More fool me. Time to stop taking advice from people who know next to nothing. |
It was 1999 and we were doing what we thought was our final renovation. Oh, the naivety of the first time renovator. We'd heard of solar panels but they were incredibly expensive and we weren't really sure how they would work. Still, we took advice from both the builder and the bank manager. The first was very pro. The second, not so much.
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In the end we compromised. We installed a solar hot water system. It saw us through the teen years of our kids without a terrifying electricity bill. But I was disappointed in myself. I'd struggled to argue my point with the bank manager who was convinced it wasn't a good investment.
Since then, as we have slowly electrified our lives, I still tend to be bossed out of my position by people who think they know better. Year 2020: ageing and always hopeless small yet snazzy Citroen dies. We gave it wallet-to-wallet transfusions, service after service, yet nothing would resuscitate it. We both wanted to buy an EV but were constantly told by others that it was too soon. Blah blah. Range anxiety. Blah blah the technology isn't there yet.
Again, we settled for the middle. We bought a hybrid even as friends were suspicious. The Toyota RAV4* is, genuinely, the best car we've ever had. It fits three baby seats across the back seat and, according to Bluey lore, in an emergency we could put a kid in the front seat. Our fuel bills plummeted. And I was feeling pretty pleased with myself until this idiotic Trump-fuelled war.
While I drive around on one tank of petrol for a month at a time, I'm anxious that the next time I fill up it will be harder. I remember the fuel shortage of the seventies when folks with even-numbered number plates could fill up one day, alternating those with who had odd-numbered number plates. Caused so much stress. And I'm annoyed we were talked out of an EV.
Seems like in those five years, anxiety around EVs has all but disappeared unless we are hearing........