Substack diary no.157: Tuesday, 19th. May 2026

I seem at a loss to know what to say, or perhaps more accurately to focus my mind. I am thinking how yesterday was a better than average day, until I got home and, feeling cold, tried to turn on the gas fire. I succeeded, but the horrendous stench of invisible smoke (?!) filled my lungs so I switched it right back off again. Out of desperation, and I thought it would only be for about 15 minutes, I switched the heating on, only to be met with a loud and very concerning knocking sound from the gas boiler flue, and more of the smoke-smell. When I say smoke-smell I mean exactly that: invisible to the eye but definitely not invisible to the nose and lungs. It was most unpleasant and I am still suffering this morning.

It feels very strange to even think about turning the heating on in the second half of May, and it was probably just as well that I switched it off within minutes of switching it on. My home has been a reasonable, but not really comfortable, 16 degrees for a few weeks now. That will change by the end of the week, when we can expect temperatures of 25 degrees outdoors, which would be normal in July.

Dirty energy. I have grown up with dirty energy and would like to think that before I die I would live in a clean-energy home. No flues or fumes or nasty smells; no gas safety checks; no need for a carbon monoxide detector; no dependence on gas imports from war zones – potential or actual.

Sadly, from this point in time, it would seem that I am dreaming of an impossible future. Let me re-phrase that. A future that is easily possible but which won’t happen because government’s are afraid to make the right choices, frightened of oil billionaires and the Establishment figures and media they exercise undue influence over. Oh, and the sycophantic people who follow them.