The Wirral Way

Around this time last year I went for a walk along part of the Wirral way with two old friends. I’ve been intending on walking the full 12 mile length of the disused West Kirby to Hooton line for a while and as I was visiting family last weekend it seemed like a good chance to try out the full length of the walk. Originally I had planned to start at Hooton Station and end up in West Kirby but as the British Open Golf was on at Hoylake it made sense to do it the other way around. So, after dumping the car at Hooton station car park, I made my way on the Merseyrail via Birkenhead to West Kirby to start the walk – a journey somewhat complicated by a burning train and the bus replacement service for people who don’t like golf.

I normally go on long walks with the dogs but on this occasion I was meeting up with a two legged walking companion which has the advantage that he won’t go chasing after squirrels, won’t wander off with the wrong people because they have a picnic basket and won’t growl at cyclists. Actually, I’m not entirely sure about the last one but at least I didn’t have to chase after him with a pooper scooper. In fact there seemed to be more cyclists than walkers on the route – possibly because they were more likely to overtake us than other walkers. For the most part the two groups get on quite happily although I did have to watch myself because I often mistake two cyclists for one when I see them I peripheral vision.

I had expected to see more relics from the railway. Of the stations, many have disappeared altogether or are merely hinted at  by an anachronistically named “Station Road”. Thurstaston Station, however, retains its platform along with the Wirral Way visitor centre.

The route does, however, still have many of the original railway bridges intact. These now serve the purpose of keeping traffic away from the country walk / cycle path which is no bad thing.

Towards the end of the walk (assuming one starts at West Kirby) is Hadlow Road which has been preserved as it was in 1956 when passengers last used the station.



The only slight downside of Hadlow Road is that it is the last really interesting thing before arriving at Hooton which does make the last mile or so a bit of a chore.

Even details of the ticket office have been maintained down to the stationmaster’s cat. I seem to vaguely recall that the cat was there when my father showed me the station in the 1970s. I suspect that it has been stuffed.

Overall it was an enjoyable walk. Being on the flat, the 12 miles took just over three and half hours and my friend seemed to survive the distance quite well. Whether he survived me prattling on inanely for the best part of four hours is another matter.

The Green Deal

I was phoned a couple of weeks ago by a former energy supplier offering me loft or cavity wall insulation. I did my loft insulation shortly after moving into the house and I don’t have cavity walls. I said in passing that I wouldn’t mind if they were offering solid wall insulation and whilst the call-centre slave on the other end realised that he wasn’t going to be on to anything he did mention in passing that there are grants available for solid wall insulation. This came as news to me.

I had a search around and discovered that there are indeed grants available up to 75% or £6,000 for solid wall insulation via a revision to the “Green Deal” scheme. This was originally a convoluted and rather expensive loan scheme to allow home owners to insulate their houses or replace old boilers with a more efficient model. However, there is now a new grant scheme (called the Green Homes Cashback) which is meant to offer money towards energy efficiency measures. This sounds like exactly what I am looking for – until I actually tried to access the thing.

Initially this seemed easy enough – I phoned the helpline and then ended up having a rather long-winded discussion about energy efficiency with the call centre staff but I was eventually sent the details of the scheme. Rather than dealing with a single government agency this is all provided through independent contractors and one is advised to “shop around” or, to put it another way, waste vast amounts of time phoning people up to be asked the same questions over and over again. The first step is to contact a Green Deal Assessor to carry out a survey on the house (at a cost of around £150, from what I could tell). I would then need to apply to the scheme which would then result in a discount voucher being sent to me via email. Then, I would have to apply to a Green Deal Installer to supply a quote (or, in fact several quotes as I would have to “shop around”) and then arrange for them to install the agreed features and pay up-front. Following that I would then have to arrange for another Green Deal assessor to determine that the work had been carried out as specified in the first report and send this report along with the voucher signed by the installer back to Green Deal headquarters who will process the claim and pay the previously agreed amount into my account within 25 days – allegedly. Got that?

