Tiptoe through the ceiling

from w
The 'government' Environment guys had what seemed a good idea at the time, to help households reduce their electricity costs by giving free installation of insulation in ceilings, such as those kind of pink bats or stapling foil. We already have old bats - ha ha - in the ceiling so say no to phone callers, door-knockers who try to sign us up and I chuck away junk mail in the letterboxes. Each installation costs $1200 for the government and many of my friends have been insistent - go on, do it, but I say no, it's not necessary. Well, the news is bad now as there have been four unnecessary deaths, as young men, probably inexperienced and not well-trained, have touched live wires. So there now has to be inspections of thousands of homes which may have 'live' ceilings!

Not to detract from the tragedy of those young men, and I may certainly sound callous, but there's a good picture in today's Age newspaper about ceilings and what does happen in some Australian homes. There can be an invasion of mice or rats or possums, and when possums come and make a home in the ceiling it sounds like the Olympic Games going on. One time Peceli was asked to help a neighbour trap some possums that got into the ceiling of her little wooden cottage. It wasn't a pretty story.

The ceiling of our home is very high - in fact it's big enough for another room. We didn't know this until Peceli and an electrician friend climbed up and crawled about to find the problem of a power failure. I was very anxious at the time fearing dangerous wires but everything had been switched off. Peceli said he could even put a bed up there! Okay, he can have it with the possums and mice, if they do come to visit.