We just need to toughen up a bit...

  

Its dark here at night.  very very dark, and quiet.   We sleep well, but when the alarm clock goes off in the monring I really dont want to get outof my warm bed.  Its rather like some form of torture .....   The part of the house we are living in is quite cold.  We have a oil fire in the sitting room which heats up 3 radiators, one in our bedroom, one in mums room and one in the bathroom.  When i say 'heats up the radiators'  what I really mean is it mildly warms the radiators.  They're not hot.. just warm, but the bathroom is always remains cold.  You really really dont want to spend any more time in the bathroom than necessary.  Its a matter of plucking up the courage to go there,  and then when you have ventured in  its a case of doing your ablutions as quickly as humanly possible, before dashing back out again.  

You forget how 'soft' we have become.   Its normal these days to have the central heating on full blast from September until April and to be walking around the house in a tshirt all winter .  Back in the 70s we diddnt do that as kids.  We were tougher than that.  I remember as a child the house being cold.  I remember  the goldfish tank that sat in the bathroom window was frozen up one winter. We diddnt have central heating, just a gas fire in the lounge, that mum turned on for half an hour in the mornings.  I remember getting  up in the morning and eating my breakfast huddlled in front of the gas fire in the living room. I remember mum boiling kettles of water to have a wash in the morning.  None of this 'on demand' hot water that we all expect and take for granted these days.  I remember the crittel windows being iced up in the mornings.  I remember having to mop up the windows and sills with a towel as they were streaming wet with condensation.

As a teenager in the 80s we lived in a cob cottage with a rayburn, and just one radiator in the bathroom.  We had a quarry tiled kitchen floor and my feet were always cold. There was no other source of heating in that house.  I  remember getting out of bed in the mornings and having to walk half a mile up the lane in the dark and cold, what ever the weather to let the horse out of his stable and into the field.  Trudgeing back through the field in the bitter cold with my wellington boots squelching through the mud.  Across the water meadow, through the spooky tunnel, and over the little bridge across the stream back to  home.  Getting washed and dressed, and then walking back up the lane about 1 mile to the main road to catch the number 93 bus into town to go to college.

So you see all these modern conveniences that we take for granted these days  have turned us into 'soft whingers'      We  just need to toughen up a bit.

If its cold..put another jumper on !
Keep the doors closed to keep the warmth in
Invest in a thermal vest and warm socks
Use a draught excluder in front of the door
Take a hot water bottle to bed

x
Jo