Class of '18 now in 2019. blimey.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

hang on....

Wishing her a smooth recovery nohaudin.

NoHaudin hope your mum's procedure and recovery go smoothly.

DS1 also struggles with making phone calls to banks and the like. When they ask him security questions he panics, freezes and forgets basic info like his date of birth.

DS1 has just sent me this, and told me that his 'homework' is to ask me about my experiences of the Winter of Discontent.

He knows perfectly well that (a) I was five years old and (b) I wasn't living in the UK at the time.

I think he just finds it amusing that I'm being suggested as a source of oral history accounts.

It doesn't look too good. I will fly up in the morning. Thanks for everyone's good wishes.

I hope your Mum recovers well NoHaudin.

TheFirstOHN I remember the winter of 1978/1979 very well. I had just met OH who lived over 200 miles away. We had loads of snow and the refuse collectors were on strike. I remember seeing piles of rubbish on the streets in London, and waiting hours for trains that were delayed due to snow. We also had train strikes, and my flatmate and I hitched to work or we caught a bus to Tooting Broadway or Brixton to get the tube.

But most of all I remember the snow.

Best wishes to you No Haudin. If your DD is stressing about her bank account I am sure she will be glad to see you too, even though not in the best of circumstances.

Ooh, now I realise why I didn't know what the winter of discontent was. I hadn't been born! I thought I was just ill informed (which I am, but if I wasn't born and it was too recent to be taught in history at school, is no wonder I don't know about it). I do now remember seeing photos of my pregnant mum with my older brother as a toddler looking up at huge snowdrifts, much taller than my mum.

Thinking of you and your mum NoHaudin. Xx

I was 7 during winter of discontent. I remember electricity cuts, and playing cards by candlelight, at least I think it is then that I remember this.

I remember that winter too, although I was little. Lots of snow and no school. Didn't we have blackouts as well?

NoHaudin.

Just to let you all know UrsulaPandress will be MIA for about a week. Can't say much else but I'm sure she will be keeping an eye on this thread until she can post again.

I am clearly more ancient than most of you
I don't remember blackouts. We had some in the winter of 1977/1978. I remember having to rush to get the post out at work before the power went off.

The worst winter for power cuts was during the 1973 oil crisis. Luckily we had an open fire and loads of candles. I remember seeing a Christmas cartoon with Ted Heath in it singing No-o-oil, no-o-oil, no-o-iol no-oil, born is the king of Isreal.

My only memory of the Winter of Discontent is my uncle saying he sent his three sons in turn to buy bread from the shop as there was bread rationing at the till, and you couldn't buy more than one loaf of bread at a time, or the same adult couldn't be seen to buy bread three days running possibly? And a lot of friends' parents baking their own bread.

Now is that anything to do with the strikes? I was 12, and obviously not paying attention to anything much..my mother liked burning rubbish so that possibly solved that problem.

I do think there was a general feeling of shabbiness, make do and mend it, not showing off, that permeated down.

Haudin that all sounds incredibly stressful, and lots of people needing your help and pulling you in several directions. Your poor mum, that must be a big shock, very frightening for you.

yes, I do remember blackouts. I think they were just "fun". But then I didn't have a baby in intensive care or someone being operated on. We were so much less dependent on electricity as a society then, it didn't even affect accounts or appointments or anything like that. Things came by mail not by email or text. Even my boiler now which is gas, needs electricity to actually come on, in those days it was possibly to have a phone in a powercut, now my land phone is powered from a electrical socket, as well as a telephone point.

I remember doing my homework by candlelight because of the rolling power cuts. There was no gas to the house then but fortunately there was hot water because of the Rayburn, the upstairs radiators got hot but not the downstairs (no pump).

My thoughts are with you NoHaudin, I thought I was having a bad week and I needed a slap of perspective.

"now my land phone is powered from a electrical socket"

Actually, that is one of the reasons we still have a corded phone attached to a landline. Unless the telephone exchange goes down we would still have a telephone.

I hope your mum is OK Haudin

I remember the winter of discontent. I was at secondary school. We couldn't drink the tap water because it wasn't being processed properly. At certain times of day the water went off completely and electricity/gas at intervals.
My parents had one of those dual fuel stoves with gas hob and electric oven so if one went off it was still possible to cook.
Rubbish wasn't collected but we had an open fire and burnt stuff as well.
The school dinners were worse than usual too - pink custard anyone?

We had a coal fired Aga which also heated the water. But I remember doing my homework by candlelight. It was exciting. Maybe I had a quiet life.

knots I am sorry this week has been bad for you, hope you can get through to Friday, and there will be something nice on Saturday. January is generally cr**p, even at the best of times.

Although the frost this morning was quite pretty! We have frosty lemon tree outside, an oxymoron if ever there was one.
I've taken my running leggings out, and am staring at them. Can I face it? Various thoughts (admin and family related are swirling round my head) and running may be the only way to get away from it all.

And today we have snow - lots of it and still snowing!
Because dd lives so close to her place of work, she will have to go in. Suspect it will be quiet though the shop has sold lots of sledges over the past few days!
The schools and colleges are closed (apart from pupils taking exams) but not the university which is open.

I'm sorry that you've had a bad week Knot.

We've had a decent amount of snow. dd has had some too, but maybe not enough for the snow boots I made her pack

We had snow too yesterday. It was only an icing sugar sprinkling though so everybody still had to go to work 😣 Some of the buses couldn't get to school from the rural villages though, because a) the villages are generally on higher ground and get more snow and b) the route to the villages is along tiny roads that don't ever get gritted.

I have no idea if DD has had any snow. She wouldn't think to let me know if she had.

We had zillions of snow in the end. Well, maybe around 20-30cm just out of town. I feel bad for dd that she didn't get much, she would have enjoyed it. But from her point of view it's probably better - I turn into an overexcited labrador in the snow and can't understand why everyone in the house isn't bouncing around outside making snowballs and building things, I can get a bit annoying

Just icing sugar snow here, but it is very cold. DD is having a disappointing weekend. Various friends have bailed on her and she had back word of a job she applied to. She didn't really want this job, but she is getting bored of being at home now.

She has an offer holder's day next week, then visiting her BF the week after so I hope this will cheer her up.

How is your mum doing Haudin?