The growing trend towards owning nothing and renting everything is worrying. I now "rent" Microsoft office by the month at a far higher cost than I used to pay for a one off license. (I gave up on Adobe and use freeware alternatives now).
I noticed Spotify upping the price of their subscription last month, I've been paying them a tenner or whatever it is since the year dot, which must add up to about £1800-ish of payments, yet if I cancel, I own nothing. Not a single single, let alone an album.
While this has been the case for software as a service for donkey's years and is less than idea, it's even more worrying to see it creep into areas it has no right being in. Like heated seats on your car.
TaaS/MaaS, Transportation/Mobility as a Service. Yes the people who make cars want to deliver this because they think they will make a lot more money, primarily because it ought to be a better utilisation of a fleet of vehicles that currently spend 95% of their time parked.
If the assets are used 100% of the time they will wear out a lot faster and when they break they will discomfit a lot more people. Why don't we just tell people to subscribe to one big fluorescent ball in the centre of each village, instead of 100 light bulbs, one for each room.
Of course. It's not a simple calculation. But the people who believe in this sort of future are confident that they can create a service that will displace the private ownership of cars. They are betting a huge amount of money on it working.
Well they have tried that over the last few years with PCP financing and that looks like turing into the next PPI scandal.
There’s loads of funny anecdotes in motoring forums about PCP renewals and interest rates. People who have had a new Mercedes E63 AMG every three years since 2008, now being told that the same repayment gets them into an E220d, and if they want the AMG it’s a grand a month extra!
Add to the push for electric cars, and the bottom is going to fall out of the market. That guy with the three-year-old E63 is most likely going to refinance to keep it, not buy a new car at all.
Was always my concern (for the masses, because that's just me).
Yes, interest rates being zero for a decade and a half has all sorts of funny effects on the economy.
There’s actually been quite serious price inflation of new cars, but it’s gone un-noticed because no-one writes a check for the list price, but is interested only in the monthly repayment.
Meanwhile, classic car values have gone the way of property and art, with silly prices now being paid for even some modern but rare cars.
As we all move to EV appliances, petrol heads are going to be looking at what they want to buy and keep as the weekend toys. Anything remotely interesting is about to start heading up in value.
At some point we'll reach a tipping point. As demand for petrol falls, petrol stations will start to become nonviable and begin to close down, which will, in turn, make petrol vehicles less desirable, thus leading to more closures - a classic positive feedback effect. At this point, the prices of most petrol vehicles will collapse since they are no longer a practicable means of transport. Though as you point out, there will, of course be exceptions.
I'm in quite a rural area and there are six fuel stations (that I know about) within an easy distance of less than twenty minutes.
Demand has a long way to fall before it becomes inconvenient to fill up, though I expect this effect will encourage the most reluctant 10% to make the switch.
Slightly tongue in cheek, but the strongest correlating indicator of Conservative voting that I have ever found in 20 years of canvassing is car related.
- Those washing their car in their driveway on a Saturday morning.
Slightly disconcertingly for the blue meanies, apart from my Dad, I don't know anyone who does this now. Why bother when its a tenner at the local hand car wash?
The gangs of trafficked Kurdish vagabonds don't even use the 'Two Bucket' system which is the absolute minimum for not fucking your clear coat. One session at one of these refugee camps and it's done for.
Correcting a fucked clear coat, if it's not too far gone, is a lot of work and you're knocking a couple of grand off the value at least. Unless you can offload it onto to some mug who can't judge the fuckedness state of clear coats.
I wonder what a clear coat is. I mostly just rely on rain to wash off my 2015 Fiesta. I never give my car a thought except when I'm actually in it or the MoT demand comes round.
PB is a useful reminder that there are a multitude of different ways to live...
For me, a car is simply a tool that allows me to do what I need/want to do. If I could do the things I wanted to do without a car, I'd not have one. I find no great joy in driving; the joy can come from what I do at the destination.
I also don't see my car as an extension of my psyche, or a reflection of who I am. It's a car.
And that is, I think, the heart of the matter. Once a car is a means to an end, then it's possible that there are other ways of achieving the same ends better. In fact, it's possible that car use gets in the way of achieving those ends.
The car is an interesting machine. It promises individual freedom, but relies on infrastructure that is provided collectively. It provides convenience for its owner but inconveniences others. It allows us to be ourselves but cuts us off from other people. It lets us do more but makes us less active. It opens up choices for some and restricts choices for others. Politically it's interesting because of all the things we do on a day to day basis it probably imposes more negative externalities, global and local, than anything else. Increasingly I think the political left-right divide comes down to whether you take the idea of these externalities seriously or not. The right can get a lot of mileage out of telling their voters that they can do what they want and any negative effects on other people are unimportant. The danger for the left is that they overestimate the extent to which people are willing, or feel able to afford, to care.
I think the Cons are absolutely right to pick a fight over car ownership because most of us have one and many of us realise the impracticalities of acting too quickly to dispossess us of them, or penalising ownership which the ULEZ has shown so clearly.
It is the one area (and I can't for the life of me think of any other) where actually the Cons might be able to claw some votes back and it seems that Lab are handing these to them on a plate.
Heat Punps
Disaster waiting to happen.
They sound bloody awful.
Good ideas in a well insulated or well restored house.
Get a correct type, and you can run it backwards in summer off your solar to cool the house.
Air to air heatpumps are well-spoken of as a simple solution amongst those I know, and don't necessarily need much central control.
Personally, I am probably going for an air-to-water heatpump when the current boiler dies, since my radiators etc are designed for it and need no swaps.
Modern heat pumps seem to be OK to a few degrees above freezing, but it is probably important to have cut your peak heat demand by about 50-70% first by a good fabric upgrade.
The problem is your final paragraph, which will be difficult and expensive with older properties, and what you do to heat the house when the air temperature outside plummets to -5C or below.
You're right on your first point but it can be done. We renovated a 1960 bungalow. We filled the cavity, put 100mm of insulation on the outside of the walls and rendered over, put in an insulated floor with underfloor heating, installed triple glazed windows and a mechanical heat recovery ventilation system (so no drafts).
It was of course a major undertaking (although we did live in the house throughout). It has easily paid for itself in terms of house value although we did buy the house at auction as a 'needs total renovation' job.
Regarding the " what you do to heat the house when the air temperature outside plummets to -5C or below" question - we have never had a problem, it just works.
I sort of understand mostd of that, but how does the heated floor work, without the whole hypocaust and slave in loincloth business?
Those who go all-electric in their homes as they park their electric vehicles on their driveways are so touchingly trusting in the continued supply of mains electricity. Nothing like Venezuela (or what seems about to happen in Argentina) could possibly happen in Blighty. No bank problems, wars, culls, upheavals. Just a furry slipper stroking a human face - forever.
Until just now we've had a landline phone network that works even if there's a power cut. In the future it won't work if there's one. Same sort of thing.
Time to get a mobile phone, perhaps?
Which needs to be charged ... seriously, many people feel much happier with both systems esp if they are elderly or have elderly relatives. You may not think so, but it is a thing.
If you live remotely and are worried about this sort of thing there are ways to mitigate that risk. For example, keeping one always charged, using a solar charger, or even a small generator. Better to be pro-active about it rather than just complain about the fact PSTN will be turned off in a few years.
If one lives remotely one would already be taking those precautions, anyway.
On the wider issue - it's a small but significant deterioration for many who can't easily cope with mobiles.
