Get a grip woman!

trix-a-belle

SL, i've not read or am aware of the pylon proposal but from my fathers & my previous career I have some knowledge, I suspect it will be relating to the super grid which is where the offshore connections have to connect into which is sadly severely lacking currently, and the reason half the offshore windfarms around my neck of the woods have gigantic cables traversing the county left and right to join into the super grid at only 3 current options around here of which only 1 is on the coast (& no they don't forward plan the cables for future projects or use the same trenches )
If its extending it then its badly needed, offshore cabling breaks & is damaged far too regularly & is not something that can be swiftly fixed.
Sorry

We had a piece of land like that near me, 1.5acres and had been turned down for a planning application of 3 (recommended 1 or max 2 but would struggle to get any mains connections for anything) auction estimate of 30k it went for 110k! with a 15 year overage clause! its now been split by that buyer and the subsequent plot with the same overage was up for 80k & is sold! the neighbours still won't allow connections into their water etc though

peb

Auctions are scary.  I've three on at work and the sellers solicitors are really taking the proverbial.  Purchasers aren't checking the docs before hand, not even the contract.  A lot of stuff is put in auction as it's unmortgagable or has structural issues. 

Suffolk_lass

trix-a-belle said:

SL, i've not read or am aware of the pylon proposal but from my fathers & my previous career I have some knowledge, I suspect it will be relating to the super grid which is where the offshore connections have to connect into which is sadly severely lacking currently, and the reason half the offshore windfarms around my neck of the woods have gigantic cables traversing the county left and right to join into the super grid at only 3 current options around here of which only 1 is on the coast (& no they don't forward plan the cables for future projects or use the same trenches )
If its extending it then its badly needed, offshore cabling breaks & is damaged far too regularly & is not something that can be swiftly fixed.
Sorry

We had a piece of land like that near me, 1.5acres and had been turned down for a planning application of 3 (recommended 1 or max 2 but would struggle to get any mains connections for anything) auction estimate of 30k it went for 110k! with a 15 year overage clause! its now been split by that buyer and the subsequent plot with the same overage was up for 80k & is sold! the neighbours still won't allow connections into their water etc though

The problem is the proposed use of a new route 50m high pylons (circa 1960 design) on a parallel route (to the existing overhead pylons that are 26m high that avoids towns, so by definition it wrecks the open skies of EA that are key to our tourism industry, together with small rural communities and country homes. It proposes bringing renewable offshore wind energy for London onshore in Norfolk and using overhead lines to deliver it to Tilbury (on the River!) This proposal blights Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex countryside and communities. The driver is that contracts have been signed to connect two further wind-farms to the grid and the Sealink route has been ruled out without properly exploring its expansion. A willingness to blight the countryside with 180 km of huge pylons is preferable to paying contract penalties. Apparently. According to National Grid. The cost model only compares cost of materials and not total cost of ownership. Not even total cost of installation

There is already a Sealink 1 under construction from Sizewell to Kent (in an industrial location) using the modern underwater methods that have improved dramatically over the last ten years. The Prime Minister answered a PQ from one of his own MP confirming that an offshore ring-main was the strategic plan and over 800 miles of underwater cable have already been state funded around Scotland, and a 700 mile cable from Norway to Britain installed. There are also two underwater cables under the busiest shipping lane in the world - the English Channel, and the only failure to these in the last five years (2018) was when a French fishing vessel dredged u the cable (fishing illegally) and trapped the cable in their drive gear, partially severing it.

Actually it is a myth that it is badly needed now. The Scottish offshore and the Norwegian links have ameliorated the immediate need. It is more headless chicken reactive implementation of piecemeal plans because a national infrastructure plan (of which digging up the road just once was a tiny part) was an idea by a different political party so it was stopped as soon as power changed hands. There is no much party political nonsense in this, and the metaphor of destruction that has popped into my head is better staying there. 

I have read everything I can on the subject and as is my way, tried to assimilate it. They refer to it as Green Energy. It isn't. The energy is the wind farms. This is the tactical (black) transmission plan.

Key things are:

• that implementing the additional Sealink capability (equivalent to 2 more the same size as the current implementation or 1 more of the planned upgraded technology) would cost £1.2bn each and save the consumer £6bn (National Grid figures)
• The current criteria in Government policy is flawed both as a cost model in and of itself (restricted to hardware) and requires that they choose the cheapest option, which is always tactical. That is the only option they are consulting on.
• There is a new annual plan due at the end of the month that is required to reflect strategy set out in the ten year plan (which is for offshore grid)
• The government have said offshore is the inevitable long-term "ring-main" plan but this has been started just before the energy bill is published.

I'll stop. It had to be said though.

Suffolk_lass

In MSE things

• I have booked a TGTG bag for this evening from M&S SF at a garage and I want some bread - I plan to make a bread pudding tomorrow morning and I have none.
• Our oil delivery is due today
• No other shopping
• I turned the oven off early while baking

More plants going in today

Karmacat

Good luck with the delivery, hope it goes smoothly.  And well done on turning off the oven early: I've started to do that, on the few occasions I actually use it, but I must remember to use the timer to do it, it really helps.

beanielou

I have reserved a few M & S bags but yet to get one as they seem to oversell & then refund. 

