[David9694]

Never did you any harm… right.  And your point is..?  You’ve got central heating and double glazing now, right? At your age, you’ll need them.  (Where is the bullet-hole ‘plane when you need it?)

So those gaps between school, telly, an occasional family game, a handful of chores and bed were often filled by being able to play outside safely. I remember being bored (winter Sundays).  But I remember taking myself off by bike to various local parks to meet up with other kids.  

 

I don’t remember having any problems with cars: once rush hour was over, it went pretty quiet. Once there was a man buying kids ice lollies – my mum went ballistic over that. Some bigger kids took my bike (a mini Moulton) once and I think she got involved in that too. 

 

That seems like a big chunk of what is missing in children’s lives today – spontaneous, unsupervised outdoor play.  The ice on the windows cos players don’t mention that one.  Something seemed to shift on this in the late 1980s. 

 

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/we-cant-afford-days-out-24847752
 

As a 1970s kid, I don’t remember being cold, nor for that matter hungry.  You noticed the difference when leaving the warmth of the front room, with its telly and firmly shut door. 
 

There were weekend outings, almost always a picnic, or a visit to family and rarely to anything with steep admission charges, unless it was steam train tickets.  I still sense having been an outsider to many things in the past now as I show my National Trust membership card at the door. 

 

Holidays were a week at holiday camp, maybe a b&b or a chalet. The only foreign holidays were day trips to Calais or Boulogne and once, a few days on the Isle of Man. 

 

As a new homeowner in my 20s, the gas and electric bill were among the least of my worries.  Interest rates dropped past the 10% mark in the early 1990s and inflation to below 5% – with a 95% mortgage, interest rates were my main concern at the time. 

 

Back pain has stopped play for me – those are my musings, what are yours?

Topic

[IanMSpencer]

I accidentally got a WiFi
I accidentally got a WiFi dishwasher. To be able to start the dishwasher via WiFi, you have to press a button on the machine. After 3 years or so, I still haven’t found a use for the WiFi. It will supposedly count remaining dishwasher tablets, but given that you have to look in the packet every time you take one, that is of limited aid.

You don’t need WiFi for off peak, you simply need a delayed start which have been around for years.

We have a condensing tumble dryer (washing line in the summer). It is noticeably better for two reasons: lower temperature doesn’t damage clothing, much cheaper to run, though it takes a couple of hours to dry things that would have been scorched dry in 45 minutes by our ancient original dryer. It hasn’t got a heating element, it heats by a compression pump, though people would have you believe it extracts heat from stone cold washing.

[Tom_77]

David9694 wrote:

Wifi dishwasher and washing machine  – over engineered?

My new dishwasher has WiFi, seems a bit pointless. However if you are on an electricity tariff where the price changes every half hour* then you could save money by running your home appliances at the cheapest time, possibly automatically via a smart home controller.

 

* Octopus is the only company in the UK I know of that offers that sort of tariff – https://octopus.energy/agile/

[David9694]

Wifi dishwasher and washing

Wifi dishwasher and washing machine  – over engineered?

did a thing another today : got a new washing machine, with wif-fi.  The old one several years old  was A+++ rated, this one is A rated and seems to have used next to no power washing some shirts.  

We also ran the tumble dryer a few days ago for a few minutes because stuff on the line was damp and I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t draw that much.  

Bearing in mind you’ve got to load it, set it to remote control mode and put in washing liquid, it’s hard to see much benefit from wifi on white goods. We decided that if you were working, you could switch it on so it was finishing just as you got home – if that was important to you.

There were more wash programmes available on the app; so just for a moment it was interesting to stand on the landing with a new wireless camera trained on it, switch it on and see/ hear it going and get told when it had finished.  

I downloaded the app for the dishwasher at the last holiday cottage we had and for the last few weeks I’ve been able to see when it has finished a programme. My wife has made me delete the app now. 

[ktache]

You sure they were coins?

You sure they were coins?

[wycombewheeler]

OldRidgeback wrote:

I was born in 62 and grew up in Edinburgh. We didn’t have central heating and I do remember winters being cold.

I imagine they are still cold for those living just outside the arctic circle

[David9694]

I remember the new £1 coin

I remember the new £1 coin bought you a pint. 

[jaymack]

I’m waiting for the pound to

I’m waiting for the pound to reach parity with the penny. Probably sometime next week.

[chrisonabike]

Tom_77 wrote:

I remember a pound being worth two dollars.

I remember a pound being a weight – in the UK.  But maybe I’m so old I’m coming back into fashion?

[Tom_77]

David9694 wrote:

I remember interest rates in double figures. (I really do!)

I remember a pound being worth two dollars.

[David9694]

I remember interest rates in

I remember interest rates in double figures. (I really do!)

[jaymack]

No!?
Can’t imagine why!

[hawkinspeter]

jaymack wrote:

jaymack wrote:

When I were a lad, we used to dream of living in the corridor. It would have been a palace to us, we used to live in an old water tank in a rubbish tip. We were woken each morning with a load of rotting fish being dumped all over us.

I told the kids of today your story and they didn’t believe you

[jaymack]

When I were a lad, we used to
When I were a lad, we used to dream of living in the corridor. It would have been a palace to us, we used to live in an old water tank in a rubbish tip. We were woken each morning with a load of rotting fish being dumped all over us.

[TheBillder]

David9694 wrote:

David9694 wrote:

I don’t fully understand all this, a massive addition to the national debt with a none too strong economy this winter.

I’ve got a Mr K Kwarteng and a Ms E Truss on the line, asking if you could get in touch as and when you do understand as they’d also like to know…

[David9694]

central heating 

central heating 

So I did a thing at the weekend, with colder weather incoming, I ran the gas central heating for an hour ??.  We had several stuck 30 yo thermostatic radiator valves replaced over the summer, which needed some twiddling.  

They say a trial switch-on is a good idea after many weeks “off”, in case something is wrong, like your solenoid switch isn’t working. 

I guess the first hour starting from “cold” is going to be the most expensive – 74p spent for that, which would be £1.05 on the 1 October 2022 tariff.

[Author]

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