Old School Warmth in London

I shall never take heat of any kind for granted again. All those days I complained about the scorching January heat in Kampala are a luxury I only dream about now. Oh how I long to stand under the sun and have the heat massage my skin. I even long for the uncomfortable heat from a sigiri (Ugandan charcoal stove) at its hottest temperature.

The Dilemma

I can’t even begin to explain how much of an inconvenience having a non-functional boiler is the week before anticipated freezing weather sets in. Something which I found to be a regular occurrence in homes around Britain, surprised and disgruntled me for 4 full days. At least the locals here are more prepared for this. I learned the hard way.

 Mo tried to troubleshoot it in vain. After failing to get in touch with the designated technician from Sunday morning to Wednesday evening this fine winter, we resorted to  pushing our agent to the wall until an alternative technician could be contacted. Welcome boiler company – so now we, thankfully, have a functional boiler.

This is how we kept warm in our rapidly cooling house each day;

Winter – appropriate clothing (indoors & outdoors)

This includes warm socks, snow friendly shoes, layers, winter coats for outdoors so you can have some heat to start with before you enter the house. Equally as important is lounge wear for indoor warmth.

Hot water bottles

These brought back memories of boarding school menstrual cramps. They can be dangerous and should be used with caution. After carefully reading the instructions, we used hot water bottles for body heat while lounging and to heat up the bed a few hours before bedtime.

Cuppa-after-Cuppa

We became best friends with hot drinks; coffee, tea, milk, warm juice and hot water to preserve our artificially-generated body heat.

Cooking

Cooking generates a lot of heat and we used this as an indirect way to get the house warm in the evenings. This only works in conjunction with the methods above. But you already knew that…

We considered trying:

Wheat packs – I saw these in John Lewis but decided against purchasing them.

Electric Blanket – We are seriously considering purchasing an electric blanket. Anyone recommending a particular type?

Have you had to go back to the basics in terms of heating?  What methods worked for you? What else do you recommend?