Have added vest and cardigan to my daytime attire.
I also play Mr Beaky's game with the central heating each year, and I try not to put it on until the clocks go back.
We have a small grate in the sitting room, so could light a fire if necessary, but so far, in the three years we have been here, my reluctance to being kippered has trumped Mr Ros' pyromaniacal inclinations. (He would have a fire most evenings, summer and winter)
It's always my hands that feel the cold most. Quilts, vests, etc. don't help, and I can't do much of anything (computer, reading, eating...) wearing gloves.
Our boiler is fine but the thermostat is in the warmest, least draughty place in the house so when it registers 20 degrees it can be as low as 16 elsewhere. Yes, I'd love to insulate, etc, but TPTB don't like to let listed places be made to work for the 21st century
Assuming you have an "ordinary" central heating system, do you have thermostatic valves on your radiators? That way you can have different ones coming on and off at different temperatures, all under the control of the main thermostat of course. They're not expensive to install. And can you turn off a radiator near the thermostat so it doesn't get so warm there? We've done all this and it means we can get our lounge to a decent temperature while not overheating the bedrooms.
I've just turned the heating on too, and went out in a coat rather than a jacket today for the first time in since April.
We're just back from a lovely couple of days in Newark, thanks to a competition I won, a night in a swish B&B and afternoon tea in a nice café. We also had free tickets to the local Civil War museum. They had a fascinating exhibition on Fake News.
I’m on holiday in New York for a week. What a city! We spent the morning cycling round Central Park. An amazing oasis. 🌳
I often listen to WQXR, New York's classical music station, through my computer. It sounds as if you're having wonderful weather! I hope you're enjoying my long-time-ago home.
Lucky old you, Boogie - New York is a wonderful place.
No heating on chez Piglet yet - it's currently 20° and a glorious day. We're expecting to get a bit battered by the tail end of Dorian tomorrow, with a fair amount of rain and wind, but with any luck it'll be short-lived.
I think an amble before it gets dark* would be a good idea.
* the nights are fair beginning to draw in - it's almost dark by eight o'clock, and it seems very short ago that it was still light at half past nine.
A late addition to the school starting ages comments - I should have started in the summer term just after my 5th Birthday, (possibly the term before really) but my youngest sibling arrived the day term started, there were two toddler siblings between me and Youngest, and transport was an interesting issue at the time (1970) as we lived too far away for walking to school.
I have a memory of being taken into the school, with Youngest as a babe in arms and the Toddlers, as proof of the family situation, I was asked loads of questions, then being told I could start in September as I already could do what the other children did. I then did a term in Reception, just to check, then shifted up to Class 1 after Christmas.
I also have a very clear memory of sheer boredom for that term in Reception and spent my time after doing my work wandering around helping everyone else with their work. I either had a very tolerant teacher, or one who was grateful for her unofficial teaching assistant, as that role just didn't exist at that point, or one who was glad to see the back of me. Actually, that latter is not true - she had all my siblings for their Reception Year and whilst she excellently never compared us to our faces, she did tell my parents I was definitely the only one who had any interest in matters academic.
I started school in 1974 aged 5 with my twin brother. He was partially sighted and I sat and helped him in lessons as I already knew how to read. In the second year he was put in what was then called the remedial class and I can remember waiting outside his ‘hut’ for him as the class was always late out. When I moved to Junior school at 7 he was refused entry due to his disability and was kept behind at Infants. The local authorities then wanted to send him to the local ‘special’ school for those with learning difficulties, but my parents refused as they did not think it was the right environment for him. They were right; my grandmother found out about a government boarding school for the visually impaired and he was accepted there when he was 8. It was heart wrenching for us to be separated but he thrived at his school and got a far better education, independence and confidence than he would have in the ‘special’ school on my council estate or my rough Luton high school. My masters is in equity and diversity in education and I used to throw in this story as an alternative perspective when we discussed inclusive education.
No heating on here and there won’t be for a while. East Anglia tends to be warmer than much of the country and we live in a terraced house so aren’t very exposed. My husband is also very much a put on a jumper person and I keep fingerless silk gloves besides the keyboard in my study as that is the coldest room in the house.
I put my Welsh wool blanket on the bed last night.
The bedroom faces the prevailing wind, and is the coldest room in the house, and although I like a cold bedroom I like to be warm in bed. I even had a hot-water-bottle for much of the summer, as I can't get to sleep if my feet are cold.
It’s a glorious day here, 23 degrees and sunny, just right for strolling. I’m averaging 30,000 steps a day!
