dreading winter

I sometimes feel like my panties are a griddle

oh heck, this is the second message Ive done the last one disappeared, I think my computer is ready to conk out. Unless I type very slowly I get double letters, such as the above grirrdle and Im not wearing specs so to put the record straight: I sometimes wear a panty girdle in winter to keep warm, not for glamour.

I don't mind winter as I'm normally quite active and that keeps me warm in and out of the house. I realise that not all people can do that though and must have great difficulty in winter. Coldish wet summer days for me though are a different story. I currently have washing in the house that will not dry and will probably smell and have to be washed again! At least in winter the radiators can warm and dry at the same time even though the thermostats are not that high in my house.

Ethel I love your grirrdle. It reminds me of the Irn Brew ads 'made from girrrders!' Is yours a very strong grirrdle?

Sitting giggling at your 'grirrdle' Ethel....DH keeps asking me what I'm laughing at! I dread to think what you'd have to wear to work up here, our average winter temp is just above freezing and we have a windchill factor from the North Sea that could take a layer of skin off! Most people have serious winter jackets-Berghaus, Rab etc., along with good thermal gloves and hat. Given my proportions I feel a bit like a mushroom when I've got all that padding on, but better that than freezing. Next problem is going to the shopping mall wearing all that and having to peel off layer by layer as the shops are way too hot. The mushroom look disappears but the pack mule appears in its place as I juggle jacket/scarf/handbag/
shopping bag(s)/parking ticket/change!

katek lol, I could do with a panty girdle made from iron girders to keep my bum in place.
My trusty barbour jacket is getting shabby and I dread what I can afford to replace it with. Berghaus etc are so expensive and another barbour would need a small mortgage these days. Hoping for a mild winter

granma2213 my last post re the pantie girdle being made from iron gorders was meant for you.
Katie, I assume you live in the north of Scotland or equivalent, I don't think I could do my job where you live. Im confused now!

Yes Ethel, we're in north of Scotland and the few trees that we have tend to grow at 45 degrees in the direction of the prevailing wind! We tend to walk like that in winter too!! Have you had a look on eBay or your local charity shops for a jacket? Often some really good bargains to be found

A cheery fireplace helps, even if you don't feel like bothering with the real fire.

jings why aren't those candles melting?

It's a pretend wood burner. the warm comes out of a fan heater at the bottom. When I want to light the real fire I just lift it off the hearth and plonk it in the hall. It's a plan.

I had to get up first in the morning as a child, freezing, as it was my job to rake out the ashes and set the coal fire. As a result I would never want a coal (or log fire again). I dread to think how many times I held a newspaper up to draw the flames, then got interested in reading it and it went up the chimney on fire. It's a wonder I didn't burn the house down!

Did anyone else have that job? I was the oldest and did it from 8/9 years old till I left home at 18.

G2213 we had two coal fires. The one in the back room was 'damped down' each evening so it would continue to burn very gently all night, as this ran the back boiler. The one in the front room was raked over so it went out - to save coal.

My job was to rake out the ashes in the front room, set a bit of a fire, then using a small shovel kept for that purpose, get a shovelful of smouldering coals from the back room to start off the other fire. I would be about 10-11.

But then again this made me

Anya .

Anya when I was about 12 we moved house and there we had a Rayburn in the kitchen which was damped down overnight. Before I did the living room fire I would open the bottom of the Rayburn till it was roaring and put my clothes along the rail in front to warm up! On several occasions I had slightly singed knickers!

Imagine Health and Safety and Child Protection these days. They would go into overdrive!!!

Grandma2213 Lighting the fire when I got home from school was my job too! I was eleven and I remember only too well putting the shovel in front with newspaper, to draw the fire!
Then panicking when it burst into flames! Happy days!

Thank the lord for firelighters!

My auntie had a very modern invention - a gas poker.

I always had to roll papers up to make little firelighters! You must have been posh jings

I still roll up paper to put the kindling on, Lona, and also often need to hold a paper - carefully - over the lit fire to get it going. We only have a fire on a very cold day, when something good is on telly, we put the light out, and sit back and enjoy. Different story next morning when I have to clear it out, but it's just an occasional winter treat and I love it.

No! We didn't have firelighters in the old days. I meant now. Firelighters are a gift from the Gods.

Our grate was one of those old black upright ones. I don't think you could have covered it with newspaper. I remember my friend doing that at her house, and yes, she used to set it alight.

That old grate was fantastic for making toast. And for seeing little valleys and pathways in the red hot coals. I was an imaginative child.

We have the real fire Saturday's and Sindays. Can't be doing with emptying the ashes and fetching logs more often than that.

jingl Your last post could do with an 'edit' button TMI !!!

This is turning into ' the three Yorkshire men ' sketch. We were so poor that.......

Anya, love that shag carpet joke.