Way back in the olden days when man wanted to keep warm he threw another log on the fire in the entrance of his cave. When the sun came up it was light and when it went down it was dark and you stayed in to stop the sabre toothed tigers getting you. If you went out you went on foot mainly because that’s all you had. You cooked on the same fire as gave you heat and if you needed more clothes you went out and clubbed something about the right size over the head and draped it around your neck. Then as time went on and man got more sophisticated we got more, more ways to stay dry, more ways to see at night, more way to travel over longer and longer distances, and more things to do things for us.
You might at this stage be rightly thinking what the hell am I going on about and you would be correct so let me explain. I am at present sitting in the third bedroom of my house, well it used to be the third bedroom until the computer arrived then it turned overnight into high tech central. There are at present twenty two different electrical appliances that are all plugged into the mains!! So I looked at some of the other rooms and the story is not much better. The main bedroom has eleven electrically dependent things (most belonging too the wife, beauty tools and torture aids I can’t tell the difference. I always think that hair straighteners look like they belong in the tooth extraction scene in the Marathon man) Even the bathroom does not escape the need for electricity, with two clocks a radio a Braun shaver and a couple of electric toothbrushes. Even the garden is electric now and that’s not including the lighting so I can keep the modern day sabre tooth tigers away, well the sensors come on to stop next doors cat pissing in the flower bed.
I remember back in 73 when the power cuts happened, it was great fun running around the house with a candle playing games. I am now not so sure that I could handle it now. Even the gas hob can’t run without electricity, the ignition is electric; yes I know if I needed to I could use a match but that is not the point. Our life is so much more entwined with things that do stuff and use the national grid to feed them. If the power goes off at night now there is not silence and darkness as I remember in 73, no we have flashing lights and sirens as every house alarm in the street detects the drop in current and thinks they are being burgled. I am not saying we should go on some lefty eco friendly tree hugging thing hell I love my toys and the mains that powers them. From Stereo’s to steam irons I love them all but it does make you think how much more we all are dependent on the National grid than even 10 years ago.
If we want to go on adding to our toys at the rate we are at present, and let’s face it all the signs are that we will, we will have to come up with other alternatives to coal and gas and oil for making it. Perhaps Tony Blair is just forcing us to look at the future when he reopened the nuclear debate.
Bye for another week.
Matt x
(Hence my proactive stance on wind energy and the beauty of wind farms...thanks matt that was really interesting...oh and by the way the picture of bree from desperate housewives is only there because it was matts favourite image from last year!...hmmm, perhaps he had a thing for penelope keith as well!...by the way an easy title competition for you today!...blogmaster)
