Open Fires, Paraffin Heaters & Heat Pumps

When I was a child there was only heating in one room - An open coal fire. We did have an electric bar fire, but in winter, in most rooms, there was frost & even snow on the inside of windows. Bedrooms & the bathroom were not rooms you wanted to spend any time in in winter. The front room was hardly ever used. I remember practicing the piano with freezing cold hands. The windows were single glazed, houses were not insulated, doors were draughty. Fitted carpets were unheard of, bare boards, lino & rugs on the floors.

When I was first married we lived in a council house with no heating whatsoever. We had paraffin heaters which were dangerous & smelly & inefficient electric fires. Still lino tiles, floorboards & rugs.

We moved to the first home of our own & had the luxury of a gas fire in the sitting room & radiators. Central heating for the first time in our lives. It was absolutlely life changing. Still not much in the way of insulation, no double glazing & draughty doors. We could afford fitted carpets, which gave the illusion of warmth.

Then a really modern detatched house. Gas central heating & double glazing, plus loft insulation. As we became more financially secure we were able to take advantage of the improvements in heating & insulation.  

The next house was an extended old brick & flint cottage in the country. A backward step & big renovation project. As draughty as anything, with poor double glazing, ill fitting doors, no insulation & an oil fired central heating system that just about took the edge off the cold. We modernised & extended & eventually had 3 wood burning stoves which were wonderful. You could even cook on one, which was just as well because we had serial power cuts, often for days on end. I loved it.

We moved to a converted 60's bungalow. Big on expensive fixtures & fittings, but long & very expensive to centrally heat. Cold marble floors to the ground floor & no underfloor heating. Lovely to look at, but hopeless in winter. A very expensive custom made wood front door which swelled in winter & shrank in summer. All the rooms had outside walls, some had three. It did have triple glazing though. A wood burner helped, but not enough. 

When I was widowed I moved to Oxford to an amazing architect designed house which was really efficient. Underfloor heating to the ground floor, radiators to the upper floors. A very efficient Gas heating system. Huge south facing windows, so solar gains throughout the year. It was comfortable year round & relatively cheap to run.

Now I'm in the largely untouched 1930's house I bought last year & have spent months & a lot of money renovating & building an extension to it. It is extremely well insulated, (single brick construction), has new double glazing & modern well fitting doors. It's as cosy as I could make it. But it has a new gas boiler & radiators becuse when I looked into ground source & air source heat pumps I realised;-

• I couldn't afford either
• I didn't have enough land for a ground source system unless I bored down very deep
• The air source system would be noisy & if you don't have passive house levels of insulation wouldn't be warm enough in winter.

Now we have an energy crisis & bills are increasing worryingly. Today 95% of UK homes are centrally heated. Everyone wants to be warm in winter. Some people really can't tolerate cold. The UK has some of the least energy-efficient homes in Europe, with 19 million houses and flats needing extra insulation. There isn't much government incentive to make householders & landlords undertake the work.

The cost of upgrading your heating, glazing & insulation is enormous & you will have to wait a long time to get payback in lower energy costs. I doubt I will live long enough to make my outlay worthwhile. But hopefully I will be warm.

 

              

Things to be Grateful for.

I'm feeling more like myself - No longer Covid positive.

I have had very good care from the NHS despite the financial & staffing problems facing them.

I have been given 4 really helpful aids to remain independent by the Occupational Therapist.

I'm gradually returning to what passes for "normal".

I have a lovely, caring family & really good friends.

I have lost over a stone in weight - although there must be easier ways!

I'm aiming to be able to return to swimming & my usual activities next week. (But I will take it easy).

I have a home of my own & am financially secure.

I'm really lucky. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

But, all is not well in the world. We are facing serious issues at home & internationally. These will not be solved easily. It will require everyone, not just politicians, leaders of industry & wealthy philanthropists, to work together for the good of everyone & the world we all live in.

Self interest will not work. We in the developed world need to be prepared to make significant changes to our lifestyles immediately. We need to be grateful for what we have. We need to get things in to proportion. 

