The pleasure of muck.

Storm Imogen; 7°C, very strong SW , frequent heavy showers, drying later.

Meanwhile, on the domestic front, my laundry didn’t come not very fresh tonight. The powder drawer looked rather grubby so I took it out. It’s not too difficult to clean with lots of water and a few different sized brushes.
The drawer hole was a more grim affair. Inside was a pink gum of old washing liquid that the lodgers use. Perhaps they have tipped it into the wrong compartment. Whatever, it was a yucky job to clean. You have to be so careful when you do this. My forearms are slightly itchy now. Laundry products are very corrosive when concentrated.
Nevertheless, there is a strange and disgusting pleasure in getting such a filthy object clean.
At the time of writing. The machine is on a cold cycle with nothing inside but froth. That’s to give it a full rinse out.
I ought to do that every month.

Month’s deluge.

6°C, and heavy rain to come.
End of term nears. As usual, we’re all exhausted at work. Mostly Year 11 kids who’ve had weeks of exams. The rest of us are battling with colds, on and off. Perhaps viruses are thriving in this yet weather.

Met office app.

Like a string of massive beads, the storms keep coming. One after another, carried by the dominant south westerly winds that have blown hard for over a month.

In the south, you can see fronts running nearly parallel to the wind direction. Those rain bearing fronts spill their load for long periods, days at a time sometimes.
Daytime temperatures have been good, up to 12°C. Nevertheless, lodger A is running her electric radiator again. She’ll have to chip in a supplement for the bill.

Notice the ancient temperature is 15 in my utility room. I don’t understand the need for additional heating in mild weather.

Bodyheat.

8°C, clear, calm before the gales.
Do women generate their own body-heat? It’s a problem that caused conflict with my ex many years ago. She wanted the house hot, I didn’t want to open the windows with the heating switched on. Sometimes, I had no choice. A little voice inside tells me it’s wrong to wear shorts in the house when the heating is on. That tells me the heating is set too high.
This house has gas central heating, as most modern houses do. It’s insulation is not, however; the best.
To set the scene now, I have two lodgers: both young, one male; the other, female. Both have said they are not cold with the house temperature as it is.
However, this troubles of a little:

This picture is the smart meter at 7am this morning. Those pulses of electricity ran all night. It’s probably an electric heater. So far this month, the electricity consumption is double that of last year.

The solution is to ask for a supplement for the heating bill (as agreed in the contract). It seems a shame to ask both of them because the guy is quite frugal with power consumption.

Let’s see whether it’s the same tomorrow morning. It’s quite easy to forget to turn a heater off, especially those that do not have a built-in timer.

Clean-up

16°C, brisk SW. Dry and grey.
Half-term break: is a time to clean up. It’s only been two weeks since the lodger moved out, but I am in the process of discovering problems he left behind. Rug Doctor is a carpet shampoo machine which I have rented to clean the his room as well as others. There are wine stains and other spilt drinks; some on the mattress. They cleaned up remarkably well.

I have am idea for the staircases – stripey carpets. Then, in each room, it’s possible to put replacement carpets that match one of the stripe colours.

Never again will I allow a lodger to keep a pet. His lizards ran up the electricity bill and the rabbit made the room stink (plus a damaged patch on the carpet).