Last night was definitely the coldest I can remember. According to the weather report it went down to around -7 degrees centigrade. Thats pretty balmy weather if you hail from Russia or Scandanavia, but for us middle Englanders, it's pretty darn cold!

The contractors working downstairs seemed a little subdued this morning, and I suppose the thought of having to work to keep warm wasn't pleasing them at all. Anyway, the sound of their radio playing came through the floorboards of this old house and that meant it was time to get up and... Ye gods! This is cold! A quick burst of speed to the bathroom... ah... ah... ah... Cold... And the taps aren't working.

Uh oh.

Once the gas heater was back to full blast the pipes provided fresh clean water again. Phew! That's the closest I've come to frozen pipes ever. So rest assured I am still washed and unsmelly. Even if I do look like I've been dragged through a hedge all night.

Back To Normality?

Swindon is still oddly quiet. I notice the buses are running this morning and driving round in three's now there's no-one to get on them. A news report last said that Sainsbury's, a supermarket chain here in Blighty, are refusing to pay any staff who don't turn up for work because of the weather. I can understand their viewpoint but naturally the union is up in arms because their members have been deprived of their human right to stay in bed when it's cold.

The funny thing is, every time I pop down to Sainsbury's for my daily bread and water, the ladies on the tills always complain about how cold it is, even with a moderate and comfortable temperature. I know of people (always female) who leave the central heating on all year. You know, the problem isn't that it's actually cold, but that the modern cossetted person doesn't tolerate any discomfort any more.

I can talk. The library is warm and cosy with all these computers pouring out climate changing waste heat, and I'm in no hurry to pop back home to my cold refuge against the world. How on earth did they cope in the ice ages? Naah, don't feel like hunting mammoths today, it's too effing freezing. Now I know why the Neanderthals died out. They didn't invent the trade union.