Preparing for Winter V

Living_proof

A friend’s council housette had such wonderful ventilation that the sitting room carpet used to lift up in strong winds (and this was Perthshire!) but this was remedied when gas central heating and double glazing was installed- I think the ventilation strip at the top of the window sufficed after all. 

annieb64

When I worked in the Liver building in Liverpool in the late 1970s papers would blow off the desks if the wind was in the wrong direction even if the windows were shut.

MingVase

I had that in the last house Living_proof, a good wool carpet with thick underlay fixed it. This house is the opposite, it seems to be almost airtight

Living_proof

My local charity shop is open today basically because they badly need the funds cos it’s been so quiet recently. I dropped in and got two new timer plugs for £1 which will come on really useful in the winter I hope to keep energy costs down. This is about as hi-tech as we get in this house!

sammy_kaye18

Doveling said:

Just topped up our coal bunker with two sacks of Supertherm smokeless.
£52.00 !!!! Where's the screaming emoji? 

I grew up in RAF households and some of them had coal bunkers. 
I never did learn to fill up the coal scuttle last thing at night to save me a cold trip out there in the morning since that was my one chore! Id love a coal fire now but I dont think Id be able to afford it! 

sammy_kaye18

Afternoon all. 
Thank heavens for warmer weather. 
I am in the midst of a declutter and clear out but am happily keeping bits of old clothing that I am planning to patchwork into lap blankets etc. I've also brought some yarn to try and learn how to knit some bed socks and blankets etc.

I have a tumble dryer which I begrudge using at the minute. Its in our back porch but needs ventilation as our council house can be hit and miss with it so I either need to keep the back door open for air flow or the bathroom window - which I don't mind as I'm much more comfortable in the cold than the heat but my husband is a freezer so I don't know how I will cope come the winter but I do have a plastic walk in greenhouse now so Im hoping I will be able to find an airer to fit in there so I can dry things in it instead. I do have a door airer which I use for smalls which I hang on our back door - so if its sunny its outside and if its damp or wet then I still hang it on the inside for them to air dry.
My husband is starting to feel the effects of his arthritis now on his feet, knees etc so I think I will be looking into a heated blanket for him before long. Last Christmas the kids brought him fair isle knitted slipper socks which he liked so I am hoping I can replicate some of them this year for him with a lining.

I am starting to look at things to heat the person as well. I have a small list going of things like hot water bottles, thermos cups and also putting items on my shopping list like hot chocolate, cup of soups etc. 
Its also gotten me thinking that my husband covers other areas in his job so some of these could be added to an emergency car kit and then finding a thermos for him that he can fill before he leaves work so he would have hot water with him. 

Trying my best to save energy at the minute too. I seem to be going ok with it but I think its because I am busy in the garden and clearing out the house. I put on my Bluetooth speaker which gets charged and holds it rather than needing to be plugged in and away I go. It does have me worrying for winter though. I worry about my mum who lives by herself and has a single wage so I think I will make her a winter box as well otherwise I doubt she will eat much. 

boultdj

sammy-kaye18, look on the big river site for thermal long johns for your other half, the seller I got my tops from also had the long johns as a triple pack for about £15 ish, so about  £5 each.
I'm in bed sock knitting mode, it's the 2 needle version and I'm using aran wool for extra warmth.

pollyanna_26

annieb64 said:

When I worked in the Liver building in Liverpool in the late 1970s papers would blow off the desks if the wind was in the wrong direction even if the windows were shut.

Whenever I read a post from you Annie the memories good and bad come flooding back. I was working for the then Inland Revenue near the top of the Liver Building frozen to the bone on both cold or sunny days even if the windows were closed. Chasing the papers blown off my desk as the winds blew across the River Mersey.

The windows even when closed must have been unfit for purpose.

