Archive for the ‘Money’ Category

Dart-Penalty, the Dartford crossing service that doesn’t charge.

Saturday, February 28th, 2015

We made a rare trip to Essex from Devon last Christmas, crossing the Thames at Dartford. We spent the last few miles before the crossing looking for the notices that used to tell us how much it was to cross so we could get the coins ready. We noticed some ...

Spoke dynamo / speichendynamo. Farewell old friend.

Thursday, December 19th, 2013

One of life's reassuring constants has just quit on me: my bicycle dynamo. I bought it from a German website about 10 years ago after a German colleague told me such a thing existed. This was in the days before translation engines on the web, so I recall some trial ...

Rainwater toilet flush

Wednesday, December 11th, 2013

Among other efforts to reduce our South West Water bills, we employ If it's brown flush it down. If it's yellow Let it mellow. - which saves a lot of money, but the bathroom always smells of wee. Fortunately for us, we live in rainy Devon and there's a rainwater butt fed by the drainpipe ...

Save on winter heating with cheap DIY four poster.

Monday, December 31st, 2012

[caption id="attachment_1508" align="alignright" width="293"] With the sides knotted up during the day[/caption] I'm not keen on central heating but I don't like feeling cold in bed. The house we're currently renting never seems to get very warm: turning up the heating seems only to increase the bills and the 'musty old ...

London most polluted capital in EU. 1952 Great Smog. A child dies.

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012

I was surprised to see in an article at the BBC today that London has the worst air pollution in the EU. I remember working in the Square Mile in the mid 80s and having permanently black bogies and a sore throat which only abated when I went on holiday. ...