Winter Moan #421

Have I mentioned that I live in an old house?  A Queenslander no less, on stumps, with timber floors, VJ walls, sash windows and the like.  Beautiful old character house.

Have I also mentioned that I live in an area of Queensland that gets some quite shit weather - some of the coldest in Queensland, though not quite as cold as Stanthorpe (now that's cold!), with miserable rain and fog and frost?

Can you imagine where I'm going with this?

That's right.  I'm cold.  Holy-toledo-goddammit-I'm-cold.  

And at first glance today should be such a lovely day - sunshine (hooray!!!), clear sky - but with a bitter wind that goes straight through you.  Bbbbrrrrrr!  Weatherzone has the outside temp at 12.8 degrees with 'moderate winds, fresh at times'.  The apparent temperature says 9.9 degrees.  Good luck with that.  Feels more like 2.

Right now I'm sitting in the lounge room with the heater blasting away right beside me on the highest setting it will go and still my fingers are like iceblocks on the end of my hands.  The sheets and blankets I have rigged up over doorways and windows (first-time-out-of-home style) in a desperate attempt to keep the cold confined to rooms I'm not in, are billowing in and out.  Billowing?  Why the hell are they billowing?  I thought I'd blocked all the drafts!!!

Clearly not.

I seem to have forgotten about the cracks between the floorboards.  Those cracks through which I can see light when I forget to turn the downstairs light off.  Bugger.  

Not only is the wind trying to force it's way under doors, between window panes (and cracks in glass - let's not go there!) and down chimneys, it is also coming up through the cracks in the floorboards.  I give up.  I truly am fighting a losing battle here.  

I'm already wearing four layers on top, stockings and jeans, plus two pairs of socks and my ever-so-unsexy slippers.  Any more clothing and I risk suffocation.  Or becoming a fire hazard considering how close to the heater I'm sitting.  I'm also consuming far too many hot drinks than I should be given the temperature of the bathroom.

Next winter this house will be carpeted.  Throughout.

Otherwise you'll find me in Bangkok.  By the pool sipping cocktails with little umbrellas in them.  God's truth.






Sorry to be constantly ranting about the cold but when you can't seem to ever get warm no matter where you are in the house or what you are doing, it seems such a big deal everything else pales in comparison.  I dream of the winter's day when I live in a wind-proof building with warm flooring and lots of sunshine streaming in sealed windows.......one day.....