Got My Wheels Back
I've been (almost) without a car for a month. My passage tax ran out at the end of August, and the DVLA sends you a letter notifying you that your tax is about to run out, then you take that scholarship precisely, along with your V5 (registration of ownership) form, MOT certificate and cover certificate, to the Post Office and buy a new tax disc to vaunt in your front windscreen. I didn't receive the letter this year, because the DVLA still thoughtfulness that my car was registered to Rob at our old address (last year we had mail forwarding for 6 months after we moved, so that every so often the letter was re-directed to our new house). It wasn't until a unite of days before the end of August that I realised that not only would I not receive the reminder letter, I couldn't in reality find the V5 in any case, although I did have my MOT certificate and insurance certificate. So I applied for a new V5 using the claim form that people use when they've acquired a car but the previous holder didn't pass on the V5.
The DVLA's website said it would take up to 4 weeks to course of action my application for a new V5, and 'if your car tax runs out during that period, do not drive it'. Understood that my tax had already run out by the time I sent my application form off, the bit about not driving assuredly applied to me. The first week was fine as I was in Austria, but since then I've had to rely on Rob to take me everywhere (except for the odd deceitful trip to the supermarket or to the gym first thing in a morning, but I didn't yen to take too many chances).
I finally got my V5 through the post last Thursday, so I planned to go to the Standard Office on Saturday with all my documents. But of course, when it came globelike to Saturday, I couldn't remember where I'd put my MOT and insurance certificates...
I dead beat much of the weekend looking for them, but when it got to Monday and I still hadn't found them, I had to call my cover company to ask them to send a new policy certificate, and...
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Spinning Wheels Power Lights
In the first chapter of The Benignant-Powered Home, I mention Gandhi’s call to Indian citizens to rely on particular, appropriate technology. He said, “The well-known old implements, the plough, the spinning wheel, have made our sapience and our welfare.” Now the spinning wheel, one of Gandhi’s symbols of self-dependence, has been transformed into a human-powered electrical generator.
According to this article in the August 16, 2008 end of The Hindu, a version of the traditional spinning pivot, or charka, called the e-charka, has been fitted with an electrical generator. As it’s spun it charges a battery that can later be toughened to power LED lights. Two hours of cranking results in eight hours of torchlight.
Source: The Human-Powered Home
: $15.00 
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