Category: General Blog

These are my normal blog posts.

March 15, 2024
Amused today on reading about Liz Truss’s private members’ bill that seeks to enshrine the legal definition of sex as biological, essentially banning schools from recognising transitioning students.

That in itself is not amusing. What is amusing is that Truss’s bill is third on the list. First on the list is an animal welfare bill, restricting the age of importing animals, specifically importing puppies and kittens.

February 24, 2024
Last year, I decided to get a home battery system. According to Octopus Energy, my supplier, I use about 7-13kWh of electricity a day, excluding the electricity used to charge my car.

I am on the Intelligent Octopus Go Tariff. My day-time electricity costs just under 30p/kWh, but between 11:30pm and 5:30pm it drops to just 7.5p/kWh (Intelligent also includes some bonus charging, but let’s ignore that).

December 13, 2023
Over the last couple of years, my back garden has involved a battle against the weeds; a battle which I admit I have been fighting half-heartedly.

When everything is good out there, I enjoy spending time planting stuff and (weather permitting) sitting out there. But once I let it get out of control, it was just depressing. Worst of all, the pointing started to go between the pavers, allowing weeds to take hold. I had a go at fixing this myself, but decided it was a lot of work.

December 2, 2023
I’ve been going through boxes of paper and other stuff from my old box room – formerly my old WFH office.

So… sorting through papers both loose on the bookshelves and in boxes, dated between 2014 and 2019, with some as far back as 2008.

June 9, 2023
June 7, 2023
December 13, 2022
November 13, 2022
June 8, 2022
I retired in mid-February, so thought I would post how things are going.

The first couple of months of retirement saw me not doing that much at all – it was very easy to just laze about and not get around to getting things done. A lot of cooking and eating, TV and reading – particularly reading; I got through a couple of novels a week and made a good dent into my to-read list.

June 8, 2022
I’ve just received my 4th and 5th pair of Zeba shoes. That this excites me tells you something about me.

I bought my first pair, which were light beige, in late 2019. After I had worn them for a month, I was so happy with them, I ordered two more pairs, another of the same, and a blue pair, suitable for wearing with jeans.

April 20, 2022
I got there today, with Katie the beagle. As my first day out, I decided to just walk along the main path from the café then straight back again. But when I got to the end of the path, I felt fine, so decided to carry on, around Overton Lake. I was doing fine, then about three-quarters around the lake, my legs started to give out! But nowhere to go but forwards!

March 18, 2022
I’ve long loved Nene Park, and Ferry Meadows in particular.

It’s a nice lakeside area, but it has paved as well as rough paths, so is good for walking, even when it is wet and muddy in other places I visit, like Bourne Wood.