Fuelling The Crisis.

 The fuel shortage stories keep on running.  It's dominating the news and therefore a self fulfilling prophesy that it's in short supply.  I wonder what would have happened if we had kept our normal buying habits instead of ruching out to get that tank filled up.  I'd like to think it will be back to some sort of normality by Thursday, a week after it kicked off because I need to fill up my 2 petrol jerry cans for the lawnmower and don't want to suffer black looks from disgruntled delivery drivers.

Al least covid news has been pushed off the front page.  It's been a gradually reducing story, with the occasional item decrying a scientist, Boris or senior education figure.  Lets hope it stays out the news, I quite fancy a holiday abroad next year. 

Running Costs.

 Some newspaper commentators are trying to link the existing gas 'crisis' to global warming.  They're being quite inventive, but I'm not buying it.  It's the old 'cake and eat it' issue where they want the government to act on the lack of gas situation, whilst telling them we use too much gas.  Err, not possible methinks.  I do find it interesting though that we use a fraction of gas compared with a few years ago to generate electricity, but then seem to rely on it.  Maybe it's only a gas boiler thing.

Another dilemma is for the extremely smart, intelligent people that pop up and advise citizens to 'switch supplier!', 'haggle!', 'wear warm jumpers!', when all they are doing is gaining commission from suppliers and purveyors of warm jumpers to line their fleecy trousers -all in the interests of us dumb people.  Hopefully the expected decrease in suppliers will lead to fewer of these types.  I'm not a fan of being told the blumming obvious.

Exercise news - I've entered my first half marathon for a number of years, so it will be interesting to see if I can pace myself correctly.  I'm predicting 1hr 50mins, but I just want to get under 2 hrs really.  Watch this space (after 3rd October, obvs).  

Life's a Gas

Gas is going up.  That's quite normal, as long as the gas is lighter than air.  A quick question to Mr Google reveals that natural gas (which is the subject matter) is lighter than air, whilst bottled (propane or butane) gas is heavier. So now I know (I actually knew about the bottled gas, just wasn't sure about the natural version.

The government is a bit worried about the huge price rises and is looking to give loans to the bigger players in the market, and leave the smaller ones to struggle or go bust.  Sounds a bit unfair, but these smaller resellers have benefitted from an open market place and (I assume) made profit whilst prices were lower (or at least when they were not as volatile), and if they can't weather the storm then I guess we can blame market forces.  My electricity is through one of the newer, smaller resellers so it will be interesting to see how it fairs.

I read that BP is investing heavily in solar projects around the world, proving that old fashioned fossil fuelled energy companies can move with the times, which cannot be a bad thing.  I'm a fan of solar energy, it seems to me that it's one of the most consistent things we have on the planet (actually, it's not on the planet but you know what I mean) only being an issue when the clouds come in, and even then I read that they still function with a smallest amount of light unlike wind turbines which obviously have to spin at a certain speed to generate power. 

Mini Dressing.

 The tory government are going to raise national insurance contributions by around 1.5% to pay for social care and other good stuff.  This is a bit of a rarity for a right wing government who promised they would not raise taxes of any sort, and as much a problem for Labour, who are talking down the tax as if they would never do such a thing.  Politics -  so much hot air for the sake of it.

Talking of money, an article in The Guardian points out that many Youtube 'Influencers' (I'm not sure what this exactly means by the way) are adopting a 'minimalist' lifestyle which (as you would expect) means throwing out stuff you don need including friends, housing as well as the usual clothes and clutter we continually add to our surroundings.  I'd like to think I would be able to adopt this if I were single, but in a relationship you have to consider everyone's 'needs' even though it might be frivolous.   The flaw in this minimalist lifestyle is that it is very personal thing to to, akin to being a nun or hermit but being able and willing to brag about it in a not very minimalist way.