THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Oh, whiskers and tails! It's COLD!

Not bothered by the slight nip in the air first thing (allegedly felt like -1C according to the app - I'd agree with that), but as soon as we hit the Midlands, every last scrap of warmth in the air was replaced with syrupy rain and, despite

Posh mountain rated socks
Thick jeans
Leggings
Insulated work boots
A T shirt
A long sleeved T Shirt
A long sleeved flannel shirt
A knitted hoodie
Leather jacket
and a woolly hat lined with fake fur

I was so cold, I couldn't function outside at all. Which was a problem when the job involved unloading lots of heavy things from outside, taking them upstairs, taking them downstairs and setting up, taking them back upstairs, then taking them back downstairs, driving back, taking them upstairs and then going home. :cool:

Thankfully, once we finally got to leave the venue, a sleeping bag got dragged out of the storage compartment in the van, wrapped around me & Himself (as I have no guilt whatsoever about stealing his body heat) and - bliss - the heater was switched on full blast and I was in the perfect place to be hit by the warm air, even if it never got as far as my feet, despite the sleeping bag securely wrapped around them. Unfortunately, I got super cold again trailing across London by public transport after unloading, but the central heating has been cranked up to tropical and I can now feel my feet again.


Seems like losing a fair chunk of weight in September/early October can backfire upon you - you might be small enough to be able to wear an entire week's worth of old clothes at once afterwards, but the loss of internal insulation is somewhat noticeable. :cool:

Any other ideas for keeping warm? Apart from adding layer 6 (my now massive fleece jacket) over the top so I'm roughly egg shaped - this was stupid levels of intolerable.

[Deleted User]

JoJo I'm finding the cold much harder to deal with since I lost my swatch of weight. Plumper me always wore the same clothes month in - month out summer and winter but now I find it very hard to get warm in the cold weather let alone stay warm. Yesterday for the rugby I had on thermal base layer, t shirt, warm jumper, down jacket, sheepskin gloves, fleece scarf and hat and a heavy fleece wrap on top of my jacket as we sat in the stands and I just about managed to last the game, but it was a relief to get back into the warmth of DDs house and hold a hot cup of tea in my hands. It was much better when the tea was in ME!

mardatha

I'm wondering where things are going re coal and solid fuel heating. Even woodburners - what happens when we run out of wood...

pennystretcher

I guess loo roll needs to go on my stockpile list too. :rotfl:

"There is palpable sense of panic slowly developing in London. Each Brit consumes 110 toilet rolls a year—two and half time the European average. The United Kingdom is Europe’s biggest importer of loo paper and it is said that only one day’s supply of toilet paper exists in stock. If Britain leaves the EU Customs Union and Single Market in five months’ time and the trucks transporting toilet paper are held up at Calais or Dover, British bottoms will have to be wiped with torn-up newspapers as in bygone days" http://prospect.org/article/brexit-panic-brits-run-out-toilet-paper

Karmacat

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Oh, whiskers and tails! It's COLD!
.......
Any other ideas for keeping warm? Apart from adding layer 6 (my now massive fleece jacket) over the top so I'm roughly egg shaped - this was stupid levels of intolerable.

:rotfl:I'd never heard "whiskers and tails" before, I love that


As far as coping with keeping warm - especially if its just my feet, which can feel like blocks of ice - I go for a walk. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but it's a gentle way of getting your circulation going again.

pennystretcher wrote: »

I guess loo roll needs to go on my stockpile list too. :rotfl:

"There is palpable sense of panic slowly developing in London. Each Brit consumes 110 toilet rolls a year—two and half time the European average. The United Kingdom is Europe’s biggest importer of loo paper and it is said that only one day’s supply of toilet paper exists in stock. If Britain leaves the EU Customs Union and Single Market in five months’ time and the trucks transporting toilet paper are held up at Calais or Dover, British bottoms will have to be wiped with torn-up newspapers as in bygone days" http://prospect.org/article/brexit-panic-brits-run-out-toilet-paper

Well I didn't know we used 2.5 times the European average :rotfl: what a horrendous statistic :rotfl: Not too sure about the "panic", but with giving me that wondrous statistic, I'll take it

moneyistooshorttomention

Well - re using extra loo rolls to other countries - I am now wondering what the statistics are re proportion of women in their teens to menopause age in this country compared to others? I would have thought it would be similar - but I may be wrong...

I do know I was surprised to read an article this week (think it was The Guardian online) talking about the amount of "period poverty". This hadn't really occurred to me - but (from memory) I think 40% of women in that agegroup had at some point along the line resorted to "alternative measures" to deal with periods (as they couldnt afford/their mothers wouldnt afford suitable "protection") for them. Those "alternative measures" did include wads of loo paper for one thing.

I'll admit my mind was boggling at girls and women being put in this situation - as I was thinking that even when I had periods on the dole I still managed to buy what I needed (though it was rather more than most women for years at a stretch:mad:).

