Blog Posted And We Were On Our Way,

to visit Duncan, as it was Diana's day off she wanted to accompany me, 

cold weather clothes on, 

we made our way past the snail mail box, 

and were soon on a number 54 bus, as usual they travel in packs, two here coming towards us, and a third about to turn to follow the other two,

we passed Peter Pan's Pool,

in the distance the sky clearing, 

the plants on top of this bus shelter in the bee garden starting to change to red, 

we were making good time, 

until a driver change, 

the sky clearing now as we approached Catford, 

the wisteria on this building just starting to flower,

the Catford street market just starting to open,

along the route the chestnut trees in flower, 

as a school boy I would look at trees like this on my way to school, thinking about the conker season in the school playground, 

Lewisham market up and running,

in Blackheath Village the florists open,

the aroma of stocks filling the air, 

lots of cut flowers,

as well as a few potted plants,

including a few dwarf sunflowers,

Diana stocking up on croissants and coffee for the train journey,

we made our way along the platform, 

changing trains at Dartford, 

arriving in Gravesend the sky had started to cloud over, 

on to and off of the 483 and we were walking up the hill towards the nursing home where Duncan stays,

the silver birches now with all of their foliage, inside Duncan was in fine sprits and pleased to see Diana, we chatted away about some of the times we had all meet up for meals and at weekends, as Duncan's lunch arrived we said our farewells and left for the bus stop, 

the roses at the entrance still not quite in flower, 

off of the bus and onto platform 0, and here is our train arriving, thankfully we did not have to change trains at Dartford, 

onto the bus at Blackheath village and we were soon head towards Catford, 

past the Catford cat, when we arrived at Catford bus garage it was not a change of driver, it was a change of bus! everybody off and onto another number 54, 

we were soon on our way again, passing a failed bee garden, now all weeds, still I do not suppose the bees will mind as long as the flowers have nectar, 

we were soon hurtling past the Homebase at Peter Pan's Pool,

and walking past Foxgrove Lodge into the park,

arriving home it was soon time for our evening meal, also waiting for us was the new edition of Private Eye, 

for our starter chicken soup with onion and sweetcorn,

for our main course I thought it was baked salmon until I tasted it, it was in fact Scottish loch trout, delicious,

'Cheers!',

we ended the meal with a Eton mess, 

I just had to have another 'Cheers!', after our meal it was time for a Midsomer Murder, which we followed with a Have I Got News For You, after which we were off to bed.

If You Have, Or Are Thinking Of Buying A EV

have a read of this,

photograph @Hanna Roth, the article is from David Thomas I have copied it in full:

DID YOU SAY YOU WERE GOING GREEN?

This is a Tesla Model Y battery. It takes up all of the space under the passenger compartment of the car. To manufacture it you need:

·        12 tons of rock for Lithium (can also be extracted from sea water)

·        5 tons of cobalt minerals (most cobalt is made as a byproduct of processing copper and nickel ores. It is the most difficult and expensive material to obtain for a battery).

·        3 tons nickel ore

·        12 tons of copper ore

You must move 250 tons of soil to obtain:

·        26.5 pounds of Lithium

·        30 pounds of nickel

·        48.5 pounds of manganese

·        15 pounds of cobalt

To manufacture the battery also requires:

·        441 pounds of aluminum, steel and/or plastic

·        112 pounds of graphite

The Caterpillar 994A is used to move the earth to obtain the minerals needed for this battery. The Caterpillar consumes 264 gallons of diesel in 12 hours.

The bulk of necessary minerals for manufacturing the batteries come from China or Africa. Much of the labor in Africa is done by children. When you buy an electric car, China profits most.

The 2021 Tesla Model Y OEM battery (the cheapest Tesla battery) is currently for sale on the Internet for $4,999 not including shipping or installation. The battery weighs 1,000 pounds (you can imagine the shipping cost).

The cost of Tesla batteries are:

·        Model 3 -- $14,000+ (Car MSRP $38,990)

·        Model Y -- $5,000–$5,500 (Car MSRP $47,740)

·        Model S -- $13,000–$20,000 (Car MSRP $74,990)

·        Model X -- $13,000+ (Car MSRP $79,990)

It takes 7 years for an electric car to reach net-zero CO2. The life expectancy of the battery is 10 years (average). Only in the last 3 years do you start to reduce your carbon footprint, but then the batteries must be replaced and you lose all gains made.

And finally, I forgot to mention the amount of energy required to process the raw materials and the amount of energy used to haul these batteries to the U.S. - sometimes back and forth a couple of times.

But by all means, get an electric car. Just don't sell me on how awesome you are for the environment. Or for human rights.

a fascinating read, do I want a EV? not on your life do I want to join the hypocrites that drive EV's! keeping to a EV theme if you have one of these:

image Tesla, car company Tesla has issued a recall of nearly all Cybertrucks sold to date, following reports of its accelerator pad becoming stuck at "full throttle", the recall applies to 3,878 vehicles produced between 13 November and 4 April, when Tesla started utilising soap as a lubricant to aid assembly in an "unapproved change" to the manufacturing process, according to a report from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Association, In at least two reported cases, residues of this lubricant caused the accelerator pad to detach from its pedal and become trapped in the car's interior trim, causing unwanted acceleration, "It held the accelerator down 100 per cent at full throttle," one driver describes in a video that seems to demonstrate the issue, owners of the 3,878 Cybertrucks affected by the recall – which, according to TechCrunch, is nearly all of them sold to date – will have to bring their cars into a service centre for a free repair, ah! the pleasures of EV ownership!

