Wombats and cents

How much is petrol worth to you?

People like to whinge about the price of gas just as much as they do about the weather.  This wouldn't be true if we all used our bikes to get where we were going, but I digress.  Virtually every month I read a letter in our local automobile club magazine in which the author argues that the price of gas is fixed by colluding petroleum companies and that there should be a government inquiry into the matter.  Some make a pathetic effort to support their annoyance, claiming things like "On my recent trip petrol (that's what they call it here) was $1.23/L in Tamworth and when I was in Brisbane only a few days later it was $1.18/L.  Clearly this is a sign of price fixing."  Upon reading that line of reasoning I was incredulous; hadn't the author ever noticed that the price of gas at their local station changes daily, if not hourly!

This post has moved.  Read the entire post at http://wombats-and-cents.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-much-is-petrol-worth-to-you_07.html

Recycled clothes to ease the travelers conscience

I bought a pair of high tech travel pants today, the kind where the material is partly composed of old plastic bottles.  The tag had a picture of the aforementioned bottles awaiting conversion into these pants.  As I started to examine the picture, I expected to see lots of Coke bottles; Coke is ubiquitous.  But I saw only one or two.  The vast majority of the bottles in the cage were water bottles.

I only rarely drink bottled water.  It is generally reserved for occasions when I need the bottle more so than the water.  I am fortunate enough to have lived my life in places where there is a safe supply of clean water delivered directly to my taps.  Mind you, I did start filtering my drinking water a few years ago when we lived in a house where the water ran brown for the first few seconds whenever you turned on the tap.  However, even when I travel, I usually drink the local water if I've been told by a local that it is safe (the one exception to this is when I visit my mother's house, where I can't stand the taste of the water after brushing my teeth).

This post has been moved.  Read the entire post at http://wombats-and-cents.blogspot.com/2006/03/recycled-clothes-to-ease-travelers.html