The Anonymous Widower

Thames Water And Wet Wipes

Thames Water has problems with sewer blockages and has produced a video and press release called Changing the world from the bottom up. It is reported here in the Standard. Here’s an extract.

No, it’s not April 1. But this stab at lavatory humour from Thames Water sounds like it’s spoof.

A press release, entitled “Changing the world from the bottom up”, begins as follows: “A trend among British adults towards using wet wipes as well as with loo roll is forcing a water company to take drastic action.

“Market research shows the wet wipe market is growing at faster than 15% a year — and for Thames Water that’s a problem.

“Wet wipes, which do not break down like loo roll does, block sewers, adding to Thames Water’s annual £12 million spend on clearing around 80,000 blockages a year in its 108,000 kilometre network across London and the Thames Valley.”

How awful. But, happily, there is some good news or, as Thames Water puts it, “a solution is at hand” — geddit?

I’ve always felt that there should be extra taxes on things like disposable nappies and other non-biodegradable products. Especially, as they just end up in landfill.

I have been down the London sewers and you’d be surprised what you see there.

October 26, 2012 Posted by | World | , , | Leave a comment

Silly Water Bottles

I very much dislike water bottles with teats. I got one on the train coming back from Hull.

Silly Water Bottles

So I’ve had a stroke and have a bit of difficulty sucking, but what’s wrong with a good old-fashioned screw cap?

October 21, 2012 Posted by | Food | , , | 2 Comments

Open House – Crossness

I’ve been to Crossness before, but a guy named Rodney, kindly gave me a lift to one of London”s two cathedrals of sewage, I decided to accept it. The other cathedral is Abbey Mills.

It was heaving with people and the only low point was waiting for the mini-bus in the heavy rain, to get the train home.

September 24, 2012 Posted by | World | , , , , | 10 Comments

Marshgate Lane Revealed

This is the first time, I’ve been on Pudding Mill Lane station and could get a reasonably clear view of where Marshgate Lane goes under the Greenway and the Northern Outfall Sewer into the Olympic Park.

Marsh Gate Lane Revealed

As I said here, it was a complicated and expensive job.  Also,because of European Union rules, it had to be open to all EU companies. It was a fixed price contract and it was won by the Germans.  Rumours abound that Marshgate Lane lived up to its name and they didn’t make the profit they expected.

September 18, 2012 Posted by | Sport | , , | Leave a comment

A North South Divide

I went into a branch of a well-known restaurant chain in Liverpool today and asked for a lemonade with my lunch.

The waitress brought a fizzy one, whereas in their London or Cambridge branches, they usually assume that you want a still one! In some places they do ask, which is probably the right thing to do. Just as most places do with water!

So does the north want fizz in their lemonade? And the south doesn’t!

I mst say that some things don’t seem to change in Liverpool though. The waitress was bright, keen and chatty, even if she only scored a small bit less than perfect. I can remember them like that in the 1960s. Although they were much worse trained then!

One in particular brought meals for C and myself on a tray, which she placed on the table, so that one meal was over the table and the other was hanging over the edge.  She then took the meal over the table and placed it for C, which meant the other meal upturned the tray onto the floor.  To make it worse, it was her first night.  So she burst into floods of tears.

September 6, 2012 Posted by | Food | , , , | Leave a comment

Welsh Policemen On The Streets of London

I took this picture this morning at the Angel

Welsh Policemen On The Streets of London

It shows two Carmarthen policemen on duty.

In some ways, it’s an appropriate area, as the statue of Hugh Myddelton, the Welshman, who four hundred years ago, built the New River to give London its first fresh water is at Islington Green, a hundred metres or so away.

July 21, 2012 Posted by | World | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Floyd Mayweather Doesn’t Like the Jail Food

Then he shouldn’t have beaten his wife.  It’s here in the Telegraph.

June 14, 2012 Posted by | Food, News, Sport | , , , , | 1 Comment

Another Letter in The Times

I had another letter published in The Times yesterday about the Severn Barrage.

Sir, Paul Knight (letter, May 19) may well be right, if the Severn Barrier is built across the estuary, as is currently proposed. In the 1960s Sir Frederick Snow suggested that the river should be divided into a high and a low lake by a spine between containing the turbines and pumps, which would also have stored energy, by pumping water from the low to high lakes. I believe that this arrangement would be much more favourable to salmon and trout, as fish ladders and gates could be built at the upstream end.

My original letter is here.

I’m now coming to the conclusion, that the Severn Barrage, may well be the way to create a large amount of renewable energy. I doubt though, that it will ever be built, those who feel it shouldn’t be built have too many votes and will win through fear of the ballot box.

I think now, if the government were to propose a Channel Tunnel to connect England to France, it would not get built. Voters would have scrapped the Olympics too, if they’d have a chance.

May 23, 2012 Posted by | News | , , | 2 Comments

Do You Think We Should Have a Whip-round to Buy God a New Bath-plug?

Our youngest son always used to say that thunderstorms were caused because God let the bath-water run over.

So, he might have said the title of this post, after all the bad weather, we’ve been having lately!

May 9, 2012 Posted by | News | , | 1 Comment

It’s Not Just Customers That Hate Banks

I found this article entitled Why Investors hate banks. It is a fascinating read, with the main point being that if you invest in utility shares over the past year, your return will be six times that of investing in banks.

May 2, 2012 Posted by | Finance, News | , , | Leave a comment