Over A Barrel - Oil Prices Continue to Rise 23 Apr 08
Last summer, I mentioned on here how updating our central heating timer was saving us money and oil. We finally had to order home heating oil in September, having been expecting to need more oil any time from March onwards. I’m glad to be able to say that the trend has continued over the winter, when previously 900 litres of oil would have lasted us from November to March, our refill from September is only starting to run low now.
Unfortunately, there is a downside to ordering oil less frequently – when we do finally need more, I’m shocked at just how far the price has risen. From memory, I paid around £350 for 900 litres of oil back in September. This week, I’m being quoted £480 for the same quantity. Its only a few years ago (4, maybe 5) that I remember paying £200 and thinking how expensive that was.
Its not just heating oil either. One of local papers was recently speculating that petrol could reach £1.50 per litre (that’s $11.26 per US Gallon) by the summer, meaning that driving is going to be a lot more expensive too.
So what are we to do? Well, in the short term there’s not a lot we can do but pay up. However, with plans brewing to fit a wood-burning stove in our living room, I’m certainly going to be looking into if/how we could use that stove to heat the rest of the house or provide hot water. Not only would it save us money, but wood has a much shorter CO 2 cycle than fossil fuels so its better for the environment too.
On the transport side of things, I received some good news today but its not quite public yet. If you’ve been following my previous posts you might be able to guess, but if not, I should be posting about it in the very near future.
Posted by Nev in Going Green , Money with tags driving, heating, home, money, oil, transport
Hectic 15 Apr 08
That’s how life has been for the last week or more and its the reason for yet another spell of silence on Mad Eejits.
Where do we start? Well, Sarah’s dad had the flu. This meant Sarah had to work 6 days a week, rather than her normal 3 days, just to keep the family business ticking over. Which in turn meant we needed extra childcare for Ben, but unfortunately we didn’t even have his ‘normal’ childcare available as Sarah’s Mum had the flu too and my parent’s are away on holiday at the moment. On top of all this was the fact that it was my turn to be on-call for work, meaning I had to be contactable 24×7 and I had to handle a few late night issues during the week.
Thankfully, my aunt Sheila has been (as she always is) an absolutely star, taking Ben herself when she could and helping to arrange alternative childcare when she couldn’t. Without her, I think Sarah would have had no choice but to close the shop entirely, risking annoyed customers and definite loss of earnings.
As usual, Ben didn’t appear to be the slightest bit bothered by any of the ‘goings-on’ and didn’t mind ‘visiting’ a different person nearly every day. Even a spot of conjunctivitis didn’t slow him down, though it did look horrible to the rest of us.
I’m glad to say that the victims of the flu are well on their way to recovery and Ben’s conjunctivitis has almost entirely disappeared. Sarah’s finally enjoying a day off today and I’m no longer on-call. Now, we’d just like to sleep.
Here, There and Everywhere 31 Mar 08
Its been quiet for a while here on Mad Eejits, but not without good reason.
The short version is that a couple of Fridays ago (14th March), I found out that I had to fly out to the U.S. for a week, that Monday, for some knowledge transfer sessions. Not having flown anywhere for over 2 years, there was a bit of frantic packing on the Sunday afternoon, followed by re-packing after checking current airport security guidelines and finally hunting for my passport.
The trip was all business, no-pleasure, though we get to some nice restaurants when we finally did leave the office each evening. Also, I’d forgotten just how much I hate flying.
I arrived back from this trip on Saturday afternoon to have one night at home before we headed off on a short family break (sunny Portstewart again) on Sunday. Though certainly more relaxing than the previous week, it took until about Wednesday for me to recover from the affects of the jet-lag and generally not sleeping very well whilst I’d been away.
We came home again yesterday and I’m back in the office today, for the first time in two weeks, feeling like most of March has just been a blur. Unfortunately, things may get worse before they get better, but that’s another story.
Posted by Nev in Life , Travel , Work with tags family, flying, holiday, work
Want to read more? Browse through the archives in our Notebook section.
