What are you all up to
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Here's one of the photos I mentioned earlier as the Coronation in 1953 featured largely in our lives, all the children in our road were in fancy dress for a party at our local pub as it was very wet on the day. We later changed our clothes and got together in the road. We were all given a modern design silver teaspoon, I think I've lost mine along the way.
My sister and I are near the front, dressed as nurses, the baby dressed as a penguin? is between us and my sister is just peeping round, she wasn't keen on being there.
I'm glad our Mum didn't go to town on the costumes, a couple in view are now very un-pc!
I'd better not put the re-union photo on but it's surprising how many managed to attend, with a few losses along the way, a lot of us got to pensionable age. The National Health Service generation!
It's interesting hearing about the things people remember.
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I don’t really remember the coronation party for us kids at the church hall. I went with my uncle, just 5 years older than me. But I do remember leaving with a balloon and a coronation mug. And I vividly remember my gran, standing in her scullery and saying,’ let’s put the mugs up on the shelf here and they will be safe’, really don’t remember what happened to it after that.
Strange, I have so many snap shot memories from young childhood, yet now half the time I can’t remember why I went upstairs, or where I put my glasses!
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My Mum and Dad weren’t even married at the time of the Coronation, so I definitely wasn’t around😁 I think the first “Royal” event I can just recall is Prince Charles’ investiture as Prince of Wales. There’s a lovely piece on the BBC website about The Queen’s early life, and when it was thought she might become Queen. Rather a bit earlier than the Abdication apparently.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60201088
Gale force winds and storm showers here all day. I think Winter has finally arrived.
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Brue I have a lovely photo of the Coronation party that I went to in our local church hall. I remember everyone holding fund raising events to pay for it. Yours is such a great photo of a lovely memory for you.
Regarding early memories. We lived on the ground floor of a block of flats in Muswell Hill when I was a very young child. My Mum and I used to sometimes sit in the garden at the back and I have a very strong memory of hearing the young woman in the flat above playing Claire du Lune on the piano a lot. My Mum said she was practising for an exam. We moved from there when I was under 3.
Miserable weather today extremely heavy rain and very high winds and cold with it. However he family came round for birthday tea which cheered up the day.
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I am also too young to remember the Queen's coronation, I wasn't even born
We woke to rain this morning, so gave myself a lie in! Did a few household chores and a bit more knitting for New Grandchild, I sometimes wish I hadn't started , my knitting is just about OK, but trying to understand the pattern is another thing altogether!!
We did get out for a nice walk with the dog this afternoon between the showers, it did mean I put mg New waterproof coat to the test, pleased to say I stayed warm & dry.
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I was at school when the Headmaster came to our class and told us that "The King has died God save Queen Elizabeth". and the whole school was walked to the local Rembrandt cinema to see the the coronation in colour
My brother and I with all the other children in the street had a fancy dress parade and my brother won first prize dressed as Hilory with a sign Everest is conquered at last
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Managed all our walks today in the dry, as we only had the odd shower of rain although it has been rather windy. In fact I was able to get the dirt washed off the caravan this morning, so just now have to give it a proper clean when a fine, less windy day comes around. Reading others posts it would seem that we have had a much better day than most.
Thankfully the poor cat has been removed, so I suppose the owners have recovered it.
I can vaguely remember the Queen's accession to the throne, and did watch the coronation on the TV.
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Shades of the 1970’s here😱 power cut. Probably the town’s druggies connecting up again🤔 Luckily, we have warmth and light from stove, had just finished our meal, so well fed. I am knitting by the light of my hurricane lamp, but we do keep tripping over the pooch. Once more and his flashing collar will be on…….then we can have a disco🤣
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Being a foreigner, I have no recollection of the Queen coming to the throne. My earliest memory is from 1945 when the war ended, we all went mad and pushed each other around in wheelbarrows.
OH was not quite 4 when the old king died, she has no memory of it, but does remember that her gran had a ticket for the Coronation in 1953......... not sure what that means. We still have various souvenirs here.
