And now we go again...

VintageHistorian

Kings Cross was our main station into London for about 3 decades as the closest station to my parents was on the line from Cambridge. Any time I went there on my own my Dad would tell me to just get on the underground and never wander around outside the station as it was a dodgy area.

LadyWithAPlan

Has anyone NOT got a dodgy story of the old Kings Cross )
I used to club at The Cross before the renovations .. always got a cab home from there. ..
Its now a place of dogs and posh shops.. and yoga on the steps in the summer

EssexHebridean

PennysIntoPounds said:

I had a man try to hire me as a prostitute when I was a teenager outside the old Kings Cross station, for once I am definitely in favour of an area being gentrified!

Are you even a female Londoner within a certain age group if something like this hasn’t happened to you in that area?! Thankfully you are right that the area now feels FAR for comfortable to walk through, no matter what length of skirt one might be attired in! 😆

Loving all the recollections of the area though - for me my main tie to it other than simply passing through from the Vic line to one of the lesser tube lines (there you go, that tells you where MY allegiances lie!) was because for a good few years it was my “from” and “to” station on journeys to Edinburgh for the fringe. Arriving in anticipation, and returning two weeks later entirely exhausted, with great memories and desperately in need of some solid sleep!! 

Current state of play is roundly berating the Met Office for not bothering to tell me until first thing this morning that the sun was going to shining for a good chunk of the day - and thus leaving me unable to take advantage of said sunshine to get a further load of washing at least mostly dry outside. Ah well, annoying but not critical - although I will need to get towels dealt with at some stage. 

I am pleased to report however that I have demonstrated my ability to pretend to be a fully grown adult this morning as having had a turn round the house Jaws has now been stripped of his filters all of which have had a bath and are now settled cosily on the hallway radiator to dry out. This is one of those tasks I have been putting off for a ridiculously long time, and frankly,  it is also a task that makes you wonder why you put it off as it’s not difficult, just time consuming. (That’s why, let’s be honest!) I have also made the decision that for the moment the heating can stay turned down, plenty of movement around the house has kept me warm, I am still fine while I sit with my cuppa and talk to you, and I may well repair to the front room this afternoon where the solar heating element (sun streaming in through the windows) has been heating the place up all morning. With that in mind, I MAY be able to get away without any more heating for the rest of the day, as the fire will be lit this evening… 

Next plan is to head to Al’s - on foot - to get a few odds and ends of shopping, but just stuff needed for today really, as a conversation this morning lead to a decision to defer Lil’s and the main shop until at least tomorrow, and possibly Sunday - this giving me more flexibility around the 10% off the following week’s shop as otherwise there is a risk if I can’t shop on Friday I’ll lose out on it I think. So it will be some mozzarella to top this evening’s planned pizza - and some garlic bread to have alongside it I think. 

I managed to make at least some adjustment to our energy use during the 🐙 saving session last night - although goodness knows what they will decide our benchmark figure is to compare it to.  We would have used slightly less had I thought to switch the thermostat down to prevent the heating kicking in - although it does appear that the boiler doesn’t use much electricity at all when running, so that is useful to know. We have also identified a few further things it would be worth turning off for future sessions, and a few things that probably just weren’t worth the effort. It was actually quite a nice hour sitting reading and chatting - and no real hardship to defer prepping tea until after it finished. 

I must pop to the shed after lunch too - to get some more logs in ready for tonight, and also to grab the litter picker stick so I can have a go at hoiking out the nasty piece of “something” that has been stuck in the bottom of our wheelie bin since we got here. I’ve no idea what it is, but don’t have any interest in keeping it! 

Other than that, all ticking along nicely here today. I feel quite on a roll with achieving things! Oh - and hopefully the boiler man is coming later on too to sort out our service and quote for the towel radiator in the bathroom - be good if we can get both of those things sorted! 

Debsnewbudget

Our towel radiator also has an electrical element on it
not used often, but useful on occasions as we hate damp towels 

joedenise

We did the same for the hour's saving session last night.  Really nice having the TV off for an hour and we had a quick dinner last night which took all of 10 minutes!  Beef stew from the freezer which just needed reheating and a jacket potato done in the microwave!

I'm sure we could probably have turned various things off at the wall but don't think it would make that much difference.  As you say interesting to say what it's worth as we weren't with Octopus last winter so not sue what they compare it to.

We just hang damp towels over the radiator - we didn't find the heated towel rail was any better at drying them so didn't bother replacing it when we had the bathroom done a couple of years ago.

penny_less

I read on their website that they average the last 10 days of energy usage over the saver session for weekdays, and the last 4 weekends for weekend sessions. I had a look at my app and only average about .5 unit at 5.30-6.30pm, so don’t know if I will have benefited much. Though anything is better than nothing!

joedenise

Thanks @penny_less, that's good to know.  Off to check the app to see how much if anything we saved last night!

EssexHebridean

Snap Joedenise - we had stew last night too, although ours was with a packet of Middle Eastern flavoured mixed grains! Penny_less that sounds a logical way of doing it I guess - if it is like that then we might not do too badly as that is a time period we usually use a fair bit of electric on weekdays. 

Debs - we had a towel rail at the flat with an electric element in it - it was so good for drying and warming towels and provided that bit of heating in there too. Frankly had our heating chap had said the fittings that had been put in here weren’t suitable for a central heating supplied one our plan b was simply get another one with an element! 

Anyway, the heating chap has now been, boiler is all checked over and serviced and we now have a wee bit more information about it too - it is fairly old, but he says it’s also decent, and his view is very much that if it’s running ok, which it seems like it is, and our bills aren’t more than averagely horrific - which we will find out over the next few months - then he reckons we should be ok with it for a while at least. Fingers crossed he’s right! I now know how to adjust the flow temperature anyway which is useful, and how to top it up if the pressure drops as well. The radiator in the bathroom is also a goer - we’ll get it bought and once we have it Jamie can sort out coming back and fitting it. 

Pizza dough has also been made - half split off and frozen for another time, and two bases formed ready for topping and cooking shortly. My Al’s trip went to plan in spite of various tempting goodies trying to derail my spending - I came out with garlic baguettes, mozzarella and a pack of McCoys rip-off crisps which was precisely what I’d gone in for.  The fire is also now lit - and the thermostat moved to this end of the house too which should prevent the heating kicking in later. 

PennysIntoPounds

Pizza and garlic bread for dinner here tonight too. Very proud of myself for not caving into the tiredness and the flat being in total disarray to justify a take-away! Hope you enjoy your evening, I am so envious of your lovely fire 

joedenise

Like you @EssexHebridean we tend to use quite a lot of electric as usually have dinner around 6pm or so so having no cooker on for the hour I'm sure will have saved us a bit of money and I made sure I made a cup of tea before 5.30pm so we didn't need one during the saving hour!