After a state of punctures in November on my commuter/winter bike … I decided to bin the summer tyres I had on there in favour of something a bit tougher.
Looking around, most places wanted 20 notes a tyre for anything decent … however wiggle had some tyres made by Vittoria for £20 a set, with tubes, so I thought I would give them a shot.
They are pretty decent … and also are apparently puncture resistant … I have had 2 flats in a month and a half, which I guess is quite good going. They are already getting sliced by glass etc though, although not all the way through (I don’t think). At 320g for a racing tyre, they are not the lightest but I thought that they would probably have extra material (which ain’t a bad thing in my book).
Now I don’t use much gas, being a “cold” person I only put on the heating if someone is coming round to visit, or I’m going to be in for more than a few hours (being in bed doesn’t count).
However I do use a fair bit of electricity, due to the shower, my addiction to tea, and leaving the laptop on all the time.
Last week, nPower announced some price rises (I’m with nPower, by the way) so I started thinking about how I could reduce my energy consumption. I get a shower and drink most of my tea at work, and also shower at the gym, which cuts down those expenses. It is handy to have my laptop on all the time due to cron jobs … so I started working out how much power my lights use. I added all the wattages up, which came to 1136W!!
Holy crap, if I have all my lights on for 3 hours a day, thats about 65p a day, almost £20 a month, £234 a year! My main sitting room light pumps out 300W, which is about a fifth of the kettle!?
So anyway, I went on a bit of a mission, wrote down all the lightbulb fittings and wattages in my flat, and bought a shit-load of energy saving bulbs. £95 of bulbs, to be exact (although I bought £20 of bulbs by mistake which didn’t fit into one of the customised light fittings, so I had to get more that would fit).
Most of the bulbs were pretty cheap (i.e the standard bayonet/screw bulbs, and candle bulbs), the real cost came in when buying the little GU10 reflector bulbs which came in at a fiver each (I bought £60 of these!!).
So, do they work? All the standard replacements are pretty decent, give off good light and start up quickly. There is a delay of half a second before they start at 50% bright, rising to full brightness after a minute.
The GU10 reflectors are slower to start up, however once they are going, they are just as bright as the halogens. The ones I have in my kitchen are “cold white” (by ignorance) … most lights in this country are “warm white” (2700K) which look a bit nicer in my opinion. Something to bear in mind if you go down this route.
So anyway, adding up the wattages of the new lights … 184W, about a sixth of the original output. Sweet, I’m going to be less skint later this year!
I just checked my blog to see I haven’t written any posts since October … okay I guess that could be some kind of New Years Resolution, keep the blog going.
I went to The Hoog for Hogmanay, which was basically a Celidh/Big party in the assembly rooms. It was a great night, my mum, auntie, uncle and cousin came up from Englandshire which made it a bit of a special evening. I had a bit too much to drink, managed to rip my girlfriends tights with some dancing involving aerial maneuvers, which seemed a good idea at the time! Also managed to spin her straight into one of those huge event speakers … not the best! 
So well, at this time its usually good to take stock of what has gone on, and what I could do better/achieve this coming year.
“Good stuff” thats happened in the last year
- Moved out of parents house, into my own place
- Switched jobs
- Met my girlfriend
- Took part in the Polish mountain bike stage race
- Started doing lots more road biking
- Tentatively started running
- Became a bit better with managing money etc (I was forced to)
- Increased my understanding of fitness, what works for me etc
- Continued to go to the gym, figured out some time efficient exercises, which mainly involve free weights
- Managed to only miss one Spanish class all year …
“Not so good stuff” thats happened in the last year
- Haven’t traveled as much as I would have liked to
- Missed a lot of bike events due to money and transportation problems
- Found it hard to make time for friends of mine
- Although I continued to take Spanish classes, I found it increasingly difficult to find time to do the homework and have not been getting enough from the classes
- Was issued with a statutory notice for roof repairs
So, looking ahead, what would I like to do/achieve this year?
- Work on career stuff
In general, my new job has been going pretty well, however, like everything its all about time and effort and I feel the need to focus some of my efforts on this stuff, at least for the forseeable future.
- Redecorate both bedrooms in my flat
In a world of procrastination, I think it would be prudent to have a specific yearly objective to redecorate both bedrooms. Number one priority is the second bedroom though, and I’m considering turning it into a study/spare room.
- Do a half marathon
One of my friends has invited me to do the “Forthside Half” in April. In general if I can keep training occasionally I should be able to manage this. My longest run so far has been about 9 miles which took me roughly 65 minutes.
- Try a triathlon
I’m sort of drawn to do a triathlon somehow. Currently I’m not too bad on the bike, my running is improving, and although I haven’t been swimming in ages, I think with a bit of practise this could be my real strength. This is a bit of a wildcard though and I’m not 100% sure I will actually do this.
- Do some other events I haven’t done before
Rather than consuming time and money doing the same stuff year in year out, I may try a few new things. A friend and her boyfriend have invited me to do the Arctic Circle 24 adventure race as a trio, although that is in the earliest stages of organisation.
Dougal took part in the Etape Caledonia last year, which he said was very good, and is something I have my eye on definitely. In addition both him and Tom have entered the Grand Raid Cristalp, something I have wanted to do for years but I think at the moment, may be a bit beyond me.
I may also be doing the biking part of the Glentress duathlon, and may give The Mighty Deerstalker a go, however they are both in the same weekend!
- Continue with Spanish
This will be my third year of study, and although its only once a week, it does stick after a while.
- Have a non/minimally bike related holiday
I don’t know how likely this will be, both in terms of time and well, I always seem to pack a bike!? A spanish speaking country will probably be the destination so I can continue practising the language.
- Read some novels
I read one or two books in the last year, and although this is a total time pit, its also fairly relaxing and probably good for my English.
- Get a TV
Although I never really watched TV when I did have one, it is annoying not having one to watch films etc on. This is dependent on how good/bad the roof repairs are and how much money (if any) I have left over.
So, not a big list eh? Most of that stuff is a brain dump, and I probably wont achieve any of it. I hope everyone had a good new year, best of luck for 2008!
