A Bug's Life

I had but a tiny project planned for this weekend; the Freeview box gets hot and does not have a power switch of its own (just a standby button), so I wanted to exchange the extension board it plugs into for one with a switch on. This all went fine, albeit with some extreme footling under the tv unit sufficient for me to discover that I can fit my head underneath it with a bit of wriggling, until it came to replace the board. A plain board fits behind the unit - one with switches standing proud of the board does not. So back to the old, but this time with the plugs clearly labelled and easy to access to unplug.

While I'm here and talking about electricity, and because I am not a geek at all oh no and I don't play with Excel at the weekends for fun, here's a graph of my fuel usage for the last 18 months: ( Read more... )
The peak in gas in the winter is easily explained by the gas boiler and heating. But the electricity? Is all of that due to extra lighting in the dark evenings? Or did I accidentally leave the oven on for 6 weeks and not notice? Any suggestions? (The data point for a month is the fuel used during that calendar month, I take a meter reading on the 1st-ish)

Books read (25-31)

Dimensions, Bob Shaw (1993)
Fludd, Hilary Mantel (1989)
Bellwether, Connie Willis (1996)
Uncharted Territory, Connie Willis (1994)
Way Station, Clifford Simak (1963)
Blankets, Craig Thompson (2003) (graphic novel)
Extended Play, ed. Gary Couzens (2006)

Films watched (35-41) 1 at the cinema, 5 DVDs and 1 on tv
Nine to Five
Inception (rewatch)
X-Men: First Class
Man On Wire
Skyline
Bronson (rewatch - I'm getting more convinced there were scenes in the cinema which are not on the DVD, but can't find evidence of this)
United 93

Not doing well at getting through the unread stack - only three of the books were owned at the beginning of the year. I liked Blankets and Way Station best this month.

Anyone for Transformers (2D) at Cineworld this week? Weds 8:30 looks good.