Rick's b.log - entry 2022/04/16

Croissants

Which one should I choose? Decisions, decisions...

Packs of croissants - five for €2,75 or eight for €2,50.

Fuel efficiency of my Aixam GTO

Starting kilometrage: 42.7 (on 30^th March).
Ending kilometrage: 358.2 (on 15^th April).
Distance concerned, therefore, is: 315.5km.

This represents twelve days of work, one extra journey home (from the supermarket after work), and one trip up the driveway with the bin (1km, to bring it home I brought it with me as I was coming home). It ties in with "about 25km a day" travelled.

The amount of fuel put in was 10.54 litres (costing €18.81 at a current price of 1.785/l; that's a pleasingly symmetrical number).

Dividing the distance by the consumption gives a result of 29.93km per litre of diesel.
So getting to work and back uses a little under a litre. Or, it's costing about €1,60 per day (of course, highly volatile prices).

Now for the Brits. 315.5km is 196.04 miles.
10.54 litres is 2.318 imperial gallons.
Divide one into the other, this gives a result of 84.57 miles per gallon. That is, actually, amazingly close to the quoted 85mpg of the publicity brochure. Especially given that such results were likely obtained in "controlled conditions" whereas I'm just driving a nearly ten year old car with 50K on the clock, through a forest, up and down hills, and through several 30kph zones.

For the Americans, 10.54 litres is 2.784 US gallons. Thankfully your miles are the same. In American terms, it's 113.3 mpg. Which considering a 2020 Chrysler 300 only manages 23 mpg, and a 1956 Ford Thunderbird half that, it'll seem like a staggering amount, won't it? :-p

A magical Easter

Elsewhere, the origins of Easter are pretty much unknown thanks to Christian suppression for hundreds of years, and more recent neo-pagan and wiccan storytelling. There may have been feasts in honour of a west Germanic pagan goddess called Eostre, during what we now call April, as was mentioned in an 8^th century book. Sometimes she is called Ostara, and this has been traced back to "Austro" in proto-Germanic, and further back to "h₂éwsos", the proto-Indo-European name of the dawn goddess (which may have influenced the ancient Japanese dawn goddess "Uzume").
To throw some ancient Babylonian into the mix, this story seems to also be corrupted into the goddess of sex and fertility called Ishtar. All the way through, the symbolism is eggs and bunnies which one can find plentifully at Easter. Certainly, it is one of the more overly pagan Christian celebrations (you didn't think bunnies and chocolate eggs had anything to do with the resurrection, did you?).

This year, we are blessed with not only a full moon (tonight, at 8.57pm CEST), but it's also really nice weather. Yes, I'm sitting outside with my little Pi setup to write this. It's an unexpected 21°C with a gentle breeze and low humidity. You think I'm going to do stuff inside on a day like this?

It is also the middle of hanami (the cherry blossom celebration). The hybrid cherry out front is putting on a show.

White cherry flowers.

The Japanese floral cherry (it doesn't bear fruit), with it's lovely pink flowers, is also in bloom.

Pink cherry flowers.

In the last day, the unknown apple that I call GC-161 has exploded into bloom. After spending an eternity buried up to its neck in brambles, it is certainly rewarding my efforts at clearing all the weeds away.

Apple flowers.

Now, it's getting on enough in the day that it might be nice to hook up the hammock and just "chill". So let me upload this, put the kettle on, and try to remember where I put the hammock......

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Mick, 17th April 2022, 03:51

So you no longer cycle down the road with the bin? Are you getting lazy in your old age ;-)  My sister gave up chocolate for lent. I keep promising to give up moaning.... Maybe next year!

Zerosquare, 17th April 2022, 14:49

If you want to feel extra French, quote your car's fuel efficiency in "litres au 100 kilomètres". In your case it's 3.34 L/100 km ; a pretty normal number for a small car.

J.G.Harston, 24th April 2022, 00:56

Wow! 85mpg! My little Corsa managed 45mpg, which I was well chuffed with considering the Rover I learned to drive in stuggled to do 25mpg.

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