Current temperature in London:

An illustrated comic strip. Panel 1, 2 and 3 show a television screen containing text. It reads: “I put the TV on to connect to the rest of the world. I watch the news and it makes me sick. It is quite harrowing what is going on in Palestine. I am depressed by the current news. We are complicit…people being killed in cold blood.”
A television screen containing text. It reads: “I put the TV on to connect to the rest of the world. I watch the news and it makes me sick.”A television screen containing text. It reads: “It is quite harrowing what is going on in Palestine. I am depressed by the current news.”A television screen containing text. It reads: “We are complicit…people being killed in cold blood.”

Interview 26

person Participants: Woman living alone in a flat, with her nephew sometimes visiting and staying the night
distance Location: Caledonian Road
apartment Housing type: Flat
receipt_long Heating costs: £140 – Bills gone up but the salary as a teacher has not increased at all!

B says that she is being very mindful of heating this year. 

She relies on other sources of staying warm. For example, hot toddy made her cheeks warm. She wears two layers indoors and thick socks but that gets too hot at night. Sometimes she sleeps with a hat on for 10 minutes, just to get hot and then removes it. 

Panel 1: An illustration of a person’s bare feet - they look cold. The text reads: “Before bed, I drink some hot toddy”

Panel 2: The bare feet now have thick socks on them. The text reads: “Then I put on thick socks and a hat”.

Panel 3: The socks now look very warm. The text reads: “Just as I am about to fall asleep, I start boiling.”

“My body does not regulate very well – sometimes I wake up sweating and I have to wash my sheets and this is very disrupting to my sleep”

Most comfortable winter?

“My winter in India when I went travelling there and lived there for a few years.

In previous years, I felt comfortable even in the UK as I did not have to be so mindful all the time”

Most uncomfortable winter?

The most uncomfortable winter with in-laws in North Yorkshire when the heating broke down, and they did have an open fire, but there were still icicles in the window.