The 50+ Club

After an unexpectedly pleasant weekend, the sun shone for two days in a row, it’s back to normal service for Monday morning! The sun has gone away. Still, I’m in a quiet office in a pleasant rural location and the dog’s asleep under the desk. Makes me almost forget that my pension plan has been shot to hell over the past year and my house is probably worth bugger all.

The doom-mongers are out in force, it’s the end of the World as we know it with rising inflation and the end of Capitalism on the horizon. Of course, it won’t matter much because if rising inflation doesn’t get us then rising sea levels will.

It’s comforting, then, that some things never change like politicians being unable to tell fact from fiction or give a straight answer as demonstrated by Alistair Darling on Breakfast this morning. Asked by Bill Turnbull whether taxes would be raised to pay for increased public spending the Chancellor wriggled like a well-hooked fish. It was a simple question and deserved a simple answer, yes or no. Did we get that? No, what we got was jibber-jabber. It’s high time politics became a lot more transparent and our representatives a lot more accountable instead of acting, and looking, like a bunch of self-serving spivs.

Now that David Cameron has had his wind turbine installed and considering we probably would all like to save a bit on our energy bills I decided to do a little research on alternative energy, in this case wind turbines. What I found out surprised even me. Firstly, there are few sites which give accurate information and many that want money for, probably, not a great deal.

So, how can you tell if you would benefit from a wind turbine?

First of all do you have any wind! Seems pretty obvious but no-one seems to be explaining this very well. In urban areas wind can be quite turbulent as the flow is affected by all the buildings, the more consistent the wind is, the better. In the city a wind turbine needs to be above the roof line to give best results. Ideally, do a survey before letting go of your hard-earned, you can get your hands on a weather station with PC interface for around £100. Collect some information about average wind speeds at different times of the year and you will soon know whether a wind turbine would be any benefit. Compare your results with the specifications of the model(s) of turbine you are considering buying. Output is roughly linear so, if a 500 watt turbine needs a wind speed of 12 miles per hour (5.4 m/s) and your average is 6 miles per hour you’ll average 250 watts.

You’ll need planning permission although for the small 500 watt systems it’s unlikely to be refused and you could also qualify for a grant towards the cost.

Okay, so you’ve established that you could get some ‘free’ electricity from a wind turbine what do you buy?

Off the shelf

B&Q offer a fully installed unit for just under £2000. It’s designed to plug straight into a standard 13amp socket to supplement your supply directly. Admittedly, £2000 is a lot to spend but it is an approved system fitted by an approved supplier and, therefore, is a qualifying system for a grant.

Install your own

You can buy wind turbines from as little as £500 but you need to be aware that you need a degree of mechanical and electronic skill to be able to install and maintain them. For example, these systems are generally low voltage so will need a battery pack and control system to complete the setup. They are unlikely to qualify for a grant as they are, typically, not approved and are DIY installations.

Build your own

You can build your own for as little as £100 provided you have the necessary mechanical and electronic skills. There are courses run by people such as Hugh Piggott which can provide the necessary skills. If you have these skills already try Mike’s site which gives comprehensive instructions. You’ll need to hunt around for a suitable generator as the one he used is rare as hens teeth

Would you save any money? Well, at today’s prices tier 1 costs per kWh are around 15p; if your 500 watt system achieved an average 50% output (optimistic) you would generate 6 kWh per day saving 90p. Saving over a year would be around £328. In summary, build it yourself pays for itself in a year; install your own pre-built system and get your money back in 2-3 years but the B&Q option is going to take nearer 6 years to recover the costs.

I think I’m gonna look at building but I’m collecting wind speed information first…

There’s so much crap written about this that the average person has no chance of getting it right.

For example, it’s said that cattle in the UK are responsible for 25% of this country’s methane emissions. Methane is one of the gases said to be responsible for global warming - it has several times the impact of CO2 but is, currently, in much lower proportion. Reducing our meat consumption would reduce methane levels. However, methane only remains in the atmosphere for ~12 years and is removed by a natural process resulting in the production of water.

Carbon Dioxide, on the other hand, remains for around 100 years and is removed via photo-synthesis. We need more sustainable forest to address this and less consumption of fossil fuels but given the cost of oil/gas it won’t be hard to accept.

More importantly, we need a complete change of attitude including reducing travel significantly - commuting specifically - it’s ludicrous to travel up and down the country to the workplace when half the work doesn’t even need to be done at work.

But there are much simpler things that anyone can do. If you’re not short of cash fit solar panels, even in our crap summer you would have made savings. Consider a low voltage immersion heater system powered by a small wind turbine - free hot water forever!

Less in the budget? Get down to your local DIY store and get loads of roof insulation in; fit blinds to windows that are not double-glazed; install a small wood-burning stove.

