The Night Mail

[SM42]

40 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Just don't encourage cats...

 

 

Could you tell Mrs SM42 that please. 

 

She doesn't listen to me. 

 

Andy

[DenysW]

11 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Actually Britain frequently has water shortages, so anything that reduces the gallons required to wash away a few grams of human waste will reduce demand.  The energy used to treat water to drinking (potable) standard - because hardly anyone uses grey water systems for flushing toilets - and pump it around is huge, so anything reducing that is well worthwhile.

Yes to the first point. No to the second point. I drove past Church Wilne WTW (Severn Trent)  today on the M1 and it proudly advertised 50 glasses of potable water for 1p.

 

What we have is cheap water and sewage treatment which we oldies resent because it used to be free (definition: buried in the fine print of council tax) and we therefore think that a water bill that is 10% of our energy bill is big. No. To get what we now want (better rivers, fewer sewage spills) it should probably be twice this, but would still be cheap.

 

However, just as with renewable power, renewable water requires huge batteries (aka reservoirs) and we're reluctant to pay for them, or to have them constructed near us. Sigh.

[pH]

My sister-in-law and her husband don’t have a cat. It doesn’t sleep in their back porch. 

[Northmoor]

Since one of our cats died just after Christmas, the other (her brother) has been off his food.  I think the loss of his companion (even if he did like to attack her every now and again, just to remind her who was Top Cat) and our two children going off to Uni, so for large parts of each day the house is empty, has upset him.  It's not a secret that animals grieve just like humans.

 

43 minutes ago, DenysW said:

Yes to the first point. No to the second point. I drove past Church Wilne WTW (Severn Trent)  today on the M1 and it proudly advertised 50 glasses of potable water for 1p.

 

What we have is cheap water and sewage treatment which we oldies resent because it used to be free (definition: buried in the fine print of council tax) and we therefore think that a water bill that is 10% of our energy bill is big. No. To get what we now want (better rivers, fewer sewage spills) it should probably be twice this, but would still be cheap.

 

However, just as with renewable power, renewable water requires huge batteries (aka reservoirs) and we're reluctant to pay for them, or to have them constructed near us. Sigh.

 

Oh I agree it's still incredibly cheap, but the amount of energy used by water companies is still eye-watering (my Dad worked in the water industry, mostly the least glamourous end, for most of his career*) because the scale of it is so big.  Reduce water demand and the UK will reduce its emissions, simple.  You're absolutely right that no-one wants to pay for the cleaner rivers and redundancy to reduce droughts, but it's also hard to argue with Fearghal Sharkey when he points out that since privatisation, we have been paying for the work to be done at levels agreed with the regulator, but OFWAT has been asleep at the wheel and didn't notice that the companies weren't actually spending it, but were maintaining dividends.  That money is gone.

 

*Dad often commented when people complained about leaks from mains that water always finds a way out; unless something very significant has changed in the last 30 years, you need to assume that getting leakage from a mains supply network to below 10% isn't considered cost-effective (for any water company, not just a profit-making one).

[newbryford]

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

Just don't encourage cats...

 

 

Next door's pair aren't encouraged, but "Benny/Benni the Bengal" is, as he/she is quite possibly the most beautiful cat I've ever seen.

Benny/Benni has to compete with the two existing residents of NB Towers.

[newbryford]

I shall be travelling to see Junior NB soon.

My current NHS prescription drugs are on the restricted list in the UAE.

 

Many forms have been filled in.

 

That's a good hour or two I won't get back

 

[AndyID]

Colorado limits the amount of above ground rain-water capturing capacity to 110 gallons (presumably US gallons 🤣)

[newbryford]

1 minute ago, AndyID said:

Colorado limits the amount of above ground rain-water capturing capacity to 110 gallons (presumably US gallons 🤣)

 

Good luck trying to enforce that in the UK over the last few weeks!

 

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[SM42]

4 hours ago, AndyID said:

Colorado limits the amount of above ground rain-water capturing capacity to 110 gallons (presumably US gallons 🤣)

 

Is that per year or maximum storage capacity?

 

As you can see I'm up extra early. 

 

Not only do I have to go to work, Mrs SM42 also  volunteered me to take some friends to the airport on the way. 

 

Well it's sort of on the way, if you go that way.

 

Andy

[AndyID]

41 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

Is that per year or maximum storage capacity?

 

As you can see I'm up extra early. 

 

Not only do I have to go to work, Mrs SM42 also  volunteered me to take some friends to the airport on the way. 

 

Well it's sort of on the way, if you go that way.