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No memory of the Coronation here - being only just 2 years old.... We did, however, celebrate the Accession today, as part of our morning service at the Abbey. Now we're celebrating in a different way.... sitting in the caravan, on site, just finishing off a bottle of wine. I won't say exactly where we are, as I'll post a picture on the 'Name that CAMC Site' thread sometime tomorrow.... 😀😀
David
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Couple of sets still hanging around. They came in very handy. Back on after three hours. Stove for warmth and some light, gas kettle, hurricane lantern from garden, and persuaded pooch to go to bed. On the plus side, we saved on gas bill😁
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I remember listening to the wireless at my Nan's house, sitting on a low stool, and hearing the news of the King's death. We lived in a tiny old cottage down near the river, with no street party. But I did get invited to one on my Aunt's street. I also took part in some Fancy Dress celebration - as Britannia.
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Mum has got a full set of Coronation mugs from Edward VII onwards. Dad used to use one for a shaving mug I think🤔 That might have been the King that never was……..
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I remember my mother making red, white and blue bow ties out of crepe paper for my brother and I to wear at the street party on the green between out two rows of houses.
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I was only three at the time of the Coronation, but I have this memory of us driving over to Hull, from Sheffield to watch it on my Grandma's newly purchased TV. We didn't have one at the time. I have this vision of us all standing around in her tiny little sitting room, crowded around what must have been a 12" screen surrounded in a huge wooden box and it had one of those magnifying screens in front of it. Couldn't really see much at all!
She did love her gadgets - my Grandma. Dad once went into her house on another occasion when she thought she'd improvise and make herself one of these new-fangled washing machines. There she was - vacuum cleaner in hand - just about to lower it into the dolly tub to agitate the washing!!!! Now that would certainly have put the lights out
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I am sure I am not alone in keeping a careful eye on energy bills recently. My energy supplier is Octopus who provide monthly bills which makes it easier to track on a month by month basis compared to the previous year. Having just had my January bill I thought I would do a few calculations.
By way of background we only use gas for heating and hot water via a modern, and hopefully efficient, Combi boiler. Electricity is used for everything else including cooking. The house meets reasonably good insulation standards.
Comparing the January bill for 2021 with he new bill for January 2022 we used 5% less electricity but it cost 27% more. For the same period for gas we used 7.5% more gas but the increase in cost was 37%. This takes into account the price cap increase from last September but not the massive increase due for April this year. It looks as if this sort of calculation for this time next year could be quite frightening?
David
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Day started early with a COVID test for me, then a good walk to meet up with OH and pooch in local woods. Projects commenced when we got home, OH up in bathroom, I have started a little renovation project. Hopefully, if all goes well, it could be finished for Thursday, then into use Friday. It’s a test run for something much larger🤞Finishing the day with some wood chopping, which I love doing.
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We're on a fixed rate at present so will brace ourselves for a huge jump when it comes to an end. I think slow cookers and microwaves will be useful! I cook on gas but was thinking of going over to electricity, our cooker will probably need replacing this year, it's not 100% reliable. All this just adds to the overall costs...
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We had some noney off vouchers for a local garden centre, our gardening club hands them out twice a year, very useful, so we collected some tomato bags today...what we gained on that purchase we're going to lose on the M/H has OH found a screw in the front tyre. A visit to the tyre place tomorrow, just hoping it hasn't gone in too far.
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We are the same fixed rate until April then I guess massive price jump, I've been checking our usage over the last 14 days and we average 10 kw a day. That's for appliances and light's etc we have LPG for heating, hot water and hob.
I think it will be more batch cooking using slow cooker, pressure cooker and oven then freeze and use microwave. We have 10 solar panel which have now paid for themselves so I guess the feed in tariff from them can help cover the rise in costs. I always try to use the washer and dishwasher when the sun is on the panels but in winter that's not always possible. Will just have to go away more in the van in winter 🤣🤣🤣🤣
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Coronation, as I was only 6 days old at the time I don't remember it. My big sister and brother though went to a street party which we have a photo of. I have a mug from the coronation which was Mum's. I do remember my Mum saying that she was supposed to stay in bed for 10 days but Dad carried her downstairs to watch the coronation on the TV that he had managed to buy.
Dull day today but I was busy sorting out beds and bedrooms as we are having the gKids for the half-term. Hopefully our son is coming up as well but his wife might not now as she is waiting to hear if she is positive for Covid. The LFT says yes but waiting for PCR test.