Have you never seen the sort of landline phone that people with poor sight, for instance, need to use?
Yes, I sometimes use one in fact (a BT big button). While you can't make mobiles that big, you can get ones designed with visually impaired people in mind. Designing a dock with a big button interface, powered by the phone itself, should not be beyond the wit of humanity either.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
I now have an image in my head of a bloke of a certain age turning up on doorsteps in a frayed shorty terrycloth bathrobe and a towel over his arm, angrily demanding a bath. Not good.
Who's in the bathroom? That angry bloke from next door. He took a picture of the old queen and a cucumber in with him.
So, if you spend £100k to totally rebuild your house, strip down the outside walls, fill the cavities, create a giant underground heating system, retrofit all the glazing and loft insulation and you don't mind cold baths, and are fine with wearing several jumpers and dressing gowns when it gets properly cold, then installing a strapping great ASHP can work really well. Otherwise, forget it.
So, if you spend £100k to totally rebuild your house, strip down the outside walls, fill the cavities, create a giant underground heating system, retrofit all the glazing and loft insulation and you don't mind cold baths, and are fine with wearing several jumpers and dressing gowns when it gets properly cold, then installing a strapping great ASHP can work really well. Otherwise, forget it.
Glad we cleared that up.
Is that what life is really like in the Nordic countries, cold baths and having to wear several jumpers almost all year round?
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
I love the idea of going to a friend or neighbour's house to have a hot bath. Never done that. Must try it.
So, if you spend £100k to totally rebuild your house, strip down the outside walls, fill the cavities, create a giant underground heating system, retrofit all the glazing and loft insulation and you don't mind cold baths, and are fine with wearing several jumpers and dressing gowns when it gets properly cold, then installing a strapping great ASHP can work really well. Otherwise, forget it.
Glad we cleared that up.
Is that what life is really like in the Nordic countries, cold baths and having to wear several jumpers almost all year round?
Amsterdam’s plan to remove 11,200 parking spaces from its streets by the end of 2025 is even more inspiring when we realize the kind of people-places that are possible where cars used to be. Example — #Amsterdam’s Elandsgracht between 2014 & 2019, via @schlijper’s great pics. https://twitter.com/BrentToderian/status/1685732963588476928
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
You've got a spare bedroom, haven't you?
You could brush up on your diphthongs and DE&S acronym greatest hits, strip off the lycra, and get in with me whilst furiously beating yourself with a courgette and ranting at me about how much you despise Tories and women.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
Mrs DA just asked what I was laughing at. I thought about explaining but lied and said it was a cat on TikTok. She'd never understand what we have.
Those who go all-electric in their homes as they park their electric vehicles on their driveways are so touchingly trusting in the continued supply of mains electricity. Nothing like Venezuela (or what seems about to happen in Argentina) could possibly happen in Blighty. No bank problems, wars, culls, upheavals. Just a furry slipper stroking a human face - forever.
Until just now we've had a landline phone network that works even if there's a power cut. In the future it won't work if there's one. Same sort of thing.
Time to get a mobile phone, perhaps?
Which needs to be charged ... seriously, many people feel much happier with both systems esp if they are elderly or have elderly relatives. You may not think so, but it is a thing.
If you live remotely and are worried about this sort of thing there are ways to mitigate that risk. For example, keeping one always charged, using a solar charger, or even a small generator. Better to be pro-active about it rather than just complain about the fact PSTN will be turned off in a few years.
If one lives remotely one would already be taking those precautions, anyway.
On the wider issue - it's a small but significant deterioration for many who can't easily cope with mobiles.
Have you never seen the sort of landline phone that people with poor sight, for instance, need to use?
Yes, I sometimes use one in fact (a BT big button). While you can't make mobiles that big, you can get ones designed with visually impaired people in mind. Designing a dock with a big button interface, powered by the phone itself, should not be beyond the wit of humanity either.
More money, more complexity, more unfamiliar tech, more subs to pay, more kit ... some of which doesn't exist yet, presumably.
Ever tried diagnosing an elderly parents' Iphone problems remotely when the bloody thing has handshaken automatically to a new ipad which was set by a young relative to something else? Having the landline was a lifesaver - uncomfortably close to being so in actuality if anythign had gone amiss.
Does Musk enjoy setting piles of money on fire and pissing off lawyers and judges?
Apparently so.
Note discovery will give the defendants access to all the data he's been denying them.
If in discovery there is any sense that anyone in X knew that changes would indirectly or directly, purposefully or as a biproduct, increase hate speech Musk will be adding self immolation to his new hobbies since buying Twitter.
Those who go all-electric in their homes as they park their electric vehicles on their driveways are so touchingly trusting in the continued supply of mains electricity. Nothing like Venezuela (or what seems about to happen in Argentina) could possibly happen in Blighty. No bank problems, wars, culls, upheavals. Just a furry slipper stroking a human face - forever.
Until just now we've had a landline phone network that works even if there's a power cut. In the future it won't work if there's one. Same sort of thing.
Time to get a mobile phone, perhaps?
Which needs to be charged ... seriously, many people feel much happier with both systems esp if they are elderly or have elderly relatives. You may not think so, but it is a thing.
If you live remotely and are worried about this sort of thing there are ways to mitigate that risk. For example, keeping one always charged, using a solar charger, or even a small generator. Better to be pro-active about it rather than just complain about the fact PSTN will be turned off in a few years.
If one lives remotely one would already be taking those precautions, anyway.
On the wider issue - it's a small but significant deterioration for many who can't easily cope with mobiles.
Have you never seen the sort of landline phone that people with poor sight, for instance, need to use?
Yes, I sometimes use one in fact (a BT big button). While you can't make mobiles that big, you can get ones designed with visually impaired people in mind. Designing a dock with a big button interface, powered by the phone itself, should not be beyond the wit of humanity either.
More money, more complexity, more unfamiliar tech, more subs to pay, more kit ... some of which doesn't exist yet, presumably.
Ever tried diagnosing an elderly parents' Iphone problems remotely when the bloody thing has handshaken automatically to a new ipad which was set by a young relative to something else? Having the landline was a lifesaver - uncomfortably close to being so in actuality if anythign had gone amiss.
"more money, more complexity..." The same arguments were probably used when the phone line was first installed.
I'm not suggesting they get an iPhone or iPad. You can get more conventional looking mobile phones with large numpads.
Anyway, I guess my point is that they aren't going to keep the PSTN around for much longer, so it is best to start preparing for it.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
Mrs DA just asked what I was laughing at. I thought about explaining but lied and said it was a cat on TikTok. She'd never understand what we have.
Dangerous. She might have wanted to see the moggy. Pussy movies are catnip for many females.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
Mrs DA just asked what I was laughing at. I thought about explaining but lied and said it was a cat on TikTok. She'd never understand what we have.
PB is simultaneously a sad halfway house for quasi-lunatics barely able to function in the real world, and the best pub on the planet
Edited to add: I definitely include myself in the first category
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
You've got a spare bedroom, haven't you?
You could brush up on your diphthongs and DE&S acronym greatest hits, strip off the lycra, and get in with me whilst furiously beating yourself with a courgette and ranting at me about how much you despise Tories and women.
And I thought it couldn't get any weirder on here today.
I've been trying to avoid the miscellaneous upcoming stupid future shit (piped hydrogen, online safety bill, something to do with boilers, all cars must be electric and somebody else's, all roads must be closed, more stupid MP shit that only works if you are rich), but I must confess to ignorance about heat pumps. Can some kind person explain to me what they involve and what degree of compulsion they entail? If I'm going to go full Meldrew it helps to be informed with facts.
