Archive for February, 2010
The Columnist Who Moved From London To The Village
Posted by Jeff Awesome in Interior Design on February 24th, 2010
I’m sure some of you will know the name Liz Jones, especially if you are an avid reader of awful Mail On Sunday columns, she writes about everything in her life for other peoples pleasure and gets quite a big readership in doing so.
A while ago however she packed up all her stuff and got some van hire in London and made a lovely little house move to the west country, just outside Exmoor. Obviously she wrote all about the move and the subsequent new people she met and as is her style she wasn’t exactly the nicest person when describing them.
It would seem according to this (admittedly quite old but shh, I only just found it) Guardian article the local people around the area didn’t really take too kindly too this and one even went as far as shooting her mail box! Now while I don’t condone this kind of behaviour or violence of any kind, I have to say being a country boy myself, what was she expecting?! It’s a very different life in the countryside and people may seem ‘behind the times’ compared to all the big city types. The Guardian piece says
Jones wrote that shopworkers “have learning difficulties and have never heard of illy coffee”. She asserted there wasn’t even a petrol station in the area giving it a “faintly Amish air” – though there turns out to be one at the bottom of her lane.
Erm I’ve never heard of illy coffee but i’m pretty sure that doesn’t mean I have learning difficulties, it also says
In just one column in May she confessed that she hadn’t had sex since she arrived in the area. “If men have teeth in the West Country it’s a bonus,” she added. She went on to claim there had been a “rash of burglaries” because there were so few jobs. Old ladies were too terrified to go to bed while car parks in Yeovil were “awash with hard drugs”.
Anyone that’s been to Yeovil will know just how stupid that sounds, I’m pretty sure I would prefer to walk around Yeovil at night alone than I would the middle of London. As for the men obviously not being her type, I wouldn’t worry, I’m sure you’re probably not theirs either.
It just seems stupid to me that she wants to move to the countryside but carry on living her metropolitan life and now she can’t she’s blaming everyone else. I think she should just get back in her rental van and move back to the city.
Yeah so anyway I guess I just seem to be in a ranty mood today, sorry about that!
Design Icon: CIS Tower
Posted by Jeff Awesome in General Design on February 19th, 2010
The CIS tower or the Co-operative Insurance Tower is the second tallest building in the great city of Manchester and is the UK’s largest solar powered project to date.
Built in 1962 the building was the tallest building in Manchester at the time and was clad in millions of mosaic tiles, which shimmered in the light to beautiful effect, compared to most 50′s and 60′s architecture this was a thing of wonder against a grey tower block horizon and many people booked flights to manchester to see the shiny behemoth. However, recently it had a major facelift as all the years of pollution and repairs have left the tiles looking dull and whilst doing this they also decided to save the environment and do their bit for climate change by replacing all the tiles with photovoltaic panels AKA solar panels. It cost £5.5 million to do but it can generate 180,000 kWh per year, which is probably a lot however I really don’t know what that actually means, i will presume however this is a good thing and it obviously has some benefit because the power it makes has been feeding power into the national grid since late 2005.
So I urge anyone who has never been to Manchester to hop on flights to the UK and take a visit to this amazing country side saving beauty and while you are there why not take a look around at all the other wonderful things Manchester has to offer
LED Bulbs
Posted by Jeff Awesome in Interior Design on February 18th, 2010
I have shown you an LED bulb before that looked more like a miniature work of art than an important product that should help stop the effects of climate change and the other day I had to get a load of bulbs for my house and I started looking into these fancy LED things, to see if they actually do save the world from climate change and if they do last as long as people say.
The first thing anyone will notice about them is the price. LED technology is obviously not a cheap thing with bulbs costing about £25 each and if you have 2 or 3 lights in each room that cost will soon add up to a staggeringly large amount. They also give off a quite harsh blue tinged white light, which is ok for kitchens and bathrooms but not that good for bedrooms or the lounge, however Philips have a new range, which they say is brighter than normal LED bulbs and can come in various colours.
On the plus side the initial cost is high but you should get most of that back because the running costs are extremely low a 40 watt halogen bulb can be replaced by 3 watt LED and on top of that they should last for about 15 years! Now that is certainly impressive if its true!
So my overall opinion on them? Give it another year or so and I think we will see LED bulbs become much more common and cheaper to buy, so I wouldn’t rush out and replace working bulbs right away.