salmiron

I think they do not charge for any incident involving fire or an immediate threat of fire. Smouldering I would think counts as a threat of fire. The following URL shows their charges: http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/about_us/cha...al_services.asp

Streatham Hillish. It has not rained, that I am aware of. Freezing cold now. The slush is turning nasty now. My wife will be cycling to work tomorrow morning, so she could have an interesting time (intersting, as in 'May you live in interesting times').

Unfortunately, we are South London

Did you have to install a very large and heavy inverter? Does the larger inverter waste more electricity (lost as heat).

I can remeber plenty of times, in my youth, in the 50's and 60's (not the 1850's), when my school was closed and my father could not get to work. But then we lived up North. Looking back at Giles cartoons it would appear the country was disrupted badly, at some point each winter, throughout this period. In 1947 the country ground to a halt for months, the troops were called out to help. Living in South London (1978-2004), only once did I fail to make it into work in Central London, due to inclement weather. That was due to heavy mist, no trains were running and the buses were spasmodic. I even made it on time (the buses were running) after the storm of October '87.

Sorry, I did not get the flippancy. I am glad you have enjoyed the snow, even if it does not last. It is still there in my garden, but I think that it will not last much longer. My poor son has been sent home from school, he is not well, so he will not be able to play in it, which he would have done on his way home.

The pictures of snow over the last month are beautiful. I hope nb Bones is warm inside and the snow on the roof indicates the quality of the insulation.! The poster, who complained about Easyjet, did have something of a legitimate complaint, against Easyjet for the lack of customer services ("Sorry sir, you have to do that through the website"). That at the airport with no access to the internet! However, there cannot be many people who are unaware of the quality of Easyjet's customer services, abismal, and they wriggle over any claims against them. So the poster got what he paid for. Customers who use Easyjet van only expect Easyjet to improve its customer service if the vote with their feet and walk away.

If we spent as much as the Canadians spend on winter coping measures, then we would have no problems with today's snow. The only problem is that it would be wasted except on two days a year. More than that we would be bearing additional costs. The winter tyres that people are required to run their cars on would be tearing up the surface of our roads. Are you prepared to pay, when the benefit is so limited. People who are comparing us with Canada are over- reacting by suggesting that we are some sort of disorganised group of wimps when the couple of days a year of cold disrupt the transport system. I have been in Canada when a lot of the infrastructure ground to a halt due to inclement weather. The temperature, in Montreal, dropped to minus 40 (Centigrade or Fahrenheit, take you pick) at mid-day. They were perfectly capable of handling -20 C but -40 was not worth catering for, as it happened so rarely. Many people seem to be enjoying the novelty of the snow, it seems to be bringing a smile to the face of a lot of people. My yard of ale is half full.

Funny that. I always understood it was never tow an automatic car. When I was a young man, well not that young, there were occasional stories of automatic gear boxes exploding when the car was being towed. The explosion had thrown boiling oil over the towed driver, causing serious burns. I do not know if it is true, I cannot drive, well apart from driving She round the bend.

As in shortened, so thay cannot switch them on, until they learn to switch them off?

I was speaking to my brother the other day about canaries. He is a consulting mining engineer who specializes in a safe air environment underground. I had always thought that one of the reasons for the use of canaries was that they are less tolerant to CO than humans. Until quite recently this was assumed to be the case. Apparently not, they (canaries) can tolerate a somewhat higher CO level than we can (apparently there are differences in their Haemoglobin). However, if their lethal level is reached they drop dead far more quickly (relates to their size). In other words there is a level of CO in which we will eventually drop dead and the canaries continue to sing. On the other hand if the CO level is rising rapidly, we will be warned that there is a problem by the canaries going silent. He suggested that mice might die quickly and at a CO level that is lethal to us, however we would not notice the silence, mice do not sing. All in all the electronic CO alarm is now your best option. Remember, as has been said elsewhere in this thread, CO is odourless and colourless; worse you do not know it is affecting you. My brother told me how he had arrived at a site on a roadway where they were building a stopping, to isolate a hot spot on a coal face. The deputy or overman told my brother that his team were lazy malingerers (he used a different word) who were all complaining of headaches. My brother took one look at their faces and had them evacuated from the mine. They were suffering from CO poisoning. Remember where ever there is combustion of carboniferous material and there is possibility of a shortage of oxygen, there is also a possibility of CO.

((I hope the Turkey I cooked on Xmas day complete with the bag of giblets was ok )) As long as you are not still eating it.

Was there not a hose pipe ban? More seriously, on some of the canals I can think of, the paintwork could change colour quite quickly. Did anyone measure the temperature at floor level. Being below water level (water acting as a heat sink), despite the insulation I would expect a lower temperature. Cats are really quite good at finding the coolest place, and staying there (inside the fridge?). I do not know about dogs.

On most of our canals you would have to raise and lower the mast and sail at very regular intervals, or you would find yourself taking a few bridges with you. As a child at school the Bridgewater canal was a regular topic. The school (St Mark's by name) was located above the Delph which was the entry into the underground workings at Worsley. In fact if you had gone through the railings, immediately behind the outdoor toilets, you would have fallen directly into the Delph. I remember very well the pictures of the aqueduct with sailing barges above and below (on the Irwell). What I also remember seeing, are pictures of barges being hauled by men, not horses. Were early British canals designed for horse or manpower? Quite a lot of rivers had used man haulage. Manpower was cheaper than horsepower. After all the Song of the Volga Boatmen was a haulage song for men not horses. One of the benefits of the agricultural revolution of the 18th century was that fodder for horses became much cheaper.

Set me thinking, is there a graveyard, still in use, next to the cut? A bit like the Pharaoh taking his last journey up the Nile? Also what would be the processional hymn? Is there not a Spiritual about Moses in his basket?

Thanks for reminding me of a former work colleague (we are both now retired). Apparently his wife used to work for an all women organisation that organised events. The organisation went by the name 'Cunning Stunts'. As you might expect it was not that unusual for someone answering the phone to suffer from Spooner's syndome. It is mentioned in Robert Morley's 'Book of Bricks'.