In town yesterday parked in car park behind town hall, only 2 trips one to the bank and one to  pick up a Watson & Brown pork pie then back to the car.
I was in town for less than half an hour and got to the pay machine with the £2:10p already in my hand, put it in and it wanted another 10p it's now £2:20p

Saw in this week's D.T. what a stunning success the market was, it looks like the pictures were taken of the small market (near dents) but none of the big market the other side,

Also something is finally being done with the old M&S site, naturally businesses outside Chesterfield are doing it up, why we still have a Chesterfield council is beyond me.

You know the old joke...How many people work in Chesterfield town hall..........about half of them.

Noticed on the news the ever resourceful band of tea leaves have found a way of making more money.

They are getting copper wire by sawing off the pumps of electric charge points used for cars this means if you go to re charge your car you may not be able too.

 9 P.M. our time tonight and we should learn what Trump has in store for the world with trade tariffs.

I'm no expert on these things but if Trumps got his fingers in it it won't be good.

You have to ask yourselves "Is it feasible to stop trading with America". The worlds a big place and the U.S. is just one country, there's a large part of Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada the list goes on, if the rest of the world snubs the U.S. trade wise then they've only themselves to blame. We need to concentrate on trading with our European partners and others, show the U.S. we can manage without them.

One example would be to create a European Amazon style supply and delivery system that the whole world could use but would not export to the U.S. just imagine it the thought of tens of thousands of Amazon jobs going in the U.S. all because they've lost a very large chunk of the world market........now that WOULD be a tariff I could live with.

I thought I'd woken up this morning in a parallel universe, some bright spark in the U.S. is convincing Trump to run for ANOTHER term!!

Apparently you could run, for a third time, if you had a majority in Congress which they say wouldn't happen the other suggestion is that the vice president runs for office at the next election with Trump as V.P. then if Vance gets in they just swop roles....madness

Trump is a legend in his own mind, and here's me thinking Putins a dictator!

Do you or your daughter have a water meter?

I had one installed about four years ago and have definitely saved on my bills, not earth shattering amounts but definitely a saving.

They say if there's more bedrooms in your house than people then water meters are the way to go.

Heat pumps {just like smart meters} I wouldn't thank you for either.

Just read of an old couple who were one of the very first to have a heat pump installed many years ago. It was installed with help from a government grant and yes {along with solar panels} saved them money over the years, but now their heat pump is reaching the end of it's life and needs replacing. Unfortunately for them the government grant is only given for the first initial heat pump installation so a replacement is going to cost them an arm and a leg. They have had quotes for a replacement and all in the region of £17,000, so what monetary savings were made over the years seemed to be a waste of time.
 So by all accounts trying to sell your house with a heat pump will more than likely be a hindrance than an asset.

I first noticed the price difference on the Rykneld homes site months ago. Most of the older properties for rent had a rent of between £85 to £100 per week, they built some new o.a.p. bungalows I believe in Danesmoor with these heat pumps fitted and the rents for those were in the £150 + p/w mark.

Walked through the market place yesterday, they're still working on the bottom bit {opp Boots}
Not exactly awash with traders maybe six at best, whether that's because word hasn't got round about the opening or traders have given the town the old heave ho remains to be seen, I know what I'd put my money on.

One big realisation has come out of the past few days,

With Starmer ramping up the rhetoric over increasing the defence budget and getting our armed forces "battle ready" is the sad truth that over the past 14 years or so the Tories have depleted our armed forces to such an extent we are no longer in a position to defend ourselves let alone help another nation out.

What the N.A.T.O. countries need to do is beat Trump at his own game, what he is planning for Ukraine by taking over their power plants etc in order to "protect" Ukraine is for N.A.T.O. countries to do it first. Let European countries take over Ukraine, by possibly buying the country {temporarily} if you will and flood the country with people from the E.U.