Life in United Kingdom

You might have got approached by sales people about the Green Deal, and he who might be more interested in making a sale told you how much you could save on your energy bill, and you don't need to pay for installation of such energy efficiency measures as insulation or new boiler. So what is the fact? Green Deal is an initiative of the government to try and get people to increase the energy efficiency of their home by a loan for works through an energy supplier. The way the Green Deal works is that a private company will offer to install an energy efficiency measure (e.g. Cavity wall insulation, external wall insulation, central heating, new boiler, double glazing etc). They will pay for this installation. However it is not free fore you. Your electricity will go up, and the extra you pay on your fuel bills will slowly pay off the loan for the work carried out. This is therefore a sort of finance package, whereby you borrow the money to do the improvement but pay it back throug...

Fengshui literally means 'wind and water', which are two most important elements of a place. When buying a property, location is the most important fact which affects the price. Ten houses on this crescent, which was a patch of woodland. The house which we now live is on the worst spot. It has lest sunshine, noisiest, and facing to road. Lack of sunshine causes our burglar alarm to fail, and might attribute to my stiff knees. East was tall building, which was a police station. This tall building block the morning sunshine. In the front of our house, another tall complex to block our view. Sometimes their glass windows reflect sunshine direct into our living room. There is a burglar alarm on the front wall of each house. Ours failed last winter, and I noticed this didn't happen to our neighbours'. I called the security company to fix it. The guy told me that the battery was drained because of lack of sunshine. 'Well,' he said, 'you don't really...

We do a lot of cooking, mostly stir-frying, the extractor fan has been broken since we moved in, so our kitchen alway very smoky, we got a new extractor fan installed recently, though.  The smoke triggers the fire alarm in the hallway. I normally don't bother to hush it, open the doors and windows instead. This fire alarm might be working too hard, it started chirping early yesterday morning, I tried the Hush button, it stopped chirping. Then started again yesterday afternoon, this time, pressing Hush button has no effect. Then we left it alone and went to shopping. When we came back, the annoying chirping has stopped. But it started again last night and woke me up, so I removed it to the garden shed. According to the instruction, "an intermittent chirp (every 45 seconds) indicates the alarm has reached the end of life and must be replace." The alarm makes a lot of noise when it's dying. I checked the back of the alarm, there are short instruction on it....

The Mackworth Community allotment Association, with the support of Derby Homes, have successfully gone through the first stage on an application to Community Spaces BIG Lottery funding to return the land off Greenwich Drive South to an allotment. Derby Homes will match fund the lottery grant. An information day will be held on Saturday 5 September 2009, 10am - 2pm at Prince Charles Avenue shopping precinct, in Macworth. If you have any chance to get an allotment, what will you use it for? Gardening Low cost fresh food Getting/keeping fit Community spirit Promoting healthy, affordable diets An opportunity to maintain and develop your skills?

Wilkinson Sword is a registered trademark of Wilkinson Sword Limited , and is applied under licence by Fiskars Brands UK ltd . Notched Hand Shears 9'' hat treated steel blades for long lasting sharpness Blade tension adjuster for different width foliage Cutting notch for thicker stems Award winning wishbone design for improved comfort and cutting efficiency Double bevelled blades for improved cutting performance Cushion Stops If this product proves defective during normal use due to faulty materials or workmanship other than due to misuse within 10 years of purchase, contact Fiskars Consumer Affairs Department at: Fiskars Brands UK ltd Newlands Avenue Bridgend , CF31 2 XA I bought a Homebase Hand Shears last year, its Cushion Stop loosened and injured my hand. In one garden book, the author wrote: don't be tempted into buying cheapest garden tools, if budget permit, buy the best tool which can last life long.

