If things get tougher?

catznine

moanymoany wrote: »

Hi Catz, I thought that your post was worth it's own thread. I know there have been threads on learning old skills before, but I thought that because it was different as it was also looking at the current difficult - and getting more difficult - financial situation it was a thread that could 'stand alone'.

I see it has been hastily added to another, older thread and I feel ridiculously upset by this. I really did believe that it was time for a thread to reflect the present situation and the older thread could have been linked.

Oh well, it doesn't take away the importance of your post.

Thanks for the vote of confidence! lol Was it moved? I'm sure I posted it on here as I kind of hoped it would bring some comfort to those who are (quite understandably) like me, scared by the sudden changes. I started a little blog of my own, nothing exceptional but just to chart our own progress and struggles as we not only "power down" and cope with the price increases but also pay down the mortgage before retirement. I found that everytime we had a problem to face I would find myself thinking about how my grandparents coped! Yes it was harder for them to live the way they did but they survived and brought up 5 daughters and that does bring me some comfort in these troubled times.

I worry about winter the most, we have gas central heating and no other alternative that isn't electric. We could get rid of the gas fire and put in a coal fire or wood burner but that would cost quite a lot to do. In the meantime i am stocking up on warm clothes and blankets and learning to enjoy knitting again

Gigervamp

I remember my nan used to have an electric bed warmer. It was flying saucer shaped and screwed into the lightbulb fitting above the bed. Anybody else remember those?

[Deleted User]

SK a good old fashioned fug was when everyone was in one room, with the door shut, for the whole evening. The worst fugs happened when it was raining or snowing and the washing was all draped over a ceiling airer in the same room and those were the days when both parents smoked as well. Condensation running down the window but I never remembered the room as being damp. That reminds me: calor gas gives off a lot of water vapour and need fresh air intake or they can give out carbon monoxide. Lol that is why I always felt sleepy when one was on

Do you remember the smell in the old fashioned hardware shop? The paraffin stored in a tank in the shop and the bundles of firewood and the little paraffin lamp that stopped the toilet pipes from freezing and while I am at it, the squares of newspaper on a string hanging in the outside toilet

DdraigGoch

Kittie, you're making me feel Ooooooooooold! I remember an old grocery shop - on a corner of the high street - you could walk in and there would be a plethora of goods hanging up, stacked on shelves, in tins and boxes, open sacks and tin boxes. There were broken biscuits, potatoes, stacks of Carnation Milk, sugar in blue bags, blue bags for the washing, a dolly tub in the corner and a manual till with a bell like the final knell. All this in a little town in 1960. Just up the street [quite a steep hill, I've since discovered when I revisited it!] was Fulgoni's, the coffee shop. There were pastries and cakes for sale downstairs and upstairs was the posh coffee shop, no instant coffee and takeaway cakes there. You were seated at a beautifully set table, your order taken and the cakes and sandwiches came on two or three tiered cake stands, the tea or coffee was taken in thin china and one used proper linen napkins - and I would have been anything up to 8 while all this was around, about 1965 it all started to change.

I still have a hankering for some of the elements of that life, but I'm very glad of the life I have now. I chose not to have an electric cooker installed, gas isn't available here, so I have a woodfired range waiting to be installed. I bought a new [gasp!] washing machine and have a condensor dryer for the odd days I can't put the washing outside [ha! this is Wales, we have rain here, lots!] and a dehumidifier for the times I want to dry it inside in front of the fire or the windows, I wouldn't be without the internet or my computer, though if I lost the television I wouldn't cry, but I'd be devastated without the radio.

So, as things are getting tougher week by week, I'm looking back and trying to remember how things were done. Luckily I've always been a nosey individual so was told a great deal .... let's see how many questions we can answer for each other. I'm sure that there are modern ways of doing things that are better than some older ones, just can't work out which is which by myself.

Thanks for the reminiscence, Kittie!

ceridwen

Errrrr.....<cough> can I interject a coupla comments here purlease?

I do wonder whether calor gas heaters are safe - as I know that they were banned from being used in some public sector housing I used to live in. I never tried to use one myself - the electric storage radiators were just fine and my bills astonished me by their cheapness (WELL insulated that place was! hmmmmm!). I tended to feel that they must have had a good reason to ban them from the safety point of view - or they wouldnt have done so. They were a Housing Association - and always extremely reasonable landlords as I recall - so I doubt very much they would have banned them on a whim. (It didnt stop a few of the other tenants apparently having them - never did find out which ones!! but the thought worried me - as their home was probably attached to my home somewheres along the line if they had started up an accidental fire with them).