I Have Heard Of Grow Your Own Food,

but grow your own furniture in a matter of minutes?

photographs ÉCAL apparently it can be done, researchers from Swiss design school ÉCAL have unveiled a range of flat-pack furniture at Milan design week that needs to be soaked in water to reach its final form, the collection, 

called Under Pressure Solutions or UPS, is constructed from thin, compressed sheets of cellulose sponge, allowing the objects to fit into flat parcels – some small enough to squeeze through a letterbox – for more efficient shipping,

just add the flat pack to water, 

watch it grow, wring it dry and wait for it to harden, looking at the photographs the material appears to be quite strong, once the furnishings have reached the end of their life, they can be either recycled or backyard composted, breaking down in soil within a matter of months, graduate student Brice Tempier harnessed the pliability of the sponge to create a customisable shelf that can be moulded into different shapes while wet, "You can decide the shape you want for the shelf and when it's dry, it will stay like that," Guberan said. "And if you move somewhere else where you have another setup, you can re-wet it and remould it."

rather than being an inconvenience, the hope is that the furniture's elaborate unfurling process will form an "integral part of the owner's experience", much like it did with Gaetano Pesce's iconic UP5 chair made from self-expanding polyurethane, which the Italian designer debuted in Milan in 1969, "Every 20 minutes, we unveiled a new chair," Pesce told the ÉCAL team shortly before his death. "We tore open the bag, and people lined up just to witness the sight: a chair rising like dough." "Our goal was never to put this on the market tomorrow," he said. "We know how complicated it is to bring a new material and new research into the industry." adding "But I think it's the role of a school to dream a little bit and to have the liberty to offer something different." what an amazing idea and product, the size and weight must make it a hands down winner in distribution of what will become a large item.

I Left Early, And Dropped Diana Off At Work As She Had A Early Start Today,

I then went directly to the garage,

 but firstly I should say I am only making one post today, as we will both be visiting Duncan as Wednesday is Diana's day off, so as soon as I post this we will be out, back to Tuesday, I left early to avoid the huge queues at the Blackwool Tunnel, and arrived in plenty of time before the Grange Service Centre opened at 08.30 in Woodford, car booked in at 08.30 and work started on the dot,

so time for a breakfast of a bacon sandwich and mug of tea at the local café, I read a book in the service centre and at 12.00 the car was ready and had been valeted, all of the usual's checked, the AdBlue topped up, the cost of the service and visual check and some changed, oil, filters etc and to test all of the parameters came to £620.04, at today's rate, $772.21, good job it only has to be done once every 2 years! out of interest these are the print outs I was given,

on the last page the AdBlue was topped up, so we are good for 8-9,000 miles, on the bad news front I was informed that the brake hoses were badly corroded, unfortunately none were in stock and it would take a couple of weeks for them to arrive, so a second visit at some time next month, everything else green lights across the board, I arrived back home at 2.00 in the afternoon, the traffic surprisingly light, Diana had beaten me home and was having a few ZZZZZ's as she had a early start, I had dropped her off, but unlike Diana I had not been working all day! just before our evening meal Diana was called to ask if she could work a over night shift from 9.00 this evening until 05.00 Wednesday morning, Diana said yes, for myself after she left I watched a Midsomer Murder, one I had seen before, but so long ago, after which it was a Have I Got News For You, before I was off to bed.

I Am Only Making One Post Today,

as first thing I will be driving to Essex to have our car serviced, 

one of the many enjoyable things about owning a Jaguar is that it only needs servicing once every 2 years, back to Monday, as I finished posting the blog,

there he was again, one solitary duck on the roof of a neighbours house, during the day I was househusband, tackling the one job I do not like, cleaning the lime scale from the glass shelves in the bathroom, it is not difficult, but I always worry that I am going to drop one of them and break it, thankfully all went well,

in the afternoon I received a telephone call from a very excited Diana, she asked to meet me from her work in O'Neil's, so shoes on and I was off, 

I was soon on my way, passing the snail mail box, 

and a stand of bluebells by the tennis courts, 

not only blue but pink,

and white as well,

at the entrance to the park, on the other side of the road, this blue shrub was in flower,

 

lots of them, I have no idea what it is called,

into O'Neil's, I ordered a pint, 

just as Diana arrived, she had great news, he application for citizenship had been approved! the culmination of nearly 6 years of supplying all of the information and money the UK government needs for the application to be successful, we both breathed a huge sigh of relief, all we have to do now is make an appointment at our town hall for Diana to take the oath and we can then apply for her passport,

 

next over the road to the railway station, as Diana has Wednesday off she will accompany me to visit Duncan in Gravesend, so we bought her tickets here in case the ticket office at Blackheath is closed on Wednesday, arriving home it was feet up for a coffee as we watched a couple of quiz shows, after which our film for the evening was,

Glass, which connects the worlds of Unbreakable and Split, created by M. Night Shyamalan, James McAvoy stole the film, almost simultaneously having 2 conversations with 4 people all of whom he was, playing the parts of Patricia, Dennis, Hedwig, The Beast, Barry, Heinrich, Jade, Ian, Mary Reynolds, Norma, Jalin, Kat, B.T., Kevin Wendell Crumb, Mr. Pritchard, Felida, Luke, Goddard, Samuel and Polly, whilst talking to someone who was in the room, we quite enjoyed the film, but it somehow seemed not only drawn out, but missing that certain something, but there it was, after which it was a Have I Got More News For You before we were off to bed.