Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Talk About Anything Other Than Curry => Topic started by: Peripatetic Phil on November 29, 2021, 09:26 PM
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My house is now between 3C and 5C ...
George, you are wasted here — you should have been born in ancient Sparta, where your feats of endurance would have immediately marked you as eligible for elevation to the highest echelon !
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** Phil.
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Phil - as it is, nobody in authority seems interested, either in the energy saving potential or in how I have survived about 10 winters now and remain perfectly comfortable through knowing what I need to wear. I did question why Councils, charities and similar organisations stress the importance of heating homes to at least 18C, when some people clearly cannot afford to do so. And a significant number of people will die. If only they knew how easy it is to compensate by wearing enough clothes.
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Brrrrrr!!! :omg: :omg: :omg: The inside of my fridge is 3'C George. I guess you're also saving on energy by not requiring one. I'd be spending a lot of time in the curry plant chamber.
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[A] significant number of people will die. If only they knew how easy it is to compensate by wearing enough clothes.
Given that igloos were not, in general, equipped with central heating, yet Esquimaux routinely lived in them without freezing to death, it should not take too much introspection to realise that one needs to wear more, and warmer, clothing if one is to be comfortable in an unheated house in the depths of winter. Yet people sadly do continue to die from hypothermia in such circumstances. Is it possible that as well as not being able to afford to heat their homes they are also unable to afford the necessary and sufficient clothing, do you think George ?
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Is it possible that as well as not being able to afford to heat their homes they are also unable to afford the necessary and sufficient clothing, do you think George ?
You are absolutely correct, and so is livo, in that I survive quite comfortably at and around fridge temperatures. Last winter, temperatures dropped as low as 1C in my house but thermometers vary so I put out ramekin dishes with water at various spots to see if any would freeze over. None ever have, yet. Maybe this winter. I think the reason I find it easy, is that in relative terms, it's not actually very cold. Eskimos, polar scientists, some mountain climbers and explorers all experience much colder temperatures. I can't be alone. There must be thousands of people in the UK, doing what I am doing but you don't hear or read much about it - only silly articles like where a family see how long they can survive without heating. A newspaper take some photos of people huddled together on a sofa with a blanket and they don't last long but it makes a good story from the newspaper's point of view. Blankets are no good. I use garments with wool, down or Thinsulate, primarily. None of the clothing was very expensive - some garments were bought pre-owned on eBay. The colder it gets, the more I wear - layering as they say.
Here's the most recent article I've seen on the subject. The author is clueless like I was at his age:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/im-shivering-cant-feel-toes-25553609
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(https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/82233287.jpg)
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A thread about curry leaves is probably not the best place to discuss how to stay warm but Secret Santa's image says it all. He won't stay warm. Most discussions are not taken seriously. I assume all the other members here have so much money it really doesn't matter how much they spend for heating their homes, even if it's something like £2000 per year. I certainly have better ways of spending money than burning any of it to fuel a heater.
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Over the course of the past 12 months, I have spent £1558.66 on LPG to heat a 300-year-old granite cottage. For most of that time I have been comfortable, although I have occasionally felt cold. At the moment I am wearing (above waist) a vest, t-shirt and fleece. If I were cold, I would add an insulated jacket, and if I were too warm I would remove the fleece. I suspect that this represents roughly 7.5% of my annual income (USS + state pension), which seems not unreasonable to me.
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** Phil.
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(Just to note I split off the heat-related posts; if anyone can think of a more amusing title let me know! I also wasn't sure whether to include the pic of George's
weed curry-leaf factory :lol:)
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Onions - Thank you for separating out the heating related posts but why have you been so rude about my attempt to grow curry plants? Do you think photos published earlier are of weeds? Maybe garden-related subjects don't interest you in which case you could refrain from making such comments. Shame on you. I was going to reply to Phil's most recent post about heating but, instead, will now go on strike until the weed comment is removed.
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Not "weeds", George, "weed". A sobriquet for the marijuana plant (Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica).
** Phil.
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Then it makes it worse by implying I am involved with illegal growing. As I said, shame on Onions. He should stand down as moderator.
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It would be my guess George that Onions has made a joke. The most common use of indoor hydroponics chambers is the growth of marijuana. Hence the reference to your "weed factory". I don't think for a moment he is putting anything on you.
Can I ask you, do you not heat even a single room for some comfort?
