502
Today has been one of those that are best finished and forgotten quickly. First off, the weather: it was miserable. There couldn't have been a bigger contrast from yesterday. Secondly, Craig's van had very little petrol in it, and if you either live in the UK, or have been following the news from these sceptred isles, you will know that there has been a run on petrol over the past couple of days. Petrol in this country has been getting even more expensive over the past few weeks, with the average price of unleaded approaching £1 per litre ($6.89 per US gallon). Apparently over half of the price of petrol is tax (petrol duty), and this is the problem. The government is refusing to reduce its ridiculously high tax, and seems quite content to see prices rise rapidly day-on-day. As a result of this, some road hauliers and farmers have planned in the next three days to blockade oil refineries across the country, thereby preventing the resupply of petrol stations. They hope that by bringing the country to its knees, as they did five years ago when there was a similar hike in the price of fuel, they will force the Chancellor into cutting the petrol duty. So far, however, all they have succeeded in doing is cause a wave of panic buying, as people rush to fill up before the petrol stations run out of petrol. The panic buying has emptied the petrol stations. There were only two or three petrol stations in the whole of Dundee, a city of 180,000 people, that had any petrol - so Craig couldn't fill up. Thirdly (I remembered, even if you didn't), I have been told that I must maintain my washhouse or I could be sued if bits fall off it an hit something or someone. Reasonable enough. However, the person telling me this is the developer, who has build an 8' fence a whole 4" from the back of my shed, blocking my access to maintain it. The won't let me take the fence down, and have told me that it is my problem, and that I had access before they put the fence up. When I pointed out that that was not true, and that previously I couldn't get in because they wouldn't let me because I did not have the statutory certificates and no insurance. There was also the slight problem of a locked gate, two pitbull terriors and a security guard! It's in the hands of the only people who will make money out of this situation: the solicitors. To top it all, R*****s beat Porto in the Champions' League (although, looking at the bright side, at least Porto got beat). Oh!, and I managed to finally clean my camera's sensor, and now it is all pristine and clear!

Linda started her postgrad last year