Derbyshire Oat Cake

We had some lunch at the Chatwsorth Farm Shop, their Derbyshire oat cake were very reasonably price.  Most things are reasonable prices.  I did refrain from getting a ham hock this time.

Plug-in Battery

With all the latest knee jerk reactions, people are thinking the low installation costs options.  I have double checked my understanding, looking up available products.

First of all, the regulations called for their own disconnect, ie it should not be plugged in.

Then I did all the maths.  For the balcony solar, which I won't need, one would have to be very lucky to get a payback within 5 years, even with South facing balcony.  The only saving grace is that micro inverter and solar panel should be good for 25 years.

Not taking into the fact if electricity price is decoupled from gas, electricity price could be a lot lower, hence increasing the payback.

I am more interested in battery, but a small, AC coupled battery has a bad round trip loss, taking depth of discharge into account, it is hardly any buffer.  And in the best case scenario, I could get payback in 3 years, by then, the battery is half dead. I just generated another piece of rubbish...

Also not taking into account of the price is decoupled, that would easily make the payback longer than it's life.

Let's stick with my original plan, in 7-10 years time, when the string inverter packs in, get a hybrid inverter with a battery then.  Hopefully by then the sodium battery technology is matured and cheap.

Danby Vanished

I was just checking on Danby, and realised someone put a personalised plate on her.  I wouldn't able to check on her elderly health from now on.

First Brown Bin

 The first brown bin has been collected.  It took two hours to fill it up again!  Let's the Spring begin!

SNL London

I have watched a few sketches of the SNL London, they are quite funny.  Not funny enough to make me want to subscribe.  The American stuff are "free" online.

Disappearing Snoods

I thought I had a loads of snoods, the Suzuki one, the two Bike-it, my orange one.  Now I can only find the orange one.  I might have to break open the Harley Davidson one!  I check the most likely places including coat pockets! Where are you!!! 

Closing Down Sales II

I went to another Factory shop.  It is later in their closing down sale, so although some signs are still not right, they were all heavily marked down.  I did bag a few bargains.  I am looking forward to my chocolates!

Fiesta Maps Update

I finally got a big memory stick for updating the maps.  I read the instructions, it was going to take forever to update.  I was not going to leave the car running on idle just to update the computer.  So after a job, with a long drive home, I start the update.  It was supposed to have a break after 30 minutes, except it didn't come soon enough, so I skipped lunch and drove on.

It flashed at me a few times, I drove all the way back home, and it still wasn't done, do I use the drive-thru and got some lunch.  Just as I was finishing lunch, finally, it did it! 

I will check it every 6 months to see if there are any updates, meanwhile, it was hard work!

Empty Pumps

Fuel situation has not been great.  I saw a very good price pump, but I missed it, as it wasn't too empty.  Then I went back that direction another day, the price was still good, I pulled in, all the diesel pumps were out of service...  They really should just turn the sign off...

Menu Contraction

We went to a popular Japanese restaurant.  The Japanese portion of the menu is quite small, and they added other crowd pleasers.  Business need to do what they need to go.

Twisted Long Island Iced Tea

I was tempted with the happy hours offer.  After being told their frozen margaritas are not frozen, I went for the long island iced tea.

It was Las Iguanas, the menu had not purposefully highlight the Latin twist on the classic.  The drink was indeed in the "classic" section.  When it arrived, I tasted it, they tasted funny, I looked at the menu to see, they used spiced rum rather than white rum.  The second glass had a little less spiced rum.

Either way, I finished both, but I may stick with margaritas on rocks next time.

Japanese Bluetooth Earphone

I finally opened the new earphone from Japan.  The instruction were completely in Japanese, but they were quite standard.  Apart they don't sit snug in my ears, the battery life and sound quality were good.

Seaside Seafood

Seaside Seafood, what a con.  I had a dressed crab, they were clearly frozen.  And when you are at the beach, "in a good mood", you wouldn't want to slash out on them.  What a con!

