Well we are supposed to be having some snow this weekend, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Well, the last time I looked out of the window it hadn’t - Sunday lunch time.
Edit: Snow now arrived 4pm
It’s so ruddy cold though. So guess what happens….the boiler goes kaput! Friday afternoon to be precise. The landlord (Hyndburn Homes) were so busy with calls they didn’t managed to get to us until nearly 8 p.m. Brilliant we thought, soon be able to warm up now. Not a chance. It needs a new part seemingly, which they didn’t have available, so they can’t fix it until Monday. Therefore no central heating or hot water till then. They did provide us with an oil filled electric radiator, which is a help, and we have a small electric fire in the living room, which is usually just for show with it’s flame effect. We also have a tiny halogen heater. But it’s still freezing. We didn’t realise when we moved in just how cold the flat was in winter in any case, but without the heating on its awful. Then there is the fact that we can’t have a shower or bath. So it’s the kitchen sink for now and kettles of hot water.
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But at least it’s only for a couple of days. Back in the early seventies when I first married, we moved into a two up two down terraced house. No bathroom, outside loo and just coal fires downstairs for heating & no ho. In the winter we would get up in the morning and ice would have formed on the inside of windows. Then we would have to get the fires going. We eventually got a tin bath which we would use in front of the fire for ablutions instead of the sink.
This was common place for lots of people earlier in the century, but in the seventies, when you have friends who all have bathrooms and central heating it was depressing. When we moved into our first council house I felt like I’d won the lottery. Or should I say football pools, as it would have been back then for big money prizes.
There were still lots of properties back then with a lack of facilities. A lot of demolition and rebuilding. Many homes being modernised with the help of grants. We take such a lot of things for normal now that weren’t available back then.
My first washer was a bit like this
I upgraded from a small agitator washer with a mangle (Parnell I think) to a twin tub not long after we got the council house and I was ecstatic! Better still when we acquired an automatic one, I sat in front of it watching it through its whole first load.
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In the same sort of vein, I’ve been looking at a lot of old pictures of our area lately. They make you think back to the time of smog and smoking chimneys. I can remember as a child walking home through a “pea souper“. All the buildings would be grimy with the pollution. will have to get some posted on here in the near future.
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The lodges behind our flat are frozen over. Took one of the dogs for a walk around there yesterday. A lot of Canada geese are on there now. The first few appeared on Christmas day. The beggars know that most people seem to walk down the middle path, so that’s where they like to hang out. So you take another path and they walk around to meet you in the other direction. Little devils. If you spot a blog post saying “I’ve been goosed” you’ll know what that means!
Canada Goose
I feel for you Carol, last Christmas eve our heating failed and the housing association sent the emergency engineer who said it wasn’t an emergency? 2 weeks later they fixed it. I hate the cold. bbbrrrrrrr!
Carol, geese are here, too (in Michigan). We see a lot of them. I live at the edge of a county park that’s full of animals. Our weather has been great…almost 50 degrees and sunny. There has been loads of rain. I anticipate grass cutting to be my hobby this coming summer. Sorry about your boiler. Try to stay warm!!!
It must be lovely there close to all that nature!
We’ve had loads of rain recently and not much of a summer. Hope this year’s better.
We had loads of fluffy goslings here last year, so cute.
Presently sat at the computer with a hot water bottle on my knees and wearing finger-less gloves as I type
How could they say it wasn’t an emergency? Unless you had a gas fire and thought you should manage with that?
It’s not having hot water either that makes it worse. Just starting to get my energy back and ready for a good clean up too! Oh well..
I think because they couldn’t get the part because of Christmas, the little fan heater they left with us was plenty for a 3 bedroom house?
An industrial blow heater would be more like it, lol!
Oh brrrrrrrrr! Poor you. Hope they fix the boiler as promised.
I remember ice on the inside of my bedroom windows in the winter. Eventually my parents got storage heating downstairs, but nothing upstairs until after I had left home. I’m sure all that cold was character building!
Hope they fix your heating soon Carol. I remember scraping the ice off the INSIDE of the bedroom window when we were kids.
Our heating failed on Saturday 23rd December at about 5.30pm. Our engineer came and fixed it on 27th. We were so lucky that it was ultra mild over Christmas. Even better, the engineer taught me how to fix the problem myself if it happens again!
Even cold houses these days are warm by comparison with childhood times!
Eek! There’s nothing worse than no heat or hot water… Carol, I hope everything’s sorted for you now!
Eventually…a whole 5 days! Complaint being sent.
I love the way you write, Carol. It’s such a treat, like reading a book by Gil McNeil from Kent. She, too, tells normal, daily tales with such soft humor and charming Britishness (for lack of a better term).
Thank you so much. Will have to Google this lady…