The Heat Is Broken

Welcome back to Britain. The boiler for our flat broke yesterday. Apparently it had been acting up while we were away. Now we have hot water and electricity, but no heating. As you can see, we have adapted as best we can. I'm wearing a hooded jacket over a sweater over a waffle shirt over a long sleeve T-shirt. And a hat. Grace is wearing her new flannel pajamas over a turtleneck sweater over a thermal long sleeve shirt and pants. And a hat. Our feet are resting on a funny polka dotted hot water bottle. That, friends, is a rubber bladder filled with very hot water (from the electric kettle, typically used to heat water for tea). It stays hot for hours and hours. We've also been closing all the doors to 'lock in' the heat generated by our bodies. And we added another down comforter to the bed, so now we've got sheets, a flannel blanket, two down comforters and a quilt.

It seems like a lot to us, but my Grandma Marge, from Canada, would probably not be impressed.

Meanwhile it's -2 degrees Celsius outside. That's not bad, but when you have no heat and live in a drafty flat...

How long will it last? We're not sure. The landlords live below us and are suffering the same fate, so I expect they'll be in just as much of a hurry to get it fixed as we are. But a friend of mine from work said he was without heat for 6 weeks last winter...

In other news, we're back in the UK after spending nearly two weeks in the US. Probably visiting with most of the people who read this blog. We had a great time, and we were sad to go. But, I was also a bit glad to be back in the UK before long. When we got in, I popped round the corner for milk and bread at the corner shop, and felt positively European, or at least a 'big city' dweller. Also, getting back on the buses was not as depressing as I thought it would be, after having a car for two weeks (maybe because its warmer on the buses than in our flat though...)

The day we got back, I shelled out for a new camera, so hopefully the quality of our picture of the week - already pretty exceptional, I would say - will improve even further. We also had fun doing a little more shopping with leftover Christmas money.

Now we're a bit jetlagged (we slept more than 12 hours on Saturday night), but hopefully the work routine will force us to adapt back. I plan to start the running at lunch routine again tomorrow, and Grace is planning to go to the gym. Settling back in then.