more cold

It's been really cold again this week.

Quite frankly I'm getting rather bored of it being cold all the time. And I mean all the time - if feels like for the last 2 or 3 years it's never stopped being cold.

I mean, sure, I remember the summers, but they seem to have been really short-lived compared to the winters. That is, when it's not raining, of course. A few years ago the summers seemed to go on forever, with months of really hot weather - that's why I bought my air conditioner. To be fair, I hate hot weather too, but I'm just getting sick of feeling cold all the time.

Which is to say what makes the cold weather worse is that the heating where I work is really crap. I work in a single, open plan office, although it's not that large because we're a small company. There are lots of radiators on the walls, but they just don't seem to heat the space properly.

I think there are a multitude of problems. First, off there's a lot of window area. That's great for making the room light, but you loose a lot of heat through windows - even double glazed ones. Second, I think the insulation in the roof is rubbish.

But most importantly I think it's because the heating is off for long periods of time. I know for a fact that it switches off a good few hours before going home time and doesn't come on until I'm coming in (about 8am). Also, it's off all weekend, which I think is why it starts to feel warmer towards the end of the week.

Then there's the heating at home. It's electric, which is really inefficient. Plus where I am is really drafty and 'full of holes' where my landlord has done a rubbish job at DIY instead of getting builders in to do it properly.

Recently, my landlord went on holiday, and with it being so cold he said I should run a cable across from one of his sockets and run a heater from it (I've actually done this in the past without telling him ><;). His point was that if the pipes froze then that would cost him a lot more than the few quid it would cost to keep my heating going.

Anyway, I did this and left the heater on with the thermostat controlling it. I can't tell you how glorious it was to have the whole flat warm all the time. I've actually got this suspicion that it might be cheaper in the long run for me to leave a heater on all time and keep the place 'mildly warm'.

See, the problem is I tend to switch the heaters on full blast so it warms up the room I'm in and then turn them off again. Plus they're off during the day and at night, so it gets really properly cold. My suspicion is that this means more is used because I overheat the room. The difficulty comes in the fact that I'm not there all day and I don't have the heating on while I'm asleep, so it seems wasteful to leave a heater on all the time. But I've really no idea which works out cheaper.

Anyway, normally, the only time I really feel warm is when I'm in my car, or I say bugger it and slam my heating on full at home for a long time. Both of these cost a fortune in terms of heating - petrol is not cheap and my key meter is really quite expensive.

And that's the real rub, I think. As I say, I've always preferred winter, but I like winter where you go outside and it's cold and then you come in and it's toasty warm. Work is permanently cold and where I live is cold the majority of the time, so it's not really what I want.

I also get bored of wearing loads of clothes. As I type this I'm in my work clothes, but on top of my usual garb (socks, shoes, boxers, suit trousers, shirt and tie) I'm wearing the following: extra pair of socks, t-shirt, jumper and my suit jacket. If I hadn't run out I'd have a vest on too.

And I'm still cold (shows you how bad work is). But after a while I just get bored of it and want to strip off, especially at weekends. Sometimes I turn the heating up and wander about in my pants, which I know is really bad environmentally, but it's... I dunno, restrictive, wearing loads of layers all the time (especially since I still feel cold).

I do know one thing that works - exercise. The problem is, going for a walk or whatever isn't really appealing, especially when it's raining and snowing all the time!