Be Excellent To Each Other

Huge wintery hailstorm just passed over Liverpool. Almost night-time dark.

Uh-oh. Going which way? Can we sacrifice Manchester to keep me safe?

I didn't realise this was a Fallout NV spoiler.

What?

This is your fault, Zardoz.

On the winter topic, we've been using out fire for the last few nights. Not strictly needed, probably, but it saves on gas bills, the animals like it and I'm a pyromanic.

Might need to turn on the heating at some point, or I would if my flat wasn't still at 24 degrees! Bloody new build insulation...

Heh - We had our first fire of the season two nights ago, and the kids and I spent the evening curled up in front of it playing with Star Wars toys.

It's a bit depressing that it's already so cold, really. Still, we haven't put the central heating on yet. And probably won't until it gets really cold, given the gas prices.

Central heating + gas fire on. Took the bins out earlier, and it was hellish cold. From the basement window, I can see blue sky, and a car's wheel.

It's called the moon.

There's been hail on and off all morning in Manchester. And snow in Levenshulme, apparently. Started early this year.

My living room was at 7 degrees C this morning. Heating doesn't work yet.

HOLY SHIT YOU'VE FOUND ME!

Beautiful sunshine here with a nice blue sky and a few fluffy clouds.

It was like someone throwing ice cubes down a wind tunnel throughout last night, though.

It's not cold. You're all just inefficient.

There has been some talk of another really cold period, though, hasn't there? I've heard several people say it, but then I've looked at the forecasts and November doesn't look out of the norm, and they say they can't really predict much past tomorrow, really, we've just got to trust them. Despite this, nobody seems to believe me when i say THEY KNOW THIS STUFF and go off on about how a man somewhere said it and they know as they read it somewhere or someone told them, but my counterpoint of their source ebing such a seer why is she stacking shelves in a supermarket instead of being down the bookmaker's 24/7 (On a bad day, the bookmakers make 23% over what they take). once, I met a meteorologist at a party and that didn't end well after I enquired about the possibility of a warm front passing over (NO! - legal Ed)

Nonetheless, I'm fully prepared for the snow this year, I've got a bottle of Vodka, a book my Milton, and a service revolver with two bullets in it. I spend most of my time looking forward to the day when the lights get longer again. And my Mercedes-Benz, no speed limit on the autobahn and a black market for anything I can get my hands on. Only not the last few things as I'm not a soldier serving in Germany before becoming a country singer somehow MANY YEARS IN THE PAST, before skipping over that part of my life and being a singer still. I dunno.

Yeah, cold.

Aren't we heading into another mini ice age because the sun's sunspot activity isn't on its scheduled upswing after its 70 year cycle?

No, we're fucking not. There is no sun. No warmth, no smiles and deffo no fucking hat.

I have my heating on right now!

No snow as of yet. But lots of frost in the mornings.

How's THIS for a hailstorm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... SgHzNCOKSA

(it gets going properly at about 40 secs).

Just epic wind in Hull today. This is not unusual for the time of year.

Nice to see that filming for the US remake of Misfits is underway.

I hope we don't get as much snow as we did last winter. I had to cancel my Christmas travel plans and stay at home.

Reminds me. Asda have snow shovels for £8.

Reminds me, minimum wage is now £6.04p/h.

This, we've got quite a few things planned around that time, including a wedding in Glasgow.

Congratulations!

Funny man

I'm cold. I want to go back to the cottage where it was warm. Kalmar - bring wood!

*shivers*

I hope we get loads of snow when I'm off. Just a bit of snow please when I need to travel x

There were large hailstones a little while ago. It was pitch black outside but the security lights came on when I took this:



Those white lumps bouncing around the dark woodchip under the climbing frame are hailstones. I know it's difficult to get a sense of scale, but they are HUGE. And they are MANY.

Buy it now, rather than forking out loads for one when the snow comes.

I wish I had this time last year.

As for heating, I'm glad a friend came over to New Kern Hall and showed me how the storage heaters worked - I'm not sure I would have figured them out myself. Yet to switch them on, mind....

The thought of turning the storage heaters on chills me more than the icy draughts in here.

I'm rigging up a 6kW heatpump tomorrow as a temporary measure, and will chop more logs

Tested my central heating tonight, but the radiators didn't get warm.

We've still got hot water, so what should I do before I call out the plumber?

Bleed all of the radioators, starting at the top first.

Divertor valve. Bloody things are fragile. You have boiler cover?

Oh, that's a good point. You also need to check the calsonic reverberators. They tend to get clogged up when they're not used.

But bleed the radiators first.

My Heating hasn't worked properly since we've been in this house. The hot water only warms up when the heating is on, the thermostat doesn't work and for some reason... the control panel is wired so that the heating switch turns on the hot water and the hot water switch turns on the heating.

Very dodgy.. I suppose I should get it fixed really.

Diverter valve.

Hit the ch pump with a hammer.

I will be starting percussive maintenance tomorrow.

That's very kind of you... what time shall I expect you round?

When I first moved into this flat (nearly six years ago!) I couldn't get the storage heaters to work. Tried everything - checking the breaker, checking the socket it was wired into at the wall, checking the heater itself, to no avail.

Had a couple of sparkies out over the years, who couldn't figure the problem out either and recommended I replace it.

After four years of having no heating, I decided to bite the bullet and replace it. Rang up a local storage heater supplier, got a quote for a new one and they asked for the model number of my old one for disposal. I looked it up, gave it to them and then decided to look on t'Internet to see if anyone else had problems with theirs.

Turns out there's a tiny, almost invisible in fact, non-descript white push-switch inside the heater controls that is a safety cut-off. If it trips, the heater won't function. All I had to do was take the cover off the heater (5 minutes), look for the switch (2 minutes) and then push it until it clicked (30 seconds.)

It's worked fine ever since.

Moral of the story? I'm a twat.

Oh, GazChap!

Newsflash! Primark has those all in one snuggies in.

When it comes to winter I have 0 dignity. Mine is a cat, it has ears on the hood and everything.

My car required serious deicing today.

I'm not entirely sure how to check my heating system. It's wierdoes

Get the weirdoes to form a pile, with you at the centre. This causes the heating.

Great. My phone doesn't even have weird in the dictionary. (Or is it wierd? Which it also doesn't have, making my life harder)

but yes. Heated ceilings with per room controls and some odd central console. Odd.

Heated ceilings?



Woah!