New York City is full of dogs! All seem really happy and well cared for. Every single dog I’ve seen here is walking on a loose lead, and no little snappers - every dog is polite! Is there something in the water?
I’m on holiday in New York for a week. What a city! We spent the morning cycling round Central Park. An amazing oasis. 🌳
You are!?! What a great thing! You do realize that you are a mere 788 miles away? Then again, we have a hurricane on its way so maybe not the best time for a road trip. Have fun!
Yes! We came really close to flying over you, I waved anyway!
No need to feel shame, Cameron - everyone has their little foibles! There's not much good to be said about Canadian television, but there's always the absence of Strictly ...
What I'd like to know is how many of my fifty-something friends who are addicted to it would have been seen dead watching Come Dancing back in the day?
In other news, it's absolutely pissing with rain. Thank you for sending us your left-over hurricane, Trump.
At least it means we shan't have to sing outdoors tomorrow - every cloud has a silver lining!
Its time for bed. England are on the way to losing the Ashes. I am deliberating on whether I shall go to Church tomorrow --- but given the attitude of the Church I reckin it might be a case of staying and watching Sings of Praise. Except the S of P has become yet another vacuous offering from the so-called religious arm of the BBC
Kids are back at school, so all the grandparents who have been doing child-care duties have breathed a sigh of relief and gone off on holiday to recover! Numbers should be up again in a week or two.
Yes, we had lots of folk away too: a wedding, gone to Somerset, at Lake Garda, in their caravan, long=planned visit to relatives, late break etc. .... quite frustrating but at least I knew it wasn't anything I'd said! More surprisingly, a couple of families didn't show up either.
We had quite a big congo this morning, as we had a joint service instead of three separate ones. In the wake of Hurricane Dorian, it wasn't held outside (it's actually a very nice day, but only 12°, so not really conducive to sitting outside).
We got off relatively lightly in the storm: we didn't lose power (although many people did), and the château seems undamaged. We did, however get 68.8mm (2.7 in) of rain yesterday and some of it found its way into the walk-in wardrobe. We're not entirely sure how it got in: it wasn't coming down, so there wasn't anything amiss with the roof. At first I thought it was a leak from the shower-room which backs on to it, but it had dried by this morning, and was still as dry as a bone after I'd had a shower, so it must have worked its way in between the slats of the siding, aided by the wind.
We reckon we've never seen such sustained heavy rain before - it was quite something.
Big turn out at Our Place today as the 09.00, 10.45 and 18.30 congregations joined together for a shared lunch to welcome three new staff members. Lovely weather meant we could enjoy sitting and eating in the quiet garden. Food offerings did not lead to an over-supply of quiche!
[...] We got off relatively lightly in the storm: we didn't lose power (although many people did), and the château seems undamaged. We did, however get 68.8mm (2.7 in) of rain yesterday and some of it found its way into the walk-in wardrobe. [...]
We reckon we've never seen such sustained heavy rain before - it was quite something.
A drop-in wardrobe, momentarily? No lasting damage I hope? Glad that you all survived relatively unscathed - now, if that was forceful rain, what must it have been like for those further south! (I know, I have seen the pictures, but still.)
Quite so, Wesley. There's a gentleman who visits Fredericton in the summer from the Bahamas and comes to the Cathedral, and he reckons his house has been at least somewhat damaged - I think he's staying on here longer than he intended because he's not sure if he has somewhere to go back to.
A busy weekend for us. One of those ones where you go to back to work on Monday for a rest, as my mother likes to say.
The good news is that now a nice man has come round and helped us assemble a giant bookcase from the Swedish emporium, and put up lights and shelves and such, Rouge Heights is now completely free of boxes! We have made up our minds that we are not moving house anymore ever, ever cross our hearts and hope to die, at least until we retire. The kitchen isn’t going to be fitted until the start of November so at the minute our cooking facilities amount to a microwave and a little two-ring hob plugged into the mains, but it’s liveable.
Grey and chilly here. While having heating included in the rent is generally a very good thing, the downside is that you don’t get to decide when it’s switched on. Won’t be before at least early October, I would have thought.
Grey and chilly here, too (but we're only two hours away from Paris by train, so hardly surprising - it's easier, and quicker, for me to get to Paris, than to Birmingham, and I know which I prefer, anyway).
Ahem.
Speaking of heating, the Episcopal Ark's friendly dragon, aka the Rayburn, is being prepared for the Autumn, though I don't normally wake him up until the end of September.
Some minor repairs are required, so fire cement has been purchased, and will be applied to the appropriate places when I've had my siesta...