[edit] but I am sure some expert on PB will advise.
So a heat pump is an inside-out fridge that runs on electricity and is the size of an old sideboard and a bit bigger than a Wheely bin. For it to work you must be able to run a pipe from inside your house to outside.
People in flats won't be able to have one.
Air to ground, no, but what about air to air pump surely?
How do I move air inside to air outside without going thru the walls (forbidden in leasehold properties) or windows (again difficult)?
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
Mrs DA just asked what I was laughing at. I thought about explaining but lied and said it was a cat on TikTok. She'd never understand what we have.
PB is simultaneously a sad halfway house for quasi-lunatics barely able to function in the real world, and the best pub in the world
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
It's only weird because you're a Londoner who would look aghast at the idea of getting to know your neighbours or even having friends?
Same problem you're having here as to why you're an Uber bore.
Those who go all-electric in their homes as they park their electric vehicles on their driveways are so touchingly trusting in the continued supply of mains electricity. Nothing like Venezuela (or what seems about to happen in Argentina) could possibly happen in Blighty. No bank problems, wars, culls, upheavals. Just a furry slipper stroking a human face - forever.
Until just now we've had a landline phone network that works even if there's a power cut. In the future it won't work if there's one. Same sort of thing.
Time to get a mobile phone, perhaps?
Which needs to be charged ... seriously, many people feel much happier with both systems esp if they are elderly or have elderly relatives. You may not think so, but it is a thing.
If you live remotely and are worried about this sort of thing there are ways to mitigate that risk. For example, keeping one always charged, using a solar charger, or even a small generator. Better to be pro-active about it rather than just complain about the fact PSTN will be turned off in a few years.
If one lives remotely one would already be taking those precautions, anyway.
On the wider issue - it's a small but significant deterioration for many who can't easily cope with mobiles.
Have you never seen the sort of landline phone that people with poor sight, for instance, need to use?
Yes, I sometimes use one in fact (a BT big button). While you can't make mobiles that big, you can get ones designed with visually impaired people in mind. Designing a dock with a big button interface, powered by the phone itself, should not be beyond the wit of humanity either.
More money, more complexity, more unfamiliar tech, more subs to pay, more kit ... some of which doesn't exist yet, presumably.
Ever tried diagnosing an elderly parents' Iphone problems remotely when the bloody thing has handshaken automatically to a new ipad which was set by a young relative to something else? Having the landline was a lifesaver - uncomfortably close to being so in actuality if anythign had gone amiss.
"more money, more complexity..." The same arguments were probably used when the phone line was first installed.
I'm not suggesting they get an iPhone or iPad. You can get more conventional looking mobile phones with large numpads.
Anyway, I guess my point is that they aren't going to keep the PSTN around for much longer, so it is best to start preparing for it.
The Iphone was just an example of the tech complexity compared to the desktop handset, and what can go wrong with the mobiles.
No, I think not, on reflection. The phone was de novo. Clear difference from e.g. sending a lad round with a chit. This is a significant and detrimental change in what is otherwise basically the same sort of thing. Those with landlines temd to keep them for a reason, whatever BT might whine about it.
Does Musk enjoy setting piles of money on fire and pissing off lawyers and judges?
Apparently so.
Note discovery will give the defendants access to all the data he's been denying them.
If in discovery there is any sense that anyone in X knew that changes would indirectly or directly, purposefully or as a biproduct, increase hate speech Musk will be adding self immolation to his new hobbies since buying Twitter.
I don't know anything about heat pumps other than what I've heard from others who don't like them: that they are ugly, large, noisy and generate insufficient power to adequately heat a home or a bath.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
It's only weird because you're a Londoner who would look aghast at the idea of getting to know your neighbours or even having friends?
Same problem you're having here as to why you're an Uber bore.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
I now have an image in my head of a bloke of a certain age turning up on doorsteps in a frayed shorty terrycloth bathrobe and a towel over his arm, angrily demanding a bath. Not good.
So, if you spend £100k to totally rebuild your house, strip down the outside walls, fill the cavities, create a giant underground heating system, retrofit all the glazing and loft insulation and you don't mind cold baths, and are fine with wearing several jumpers and dressing gowns when it gets properly cold, then installing a strapping great ASHP can work really well. Otherwise, forget it.
Glad we cleared that up.
Ignoring the "giant underground heating system" (not sure whether you mean GSHP or underfloor heating) that's just a normal decent-standard renovation.
Cavity insulation. dry lining, loft and underfloor insulation, high end double glazing, rewire, new central heating system (if specced reasonably - may be as simple as double rads and a mid size Heat Pump) are all reasonably priced if you don't swallow the sales-talk. Plus ... grants.
The stuff that costs money is full external insulation, cosmetics and structural improvement or a new roof. And potentially asbestos or concrete cancer if you choose the wrong one.
You won't be wearing huge jumpers because you will have taken the fabric energy efficiency from an E to verging on a B - which will likely reduce the heating demand by more than half.
For say a normal sized semi it's more like 25-35k than 100k if it is even that much, and you may get a kitchen and a bathroom included.
I've been trying to avoid the miscellaneous upcoming stupid future shit (piped hydrogen, online safety bill, something to do with boilers, all cars must be electric and somebody else's, all roads must be closed, more stupid MP shit that only works if you are rich), but I must confess to ignorance about heat pumps. Can some kind person explain to me what they involve and what degree of compulsion they entail? If I'm going to go full Meldrew it helps to be informed with facts.
[edit] but I am sure some expert on PB will advise.
So a heat pump is an inside-out fridge that runs on electricity and is the size of an old sideboard and a bit bigger than a Wheely bin. For it to work you must be able to run a pipe from inside your house to outside.
People in flats won't be able to have one.
Air to ground, no, but what about air to air pump surely?
How do I move air inside to air outside without going thru the walls (forbidden in leasehold properties) or windows (again difficult)?
Ah, you didn't say leasehold before, and I live in Scotland ... but fair enough. I suppose one is not allowed to move one's gas-fired central heating from flat to flat already, though!
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
It's only weird because you're a Londoner who would look aghast at the idea of getting to know your neighbours or even having friends?
Same problem you're having here as to why you're an Uber bore.
I've been trying to avoid the miscellaneous upcoming stupid future shit (piped hydrogen, online safety bill, something to do with boilers, all cars must be electric and somebody else's, all roads must be closed, more stupid MP shit that only works if you are rich), but I must confess to ignorance about heat pumps. Can some kind person explain to me what they involve and what degree of compulsion they entail? If I'm going to go full Meldrew it helps to be informed with facts.
[edit] but I am sure some expert on PB will advise.
So a heat pump is an inside-out fridge that runs on electricity and is the size of an old sideboard and a bit bigger than a Wheely bin. For it to work you must be able to run a pipe from inside your house to outside.
People in flats won't be able to have one.
Air to ground, no, but what about air to air pump surely?
How do I move air inside to air outside without going thru the walls (forbidden in leasehold properties) or windows (again difficult)?
Same way you fit a gas boiler, surely? Which also need at least one hole in a wall? Most come with one fitted, of course, but it's not unknown to move them (or maybe it is in leasehold properties, given what you've said).
How do people in warm countries fit air-con units to flats?
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
You've got a spare bedroom, haven't you?