There is poverty everywhere, but the poverty in the developing world is far in excess of anything here. We have food banks, but we are not in a famine or starving to death. There is discord in the UK, but we are not involved in a war at home. We have access to clean water. Energy costs are very high, but we have heating & electricity. We have homeless people, but not in the numbers of displaced people around the world. All our children have acces to a free health service & good education.

Hitherto we have taken these things for granted, as a right. Now we have a responsibility to be more aware & share more equitably with the rest of the world. It isn't right that where you are born determines your life chances. It isn't right that decisions we have made are destroying the world we live in.

We all have to be grateful & be prepared to do something about the situation some of us have created.

 

 

 

Covid Misery

I have had all but the latest vaccine & I've had Covid mildly. I have shielded & been careful when restrictions relaxed. I take Covid seriously. But I got Covid again 16 days ago.

I have been quite ill when travelling abroad with sickness & diarrhea, but this was a completely different order of illness. A blinding headache which had me climbing the walls, nausea, retching, not eating for days on end, a day of dreadful diarrhea, so weak I could barely move, muscle aches & pains which meant I couldn't be comfortable in any position, utterly exhausted because I couldn't sleep in any position without being in pain, breathless at any exertion even speaking, unable to do anything except listen to the radio a bit. Just completely sedentary & dozing all day, every day & trying to drink fluids.  

So now, although I don't have Covid, it looks as if I have long Covid. The virus seems to have affected the muscles of my left leg which was bruised badly when I had a bad fall. An Occupational Therapist is coming today to assess me. My lovely Osteopath is helping a lot. I need to be mobile. I need to be able to look after myself. I need to be independent.

I have had really good care from the NHS. Not from my GP's, but 111, Paramedics & AAU at the JR Hospital. I have had batteries of tests, exhausting, invasive, but necessary & informative. A designated Covid team who phone me every day to check on progress, or lack of it. 

Dealing with being so ill & disabled when you live alone is difficult & quite frightening at times. My daughter is wonderful & has kept me going physically & emotionally. But she is a teacher & has a family to look after. I've been a carer for my parents & parents in law. It isn't easy, especially when you have a demanding professional job.

Today I actually woke up & didn't feel sick. I felt well enough to have a shower - only the 3rd shower in all this time! I wasn't able to eat a whole bowl of cereal, but I think I will fancy a sandwich for lunch & some chicken for tea.

Progress of any sort is welcome. It's a pleasure to start feeling something like my normal self.  

Anyone who thinks Covid is over is deluded. If you haven't experienced what I have you have no idea how ill you can be. I was aware that hardly anyone wears masks, distances or sanitises any more. So stupid & ignorant. Why put yourself at risk rather than do a couple of simple things to protect yourself & everyone else?

I'm going to make myself my first cup of real coffee now. I hope I can enjoy it. 

PS

The O T was amazing & will deliver everything next week. I am going to be given a variety of aids to help in the house & outside. All I hoped for was a shower stool, but there is so much more available. I'm not proud, I don't have a problem with being elderly & needing help. I am just really grateful that the NHS has such skilled professionals who try their very best to help people in need. 

It is just shocking that they have to put up with complaining & even abusive patients. We should all be very grateful they continue doing a very difficult job.

What are you? - A Lesson or a Blessing. A Drain or a Radiator?

Buddhists believe that human life is one of suffering, and that meditation, spiritual and physical labor, and good behavior are the ways to achieve enlightenment, or Nirvana. Life is both endless and subject to impermanence, suffering and uncertainty. We humans are meant to develop mind and character to make progress on the path to Enlightenment. Buddhists value love, wisdom, goodness, calmness and self-control. The universe is the product of Karma, the law of the cause and effect of actions.

Not a lot I can disagree with there, apart from I really can't believe in reincarnation, any more that I believe in heaven, limbo or hell. We humans don't want to accept that this is it - just one life to get it right. Then nothing, apart from other peoples memories of what sort of person you were. 

