Turn off the cooker


Here’s a great energy-saving, carbon-reducing tip: turn your oven off five to 10 minutes before the end of the recommended cooking period, because it maintains sufficient heat. Also, turn off any gas or electric fires and radiators an hour before you plan to go to bed, and don’t have them on for longer than an hour or two at a time.

Permanent link to this post.

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

tags: , , ,

More about the morphea


I spent all of last week, apart from one blog entry posted using my iPhone, offline. I was recovering from my biopsy, and had my stitches out the previous Friday but will have to wait at least another fortnight for the results, and even longer to see my GP, who’s on his annual leave until early September. The doctor who performed the biopsy, however, was confident that cancer is unlikely, and that I have a rare autoimmune disorder called morphea scleroderma.

I don’t have UK statistics, but I’ve read that 25 out of every million Americans develop morphea each year, the majority (over two-thirds) being children and, of the adults, the majority are female. Go figure—once again, not for me the common diseases and disorders, oh no. Set this alongside my Mal de Debarquement Syndrome, all I need to complete my exotic collection are horns on my head, three eyes, and a blue face.

Read the full article.

Monday, August 11th, 2008

tags: , , , , ,