Indeed they do - in this case, the careful application of some nice, dark grey, fire-cement, to one or two painful-looking cracks that have appeared in the joint between the chimney, and the soot-box (that is, the bit where the Rayburn merges into the chimney).
I shall defer waking the Dragon until later in the month, as the weather forecast is for slightly warmer conditions this week...
I refuse to fire up the porcine dragon quite yet: I'm enjoying the (all too brief) interlude when we have to pay for neither heating or cooling. We'll have plenty of time to exercise the heating dragon - last winter I reckon it was in service for about eight months.
Assuming you have an "ordinary" central heating system, do you have thermostatic valves on your radiators? That way you can have different ones coming on and off at different temperatures, all under the control of the main thermostat of course. They're not expensive to install. And can you turn off a radiator near the thermostat so it doesn't get so warm there? We've done all this and it means we can get our lounge to a decent temperature while not overheating the bedrooms.
Yes, done all of that. The problem is the original thermostat. When we replaced the boiler we tried to get permission from TPTB to put it in a more sensible place but were refused - the same PTB that threatened us with prosecution because we didn't get Listed Building Consent to repaint a white house white...
Yes, done all of that. The problem is the original thermostat. When we replaced the boiler we tried to get permission from TPTB to put it in a more sensible place but were refused - the same PTB that threatened us with prosecution because we didn't get Listed Building Consent to repaint a white house white...
Can you replace the existing thermostat with the receiver for a wireless thermostat, and put the temperaure-sensing end of the wireless thermostat somewhere sensible? Or, if you've got thermostatic valves on all your radiators and your problem is the whole system cuts out because your thermostat is always too warm, just increase the setpoint by a couple of degrees.
That's annoying. I would have thought, though, that if you set the thermostatic valves correctly they would progressively turn off the radiators when the rooms they were in got warm enough, then the thermostat on the boiler itself would shut the system down as the water coming back to it hadn't lost enough heat. All that should happen however high the "main" thermostat is set, though you do need to ensure that the water always has a return path (often the bathroom towel-rail provides that function).
The other possibility is that your system needs "balancing" - that's done by adjusting the valves at the other ends of the radiators so that each one gets the right water flow through it. You'd probably need a professional to do that, if it hasn't been done already.
Talking of Listed Buildings: our local and ancient parish church (like a lot of older churches in Wales) is painted white, probably with a water-based coating.. https://tinyurl.com/y44l9jvd. Some years ago it needed redoing and Cadw insisted on them trying out several different paints to be sure to get the "correct" colour. It's on quite an exposed site, and the church folk said that, after six months, wear and tear from the weather, not to mention algae growth, would discolour whatever finish was used. But Cadw was adamant. Of course, you can guess what it looks like now ...
Can't have something in the house that relies on wireless anything: construction is such that even the TV box has to have a hard-wire connection so we can get an internet sport channel.
One of the lads had a lot of fun while I was away with someone trying to convince us to have a Smart metre...
I went to King's College Hospital today for my regular MRI scan (just to make sure my brain's still in the right place). Although it's only a short walk from Hospital to railway station, the bus stops are convenient for the return journey - just a hop from one to the next, IYSWIM.
Two kind people, separately, offered me a seat for that brief 2-minute trip
At the shop on the way home, I dropped my walking stick on the floor, whereupon it was instantly picked up for me by a 3-year old laddie, accompanied by his grandmother. From what was said, I think they were Polish (or Russian). A well-brought-up little boy, who made a good day even better!
As they didn't march me off to A&E or anywhere, I can assume that all is well, but there's a follow-up appointment to look forward to in a couple of weeks' time.
MRI scans are the noisiest things in the universe. Well done for getting through it.
Captain Pyjamas had to have a couple of MRIs done as a very tiny person. I didn’t go to the first one, when he was still in NICU, because I thought it would make me too upset, but I did go with him second time round. (He had to have them done because of a severe brain haemorrhage in the first week of his life. The child is pretty much an according to Hoyle miracle, and said scan showed there is nothing wrong with him.)
Given that you need to stay still for an MRI, babies are swaddled in bandages for the duration to stop them moving about. Captain P looked just like Christmas-card baby Jesus, and it is to my everlasting regret that I didn’t take his picture. Anyway, to get back to my original point about the noise, he somehow managed to fall asleep before the end. He had ear defenders, but even so…
MRI scans are the noisiest things in the universe. Well done for getting through it.
Captain Pyjamas had to have a couple of MRIs done as a very tiny person. I didn’t go to the first one, when he was still in NICU, because I thought it would make me too upset, but I did go with him second time round. (He had to have them done because of a severe brain haemorrhage in the first week of his life. The child is pretty much an according to Hoyle miracle, and said scan showed there is nothing wrong with him.)
