Thread 11 - TalkLair: “The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles.”

[Kucinghitam]

Whoops, missed the filling up of the previous thread! (thread 10).

Although the nights are gradually drawing in, the new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey inside. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

I can't believe it's been a year! How time flies when you're not being harangued.

Nor can I believe that Ma-cn/nc-urse has been banned. I hope she queries it.

As with last winter, I've noticed a few of these sorts of threads. Am I alone in finding them fascinating?

My preferred temperature would be "pet lizard" but we have ours set at 17-17.5ºC for a brief period in the morning and a longer period in the evening. I've made myself learn to live with it, but frankly I hate the permanent feeling of being cold all winter. So I feel sort of envious of people who airly declare that they'd simply be dying of heatstroke above 12ºC, sort of thing.

Also I feel so sorry for those who are really worried about the cost of heating and are sitting in freezing damp homes.

There was also a thread (can't find it now) wondering whether it was just them who were finding excessive damp in their house this year compared to previous - ChezKuc, definitely. We recently bought a second dehumidifier, so we're now running one upstairs and one downstairs.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4950683-whats-the-temperature-in-your-house-tonight

Kuc, I started a thread last month asking how much other people's dehumidifiers collect, maybe it was that one. We're still running it in the bedroom, every other day when it's dry and every day when it's wet, and it collects a regular 700ml-900ml every time. It's made a big difference to the feeling of the room.

Re the feeling of being cold all winter, I know what you mean. I've gradually built up a collection of seriously warm winter clothes and will use a hand warmer if sitting at my desk.

We don't have gas or a boiler so there's no temperature level to set for anything to switch on. If we want to heat the house, we have to light a fire in the old fashioned Parkray back boiler and once that's been chugging for an hour or two, we turn the pump on and the radiators heat up. It does the hot water too, which is a real blessing. Yes, it's a bit of a faff and, yes, it creates a lot of dust, but it does for us and our fuel bills actually go down in winter.

Threads like that horrify me, as did the dehumidifier threads at the old place.

The good news is, thanks to climate change, winters are getting a lot milder! So heroic tales of never putting the heating on don't demonstrate quite the levels of bravery.... Yeah, I know, fuel is expensive, and the cost of heating your home can be painful. But my view is simple. Nothing, but nothing, is a greater priority than being warm on your own home. Next comes food. Money spent on both is never wasted. And no (as my DS suggests), I do not want a bloody electric slanket thingey to huddle under! 😛

We had dinner with some neighbours last night. Both of them are getting on and their spouses are now in the 'ashes' area of the local church yard. They were both grumbling that the local council is neglecting the ashes area and don't seem to want to spend the money on its upkeep. Given that the wall of a bridge in town has still not been repaired a full year after someone drove into it, I don't think the church yard is going to be a priority any time soon, so I suggested that we just do the job ourselves. They both know others locally who've got someone's ashes interred there, so it could be something we do regularly. Hopefully we can plan a date, turn up with our tools and some bin bags and have a good community tidy up. I don't have anyone buried there but have offered to work with them, as I'm younger than them and do this stuff for a living anyway. It'll be interesting to see how we get on.

I only use my dehumidifier to dry washing but these posts reminded me that I hadn’t emptied it since the last load. Somewhere between two and two and a half pints (a bit old school, I know, but the handiest thing I knew the volume of was a milk bottle).

This house is hot. The thermostat is set to 20C first thing and rises to 21C early evening and 22C before bed. The thermostat is in the hall which always feels cold (the radiator is behind a sofa and is in can’t case a good way from the thermostat) but the main rooms are hot. I’m usually in summer clothes but my mum is 98 and has always felt the cold so she’s in thermals and knitwear and still grumbling about the heating.

The churchyard tidying thing sounds like a great idea!

We work in Fahrenheit on this side of the Atlantic and we have our thermostat downstairs set to 68F and in the bedroom 65F. However we close off the baseboard heaters in the other bedrooms unless we have guests. Those rooms stay warm enough not to cause mould with the general warmth of the house (and we are very well insulated).