What to do with 2 teenagers in winter🤔
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If you look at your bill you will find that electricity is far more expensive to use than gas.
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We are just out of our fuel fix some 2 weeks back, so are on the standard variable tariff. Electricity has shot up from around 15p to 23.3p per Kwh, and gas from around 2.5p to 4.8p per kwh, so a massive overall increase! It was a VERY good gas tariff we had!
With another 54% increase in April, our DD will then need be almost triple what it was. ☹️
Looking at how we can cut back. Today, despite it being cold out, we did not turn the heating back on between 10 and 17.00, but sat under our recently purchased heated fluffy blankets. Fine when just us two, but not when we get any visitors.
Our boiler is very old, but we plan to get a new, more efficient one in a few months time, hopefully that will help.
What I would like to know is......who is profiting from these huge increases? Not something that seems to be discussed much. And as our supplier delivers electricity only from wind or solar power, why does the price of gas used to produce some electricity also affect us? We are not being paid a similar increased amount for the solar power we sell to the grid!
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We're 2 months into a new fixed tariff and have seen a significant rise in the basic cost of both gas and electricity. Fortunately up to date it hasn't involved any increase in my monthly DDM as we carried a hefty overpayment onto this tariff. This will help in the short term.
We can't really cut back a great deal. I have an 88y.o. to consider. Whilst she is made of good Scottish stock she nevertheless deserves to be able to feel comfortable whenever the need arises so we have told her to switch the heating on if we happen to be away in the caravan. We obviously turn our radiators down to the lowest level when we are away and whilst MiL will be frugal (another grand Scottish trait of hers
) we couldn't deprive her of warmth if she wanted it. To be fair to her as well she does pass over her heating allowance to be used to pay these rather large bills. I'm staggered to be talking about paying nearly £2,000 per annum for it but it is what it is.0 -
Shopping this morning which seemed to take an age. We're back to supermarket visits but grateful that masks still needed in Wales at the moment and most people following the rules.
It was a brisk walk this afternoon in the sun. I then phoned one my cousins who attended the recent funeral. Fortunately she tole me that all who attended seem to be covid free, which she professed to be a minor miracle. We haven't seen each other in years and have agreed to make it happen this year so either it will be a trip to Ireland for us or they'll have a holiday in Wales.
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Hope your test proves negative and you are able to get the tooth out successfully, tda.
Glad I was able to get the van washed yesterday as it's not been a very pleasant day today, with periods of rain and none of the sunshine that other places seem to have had. Trying group sort out our next tour, but unfortunately just missed out on a pitch on the first site we tried, so a change of plan looks on the cards. Will see what we can come up with tomorrow evening. Dentist for me in the morning and the hairdresser for OH, and hopefully I'll pick up her prescriptions while she's in there. If not it will have to be a second trip to town in the afternoon.
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Kj
We moved from a fixed tariff to a variable one some months back, no choice. A year ago our electricity was 13.92p/kwh and now 18.80p/kwh. Gas was 2.43p/kwh and now 3.58p/kwh so big increases and much more to come.
It's difficult to know what more you can do physically to improve the insulation of the house. I have wondered about insulating the eaves of the lofts. In one that would be a fairly easy job using a multifoil solution. But the other loft would probably need sheet insulation which is more fiddly as you have to batten behind the insulation to allow an air gap. Might just put an extra layer of loft insulation beyond the 400mm I already have!
If you had a more modern boiler I think you would find it more efficient but what with the cost of the boiler and the ever rising costs of energy whether you would notice the difference its difficult to say?
It is the energy supply companies that are making massive profits out of this. I don't mean the people that we buy our energy from but the ones where they buy the energy. Labour have been calling for a windfall tax but the Government seem reluctant although I think George Osborne did something similar. President Macron has just done it to EDF. Buying energy is not like buying a sack of potatoes. With the potatoes you can work out how much each element costs from planting to buying in the shops. Because of the "Market System" we use the price we are charged bears no resemblance to the cost of getting the gas out of the ground. If it was a quarter of the current price the big energy companies would still make a profit!!! There are lots of things that the Government could do if they had a mind to. What they have announced so far we will only benefit from the £200 loan, we don't from the Council Tax because we are in group E. I wonder if it would be cheaper to live in the motorhome!!!
David
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