Being responsible about waste disposal in the home is very important, particularly when it comes to getting rid of fats, oils and greases (FOG). Many people don't realise the harmful effects of pouring these down the drain, but FOG quickly solidifies when it hit the cool walls of the sewer and sticks to the side. Over time this builds up - preventing the normal flow of waste water and debris from passing through. With no way through, the waste water backs up in the system coming out of drains, sewers and potentially into your home. You can help to do your bit to collect fats oils and greases in a container and dispose of them in the bin, not down the sink. Fat Traps are suitable to collect any cooled kitchen fat you produce in the home. Your water supplier may have a free Fat Trap for you. If you are a Severn Trent Water customer, you can order a Fat Trap for your home by completing the form . Top ten tasting tap waters 1. Severn Trent Water 2. Anglian Water 3. Thames Water 4. Dwr...

See how BT undermines the foundation of its competitor Virgin: Did you think the grass was greener when you left BT for Virgin? Did you think you couldn't find a better deal? Then it's time to take another look. Our Gas and Electricity supplier is British Gas, but sales representative of EDF persuaded my wife to switch from British Gas to EDF. British Gas called my wife the week after my wife signed the switch application form, and promised £50 credit to switch back, so did my wife. First Dirct promises £100 for switching current account, and £200 if you are not satisfied its service, and subsequently move away . My wife switched her current account and then closed it after several months. She made many phone calls, and raised several times high blood pressure due to arguing with the bank, First Direct found an excuse and refused to pay that £200. Are there any moral sense in this kind of competition? As a customer, I always trust my HSBC Bank - the World Local Bank, and MS Win...

In Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol , Scrooge is a miser, see how he kept the smallest coal fire to save heating bills: Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was very much smaller that it looked like one coal. but he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Where fore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of as strong imagination, he failed. Alice says, her colleague stays two hours longer in office instead of going home after working. Even at weekend, he goes to his office to save heater bill. He share a house with other three house mates, I wonder how they divide their heating bill. Alice seems to carry on a Guerrilla warfare with me on gas heating, or a tug of war, or a seesaw of war whatever. She always turn down the gas heater to...

In the 17th and 18th centuries as people were going to the "new world", America, many of them couldn't afford the boat ride. So to get to America, they would agree to be indentured servants. They would commit to work for someone for 3 to 7 years, and in the end they would be part of this new free world, at least that was the idea. You see, in many cases, the indentured servant would become further indebted to their "employer" who would then agree to forgive that debt if they would stay on, many times indefinitely. Today, we still have indentured servants, more like financial slaves really. But instead of being obligated for 7 years, it's 30, or more. And that's assuming you actually become debt free, but incidentally, many people won't see that day before they die. In fact, dissect the word "mortgage" and what do you get? Well "mort" comes from the Latin word for death, and "gage" comes from Latin to mean pledge, so a mo...

Our house has no cellar, and all terraced houses we viewed during our house hunting have cellars. The function of the cellar, firstly should be storage, people used to store food and wine in the cellar. Because refrigerator has not been invented yet. During the World War Two, cellars were reinforced as bomb sheds. It's quite amusing to know that British were also scared to death by German bombs, same as Chinese by Japanese. But as far as I know, most of Chinese has no cellar to hide, especially in southern China, I have never seen any cellar under houses in our area either old fashioned or modern one. There was a joke that whenever bomb siren sounded, all people in Wenzhou city started to look for toilet (commode). They were too scared and upset to hold the urine. The cellar also used to store coal! This idea came to me as I read this line: We had a big cellar, which was reinforced with wood all around and the escape hatch to the outside was up the grate where the coal was delivere...

Three gardeners came to work on my neighbour's garden. They cut grasses, clear out dead leaves and wild flowers, and dig up the edges around back and front gardens. When I picked up my daughter from school, my daughter greeted them when she passed by, she always feel very proud when she say hello to strangers, and disappointed when not be answered. So greeted them and had a chat. The man told me that they were working for Betel of Britain Charity, a free Christian residence. I was bit surprised, and asked: "Do you work for free"? Because my neighbour is an Indian, from Tamil, the family definitely is not Christian. The man answered:"Not for free, all income goes to the charity." "Right," I said, "So, you are volunteer for Betel?" He said there are many residence sites has been opened, even one opened recently in Mongolia. I asked if there was any in China. He said, I don't know but I hope so. He give me a leaflet, the slogan on the leafle...