# The unmistakable scent of Winter



## Northerner (Oct 6, 2016)




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## mikeyB (Oct 6, 2016)

Actually today the warmest place in the U.K. was central Scotland, though I admit that is rare event


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## AlisonM (Oct 6, 2016)

Northerner said:


> View attachment 2050


Heating? Are ye mad lad? It's far too soon for the heating. We just add another jumper and even then it's only for the weans and wimps.


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## Marsbartoastie (Oct 6, 2016)

Three bars!  Are you mad!?!?  We were never allowed the full three bars.  My dad convinced us that such frivolousness would have broken the National Grid.


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## Northerner (Oct 7, 2016)

Hehe!  When I was a student in Sheffield I had a heater just like the one in the picture. We had some pretty bad (real!) winters in the late 1970s, but I never put the third bar on - I was on a coin meter and you could see the little wheel _whizz_ round as that third bar went on  Often used to wake with ice on the inside of the windows!


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## Marsbartoastie (Oct 7, 2016)

Northerner said:


> Hehe!  When I was a student in Sheffield I had a heater just like the one in the picture. We had some pretty bad (real!) winters in the late 1970s, but I never put the third bar on - I was on a coin meter and you could see the little wheel _whizz_ round as that third bar went on  Often used to wake with ice on the inside of the windows!


I remember scraping ice off the inside of the window in the morning.  Indoor ice crystals always created really beautiful patterns.  Did you do the old trick of leaving your clothes within reach, pulling them into bed to warm up and then getting dressed under the blankets?


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## Copepod (Oct 7, 2016)

Or keeping clothes under the covers? I've often kept clothes inside my sleeping bag when camping in cold donditions or sleeping on flattened cardboard boxes in back on van ready for a weekend of nordic skiing in the Cairngorms.


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## Northerner (Oct 7, 2016)

Anyone sleep under their Dad's coat as a child?


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## Marsbartoastie (Oct 7, 2016)

Northerner said:


> Anyone sleep under their Dad's coat as a child?


Nope...we had eiderdowns and blankets.  When we visited nan and granda they warmed our beds before we got into them using the magical power of the electric blanket.  What a treat!  Being a hardy northern bird I still sleep with the window open...whatever the weather.


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## Marsbartoastie (Oct 7, 2016)

Copepod said:


> Or keeping clothes under the covers? I've often kept clothes inside my sleeping bag when camping in cold donditions or sleeping on flattened cardboard boxes in back on van ready for a weekend of nordic skiing in the Cairngorms.


Yep Copepod...been there, done that!


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## Stitch147 (Oct 7, 2016)

I did sort out my beddy bear yesterday. Pop it in the microwave for 2 minutes and its nice and toasty for several hours. Safer than a hot water bottle!


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## Marsbartoastie (Oct 7, 2016)

Stitch147 said:


> I did sort out my beddy bear yesterday. Pop it in the microwave for 2 minutes and its nice and toasty for several hours. Safer than a hot water bottle!


I have a hot water bottle shaped thing filled with wheat.  It heats up beautifully in the microwave, smells delicious and keeps me nice and cosy.


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## Stitch147 (Oct 7, 2016)

Thats what the beddy bears are filled with. Smells like porridge when heated!


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## Lindarose (Oct 7, 2016)

My mum used to sometimes iron our bottom sheets before we got into bed!


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## Ljc (Oct 7, 2016)

Brrrr I remeber well those days of ice on the inside of bedroom winders.
I also remember being told off soundly by mum when she found me fully clothed in bed one morning, well I thought it was a brill idea at the time


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## mikeyB (Oct 7, 2016)

When I was a student we lived in a cold house. Some fool left the milk out on top of the fridge overnight and it froze solid. The milk in the fridge was fine


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## HOBIE (Oct 8, 2016)

I remember camping at Outer Hebs minus 6  at 3pm & on my M/bike. So no car to get in. The kids of today have not got a clue


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## Matt Cycle (Oct 9, 2016)

In my first student house I shared with two others and we arrived back on the Monday after the Christmas break, it was a particularly cold winter (Jan 1987 - I've just looked it up on google and apparently it was the most severe spell of wintry weather since 1740) outside was heavy snow and there was thick ice on the inside of the windows.  The house had no central heating and had one gas fire in the living room.  Being a typical student I'd left an essay to the last minute (should have done it over Christmas in my nice warm parents house) and I remember sitting on my bed with my coat and gloves on whilst trying to write and with my breath condensing in the cold air.

I shared the house with two others and after a bit there was a tap on my bedroom door with the other two housemates stood there saying we had a problem.  I followed them downstairs to the kitchen to see water pouring through the light fitting.  It transpired one of them had decided to have a bath and had switched on the immersion.  Of course the pipes must have been frozen and then burst when he tried to run the bath.  I can clearly remember standing in the kitchen, freezing cold, trying to catch this water pouring through the ceiling in an old deep fat fryer we found in one of the cupboards which must have been left by previous tenants and which was still quarter full of solidified fat.   We had to turn the water off - so no water and absolutely freezing cold, just great .  This was before anyone had mobile phones and we didn't have a landline so we had to go to the phone box to call the landlord.  He said he would try and get it fixed but it probably wouldn't be until the end of the week. Ah, the joys of student life.


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## Marsbartoastie (Oct 9, 2016)

Oh happy days.  When I was a student I shared with four other women.  There was only one double bed in the house and on particularly cold nights we all chummied in together top-to-tail and piled all our duvets on top.  It was very cosy and great fun.  In year three one of our cohort went off to study overseas.  Our new housemate, Hamish, really enjoyed a cold snap!


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## Rosiecarmel (Oct 9, 2016)

Heating?! In October?! I don't put my heating on in my flat until at least December. Me (and my cats) just snuggle up in blankets. I am a fan of a hot water bottle but refuse to buy an electric blanket. Seems like a waste of money to me!


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## Copepod (Oct 9, 2016)

No need for heating yet, although cat has started burrowing under duvet for last few days and nights. I'm having a 4 week holidy in Southern Hemisphere from early Nov. So, I bet my lodger will go crazy with heating!


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