Given that I would like to get the solid walls insulated it is still worth going through all this palaver. The first step is to contact an assessor. There are many listed via the Green Deal website but very few give any indication as to what they charge. I sent a few emails out and didn’t receive any replies – apart from one who said he was booked up for the next couple of months. I ended up phoning a few of the firms listed. The conversations I had where a bit odd. The first place I called asked me what type of new boiler I was looking for. I’m not. The next place said that they carry out assessments but only if I want loft or cavity wall insulation. I then phoned a third firm who said that they can carry out an assessment but if I went to another installer they would want to do their own assessment (at my expense). I was starting to smell a rat here.

I recalled one firm that I know do external wall insulation and that were signed up for the Green Deal. They were actually quite helpful but they were fully booked up with work for the next 10 weeks and would have to do an assessment anyway. So I’m not bothering. At least, I’m not bothering with the Green Deal. I had some insulation work done a couple of years ago which was done by a local joiner-cum-plasterer. The work has made a huge improvement to that room and he seems to have a great understanding of U-Values and the varying properties of building materials and their appropriate uses. He also understands what I am trying to achieve and will specify insulation models that are far in excess of the laughingly poor British standards that most building firms will grudgingly adhere to. I won’t be able to claim back the money, of course, but I suspect that the Green Deal is like those Sainsbury’s “20% off on a £60 shop” offers whereby once the discount has been achieved one would have been better off going to Lidl and ending up with a cheaper, better value purchase.

So what of the Green Deal? As I write there are reports that the money set aside for solid wall insulation  (£25million) has already run out. This doesn’t surprise me as I would estimate that it would cost in the region of $40-50billion to sort out the nations solid walls. However, I suspect the whole scheme is a political scandal in waiting as whilst there is taxpayer money out there to fund it, there doesn’t appear to be much in place in terms of auditing to determine that money is spent appropriately or in the householders’ best interests. Most of the Green Deal companies appear to be legitimate, respectable businesses but there is a huge incentive to ensure that the money is spent on those measures that will benefit the installers rather than condition of the country’s housing stock. What is more worrying is that there is a great scope for connivance between assessors and installers to vastly overinflate costs or possibly even make claims for work that is not required. I can see many parallels with the disaster that was Individual Learning Accounts.

So how would I do things differently? Firstly, I’d suggest that the assessments would be better arranged, performed and monitored by local authorities. They are already well set up for this as they control planning and building inspectorates. They also have significant property portfolios of their own so they are already dealing with the likely players. I would ensure that the assessments are carried out for free – they are suggesting that £100 can be reclaimed via the scheme but it would make far more sense to simply absorb this cost up front. Also, by centralising the assessments any discrepancies in the energy performance certificates can be easily detected and when grants for improvements are available it would be much quicker and simpler to target it at those homes that would benefit most. As far as the installations are concerned, local authorities are in a much stronger position to negotiate bulk discounts which would benefit everyone.

Will any of this happen? Given the wanton idiots who have run successive governments I’m not holding my breath but we do need to take energy efficiency seriously. There are over 6 million homes in Britain with solid walls and they leak heat ridiculously. All of that means that our energy requirements are far higher than they need to be and the costs are not merely financial or ecological. We have benefited for over a generation from being self-sufficient in gas but supplies are rapidly running out. If we have to rely on imported fuel supplies it leaves us susceptible to blackmail and bullying from hostile external forces be they corporate or governmental. How much better would it be if we could merely turn round and tell them to go to Hell?

World Cup 2014: Finally It's All Over

The World Cup is finally over and how did my predictions go? Well, it wasn’t a Brazil vs Spain final, was it? Spain imploded in their first game and Brazil never looked convincing until, of course, the semi-final where they fell apart disastrously losing 7-1 to a German side that were on auto-pilot in the second half. To put that in context, during qualification Germany only beat the Faroe Islands 3-0. What puzzles me is how the Brazilians managed to beat Columbia.

I’d stand by my comments of the Germans not having had the best preparations. They looked better at the last World Cup for the most part. However, where they have previously dazzled only to be let down by a few simple mistakes, this time they have managed to grind out the results when needed and that largely includes the final. Argentina’s tactic throughout has been to park the bus in front of goal and hope that Messi can create something at the other end – a tactic that had largely worked up until the semis when they were forced to go to penalties against the Dutch.

