Limestone Floor Cleaning

Thought I'd try an experiment yesterday. 

Over the years I've tried all manner of limestone cleaning products on our kitchen floor, which was never sealed properly when it was laid down some 6 years ago. Nothing has ever worked to my satisfaction - until yesterday.

In the car showroom we use a couple of really powerful cleaning products - TFR, or Traffic Film Remover, and Wheel Cleaning Concentrate. TFR is sprayed on the lower half of cars to loosen road dirt prior to pressure washing them and is made up of a complex mixture of solvents and lower-strength acids - but you have to keep it well clear of any chromed, plastic trim, as it clouds it (if you buy a 2nd hand car with clouded chrome trim, they've been a bit too liberal with the TFR in the valeting process). Wheel Cleaning Concentrate gets the most ingrained dirt off alloys when applied with a spray and agitated with a stipple brush. You wouldn't believe how well these products work on cars.

Anyway, I decided to try them out on our Cotswold stone kitchen floor and the difference is amazing. The Wheel Cleaning Concentrate is somewhat overpowering, unless you're wearing a full breathing apparatus, but the TFR doesn't make me gag or gasp for breath at all..

Hay has now given me a job for today - the kitchen floor and the stone floors of both the bathrooms...

Dining Out in Luton

So the Chancellor is to persuade us to visit a restaurant by offering us a discount. What he's possibly overlooked is that, in our case, we've learned during lockdown that we've saved about £300 a month by not going out for meals, which has made up for some of the loss of earnings by being on furlough pay. On top of that, we've learned we don't actually need to go out for a meal every Friday and have shaken off the habit. The final nail in the coffin is that wild horses will not persuade me to go near a pub that serves food till around March of next year at the earliest.

Talking of horses, I've made a surprising discovery. We've been mulling over getting a campervan / motorhome for some time. The problem is that while I'm happy to go for something cheap and cheerful from the 80s or 90s at £5k, Hay wants something more luxurious and contemporary, which means a) we probably won't get our money's worth before pegging it (well, me certainly), and b) it would require some considerable saving up, which also means a considerable delay.

However, I've discovered that people in their droves seem to be getting rid of 7.5t horsebox lorries, which are split 50/50 between accommodation and space for horses. Now one of our problems is that we need to carry a shed-load of gear whenever we go away - bikes, kayaks, wind surfer, etc. The space for horses would enable us to keep all that kit, as well as my Triumph Daytona, in the back of the van -  permanently, rather than having it scattered all over our land. You could even get a small SMART car in the back of one for shopping trips to the supermarket - a horse can weigh up to a tonne, which is the same weight as a SMART car.

We could also repurpose some of the horse space to a new WC / bathroom, utilising the composting toilet we have stored away and saving on water. I'd also want to install a wood burner in the space vacated by the old WC, with the log supply being stored in the additional side compartments that are used for horse tack. A bit of electric, underfloor heating in the accommodation area would also improve the level of comfort.

The nice and surprising twist is that these horseboxes are inexplicably cheap as chips. Even a 2002 model is no more that £17k and many older, but extremely nice examples, can be obtained for between £8k and £11k. Being subject to a separate and more comprehensive MoT regime, they're also in much better condition than standard campers of the same age, despite being half the price to buy. This is just one example, at £13k.

The door in the side is the dividing line between accommodation and horse stabling - usually enough for 3 horses.

I'd want one with a permanent bed over the cab - or a Luton, as we experts call it, although it's eminently feasible to put a double bed in the top half of the horse stabling area, with the storage below it.

Many also have a cab that tips forward, revealing the engine in such a manner that working on it is a doddle. The most popular ones seem to be Iveco, MAN and DAF.

One possible drawback is not being allowed on some more snooty campsites but, having read some tips from people who do it, the secret is to remove all horsey wording from the lorry, replacing it with some winnebago-style decals and not go for something looking like it belonged to Swampy. Many dedicated motorhomes and caravans are the same overall length of between 24 and 26 feet, so size isn't really an issue, just the snobbery of the campsite owner.

A 7.5 tonne job can also be driven on an ordinary licence for anyone who got their licence before 1997.

Here are some images of examples.

Airborne Particles

So, scientists are of the opinion that C-19 is spread by airborne particles.

What causes there to be a lot of airborne particles in the atmosphere for the C-19 virus to attach to? Yes, pollution. So, we shouldn't be at all surprised that densely packed cities with high levels of pollution are prime contagion areas.

The photo above is of a cuddly C-19 virus that Hay bought for a friend for her birthday. She has a collection comprising all manner of nasty bugs, bacteria and viruses. It's fun living with a biochemist. 