Suffolk_lass

Like you @beanielou, they cancelled on me. so I booked a co-op bag instead, and they cancelled too! So clearly bread pudding wasn't going to happen.

The life and times illustration
I've just made a half size Mary Berry Lemon tray bake and it is on the rack cooling. I nearly did my usual and made half the recipe with all the icing but I realised just in time. Once again, the oven was switched off 10 minutes early. I have run out of SR flour now and notice McDougall's has further reduced their bag to just 1.1k. So my shopping list with Morries contains a bag of own brand (not pre-sifted) for £1.10 less than the brand (£1.75 vs 65p!)

I've got a fan on in the study this morning, blowing some of the cooled air around and it seems to have affected Stealth Cat. After much patrolling the desk, she has knocked over two storage boxes (awaiting space to get to the cupboard under the stairs where they reside) and my toolbox (that DH had out yesterday). There are also box files everywhere because apparently the one labelled "house" with the paperwork for the appliances needs a good airing/does not fit/did not know if he had finished with it/forgot (maybe that is why he does not ever put things like that (or my toolbox) away). Aaargh!  🙄. At least I fasted the toolbox shut last night.

DH had my toolbox because he was looking for an allen key the right size to undo a grub screw on our kitchen tap. It was put in, in 2005 and the flow through it is really poor. We will change the cartridge we thought. So I found what I thought was the right one and ordered it from the parts and spares company linked to the original equipment manufacturer. Not in the toolbox (open in the study) or in the box of kit in the drawer with my allen keys in (on the counter in the kitchen)

Turning off the water involved two isolation valves failing (the ones where you quarter turn them with a screwdriver) so our neighbour opposite (semi-retired plumber) was messaged and came after the drip tray was only a third full! - That manoeuvre required a grown-up and will result in a bill as replacement parts are involved.

The cartridge is of course the wrong size and anyway, the bit with a double ridge retaining ring that needs to be prised off the front to give access is welded in place by more than 15 years of dirt and yuk. 🙄🙄

Four hours later (much frustration) and two deep drawers emptied all over the kitchen and dining room and my plan to make the other cake and potato salad, pickled onions and coleslaw for the hog roast have fallen by the way-side (hence up at 05.30 making lemon cake!).

You can laugh (I am). At least the pipes are no longer dripping. I might just buy a replacement tap (but I really like this one, which they stopped making in 2010). Not sure how to get at the bit of the tap to access the right sized cartridge but I will discuss with DH when he gets up!

In the meantime I have depleted the EF for the second time this month to pay the decorator (my RS that was intended for this does not mature until August). I shall have to raid it again to pay DH's credit card bill from his bike rally trip, as his account will need a £1400 top up (where is EEK when really needed??!!)

themadvix

Brilliant vivid story telling there SL - it did make me laugh (so I’m glad you are too!). 

I’m forever mixing up half measures and full measures when I halve a recipe… sometimes with disastrous consequences. A favourite is half the Yorkshire batter for toad in the hole - half the flour, all the liquid and I wonder why it hasn’t risen! 

Afraid I buy cheap flour and virtually never sift it - never seems to matter though.

greent

I buy cheap flour but do sift for cakes. And I mix cheap bread flour with expensive - I find cheap doesn't rise as well for loaves

Suffolk_lass

That is very reassuring on the cheap flour front. I did buy some SMOB plain flour for our Scotland trip, because a smaller bag was more practical, but for breadmaking and high protein plain flour I buy by the sack, and store it in plastic screw-top sweet jars that each hold 3k. I had my latest 25k sack delivered this week. From Italy!

Shame about the weather at the hogroast but our camping shelter was a bit of a help and kept about 12 people dry. My coleslaw was a bit of a hit too; it's the sneaky 2 mild chillies I deseed, chop finely from frozen and stir through that works well with the mayonnaise + lemon dressing, I think. For anyone who doesn't know, I grow chillies and freeze them all, then when I chop them while frozen it completely minimises the chilli oil on the fingers thing and they revive really quickly when they defrost.

The chocolate brownies went quickly (bit of tabasco and some instant coffee in these) and the lemon cake, which was three layers of squares in a 2litre icecream box was left after the first layer because I don't think people realised there was a layer of waxed paper on top and between the layers. 2 people who loved it took them home! Very gratifying. 

I plan to make plain scones today as I bought some clotted cream on offer over a week ago when it and buttermilk were on offer. It's a good job they last ages!

It will be leftover salads today, either with eggs or turkey that is n cubes in the freezer - I might make a cheat's coronation sauce with yogurt and flat parsley and a lot less mayonnaise.

While the weather holds I feel we should check our bees too as they must have been very hot on Friday, when it was 34c for the late afternoon and early evening. Needless to say, we had thunderstorms last night, which pup has not encountered before (and barked at the thunder, quite a lot, for quite a while!).

I plan lots of weeding today (always more satisfying when the whole root comes out after rain!)