Messi was awarded the player of the tournament accolade which did rather raise a few eyebrows. Personally, I would have gone for James Rodriguez or Bastian Schweinsteiger but I think this tournament has been as much about outstanding goalkeeping performances as it has anything else so maybe Manuel Neuer or Tim Howard would have been a better choice? I suspect that the Messi choice may have been more to do with his, and the accolades, sponsors but many in the media have been very dismissive of Messi – he has been one of the hardest working players on the pitch and if he looks shattered then there is a very good reason for that.

Overall this World Cup has been highly enjoyable and certainly one of the better ones in the last 20 years (the USA in 1994 was pretty good as well). What has come out from this is that football is still very much a team game. To quote a popular internet meme: Brazil have Neymar, Agentina have Messi, Portugal have Ronaldo but Germany have a team.

VW Golf : One Year On

One anniversary that almost completely passed me by is that just over a year ago I replaced my old Toyota Yaris with a VW Golf. I think, in part, that this was mainly because it was such an uneventful year motoring wise. This is a good thing as it means I haven’t had to spend any money on maintenance. In fact, with the variable-service long life oil I haven’t even had to have it serviced yet. That will be due in another 5,000 miles or 9 months (unless it changes its mind). Other than changing the wheels over for Winter and topping up the washer fluid I’ve had to do very little.

One of the things that I had worried about is whether it would be more expensive to run. The claimed economy was 51.4 mpg which was actually slightly higher than the Yaris claimed even for a car that weighed over a quarter of a tonne more. The actual figures that have come out for total lifetime consumption are 51.5 mpg for the Golf compared with 52.7 for the Yaris. That’s pretty close but all that extra weight can’t be hidden that easily. The main difference I’ve noticed is that the Yaris was much more efficient in town whereas the Golf’s ultra-long gearing helps it at speed. Over an equivalent period of a year there isn’t much in it:

One thing I have noticed, though, is that the Golf’s trip computer is a habitual liar. The trip computer on the Yaris was pretty much spot on: any differences in mpg were more likely to be down to filling errors. The Golf’s trip computer is also very accurate: providing one always subtracts 3mpg from the figure. The only reason I can think for this – and it is a cynical thought – is that it is deliberately set higher because the manufacturer knows that most people won’t check the accuracy but they will tell friends and family about how frugal they think their car is:

In terms of overall ownership one big difference I’ve noticed is that the Golf is far more comfortable on a hot day. In part this may be because the interior is bigger, in part down to its reflective silver paint (compared to the dark blue of the Yaris) but it could be that the air-conditioning system is just that little bit more aggressive. On one particularly sunny day I had the air-conditioning on all the way for my drive home and the trip computer indicated that the fuel consumption was worse by a full 10 mpg. It’s nice to have, of course, but it is one to use sparingly.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the car. Of the other cars I looked at, I still like the look of the Toyota Auris and our local taxi firm has bought a fleet of the hybrid estates which is ideal for their business. I also rather liked the Ford Focus I had on hire but some of the design is just that little bit impractical. All the cars I looked at were really in the dull and boring category and the Golf is possibly the dullest of them all but if I can go for another year  of hassle free motoring from my boring car I’ll be quite happy.

Mr Messi and the Man in a Hat

I got my hair cut this week – rather severely so. I went to my usual barbers at the end of the road and they had a new young chap working there alongside Edward Sissorhands (I’m not sure of his real name but he is frighteningly quick fingered and doesn’t say much). The new lad was actually quite chatty and asked me about the ongoing World Cup. He had been following Argentina (presumably as neither Turkey nor Scotland had qualified) and it turned out that we are both major fans of the phenomenon that is Lionel Messi – or “Mr Messy” as my razor wielding friend referred to him.

I think the phrase “Genius” is often ineptly applied to sportsmen but in Messi’s case I think it could be quite apt if one was to believe Thomas Edison’s quote that "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." Messi has an obvious talent for football but what really amazes me is his work-rate. Seemingly he is never still but in spite of his own incredible goal-scoring record he is constantly trying to bring his team-mates into play and create chances out of nothing. In the last game against  Belgium I saw him shrug of four fouls in succession without losing either the ball or his footing – in the end the referee intervened: presumably to prevent him from losing his shins.

