Am I turning old granny-ish?

Hermia

heretolearn wrote: »

People at work were laughing at me yesterday when I told them I keep a blanket in the car boot when the weather is bad in case I get stuck somewhere/break down. Let 'em laugh. fingers crossed none of us ever do get stuck out in snow for hours in a broken down car with no heating (they couldn't seem to grasp that cars get extremely cold - one woman thought her heating would work even if the engine was off!) but if any of us do I'll be ok and they can freeze their butts off.

I got the mick taken out of me last year because I had a spade, blanket, cereal bars etc in my boot. I was told I was being uptight and OCD-ish. Two days later the guy who mocked me got his car stuck in snow! HA HA HA!

I wear thermals all winter as I am a very cold person and my office at work is quite cold. Loads of my friends/colleagues are horrified that I wear thermals and would rather shiver and go blue instead. I really don't get it because (a) no one sees them and (b) if you do get the chance of a bunk up and the chap refuses because you have thermals on that suggests he wasn't very enthusiastic in the first place!

scrabbles_2

I think the perception of 'old and granny-ish' is because there's still this idea in certain circles that anyone under the age of, say, 70, should be far too busy with their exciting Lifestyle (with a capital 'L') to concern themselves with such prosaic things as, for example, keeping warm or counting the pennies.

It's just that thankfully most old-stylers have a little bit more sense than that

lolly_896

I always have a Blanket on sofa as do my boys they are 6 and 3 and the blanket is refered to as there "Noo Noo"

We have an emergency box in the car - I got stuck for 7 hrs with a 2 yr old on the motorway not in the snow but there was a huge crash. There is blankets, plastic cups, a 2 litre bottle of Value Water, Cereal bars, colouring book, reading book, a folding snow shovel and some other bits. I would never ever want to be stuck with nothing on the M4 ever ever again - I remember sobbing my heart out lol x
oh and if it helps im 26

cjd2206

Love, love, love this thread!!! I am always cold, even with the heating on I have a duvet! My best purchases have been a pair of 'Thermal' gloves from the pound shop (after going to Disneyland Paris at Christmas a couple of years ago and still having cold hands with 2 pairs of gloves on I can deffo say these are amazing!) and a pair of fleece lined 'welly socks' from Primani!!! As for in the car, luckily we have heated seats

Broomstick

lolly, I agree 100%. We had a car breakdown just outside London on Saturday tea-time and only discovered the problem just as the snow had started to fall.

The battery was dead in our parked car and the cars central locking failed, and so did the normal key lock, so that we were locked out. After an hour and a half's wait (indoors for a bit of it) for the rescue service, then over an hour while they broke into the car and jump started it, we then had to face the drive home in rapidly worsening conditions.

I was very, very cold. Our outer clothes were soaking after being outdoors so we shook as much snow off as possible and piled them in the boot to keep the damp out of the main bit of the car which steams up really quickly and I needed all the visibility I could get!

We wrapped ourselves in fleece blankets - we had a pile of them with us - and I actually drove for the next grindingly slow 3-4 hours with a fleece over my lap and another wrapped like a shawl around my shoulders. I soon warmed up. We had hot and cold drinks and food. The tank was three-quarters full. I knew also that we had a shovel in the boot, spare dry hats, space blankets, torch, jump leads, fluorescent safety vests etc and, in a real emergency, would have survived the night in the car. I hadn't actually done any extra planning for that trip. We had had lots of packed food and drink with us for our day out and the other kit was what we normally keep bagged up in the car.

People were driving very slowly but, even so, accidents were happening all around us, cars were sliding and spinning. The motorway didn't appear to be gritted and all it would have taken would have been one jack-knifed lorry to have made everything grind to a halt. We watched the traffic on the opposite side of the road come to a halt because people couldn't cope with the gradient of the road on that side. Apparently it turned into a massive jam that took many hours to get moving again.

I would never have planned to be driving in those conditions. If we had left at the time we'd originally intended we would have been home in about 80 minutes because we would have been ahead of the bad weather. The way things turned out it took us over six hours door to door.

The unexpected does happen (I never realised I could get so cold and wet with my thick woollen winter coat, thermal hat and two pairs of gloves on for one thing!) and it's good to be prepared as one can be just in case.

B x

Penny_Counter_Girl

I can't tell you all what a relief it is to read the posts on this thread! I am 35, but have always felt like an oddity for enjoying being snug and warm. As I write this, I'm curled beneath a terrific quilted blanket I bought 15 years ago and also have my hot water bottle and 3 pairs of thermal socks on - and the heating is off even although it is very cold outside! :j

I'm also a big fan of flannel pyjamas - I have a collection I got from Peacocks and which, although faded, just keep going - and a couple of flannel/fleecy dressing gowns. I love nothing more than getting into my pjs as soon as I possibly can once I know I'm home for the day. And then, even with all this flannel, I still get beneath the blanket. My husband used to laugh but I've brought him around to my way of thinking and he is now sporting an expanding range of flannel nightwear too ...:rotfl:

It's great to discover so many others out there who also like to 'blanket-up'. I hadn't thought of using one in the car - what an oversight - and imagined it might actually get a little damp in very cold weather - but will experiment to find out.

Love this thread - thanks for all these terrific posts. It's great to find that not everyone lives like the people on TV - running around in the middle of winter in sleeveless vests and t-shirts. :T

valk_scot

I keep all the usual things in the car...shovel, two old cotton rugs (brilliant for putting under car tyres to get traction in snow or mud), a bag of cat litter (ditto), old wellies, an old quilt (in tatters, but it's wool!), cartons of orange juice and a couple of packs of biscuits, one of these emergency wind up phone chargers, bottle of water, spare screenwash, torch, some old clothes for the kids and me, a couple of books and some knitting. Plus all the usual car spares and hi-vis vests and a first aid kit. Finally, I've got £10 tucked under the seat upholstery in the back, for emergency petrol money.

Things I've used? almost all of it at one point or another. Kids fall into puddles or get grumbly from missing a meal, it's surprising how often people get stuck parked on grass or I'm sitting around unexpectedly waiting to pick someone up and I'm bored. I've not used the £10 for fuel have to say but I did buy some emergency fish & chips once!

Justamum

I think your blanket while driving idea is brilliant! I am going to adopt that myself.

optimistic

i too enjoy the comfort and warmth of a fleecy blanket on my seat with the end folded and wrapped across my lap, it makes such a difference and i wouldnt be without it now. (i am a 'young' 48 and feel the cold since the onset of my underactive thyroid) i also vote for thermal long johns or footless lycra tights under jeans and a snug fitting vest under my top layers! :j

THIRZAH

I've got an unactive thyroid too and really do feel the cold these days.