Years later taking my chidren to Liverpool and always a walk down to the river I would wonder how we all survived. I always waved to the LIver Birds who'd stood above my head when I worked there and the memories would come flooding back of walking down to work from Moorfields station if I'd managed to do the long walk to our local railway station and get the train which was a short walk to the Liver Buidings or dragged my feet dreading the day ahead and taken the bus into the town centre which meant a much longer walk down to the front often with the rain pelting down so many of us were soaked to the skin arriving at work.

The job was not my chioice but my mums. It's a job for life she said and that filled me with dread.

There were positives I was better paid than my friends and considering it was back in the 60s the then Civil Service was very modern for those times. Equal pay for both males and females was rare in those days and helped me build my escape fund .

They were the only employer I knew of who had a policy of employing peope with disabilites.

We had two senior supervsers. One a lovely man in a wheelchair who would often tell us to put our coats  on whiile working and shivering with cold.

Often he'd say someone put the kettle on and we;ll have a nice hot cup of tea to help warm us up;

The other supervisor was one of the most horrible women I ever encountered. My mum had knitted me some lovely pure wool cardigans but that women would walk in and shout get those cardigans off girls you're here to work not on holiday.

I used to wonder if she;d been crossed in love or something as she seemed so bitter and twisted. I never heard her utter a kind word to anyone and woud be downright horrible to the lovely man in the wheelcair shouting at him to stop blocking her way unkind and unproffessional and she was hated by everyone.

Years later reading Matilda the Roald Dahl book to my children , Miss Trunbulll headmistress of Crunchem Hall Primary School who made everyones life a misery especially Little Matildas reminded me of the hateful Superviser.

We went to see the film when it was released and all agreed Matilda was lucky to have Miss Honey to keep an eye on her and treat her kindly.

When I waved my goodbye to the Liver Birds I felt I was being let out of Prison as I set off to follow my heart and train as a primary school teacher. my mum wasn't happy but I wasn't prepared to carry on in the job for life.

I've wondered if things were better in the 70s and that woman got her marching orders.

Over the years taking my own children to visit Liverpool we would aways walk down to the Pierhead and look up at my beloved Liver Bulding and the Liver Birds. I sometimes wondered if they ever installed modern much better windows.

However it's an iconic historical building the most well known of the the Three Graces on the waterfront and recognised all over the world. I'm not sure if as a listed building it was meant to retain it's original features.

When my eldest dd bought her grade 2 Georgian Yorkshire cottaage it cost less than she'd expected because at some point a prevoius owner hadn;t followed the grade 2 guidelines using modern plaster on the interior walls all sorts of improvements  against the guidelines;

It had to be stripped back to the bare bones and specialists in Lime Plaster brought in to plaster all the walls and other experts to tackle other issues. It was a year before she could move in but it was perfect when she did. It's worth far more than she bought it for even allowing for al the expense of the varios trades. In a little village of Georgian properties. When she first showed me the pictures when she was thinking of buying it. I said that will be a money pit but she went ahead and it proved to the best thing she ever did.

I seem to remember you moved from the Liver Buildings as you didn't live locally. Did you keep working in a Govt dept? I never regretted becoming a teacher and loved it but many I know worked in other govt depts and loved the securty of the job for life.

It's very different now with heavier workloads especially since the pandemic,  I had been seconded for a short time to the then Nationall Assistance Board and that was less demanding and the senior staff nicer,

Recently I had to contact both PIP and ESA as my youngests dds appointee and they're obviouly overwhelmed, the system when phoning very poor with endless waits to speak to a customer adviser. I'd requested an exstension for returning he PIP form as she was very ill and was told 14 days allowed. Then received a letter to say her PIP would stop and had to phone again. The young man I finally got on the phone looked and the prevous advisor I had spoken to had forgotten to do the finaal click to register the exstension on the system and put that right,

A few days later her ESA SG payment didn't go into her bank, So I was back on the phone. The young man could see it hadn't gone to her account but had no idea why as he could see it should have . He spoke to a senior member of staff and said he was sending a same day faster payment JSA rather than ESA which would take three days to arrive wheras a JSA payment would be in the bank on the day we were talking, It wasn;s my youngest was panicking but I decided to give it 3 full days before phoning agaiin in case he;d sent it ESA rather than the same day JSA. Three days later it was in her bank JSA as promised so I have no idea what went wrong therePhoningif there was a problem used be straight forward someone would answer the call and sort something out although problems were rare.

