Well The Powers Gone!

[Alfred Boehme]

Only just but but we are trying to keep it down

[Bev Coates (Now Walker)]

I'm an Energy Consultant, hoolahoop1 I work for a german company too  E.ON...wonder if it was 1 of our wind turbines, cause i have heard talk of plans to go into africa.........oh i hope so......i can get a transfere lol.........i love to see wind farms....i cant understand all the people who object to them......and with all the coast line  most countries have ....putting them out to see would be ideal...they wouldnt been seen........expensive yes........but its gona have to happen sooner or later..........we waste so much energy...
Im from a coal mining village....as most of the villages in yorkshire were, all but a very few have long gone........not a bad thing for the people who had ever worked in these places...but it shows...these things do run out eventually.......and we have just had yet another increase in the price of our gas and electric with the average home spending around £1000 per year ...we should all have windmills on our roofs and solar panels.....and all new build homes should  be made with all these things in place......

[georg ruf jr.]

Hi Bev.
You mention ed people spending up to about 1000pound per annum. Is this only for electricity?
We need about 3500 liter of oil for heating and warm water. It's getting less, as our kids are leaving home. We pay between 45 - 6o Eurocent per liter.
Then comes water and electricity....

[Michael Alexander]

Gee!... now let me work out how much we spent on energy last year living in Oumnd.....   :emot19:

Sometimes it's nice living here still.....

[georg ruf jr.]

Paying your rent isn't cheap either. It's normel to pay 7,50€ per  square meter living in a flat with 80 square meters.
On an average you earn about 1500 - 2200€ netto a month. At least the papers said so the other day.

[Michael Alexander]

Ouch!  that brings us back to the point florrie made.... our standard of living is still high... even if the standards of the majority around you is'nt....

[georg ruf jr.]

We're all living well.
Hardly inflation. My job is sure. Good social security. Still quite good pentions. No fees for the doc. Low prices on med. and so .....

[Michael Alexander]

Doctors.... I've heard of those, we used to have those here also at one time.... 

[georg ruf jr.]

If your sick, you go to the doc and he gives you sick leave from work. You still get paid...

[Michael Alexander]

I had a chat the other day with one of the docs about this sick note thing.... he was telling me that they (the docs) know that the guys are not sick, but there is nothing they can do about it and they have to book the guys off, especially on Mondays and Fridays..... now HR has asked for these repeat offender's names , as they are no longer an asset to the company... and will be top off the chop list when it;s time to downscale on the mine.....

[Florrie van Zyl (Muir)]

Our electricity alone costs about R1200/month. Heard a chat on the radio, the economist said the only way to solve the power problem is to increase its cost by at least 50 percent, it will have less effect on the economy than powercuts. I suppose people would use it more sparingly and still carry on with production. Makes sense but not a nice prospect for us that have quite a high electricity bill already.
Doctors are in a difficult position when asked for fake sick letters. The work should be able to see from their leave records who are repeat offenders. Some people feel that because they are entitled to 36 days sick leave per 3 year cycle,they should take it whether they are really sick or not. Like those using business phones for private use etc., they don't realise that it basically comes down to stealing from the company.  Generally in SA people don't give good service, they do their jobs just to get their salaries and  put in the minimum effort required. In afrikaans we call them "suurstofdiewe". There are so many people in the wrong careers. Very few service orientated people in the jobs where you are in contact with the public.

[Michael Alexander]

Service levels all over SOuthern Africa are up the pole..... even here at Spar, I had a few customers who had problems this week.... A lady had some overseas people coming to styay and ordered a platter form our fast food , when she got there, there was no platter ... on asking the masses bhind the counters, they all shrugged their shoulders... and started to converse with each other in Oshiwambo.... frustrated, she came to me.... I sent her home and told her that i waould send the platter to her house in 30 minutes, free of charge, I went to the chap responsible, who's nickname is smiley, for obvious reasons, lost my temper with him, pointed to the entry in the order book, asked him where the platter was, NO Platter, why did'nt you make it?, He did'nt see the order he reckons...there were only 4 items for him to make the whole day, I screamed at him, threw the book on the floor, warning time, you will make that platter in 20 minutes..... and stormed outta there..... smiley lost his smile, I lost my temper and spar lost a customer...... Now, the point of the story..... If the government stopped telling me who I could employ in the shop with their AA policy, I could employ a Big strict Afrikaans tannie at my counters..... and thing s would change..... tha same goes for the butchery and various other spots in the shop where, I would like to employ a few key people , who happen to be white, but I cannot.....not allowed to....thus the service levels fall...... whenever I do find a good previously disadvantaged person (AA) they stay with us for 3 months and move on to a better paying job with the mine..... Begs the question... why 17 years after independence, a generation has passed yet we are still playing with this AA shit that is only doing more damage to the economy than good........  Grrrrr!

[Florrie van Zyl (Muir)]

17 years already? Time flies when you are having fun. I get p.....-off about kids not being able to get jobs today because of affirmative action. The day Terrick started school, non-white kids were allowed at the school. The white kids of his time haven't had any more priviledges than the non-white kids but aren't given a fair chance to get a job. Why must the children suffer for the sins of the parents? Generally, the non-whites prefer office jobs, luckily my son chose a profession that few want to do, plumbing and then started his own company. Nowadays, parents have to create businesses or opportunities for their children, just giving them a good education is no longer a guarantee that they will find employment.

[Clive Symes]

Bev, There are some wind turbines being tested but they only ever seem to run one at a time and even that very infrequently.

We were talking at work the otherday and some of the chaps have worked on the coal mines, they were saying SA has been exporting coal and getting a betterprice for it than if they kept supplying the Powerstations. The stockpiles of coal at four or more powerstations is severly limited and this can be seen on footage taken by our Cart Blanch team of reporters.
Officials refised to comment but its obvious, someone has been making big bucks while the coal supply to the plants has been dwindeling and their pockets being fattened.

[Bev Coates (Now Walker)]

Hi Clive...yes can believe that about the coal.....as you say some people are making too much money to stop these things happening.......
Hi george...£1000 is  the avarage spend per annum on gas and electric for a 3 bedroomed house with the average family..........some people spend double that....but thats an average....also most peoples electric bills are now higher than the gas....used to be the other way round untill the last couple of years....household fuel prices have almost doubled in the last 3 years.....our govement gives pensioner £200 per year towards the cost of the fuel.....it goes up to £300 for some.....this used to almost cover the whole years bills for some....now it wouldnt even cover 3 months usage for most..........

we should all be doing our own bit for future preservation of our world....


We have a bigger problem here in yorkshire with .....water shortages    :emot19:   which is craaaazy...with all the rain we get here we should have all the water we need all year round.......but first its hose pipe bans...no gardening allowed....no washing your car......but you still see people doing all these things saying........i pay for it so ill use it.........we all have to pay water rates over here ......some have water meters and pay for what they use....others pay a set rate regardless......but if the water companies spent money in the right areas...we should never run out of water.

one thing that really has started to annoy me is when i see people running round in their big 4x4's taking the kids 100 meters to school....to me this does not say ...hey look im rich..i have  big car...it just says to me....hey look at me ...i dont care about the future of our world :36_2_24: