Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

...dark evenings can have their own kind of fun and charm.

Or, single, you trudge home from work in the dark/cold, alone, to an empty/dark and cold house. Can't afford to put the heating on, it's too cold to cook, so you make a cheese sandwich and go straight to bed. Lying there alone, in the dark and cold, unable to get warm from the journey home ... you pray you can just get to sleep early .... so you can wake up for another day/week/month of the same again tomorrow

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Or, single, you trudge home from work in the dark/cold, alone, to an empty/dark and cold house. Can't afford to put the heating on, it's too cold to cook, so you make a cheese sandwich and go straight to bed. Lying there alone, in the dark and cold, unable to get warm from the journey home ... you pray you can just get to sleep early .... so you can wake up for another day/week/month of the same again tomorrow

My single four nights a week, the hardest part is going out in for a late check and not getting to filthy. I still have a glass of wine I want one, and huddle under a duvet. I take perverse pleasure on the days there is ice inside the woindows (and huge displeasure last year when the loo wouldn't defrost!). Bed and a book and the radio is a wonderful alternative....but I can't do that till after late check. Bed on a cold night is just heaven.

Why can't you have cheese on toast if you don't want to cook properly?.....cheese sandwich on a cold night wouldn't cheer anything up. I'd rather have a hot cup of marigold or even instsant miso soup. Of course cooking in a freezing house is warming, and when you';ve finished you can leave the oven door open....

oh, and the joy of hotwaterbottles! How brilliant are they? My cats are pretty warm little things too....snuggling in under what ever I'm huddling under myself.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

My single four nights a week, the hardest part is going out in for a late check and not getting to filthy. I still have a glass of wine I want one, and huddle under a duvet. I take perverse pleasure on the days there is ice inside the woindows (and huge displeasure last year when the loo wouldn't defrost!). Bed and a book and the radio is a wonderful alternative....but I can't do that till after late check. Bed on a cold night is just heaven.

Why can't you have cheese on toast if you don't want to cook properly?.....cheese sandwich on a cold night wouldn't cheer anything up. I'd rather have a hot cup of marigold or even instsant miso soup. Of course cooking in a freezing house is warming, and when you';ve finished you can leave the oven door open....

oh, and the joy of hotwaterbottles! How brilliant are they? My cats are pretty warm little things too....snuggling in under what ever I'm huddling under myself.

Being single is different to being in a couple and alone for a few days. And you're not out of the house all day every day for 11-12 hours in a horrid job, then having to come home alone, to a cold/dark house every day of the week for months/years on end though

And, most single people don't put the oven on. Most ovens I've experienced have taken 20-30 minutes to get up to temperature - a huge waste of time and money.

I've rarely used an oven really. They're way too big for one. I got a combination oven, microwave sized.

It's a whole time/cost/effort thing, at the end of a long day and commute ... too hard

LydiaJ

But PN, you don't have to commute any more. Do you find the winter any less depressing now?

Wheezy_2

I don't mind winter, it just lasts a bit too long for my liking

Checked the thermometer yesterday around 6PM and it was 13 degrees here. Thirteen. Mid summer. Wonderful. :cool:

On a different note, we harvested our first toms this week.
They are quite small compared to previous years, but very yum yum.

PasturesNew

LydiaJ wrote: »

But PN, you don't have to commute any more. Do you find the winter any less depressing now?

I find not having my own space just as depressing

When I did have my own place I didn't turn the oven on as it took too long and was way too big for one pie/something of similar size. And I didn't have the heating on as it was electric storage heaters (hated them, didn't understand them and the daytime tariff is shocking), so I was using an electric fan heater, but still the daytime tariff was high so mostly I didn't have heating on and hid under a duvet 24/7.

One small income, living alone - you simply don't live how couples and families do.

LydiaJ

I know. I'm sorry it's hard for you. I hope you get your own place some time soon.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Being single is different to being in a couple and alone for a few days.

Yes it is. I have been single though, and I quite liked it. I certainly would rather be single than in an unsatisfactory relationship! But I have a very different personality and no ''speshul'' things to have to content with.

And you're not out of the house all day every day for 11-12 hours in a horrid job, then having to come home alone, to a cold/dark house every day of the week for months/years on end though

I have worked veyr hard in the past. I'm not unaware how it feels. Though I didn't often work 12 hours in the same place all day and I tried hard to enjoy my jobs..even when parts of them are grim.

I could of course argue that others aren't leaving their bed in the cold morning to trudge through mud and break ice on troughs with sore bare hands and scoop poop of various sorts: while we can't all choose not to work we can work in different fields (no pun intended). In other jobs, where all I've wanted is to sit down after a day on my feet, always having to smile and look thrilled to be doing what I'm doing, even when its getting grating and physically painful, squeezing high heels on to tired feet after nine hours and going out to look even more thrilled for another few hours. Its alright if you earn well doing it, its not fun when you aren't. Money is such a wonderful motivator, but sometimes doing things ''free'' gets you the paid stuff.....in anycase, one has to grin like a loon through it all!

I've always become engaged and enjoyed what I do...mindset as much as the jobs...in the moment its not always fun though!

And, most single people don't put the oven on. Most ovens I've experienced have taken 20-30 minutes to get up to temperature - a huge waste of time and money.

I've rarely used an oven really. They're way too big for one. I got a combination oven, microwave sized.

It's a whole time/cost/effort thing, at the end of a long day and commute ... too hard

I never find it a waste of time....doesn't have to be the oven, could be the hob, or the grill. If its the oven I put it on to preheat while I do something else. I've never had one that takes 30 mins to heat up, even the one from the 60s was faster than that, but if I did then maybe that's when I'd bath. I can only speak for me but while I eat strange things or choose not to eat if I want a hot meal I make one and make allowance for that....as I say, even a hot instant soup would cheer me more than a sandwich

Each to their own. My guess is that my attitude is partly through luck, and my luck in that is partly attitude.

lostinrates

Wheezy wrote: »

I don't mind winter, it just lasts a bit too long for my liking

Checked the thermometer yesterday around 6PM and it was 13 degrees here. Thirteen. Mid summer. Wonderful. :cool:

On a different note, we harvested our first toms this week.
They are quite small compared to previous years, but very yum yum.

we've had a huge gap since our first very early toms ripened than the plants looked next to death, and still no marmondes for our main crop. Courgettes though are brilliant and coming out of our ears. I haven't sown any more lettuce: which I'll regret later, but I just can't get excited about lettuce in this weather...so I'm plucking leaves off what we have.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

One small income, living alone - you simply don't live how couples and families do.

living under the duvet when I'm in through winter is exactly what I do...when I come out I try and do stuff as fast as possible to build up some heat through exertion.