 

Andy

 

Storage capacity. A couple of water barrels. Any excess goes on the ground.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

Not only do I have to go to work, Mrs SM42 also  volunteered me to take some friends to the airport on the way. 

Until you get in the car and find out it is Bristol airport…

[jamie92208]

11 hours ago, AndyID said:

Colorado limits the amount of above ground rain-water capturing capacity to 110 gallons (presumably US gallons 🤣)

 

I'm off tomorrow to buy another couple of 1000 litre tanks. That will enable me to collect 7000 litre over a winter. l

 

6 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

Is that per year or maximum storage capacity?

 

As you can see I'm up extra early. 

 

Not only do I have to go to work, Mrs SM42 also  volunteered me to take some friends to the airport on the way. 

 

Well it's sort of on the way, if you go that way.

 

Andy

Yes wives are good like that.  I'm helping Beth's friend do a tip run this afternoon. 

 

Jamie

Edited January 11 by jamie92208

[TheQ]

We used to have many reservoirs here , now it's down to 3****.

 

Now the nature conservancy people have had their way, so instead of taking water out of the rivers and Norfolk broads just before it escapes to the north sea. The water companies have been forced to connect up lots of pipes ( reversing the flow in many of them) and take it from underground 25 miles inland the other side of Norwich.

 

**** The three left are the "Trinity Broads" Near The Ormsbys.

 

Mean while the water company is building a huge reservoir in the Cambridgeshire fens. https://www.cambridge-water.co.uk/environment/managing-water-resources/fens-reservoir

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

 

I'm off tomorrow tbuy another couple of 1000 litre tanks. That wile able me to collect 7000 litre over a winter. l

 

Good on ya. 

 

Not too many years ago there were extreme downpours in West London and some residential streets were a foot deep in water.  Thames Water were blamed for not upgrading the drainage to cope with such storm conditions - which would have been enormously expensive and disruptive for everyone living in those streets - when a major contributory factor in such areas is the amount of paving over of front gardens for parking (thousands of square feet in many streets), so all the water runs off into the street instead of some soaking away. It was pointed out by some that it would be considerably more cost-effective to give everyone in those streets (and install) water butts to capture water from the roofs, as this would form a significant buffer for storm water.

[DenysW]

12 hours ago, Northmoor said:

asleep at the wheel and didn't notice that the companies weren't actually spending it, but were maintaining dividends

Not true of the one I worked for due to the feared Ofwat Audit. Also if dividends were a factor the Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water would be the cheapest as it's not-for-profit. I note Thames Water hasn't paid a dividend recently, and isn't expecting to until (at least) 2030.

 

41 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

It was pointed out by some that it would be considerably more cost-effective to give everyone in those streets (and install) water butts to capture water from the roofs, as this would form a significant buffer for storm water.

I have water buts on the downcomers from my roofs. However, when full (all winter) they are bypassed to sewer. New, bigger, surface water sewers probably cost £200-£2000/metre (I'm out-of-date on this sort of cost) and no-one wants to have that sort of money spent on any system except the one that drains their own street.

[PhilJ W]

One way to stop some flooding would be a complete ban on building on flood plains.

[newbryford]

10 hours ago, newbryford said:

I shall be travelling to see Junior NB soon.

My current NHS prescription drugs are on the restricted list in the UAE.

 

Many forms have been filled in.

 

That's a good hour or two I won't get back

 

 

That was quick.

I'm now approved to take Class C/Schedule 3 stuff into UAE....

[Winslow Boy]

4 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

That was quick.

I'm now approved to take Class C/Schedule 3 stuff into UAE....

Does that mean your a Drugs Mule.

[newbryford]

2 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Does that mean your a Drugs Mule.

 

Nah - Mrs NB only takes me on holiday to be the suitcase mule

 

[Flying Fox 34F]

I thought all wife’s took they husbands on holiday just to shift the luggage!

 

Paul

[newbryford]

41 minutes ago, Flying Fox 34F said:

I thought all wife’s took they husbands on holiday just to shift the luggage!

 

Paul

 

And do the driving.

 

[Happy Hippo]

5 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

That was quick.

I'm now approved to take Class C/Schedule 3 stuff into UAE....

Can you take some stuff over for a friend?🤣

[newbryford]

5 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Can you take some stuff over for a friend?🤣

 

We're already taking Junior's excess stuff she couldn't fit in her case when she went back a couple weeks ago. 

[Happy Hippo]

DH called by this morning and joined in the planning meeting Gordon and I were having to try and sort out a timetable for work on PN and other railway related projects.

 

After a few hour of deliberation, tea, coffee and putting the world to rights, we are now sorted out all the way through to next Thursday🤣.