Got no budget? Switch off unwanted lights and electrical appliances; buy fresh vegetables as you need them - rotting food in landfill produces methane; re-use shopping bags; build a composting bin from scrap wood. Try this site for further ideas.

If everyone does something, no matter how little, it would make a big difference!

Praise the Lord!

We’re saved from binge drinking!

There’s going to be a label on bottles of alcohol warning people about binge drinking.

That’s so inspirational, NOT.

It’s too late, the lunatics are already in charge of the asylum.

Curiously, you can now attend classes in Reality TV - how to gain an edge over your opponents reports Heather Alexander on BBC News! To get your 15 minutes of fame nowadays you need to be just a bit better prepared than the average stupid applicant.

In case you hadn’t noticed, political correctness is frowned on here so go here for translations if you are a sensitive soul.

Reality TV shows have few redeeming features but those that do spring to mind include keeping moronic viewers off the streets for while.

The only Reality I can see is that contestants are universally stupid; production crews are universally patronising while viewers are manipulated as usual. Still, it’s an effective way of keeping millions quiet when the required medical treatment would be too expensive to be made available by NICE.

I thought I’d add this section as I have loads of easy recipes that I’ve made up or modified over the years. This one’s really quick and tasty!

You’ll need (per person):

1 chicken breast (or Quorn pieces/fillet for veggie version)
1 red bell pepper (or mix colours)
1 onion
4 medium sized mushrooms
1 packet Discovery fajita mix
Half a cup of long-grain rice
Sunflower oil

Takes about 20 minutes:

Start the rice cooking. I prefer to use a steamer that I got many years ago as you just bung in the rice, add hot water and shove it in the microwave for about 5 minutes. Use whatever method suits including boil-in-the-bag.

Peel and slice the onion, slice the pepper removing seeds. Clean the mushrooms with a damp cloth, remove stalks and slice. Heat some oil in a frying pan or wok and add the onions. When they are starting to soften, after a couple of minutes, add the pepper and fry for another couple of minutes. Finally, add the mushrooms and fry until they have softened. Remove the vegetables and stand to one side, drain on kitchen roll if you’re watching the pounds!

Slice the chicken/Quorn into strips. Add a little more oil and put the chicken/Quorn straight in. Fry for a few minutes until golden. In the case of chicken turn to ensure thoroughly cooked. Add the previously cooked vegetables to the pan, stir and warm through. Sprinkle the fajita mix on, a little at a time, until everything has a light coating. As a guide, half the packet provides enough for two people. Stir thoroughly and turn down the heat.

Rinse the rice with boiling water and add to a serving bowl. Mix in the chicken/Quorn and vegetables. Serve immediately. Alternatively, you can warm this up in the oven later.

As you all know those awfully nice people at Aaland let us use some of their office space and provide the space for this blog on one of their servers.

For some reason, another Company on the same site has decided to use Aaland’s address on their web site claiming it as their own. No-one has really managed to work out why this is unless they are deliberately trying to mislead.

The upshot is mail gets mis-delivered as do parcel deliveries and visitors are understandably confused.

Stayput Tags have a big number 10 by the door of their building and this should have served as some kind of clue but they haven’t managed to work out this simple giveaway. The number by Aaland’s door is 9 (another clue!) but they persist with their subterfuge anyway.

Anyway, for everyone out there looking for Stayput Tags they are at number 10, Aaland is at number 9 and always has been.

My neighbours like dressing up in leather and whipping each other’s…

Whoa, too much information already and that’s my whole point really. I’m not interested in what Max Mosley gets up to in his private life although, at 68, his stamina is to be admired (I’ll have whatever he’s having).

We may disagree with what people do but it’s a matter of individual choice and personal freedom. Special cases exist (or should do) where National Security or credibility of an organisation may be affected and then it’s a matter for the relevant authorities. It’s not a matter for people to bleat about ‘freedom of the Press’ - all the Press are concerned about in this case is how many papers get sold.

It’s sad that anyone finds reading about this sort of thing even remotely interesting. My neighbours, by the way, have never been in the papers; have, as far as I know, no positions of responsibility to maintain; and, happily, have never kept me awake at night with whacking noises or grunts of ecstasy in German (or any other language).

Hopefully, things will stay that way but, if they don’t, I won’t be calling News of the World.

Stunning news had me sitting up sharply in my bed this morning as it was revealed that Daniel Craig had to use stacked heels on the latest Bond film!

Scanning the rest of the item rapidly I expected to find revelations that it was medical intervention to correct an injury sustained during filming and that hip replacement surgery was planned for the Autumn.

However, it appears that it was just the fact that the current Bond girl was slightly taller in her high heels.

Must be a real shortage of entertainment news about at the moment…

It appears that the photo galleries have been broken for a bit and I never noticed

They’re fixed now…