So Windy, It Would Skin A Fairy

We've had a mild winter this year. The rest of the UK has been dumped with snow and coated with ice, but only miles away from Scotland it's wet, windy, and mild. I would be envious of the proper winter in England, Wales and Scotland, except for my memories of last winter when I went without water for eight days. Belfast is not built for snow, so I am grateful that the temperatures have rarely hit freezing in these past few months.

We heat our house with oil. In most other places I have lived here, it was gas, and in one place I would have to take the gas card over to Centra or any participating nearby corner shop and top up on gas, paid for right at the till, and then pop back home and stick the card in. Voila! More gas! Here, however, we get massive quantities of oil (800 or 900 litres) delivered right to our house and installed on the spot. It's a massive bill to pay, but it lasts for months at a time. I think the last time we filled up (before yesterday) was in September.

We don't have the heat on much, more often to dry our clothes by hanging them on the radiators than to warm up the house. It's a cold you get used to, along with other things: huge bathrobes, slippers, water bottles. I never expect to be fully warm anymore, and I don't mean that in any hugely negative way. I've adapted. Most of me is mostly warm most of the time. My feet are an entirely different matter. But I won't sit with a water bottle to them, and I won't stick them up against a radiator. Have you ever gotten chillblains? Well, doing either of those things would be a pretty sure way of getting them--nasty, tingly, itchy splotches on your toes that remind me of Athlete's foot.

Also, I sit still too much, which is never conducive to warmth. Writing as much as I do is like a part time job. It eats up about twenty hours a week, more if I'm free to continue writing on the weekends. And by writing I don't always mean writing. There's so much else that seems to go into it: an excessive amount of thinking, strategising, asking and answering questions, sketching out scenes, editing what has already been written. I have rarely enjoyed myself so thoroughly! And cold feet is a small price to pay for finding something to do that suits me.