You can’t beat the good old hot water bottle, can you?
It’s winter here in Australia and while I do live in a fairly temperate coastal part of the country, it does have it’s coldish moments. Thankfully they aren’t long moments or I’d be heading far, far north where winter doesn’t get so much as a look in.
But we’re talking hot water bottles here and there’s nothing like them to beat the chill. Unless you are running an electric or gas heating device which, under the current uncertain financial times a lot of people aren’t. Give me a log fire anytime but right now I don’t have one and have decided I can do without running up my power bills by using one of the above-mentioned alternatives.
Having had a couple of chilly nights though, I delved into the cupboard to find the hot water bottle I knew was somewhere in there and having found it, I rediscovered just how warming they could be. Curled up on the couch with the telly or a book? Hot water bottle. Tucked up under the quilt for sleep? Hot water bottle. Am I warm enough? Oh yes, as warm as if I was using a heater and all it’s costing me is the short burst of electricity to boil the kettle.
I love these things. I remember using one sometimes as a child and during a spell of inland living where the winters were so cold I don’t know how I survived them, I would walk around the house cuddling my trusty hot water bottle until it was time to light the wood burner and it was wonderful.
Thankfully they’re still around because my old faithful had begun to perish and I had to toss it, which meant buying a new one.
But not everyone is convinced that hot water bottles are the best thing since sliced bread. They swear by heaters and electric quilts and blankets and yes, I would swear by them too, but they are expensive to run at the best of times and these are not the best of times by a long shot. We are dealing with a virus that is not going away anytime soon, and trying not to catch it. Many of us have been home from work and large swathes of the population are out of work altogether, hence incomes and savings have dropped through the floor. The last thing any of us need then is a power bill that’s through the ceiling! Electric and gas heaters, reverse cycle air conditioners and electric quilts and blankets feast greedily on gas and electricity, thus driving power bills way, way up and comfortable as they are, you have to cough up for the joy down the track when the next bill arrives and this is something I decided I did not want to have to deal with. Hence the old trusty in the linen cupboard.
Cuddle it and it warms me from top to toe. For hours! Toss it into my bed and it spreads its blissful warmth in preparation for me diving under the covers a short while later. I am warm, I am comfortable and I don’t have to fret over how much those hours of being a nice warm me have cost me, because boiling the kettle is negligible and if I make a cuppa at the same time, Ive killed two birds with the one stone. Absolutely can’t complain about that, so that’s why I’m putting it out there; in these very uncertain times, hot water bottles rule.
We need to start a movement!