So - I don't know if that's part of the reason for people in this country using more than average??

EDIT: ....and there's another thought to conjure with on this - ie are women in other countries taxed on these medical necessities like we are? (ie VAT).

EDIT; Re warmth - it does annoy me when people say "It's (too) warm" in a building (office, house, etc) and want the heating turned down/windows opened when it isn't at all and they would only have to look at themselves to realise that it isn't warm (objectively speaking) and they are the reason they are feeling warm (ie diet needed). Remembering days working in an office and someone "generously proportioned" complaining it was too warm and refusing to listen to an objective assessement as to whether it was (ie the temperature on nearby thermometer saying it wasnt too warm at all).

GreyQueen

Might it be that some countries use bidets at home?

Mrs LW, I think I am correct that the USSR- Ukrainian piipeline is supplying Europe but not the UK, I believe I was reading about it last year. Our imported gas seems to be coming from the Middle East in the form of LPG by tankers into Wales, mainly.

re electicicity coming off the continent via cable, I['m pretty sure the stuff coming out of France is surplus off their nuclear power plants. If they didn't sell it to us, what would they do with it? Stand down their power plants? It's not exactly easy to store, is it? I don't think that there will be any disrupution to the electicity supply. Of course, there will be an awful lot of folk running around in the next few months wailing that the sky is falling, and sure to be some disappointment when it doesn't.

Here's a very niche website for us to use to keep up-to-date with all issues related to TP and allied paper products. http://www.tissueworldmagazine.com/?s=toilet+paper&x=12&y=2

[Deleted User]

My slight thought is that if the Russians close off the Ukraine supply to Europe, the utilities companies in Europe won't have the surplus to export to the UK as they will need all their nuclear generated electricity for domestic consumption.

I've dug out my welsh bakestone this morning and made welsh cakes and a large scone round. The heat source today was the gas hob but I can use it on the single burner picnic stove, the OzPig and if I can source a cast iron trivet on an open fire. I'm going to practise 'small breads' until I feel competent and know what heats to cook at. I did a prehistoric cookery course a few years ago and we made griddle scones and honey cakes on a flat baking stone over an open fire (ashes burned down to the right heat and colour) and that was very successful so I know the cast iron bakestone will work in those conditions.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

EDIT; Re warmth - it does annoy me when people say "It's (too) warm" in a building (office, house, etc) and want the heating turned down/windows opened when it isn't at all and they would only have to look at themselves to realise that it isn't warm (objectively speaking) and they are the reason they are feeling warm (ie diet needed). Remembering days working in an office and someone "generously proportioned" complaining it was too warm and refusing to listen to an objective assessement as to whether it was (ie the temperature on nearby thermometer saying it wasnt too warm at all).

Conversely, I've also been irritated by a person at one workplace determined to keep the heating on at all times (including the middle of summer), not allowing a single window to be opened, demanding the air con was permanently disconnected and banning fans when everybody else is there with sweat pouring down their faces and making it almost impossible to breathe. It was equally obvious to all that 84 degrees on the thermometer is not cold to anybody but the person who needed to either wear more clothes or eat a bit more. However, there are also people with hormone issues, menopause, low testosterone, Raynauds who also perceive temperature differently - and it doesn't matter if other people tell you that you aren't too hot or too cold (I was always told as a kid that I wasn't cold because there was a hot water tank in my bedroom. An insulated one. With the entire cupboard stuffed with blankets, boxes and old curtains to make sure not one scrap of heat escaped. And an open fireplace - unused - with a few newspapers stuffed up it - the times birds came in suggested that this wasn't very effective), you feel how you feel.


I woke up with felines snuggled around my head this morning. When we got back, somebody was letting off fireworks until 2am, so we left the bedroom door open for them to come in for security. I suspect that once the fireworks stopped, they decided to stay for warmth, as they looked extremely happy about this situation and didn't make any effort to persuade me to get up for their breakfast.

GreyQueen

Electicity and gas are obviously different issues. I do have concerns that we do not appear to have much capacity for storing gas. And, on a domestic scale, CH boilers usually require an electicity supply in order to work. It is certainly true of the 12 industrial gas boilers powering my block. If there is a powercut, specialist gas engineers have to physically come to the boiler house to re-set these controllers. The same is true for all the communal boiler houses in the city, and there are less than a handful of men qualified to work in them.

I have invested in a lovely wool blanket for £3.99 from the chazzer, which is gloriously cosy, plus the mothership has given me a pair of brushed cotton sheets - I will be moving my duvet into its winter cover, also of brushed cotton, any day now.

Hmm, might look at building the TP mountain back up again, starting today as I will be near some supermarkets (am at the family home atm).

Really hoping not see a re-run of early winter 2010, whcih statrted about end Nov and show and ice went on until Xmas. It was chaos at work, the gas engineers were running all over the place dealing with frozen condensate pipes from combi boilers. If you have such a pipe, I would advise you to look at insulating it because if it freezes solid, your combi will shut down on you.