EV – 005 – Some Initial Thoughts…

Posted on May 29, 2026 by Guthlac

So I have now been the proud owner of an Electric Vehicle (EV) for two months. What are my initial thoughts? Before answering that I think it is only reasonable to point out I think EV’s are the way forward. So if you are expecting an diatribe about such vehicles then I am sorry this is not going to happen.

I firmly believe that all of us are responsible for the climate disaster that is now starting to unfold. So I believe we should all try and do things to help ameliorate the worst aspects of what is to come. I am also aware that buying a new EV has a huge carbon footprint compared to continuing to run my 13 year old car.

EVs are the future for personal transportation and in the not too distant future they will be what most of us will be driving.

So that is my bias clearly laid out and it influences what I am about to write.

Thought One – They don’t smell

This reminds me of when smoking was prohibited in the work place and pubs. Those of us who didn’t smoke no longer came home smelling of stale smoke. When I refuel my car I no longer smell of diesel. It is just a much more pleasant experience.

Thought Two – They are not performance vehicles

Good old energy density. Oil has a significantly higher energy density than electric batteries. As a result of that EVs are heavier. My own car is at least 400 kg heavier than a petrol version. The result is a much lower ‘performance’ overall.

Now I am sure there are performance EVs but they will always have to deal with the mass of the battery they carry. Anyway I have spent enough time in my life driving ‘fast‘. I am enjoying driving smoothly. My EV is much better suited cruising than sprinting.

Thought Three – Charging

I haven’t installed a home charger at the moment. This is by design. I wanted to get used to using the public charging system and this has been easier than I ever thought. However, I do need to put another disclaimer in here. Within 2 km from where I live there are over 30 150 kWh plus chargers. As my car can only charge at a maximum speed of 100 kWh these are more than fast enough.

What it does mean it usually takes me less than 30 minutes to charge to 80%. I can usually grab a coffee or do some shopping whilst charging. It is really convenient. Of course this costs a lot more than home charging but I am usually able to get at least a 10% reduction in the upfront costs.

The reality is that it costs me just about the same as refuelling my 13 year old diesel car. (That was before the crazy Trump war added an extra 40 plus pence per litre.). So still cost effective and convenient. When I fit a home charger my cost will fall by around 80 %. So something nice to look forward to.

Thought Four – The sound of silence

The car is so quiet when you are travelling. Now I am not driving a budget EV so the sound insulation should be good. But it is what it is. This is car I drive and this is my experience. It is so bloody quiet. I really do like it.

So there we have some thoughts after two months of owning an EV. It will be interesting comparing these thoughts with what I might think after owning the car for twelve months. Only time will be able to address that.

I don’t regret the change and I would recommend it to anyone. It is not the same as changing one ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car for another. You have to learn to live with the differences. ( I am sure that I will learn many other things along the way either good or bad.) But it really isn’t a problem.

However you must remember these are my views and experiences. Your circumstances may well be different and these may place constraints on you that I have no experience of. So I respect if you are more circumspect about the change. As the well worn phase goes…

“Your mileage may vary…”

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Oh the Buzzing of the Bees….

Posted on May 26, 2026 by Guthlac

The crazy world of the garden is now in full swing. All around there is teeming life. The bees are a buzzing. Our first chicks have flown the nest. (That we know of)

And we have a new visitor to the garden. Although he is a messy eater. (You might not be able to see that on a small screen.)

BTW…I don’t know why he flew when he did. I had been standing where I was for at least five minutes before he took exception to my being there. Great Spotted Woodpeckers – prima donnas!

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Certain Uncertainty…

Posted on May 22, 2026 by Guthlac

So they have started to Hust in Makerfield to the south east of Wigan. The Game’s is afoot and truly we are about to Cry Havoc and Let Loose the Dogs of War… (Thank you Shakespeare for setting the scene.). Over the next few weeks we can expect the unexpected. At the end of all this we may well have a new Prime Minister or not. A new Reform Uk MP or not. What we won’t have is the Green’s first nomination who crashed and burnt in 12 hours. I suspect this may well be a record.

