Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

hjd

I don't like duvets; we just have blankets. Last night was the first night since the spring that we have had a blanket on - up till then was just a sheet.
I got too hot and kicked the blanket off during the night.

PasturesNew

I had no heating on, I'd been out, came home, hadn't needed it to be on. I have one of those £1-2 or so "thermal fleece" blankets you see for sale in £1 shops and one of those "furry throws" sold in supermarkets. Pulled both of those over me - warm as toast.

This morning everything's a thick and bright white of frost outside... inside, still no heating, perfectly warm

Pyxis

Oooh! Pastures! :eek: I was a bag of nerves reading that! Thank goodness you got it

CKhalvashi wrote: »

That was lucky!

I've got 2 sets of keys; one with a car key, house key and Tesco Clubcard, other with everything else. The second bunch lives in the centre console.

Yes, me too.
I have a 'car' bunch with front door keys/side gate key and car key, which I use when I go out in the car.
Then, for when I'm walking, I have a set as above but without the car key.

Your experience, Pastures, reminded me of a time when I had a near miss, too.
I have a porch; the porch door has a mortice lock, which I keep locked even when I'm in the house. The inner front door to the house has a Yale latch/lock and a mortice lock.

A few years ago, I picked up my bunch of house keys, stepped into the porch and shut the front door behind me. (The Yale lock shuts the door so that you need a key to open it).
I went to my bunch of keys to start double-locking the Yale lock and the the mortice lock, and realised that I'd picked up my mother's house keys and not mine.
So I was locked out of the house, and locked in the porch! :eek:

Moment of sheer panic, then I looked at the porch door, and realised that for some unfathomable reason, I hadn't locked it!

Oh blissful relief! I wasn't going to be locked in a south-facing glass porch on a hot day until some passer-by could call me a locksmith!
I was able to get out and go round to a friend who keeps a spare set for me, and luckily she was in! Angel on my shoulder day!

That jolly well scared me though, so now I've made other arrangements, just in case I do it again with the porch door locked!

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

So I was locked out of the house, and locked in the porch! :eek:

My parents' house could catch the unwary out like that! Porch door key was kept on a hook inside the front door. First person up/out in the morning would unlock the porch door, rehang the key, then it was left unlocked all day unless going out or at night.

Nobody did it and got trapped, although a few did it while others were in the house so they could just bang the front door to be freed. The thing is, in event of fire, it's possible one could dash out of the front door and get stuck.

I don't wish to discuss my keys arrangements on an online board ... but I think I'll have a rethink about the gate key, maybe tape my spare inside the car or something.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

My parents' house could catch the unwary out like that! Porch door key was kept on a hook inside the front door. First person up/out in the morning would unlock the porch door, rehang the key, then it was left unlocked all day unless going out or at night.

Nobody did it and got trapped, although a few did it while others were in the house so they could just bang the front door to be freed. The thing is, in event of fire, it's possible one could dash out of the front door and get stuck.

I don't wish to discuss my keys arrangements on an online board ... but I think I'll have a rethink about the gate key, maybe tape my spare inside the car or something.

Do you not keep your house/gate key on the same bunch as your car key?

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

Do you not keep your house/gate key on the same bunch as your car key?

The house key is, the gate key not. The gate lock/key isn't for "security" as such, just to stop the idle enquirer from opening it. It's a long key, 4" or so. Most of the time the key's left in the lock and I only lock the gate and take the key if I'm "going out". Before the brats were around I'd even go out and not bother locking the gate (now I do to prevent idle curiosity ....).

So the key's too large to be in my pocket as a day to day item.

There are a few places I "drop the key" inside the car, depending on the journey I'm about to make.

If I'd been unable to find the key last night I'd have most likely reversed my car up to my fence, then climbed on the roof of my car and jumped over

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

This morning everything's a thick and bright white of frost outside... inside, still no heating, perfectly warm

No frost here, probably been too windy.
However, when I went out yesterday I did spot that the high fells have had a dusting of snow this week, above the 2700' line at a guess.

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

I had no heating on, I'd been out, came home, hadn't needed it to be on. I have one of those £1-2 or so "thermal fleece" blankets you see for sale in £1 shops and one of those "furry throws" sold in supermarkets. Pulled both of those over me - warm as toast. )

Another vote for thermal fleece blankets here. Off in the summer, on top of the duvet for spring/autumn, and between me and the duvet in winter. Bought one for my dad to get him through this winter too, and told him the warmest way to use it was to fold it in half and be between the folds, so that he's the human filling of the sandwich and the fleece is the bread. He says it reminds him of going to bed with his dressing-gown over his pyjamas at boarding school during the war.

Keys - twice in my life I have locked myself out completely. Once in my 20s, married but with husband (and spare key) away for the weekend in another town. I took my bike keys because he'd got the car, and only after leaving the house realised that while my car keys had a house key on the ring, my bike keys didn't. I explored the house and discovered that the utility room window was open - a little window above head height, opening upwards and outwards to an angle of 60 degrees or so. I fetched a friend to watch for trouble and call for help if I got stuck, I got up on the windowsill and went in head first, landing in a sort of hand-stand on the draining board inside. It all went well until I got to my thighs. Neck, shoulders, spine, hips all bend forwards, but knees go the other way. I had to rotate until I was the other way up, with my hands still on the draining board and my back to the window. Then I could get in.

20 years later I found myself outside my current house, late at night, with keys I couldn't use because my kids had left the keys in on the inside. DS was asleep and DD was listening to something with headphones. Neither responded to the doorbell, the landline, or either of their mobiles. I found that the conservatory had a small high window open - the same kind as I'd gone in through before, with an armchair in a good position for landing on. I went in by the same method. Nice to know I've still got the flexibility to manage it in my 40s! Thankfully, they hadn't locked the door between the conservatory and the hallway.

Pyxis

Your house is dead easy to burgle, then! Even with people in it! :rotfl:

LydiaJ

Except the conservatory windows are all shut now, and we're planning to get a dog!