Jun 18

Tips on getting more petrol for what you pay for

Tags / Meme

This is actually a tag from Sting on “Switching To A More Frugal Lifestyle”. I didn’t want to put the tag as a title because I have been LIVING a frugal lifestyle for 7 years now. I ‘credit’ it to debts, unstable income and mainly because I was in retail business, so I know the ‘actual’ value of things, hence I do not pay too much for what I see as ‘daylight robbery’.

So I won’t say I’m ‘switching’, but I do have something to share here that can help all of you who owns a vehicle or two, to cope with the rising petrol prices. We have tried the followings and true enough, it works for us.

This was an email forwarded to us by my cousin-in-law, Shuying.

TIPS ON FILLING YOUR CAR(S)

I don’t know what you guys are paying for petrol…. but here in Durban
we are also paying higher, up to R7.35 per litre.


But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are
some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every litre. Here at
the Marian Hill Pipeline where I work in Durban, we deliver about 4 million
litres in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next
day is jet fuel, and petrol, LRP and Unleaded. We have 34-storage tanks
here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 litres.

Only buy or fill up your car or bakkie in the early morning when the
ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their
storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense
the fuel, when it gets warmer petrol expands,so buying in the afternoon or
in the evening….your litre is not exactly a litre. In the petroleum
business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the petrol, diesel
and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important
role.

A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the
service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a
fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages:
low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed,
thereby minimizing the vapours that are created while you are pumping. All hoses
at the pump have a vapour return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some
of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapour. Those vapours are
being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting
less worth for your money.
One of the most important tips is to fill up when your tank is HALF FULL.
The reason for this is, the more fuel you have in your tank the less air
occupying its empty space. petrol evaporates faster than you can
imagine.

Petroleum storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves
as zero clearance between the petrol and the atmosphere, so it minimizes
the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck
that we load is temperature compensated so that every litre is actually the
exact amount.
Another reminder, if there is a fuel truck pumping into the storage
tanks when you stop to buy, DO NOT fill up–most likely the petrol/diesel is
being stirred up as the fuel is being delivered, and you might pick up
some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.
Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.
DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!

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I guess only during tags or meme tags do I get a chance to talk about everything else except children, I need to live up to my blog title, ya. *wink* For those of you who have missed my previous tags, here they are:

Copyright © 2007-2026 All About Your Child. The contents on this blog are the sole property of the author, Angeline Foong, and may not be used or reproduced in any manner without consent. All Rights Reserved. 10 Comments »
Jun 17

Nearly lost him again

Child, Parenting


Yesterday, we went for a swim with my auntie (the one who took care of me since I was a baby) and my most respected cousin, Corina, together with Matin and his cousin who just turned one last month.

Auntie didn’t swim, only Allan, Corina, myself and the 4 kids swam. We thought the ratio of 3:4 would be good enough but accident still happened.

As I recalled….yesterday was a terribly unlucky day. We went to Chao Chu Kang Swimming Complex, full of excitement with all the floats, water balls, water guns and all the yummies to fill our stomach when we get hungry.

But It Is Closed On Every Monday!!! Damn! So the thought of going on the slides and enjoying the massage from the wavy pool was smashed!

We had no choice but went to the normal swimming complex at Clementi.

We had splashing great fun, playing the crocodile and shark chasing, obviously, Allan was the croc and I was the shark while Corina was the kids’ angel, fighting against us.

Just when we were so into the game, 3 kids about age 7 came over and wanted to play with us, we didn’t want to because they were quite rough, but they just kept “interrupting” our fun. Just then, Allan shouted at me from behind, “Why aren’t you taking care of Binbin?!”

When I turned my head, little Binbin was choking and looking pale. Allan told me that his float wasn’t with him and he was struggling to swim (in a swimming position), kicking and flapping his arms like crazy but with HIS HEAD UNDER THE WATER!

We kept slapping his back till he vomited lots of pool-water and the vegetable he ate for lunch (I guess we over-slapped) before his face finally got the reddish color back.

As some of you know, I nearly lost him before which almost took the last breathe out of me, so I am always extra careful towards him. Till now, I still get the shivers, when I recall what happened 1 year ago on Allan’s birthday.

Yet my negligent nearly cost me to lose my 3 year old again….damn me!

Copyright © 2007-2026 All About Your Child. The contents on this blog are the sole property of the author, Angeline Foong, and may not be used or reproduced in any manner without consent. All Rights Reserved. 18 Comments »
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