Sarky Starkey

What did David Starkey say that was so objectionable?

I admit I immediately jumped on the bandwagon of consternation, but let's analyse his comments before condemning him out of hand:

"Slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn't be so many damn Blacks in Africa or in Britain, would there?" This sentence seems to have drawn the most ire.

Genocide is defined as the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group, with the intent of wiping them out. While it's true that a large number of slaves died while in transit to the Americas, and through overwork when there, it was not a deliberate act to eliminate them. Slaves were valuable cargo and one does not destroy one's source of wealth. Nor was there a deliberate attempt to kill Africans in Africa, else the supply of slaves would have dried up. Thus what Starkey said is undoubtedly true, even though he could undoubtedly have put it better. However, even then, had he said 'damned Scottish' or 'damned French' in a different context (Scottish independence or Brexit), I doubt there would have been such an uproar.

British-Nigerian historian and broadcaster David Olusoga tweeted: "This is truly disgusting. And by the same ridiculous, twisted logic the Holocaust would not be counted as a genocide." Much as I like Olusoga, I disagree - Hitler wanted to eliminate all Jews from Germany in a deliberate policy.

What else did he say? "As for the idea that slavery is this kind of terrible disease that dare not speak its name, it only dare not speak its name, Darren, because we settled it nearly 200 years ago. We don't normally go on about the fact that Roman Catholics once upon a time didn't have the vote and weren't allowed to have their own churches because we had Catholic emancipation."

While he's technically correct, he seems to wipe The Troubles from the history books. Yes, Catholics were emancipated, but we no longer discriminate against them in mainland Britain - except, of course, when it comes to a Catholic monarch, which is still a no-no. Equality is not a natural consequence of emancipation. This last pronouncement of Starkey's gives me more cause for concern than the former. It's very naive, especially from an historian.

He has, however, apologised unreservedly.

Hoist the Signal II

We went for a coffee in town yesterday at a local coffee shop for the first time in 4 months. We were the only patrons, sat outside and were sensibly asked to provide our contact details before leaving, which we did. It's now being reported that after Super Saturday, three pubs have been forced to close following customers having tested positive for C-19.

My regular reader, Steve, commented on my post about Virtue Signalling:

"Not sure I completely agree with your conclusion Chairman. If someone makes a claim, i.e. "I care about X" then they should also provide evidence for that claim, ideally actions or evidence of sincerity. If you don't provide evidence and/or cannot bring past evidence to bear then I think it's fair for people to suspect VS. For example the celebrity who has never shown any interest, opinion or action on a subject who suddenly tweets about it (because the topic is trending?), in that case, raising the question of VS is neither rude nor stupid but quite reasonable. Especially if that person is choosing to be, i.e. making money from being in the public eye. Anther problem is that the definition of "virtue" isn't fixed, so what might seem virtuous to me might not seem virtuous to you, and it changes over time. For example, many people see "faith" as a virtue whereas I don't, so it's not a level playing field etc.."

Steve - sorry for taking such a long time to reply, but I did qualify what I said in terms of  'in the manner in which it's most often used," which is as a means of aggressively shutting down a conversation by those having not a scintilla of sympathy with the cause or issue under consideration.

Additionally, one can care about an issue without having a single idea as to what to do about it, thereby not exhibiting concrete evidence of supporting the issue, except with empathy. World peace, for example, is an aim most would support, but how? You can't exactly vote for it.

Then there's the aspect of guilt. You can believe we're cooking ourselves to death and feel guilty about it while doing very little about the situation due to being on a low income and trapped by the system that created the situation; there again you can intellectually believe we're cooking ourselves to death, but not feel the slightest guilt as you fully expect others to do the hard work. It's the latter who will fling the phrase Virtue Signalling around with gay abandon at those not living off-grid in a cave, which is actually very expensive.

As for faith in it's most used sense - that's piety and not necessarily virtue. Faith can compel one to do virtuous virtuous acts, but faith in and of itself is not a virtue. There again, faith can take many aspects - for example, some have an irrational and unshakeable belief, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that Brexit will produce a land flowing with milk and honey. It's certainly a faith, but there's no way that could be called a virtue. It's self delusion and self destruction, unless you're a disaster capitalist - in which case you'll likely profit from it handsomely at the expense of others.

My main problem with the term virtue signalling is that it moves the focus from the target of the moral claim to the person making it. It can therefore be used to avoid addressing the moral claim made. It's a means of deflection rather than engagement. A classic case of shooting the messenger.