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Thank you, Phil, Livo-yes George, it was just a light-hearted remark based on the similarity of your image to other images more closely connected, perhaps, to Bob Marley. No offence intended!
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A problem with jokes is that a remark regarded as light-hearted by the person writing or saying something may be regarded as closer to an insult by the person on the receiving end. Onions knows I didn't like the comment and has now modified his previous post by placing a thin line through the offending word. It wouldn't be good enough if someone put a thin line through a racial slur and it's not good enough here. What it also suggests is that Onions isn't interested in these subjects and probably finds my growing chamber a bit odd. So he insulted me by implying I am growing illegal plants. Why?
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George, it was a joke — why not take it in that spirit, move on, and return to discussing the relative merits of heated v. unheated homes.
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** Phil.
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FWIW, I've had the heating on a couple of hours every day for the last, say, week; but that's putting the dial rarely higher than 16:20. And generally, no more than a couple of hours is necessary, as these terraces (products of the early 20th-c inner London slum clearances) were solid builds and hold their heat well :like:
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Can I ask you, do you not heat even a single room for some comfort?
I suspect that's what a lot of people do. I tried it for one or two years about 12 years ago but decided it's a bad idea. I heated the room to perhaps 18 or 20C after adding as much insulation as I could to the room. My energy costs were not high and, at those 'normal' temperatures, I was wearing 'normal' clothes. But you can't stay in the heated room all the time. Quick visits to a freezing cold toilet are OK but going down to the kitchen to make a coffee, lunch or evening meal was very uncomfortable or at the least, inconvenient if you need to put on extra clothes simply to leave the heated room, then take them off again. So I much prefer my current approach of not heating any room, whilst wearing enough clothes to be fully comfortable at any temperature down to almost freezing. As I said before, the coldest it's been inside my house is around 1C or 2C.
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And what if you are expecting visitors, George — say, friends for dinner. Do you advise them to wrap up warmly, or do you heat the house as a courtesy to them ?
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** Phil.
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Please don't take this as an insult, George, more of an observation.
Have you completely lost the plot?
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Do you advise them to wrap up warmly, or do you heat the house as a courtesy to them ?
I predict George will now berate you for being so presumptious as to infer he has friends. lol
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Social considerations may be the least of my worries, if warnings in articles such as the following are accepted, e.g, raised blood pressure and the risk of heart attacks below 13C:
https://www.cse.org.uk/advice/advice-and-support/heat-and-health
I reject these points because I'm fairly sure they are not allowing for the amount of clothing, for a start. What do you think? I am still alive and kicking, ten years after starting this.
Have I lost the plot? I don't think so. In most regards, I live well. For example, the money saved by not heating the house, is about the same as I enjoy spending on a ski holiday each year, at least before Covid came along.
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Social considerations may be the least of my worries, if warnings in articles such as the following are accepted, e.g, raised blood pressure and the risk of heart attacks below 13C:
https://www.cse.org.uk/advice/advice-and-support/heat-and-health
What a shame the picture was staged. See this version (https://storage.googleapis.com/tfn-uploads/old/articles/211913/cold_home_couple_freezing.jpg) — same wall device, same leather-look sofa, different couple ...
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Well spotted. As I said before, nearly all the pictures I have seen of people said to be freezing are a joke, not least due to the wholly inadequate clothing they are wearing and the inclusion of a stupid blanket. But the text in that article is similar to that in Government publications, based in turn on academic studies. Who am I to say the studies are misguided? But it leads to almost all guidelines saying you must heat your house to at least 18C. I say it's nonsense and think I am living proof.
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Incidentally, and just in case you were unaware, the filename of the image in the link you cited is "blanket-man-altered-copy" !
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Social considerations may be the least of my worries, if warnings in articles such as the following are accepted, e.g, raised blood pressure and the risk of heart attacks below 13C:
https://www.cse.org.uk/advice/advice-and-support/heat-and-health
What a shame the picture was staged. See this version (https://storage.googleapis.com/tfn-uploads/old/articles/211913/cold_home_couple_freezing.jpg) — same wall device, same leather-look sofa, different couple ...
Hawkeye! :cool: :like:
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Coincidentally, now playing... :smile2:
(https://i.ibb.co/bvh5rHx/the-shining-jack-frozen.jpg) (https://imgbb.com/)
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.... the money saved by not heating the house, is about the same as I enjoy spending on a ski holiday each year, ....
At least your acclimatised George. Whatever you do, don't book a holiday out here. You'll melt, even in winter. Over 30 today in the shade. :clown2: :clown2: :clown2:
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I just read an interesting article in The Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2021/12/09/homeowner-left-without-heating-hot-water-green-homes-grant-expires/
As it says, a homeowner was left without heating or hot water after a green homes grant expired. You probably need a subscription to read more than a few lines.
It puts his family in exactly the same position as me but he considers it the end of the world, and I remain perfectly happy.
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[A] homeowner was left without heating or hot water after a green homes grant expired. It puts his family in exactly the same position as me but he considers it the end of the world, and I remain perfectly happy.
Would you not agree, George, that your position and that family's position are directly analogous to that of gaoler and prisoner ? The gaoler is in a prison because he chooses to work there, and can go home whenever he is off-duty; the prisoner is in prison "at her Majesty's pleasure", and has no option but to put up with the conditions there. My heart goes out to that family — I have the good fortune to be able to heat my home to a temperature at which I feel comfortable (probably 22oC or so), and I am still wearing two towelling dressing gowns for extra warmth.
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** Phil.
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Phil - I am sorry but I don't understand your analogy at all. Sure, I choose to live without heating or hot water, and they were negligent by removing their existing system without a 100% guarantee of a new heating system. How could he have been so stupid?
Incidentally, if Onions is reading this, I think it was a good idea to separate out these heating threads but why isn't it within the section on "Talk About anything apart from curry" (or something like that)? The last time I looked, it was still in the section for Grow your own spices.
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I have to say, George, that although you undoubtedly have many admirable and commendable personal traits, there are times when I am forced to suspect that empathy might not be one of them ...
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** Phil.
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It depends on the situation, of course. I certainly feel sorry for Allegra Stratton, seeing her go from a happy, smiling face in the Downing Street video to a tearful woman, unfairly criticised a year later, this week. I hope the person who released the video is caught and punished. An informal moment like that should never have been retained on video in the first place. The man who asked the (practice) question about a 'party' is far more to blame, if anyone is.
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Oddly enough, I had exactly the opposite reaction when the story broke, wishing that our Prime Minister had the guts to follow the example of his former Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, who fought back tears when announcing his resignation on 28th August last year. Shinzo-sama said (in Japanese, of course) "I cannot continue being prime minister if I do not have the confidence that I can carry out the job entrusted to me by the people. I apologise from the bottom of my heart that despite all of the support from the Japanese people, I am leaving the post with one full year left in my term".
As to Allegra Stratton, any sympathy that I might have felt for her vanished when she switched from apologising to unashamedly trotting out the party line : "I will always be proud of what was achieved at COP 26 in Glasgow, and the progress that was made on coal, cars, cash and trees. This country, and the Prime Minister's leadership on climate change and on nature, will make a lasting difference to the whole world". Total b@ll@cks, nothing whatsoever to do with the party that she attended and about which she joked, and totally irrelevant to her announcement to the press of her resignation.
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** Phil.
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Incidentally, if Onions is reading this, I think it was a good idea to separate out these heating threads but why isn't it within the section on "Talk About anything apart from curry" (or something like that)? The last time I looked, it was still in the section for Grow your own spices.
Indeed it was, and apologies for missing that trick; now moved to the correct forum :like: thanks to George for the heads up.
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One suspects, perhaps, that George attended one of the Downing Street parties. That's the only reason I can see for feeling any sympathy for this woman whose only reason for crying was because she got caught.
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whose only reason for crying was because she got caught.
I think her tears were more a result of being made the fall "guy" for the many other odious toffs who have been caught red handed. Can't deny I got a glowing sense of schadenfreude from her bleating though.
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One suspects, perhaps, that George attended one of the Downing Street parties. That's the only reason I can see for feeling any sympathy for this woman whose only reason for crying was because she got caught.
Unfortunately I wasn't invited, of course. I doubt if anyone outside was invited or attended. How do you define a party? Would it include the same group of people who work together every day, who gather round to have a chat? If they work late, as they often would, then perhaps food is delivered to keep them going. Would that make it a party? As for Allegra Stratton getting caught, I suggest she didn't do anything wrong, whatsoever. She didn't need to apologise for anything.