – Light bulbs: Not such a bright idea – basically proposes that governments should ban the traditional incandescent light bulb in favour of using compact fluorescents. This is such an obvious no-brainer that it almost certainly won’t happen, which is a real shame, but then again we shouldn’t be relying solely on our governments to legislate in order to solve the world’s energy problems: we should be doing more ourselves.
For example, don’t leave the TV chattering away to itself when you’re going to be out of the room for a while. Stop the automatic hand-dryer yourself when your hands are dry, instead of waiting for the timer to switch it off. No need to turn-on the lights when it’s a bright sunny day outside. All small things to be sure, but if everyone did them…
See? You too can save the planet with minimal effort!
Excuse me while I pop out for a moment…
So Chris fell through the ceiling at the house today. He’s okay, thankfully — no broken bones or anything, just some scrapes and bruises. In fact, considering what could have happened he was very lucky.
Paint the whole world with a rainbow
Due to the imminent arrival of a heating engineer (aka plumber) to hook-up our central heating, and the need to paint behind the radiators before they’re hung on the walls, the past week has seen myself and Paula choosing the colours for seven of the rooms in the house.
For some reason, I found this particularly difficult.
The graduate
Our Chris has been taking an Open University degree in Computing for the past few years, and last Friday was his graduation ceremony. Neither myself or my other brother Nick even went to university, let alone graduated, so this was a reasonably big deal for our family. Hence we all got dolled-up and made the trek to Bridgewater Hall in Manchester (home of the Hallé Orchestra, apparently) on a baking-hot June day.
Needless to say, the hall wasn’t air conditioned, so it was kind of uncomfortable. It was also quite a long and boring ceremony (imagine clapping complete strangers for an hour-and-a-half). However, I was very proud to see my bro get up to collect his… well, he wasn’t actually given anything, he just received a handshake from the VIP on the stage. I was a bit surprised he wasn’t handed a scroll or something, but then maybe I’ve been misled by TV and the movies!
(from right to left)
Me, Paula, Dad, Chris, Mum, Nick, Sarah-Jane (Nick’s girlfriend)
Behold: Elastic Trickery!
The electrician arrived at the house today to connect our new consumer unit, so finally — two years after moving in, and four months after making-do with just two double sockets and no lighting — we have the electrics configured the way we want them. Hurrah!
I still can’t quite believe that our house had such a poor provision of plug sockets given that it was only built in 1985. Basically, we had a double socket in each room, with a couple extra in the lounge and kitchen. Guess they didn’t use as many gadgets back then!
The installation went quite smoothly despite (or maybe because of) us doing most of the wiring ourselves, so I think it’s a big pat on the back for myself and Paula, and my dad and two brothers for helping out. Cheers guys!
My heart, my heart!
Well done to the Reds for winning the FA Cup on Saturday. It was probably a great match to watch if you were a neutral, but it wasn’t good for my health, that’s for certain! What is it about us and cup finals in recent years? We sure like to make life hard for ourselves. That’s the third final we’ve won after extra time and penalties since 2001.
Credit must go to the Hammers for putting us under pressure and taking advantage of our mistakes, although I don’t agree with those saying that they deserved to win the game. Sure, they were well-organised and certainly caused us problems, but let’s be clear: they profited from an own-goal, a goalkeeping howler and a fluke scored as the result of a mishit cross. Other than that, I don’t remember them having too many efforts on target.
Thank God for Stevie Gerrard, that’s all I can say. The man was immense. His second goal in particular was one of the best I’ve seen him score, and saved us when we looked dead and buried. Alan Hansen was right when he said the best signing we made at the start of the season was getting Gerrard to reject Chelsea’s advances. Let’s just hope he has the same sort of impact in the World Cup.
Just one more thing: I wonder who our fifth penalty taker was going to be?
Getting plastered
We had the plasterer in last Thursday and Friday. He and his assistant did a great job. It’ll take a few days before the walls and ceilings dry-out enough for us to start painting, but it already looks so much better than it did before.
He’s coming back tomorrow morning to finish off some bits upstairs, which unfortunately means an early start for me. Who begins work at eight in the morning, honestly?
Three is the magic number
In the end, victory over Portsmouth wasn’t enough to clinch second for The Reds, thanks to Charlton’s capitulation at Old Trafford. So third place it is then. Definite improvement since last season, and we’re certainly more consistent. If only we hadn’t had that spell at the turn of the year when our strikers couldn’t find the back of the net, we’d have finished above United for sure.
Anyway, there’s still the FA Cup Final to look forward to this weekend. We’ll probably be the favourites against West Ham, which always adds a bit of pressure, but if we play as we can then we shouldn’t have a problem. Alonso’s injury is a bit of a worry though, I just hope it clears-up by Saturday.
And great news to hear that Robbie Fowler’s been offered a one-year contract. He’s certainly earnt it. ‘God’ was probably my favourite Liverpool player of the ’90s; it was a pleasure to see him come through the ranks. He scored some fantastic goals: that thunderbolt past Schmeichel in Cantona’s comeback game; his 20-yarder in the FA Cup semi against Villa where he turned and left Steve Staunton for dead; the fourth goal against Alaves that we all thought would be enough to win the 2001 UEFA Cup (in normal time). Ah, happy days!
Han gets to shoot first (again)
So it seems as though Mr Lucas has had a change of heart, and that we will be getting the original theatrical versions of the Star Wars movies on DVD after all, come September. A response to overwhelming fan demand, or a means of generating cash for George’s next project? You decide. Will I be buying them anyway? You’re damn right I will!
I’m kind of ambivalent about the whole Special Edition thing anyway: there’s stuff I like, and stuff I don’t. Read the rest of this entry »
Taking the piss?
Just read on BBC News that Nintendo’s forthcoming games console, formerly known as Revolution, is officially going to be called Wii (pronounced “we”). Incredibly, this isn’t a wind-up.
I still own a couple of Nintendo consoles (N64 and GameCube), and Paula has a GBA, but I doubt I’ll be buying one of these when it’s released. For starters, it looks a bit naff, and the controller is just plain weird. Admittedly, Nintendo are aiming for a different demographic than either Sony or Microsoft, but it’s hard to see this unit appealing to those that have never bought a console before, especially with that name. After all, what kid in their right mind would let mum and dad buy one for the living room? Can you imagine the kind of stick they’d get from their mates?