How are you today?

[RobB]

I'm a small middle-aged woman. That's it. Nothing here to see.

Stina could have written the same thing and she's a total mystery!

[blue]

Somehow I doubt Stina would describe herself as 'middle-aged'.

She deserves the 'woman of mystery' tag though, unlike moi.

[RobB]

Somehow I doubt Stina would describe herself as 'middle-aged'.

Hang on,calculator time......since Stina is now 41 then assuming she makes it to 82 (which is a pretty good age to reach), then that makes her now officially middle aged.

Having a quiet day.......the rain and gloom outside isn't making me leap about much.

Yesterday i met up with the ex for lunch in Chelmsford.....once i got there that is. The normal 30 minute journey took 90 minutes thanks to a very long traffic jam after a bus broke down on the A12.

Not the original bus mind you? The first bus broke down and was eventually shifted to the lay-by. A second bus was sent to pick up the stranded passengers and that broke down too,causing the main hold up.

By the time i got into town all the car parks were full so i had to drive out of town,park in a side road and walk back in. Oh weell, i saved a few quid on car parking charges at least.

[blue]

Trying to get anywhere by road in this country is a nightmare.

Hope you had an enjoyable lunch after all that, Rob. Nice to see you're still friends with the ex.

[blue]

Somehow I doubt Stina would describe herself as 'middle-aged'.

Hang on,calculator time......since Stina is now 41 then assuming she makes it to 82 (which is a pretty good age to reach), then that makes her now officially middle aged.

Yeah, I guess it's just that 41 isn't what it used to be. When I was a kid, being in your 40s was pipe-and-slippers time. Nowadays people in their 40s seem barely grown up. I've only just started to think of myself as middle-aged and I'm 44 next year.

How we think about ageing has changed so much over the past couple of decades - nowadays we don't expect to be old until we're really old, like in our 70s and 80s. And even people in those age groups don't seem anything like as old as they used to be.

[RobB]

My gran use to make me laugh when she often referred to the 'poor old lady' who lived down the road.

My gran was in her late eighties at the time and the 'poor old lady' was younger than she was.

[blue]

God, what a way to start the day - had a call from my daughter about 15 minutes ago, she's woken up with the carbon monoxide alarm going off in her house. Both she and the baby are alert but they're having to go to hospital to be checked out, while the people from the gas board check out the house. I'm just waiting to hear back from her now.
Thank god for those alarms. I've never even given them a thought before but it's just hit me with a bang how important they are. [b)]

I'm sure they're both fine, but I'll feel better after we've been to the hospital. Will post when I get back.

[alx5962]

I hope they are fine ! Those alarms are lifesavers for sure !

It remains us how important is to check heaters and chimneys every year before using them (of course there's also many different carbon monoxide sources around us too but those ones are quite commons).

[sound world]

Carbon monoxide alarms?
I've never heard of them...
Had my boiler serviced the other day though.

[alx5962]

Carbon monoxide alarms?
I've never heard of them...
Had my boiler serviced the other day though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_detector

[RobB]

I've got a detector in the property i rent out as a precaution, along with half a dozen smoke detectors.

Beth, glad your daughter and grandson are ok.

[blue]

They are both fine, thank god - a bit headachey and queasy, but the paramedics tested their carbon monoxide levels and they were well under the danger level. The guys from the gas board cleared the house and turned off the gas supply until the heating system's been checked out, so they were allowed to go back in. I stayed with them for a couple of hours and then had to go to work.

I'm not long in now and all is well, except that the person who was supposed to come and check the heating system apparently can't do it till Monday, so they have no heating, hot water or gas to cook with. Still, that's a small problem compared to what could have happened today. I am not going to think about how this day would have worked out in a parallel universe where they didn't have carbon monoxide alarms fitted in the house.

[blue]

Carbon monoxide alarms?
I've never heard of them...
Had my boiler serviced the other day though.

Dave, please get one fitted as soon as possible. The reason they are now a legal requirement in newly built houses is the number of deaths resulting from carbon monoxide poisoning when heating systems go wrong, particularly older systems like the one in my daughter's house, and maybe yours too. Seriously. Whole families going to sleep and never waking up. Every house should have one of these alarms. Promise you'll get one asap?

[blue]

Some articles if you need persuading:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/34713.stm


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_poisoning


Statistically carbon monoxide poisoning is the most common cause of deaths by poisoning around the world.

[sound world]

Hmm, well I honestly have never heard of them...we have some smoke alarms knocking about but I never check their batteries. I should because my other half is a bugger for leaving things cooking on the stove and forgetting all about them.

As it is our CH runs off an oil boiler which is in a shed behind the house, so I'd have thought the chances were fairly slim of monoxide seeping in, and otherwise we just have radiators in the house. We do have bottle gas for our cooker (only) which I guess is a risk; the bottles are again outside the house, but I suppose monoxide is a byproduct of the burning process.
I shall get my scientific son on the case