Water

Second day without water down here in parched Penge… so was we’ve been forced to buy bottled water (something I have deliberately tried not to these last few years - but I guess the last 48 hours have helped make me conserve water a bit)… which reminded me of this one, one of the more obscure elements and even more obscure uses.

This is Germanium, which is use used in catalysts for polymerization in the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The high brilliance of this polyester is favoured for PET bottles in Japan, but it seems nowhere else, no idea why (see, I told you it was obscure).

So this post is dedicated to Thames Water who I am sure are doing everything they can to fix this, and the fact that, according to the latest issue of Private Eye - Thames Water executives bonus payments went up 74% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 - is in no way connected to this (but at least they are charging our house an extra £250 a year to help pay for it).