Sunny Spring Day

It was so sunny and warm that my new plants became very sad.  I had to water them to make them perk up, imagine that.  

Weird Dim Sum

We had some lunch at Oriental City.  They have some new dim sum.  One of which was red cheung fun with fried prawn.  So strange.  There were 6 of us, so we get to share more things.  They have discontinued some less popular dim sum, much to our disappointment.

Planting Out 2026

It is warm enough, and my sprouts are big enough to go outside.  I am expecting great things from my Poundland marked down onion setts, especially they are getting so much of the prime real estate!

First Slug Hunting of 2026

We finally got a perfect damp night to do some slug hunting/killing.  When I said we, I meant Sarah.  Good job!

Supercharger Demonstration

Matt and I went on a long trip, and it has demonstrated how superchargers were indeed very fast.  I did slightly regret not going electric, after the fuel price jumped 10%...

Closing Down Sales

The Poundland in Crossgates and the Factory Outlet in Garforth was having closing down sale.  They know some product can sell without discounting, so they don't apply discount on them.  However, the labelling were not the clearest, considering their staff maybe stressed.  So I ended up not getting much from either of them, and was disappointed when the product was scanned the price was not reduced.

Crepeaffaire

We got a coupon for Crepeaffaire so we tried it. We did not know their savoury pancake is not default buckwheat.  All in all, it was a good deal.

Driving Ergonomics

I took advantage of a coupon and bought a seat cover with lumber support.  Danby had a Lumber support lever, and it did not work well.  Let see if this actually works.

Mother's Pride

We watched another free good movie, Mother's Pride. The cinema was actually full for the showing.  Why are so many silly movies based in the Southwest?

Gripfill Adhesive

It takes a long time to use down a tube of Gripfill.  To be exact, it takes a long time to use down any tube adhesive.  Coincidently, we broke a picture frame, and it was the best adhesive for it, or PVA.  If I had discover expanding foam adhesive earlier, I wouldn't even have bought the Gripfill.

I just need to use down the foam adhesive now...

Library Random Books

We picked up a few random books from the library, they were quite random.  I started reading a couple autobiography, I took one home.  I got bored of them, clearly I am not as interested in them as I thought I was.  But some may say, reading for reading sake...

Not Stottie

I was in Newcastle and ordered a sausage and bacon stottie. I got a knife ready to cut it up.  When the sandwich turned up, it was NOT a stottie!  It was at best an oven bottom.  I was very disappointed!

Danby's New Home

Since I have been on Carcheck.co.uk checking things away, Danby has already got a new family!  New tax has been applied and all.  I am happy for her.

New Fiesta II

I upgraded the car's console's software.  I had to move some files around to free up a big enough memory stick for the job.  But none of my memory sticks is big enough to update the GPS maps!

When I drive her around some more, and this time, I was not baked in the car.  The climate control is magically working.  Surely it has nothing to do with the console, but what a coincidence!

Reset Connect North

Someone posted Reset Connect North on the chat group, and since it aligns with my interest, I registered and went.  It was quite interesting, I chatted with some people, said hi to another and learnt something new.  I will consider going again if they come back next year.

Free Silly Movies

Our free Octopus Rakuten voucher code was running out, so we watched two silly movies in a roll.  Good Fortune and Ella McCay, I would recommend.

Vacuum Robot Infirmary

It was one of the busiest repair cafe.  The first two patients I saw were two vacuum robots.  There were actually something wrong with them, but just the copious of dirt trapped in them.

The first one was very similar to our Eufy, its sensor lens was somehow loose.  The second one was the super expensive Roomba!  The bumper was jammed in a strange way, I managed to spot it and dislodged it.  I gave them a good clean whilst they were being looked at.  It was very accomplishing!

New Fiesta

The day has come, we went to collect my new Fiesta and say goodbye to Danby.  There were a lot of work before getting to this point.  I managed to put everything, the car, the tax and the insurance all on the 0% credit card, with the added consumer protection!

We were cooked on the way home, we were not sure why we couldn't get the cooling going...