Aren't we getting soft...

[Fab Foodie]

All this whining talk of cold weather when we have modern thermal clothing, centrally heated houses etc. We forget that it used to get cold enough that many large rivers regularly froze hard enough that people could walk on 'em. I find it hard to imagine how people of those times kept going!

 

[Plax]

I don't have any central heating or double glazing and the condensation on my windows was frozen on the inside this morning. The thermometer in my bedroom says 5.8 as ny electric heater has broke. I'm still 'ard me!

 

[roadiewill]

-6 here atm, Im not used to that kinda cold!

 

[ColinJ]

All this whining talk of cold weather when we have modern thermal clothing, centrally heated houses etc. We forget that it used to get cold enough that many large rivers regularly froze hard enough that people could walk on 'em. I find it hard to imagine how people of those times kept going!

We don't all have central heating you know ! I have a gas fire in my attic bedroom/office and a gas wall heater in my first floor lounge; that's it. The ground floor has no heating (The main room downstairs is used for bicycle parking, workshop, gym, and spares (junk) storage which blocks the gas fire in there...). I don't have double-glazing. The bathroom has no heating and neither does the kitchen. I don't wear pajamas in bed, and I don't have extra blankets on. One mid-weight duvet is fine. It doesn't even have a cover on at the mo'.

So... yeah, people are getting soft. My family complain about the cold here when they visit me in Spring or Autumn. God knows what they'd be saying now!

Mind you... I'm still not riding my bike in this weather

 

[Crackle]

I don't have any central heating or double glazing and the condensation on my windows was frozen on the inside this morning. The thermometer in my bedroom says 5.8 as ny electric heater has broke. I'm still 'ard me!

Is that why you cycle to work, to warm up?

 

[Plax]

Is that why you cycle to work, to warm up?

Yes, saves on the heating bill .

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I like my centrally heated house when its like this. I can remember as a child my parents only heating one room, coal fire, in the house during the winter. The rest of the house was the same temperature as outside. I have memories of getting out of bed in the morning and finding ice on the inside of the window and having to remember to put my slippers on before I stepped of the mat by the side of the bed, the rest of the room had freezing cold lino on the floor. As a young man I lived in bedsits, mostly with just a single bar electric fire for warmth, if I could keep the meter fed

 

[another_dave_b]

We're not getting soft. People have always whined about the weather, we're just traditional

 

[roadiewill]

-7 now... brrrrr is this a new ice age??

 

[dudi]

-6 here at present.
we don't have double glazing, but our house is nice and toasty.

I think in the past, when there was little central heating and no double glazing people understood more that when it gets cold you put more clothes on. (not like nower days when people expect to be able to mooch around in their pants in the middle of Jan)

therefore when it gets really really cold, you put lots and lots of clothes on.

that's why grannys wear 6 coats at once.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I like my centrally heated house when its like this. I can remember as a child my parents only heating one room, coal fire, in the house during the winter. The rest of the house was the same temperature as outside. I have memories of getting out of bed in the morning and finding ice on the inside of the window and having to remember to put my slippers on before I stepped of the mat by the side of the bed, the rest of the room had freezing cold lino on the floor. As a young man I lived in bedsits, mostly with just a single bar electric fire for warmth, if I could keep the meter fed

I remember much the same... getting changed under the duvet!

 

[bonk man]

I was born in a snow drift...... well sort of , February 1963, so cold the pipes under the road had frozen.

I spent the first part of today fixing the rear brakes of my van in -2 degrees and loved it

I then went for a snowy walk on the hills with my daughter and the dogs. Cold but glorious, the sunset over the Welsh mountains in the distance was stunning.

This weather makes such a change from the wet nasty winters we often get, days of grey skies and mud. No wonder the Vikings went home in the winter.

It is just getting down to minus 10 according to the electronic thermometer I have left in the garden, it is covered in frost. The butane gas blow torch I was using earlier actually was freezing up while I was using it reminding me of when I lived on the road and we would chuck the gas bottles on a fire for a short while to thaw them out to use in the caravan. Try telling the kids of today about that sort of thing, they wouldn't believe it

I am training the wife to live in a colder climate by slowly reducing the thermostat every winter, it is now down to about 15c [ big red line marked on it.....what a fascist ] consequently she makes less noise about going out in poor weather as it isn't a shock going out the door unlike some peoples houses where it might be 28c indoors and 0 outside..nasty ..
We have got a wood burner that gets lit in the early evening and is usually knocking out enough heat to stop the central heating going on too often even at the moment.

Yeh,, I love it.

 

[Dave5N]

I remember much the same... getting changed under the duvet!

It's a fair point. When we was kids we always got dressed in bed in the winter.

 

[johnnyh]

just got home and the car says -9.5 Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Maz]

Man, it was cold in our house in Sheffield in the 70s! No central heating. My room was up in the attic and you could see your own breath in the room on a cold day. Almost forgot to mention it - no bloody inside toilet...using the outside toilet in the back yard was a real pain as the cistern water would freeze up so you couldn't use the flush...had to put hot water in it to melt it!