Given that you need to stay still for an MRI, babies are swaddled in bandages for the duration to stop them moving about. Captain P looked just like Christmas-card baby Jesus, and it is to my everlasting regret that I didn’t take his picture. Anyway, to get back to my original point about the noise, he somehow managed to fall asleep before the end. He had ear defenders, but even so…
Golly! I hadn't realised Captain Pyjamas was in thyat state. I thought he was just very early and very small. Maybe I blanked the rest out.
I had an MRI a few years ago and the operators told me it was a new, quieter one, but it was still pretty loud and as it was round my head, a disturbing place to be, like a bikers helmet with no vision.
@Bishops Finger, our two eldest were born at Kings, and they did us proud. Eldest wasn't straightforward but they got the boy out without a c-section.
Comments
Not so easy to take on and off. Can't sell them for £200+ either!
I also play Mr Beaky's game with the central heating each year, and I try not to put it on until the clocks go back.
We have a small grate in the sitting room, so could light a fire if necessary, but so far, in the three years we have been here, my reluctance to being kippered has trumped Mr Ros' pyromaniacal inclinations. (He would have a fire most evenings, summer and winter)
My wife is a pyromaniac, but with candles. However I don't like the smell of blown-out candles.
We're just back from a lovely couple of days in Newark, thanks to a competition I won, a night in a swish B&B and afternoon tea in a nice café. We also had free tickets to the local Civil War museum. They had a fascinating exhibition on Fake News.
I often listen to WQXR, New York's classical music station, through my computer. It sounds as if you're having wonderful weather! I hope you're enjoying my long-time-ago home.
We are just catching the edge of storm Dorian so it’s rainy and blustery now. Set fair the rest of the week ‘tho.
No heating on chez Piglet yet - it's currently 20° and a glorious day. We're expecting to get a bit battered by the tail end of Dorian tomorrow, with a fair amount of rain and wind, but with any luck it'll be short-lived.
I think an amble before it gets dark* would be a good idea.
* the nights are fair beginning to draw in - it's almost dark by eight o'clock, and it seems very short ago that it was still light at half past nine.
I have a memory of being taken into the school, with Youngest as a babe in arms and the Toddlers, as proof of the family situation, I was asked loads of questions, then being told I could start in September as I already could do what the other children did. I then did a term in Reception, just to check, then shifted up to Class 1 after Christmas.
I also have a very clear memory of sheer boredom for that term in Reception and spent my time after doing my work wandering around helping everyone else with their work. I either had a very tolerant teacher, or one who was grateful for her unofficial teaching assistant, as that role just didn't exist at that point, or one who was glad to see the back of me. Actually, that latter is not true - she had all my siblings for their Reception Year and whilst she excellently never compared us to our faces, she did tell my parents I was definitely the only one who had any interest in matters academic.
No heating on here and there won’t be for a while. East Anglia tends to be warmer than much of the country and we live in a terraced house so aren’t very exposed. My husband is also very much a put on a jumper person and I keep fingerless silk gloves besides the keyboard in my study as that is the coldest room in the house.
The bedroom faces the prevailing wind, and is the coldest room in the house, and although I like a cold bedroom I like to be warm in bed. I even had a hot-water-bottle for much of the summer, as I can't get to sleep if my feet are cold.
New York City is full of dogs! All seem really happy and well cared for. Every single dog I’ve seen here is walking on a loose lead, and no little snappers - every dog is polite! Is there something in the water?
The Guilty Pleasure season has returned - by which I mean, Strictly returns to the BBC today!
The more serious everything else becomes, the more I love this show, which is as far from serious as it is possible to be...
I promise to read a difficult novel for balance afterwards. Or something like that!
/shame off
That was you??? I wondered who it was!
What I'd like to know is how many of my fifty-something friends who are addicted to it would have been seen dead watching Come Dancing back in the day?
In other news, it's absolutely pissing with rain. Thank you for sending us your left-over hurricane, Trump.
At least it means we shan't have to sing outdoors tomorrow - every cloud has a silver lining!
Mind you, perhaps that's where our lot were this morning - they certainly weren't in church! Lowest turnout we've had for ages...
Things do tend to notch up a gear in September, so hopefully next week will see the return of the Waifs And Strays.
We got off relatively lightly in the storm: we didn't lose power (although many people did), and the château seems undamaged. We did, however get 68.8mm (2.7 in) of rain yesterday and some of it found its way into the walk-in wardrobe. We're not entirely sure how it got in: it wasn't coming down, so there wasn't anything amiss with the roof. At first I thought it was a leak from the shower-room which backs on to it, but it had dried by this morning, and was still as dry as a bone after I'd had a shower, so it must have worked its way in between the slats of the siding, aided by the wind.
