THE GAS

by Jez Bond

My bus driver’s driving like he can’t find the accelerator pedal or, as they say in the states, ‘the gas’. I keep thinking he’s about to pull over and we’ll see smoke pouring from under the ‘hood’ but no, he maintains this snail pace continually. I am resigned to conclude that I am trapped in another sequel to Speed. That instead of the bus blowing up if the speed drops below 70mph, the bus will blow up if the driver exceeds 9mph. Any minute now Keanu’s going to crash in through the window, mind you if he waits an hour he could just get on at the next stop.

A three hour M&E meeting on site today. We went over the drainage strategy with Joe who has taken over from the previous engineer – definitely a positive move (no names). David Apple is still heading up the M&E team, very efficiently I hasten to add, and he went through the finer details of the air conditioning and ventilation strategy with Dave and Martin. Meanwhile we have the previously missing information from our fantastic lighting designers to give to Bernard on the electrical side.

An interesting discussion was had about the benefits of electric versus gas. Now that we have the power (i.e our own substation) should we use it rather than spend a lot more money installing new gas supplies and meters? Gas heating has always been considered more effective and economical than electric but gas does have thermal losses through the pipes and with rising gas prices and the uncertainty over the future of the supply, electric underfloor is looking like an attractive option. In terms of cooking, the superior control and speed of gas has been challenged by an exciting new technology called induction (google ‘induction hobs’). So, whilst perceptions may be that gas is cheaper and better, electric may be the way – being similar in cost to run, cheaper to install, safer to handle and ultimately more sustainable.

Stuck on the underground now. Signal failure on the district line. Running late to meet our writer in residence, Sarah, and producer friend, Abi, at the Southwark Playhouse.

Jordan indicated that we were about a week away from the tender packages being ready to send out. Got to keep my foot on the gas…