So it is very important that we each realise the impact we have on others lives & they have on us. We each have to try to be the best person we can. We have to try to care for others & the world around us & "do no harm".

I am trying, but I am finding it increasingly difficult to live in this world. There is so much wrong at the macro & micro level. My daily interactions reveal just how varied human beings are. There is great sympathy, empathy & kindness alongside huge selfishness, superficiality, ignorance & intolerance. 

There are times when I really want to be truthful & say what is on my mind. But I don't because it may cause hurt or offence. Relationships are fragile. People are often oblivious to the harm they cause to others & to the world we live in. Human beings are imperfect.

It just seems to me that if we were to each make an effort to be thoughtful, helpful & kind it would make a difference. If we all made small changes in the way we live our lives & use the undoubted gifts the universe has given us in a sustainable way, the world itself would improve.

I want to be a Blessing & a Radiator. Not a negative Lesson or Drain. 

It's not easy.

 

Economics - Who Pays?

Speaking as someone who had to take maths O Level twice, I have to say that my understanding of economics is very basic. I put off reconciling my bank statements every month. 

I have to think of the economics of running a country in simple terms. What do we need to pay for? How are we going to raise the income? Running through those two main perameters is a moral issue. Who should pay most & who should be supported? Then there is the vexed problem of fairness & wealth distribution. 

In my view, where you were born & who your parents are should not determine your life chances. We are not all born equal in every way, but we should have equal opportunities to improve our lives. We do all deserve access to basic necessities - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs   That applies to all people, everywhere. So our responsibility is not only to our family, friends, neighbours, country. We have responsibilities to all people everywhere & to the planet we live on.

All of that costs money. So we have to generate income to pay for it. To generate income we have to produce something or provide a service that other people want enough to pay for it. That basic fact introduces the problem of resources that are finite. Once they are gone that's it. Whatever we do to generate income must be sustainable long term.

There is also the problem of Growth - the process by which a nation's wealth increases over time. That is an increase in the production of the quantity and quality of the economic goods and services that a society produces. The total income in a society corresponds to the total sum of goods and services the society produces – everyone's spending is someone else's income. I seriously question whether continuous economic growth is possible when much depends on inexhaustible raw materials & a skilled labour force. It seems to me that it simply isn't logical to think that is sustainable.

Countries need to generate public revenues that make it possible to finance investments in human capital, infrastructure, and the provision of services for citizens and businesses. There really is no "magic money tree". Countries & individuals have similar constraints. If you want to pay for goods or services you either need to have the money or you have to borrow it. If you borrow it you must pay it back eventually, with interest. So we have a system of taxation.

We are now borrowing at a rate previously unknown - Even during 2 world wars. We are printing money without gold reserves to back it up. The euphemistic name for that is "quantitive easing". To my mind that is similar to "collateral damage" instead of deaths. 

Anyone who considers the position we are in must realise that this is not a workable way forward. What this is, is a poisoned chalice we are handing to our children & grandchildren. Because someone, sometime is going to have to pay the money back, with interest. 

I'm not an economist, but to me the writing is on the wall. The rich are getting richer & the poor are getting poorer. Politics is too short termist. There is plenty of money in the world, but it is in the wrong hands & benefits very few. The power lies in the wrong hands. 

 

I can only see civil unrest if this continues, because at the root of economics should be the concept of fairness & sustainability. Consumerism may have resulted in years of growth, but it can't continue, because resources will run out. Maybe not in my lifetime, but kicking the can down the road will affect our children & grandchildren.

 

 

 

 

"The Queen is Dead - Long Live the King"

The second Elizabethan Age has ended. A 96 year old woman has died. She was born into great wealth & power. She was undoubtedly remarkable. Hers was a life of huge privilege, but also a life constrained by constant duty & public gaze. Few thinking people would actually want that life, whatever it's benefits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II

It is her funeral today. 11 days of mourning have passed. 11 astonishing days in which her death has dominated the press & media & relegated all other news, however important to the shadows. It has been 11 days of transition for the UK.