You could brush up on your diphthongs and DE&S acronym greatest hits, strip off the lycra, and get in with me whilst furiously beating yourself with a courgette and ranting at me about how much you despise Tories and women.
And I thought it couldn't get any weirder on here today.
When you think about it, the fact phones work - or used to work - during a power cut is a pretty clever bit of engineering, although they didn't think of it like that when they invented the system.
I don't know anything about heat pumps other than what I've heard from others who don't like them: that they are ugly, large, noisy and generate insufficient power to adequately heat a home or a bath.
No idea whether this is correct.
In most properties in the UK that is an excellent description
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
It's only weird because you're a Londoner who would look aghast at the idea of getting to know your neighbours or even having friends?
Same problem you're having here as to why you're an Uber bore.
I’m getting quite “Jolyon Maugham in a kimono smashing a fox to death with a baseball bat on Boxing Day” vibes from @Casino_Royale today
Perhaps it is just Too Much Politics
It’s a beautiful midsummer’s day. The sun is shining, joy abounds.
It's pissing down here.
Sarcasm. Heavy sarcasm.
It's been unremittingly grim here in the Midlands for the entire month of July. Even when the sun was out it was windy.
There needs to be a word to describe the desperation you feel coming back to the grey U.K. after being away somewhere nice. Last week I was in DC, NYC and hiking upstate NY in glorious sunshine. This week is hard.
Does Musk enjoy setting piles of money on fire and pissing off lawyers and judges?
Apparently so.
Note discovery will give the defendants access to all the data he's been denying them.
If in discovery there is any sense that anyone in X knew that changes would indirectly or directly, purposefully or as a biproduct, increase hate speech Musk will be adding self immolation to his new hobbies since buying Twitter.
I mean, what is the action taking place that is an issue? If they are just aggregating Tweets that they consider hate speech (alongside their campaigning)... what is actionable? The designation of something as hate speech and it being platformed by X?
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
It's only weird because you're a Londoner who would look aghast at the idea of getting to know your neighbours or even having friends?
Same problem you're having here as to why you're an Uber bore.
Anyway I have now finished both Succession and A Little Life so can relax when people discuss "popular culture".
Spoil away.
I assume you are going to tell me to persevere with Succession then? I'm half way through the first series and it hasn't grabbed me yet.
Yes do. The performances are outstanding if the narrative a bit winding.
Along with THE GREAT and THE BEAR it is the best TV drama of the last three years or so. To my mind
The drama you absolutely look forward to. The kind of drama you are reluctant to binge-watch because it is so good
Also noted on those two I will look them out. I've just started out on Jury Duty. It is I believe a wholly new genre and very funny. Like a cross between The Office and Big Brother.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
I now have an image in my head of a bloke of a certain age turning up on doorsteps in a frayed shorty terrycloth bathrobe and a towel over his arm, angrily demanding a bath. Not good.
Who's in the bathroom? That angry bloke from next door. He took a picture of the old queen and a cucumber in with him.
I’m getting quite “Jolyon Maugham in a kimono smashing a fox to death with a baseball bat on Boxing Day” vibes from @Casino_Royale today
Perhaps it is just Too Much Politics
It’s a beautiful midsummer’s day. The sun is shining, joy abounds.
It's pissing down here.
Sarcasm. Heavy sarcasm.
It's been unremittingly grim here in the Midlands for the entire month of July. Even when the sun was out it was windy.
There needs to be a word to describe the desperation you feel coming back to the grey U.K. after being away somewhere nice. Last week I was in DC, NYC and hiking upstate NY in glorious sunshine. This week is hard.
I'm with you. Last week I was in south of France. So depressing to be home. I used to look forward to coming home from holiday.
Quite the stat from Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times:
More than 5,500 customers have had their bank accounts closed by @NatWestGroup. None was able to talk to anyone at the bank about why it had happened. Some were told to "use a food bank"."
That sounds like the banks writing off bad debts - or a small proportion of them.
Cue some propaganda about how we all need the banks, it's so difficult to get credit, it should be easier, everyone should be able to get credit, just because you've got loads of tattoos and haven't got two ha'pennies to rub together doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to pay your bills online, there's a difference between public service banking and casino banking, etc.
I wonder which bank will hit the wall first this time. My money barterable items would be on Santander, Virgin, or Metro.
Each of those three seems to run a brand aimed at ... shall we say people who haven't got much chance of paying back what they borrow. Their whole image seems best conveyed by a sign written in some crappy font, hanging down on one side because a nail has fallen out. "Fancy a kebab? Come in and get yer tasty loans, two for the price of one. Special offer."
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
It's only weird because you're a Londoner who would look aghast at the idea of getting to know your neighbours or even having friends?
Same problem you're having here as to why you're an Uber bore.
I've been trying to avoid the miscellaneous upcoming stupid future shit (piped hydrogen, online safety bill, something to do with boilers, all cars must be electric and somebody else's, all roads must be closed, more stupid MP shit that only works if you are rich), but I must confess to ignorance about heat pumps. Can some kind person explain to me what they involve and what degree of compulsion they entail? If I'm going to go full Meldrew it helps to be informed with facts.
[edit] but I am sure some expert on PB will advise.
So a heat pump is an inside-out fridge that runs on electricity and is the size of an old sideboard and a bit bigger than a Wheely bin. For it to work you must be able to run a pipe from inside your house to outside.
People in flats won't be able to have one.
Air to ground, no, but what about air to air pump surely?
How do I move air inside to air outside without going thru the walls (forbidden in leasehold properties) or windows (again difficult)?
Ah, you didn't say leasehold before, and I live in Scotland ... but fair enough. I suppose one is not allowed to move one's gas-fired central heating from flat to flat already, though!
Ah yes, I forgot property ownership rules are different in Scotland. My bad.
When you think about it, the fact phones work - or used to work - during a power cut is a pretty clever bit of engineering, although they didn't think of it like that when they invented the system.
Sadly the copper lines are rubbish.
You can get battery back ups so your VOIP service works during a power cut.
With BT Halo you get a mobile back to ensure your landline works if your BB goes down.
Quite the stat from Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times:
More than 5,500 customers have had their bank accounts closed by @NatWestGroup. None was able to talk to anyone at the bank about why it had happened. Some were told to "use a food bank"."
That sounds like the banks writing off bad debts - or a small proportion of them.
Cue some propaganda about how we all need the banks, it's so difficult to get credit, it should be easier, everyone should be able to get credit, there's a difference between public service banking and casino banking, etc.
I wonder which bank will hit the wall first this time. My money barterable items would be on Santander, Virgin, or Metro.
Each of those three seems to run a brand aimed at ... shall we say people who haven't got much chance of paying back what they borrow. Their whole image seems best conveyed by a sign written in some crappy font, hanging down on one side because a nail has fallen out.
Isn’t this mostly about current accounts, rather than borrowing accounts?
I've been trying to avoid the miscellaneous upcoming stupid future shit (piped hydrogen, online safety bill, something to do with boilers, all cars must be electric and somebody else's, all roads must be closed, more stupid MP shit that only works if you are rich), but I must confess to ignorance about heat pumps. Can some kind person explain to me what they involve and what degree of compulsion they entail? If I'm going to go full Meldrew it helps to be informed with facts.
[edit] but I am sure some expert on PB will advise.
So a heat pump is an inside-out fridge that runs on electricity and is the size of an old sideboard and a bit bigger than a Wheely bin. For it to work you must be able to run a pipe from inside your house to outside.
People in flats won't be able to have one.
Air to ground, no, but what about air to air pump surely?
How do I move air inside to air outside without going thru the walls (forbidden in leasehold properties) or windows (again difficult)?
Same way aircon installs do - mini-split heat pumps that pump the working fluid from inside to outside & back again through pipework that passes through reasonably small holes in the walls. Air never passes through the wall, only the heat pump working fluid to the two heat exchangers - one inside & one outside. (Or in some installs, one outside heat exchanger & many small internal ones.)
If people can manage to get aircon installed in their flats, they can install dual mode aircon that works backwards as a heater. That’s what a heat pump is after all.
Amsterdam’s plan to remove 11,200 parking spaces from its streets by the end of 2025 is even more inspiring when we realize the kind of people-places that are possible where cars used to be. Example — #Amsterdam’s Elandsgracht between 2014 & 2019, via @schlijper’s great pics. https://twitter.com/BrentToderian/status/1685732963588476928
Much prefer a red-brick new build with three parking spots and a plastic lawn, thank you very much.
Slightly tongue in cheek, but the strongest correlating indicator of Conservative voting that I have ever found in 20 years of canvassing is car related.
- Those washing their car in their driveway on a Saturday morning.
Slightly disconcertingly for the blue meanies, apart from my Dad, I don't know anyone who does this now. Why bother when its a tenner at the local hand car wash?
The gangs of trafficked Kurdish vagabonds don't even use the 'Two Bucket' system which is the absolute minimum for not fucking your clear coat. One session at one of these refugee camps and it's done for.
Correcting a fucked clear coat, if it's not too far gone, is a lot of work and you're knocking a couple of grand off the value at least. Unless you can offload it onto to some mug who can't judge the fuckedness state of clear coats.
I wonder what a clear coat is. I mostly just rely on rain to wash off my 2015 Fiesta. I never give my car a thought except when I'm actually in it or the MoT demand comes round.
PB is a useful reminder that there are a multitude of different ways to live...
For me, a car is simply a tool that allows me to do what I need/want to do. If I could do the things I wanted to do without a car, I'd not have one. I find no great joy in driving; the joy can come from what I do at the destination.
I also don't see my car as an extension of my psyche, or a reflection of who I am. It's a car.
And that is, I think, the heart of the matter. Once a car is a means to an end, then it's possible that there are other ways of achieving the same ends better. In fact, it's possible that car use gets in the way of achieving those ends.
The car is an interesting machine. It promises individual freedom, but relies on infrastructure that is provided collectively. It provides convenience for its owner but inconveniences others. It allows us to be ourselves but cuts us off from other people. It lets us do more but makes us less active. It opens up choices for some and restricts choices for others. Politically it's interesting because of all the things we do on a day to day basis it probably imposes more negative externalities, global and local, than anything else. Increasingly I think the political left-right divide comes down to whether you take the idea of these externalities seriously or not. The right can get a lot of mileage out of telling their voters that they can do what they want and any negative effects on other people are unimportant. The danger for the left is that they overestimate the extent to which people are willing, or feel able to afford, to care.
I think the Cons are absolutely right to pick a fight over car ownership because most of us have one and many of us realise the impracticalities of acting too quickly to dispossess us of them, or penalising ownership which the ULEZ has shown so clearly.
It is the one area (and I can't for the life of me think of any other) where actually the Cons might be able to claw some votes back and it seems that Lab are handing these to them on a plate.
Heat Punps
Disaster waiting to happen.
They sound bloody awful.
Good ideas in a well insulated or well restored house.
Get a correct type, and you can run it backwards in summer off your solar to cool the house.
Air to air heatpumps are well-spoken of as a simple solution amongst those I know, and don't necessarily need much central control.
Personally, I am probably going for an air-to-water heatpump when the current boiler dies, since my radiators etc are designed for it and need no swaps.
Modern heat pumps seem to be OK to a few degrees above freezing, but it is probably important to have cut your peak heat demand by about 50-70% first by a good fabric upgrade.
The problem is your final paragraph, which will be difficult and expensive with older properties, and what you do to heat the house when the air temperature outside plummets to -5C or below.
You're right on your first point but it can be done. We renovated a 1960 bungalow. We filled the cavity, put 100mm of insulation on the outside of the walls and rendered over, put in an insulated floor with underfloor heating, installed triple glazed windows and a mechanical heat recovery ventilation system (so no drafts).
It was of course a major undertaking (although we did live in the house throughout). It has easily paid for itself in terms of house value although we did buy the house at auction as a 'needs total renovation' job.
Regarding the " what you do to heat the house when the air temperature outside plummets to -5C or below" question - we have never had a problem, it just works.
I sort of understand mostd of that, but how does the heated floor work, without the whole hypocaust and slave in loincloth business?
Plastic water pipes buried in the screed. Hot water pumped through by the central heating system. Room thermostats control which UFH circuits are getting the hot water.
Ah, thanks. What about timber floors (upper storey rooms, and in older houses' ground floors)? Just getting some sense of what one needs to consider when lookign for a new house (am at that age).
Quite complicated to answer fully but:
- Upstairs you can heating pipes between the joists under the floor. We don't bother because the house is so well insulated the upstairs guest rooms borrow heat from downstairs and are never cold. - Wooden floors are not a problem but there's a bit of calculation to be done regarding the relative heat transmission across the insulation below the UFH and the floor above - a solid wood floor may not be as efficient as stone/tiled floors (which is what we have throughout downstairs). Engineered wooden floors tend to be better for UFH.
Thanks. Of course; wood is an insulator, and you don't insulate radiators ...
Yes, however underfloor heating is usually going to be on constantly at a low temperature for long hours, and the lifestyle is usually to have the house at a constant temperature so fairly slow heat transmission does not matter very much.
A common winter management technique is simply to use a plug in fan heater for the few occasions it needs a boost in winter, or have an electric towel rail wired in the bathroom, or a loft heater wired in the bedrooms. Depends on the individual house, however.
For highly insulated houses, overheating in the summer, or in the autumn / spring shoulder months, are more of an issue - since heat that soaks in can't easily get back out again. Adding more heat is usually much easier than removing it.
Those who go all-electric in their homes as they park their electric vehicles on their driveways are so touchingly trusting in the continued supply of mains electricity. Nothing like Venezuela (or what seems about to happen in Argentina) could possibly happen in Blighty. No bank problems, wars, culls, upheavals. Just a furry slipper stroking a human face - forever.
Until just now we've had a landline phone network that works even if there's a power cut. In the future it won't work if there's one. Same sort of thing.
Time to get a mobile phone, perhaps?
Same problem. You can't charge it if there's a power cut.
We just keep a decent sized battery pack charged in a drawer, just in case.
Your problem in a more widespread power cut is that the radio masts will lose power once their batteries run down. But that’s true of the phone exchange too.
If power cuts are a problem then the exchanges will most likely be out.
A real preper has a satellite phone.
Some years ago, after a big storm there was a massive power outage. Everyone in that area found out about how oil heating depends on electric pumps. Apart from a guy I worked with.
He’d setup a UPS, a battery bank in a shed and a generator that ran off heating oil. Complete with automated triggering.
He heard about the problem when his wife rang him at work on the “funny phone” (the satellite phone) to tell him that the other phones weren’t working, and the generator had auto-started. He was very smug.
Apparently they had the only working heating and fridge/freezer in the area, for days.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
I now have an image in my head of a bloke of a certain age turning up on doorsteps in a frayed shorty terrycloth bathrobe and a towel over his arm, angrily demanding a bath. Not good.
Who's in the bathroom? That angry bloke from next door. He took a picture of the old queen and a cucumber in with him.
I've just cried myself silly laughing. My wife and dog thought I was having a breakdown.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
Mrs DA just asked what I was laughing at. I thought about explaining but lied and said it was a cat on TikTok. She'd never understand what we have.
PB is simultaneously a sad halfway house for quasi-lunatics barely able to function in the real world, and the best pub on the planet
Edited to add: I definitely include myself in the first category
That’s because the best pubs are full off quasi-lunatics
I've been trying to avoid the miscellaneous upcoming stupid future shit (piped hydrogen, online safety bill, something to do with boilers, all cars must be electric and somebody else's, all roads must be closed, more stupid MP shit that only works if you are rich), but I must confess to ignorance about heat pumps. Can some kind person explain to me what they involve and what degree of compulsion they entail? If I'm going to go full Meldrew it helps to be informed with facts.
[edit] but I am sure some expert on PB will advise.
So a heat pump is an inside-out fridge that runs on electricity and is the size of an old sideboard and a bit bigger than a Wheely bin. For it to work you must be able to run a pipe from inside your house to outside.
People in flats won't be able to have one.
Air to ground, no, but what about air to air pump surely?
How do I move air inside to air outside without going thru the walls (forbidden in leasehold properties) or windows (again difficult)?
Ah, you didn't say leasehold before, and I live in Scotland ... but fair enough. I suppose one is not allowed to move one's gas-fired central heating from flat to flat already, though!
Ah yes, I forgot property ownership rules are different in Scotland. My bad.
Not your fault at all - just never occurred to me that it might be an issue, outside rentals of course.
There's currently a discussion about the appropriate role of heat pumps in Scottish legislation for the near to medium future: early days yet
Though as we have seen here it's been touted by Tories as compulsory heat pumps for all - but as RP pointed out this would be only where heat pumps made sense in the first place. Devil in the details, as always.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
It's only weird because you're a Londoner who would look aghast at the idea of getting to know your neighbours or even having friends?
Same problem you're having here as to why you're an Uber bore.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
I now have an image in my head of a bloke of a certain age turning up on doorsteps in a frayed shorty terrycloth bathrobe and a towel over his arm, angrily demanding a bath. Not good.
Who's in the bathroom? That angry bloke from next door. He took a picture of the old queen and a cucumber in with him.
I've just cried myself silly laughing. My wife and dog thought I was having a breakdown.
To be fair, even I laughed at that one!
At least @Dura_Ace would offer me a bath, even if not a cucumber.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
I now have an image in my head of a bloke of a certain age turning up on doorsteps in a frayed shorty terrycloth bathrobe and a towel over his arm, angrily demanding a bath. Not good.
Who's in the bathroom? That angry bloke from next door. He took a picture of the old queen and a cucumber in with him.
I've just cried myself silly laughing. My wife and dog thought I was having a breakdown.
To be fair, even I laughed at that one!
At least @Dura_Ace would offer me a bath, even if not a cucumber.
Yes they will, you just bolt the heat exchanger to the outside of the wall: A heat pump is just an air conditioner running in reverse. If you can fit air<->air aircon then you can fit aircon that works as a heater too.
Most flats don't have aircon. This isn't New York. Here are some blocks of flats in (chosen at random) in Bournemouth, but it could be any provincial town.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
I now have an image in my head of a bloke of a certain age turning up on doorsteps in a frayed shorty terrycloth bathrobe and a towel over his arm, angrily demanding a bath. Not good.
Who's in the bathroom? That angry bloke from next door. He took a picture of the old queen and a cucumber in with him.
I've just cried myself silly laughing. My wife and dog thought I was having a breakdown.
To be fair, even I laughed at that one!
At least @Dura_Ace would offer me a bath, even if not a cucumber.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
You've got a spare bedroom, haven't you?
You could brush up on your diphthongs and DE&S acronym greatest hits, strip off the lycra, and get in with me whilst furiously beating yourself with a courgette and ranting at me about how much you despise Tories and women.
@LostPassword no, they are almost always Ukrainians now and, also, a few Macedonians who tend to be loud and overbearing and behave obnoxiously (they hate Bulgarians and the feeling is mutual).
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
I now have an image in my head of a bloke of a certain age turning up on doorsteps in a frayed shorty terrycloth bathrobe and a towel over his arm, angrily demanding a bath. Not good.
Who's in the bathroom? That angry bloke from next door. He took a picture of the old queen and a cucumber in with him.
It did surprise me that Peep Show didn't get taken off air following the Jeremy in the sperm-bank story:
Slightly tongue in cheek, but the strongest correlating indicator of Conservative voting that I have ever found in 20 years of canvassing is car related.
- Those washing their car in their driveway on a Saturday morning.
Slightly disconcertingly for the blue meanies, apart from my Dad, I don't know anyone who does this now. Why bother when its a tenner at the local hand car wash?
The gangs of trafficked Kurdish vagabonds don't even use the 'Two Bucket' system which is the absolute minimum for not fucking your clear coat. One session at one of these refugee camps and it's done for.
Correcting a fucked clear coat, if it's not too far gone, is a lot of work and you're knocking a couple of grand off the value at least. Unless you can offload it onto to some mug who can't judge the fuckedness state of clear coats.
I wonder what a clear coat is. I mostly just rely on rain to wash off my 2015 Fiesta. I never give my car a thought except when I'm actually in it or the MoT demand comes round.
PB is a useful reminder that there are a multitude of different ways to live...
For me, a car is simply a tool that allows me to do what I need/want to do. If I could do the things I wanted to do without a car, I'd not have one. I find no great joy in driving; the joy can come from what I do at the destination.
I also don't see my car as an extension of my psyche, or a reflection of who I am. It's a car.
And that is, I think, the heart of the matter. Once a car is a means to an end, then it's possible that there are other ways of achieving the same ends better. In fact, it's possible that car use gets in the way of achieving those ends.
The car is an interesting machine. It promises individual freedom, but relies on infrastructure that is provided collectively. It provides convenience for its owner but inconveniences others. It allows us to be ourselves but cuts us off from other people. It lets us do more but makes us less active. It opens up choices for some and restricts choices for others. Politically it's interesting because of all the things we do on a day to day basis it probably imposes more negative externalities, global and local, than anything else. Increasingly I think the political left-right divide comes down to whether you take the idea of these externalities seriously or not. The right can get a lot of mileage out of telling their voters that they can do what they want and any negative effects on other people are unimportant. The danger for the left is that they overestimate the extent to which people are willing, or feel able to afford, to care.
I think the Cons are absolutely right to pick a fight over car ownership because most of us have one and many of us realise the impracticalities of acting too quickly to dispossess us of them, or penalising ownership which the ULEZ has shown so clearly.
It is the one area (and I can't for the life of me think of any other) where actually the Cons might be able to claw some votes back and it seems that Lab are handing these to them on a plate.
Heat Punps
Disaster waiting to happen.
They sound bloody awful.
My next door neighbour has one.
Ive yet to hear him say anything good about it.
On the other hand he really likes his solar panels.
They're the norm in rural France and seem to work fine (not just in modern houses), yet every time I hear about them in the UK they don't seem up to the job, so there must be something in the way we're rolling them out here that's going awry. I'm renovating a barn there currently and there was no question the heating would be air source heat pump, our neighbours all have it too. Perhaps because they are topping up with wood burners, or perhaps the houses are just less draughty and better insulated.
I really don't know much about them other than the bits I read on here and eslsewhere but working better in France may be due to warmer climate. All the sources seem to indicate that air source heat pumps work better when it is warmer/hotter outside. Certainly the only person I know who has had one fitted said it was great in the summer but really bad in the winter.
A reasonably simple intro here. I hadn't realised how much of the garden might have to be dug up.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
I now have an image in my head of a bloke of a certain age turning up on doorsteps in a frayed shorty terrycloth bathrobe and a towel over his arm, angrily demanding a bath. Not good.
Who's in the bathroom? That angry bloke from next door. He took a picture of the old queen and a cucumber in with him.
I've just cried myself silly laughing. My wife and dog thought I was having a breakdown.
To be fair, even I laughed at that one!
At least @Dura_Ace would offer me a bath, even if not a cucumber.
Picture of a cucumber and the Queen wasn't it?
Or was there a missing Oxford comma?
Not required.
I always carry a picture of the Queen with me.
Paging @Anabobazina - we've got another cash user!
Quite the stat from Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times:
More than 5,500 customers have had their bank accounts closed by @NatWestGroup. None was able to talk to anyone at the bank about why it had happened. Some were told to "use a food bank"."
That sounds like the banks writing off bad debts - or a small proportion of them.
Cue some propaganda about how we all need the banks, it's so difficult to get credit, it should be easier, everyone should be able to get credit, there's a difference between public service banking and casino banking, etc.
I wonder which bank will hit the wall first this time. My money barterable items would be on Santander, Virgin, or Metro.
Each of those three seems to run a brand aimed at ... shall we say people who haven't got much chance of paying back what they borrow. Their whole image seems best conveyed by a sign written in some crappy font, hanging down on one side because a nail has fallen out.
Isn’t this mostly about current accounts, rather than borrowing accounts?
Yes - accounts that provide no borrowing facility. No credit involved.
Yet the banks refuse large numbers of people these basic accounts. And seem very reticent to discuss why.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
It's only weird because you're a Londoner who would look aghast at the idea of getting to know your neighbours or even having friends?
Same problem you're having here as to why you're an Uber bore.
Which rather supports my own belief, that Musk's takeover - and take down - of "Twitter" had little to do with (directly) making money, but instead EVERYTHING to do with propitiating Trump/Putin (also visa versa) for fun, influence and future profit.
We will come out of this Ashes series never quite knowing which was the better team
One of sporting history’s Might Have Beens
Clearly England have played the more entertaining and aggressive cricket, but is that better?
YES IT IS
Weird series. England lacked cold clinical ruthlessness (and the ability to catch) when it counted. A case of what might have been.
England are going to average far better than Australia due to the mahoosive total amassed in one innings at Old Trafford for the *checks notes* drawn test there. Other 3 matches have been closer.
Amsterdam’s plan to remove 11,200 parking spaces from its streets by the end of 2025 is even more inspiring when we realize the kind of people-places that are possible where cars used to be. Example — #Amsterdam’s Elandsgracht between 2014 & 2019, via @schlijper’s great pics. https://twitter.com/BrentToderian/status/1685732963588476928
Much prefer a red-brick new build with three parking spots and a plastic lawn, thank you very much.
Put simply: I don't trust those who are pushing air-source heat pumps; they all have an agenda.
I'm not risking the comfort and wellbeing of my family and a warm home until I go round to a trusted friend or neighbours house (on a cold and dark night) and feel it for myself, including having a hot bath.
That won't be at all weird.
I find PBers increasingly weird. Like @JosiasJessop running his sweaty marathon right into the local pride March and then deciding to talk to all the gays in Nottingham. Awks
I begin to wonder if I am the only sane PBer left. And I am a crazy alcoholic
It's not weird to travel to the safest part of a country at war, spend all your time whilst there posting on here, and then throw a paddy when no-one gives you attention for taking your takeaway spritzer into the Anderson shelter whilst virtually nothing happens overhead?
Bit weird.
Well I did say that I’m a crazy alcoholic. Hence me drinking here in the “safest part of a war zone”
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
Mrs DA just asked what I was laughing at. I thought about explaining but lied and said it was a cat on TikTok. She'd never understand what we have.
We will come out of this Ashes series never quite knowing which was the better team
One of sporting history’s Might Have Beens
Clearly England have played the more entertaining and aggressive cricket, but is that better?
YES IT IS
Winning doesn't matter as long as you play more entertaining cricket?
Right now? With Test cricket on the edge of oblivion? I would actually say Yes
Entertainment is more important. And besides, England have come PAINFULLY close to winning this series. Denied by rain at OT, could easily have won at Lord’s or Edgbaston
If Test cricket has any future, England have shown where it must go. It’s that simple
We will come out of this Ashes series never quite knowing which was the better team
One of sporting history’s Might Have Beens
Clearly England have played the more entertaining and aggressive cricket, but is that better?
YES IT IS
They're filling time on TMS, but they did say something interesting, which is that they thought Australia were uncomfortable in this series because most of the time England had the initiative and were dictating the progress of the match, and Australia weren't used to being forced to be reactive.
That, and putting Australia to the sword art Old Trafford, and I'm comfortable with saying England are the better team. Cummins played very well in the first two matches to squeak Australia to victory.
We will come out of this Ashes series never quite knowing which was the better team
One of sporting history’s Might Have Beens
Clearly England have played the more entertaining and aggressive cricket, but is that better?
YES IT IS
They're filling time on TMS, but they did say something interesting, which is that they thought Australia were uncomfortable in this series because most of the time England had the initiative and were dictating the progress of the match, and Australia weren't used to being forced to be reactive.
That, and putting Australia to the sword art Old Trafford, and I'm comfortable with saying England are the better team. Cummins played very well in the first two matches to squeak Australia to victory.
Yes. England have been dominant for more sessions than Australia. That’s it in a nutshell
Two very good teams who produced a wonderful series. Just a damn shame the weather blighted the last two games and prevented it becoming an all time classic
We will come out of this Ashes series never quite knowing which was the better team
One of sporting history’s Might Have Beens
Clearly England have played the more entertaining and aggressive cricket, but is that better?
YES IT IS
Winning doesn't matter as long as you play more entertaining cricket?
Right now? With Test cricket on the edge of oblivion? I would actually say Yes
Entertainment is more important. And besides, England have come PAINFULLY close to winning this series. Denied by rain at OT, could easily have won at Lord’s or Edgbaston
If Test cricket has any future, England have shown where it must go. It’s that simple
100% correct. England may well have saved test cricket. That is a lot more important than winning the Ashes.
That said, for test cricket to be truly saved, it needs a strong West Indies.
When you think about it, the fact phones work - or used to work - during a power cut is a pretty clever bit of engineering, although they didn't think of it like that when they invented the system.
I was in Manhattan in 2003 when there was the great blackout. My mobile phone - a Nokia - continued to be able to call England for about 48 hours, before its battery died. It was quite bizarre: not a light on in the whole city, but I could call home.
Comments
Demand has a long way to fall before it becomes inconvenient to fill up, though I expect this effect will encourage the most reluctant 10% to make the switch.
