Renault Twizy

Video time...
Robert Llewellyn tests the Renault Twizy in his Fully Charged Youtube series, a light weight electric vehicle. It would be nice to see these around Havant Borough and Waterlooville:

The results of Havant Borough and Winchester City Councils decisions

 

Taylor Wimpeys Wellington Park development in Waterlooville continues with blocks of flats being built next to Southdown View. As this development progresses the buildings seem to have fewer and fewer features. These are bland white blocks with tiny windows at front and rear, and none along the sides. At first I thought they were offices (guess the still could be). But the access doors at ground level have pseudo victorian lamps by each door, not the sort of thing you would have on offices.

 

The old Waterlooville Wadham Stringer and latterly Caetano site has been demolished, with only huge piles of rubble remaining. The old Sprint Print building has also been demolished. I haven't checked the plans, but most people I have talked to think the Sainsburys petrol station is going top be built on the Sprint site, although I thought it had been moved to the recycling centre across the road. Yeah, Sainburys build petrol stations so you continue to pump CO2 from your car, and their own company CO2 figures look 'green'. Another CO2, export and green wash accounting measure. It's a nice little game such companies play, which is why CO2 emissions haven't come down in the UK and we are really fecked. The idea of consuming less and using less energy, just doesn't fit in with selling lots of crap everyday from a big retail store.

 

A view of the Sainbury site from the Waterlooville side. Note the already horrendous 'private' footpath and cycle path in the foreground. Havant Borough Council offloaded responsibility for this important path into Waterlooville years ago. It is still a nightmare for pedestrians and cyclists trying to reach the real Waterlooville town centre (you know, the one with buildings a 100 plus years old, the one the council is now determined to destroy, as they have destroyed in the past). This year we lose the Baytree Bookshop and others in the town centre. I'm guessing Sainburys will be selling books as well as food.

 

More devlopments in the Waterlooville retail park. A large unit being split into two smaller units. Downsizing!??

I haven't included in this post the start of work on the massive Grainger 2000 home development just behind the trees. The photo didn't come out to well, so that can wait for another time.

I also haven't shown the numerous trees that have been felled as a result of these developments.

My measuring jug spontaneously exploded!

I was peacefully getting my dinner ready today and used my trusty old toughened glass measuring jug to make some stock.

I had just put the caserole dish into the oven and started clearing up the work area. Picking up some knives that needed washing, I placed them in the measuring jug to reduce the space they were taking up.

As soon as the knives touched the bottom of the jug, it exploded into tiny pieces!
No force was used, in fact seconds/minutes earlier I was stirring the stock with a stainless steel spoon with similar force.

No joke, some four letter words were uttered and various other gasps of amazement. It was like some weird phenomena you hear about on some dodgy web site about ghosts or UFOs. The photo shows the end result but is only a small area.

Actually after the shock and awe, I realised it was going to be a pain in the butt to clean up, because there were hundreds of tiny slithers (really tiny, some are to small to be picked up by the camera) of glass all over the work surface that I use to prepare food as well as the sink area where clean plates etc. were drying.

Jokingly it reminded me of the chocolate cream egg adverts where they are animated exploding (why is that amusing?!).

I have heard of this happening before (I think). The tension in the old toughened glass couldn't take a small knock and the whole thing disintegrated. It's interesting that a small knock at probably a single point caused a catastrophic destruction of the complete object. Makes you want to know just what happened at the molecular level and how that rippled through the object.

I guess it could have done the same whilst I was making the stock, not sure if that would have been better, at least it would have ended up on the floor instead of over the work surface.

Update: I have noticed that fine glass dust is around the area, so the whole cleaning process is like some sort of decontamination scene. I think the work surface is clear, so can return carefully checked items at one end of the work surface. The sink area is a nightmare, will have to carefully examine each plate, fork etc for signs of glass. I'm going to be double checking every item for weeks now!

Queen Alexander Hospital Sustainability Day

Quick heads up on an event taking place tomorrow (28 Mar 2012) at QA Hospital. I spotted an article in The News but there is more info at the QA web site.

The QA is participating in the NHS Sustainability Day and the event starts at 9am, finishing at 5pm. It isn't clear exactly where, but I assume it will be around the main entrance (although I don't even know where that is, what with all the changes in the last few years!).

They say they will be explaining how they are cutting carbon emissions and there will be a display of electric vehicles and bikes.

Plastic bags again

Plastic bags are a long running theme of this blog, in fact it was a key reason for starting it in 2007 and unfortunately little has improved since then.

In 2008 I took some photos of plastic bags around Waterlooville and the Asda bag hanging from a tree near the underpass attracted some visits. Now that tree has been felled so that a ramp can be installed as an alternative route into Waterlooville.

Today the BBC has published an article about the plastic bag problem which has an interesting but misleading slide show that allegedly shows the merit of disposable plastic bags. It claims that if you use one of these bags as a bin liner 3 or 4 times, then you would need to use the sturdier plastic bags for life up to 12 times.

Well for a start, I have 3 bags for life that are between 3 and 6 years old, so it seems a bit ridiculous trying to defend the thinner disposable plastic bags because they can be used as bin liners. But even worse is the fact that I suspect the average family would require about 4 disposable bags per week to carry the weekly shopping, all of which would need to be used as a bin liner 3 or 4 times (N number of weeks). Which means that while those are used as bin liners, 4 x N disposable plastic bags would have been accumulated doing the shopping.

I think any sensible person can see where this is going. Ultimately the number of disposable bags is going to accumulate, waiting to become bin liners whilst the first set is being reused. The only option would be to start throwing away the growing pile of disposable plastic bags into one of the bins that is lined by a disposable plastic bag!

The fact is that disposable plastic bags can not be excused when even a plastic 'bag for life' can last for years. Find an alternative for bin liners, or at least radically reduce the number you use.

More plumbing!

The cold water kitchen tap finally decided to stop working yesterday. The plastic knob on the top no longer turned the tap on and off due to wear and tear.
Luckily about two or three years ago, my brother was replacing his kitchen sink and taps and was about to throw out the lot. I stepped in and retrieved the two taps and kept them, thinking that I would replace mine with them (my two were already a cause for concern back then).
So I turned the water off and decided to see if the valve assembly from my brothers taps would fit in on my faulty tap.

Luckily it did and as a result, I didn't even have to get under the sink to remove the old tap. I now have a fixed tap that cost nothing to repair and I have a spare valve assembly on the second tap I got off my brother which can be used in future for another free repair.

Michael Mann fights back

Interview with Michael Mann: