HAVING forked out a ridiculous EUR680 on a fill of home-heating oil recently I spent a whole day last week at an alternative energy exhibition.

I could have been at home with a roaring fire, a DVD and a tub of Ben and Jerry’s but the cost of the oil was killing me.

Like most I’m a latecomer to the new forms of energy.

Windmills, geothermal, solar panels, wood pellets - it was all double Dutch to me.

I’m from an age that shouts - if you can burn it then stick it on the fire. That doesn’t include the mother-in-law but pretty much everything else.

But having watched so much hard-earned cash literally go up in smoke I have decided to change.

My trip to the alternative energy exhibition didn’t help matters and only left me more confused.

I came home with a head full of facts and a car full of brochures.

What I can’t understand is how come all the exhibitors said their form of energy was the best - I mean somebody is lying.

They’ll all deny it of course but somewhere along the line somebody is making a lot of money out of these new inventions.

And besides I’m not so sure why we’re all getting so hot under the collar about alternative means of energy.

Sure with global warming we’re all going to be living outside for 10 months of the year wearing shorts and eating bananas grown in Drumshambo. (Stephen Maguire, Sunday Mirror, Feb 17, 2008)