Week 34 Gas prices

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Week 34 


Gas prices rose again on Monday after Gazprom announced Friday that it would close the Nord Stream 1 pipeline again. The price is 15 percent higher on Monday, at 283 euros per megawatt hour. Due to the closure of the pipeline, no gas will flow from Russia to Germany from August 31 to September 2.

One of the readers' comments - from NU.nl

Marco1972
3 hours ago

I wonder how much longer we will allow Russia to cause constant panic in order to get a higher gas price to fund its war. Since many families are already in the cold of the winter because of the much too high gas price, it seems to me that a moment has come when we stop paying these absurd prices. We are paying these prices because Russia has invaded Ukraine but meanwhile all of gas using Europe is financing the war for Russia. Then put a stop there then with Russian gas until they normalize the prices again. If we are therefore in the cold this winter, we will at least do it together and not just the people with a low income.

The megawatt hour means little to me - I have to calculate the cubic metre price for our apartments...

In augustus 2021 was de gemiddelde gasprijs nog 0,95 euro per m3 gas. In 2022 is de gasprijs flink opgelopen. Momenteel betreft de gasprijs gemiddeld 3,45 euro per m3. Dit tarief is inclusief energiebelasting, ODE en 9% BTW.

One of the apartments (which is empty as of this weekend) would have paid €16,000 for the last 12 months, at today's rate. It is simply not possible...so I don't know what the answer is going to be. A lot of the readers' comments refer to "sitting in the cold" this coming winter...that may well be the case. We have plenty of firewood for our own house and for the daywork areas, so that will help a little.

There is also a refugee crisis here in the Netherlands - up to 700 refugees have been sleeping outside the reception centre in Ter Apel. With that in mind, we are going to contact our own Local Government to see if they want the apartment for a Ukrainian family BUT they (the Government) will have to pay for the gas!

More painting, mowing and bookkeeping!

Firewood

Perhaps as a sign of things to come...?
For the last couple of years we have seen a felled beech tree next to the path of one of Boeke's walks...
I finally dared to pick it up! (It's not really allowed - but Janny's Mum said that she can remember her father having to gather firewood from the forest).

We were only just able to get it in one go...








To get away from the depressing and rather alarming Gas Price news...


We had to arrange to get the boat to Dokkum so that we could get a good spot for the upcoming Admiraliteitsdagen Festival (Admiralty Days - the Admiralty used to be located in Dokkum when it had better access to the sea).

We took the van to Dokkum on Wednesday - so that we could leave it there and have a vehicle to get around - including if we have to come home for any reason.

We'll be heading to Dokkum after work on Monday and we've closed up shop for the rest of the week.

They were busy constructing the stage for the musical part of the festivities...





Then, on Thursday afternoon we headed off to Heerenveen and filled the boat with diesel, which was needed after the trip to Rotterdam.

I was then able to make a few rough calculations...
Rotterdam Trip
The fuel bill was €285,00 for 135 litres.
34 engine hours
+/- 420 kilometres

This worked out to be just under 4 litres/hour - at mostly 1600rpm, average 6km/hour.

So, at 1630 hrs, we headed off with the aim of making it to Burgumermeer for the night - we pushed it a bit at 1800rpm and made it just at dusk - with the nav lights on.


The water levels are still ok in Friesland...









The blue pointer is our mooring...
It was very hot and sticky, so we sat in the wheelhouse behind the protection of the insect screens - chicken and salad and a couple of beers - and I even watched the last quarter of the Collingwood - Carlton game (again) - streamed via the AFL app to the comparative "middle of nowhere".

0600hrs Friday



We were close to the Prinses Margriet Kanaal and it had cooled down quite a bit overnight.

We had a swaggy's breakfast and headed off for Dokkum at 0700hrs


We're trying out a new mooring this time - just a short walk to the festival and a grassy spot for Boeke. It's the last spot before a fence, so no one will be walking past - which means we can have our table and chairs set up without inconveniencing anyone.




The further travels of Ben...

He came home on Sunday - a little worse for wear after the Lowlands Festival - and went back to Amsterdam on Monday - and was in Bangkok by Wednesday!

His apartment building - provided by the Modelling Agency - along with "pocket money"!!
He's already had a couple of castings - it is Thai Fashion Week at the moment.

And he is able to continue with his Copywriting work - the main one being The Student Hotel who extended his contract for September.








A fruit seller outside his apartment building...












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