I don't know what the temperature is in my flat because it's night storage heating and I don't have a thermostat but I am really lucky that despite the heaters being old and manky they do keep the place warm and I only have on two out of the three of them. I don't have one in my bedroom but there is one on the wall outside of my bedroom and that wall is very thin so it heats up my bedroom. All in all a happy result.

This post came to my attention because I someone I know spectacularly fell over in public yesterday, and needed to feel better about themselves. Can we nominate it for CQ?

@VictorianBigot Hahahahahaha! That's definitely a CQ!

That's brilliant. I wonder how the Chinese tourists reacted and who came to this unfortunate woman's rescue?

I think she does go on to elaborate a bit https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4685707-i-am-mortified

Very funny thread

That is epic! The thing with falling over is that of course you shouldn't be embarrassed/mortified but nine times out of ten you are. It starts as you're going down and you realise there's no stopping what's happening - time slows down and it feels like it takes a number of seconds rather than a fraction of one - and full mortification hits you as you hit the floor.

Yes! That’s exactly it! Apparently

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OMG what happened there

When I had a big fall-over ten years ago it was like one moment I was walking and the next I was on the ground, there seemed to be no gap at all. I was on my way to plant something for some one and had bags in both hands, so didn't break my fall. Tripped over a piece of metal sticking out of a stony driveway and went down like a sack of spuds, landing hard on one knee. It was a huge shock and I was quite badly shaken at the time. I remember a man walking past who just stared at me very coldly and didn't say a word. I shouted at him that he was a bastard, which drew the attention of a kind woman at a nearby cafe who helped me get up.

The last fall I had was on a patch of ice outside my back door a couple of years ago. No mortification because no one but DH saw and all I did was sprain my ankle. However I was on my way to the doctor for a regular check up and of course one of the questions was about falls, so I owned up to it and the bastard laughed and said I'd aced my osteoporosis test.

Bloody hell @Vegemiteandhoneyontoast. If I saw someone fall over and hurt themselves I'd be falling over myself rushing to help them.

My trip occurred while climbing the stairs at the train station. Fortunately it happened at the top of the stairs rather than mid-way, so I fell forward and landed on my hands and knees rather than tumbling back down. It really did feel like I fell in slow motion. It was so embarrassing because people were behind me and it was after midnight so they must've assumed I was drunk, but it was actually that I'd been outside for several hours in the freezing temps and everything was numb and that I'm generally just a bit clumsy. I think there might have been a faint 'are you ok' in the background but I got myself up at lightning speed, practically sprinted for the door in shame and didn't look back. Nobody laughed at least.

The most spectacular fall I've ever had was when my then boyfriend and I were cycling alongside each other on a cycle path and our handlebars somehow became entangled. I watched, in super slow motion, as he flew through the air towards the grass (which in hindsight was quite funny) while I carried on for a few moments, only to catapult off and skid across the ground. I eventually came to a stop, covered in blood as the impact had ripped large chunks of skin off my knuckles and knees. I didn't have any tissues on me but smoked at the time and had a packet of Rizla papers in my pocket, so ended up sticking them all over me to try to stop the bleeding. NOBODY stopped to help. I still have the scars!

I think falls on ice are exempt from mortification. I slipped on the ice once while walking home from work in the dark. The pavements here are really uneven because of the trees in the road, and I think I inadvertently stepped on a frozen tree root. I went up in the air and fell backwards, smacking my head off the icy pavement. I saw stars and for a moment I thought I might have killed myself by smashing my skull, the impact was so painful. I lay there in a complete daze as I became aware of a man very slowly and carefully making his way towards me. He offered me his hand and managed to pull me up, then sat me on a wall and stayed with me until the shock passed. He was sooo attractive in every possible way.

Rizla paper plasters, magnificent!

I hope they were the king-size ones! 😃

@VictorianBigot glad someone helped you up. Funny how the people who help us when we've fallen badly immediately assume angelic status. I was so grateful for that kind woman from the cafe as I simply couldn't myself get up off the ground. I was incandescent with the man who just stared and walked on. If someone falls, my first instinct is to help them as fast as possible.

Nice one with the Rizlas!

angelico53 · 25/11/2023 10:08

I'll mention here that Mancurse has been banned from MN (she doesn't know why)

Hi, have you heard anything from Mavis?

I certainly could’ve done with a king-size one afterwards 😳