Anyway, my young barber finished after seemingly endless snipping and trimming. The end result looked pretty good to me but I hadn’t realized quite how much he had taken off. It wasn’t until a day or so later when  was working in the garden that I realized that the sun was burning into the back of my head. I stuck a baseball cap on but this only helped so far. I decided that what I needed was a sun-hat of some description. I’ve had mixed luck with hats in the past. I have a few which are generally used in Winter for protection from the cold, wind, rain or a combination of all three. I also have odd baseball caps which I will begrudgingly stick on when conditions dictate – such as attending a baseball match. However, more stylized hats never seem to work that well on me.

I tried on a Fedora many years ago when I lived in Newcastle. This seemed like a good idea at the time and I thought that, combined with my trench coat, it would give me a sort of Tom Baker Doctor Who, bohemian chic look.  In fact it made me look like the local Rabbi – which wouldn’t have been so bad but he was in his late 60s and I was about 25 at the time. For the sun-hat, I had in mind either a Panama hat or some type of cricket hat which seems to do the job in countries like Australia or India (or anywhere with a climate that actually makes cricket possible). I suppose what I had in mind was looking like Pierce Brosnan in The Tailor of Panama. This is what I actually ended up looking like:

I suppose the problem is that the hat doesn’t particularly resemble a classic Panama and I don’t particularly look like Pierce Brosnan either – even if I do share the habit of squinting in bright light. Anyway, the hat does seem to serve its purpose even if it does get a bit hot and sweaty at times. I suppose I could always grow my hair a bit longer but then I was getting hot and sweaty with that. I can’t win. Maybe I should move to Greenland?

World Cup 2014 : Getting Serious

The World Cup is now down to the quarter finals – things are starting to get serious. The group stages have exceeded all expectations with lots of goals and open attacking football. The last 16 have been more of a mixed bag: some good matches, some poor, fewer goals and more cagey tactics. Some of this may be down to the knockout format of the latter stages but I suspect that playing a game in hot, humid conditions every four days is eventually going to take its toll. Of the teams that played only Columbia really looked convincing .

If the group stages were dominated by free-flowing play and free-for-all goal scoring then the last 16 has been notable for some remarkable goalkeeping displays. Normally this would indicate dull defensive matches but the games with good goalkeepers have been amongst the best. The first notable performance was from Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa who did incredibly well to keep a rampant Netherlands team at bay for much of the 90 minutes. It was only in the dying minutes that the Netherlands managed to make a breakthrough and then “win” a penalty to send the Mexicans home. It’s a pity as I’ve enjoyed this Mexico team and I would have liked to see more of them (and my wife would have liked to have seen more of Ochoa who is a bit pretty, apparently.)

The next notable goalkeeping performances were in the same game where at one end Algeria’s Adi Mbolhi acted a single man brick wall against Germany’s front line whilst at the other end Manuel Neuer performed the role of both goalkeeper and sweeper keeping the Algerian breaks under control and spending much of the game hanging around the half way line. The last game of the round saw Everton’s Tim Howard give a career defining performance for the USA against Belgium and breaking the record for World Cup saves in a single match. All of this was exceptional stuff.

The round did have its downside, though. Brazil won but disappointed again against a decent Chile side who will be a loss to the tournament. Costa Rica ground out a win on penalties against a dull Greece team and France won in workmanlike fashion against Nigeria in normal time. Worst game of the finals so far must be the Argentina vs Switzerland game which was so dull I was ruing the fact that they couldn’t both lose. Argentina did score eventually thanks largely to the work-rate of Lionel Messi who was the only player on the pitch deserving any credit at all.

We now have a few days break until Friday when France and Germany kick off the quarter final stage. It’s difficult to call who will make it through to the final but I suspect that later kick-offs and fitter players will help no end. There are only 8 matches left and the finalists are going to have to play 3 games in as little as 8 days in the Brazilian heat and humidity. We did see refreshments breaks in the Netherlands vs Mexico game and I think this should be a permanent fixture rather than the exception when slogging in the sun.