Cars not thawing around here at all.....still minus 3C at midday....in fact I've just taken some pics of one of my wing mirrors which has a large spiders web on it which is very visable because of the frost on it....looks stunning......also one on a bungalow window....the web is at the top of the window....with strands going up to the gutter....the bottom half has two strands going to either end of the window sill.....amazing....it's the frost on it that makes it so visable. Also we have had a few moments of snow flurries....but luckily they haven't come to anything. Wind and solar power definately a none starter around here today. One other expensive problem.....we use the heating for 2hrs in the morning for Mrs Plym to get ready for the day and helps whilst waiting for her medication to kick in....that takes the chill off the bungalow until the same time tomorrow.....the real problem is the loft frost protection coming on and off to stop freezing pipes in the loft.....I don't think I can adjust that.....I've dropped the heating and hot water settings on the boiler by a few degrees as suggested.....the smart meter is saying £8.50 already today.
Be careful with reducing your hot water temperature. I can't verify this but I discussed that with our plumber a while back while he was here on another matter. The hot water from our taps is far too hot for my delicate hands and I suggested turning it down. He said I should not do that because if you take it down too far, you run the risk of stewing up Legionnaires Disease. Anyway, the physics says that to produce a bath, shower or basin of water to the specification necessary for the job, you need the same amount of energy whether the hot water is scalding or or just plain hot. If it's the former, you'll use a little hot water and a lot of cold and a lot of hot water and a little cold for the latter. As long as your system is well lagged it doesn't matter much: it's what you use that counts.
A medical team at Great Ormond Street Hospital have treated a girl suffering from T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which had resisted all other treatments, with a revolutionary base editing gene therapy. She's now in complete remission but continues to be monitored. "She's the first patient to be treated with this technology," said Prof Waseem Qasim, from UCL and Great Ormond Street. Bloody foreigners, coming over here and curing cancer.
Dr Waseem Qasim...Born...Feb 1969.....nationality British ?....not sure if he was born here....but all his medical training has been in this country since the 1990's.
About 2 inches of snow fell mid-evening here......snow in mid-December is not a usual sight.....so not just scraping frost off the car in the morning....might have to search about in the garage for my snow shovel as well. Argyle playing Tuesday night at home against AFC Wimbledon in that mickey mouse cup.....what's the weather like down there....?
-3C here presently after a low of -4C. We do have a bit of breeze this morning, so that's an indication it's changed somewhat. It's predicted to hover just above freezing for the next couple of days, day and night.
No more snow over night.....minus 2C and cloudy at the moment.....the snow is soft and will brush easily off the car.
Qatar has been influencing EU members with donating money and gifts. 4 people have been charged with money laundering ,curruption and receiving bribes. One person is European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili. Over £500,000 has been found in 16 searches so far. Reaction within the EU has been shock. Qatar "won" this years Football World Cup with pots of money and bribes.....why should the EU be surprised that Qatar has got it's grimey fingers into EU politics.
Times may have changed but back in the day, one of my employer's subsidiaries was a substantial northern European business based in Belgium. At that time, Belgium was the second most corrupt European country after Italy. Following a "come clean, no penalty" policy offered for a limited period, we made sure identified bad practices were weeded it out from the start. However, it continued to be the case that knowing the right person to speak to remained a requirement of getting things done, that's just the way it is. Clearly, it's then a short step to corruption if you aren't very vigilant. I gather this has a Greek connection too. I love Greece but I'm not sure I'd want to do business there. After all, their application to join the EU was a tissue of financial lies..........
Yes...Eva Kaili is supposed to be from Greece. Greece is our most visited holiday destination......Rhodes, Skiathos, Crete, Thassos, Zakinthos or Zante, Chalkidiki, Kefallonia & Ithaka....some more than once. You always wondered what the true price of things were in Greece.....you would feel chuffed that you had bought something by offering less than the asking price....but they never looked as if you had robbed them of a profit on what you had bartered for. We used to love spending time in the beach side taverna's....even if you had only bought a coffee mid afternoon and spent ages drinking it...they never seemed to be bothered how long you sat there.....we would have a nice meal for two and get change out of £10...so cheap.....even saw an American family barter down the price of a meal next to us on one occasion....left me feeling quite embarrassed.
