Incandescent

Woke up at 1:30 am. I am really tired but my brain is in overdrive. No particular reason , but my body can't accommodate what my mind wants to do and I know that I have to sleep. Anyway thought I would make some hot chocolate and I know that will help me sleep, but as i was watching the milk boil I noticed the lights in the cooker hood. Since I moved here I've never actually replaced them, and they are still incandescent bulbs. The only two in the house that are not eco friendly!! And probably the most awkward to replace, but that will have to be done tomorrow morning. The think is once replaced I will probably never replace them again , if incandescent bulbs have lasted ten years the eco bulbs will last at least five times that if not more so that's good.

Anyway I'm feeling a bit tireder , but after lots of nice party invites this week and at least one task for the day ahead I'll publish this post with a wonderful song Eric Clapton covering Jimi Hendrix. I love the Hendrix original, but Clapton's was the first time I heard Little Wing. Enjoy my friends .....

A New Light In My Life

Well rather in my kitchen. Finally replaced the old fluorescent tubes with some halogen (at the moment) spots soon to be replaced with LEDs. Found the LEDs online at Amazon so that means I can do what I want this weekend and not wander round shops looking for light bulbs.

As the sun is rising it's looking like another great day. I just remarked on the Fleetwood Mac song "Go Your Own Way" that I may try as part of my learning to play guitar. The chords are simple but I was just so surprised at the fact that the lyrics use so few words but convey so much. Always though it was a great song from a great album detailing break ups , affairs and the like , but they actually went on to make greater albums and are still touring today forty years on. But here are the lyrics and here is the song and did you know that , rumour has it (see what I did there), every Fleetwood Mac cover has a penguin on it!

Loving you Isn't the right thing to do
How can I Ever change things that I feel?
If I could Maybe I'd give you my world
How can I When you won't take it from me?

Chorus:
You can go your own way! Go your own way
You can call it another lonely day Another Lonely day
You can go your own way!Go your own way

Tell me why Everything turned around?
Packing up Shacking up's all you wanna do
If I could Baby I'd give you my world
Open up Everything's waiting for you

More chorus stuff

 

Green Day Down at The Doctors

Well sort of . Another sunny day and I spent a lot of it making bricks for my woodburning stove from old newspapers. It is very physical but worth it and means I put less in the recycling bin because I am going to burn the stuff.

Lots of paper front pages caught my eye but I think it was the Sunday Post who were suggesting that it took 100 phne calls to get an appointment with a GP , and then you would have to wait months for it. If that is the situation change your practice . I have done it a few times and always ended up with excelent service. I've been with mine for around ten years , they are The Thornfield Medical Group based in Byker and Shieldfield and provide excellent service with and online appointment and repeat prescription service that cuts down the phone calls they have to deal with , an all round winner. Their website is here. The booking system is here.

LED-ed

Bathroom Ceiling LEDs

A 3.5W LED

Just replaced my halogen light bulbs in the bathroom , for of them . Fitting the restraining clips was an absolute pain , but they use replaced my 50W halogens with 2 x 1W and 2 x 3.5 W LED ones so that should save a little more on the electricity bills, in theory.





Incidentally , wwhen I switched the bathroom lights on the energy usage went down!! Go work that one out!!

The other trouble is I'm insulated , using efficient stuff , and eventually I'm going to hit a wall where I can't do any more , in fact I feel I'm near that now. Except maybe get a wind turbine in the back garden!!

It's Not Easy Being Green

I recently attended a "Green Champions" course courtesy of my employer , and a couple of things struck me. A lot of people are committed to going good to recycle , use renewable energy and implement changes that will benefit and sustain our life style.

A couple of scary facts were put forward such as the fact that we have less than fifty years of oil left , and slightly longer with coal and gas . While that's enough to see out most of us , the edge is drawing closer. Steven Tyler , Mick Jagger look alike and lead singer with Aerosmith , made a pertinent quote about life which applies the same to our fossil fuell resourses , "Life is like a toilet roll , the closer you get to the end the faster it goes" !! , and that reminds me , one of their songs is perfectly titled for this situation , "Livin' On The Edge"



Anyway we can see that people and businesses will not embrace "Being Green" , unless it's convenient and financially viable!!

Personally , my own bit is the removal of all incandescent bulbs and the installation of an electricity monitor courtesy of my electricity provider.  This has decreased my electricity usage , although my home IT network is probably racking it up , the problem being if I want my music and film available 24/7 from anywhere in the house then the storage needs to be running 24/7 , though I think that solid state storage will help reduce this in the future , but at a cost.

I also do my bit recycling plastic and paper with my blue bin , and organics via the green bin. Paper either goes in my blue bin or is recycled into logs for my wood burning stove (see here).

I'm looking into the solar panels on the roof thing , which was part of my Green Pledge, but again , this is motivated out of a pereived benefit to me  , rather than being a "Green Champion" .  Still the result is the main thing and if I end up being moore energy efficient , then that is one more little action which makes the world a slightly better place , which can't be too bad.