There has been an outpouring of emotion & sadness. I am amazed at the huge popular response at all of the royal palaces. The thousands who have queued for hours. We probably all know far more about our queen than we did, even though we already knew a lot because of her huge presence in our lives for years.

It is appropriate that she should be given a very traditional send off. I'm watching the TV showing the massed services marching to her funeral now. It is a wonderful spectacle. One that possibly only the UK could put on. Dictatorships like Russia can parade their massed armaments & armies, but it doesn't compare to this. The voluntary respect for a diminutive elderly woman who ruled through consensus & love.

Yes, it is questionable whether there has been too much coverage. It has been very repetetive & dominant. So many "talking heads" have been produced to air their views. But there have been ordinary peoples stories too. The character of the queen has emerged from that. 

There are huge problems that the world needs to deal with. They have not gone away. The death of a monarch has deflected from that. There is also the financial cost of all of this in a time when many people are struggling with inflation & a choice between eating & heating. There is a war in Europe. There is the climate emergency. 

I find myself conflicted. I do not believe in inherited wealth. But I do recognise that our monarchy is a quite unique exercise of "soft power" & possibly bringing people together to make the world better. 

Having seen the excesses of our politicians over the years I really do not think that I want a President to replace a monarch. So for me it is true. "The Queen is dead, long live the King". I just hope that Charles & William will fulfill their role as well as the queen did. She made mistakes. But not that many over 70 years.

Pain relief? - Not available!

I have a repeat prescription for pain relief because of chronic conditions. Currently I need it more than usual because of very painful mouth surgery & an acute hip problem. The GP sent a medication request for soluble co-codamol out to Rowlands chemist after I was in A&E. They didn't have all the tablets & only gave me some. Now I'm nearly out of tablets & it's a bank holiday weekend.

Rowlands won't give me the remaining co codamol as hard tablets. They say I need a new prescription. Boots told me that the soluble tablets won't be available till November! They won't  give me the hard tablets either because I've already had part of the prescription from Rowlands.

In these circumstances I was told to contact NHS 111 for a new prescription. The wait on phone lines is very lengthy & you are told to go online. The menus to select from & information is also lengthy. So I went through the whole online process only to find that the only way this issue can be resolved is to phone!

So now after a very long wait I've done that. In the meantime Rowlands has closed until the 20th. Boots will close at 6pm. The person I finally spoke to has had to refer me to someone else. She couldn't issue a new prescription. I have to hope a phone call will come & someone will get the pills to me or to Boots before it closes.

 

I'm just about at the end of my tether. One of the Pharmacists actually told me to "calm down"! (I was in tears). Presumably reasonably young & fit, not a 77 year old who has been in quite a lot of pain for many days. 

Of course I understand that the NHS has to be careful about prescription drugs. Co Codamol is an opiate. What I don't understand is why I couldn't be given the outstanding pills in solid form by either chemist, given that the soluble ones are not going to be available until November. To have to go through the stressful & lengthy process I just have is more than I currently have the stamina for. 

To my mind the NHS is far too bureaucratic & seems able to tolerate patients pain & discomfort. I cannot understand why I wasn't given any pain medication after the surgery or the day in A&E. Is that a money saving new policy?

It's now 3pm - No phone call. No pills.

3.40 - phone call, prescription issued to my local Boots. I just have to walk there again to get it before they close & hope it has gone through OK. 

I had actually got as far as Summertown when I got a phone call from Boots to say they didn't have any Co codamol. I had to collect the prescription & get a bus into Oxford. I finally got the tablets at 5 pm & got home at 5.30. 

It has taken me all day to get enough pain killers to last until after the bank holiday. It has been unbelievably stressful. What on earth is going on? Why is there seemingly a big shortage of medication? Why do we not keep stocks of vital medication? I didn't have a problem with med's all through Covid. Surely this has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine?