Thread 13 - TalkLair: “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 12).

Looks like spring has sprung! Tulips, apple blossom and early hay fever are upon us. In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm, because "something something 'til May is out". 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…

These days it’s called brushed cotton. I keep meaning to get some flanelette/brushed cotton sheets for the warmth. I’m boggling at how you don’t need a HWB in Maine in winter. I’d need at least four on me at a time.

I use microwavable wheatbags in bed for at least 9 months of the year, have a hot water bottle for hotels when I don't have access to a microwave, and an electric throw in my home office.

Ideally I'd move south, but make do with a lot of blankets jumpers and heating devices instead.

I dimly remember brushed cotton (which we knew as winceyette) sheets from childhood. They were so lovely when they were new but I remember that cosy loveliness as being disappointingly short lived.

We do keep our heating on all night though! (Although having said that it's not on high - I think our bedroom thermostat is set to somewhere in the low sixties F, though I have forgotten what that is in C). DH boggles at the British tendency to turn it off at night.

Grandad's flannelette nightshirt...

We have flanellette aka brushed cotton sheets! They really do make a difference when you first get into bed. Also another devotee of bedsocks (or rather, DH is a devotee of my wearing bedsocks, because he's the one who suffers when I put my ice-blocks cold feet on him).

Do people really still turn off their heating at night? I'm struggling to recall ever living in a house/flat in the last 25 years that didn't have a timed thermostat with multiple settings for morning/day/evening/night. Although now I think of the regular MN-competitive-winter-cold threads, I stand myself corrected...

I remember them from childhood too, in a checked pattern, which is one of the reasons I don't have any now, but I think the childhood ones were at least partly polyester and bobbled.

@NoBinturongsHereMate Do you have a wheatbag recommendation? I was going to get one but I couldn't find one without reviews that claimed they caught fire in the microwave

@Kucinghitam I don't have the heating on overnight. Or heat my bedroom at all. I very much follow that circadian temperature rhythm... freezing at midnight and after lunch, boiling hot early evening and from 2am onwards.

We usually turn ours down to 16° in the winter, before going to bed. I may come on sporadically through the night. Experience has shown that turning it off, or lower than 16° makes the house freezing.

I am full of admiration for those who can do without bedroom heating! We keep our bedrooms cooler than the rest of the house (turn down the radiators) but I can't imagine no heating at all 🥶

Overnight the thermostat is set to 14°C, that's low enough that even in the coldest snaps it rarely kicks in the heating, but bearable enough that the house doesn't feel like an abandoned ruin on the moors. Morning/evening is 18°C (I'd much prefer something in the mid-20s but the cost of gas is just too ruinous).

My thermostat makes a very loud click when it comes on or goes off, it drives me insane.

It's pouring with rain here and quite chilly but I can't bring myself to put the heating on in May. I'm quite glad of the rain though as I have to get a presentation finished and now I won't get FOMO.

We use an old Parkray back boiler so only get hot radiators when the fire is lit and on some mornings the house really does feel like a ruin on the moors. We're used to it now, but in a couple of colder winters it's been a bit disheartening to see the bedroom is down to 8C. Using portable gas and electric heaters warms things up reasonably quickly.

I have the heating set to 9° at night which is effectively off. But as it’s set to 22 or 23° in the run up to bedtime the house (or more accurately, the bottom of the stairs where the thermostat is) rarely gets much below about 18° overnight. My bedroom radiator has been turned off for a good few weeks though (it’s on low through the winter).

My house, unlike every other one I've ever lived in, is remarkably warm. radiators in the bedroom are never turned on, because it's just not necessary. I've never (in seven years) even been able to see my breath on the air in the winter. I turn the heating down when I go to bed, at the moment set to 18.5, but it never gets that cold anyway. I put it down to several things, being in a terrace is obviously one (although a house on one side has been empty for ages; I'm not getting any free heat there), and probably an optimum orientation for the sun and prevailing wind. Of course the stove heats the fabric of the house, which helps, but I didn't light it last night, and I've been using my 'half a fire' technique all winter, blocking off half of the hearth with a firebrick.

Not a useful recommendation. I got a lovely one filled with grape pips from a German stall at Birmingham xmas market about 15 years ago, and the rest I've made myself.

Any wheatbag will catch fire if you overheat it, but the only time I've ever singed one was on purpose when I was working out the correct timing for different sizes I wanted to make.

The weather finally seems to have realised that it is supposed to be late spring! We went out for a pre-birthday celebration lunch yesterday and I actually wore a dress with bare legs

But walking home after our leisurely meal, DD1 said "It's gone very dark and windy" and we ended up jogging slightly (not a comfortable experience after a big feast), got in the front door just in time - it was like God had turned on a firehose and stuck a live electric cable into the stream Torrential downpour and spectacular lightning, which I very much enjoyed watching from inside the house. At times the thunder seemed to rumble up through the floorboards.

I also went out for a birthday celebratory meal last night. Wore a raincoat and cardi (though that did turn out to be more than was needed). Mostly avoided rain until I got off the tube on the way home and it was chucking it down. A taxi up the hill very much in order.

We also had God turning on a fire hose yesterday but no thunder or lightning. The weather's been lovely today but, good heavens, the gnats!

We had God the Firefighter here too. I went out to get some chips and it came down 30 seconds later. My coat still isn’t dry

Yesterday was a bit mild monsoon but thankfully today has been much nicer and the nesting seagulls all look very content.

Lovely day here - temperatures in the mid-60sF, so about 15-16C I think. Sunshine! And I went for a massage, which always does me a power of good.

Good weather here for the May fair yesterday.

How are you feeling, Mouse?

The seagulls here are stupid bastards and apparently believe that when one of their offspring falls out of a nest by someone's chimney, they need to gang up and dive-bomb any passer-by even if they are on the other side of the road. On the bright side, I made friends with our bolshiest, funniest neighbour when I was rang her doorbell to escape the onslaught.

I’m watching Twister after all the rain and lightning talk. There were some good blockbusters in the 90s, but this was not one of them.

The only good thing about Twister was that when I saw it it had a trailer for Independence Day which really excited me. I hadn't heard of it or been aware of it in any way. Went to see it as soon as it opened and LOVED it!

I'm sure I saw Twister at the cinema. We'd watch any old shit in those days. Nowadays cinema visits are much more of a rarity, but as it goes 😀I did make a trip today. As much to get the bike out in the lovely weather as anything else. Given a choice The Civil War and Monkey Man, I opted for the latter.

moto's verdict: I'd be surprised if TCW isn't better.