Twitter Threatens Legal Action Against Nonprofit That Tracks Hate Speech
The Center for Countering Digital Hate said it had received a letter from X, Twitter’s parent company, accusing it of trying to hurt the social platform with its research.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/31/technology/twitter-x-center-for-countering-digital-hate.html
Who's in the bathroom?
That angry bloke from next door. He took a picture of the old queen and a cucumber in with him.
Glad we cleared that up.
And yet none of that is as weird as you going round to your neighbour’s house and demanding a hot bath so you can “test the efficacy of their air-source heat pumps”
If I was your neighbour I’d move away soon after
Note discovery will give the defendants access to all the data he's been denying them.
Amsterdam’s plan to remove 11,200 parking spaces from its streets by the end of 2025 is even more inspiring when we realize the kind of people-places that are possible where cars used to be. Example — #Amsterdam’s Elandsgracht between 2014 & 2019, via @schlijper’s great pics.
https://twitter.com/BrentToderian/status/1685732963588476928
Perhaps it is just Too Much Politics
You could brush up on your diphthongs and DE&S acronym greatest hits, strip off the lycra, and get in with me whilst furiously beating yourself with a courgette and ranting at me about how much you despise Tories and women.
Ever tried diagnosing an elderly parents' Iphone problems remotely when the bloody thing has handshaken automatically to a new ipad which was set by a young relative to something else? Having the landline was a lifesaver - uncomfortably close to being so in actuality if anythign had gone amiss.
I'm not suggesting they get an iPhone or iPad. You can get more conventional looking mobile phones with large numpads.
Anyway, I guess my point is that they aren't going to keep the PSTN around for much longer, so it is best to start preparing for it.
Edited to add: I definitely include myself in the first category
Same problem you're having here as to why you're an Uber bore.
No, I think not, on reflection. The phone was de novo. Clear difference from e.g. sending a lad round with a chit. This is a significant and detrimental change in what is otherwise basically the same sort of thing. Those with landlines temd to keep them for a reason, whatever BT might whine about it.
Normally, I wouldn't have any time to post during the working week - so making the most of it whilst I still can.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Countering_Digital_Hate
No idea whether this is correct.
You are being very gently teased. Roll with it
Cavity insulation. dry lining, loft and underfloor insulation, high end double glazing, rewire, new central heating system (if specced reasonably - may be as simple as double rads and a mid size Heat Pump) are all reasonably priced if you don't swallow the sales-talk. Plus ... grants.
The stuff that costs money is full external insulation, cosmetics and structural improvement or a new roof. And potentially asbestos or concrete cancer if you choose the wrong one.
You won't be wearing huge jumpers because you will have taken the fabric energy efficiency from an E to verging on a B - which will likely reduce the heating demand by more than half.
For say a normal sized semi it's more like 25-35k than 100k if it is even that much, and you may get a kitchen and a bathroom included.
I'm perfectly calm mate. Sitting here in shorts in the Thracian sun sinking beers. I'm quite enjoying myself actually!
This was me yesterday at Sunny Beach, which - during the day at least- wasn't quite as chavvy as I'd been led to believe.
The drama you absolutely look forward to. The kind of drama you are reluctant to binge-watch because it is so good
How do people in warm countries fit air-con units to flats?
That you in the bikini, CR?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22074164/
Cue some propaganda about how we all need the banks, it's so difficult to get credit, it should be easier, everyone should be able to get credit, just because you've got loads of tattoos and haven't got two ha'pennies to rub together doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to pay your bills online, there's a difference between public service banking and casino banking, etc.
I wonder which bank will hit the wall first this time. My money barterable items would be on Santander, Virgin, or Metro.
Each of those three seems to run a brand aimed at ... shall we say people who haven't got much chance of paying back what they borrow. Their whole image seems best conveyed by a sign written in some crappy font, hanging down on one side because a nail has fallen out. "Fancy a kebab? Come in and get yer tasty loans, two for the price of one. Special offer."
I’ve got a friend who swears by Sunny Beach. Mind you he goes there for the Moldovan hookers so I’ll spare you any further details
I’m yearning to go the Bulgarian mountains after I read this brilliant book
Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe https://amzn.eu/d/5CGBA9N
You can get battery back ups so your VOIP service works during a power cut.
With BT Halo you get a mobile back to ensure your landline works if your BB goes down.
https://twitter.com/oryxspioenkop/status/1684543943684358145
If people can manage to get aircon installed in their flats, they can install dual mode aircon that works backwards as a heater. That’s what a heat pump is after all.
#voteconservative
A common winter management technique is simply to use a plug in fan heater for the few occasions it needs a boost in winter, or have an electric towel rail wired in the bathroom, or a loft heater wired in the bedrooms. Depends on the individual house, however.
For highly insulated houses, overheating in the summer, or in the autumn / spring shoulder months, are more of an issue - since heat that soaks in can't easily get back out again. Adding more heat is usually much easier than removing it.
A real preper has a satellite phone.
Some years ago, after a big storm there was a massive power outage. Everyone in that area found out about how oil heating depends on electric pumps. Apart from a guy I worked with.
He’d setup a UPS, a battery bank in a shed and a generator that ran off heating oil. Complete with automated triggering.
He heard about the problem when his wife rang him at work on the “funny phone” (the satellite phone) to tell him that the other phones weren’t working, and the generator had auto-started. He was very smug.
Apparently they had the only working heating and fridge/freezer in the area, for days.
The scenes at The Oval are not good.
The simplest way I can put it is that it's absolutely hammering it down."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cricket/64959416
There's currently a discussion about the appropriate role of heat pumps in Scottish legislation for the near to medium future: early days yet
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23688770.half-scots-support-harvies-plan-phase-fossil-fuel-boilers/
Though as we have seen here it's been touted by Tories as compulsory heat pumps for all - but as RP pointed out this would be only where heat pumps made sense in the first place. Devil in the details, as always.
At least @Dura_Ace would offer me a bath, even if not a cucumber.
It's so character-building.
Or was there a missing Oxford comma?
Most flats don't have aircon. This isn't New York. Here are some blocks of flats in (chosen at random) in Bournemouth, but it could be any provincial town.
https://ww3.rics.org/uk/en/journals/built-environment-journal/surveyor-casts-expert-eye-over-flats--fire-risk.html
https://www.primelocation.com/for-sale/property/bournemouth/christchurch-road/
https://goadsby.com/property/residential/southbourne/bournemouth/bh6/1086841/
No aircon.
Leasehold flats have rules about structural changes (you can't) and that's specified in the leasehold agreement.
I always carry a picture of the Queen with me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DniTb4vR1wk
One of sporting history’s Might Have Beens
Clearly England have played the more entertaining and aggressive cricket, but is that better?
YES IT IS
Yet the banks refuse large numbers of people these basic accounts. And seem very reticent to discuss why.
And people wonder why Monzo etc are racing ahead…
If it was England, we know they'd go full 20/20 mode and attempt to win it. Will Australia?
Braess's paradox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess's_paradox
Entertainment is more important. And besides, England have come PAINFULLY close to winning this series. Denied by rain at OT, could easily have won at Lord’s or Edgbaston
If Test cricket has any future, England have shown where it must go. It’s that simple
That, and putting Australia to the sword art Old Trafford, and I'm comfortable with saying England are the better team. Cummins played very well in the first two matches to squeak Australia to victory.
Two very good teams who produced a wonderful series. Just a damn shame the weather blighted the last two games and prevented it becoming an all time classic
That said, for test cricket to be truly saved, it needs a strong West Indies.