If you have a spare $7000 you can buy this house. You do have to remove it from this site though. And there are quite a lot of holes in it.
Finn and Thomas are playing Meg's Sims game. I have become accustomed to horrible games called 'Assasin' and games where they chase each other down alleys and blow each other up. It is a bit of a turn around to find them setting up lifestyle situations. Finn and Thomas are Roomies. (They had to check what Spouse meant to establish that there weren't that). They both work on the ambulances. Finn has red hair and blue eyes,and it is as if someone has digitally forwarded to the future. Bizarrely, Thomas has the same haircut on screen as he has now, but has grown a wee beard and has glasses. (the images are very realistic). They have to pay bills, cook and make decisions. Finn is romancing a very pretty blonde girl. He set up a conversation with her and told me that if he got it right, he would get to kiss her. It was really funny looking at the body language. I knew he was saying all the right things and sure enough he got the kiss. Thomas is dating a girl at work. There is no sound with the game, and I haven't a clue how it works. Finn said it is just like life. I thought that Sara would probably argue that in order to get promoted to a paramedic, you have to do more than keep the ambulance clean and spend 5 hrs clearing up the kitchen! But once he did get promoted, he ended up working so much over time that he needed to take time off to recover - maybe it is realisitic.
Meanwhile, we are struggling to find a time to visit Carol and Pete, but it will be well worth when we get there. This article was in todays ODT:
Grubby process getting the good oil on cheap motoring
By Catherine Pattison
Created 12/09/2009 - 05:00
Click photo to enlarge [1]
Hawea Flat man Pete Simpson has reconfigured his 1987 Toyota Landcruiser to run on chip fat oil. Photo by Catherine Pattison. He calls himself the "frying Scotsman", alternative fuel sceptics called him mad. Catherine Pattison finds out how a Hawea Flat innovator rejigged his 22-year-old Toyota Landcruiser to run on chip fat oil.
A grease-stained piece of cardboard lies in the doorway.
"How many wives would allow that?" Pete Simpson asks - his Scottish accent as broad as his smile - before explaining the importance of this oil container place mat.
Being situated indoors means the contents are already at room temperature of about 15degC and only need a boost of 65degC before reaching the optimum temperature to power Mr Simpson's 1987 Toyota for free.
Don't get swept away by the facts that he spends about two-thirds less on fuel and has run his four-wheel-drive on chip fat oil for 25,000km over the past three years - getting the good oil is a grubby process.
"Fat is ugly, messy, dirty stuff."
The research and development road to success was paved with pitfalls as Mr Simpson (36) laboured "to find the best way of taking a tub of chip fat and turning it into fuel".
The idea began six years ago when Mr Simpson and his wife Carol arrived from Britain and a Hawea Flat local asked him if he was interested in making biodiesel.
"Our house was falling to bits. We had one brand new child, new job, new life, so I said 'no way'."
Fast forward two years and, armed with a book on biodiesel and a "minefield of information" off the internet, Mr Simpson began his mission.
He soon realised that his experimental inklings lay not in manufacturing biodiesel but in modifying his vehicle to run on 100% fat.
A part-time job at Wanaka Wastebusters had introduced him to the world of recycling, so he salvaged materials to make the conversion.
The inevitable mistakes and breakdowns occurred, prompting Mr Simpson to investigate how temperature "massively" affects the behaviour of oil.
To achieve combustion, the chip fat oil must be heated to the same viscosity as diesel for it to be injected into the engine.
If it doesn't reach the necessary temperature of 80degC then it will clog the fuel filter and cause the lift pump to struggle, because it is trying to suck up much thicker fuel.
To heat the chip fat oil, he uses a two-tank system.
The Landcruiser is started using diesel from an 8-litre auxiliary tank and once his home-built heaters and the engine's warmth boost the alternative fuel source up to 80degC, he can "flick the magic switch".
A typical 18km trip into Wanaka necessitates running the car on diesel for about 4km before stopping to flick the under-the-bonnet brass tap to the chip fat oil tank, and then back again to diesel, about 4km from his destination for the cool-down period.
"About 99.9% of people would not be bothered to do that."
To combat the Central Otago winters, the car's filter and fuel lines are insulated and the filter is set on an automatic thermostat.
A "self-taught" mechanic, Mr Simpson estimates he spent about $1000 on parts and wiring to make the changes to his car.
Then there was the "thousands of hours" spent on learning about the oil and, secondly, getting to grips with the Landcruiser's internal workings.
After about 2000 litres of chip fat oil, the costs were recouped.
They would have been far higher had he not performed the work himself, Mr Simpson said.
He then discovered that if the oil was left for longer (up to 18 months), the filtration process provided him with purer oil, which in turn equals better fuel economy.
The 4.2 litre non-turbo Toyota averages about 8 litres per 100km.
This figure is 10% less than it should be but the downside is that it is coupled with the same percentage less of power.
Mr Simpson collects the chip fat oil from local restaurants in 20-litre containers, then stores it in 1000-litre tanks for 18 months.
Once the fatty residues have settled to the bottom, he pours the oil, through a filter, back into a smaller container, from which he fills up the vehicle.
After enduring jibes from autoelectricians, engineers and protesting howls from his family during the fairly regular roadside repairs, Mr Simpson still feels like he has had the last laugh.
"Now I'm quite chuffed that my car hasn't broken down . . . yet."
Source URL (retrieved on 12/09/2009 - 17:58): http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-lakes/73749/grubby-process-getting-good-oil-cheap-motoring
Links:[1] http://www.odt.co.nz/
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