So what is likely to happen. My suspicion is that thought of selecting a new Prime Minister (for anyone unfamiliar with the way the British Political System works then you will be very confused. Crazy I know but this how we do things around here) will beat any other driving force and Andy Burnham will win. But this is far from certain.

Nothing at all is certain in this by election.

Apart from at least two Labour politicians will be watching the election very closely. Neither of them are, as yet, the Prime Minister.

Funny old world….

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Not Sure What To…

Posted on May 13, 2026 by Guthlac

Slowly getting back into swing of my normal life? What the hell normal is in this context is another matter.

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A.I. huh …what is it good for?…

Posted on May 11, 2026 by Guthlac

With apologies to Whitfield and Strong but who exactly does A.I. benefit? Yes yes I know that they’re many specific applications of A.I. that have helped greatly – although I suspect the families of the many people who have died in Iran as a result A.I. assisted targeting may have a view.

I use A.I. in my photography. If you use Adobe Products and, I am assuming other photo editors, it is a bit difficult not to. Do they help me create better photographs? A bit yes but I like to think only at the margins.

I had to contact my bank today over something annoying. It was very illuminating as my bank appears to have decided that digital assistants, for the purpose of this rant I am assuming they are mostly driven by A.I. agents or are they BOTS or something else? Their sole purpose is trying to stop you taking to a human being. Well that was the impression I got. It certainly wasn’t to help me, you know the customer!

Eventually I was able to sort my problem out before I actually got through and spoke to someone because the call centre was ‘… experiencing high volumes of calls at the moment… ‘ Or to put it another way. We refuse to employ more people to make you, the customer, have a better experience. There was a time when good customer experiences were important to banks. That was from a foreign world called ‘the past‘. I know this might seem to be a strange world to any younger person might read this but banks used to be pillars of the local community. Not any more. Almost 20 years ago they nearly brought the whole system crashing down around our ears. Who saved them? We did.

I could go on but what would be the point?

The funny thing is I am sure every inarticulate word I have written here will be crawled by A.I. agents for their own benefit. Certainly not ours and especially not mine. In fact there is a reasonable chance that the crazy A.I. induced feeding frenzy going on in the world stock markets will collapse in much the same way as the banks did. Only this time we’ll have Donald J. Trump in charge to try and help out.

God help us all.

On a lighter note: I had a good few days away. Shame I got home and then got a tummy bug or food poisoning. Gray cloud to every silver lining?

Here endth the rant.

Pip. Pip.

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Not in Kansas anymore…

Posted on May 3, 2026 by Guthlac

Range anxiety – so last year! I know I know. There are plenty of charging stations on the way to Northumberland. Still when you’ve never taken a long journey in an electric vehicle (EV) it’s a concern where you’ll be able to charge it. Fear not. Charging stations are popping up all over the place and thanks to the benevolence and support of Donald J. Trump they’re number is likely to increase.

Every now and then you come t realise just how out of shape you are. Climbing up the steep hill to the Penshaw Monument was one of those occasions. The struggle was worth it. The views across area are breath taking ( or was that the climb?).

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EV – 004 – The first long Journey

Posted on May 1, 2026 by Guthlac

Plans have been made. Routes laid out. Today is the day. I’m venturing out beyond the range of my car on one full charge. Wish me luck.

Today I really do feel ‘range anxiety’. This is ludicrous as there are many charging station on the route there and back.

That does not stop me from feeling it.

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Blithe Spirit…

Posted on April 28, 2026 by Guthlac

There are certain parts of England that are what everyone who has never visited England expect England to be. They are populated by characters from the great second world war film Blithe Spirit. The villages in and around Canons Ashby such charactertures. A world time seems to have forgotten. To complete the second world war theme just up the road Radar was first developed. It is a priceless vista and a wonderful place to visit when the weather is just right.