Cat Soup

No, this isn't a recipe for how to make soup out of your moggie - it's about a new pet fad; soup for cats.

Increasingly, when shopping for cat food, I've seen packets of soup for cats. You can imagine the marketing people in pet food makers saying; "What can we next do to fleece pet owners - I know, we'll water down our existing product and call it soup for cats!"

Not to poo-poo things without an experiment, I bought some for Kitty and watched her expression when she ate it - or, rather, drank it. The look on her face was much the same as the look you'd find on a human face, as if to say; "Well, that wasn't very filling - when's the main course?"

There's no doubt she enjoyed it, but I do suspect she'd prefer it more as part of a 3 course, dining out experience with her mates, perhaps with a nice, chilled Pawsecco.

Yes, that's actually being sold. Perhaps pet food manufacturing also started when a community exceeded the Dunbar's Number...

Numbers in Dunbar

Hay and I were talking to some friends yesterday about resilient societies and the concept if the ideal societal unit came up, which anthropologists have estimated to be around 150 people. This is known as Dunbar's number and is the maximum number of people an individual can have meaningful relationships with.

Once a community grows above that number, conflicts would develop as factions form, leading to a societal split and former members of that community splitting off to create their own community elsewhere. It's no accident that most medieval villages were no larger than this and, given the lack of arable land available in Scandinavia, that's possibly how the Vikings expanded dramatically from the 8th century onward.

With the advent of industrialisation and the growth of cities, that splitting and migration was no longer possible due to work pressures keeping people confined in large, unhealthy groups, and thus alternative solutions had to be found. Hay and I are convinced that this is when ancillary, non-essential businesses started up, such as nail bars, betting shops, suntan parlours, package tour companies, artisan bakeries, estate agents, coffee shops and scented candle makers.

Taking the Plunge

The pond/pool is progressing quite nicely and Hay is fast becoming an expert in large pond construction and maintenance.

The plan is to have a very shallow area around the edge, with marginal plants to facilitate filtration of the algae. She's currently creating the edging using gabion baskets, sandbags and gravel, such that the pond can be filled to the top. Filling sandbags is backbreaking work - so she says. I wouldn't know...

She's also working on an air-lift system, using air stones, piping and a compressor, to stimulate some movement of water between the planted and swimming areas.

It's taking a long time, but the planting is crucial and suppliers have run out of stocks of pond plants due to the lockdown. The lack of sun this week has given the few plants we have the chance to do some work and the algae is already starting to clear, but we need at least 3 or 4 times the number of plants we already have to reach homeostasis.

On sunny days, pond skimmers take over the surface of the pond. We need to introduce some daphnia and other zooplankton that feed on algae.

Next on the list is a bathing machine.

A Type of Car

Spotted this yesterday at a local garage I frequent:

This 1963 2+2, with 63k miles on the clock, is one of a reasonably large, personal collection that's going under the hammer in the not too distant future. This E-Type is a project car, being a cross between a Series I and a Series II and has a lot of official Jaguar history. It last had an MOT in 2014.

I'd love to buy it, but Hay thinks £50k could be better spent. I disagree - it's an appreciating asset and would be the perfect impetus to me building a garage.

I remember when I could have bought one of these, admittedly not as rare, nor in as good condition, for £16k. I wish I had. They were and still are considered the poor end of the E-Type spectrum. Roadsters are much more valuable, but I prefer the lines of the 2+2.

Hong Kong

300,000 Hong Kong nationals have British National (Overseas) passports and 2.9m are eligible for them, out of a total population of 7.5m. Given anyone born after 1997, when Hong Kong was handed back to China, is not eligible for one, many of the 2.9m with BN(O) passports would not accept the British government's offer of extended visas because they have children or grandchildren who are not eligible. Also, those in most need (activists) would fall into this category, hence the actual number who would be willing and able to come to the UK would probably be very small.

I can't help feeling that the situation in Hong Kong will be used as leverage with western governments over the Huawei 5G debacle and that the Chinese government will offer to water down the new sedition law in return for western governments not banning Huawei's 5G technology.

The Chinese government, not being hostage to elections, can and does plan much further ahead than democratic governments, which gives China a huge advantage in negotiations.

Talking of not fearing elections, now that Putin has effectively ensured he can remain in position for life, Russia has become a very dangerous country, as it has now a de facto one party state for a very long time. The difference between China and Russia is that the person at the top of Chinese politics changes every 10 years and has to contend with various internal factions, whereas the person at the top of Russian politics doesn't. Putin is a dictator masquerading under a pretence of democratic legitimacy.