Post 200 - The Bicentenial.

Alas, not that good a post. I shall start positive though.

Went to an absolutely wonderful birthday party over the weekend. It was wonderful to see the people I saw and to find out how they are now - I haven't seen most of them in a few years you see. I felt rather proud - not to mention priveledged - to have been there if I'm honest.

The drive to and from Worcestershire was lovely. Most of the bad weather was avoided and the company for the journey was good too. We stopped at a lovely pub for a Sunday Lunch which I shall mention now...

The name is "The Bell Inn" and it is on Old Wenlock Road (A442) in the village of Cross Houses, just outside Shrewsbury. Based on our experience, it is well worth a visit.

The start to this week has not, however, been as good.I got back to my house to discover that I had accidentally switched the freezer off when I left for the weekend. So all of my food for the next week has defrosted and my stockpiles are now predominantly wasted. Unless I can find some poor soul to give it to!

Important.
In the spirit of blogging, I need to bring a website to your attention. A friend of mine was actually related to people involved in these described events.

http://justiceforneil.com

See for yourself, decide for yourself, do what you feel is right.

A Rainy Day on Anglesey?!
Before I have my tea, I just wanted to get something off my chest.

I was at the shop (or siop in Welsh), and there were two ladies in front of me at the till who, as is normal round here, were having quite a chat with the lady behind the counter. I didn't mind, I was in no rush and what they were talking about was interesting - not that I was listening!

Well it came to serving me and the lady behind the counter just went silent - didn't even say hello. I tried to be friendly, but to no avail and to be honest I was hurt by that. Why is it that ladies seem to assume I won't be friendly, or that I'm coming on to them if I'm friendly or chatty, or compliment them?

Is it so wrong to pay a lady a compliment? Today at work I complimented a lady on her haircut - it looked nice - was I supposed to ignore that and be ignorant just because that is what is expected of me?

No, on this I am not going to conform. It truly is nice to be nice - and if I have to launch a one-man crusade to drill this into society then so be it. You have been warned - I am going to be nice to you.

That's Cloud Coming Over The Hill!

Yes it has been overcast today, but to see the clouds rolling over Snowdonia is a lovely sight.

I have been mostly watching NasaTV today as the shuttle departs from the ISS. It's been a good mission and hopefully landing will go well. It's good to have construction resuming. With my shiny new t'interweb connection I shall enjoy watching all of these events as they unfold.

Family history research - now there's something you thought I'd forgotten about. Normal service is in the process of being resumed. Two distant cousins have been found whilst I've been away and there is quite some research to be done.

My computer is crashing randomly whilst on the internet, so if I disappear from a chat with anyone, please forgive me.

Right, to the topic of todays post. Electricity bills.

My current "Energy Provider" is Manweb, or to give it its full name, Scottish Power-Manweb. As with all electricity companies their prices have risen recently and Anglesey has been no exception - a 10% rise no less.

Somehow this quarter I have run up a bill of £270. That's using 3kW every hour. Assuming a kettle uses 1kW to boil, that means 3 kettle fulls an hour. I can get four cups of tea out of my kettle, so that's twelve cups of tea per hour. That's a 24/7 average. Ridiculous! I know we British are meant to like our tea - but twelve cups an hour is a bit much!

Anyway, my point is that I was under the impression that my electricity was on an Economy7 pricing scheme. It wasn't. As a result, my bill is twice what it should have been.

It won't come as much of a suprise to learn that I went in search of a list of pricing schemes from Manweb. It took nearly an hour to track down a list of tarriffs. In total, the list contains 24 different electricity rates. Some of which are repeated and some of which only apply if you pay by ceratin methods at certain frequencies. So, all in all, I was confused to buggery (which may have been the intention).

So I sat down and did the maths. I worked out the costs for my exhorbitant use of electricity over the last quarter (which won't be repeated) and I also calculated for a more reasonable volume of electricity usage. The cheapest option was the same for both usage levels and I wanted to let the world know which one this was for their future reference.

First of all, you'll want to have the 'standing charge' option (unless you use pitiful amounts of electricity). Then you'll want the 'Premier Plus' package. The rate is called 'Economy 7'. So that's the Economy 7 rate, on the Premier Plus package with the standing charge.

Still with me? Then you'll be wanting to know about economy 7. First of all look here. You'll need to get your house set up with a timer controlled water tank and possibly storage heaters too. But the key bit is having a meter (or meters) that can cope with day and night rates of electricity. You'll need to contact your supplier regarding this. They'll probably charge, so bear in mind that you could easily save £100 per year (on average).

My head hurts now, so I'll be off. I hope I've explained things well, but when it's made overcomplicated by other people, it aint'nt easy.

Guess Who's Back.

Job? Check.
House? Check.
Electricity? Check.
Phone line? Check.
Computer? Check.
Modem? Check.
8Meg broadband? Check.

Big grin? Check.

Need I say more? Oh, alright then, I will...

It's been a long haul thing, but the world is now at my fingertips once more. No longer anywhere near as cut off from the outside world, I only need one more thing to say that I am truly 'settled'. That would be a sofa. Which is on order :-D

Work is going well, I have settled in and on the whole I think my progress is good. It's annoying at times when my own inexperience stares me in the face, but it's the only way to learn. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Getting up at 6am is taking its toll on me; I usually have big headaches over the weekend (just the weekend though :-s) and my skin is getting dry. But if that's all that is wrong, I think I'm doing rather well.

I've been busy taking photo's and I have some stunning views to share. All I need to do is get the computer to realise there's a camera attached to it. I won't hold my breath - getting the modem installed took the best part of three hours.

While I've been gone, my hotmail account got deleted. I've reclaimed it, so I hope there weren't any important emails.

I have a lot of catching up to do. I have to install various softwares and I also want to actually see some of this space station work that's being carried out as opposed to reading and seeing blurry pictures.

I'll write soon. It's good to be back.