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EV – 003 – Zealotry

Posted on April 21, 2026 by Guthlac

Drill Baby Drill or Green God…you decide.

There is a very silly political squabble doing the rounds at the moment in the right wing circles. It involves the granting of new drilling licences to two sectors in British territorial waters. According to the proponents of this action it will somehow solve Britain’s reliance on imported hydrocarbons. Even the slightest examination of the proposals will show that the British oil boom is over and has been for over 20 years. The oil and gas fields left are clearly worth exploiting, there wouldn’t be the noise and furrow about this, but they would do little to resolve the hydrocarbon issues.

The interesting thing about the debate around this is that each side argues the inverse of the other side and end up being just a little silly. They both use special pleading which to me seems a little dubious. For the drill baby drill side they argue that there is still plenty of oil and gas and if only the government stopped taxing the exploitation, and the companies profits, the would be a mini bonana. Yipee. Of course there wouldn’t unless of course you are a shareholder of the oil companies.

On the stop side, the argument is about Britain meeting the 1.5% CO2 target commitments regardless of other considerations. This appears to paint the picture that if the oil and gas was drilled it would have a massive impact on meeting those targets. I am not in any position to discuss this but it seems to me the oil and gas will still extracted from somewhere regardless of whether it comes from the British territorial waters or not which somewhat leaves the objection moot.

For whatever it worth my view is this: If granting the exploitation licence generates income for Britain and much need tax revenues for the government then we should grant the licences. The money raised could be used help the reduction of Britain’s dependency of Hydrocarbon products. The most obvious way would be to increase renewable energy sources such as replacing natural gas with hydrogen in the electric generation system.

Which brings me to that closet green god Donald J. Trump. For someone so opposed to renewable energy he appears to be doing his utmost to encourage their uptake. Thanks to his great efforts in southern Mesopotamia much of SE Asia appears to be installing solar power to replace natural gas electricity generation. He has also illustrated the strategic weaknesses caused by reliance on excessive importation of hydrocarbon products. This means that many countries, Britain included, are developing strategies to reduce this dependence. Even in his own country he is encouraging an ever great expansion of renewable energy sources. I know he pretends he isn’t but Mr. President we can really see what you are upto.

“Judge a man by his actions, not his words.”

Often attributed as a general proverb (Google A.I. – so you judge the validity of the source)

So does this mean I too am now a green god? Has owning an EV for three weeks turned me into some form of zealot? I hope not. For the record I have been studying electrical system since the early 1990’s when we in Britain were still using coal as the base load provider for our electricity generation system. I understood CHP schemes and the need for action on the ever present climate crises. I have been planning to buy an EV for quite a long time but the economics didn’t really add up. However, thanks to the four dimensional chess being played by Donald J. Trump I have decided to take the jump and seriously decarbonised the way that I live. So instead of Donald J. Trump trying to appear as Jesus, sorry medical doctor, he perhaps should have chosen Gaia instead? (You’re welcome Dr. Lovelock)

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Necessity …

Posted on April 17, 2026 by Guthlac

It was such a schoolboy error. Setting off to takes some photographs without the SD Cards! I can’t think of anything more stupid, well at least in the world of photography at least, but there you have it. What to do? I’m miles from home – how can I capture some images? There was no choice but to use my iPhone.

I have to say I’m really pleased with the results.

There are many things about the iPhone I could criticise a camera. But the one thing, in my opinion, it really works well as is as a black and white camera. Before going on I think I need to clarify this statement.

Wherever possible I capture RAW images with my iPhone. This means that that the in camera processing is reduced to a minimum. They are not HEIC images, PANOS being the exception. This gives me the greatest latitude when post processing. I feel, when post processing/editing the images produced by the iPhone, they look the best as black and white images. You may well not agree with me. That is fine. We all produce images that satisfy our own standards . For me my iPhone, an iPhone 15 Pro, is a black and white camera.

“…adversity is the mother of invention…”

I couldn’t agree more.

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