Monday 24 October 2022

Oil Tanks, Electric Bills, Wood-Burning Stoves and a Journey

On Saturday the usual text message arrived to remind me to read the electric meter and send the readings. I do it all on the phone and found that the governments £66 had gone into my account and my new bill was a wee bit less, so I'm £1 and a few pence in credit.
It all sounds very good doesn't it?  In reality it's not really good at all because it means my bill for October was £64 ...........double that of the same month last year, even though I'd used less electric. Thank goodness it's been such a mild month the oil central heating has hardly been needed at all, and as there was more oil left when they transferred it to the new tank than I thought, I'm ordering 800 litres rather than 1,000. It should last me ages because this year as soon as it gets colder for longer during the day, I'll be lighting the wood-burner instead of clicking up the target temperature.

Brother-in-Law Andrew came to help me move mattresses - mine back into my 'new' room and the spare back into the spare bedroom. I got him to help me shift two cupboards while he was here too. He also cleared away the 3 posts and broken trellis that had been around the old heating oil tank and then tackled some large lumps of concrete and bricks that were under the sand that had been under the old tank. Presumably they were left over from the 1980s when there would have been a metal heating oil tank standing on brick piers. Best of all he brought me a bag of  logs  split small to use on top of the kindling in my stove. With nothing to use between small kindling and large logs getting the fire going was taking an age.( The wood he'd split for me was a little of what he'd cleared out of Clay Cottage wood shed nearly two years ago - he'd not used it because it's willow which he reckons is pretty useless!)
I then spent the rest of Saturday starting to put everything indoors back in it's rightful place - so good to get back to normal and tidy.

It was decision time on Sunday morning - should I go down to the second day of the Big NSPCC second-hand book sale in Colchester or not? Actually it wasn't a hard decision........ Of course I went!

It was a very wet journey down - absolutely pouring - but it only takes 40 minutes so not too bad. I'd never been to the second day, always queued for ages with the crowds to get in early on the Saturday so it was strange to find how quiet it was and of course many of the boxes of books were half empty, I found a few  - but it's more about the looking and searching than the finding (that's my story anyway!) and  there's nowhere else with such a huge collection of old books to look through.


I used to own the Self Reliance book but so many years ago I'd forgotten what's in it and the same with the John Seymour. The one by Margery Allingham is a book I've heard of but never owned or read and Scenes from a Provincial Life by William Cooper and the book of Christmas Card Poems are both books I've never seen before.
Got home in plenty of time to do more shifting, clearing, cleaning and tidying. Almost everything is where it should be again.
 
Apologies to everyone whose comments had gone into spam as Yet Again I'd forgotten to look. Weirdly some of my replies to comments were also in there.
And also big thank you for all the comments about NCIS - seems I really am late to the party with watching Mark Harmon  such a good series!

Back Soon
Sue

25 comments:

  1. I've never heard of that allingham book, must check it out. William Cooper is a wonderful writer. I love his Scenes from Married Life, too.

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    1. Cooper is an author I'd not come across before

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  2. Very interesting book collection there.

    God bless.

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  3. Sounds like you will be in good shape for the winter with your house and your book collection.
    Cathy

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  4. I do love a good book sale and you got some treasures. Sad to say our public library sale has stopped since Covid and our huge used book store closed.

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    1. There's a big second hand book shop at Felixstowe, but they charge a lot for their books

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  5. There's a big children's book sale at Norwich Millennium Library on Wednesday - I'm very tempted....

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    1. They have boxes and boxes of children's books at the NSPCC sale.

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  6. Like you, my electricity bill has doubled £30 last year, £60 a month now and less used but at last Im in credit. Also a small woodburner here and The Log Store sell sacks of ‘small stuff’ all the odds and ends which is ideal for my little stove. Do you have one of those fans on your stove,wonder if they are worth investing in. Plenty of oil as so mild CH not required, it’s been 16deg some days in Dorset. Have you read any Veronica Stallwood, who dun it’s set in Oxford? Sarah Browne

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    1. I thought " that's good" when I found I was in credit but of course it's not good at all and won't help next April when the price cap will stop

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  7. In reality it is very good to get your bill paid. When commodity wholesale prices rise the rise is not normally met by governments. I note with my increased Winter Fuel Allowance coming I won't be paying for much of my electricity myself this winter. I might even boil the kettle twice a day instead of once.

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    1. I have no idea why I said "in reality" - much too wordy

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  8. Like the look of the Christmas Card Poems book-I like to buy poetry books as I always find something interesting in them. We also had our £66 paid into our fuel account. Catriona

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    1. There are some very odd "poems" in this book - not really what I was expecting

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  9. Your books look great, what a find.
    We are in credit with energy too but we are paying far more in DD than a year ago. It has gone from around £46 per month to £159. Thankfully our £66 has gone into the bank account this month. It would have been easier for it to go into the energy account and stay there though.
    Thank heavens for Andrew! He's a gem isn't he.
    I've been losing comments on Blogger too. Where would I find the spam box ?

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    1. PS I just found it! Several comments in there from regular readers too :/

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    2. Very funny - your PS went into spam!
      Brother-in-Law doesn't mind helping now and again as long as I don't ask to often!

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  10. Yes, I find that lots of my replies to comments go into the Spam folder a few days after they have actually appeared on my posts. I try and check most days and re-instate things and publish anyone's comments that have gone straight there, but it's very annoying!

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  11. How nice to get everything back in order, Sue. It is great when the work done matches your vision of what you wanted! How nice of your BiL to help you get things settled.

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  12. Getting everything back in order so quickly must please you tremendously. I also do not like disarray and would certainly be celebrating. You've found some great books at the sale. Electric costs are high in the US also. I used to pay under $100 and now it is $150-160 per month. Oil is still high at $5.29/gal. Even gasoline is rising in price again at $3.39/gal. A few weeks ago it was $3.14/gal. I am telling myself, this is the world we live in and we must go with the flow.

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  13. It sounds like exciting times for you at the moment Sue! Enjoy. x

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  14. All this worry around the world about high power and gas bills has reminded me of kerosene heaters. Do they still exist? As a child, that was all we had in our home to heat the house in winter but it worked well. It was a double burner and had a small rack attached to dry small items of laundry

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  15. I was born and raised in Colchester -my father being career army
    Now call Sydney home
    Mary

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