Now it;s anwering automated voices asking questions, OK I heard that you are phoning about PIP. Me I am phoning about ESA SG over and over again. I feel sorry for those answering the calls and can't understand why something that used to simple is now so overcompicated.

 

pollyx

pollyanna_26

Your idea of a  winter box sounds like a good idea Sammy Kaye,

I am a fan of hot chocolate and although I stocked up last winter ran out of it just as shops were struggling to get supplies and it was a while before before it was availble in the little Coop nearby I started to do all my shopping in rather than in town  as I used to.

Both my hot water bottles started  leaking last winter, my youngest dd was about to do an online Wilko oreder so added two hot water bottles.

I did a big shop in my little Coop a couple of days ago and they were very well stocked . They had a good laugh at the checkout at the number of jars of hot chocolate I was taking out of my trolley to put through the checkout.

As someone who has always cooked from scratch i have begun to add some quick food options to my shopping now in case the electricity supply is affected in the months to come.

With Arthritis and Fibro I need hot water bottles not only in winter but also other times during the year as wet and cold weather triggers the pain and a hot water bottle helps me sleep,

Hot water bottles over the last few years don't seem to last long .

I have colected proper Flannelette bedding over the years made in Lancashire and pretty well indestructable. The modern brushed cotton bedding is nowhere as good as that.

i use up my everyday thick boot socks as bed socks when they get slightly past their best and my Thermal Arthritis Gloves with exposed finger tips are not only warming and help relieve pain but mean now I find typing painful they do help lower the pain while the exposed top digits of my fingers mean I am able to type.

I haven't been out much lately and have been feeling a bit down so got out my wool stash and have started to knit a big wool blanket , just different sqares in different stitches a much bigger version  of those I used to knit for the family cats over the years but differnt stitches rather than the garter stitch I used for the cat blankets.

If we have a cold winter I'll wrap that around myself when sitting in my armchair and it's keeping me occupied at the moment.

When I'm struggling with painful flares I find it's better to do somethhing to distract me rather than focus on the pain so hopefully as the squares add up I'll not only be making use of some of the yarn stash but reducing the flares by not being focused on them.

I'm old enough to remember the stone hot water bottles my sisters had in our beds in cold winters in chilhood, They never leaked or needed replacing and kept the heat well until morning.

I've had to replace a number of hot water bottles in recent years they don;t seem as good as they used to be and seem to develop a leak after a year or so.

I wonder if it's still possible to buy those stone hot water bottles I remember from childhood.

My mum never allowed us to carry those hot water bottles in case we dropped them, She would fill and empty them .

Perhaps there is as similar but unbreakable option. I managed to kill a few months old laptop last year carrying it downstairs without it's case and losing my grip part way as it tumbled down the stairs landing on the hardwood hall floor,

The family techie declared it well and truly dead when he opened it up. The outer case was undamaged but I'd had a cup of water in my other hand and the laptop under my arm so unable to hold the handrail.

A really stupid thing to do; It looked ok until he opened it up. I'd left it on a stack of microfibre cloths overnight but the water had damaged the inside beyond saving.

pollyx

annieb64

Polly-I commuted from Manchester for a year to work in Liverpool then got a transfer to Warrington then finally to Manchester.  All for the Inland Revenue.  Then I started a family and stopped working as just couldn't get childcare.  We had no family nearby. We stayed around the Manchester area.

We moved south to Kent a few months ago. About three years ago we visited Liverpool.  It has changed so much since the 1970s although it was still windy around the Pierhead.