The pearler

No – not the Steinbeck novel…far too dark for today.  ‘Pearler’ is the word I learned to use in New Zealand to describe a beautiful blue day, when all of the colours rage and you are lifted out of the black and white greyness (living in Scotland is like being stuck in a black and white movie sometimes!)

I have returned to the flat which is now in two areas…one part building site, the other the living part.  My argos aga twin hob is now in the hall, together with the kettle.  And I’m living in the bedroom.  Its good to be back in the wee gaff.  The days off have been very restful.  This beautiful day is exciting because the autumn is here, and I love the colours of autumn, and then there is the winter to look forward to.  Its going to be blooody cold up here unless the woodburner stove is fitted in the next two months.  I’ve decided to go for the Pioneer model from Clearview.  The one pictured below shows the wee spot up above the main burning unit, which can house tea / coffee pots or a casserole dish….but the one I saw in the showroom the other day has a much larger open oven / cooking surface.  Its going to be a magic focal point for the flat.  And there is no shortage of wood up here in Arrochar 😉

So the initial plan is to contact the council and go through the process of obtaining building consent.  The salesman at scottish stove centre didn’t think this would be too onerous, but said the timescale would vary depending on which council.  Could be one week, could be three months.  I’ve just run a search to see if the place is a listed property, would would have been a bloody nightmare…and it isn’t!

Anyway its lovely to be up here again even if it is half a building site.  Brian has redone the electrics with a new ringman all sitting laid out in the living room, most of the OSB strapping is up, and even some top layer 12mm gibrock.   Jobs today are washing all the dishes once more (the fine dust from the lath and plaster walls is incredible – it gets everywhere).   Then maybe I’ll get down to the garden for an autumn tidy up.

I’ve got a tradesman spark lined up for installing the new electrical main board…one thing I definitely will NOT be including is a ‘smart’ meter.  You see these things are now being pushed quite hard by the big electrical companies.  Well, if you can just engage your brain a bit between episodes of Xfactor, Corro, and of course the ‘news’ – just think about this.  You are being invited to install a device in your home which communicates all of your energy use habits 24/7 back to the company.  How likely is it that in time (this will be an incremental movement, just watch) you will be told something….oh em, you have been using your cooker at a peak time (…eh yeah, when I get back from work?) oooh and because we have to save the planet / be good global citizens / ehhh you will have to pay more for use at that time.  Aye we’ll put your rate between 6 and 8pm up by 150%.  How are you enjoying your socialism?  Hey, you’re saving the earth…thats right everyone doing their bit.

Bit of thread drift creeping in to this post but I couldn’t help but notice this APPALLING advert placed into the national media, which was quickly pulled but not before causing some considerable outcry.  Please think about the message this is sending to you.  Get in line, sheep, get in line behind this carbon green shadow economy (run by the international banks), get on message or the alternative is…..oh well, I’ll let you have a look and find out:

Don’t you just love the cuddly Coronation street accent….I’ll leave you all now while I get into my evil car and burn fuel on another unnecessary trip to Glasgow.  Going to leave a trail of CO2 in my wake….you know, the stuff that plants breathe…

Hoping some of you greenies out there leave comments 😉