On a sheer pragmatic note - I've worked in a coupla places where calor gas heaters were used for heating - and they were rubbish. They were allowed to run out of gas frequently, they made a noise in operation, I suspected they emitted fumes - I wouldnt dream of getting one myself. My conversion to halogen heaters came when one of these employers bought 2 of them and I was standing there toasting myself nicely - much warmer than those calorgas heaters at their best (and their best wasnt very often). Apparently their Health and Safety bod had passed them okay too (though I would still add my corollary of not looking directly at them when they are on). Dont forget the hassle factor too of having to get in the calor gas cylinders......

Re cold beds....I read all these posts about icy bedrooms and think "cor...must be a lot colder where they are!". I never use heating in my bedroom - as I'm not used to sleeping in a heated room. Anyways - when my 2nd electric blanket in a row went on me in an unreasonably short time - I took hints from other O.S.'ers and I have a blanket or summerweight duvet or flannelette sheet underneath my bottom sheet and just use a standard hotwater bottle or two or (more likely) a coupla minutes holding a hairdryer and giving a blast of hot air in between the sheets. Notta problemo. Lovely and warm - sorted (and thats by my standards - ie I dont like wearing owt at all to bed).

EDIT: on the thought of a whole family maybe huddling up in one room of a winter to save on fuel....as someone who was brought up like this....can I please put in a request to parents in those circumstances PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT have anything like tv, music, etc on in that room whilst your children are trying to do their homework - they do need peace and quiet to do that homework and may very well not be able to deal with the "distraction" (voice of experience time here - they will still remember that decades later.....and resent it if they know they are capable of getting good qualifications left to themselves). They almost certainly wont say anything at the time - they will just get distracted - but they will as an adult at some point!!!!

Valli

Please people - if you use any type of flame burning heater it will need a good supply of oxygen so that it's waste product is CO2 and not CO - carbon monoxide. Bear in mind please that a faulty heater will give out carbon monoxide - and could kill anyone in the building including adjacent properties.
We lost the occupants of 2 houses near here a few years ago - the family were in the next door property. The faulty heater was in their elderly neighbours house.
Get any heaters checked please.

ceridwen

Valli wrote: »

Please people - if you use any type of flame burning heater it will need a good supply of oxygen so that it's waste product is CO2 and not CO - carbon monoxide. Bear in mind please that a faulty heater will give out carbon monoxide - and could kill anyone in the building including adjacent properties.
We lost the occupants of 2 houses near here a few years ago - the family were in the next door property. The faulty heater was in their elderly
neighbours house.
Get any heaters checked please.

Ahhh....knew there had to be a reason why my Housing Association ex-landlords banned them......not a fire risk.....a my parents would have "killed" them (metaphorically speaking) for my death if another tenant had killed me with these heaters.......risk.;) (errrr....certainty....I know my father......)

[Deleted User]

DdraigGoch, In 1960 I used to think that it would be lovely to be rich and be able to buy dahlia bulbs. Blimey how times have changed, you certainly brought memories back

Any gas flame not burning blue needs to be extinguished. Any sign of yellow and get an engineer out. I am sure there will be deaths this winter from carbon monoxide poisoning from calor gas fires

ceridwen

Unfortunately Kittie.....I agree with you. There WILL be deaths from these fires this winter....you are right. If only allover washes instead of baths/showers was the only economy I foresee people making on their fuel bills.

Even with things like using halogen heaters and Kelly Kettles - I always add a corollary that I know I can use these things personally - as I am a responsible adult! But I do worry that some people will sit there looking straight into halogen heaters and leaving them unattended and trying to use Kelly Kettles indoors :eek: and trying to use calor gas or paraffin heaters without being well aware of appropriate precautionary measures that need to be taken (or they themselves are well aware......but leave their children using them!!!!:eek: ). As someone living in attached accommodation too - I know I am being responsible - but I am worrying whether my neighbours are equally responsible.

sammyjig

I agree with you that people will die because of old/faulty heaters or misuse of certain heaters/apliances but I also worry that more than the usual amount of older people will die of hypothermia this year because they will be too scared to heat their houses! I know my mum is already having kittens about the 70% rise forcasted in the news.