Not mentioning the T word at all

Kaz2904

Scottishminnie, I think you mean a Tilley lamp. They are very expensive to buy but (IMHO) are well worth the money. They give off a tremendous amount of light from a small amount of meths. They also give off some heat too which would be good for you. The other alternative is an oil lamp which is a storm lamp IYKWIM?
http://www.tilleylamp.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=31
http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/outwell-hurricane-28-cm-camping-light-p106361
http://www.heals.co.uk/garden-accessories/toronto-oil-lamp-lantern-polished-steel/invt/774872?source=119_74

ETA, having just seen the price of tilley lamps, I'm off to check out ebay and see how much mine could be worth

mardatha

I'm scared of Tilley lamps, you have to prime them and then they hiss at you
The paraffin lamps will be sooty if the wick needs trimmed, always snip off the burnt bits and keep it as low a flame as poss. I would like an oil lamp too though - think that will go on my list. Second the mirror idea, you can read by 3 candles in front of a mirror... just prop a hand mirror behind them.
We are frozen here today - even with a big fire on the draughts are coming in everywhere. Horrible spell of weather. It snowed all day yesterday and well into the night, was like a blizzard in that huge wind - but thankfully didn't lie or we wudda been upto oor oxters! :rotfl:

born_blonde

You can also get gas camping lights
http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=gas+camping+light&hl=en&prmd=imvns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&biw=848&bih=698&u

Kaz2904

It was really cold here too Mardatha. We lost a load of felt from our shed roof in the night on Monday. It was awful wind here and we really get it being up a hill. We had awful hail here yesterday too. When I picked DS up from school, he said they were out in it and weren't allowed in "because it wasn't wet play, Mum" I am horrified. I was telling DH about it last night and he was saying that one of his colleagues went mad at her son yesterday morning because she told him to get his coat on and he said he wasn't allowed to wear one. I was telling DH about the thread on here recently where I said that you just wouldn't accept that as an adult (and rightly so) so why should we allow our future, our children to go out in freezing cold terrible weather with no coats on. It's disgraceful.

Now, achoo, sniff, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed because I didn't feel ill when I was asleep and it was warm. Now I shall go rest my head in a sling


ETA: Your link's broken for me born blonde *shrug* so here's another http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=9280821&c_2=2|cat_16849255|Car+and+Travel|26036006&c_1=1|category_root|Garden+and+Outdoors|16849255&&cmpid=AFPFD&_$ja=tsid:18771

shelley_crow

Kaz2904 wrote: »

It was really cold here too Mardatha. We lost a load of felt from our shed roof in the night on Monday. It was awful wind here and we really get it being up a hill. We had awful hail here yesterday too. When I picked DS up from school, he said they were out in it and weren't allowed in "because it wasn't wet play, Mum" I am horrified. I was telling DH about it last night and he was saying that one of his colleagues went mad at her son yesterday morning because she told him to get his coat on and he said he wasn't allowed to wear one. I was telling DH about the thread on here recently where I said that you just wouldn't accept that as an adult (and rightly so) so why should we allow our future, our children to go out in freezing cold terrible weather with no coats on. It's disgraceful.

When my eldest son was in the school nursery (3.5 years old), I picked him up one afternoon at this time of year. I got him home and realised that his jeans were soaked from leg to waistband, he told me they had been jumping in puddles as part of outside play. He'd fallen over in a puddle and told his teacher, yet they didn't think to change him :eek::eek: I was absolutely fuming. I rang the school and asked what time they'd been playing outside, it was 2pm and I picked him up at 3.15pm! I went absolutely ballistic, their excuse was that there weren't enough wellies to go around and they they didn't think they had to change him because it was almost hometime :eek::eek::eek: He was soaked to the bone and it was the middle of Deember! I complained to every level of school management, as their nursery staff were very obviously lacking in common sense and any shred of humanity. Some schools do seem to forget that kids are humans and not another life form. I'm on their a55 about everything these days, can't let them get away with anything.

shelley_crow

Igamogam wrote: »

They sell them in Dunelm...............now I have an excuse to visit the place. Thanks TK Max often have them as well................

In my local store, they were tucked away with the chopping boards x

shelley_crow

scottishminnie wrote: »

I'm going to run a sweepstake to see how long I can have power for - that's right, not how long it's off for, how long it's on.

My mother text me at 10am this morning to say no power yet again, she then text me at 2 to say it was back on. I was just leaving the office at 5 when hubby called to say no electricity again and it came on just after 10 so that's a total of 9 hours today without power. :mad:
Apparently one of the engineers who came this morning to repair whatever the latest problem was said the supply was probably ok in the 60's but was woefully inadequate now. He was sympathetic but warned us that we can pretty much look forward to continual outages when the wind gets above about 25mph. I think if the man with the generator doesn't get his finger out I'll be setting a rocket under him.

Is there any chance you could install a real (open) fire? It's bad enough around here on the odd instance that the power goes off for a few minutes, 32 hours is horrific. Keeping warm is the least you need

Justamum

shelley_crow wrote: »

Kaz2904 wrote: »

When I picked DS up from school, he said they were out in it and weren't allowed in "because it wasn't wet play, Mum" I am horrified. I was telling DH about it last night and he was saying that one of his colleagues went mad at her son yesterday morning because she told him to get his coat on and he said he wasn't allowed to wear one. I was telling DH about the thread on here recently where I said that you just wouldn't accept that as an adult (and rightly so) so why should we allow our future, our children to go out in freezing cold terrible weather with no coats on. It's disgraceful.

At my DD2's school they insist that children wear proper coats to school in this weather - preferably with hats, scarves and gloves too. The children are out every playtime unless it's really wet because they say there is no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. I'm surprised that a school doesn't allow children to wear coats. If the child you mention is really young, perhaps he misunderstood what he had been told. Having said that, children don't seem to notice the cold as much as adult. My DD often comes out of school in the afternoon and runs off with just her polo shirt on with me running after her to put her coat on :eek:

grandma247

These may be of help to someone.
wall sconce with mirror

chandelier
We have a chandelier in the bay window over the dining table. When we have a power cut three candles lit on the room side are enough light for most things. The height seems to help give more light. Ours is much plainer than this one though.

SDG31000

*collapses in a heap* Where is GreyQueen's Nurse with tea when you need her?
scottishminnie and mardatha I hope you are safe and warm and have power.
I've finished the present wrapping at last :j I swear that the bags of stuff were breeding and making more things for me to wrap. The dining room is still covered in rolls of paper, bows, ribbon and rubbish, but it's done!
I've also made a huge banana/chocolate chunk cake and that is now in the freezer to defrost on Christmas Eve and put in tins as presents. Pizza dough is made and is sitting next to the radiator so it rises. At some point I'll make the toppings for it or hope that one of my DSons takes pity on me and does it for me.
One nice thing was my neighbour has asked me to make a choc birthday cake for her DH and asked how much I charged. I told her £5 to cover the cost of making it and she brought that around with a big box of Milk Tray as a thank you The strawberry and orange creams are mine, but I'm happy to share the rest.
Getting my sons to wear coats or jumpers is a pain in my rapidly expanding wotsit. I told DS2 he had to wear a coat today so he took his jumper off. I realised after he had left for school :mad: DS1 is even worse. I'm not sure if he even has a jumper that fits. Goodness knows I've tried to make them wrap up, but it's a losing battle.
Stay safe and warm everyone.