It has been cold and rainy and dank here in downtown Colchester and so I have done very little but stayed indoors in a huddle with a rug over my knees. Having had a smart meter installed it has hit home just how much electricity I use in the winter and most of it needlessly. I have become quite anal about it all and watch the figures like a hawk (hence rug over knees instead of putting heater on) and after careful watching I have discovered the following:
- It costs 1p each time I make a cup of tea
- it costs 2p to brew up coffee in my electric percolator
- it costs 10p to have a shower
Well, yes that is cheap, ok but wait until the heating goes on. I do not have central heating but heaters in each room that I can put on and off as I wish, and one day last week it was really cold so I had them on nearly all day. At the same time I had the oven on, batch cooking, and also the immersion heater to make sure I had plenty of hot water. Zut alors!! Quelle horreur (forgive me slipping into the vernacular but I have just watched the last two episodes of Spiral on BBC 4, a superb French series and the language is in my mindset). The figures on the meter flicked by with shattering speed.
During the summer I built up a credit balance on my account despite my supplier telling me I owed them £300 which they swiftly checked and turned into £120 credit when I rang up and bollocked them for their mistakes, but will be using up this balance pretty quick. No matter I hate being cold. But a smart meter is an eye opener.
Anyway enough of my power rantings. I have been diverted from my obsessional watching the figures click on the meter by the fact that the Nitto ATP Tennis finals have been on the telly and I have been glued I tell you, glued.
Quite wonderful at last to see Fed, Raf and Djoko all knocked out and none of them in the final. The so called NextGen (stupid marketing name) have finally started to make their mark and this week I have watched superb matches from Zverev, Thiem, Medmedev and Tsitsipas who have produced some astonishing tennis.
As well as beating their opponents they have had to deal with a partisan crowd when Rafa is on court – find it difficult to watch him twitching and fussing and yanking his shorts out of his bum crack – but he is an incredible tennis player. Whoever plays Novak has the crowd on their side as he seems to be fairly unloved by audiences. I am not quite sure why. And of course, any poor unfortunate sod who is playing the Smugmeister, Roger, has to content with the entire crowd baying and barracking and cheering your faults. This happened to Novak this week and it was really awful and I found myself feeling sorry for him which does not happen often I can tell you. Even the commentators had a go at the bad behaviour of the spectators.
The Federer fans are in a league of their own when it comes to blind adoration and obnoxious behaviour so I tend not to watch his matches. This week, however, some of the tennis was of such a high standard that it would have been criminal not to. To sum up, one Fed Fan was holding up a gigantic banner saying "And on the eighth day God created Federer".
I rest my case.
Oh and finally all this tennis is on Amazon Prime which has improved enormously in the last year. Some of the smaller ATP tournaments they cover they have NO COMMENTARY until the final. Oh the bliss of it. Wonderful and it really shows how little it is needed.
The BBC covered the tennis in the afternoon this week so I decided to tune in and check it out. Five minutes of Henman and Castle wittering and I switched over to Amazon Prime straight away. And I know we should not comment on appearances but FFS will somebody get Sue Barker a stylist and a hairdresser?
My reading has also been of the Non-intellectual-non Booker prize winning variety this week. Actually, most of my reading is like that when I think about it..
New Michael Connelly – The Night Fire. Bosch is now retired but still chasing down cold cases and sorting out criminals. Always well written, always tense and tight and I thoroughly enjoyed this read. I have also just watched the latest series of Bosch on Amazon Primer which is spot on (I am not being paid a retainer by Amazon I promise it is just they have some good stuff)
The Flood – Kristina Ohlsson. A Bergman and Rech Scandi thriller. This is the sixth and looks like being the last as the author has made it clear she is getting a bit fed up with them. Sad as I really liked them though this last one was a bit rambling. However, it led us up and down dale and tricked the reader into thinking one thing and then telling you Big Mistake.
Home Work – Julie Andrews. A memoir of her Hollywood years. Enormously engrossing and 
enjoyable. On screen she comes across as the Doris Day of her time – sweet and virginal, beautifully spoken and sooooo English, but in this book she comes across as a real hardworking human being. Her early life spent touring around music halls before she got her break was not much fun. I loved it.
One of the chapters was all about the making of Thoroughly Modern Millie which she said was not the wonderful film they were hoping to make and I spotted it was being shown on tv that week so decided to record it. And yes, it is a bit slow and Carol Channing is an irritant, but there are some delightful numbers in in and very funny moments. I loved it all over again. I remember seeing it in the cinema on its release so that dates me a bit. 'sigh'
And I am currently reading the latest Jack Reacher Blue Moon by Lee Childs. Why I do not know. They are all the same. It was half price in Waterstones, which was cheaper than the Kindle edition, so I got it but now I am wondering why I bothered. Ah well.
Off to stay with a friend for a few days. I have a Christmas Prize draw coming up and more of that later and next weekend I am in Bath so am taking Persuation with me.
Lunch now and then tennis and that is it for the day.
Au reservoir.
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