We had cavity wall insulation installed last year, it really has made a big difference to the internal temp during winter, much improved.

Very wise - not possible here. My wife and I will have to think rather seriously about our retirement, moving to somewhere warmer or more modern. That of course, if we decide to stay in the UK.

There are less reasons, than at anytime since the war for staying here. I feel a francophile moment, coming on, particular with the long term financial crisis.

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Duncan

Didn't involve brandy and silk perchance??

Roman artifacts?

I remember melting snow to drink and wash...pipes frozen. Going to bed with hotwater bottle, dog and chilblains. Ice forming on the inside of windows, and plugs emerging from milk left at doorstep. Ah! the good old days.

Yeah, horse hair palliass, hob nail boots, starting handle for the car, Rayburn back boiler, run on other peoples card board boxes, left at the back of Wallis (old supermarket chain)

Nah, seriously - Young blood GK, nothing was going to bring us down

Ba, I never found any booty off the Cornish coast. Plenty of wonderful timber out there on the blue. But we did run into a few dead whales over the years. Regrettably large merchant ships would run them down. Also, before sat nav, large ships would trail a large brass prop log on a stainless steel wire. You could get decappitated by that wire, if you sailed close to the stern at night, the damn thing would trail out by 200 - 300 meters or more, and the ship would be doing 25 knots or so.

Navigation instruments are unrecognisable from the kit vessels had some 30 years ago. No decent radar except on the RN. Merchantmen could run you down unless you turned on every nav light possible on board. In a big and long sea off Cornwall, a 35 - 40ft mast head lantern dissapears into the troughs.

Great days - young blood.

Still snowing here - A foot and one third (there you are Ba) deep in places at the top of the grden, about 10 inches in my back yard between the roofs and on the patio. Quite serious for the local authority, one B road near here has a drop of grit on it. Many other tiny streets almost flat, you cant see where the gutter and curb stones were. Never seen this much, just north of the river. Very very quiet apart from the occasional overhead plane to the USA.

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Duncan

Don't like the sound of that. I'll stick to the broads. No more snow here.

Cure for cold - dig son's car out of ridiculous position. What possessed him to park it DOWN someone's drive. He didn't start down the drive, but chose it as a parking space. Tbf the A46 is littered with abandonned cars, but DON'T leave it down a steep hill.

Anyway we dug and dug (digged and digged?) for a while with a nice resident and then it sailed out. Very positive, affirming thing to do after a day of inactivity.

Time for a glass of something long and cold, or a pint of water and some MSB. We have become a repository for teenage children who can't make it home to the hills. Est 9 tonight.

Nice.

Cue negative comment from non-parents.

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mel

Sounds good fun Mel, sort of stuff we did at the time.

Hope you've got a few cans of half decent beer in the larder. Assuming of course, that some parents are not weird about teenagers having a beer.

It was perfectly acceptable before...a lot of them got bladdered, because there is so little young people can do these days unless they have bigger money to spend.

In my day - Sports, swimming, and billiard Clubs were free to under 18 teens, in fact a whole load of stuff was free or dirt cheap.

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Duncan

There's still plenty to do, the parks are there, the clubs are there, the voluntary groups are crying out for help.

Of course, none of its fashionable. It wont get you to the next level on Halo or get you on Big Bruv. Init.

Ok GK, ok - It is therefore expectation level. There is definitely something very wrong, particularly for kids who don't associate in typical middle class neighbourhoods. Also, some very wealthy brats are horrendous. I'd like to consider a reason, rather than typical low brow establishment - blame and punishment.

Yeah, I know, they could get in food shopping for old folks in this weather.....But the adult media, created by some of US on the big money gravy trail, have told them that all that stuff is uncool and a waste of space. So GK, we have a few of our own peers to blame, as well as generations of unemployed families.

I think We'd better end this thread here, I'm sorry I brought in that dimension.
End of.

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Duncan

Most of the teenagers are 19, so alcohol not an issue. Both kids' schools now confirmed closed tomorrow. Damn. Need some time alone.

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mel

Bit serious now. Time alone is unacheivable for most. An absolute life-necessity for me. Love good company but that is 1% of the populace. Children do not compute. No way. No.

I find them hilariously good company.

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mel

Yes, my wife is the same, has spent all of her working life with children. They seem to gravitate towards her, she's a regular Mary Poppins. Before she became an SEN practitioner (and started her own family) she worked as a Nanny for some very wealthy familys including Royalty, she's been all over the world, two years in the US. She has many happy memories.