We had a meal in a restaurant on Rhodes one night and as you do, had pushed the boat out a bit. Just as we finished dessert, the lights went out and extra candles were deployed. Just a routine Greek power cut. This was all great fun until the time came to pay when the truth emerged that credit cards couldn't be processed. I never carry a lot of cash so that wasn't a way out. I was expecting a fuss but when I explained I couldn't pay cash, the owner merely said " oh that's OK, come and pay me tomorrow". So I did, which was nice. Can't imagine that happening in the UK. It was an interesting stay all round. Goats stole some of our washing and we had a wild pig in the swimming pool, albeit only on a temporary basis. An important tip. If you do ever get a pig in your swimming pool, don't go into the water too soon afterwards. On the day we flew home, I developed a horrible ear infection, I've never had such excruciating pain. The GP said it was probably the pig what done it, probably literally, in the swimming pool, and that I shouldn't have flown as the low cabin air pressure could have ruptured the ear drum. Ah, the memories.
When we were on Thassos...staying in a flat on the edge of a village...we had the misfortune to have the door key snap off in the lock as we where going out for the day....knowing the owner lived locally...we went into the village and asked one of the shop keepers if they knew where he lived.....about half a dozen locals got talking about it....and the shop keeper told us not to worry that they would track him down for us.....and told us to pop back at the end of the day when we had left the beach to go back to our flat.....so rather apprehensively not having any other alternative we did just that. Mid afternoon the shop keeper tracked us down on the beach and presented us with two brand new keys for the brand new lock that had been fitted to the door.....we also found that a bowl of fruit had been left for us back at the flat....I was gobsmacked at the way they had gone out of the way to sort it out......needless to say we did buy one or two things from his shop to take home.
We had several power cuts. We were on a new development and the juice came from a small transformer nailed to a pole nearby and that was the weak link. In this country, fixing a tripped transformer would involve at least two vans, probably a supervisor in a small hatchback with high viz stickers on the back, flash resistant clothing, earthing straps and a helicopter. On a Greek island you get two blokes in a Mark 1 Transit that appeared in the bank robbery scene of the 2nd ever episode of the Sweeny with a long piece of wood that they poke at the transformer until the lights come back on.
Now you know why you were asked to take a torch....plus candles and a box of matches......there's always a catch with those cheap travel agents.....you get what you pay for.
I get news alerts form Plymouth Live on my phone. Well, you have to have a giggle. Latest, just landed, is "Plumes of dark smoke raise concern". Well of course they do. Talking about the blindingly obvious. To be fair, there is a picture of a very big plume of dark smoke "billowing" from what is alleged to be Noss Mayo and a statement from Devon & Somerset Fire Service saying they aren't aware of a fire. Well just look out of the window mate! That's it, journalism done for today.
I also get alerts from Plymouth Live....there seems to be an awful amount of crime down your way....murder, rape and domestics seem to be happening rather to frequently.
We had a major blizzard overnight..8" of the white stuff. The snow plow cleared our mountain road, but we still had to dig out. Looks like a white Xmas...
Far easier for Father Christmas to get around back here in blighty.....as long as you've got in all the necessaries in for Christmas you'll survive I expect.
An American man went into his local store in Massachusetts and played the lottery. He chose his numbers and didn't just buy one ticket....but bought six tickets using the same numbers. As luck would have it....his numbers came up.....that meant that each ticket won £324,000...($390,000) He chose to take a lump sum for five of the tickets (roughly £1.6 Million ...$2million))....for the sixth ticket...he chose the annuity option....meaning he will also get 20 annual payments of $25,000. There is a picture of him holding up a giant cheque....and he definately looks very glum about it. BBC....US & Canada News item. Also in the same BBC News section.....That plunging temperatures will be wreaking havoc across the USA and Canada placing more than 135 million people under weekend weather alerts on the busiest travelling time of the year....The National Weather Service said temperatures of -50F to -70F were possible in some parts of the country. I hope they deal better than we did last week with 2inches of snow and a temperature dropping to -6C. (21F) BC you might be in that area....so put another log on the fire and hope your local Bears are already snugged up for the winter. PS.....My chart doesn't show temperatures below -40F.
