Every now and then…
someone on one of the US based Yahoo groups I’m on has a little moan at the awful high price of their petrol. Now, I know I should just ignore it but sometimes I can’t and I have to do the maths for them. You see, currently fuel is $3-$4 or there abouts for 1 US Gallon in most of the US whereas, if you convert our prices to $ per USG it works out at a whopping $8 at which point I have limited sympathy!
I got most of the Rainbows "to Do" list finished but not the pass the parcel which turned out to be fine as we ran over by 15 minutes without added party games! Next meeting is my enrollment night, wonder if I get a party for that? Well, everyone else gets a party, why shouldn’t I? 
I ended up doing some stamping and "decoupage" (cutting out and stacking up layers of pictures is what we used to call it but aparently it went all posh a few years ago!) for mum’s Easter card so that’s my place in the will ensured until next card-giving forgetfulness incident (I was a day late with the Mothering Sunday card, which considering I was away is impressively un-late in my eyes! you could have welded with the letter she sent me in retaliation) Washing didn’t go out though, it was too chilly for wet washing on my thin skin (my hands don’t need any excuse to get all split and sore!) so that will get hung up in doors to give that wonderful winter aroma of wet washing round the house!
That leaves me getting a grip on the OU stuff. The tutor has e-mailed me the notes from Saturday’s tute so I shall read them, plod through the course book (skipping any suplimentary reading etc) and aim for a bare pass on the next TMA so I can claw back on track, Pass 3 again would be lurvely but Pass 4 (bare pass) would be perfectly acceptable! I will get through this….. I will not be wilting with a cold for the rest of the year and therefore i will catch up at some point!
But anyway, Torchwood is on in a bit and there is chocolate calling my name from downstairs!
I’ve had that conversation/rant many a time with American friends moaning about gas prices. That it costs us in £ what it costs them in $, and the $ is only worth half a £! The shock of it costing me over £40 to fill up my car is usually enough to silence them though!
Comment by Em — March 19, 2008 @ 8:53 pm
I so wish you’d blogged about Easter card for your mum before now!
Not that there’ll be anything for me to inherit from mine but I can sure do without the moaning about being neglected and unloved.
Comment by michelle — March 19, 2008 @ 9:03 pm
I think the real problem for the folks back home is that though here in the UK petrol has been costly forever, they are just getting used to it. When I was in the States my escort cost £5/$10 to fill up in 1998, by 2000 it was £7.5/$15., now it would be doubled that. So, though still very low-it has doubled in cost for them. So, don’t pity them, but let them get over their shock. I have been here almost 8 yrs and still can’t get over how expensive everyhting is.
Comment by Elizabeth — March 19, 2008 @ 9:32 pm
Elizabeth 1998 was about when I got my first car, maybe a year or so before that, and petrol then was 43p a litre. Now it is over £1, therefore we’ve had to get used to the rise too!! It has doubled in cost for us equally!
Comment by Em — March 19, 2008 @ 10:32 pm
Hehehe.. I put tescos’s oil in my van tonight, as we cant afford a full tank of diesel anymore. We have been looking into it for a while though!
I need to find a source of bio fuel for the new car, as my van did used to double its mileage with that, and most diesiel cars do as well!
as for easter cards - **** I am allready a totaly failure - i forgot mothers day, birthday, wedding aniversary
But thats o.k. as I dont think my parents have a will, and I wont be argueing with my brother so everything can be his. It will be a lot easier that way!
Comment by vicki — March 19, 2008 @ 11:24 pm
Michelle, next year I’ll try to remind us both okay?
Vicki, Duke keeps talking about treating chip fat to make it into biodiesel, aparently you can get a rig for £2k that does it all for you and “pays for itself” within a year (assuming you can get free chip oil to feed into it!)
Comment by Administrator — March 21, 2008 @ 5:03 pm