We reckon we've never seen such sustained heavy rain before - it was quite something.
<votive>
We are going to visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum today. I have very clear memories of that day, watching it unfold on TV in shock.
The good news is that now a nice man has come round and helped us assemble a giant bookcase from the Swedish emporium, and put up lights and shelves and such, Rouge Heights is now completely free of boxes! We have made up our minds that we are not moving house anymore ever, ever cross our hearts and hope to die, at least until we retire. The kitchen isn’t going to be fitted until the start of November so at the minute our cooking facilities amount to a microwave and a little two-ring hob plugged into the mains, but it’s liveable.
Grey and chilly here. While having heating included in the rent is generally a very good thing, the downside is that you don’t get to decide when it’s switched on. Won’t be before at least early October, I would have thought.
Ahem.
Speaking of heating, the Episcopal Ark's friendly dragon, aka the Rayburn, is being prepared for the Autumn, though I don't normally wake him up until the end of September.
Some minor repairs are required, so fire cement has been purchased, and will be applied to the appropriate places when I've had my siesta...
I shall defer waking the Dragon until later in the month, as the weather forecast is for slightly warmer conditions this week...
And yes, Dragons do require doctoring sometimes - have you not yet read Zog? Do, it's great
Yes, done all of that. The problem is the original thermostat. When we replaced the boiler we tried to get permission from TPTB to put it in a more sensible place but were refused - the same PTB that threatened us with prosecution because we didn't get Listed Building Consent to repaint a white house white...
Can you replace the existing thermostat with the receiver for a wireless thermostat, and put the temperaure-sensing end of the wireless thermostat somewhere sensible? Or, if you've got thermostatic valves on all your radiators and your problem is the whole system cuts out because your thermostat is always too warm, just increase the setpoint by a couple of degrees.
The other possibility is that your system needs "balancing" - that's done by adjusting the valves at the other ends of the radiators so that each one gets the right water flow through it. You'd probably need a professional to do that, if it hasn't been done already.
Talking of Listed Buildings: our local and ancient parish church (like a lot of older churches in Wales) is painted white, probably with a water-based coating.. https://tinyurl.com/y44l9jvd. Some years ago it needed redoing and Cadw insisted on them trying out several different paints to be sure to get the "correct" colour. It's on quite an exposed site, and the church folk said that, after six months, wear and tear from the weather, not to mention algae growth, would discolour whatever finish was used. But Cadw was adamant. Of course, you can guess what it looks like now ...
One of the lads had a lot of fun while I was away with someone trying to convince us to have a Smart metre...
I went to King's College Hospital today for my regular MRI scan (just to make sure my brain's still in the right place). Although it's only a short walk from Hospital to railway station, the bus stops are convenient for the return journey - just a hop from one to the next, IYSWIM.
Two kind people, separately, offered me a seat for that brief 2-minute trip
At the shop on the way home, I dropped my walking stick on the floor, whereupon it was instantly picked up for me by a 3-year old laddie, accompanied by his grandmother. From what was said, I think they were Polish (or Russian). A well-brought-up little boy, who made a good day even better!
Hope the MRI finds all is well, BF!
As they didn't march me off to A&E or anywhere, I can assume that all is well, but there's a follow-up appointment to look forward to in a couple of weeks' time.
Captain Pyjamas had to have a couple of MRIs done as a very tiny person. I didn’t go to the first one, when he was still in NICU, because I thought it would make me too upset, but I did go with him second time round. (He had to have them done because of a severe brain haemorrhage in the first week of his life. The child is pretty much an according to Hoyle miracle, and said scan showed there is nothing wrong with him.)
Given that you need to stay still for an MRI, babies are swaddled in bandages for the duration to stop them moving about. Captain P looked just like Christmas-card baby Jesus, and it is to my everlasting regret that I didn’t take his picture. Anyway, to get back to my original point about the noise, he somehow managed to fall asleep before the end. He had ear defenders, but even so…
Golly! I hadn't realised Captain Pyjamas was in thyat state. I thought he was just very early and very small. Maybe I blanked the rest out.
I had an MRI a few years ago and the operators told me it was a new, quieter one, but it was still pretty loud and as it was round my head, a disturbing place to be, like a bikers helmet with no vision.
@Bishops Finger, our two eldest were born at Kings, and they did us proud. Eldest wasn't straightforward but they got the boy out without a c-section.